Chapter 16 #2
He blushed and quickly looked away, hating himself for being unable to maintain eye contact over a small comment like that.
The Emperor was good at pushing other people’s buttons, however, and he must have noticed how uncomfortable Nuri got whenever the topic of sex came up.
Now that it’d happened between them…The thought of forever being the butt of Silver’s jokes after this left a bitter taste in his mouth and he couldn’t help the way his lips pursed in displeasure.
“Don’t pout,” Silver said, “it’s unbecoming.”
“With all due respect, sir, I don’t think it’s fair of you to make a statement like that. If it weren’t for you, I would be with my siblings right now instead of—”
“In my charming company?” he cut him off. “Is it really that bad? Being with me?”
Even though the words weren’t meant in any romantic or insinuating context, Nuri felt his heart leap and inwardly swore.
Since they were in the room that belonged to the emperor, the space was vast and broken up into areas.
There was the bed which was large enough to fit four grown men, the window seat tucked against the bay window, and a leather couch on the opposite side in front of a large projection screen.
Doors to both the walk-in closet and the bathroom were also over to the far left.
Everything was done in shades of warm honey, deep umber, and reds.
There was enough space for a judo team to practice comfortably, and yet suddenly the walls seemed like they were closing in and Nuri was finding it difficult to breathe.
And all because Silver was still advancing toward the end of the bed, a glimmer in his eyes that Nuri didn’t quite recognize.
“Majesty,” he paused to run his tongue over his suddenly dry lips, spine straightening when Silver’s gaze immediately dropped to follow the motion and Nuri tensed up.
All at once the strange look vanished and Silver frowned at him, eyes sweeping over him swiftly. “Are you in pain? I knew I was too rough with you last night. Should I summon the doctor?”
“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not—I’m fine.”
“Nuri.”
“Really,” he insisted, wanting more than anything to get them back on track and talking about work. Work was safe. “Back to Marta—”
“Fuck Marta,” Silver snapped.
Nuri bristled. “You’re going to need to hire a replacement, sir.”
“Are you so certain you’re going to win the next round?”
“Are you so certain I won’t?” he countered. “Either way, making sure there’s a suitable person trained to fill my shoes is the logical next step.”
“You think you can, what? Keep trying even if you lose?” Silver shook his head. “Not going to happen. I gave you this chance, this one chance. That’s all you’ll get.”
“You can’t honestly expect me to continue working for you for the rest of my life.”
“That’s exactly what I expect.”
“No one does that!”
“So you’re just going to keep trying to get me to accept your letter, no matter what? What else do you want?” Silver asked.
“I told you,” Nuri closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, “I’m tired and I’m unhappy. I need a change.”
“Unhappy?” Silver almost appeared upset, but the expression was gone as quickly as it came, leaving Nuri wondering if he’d imagined it. “For how long?”
Nuri frowned at him, silently asking him to elaborate.
“How long have you been unhappy with me?”
If he didn’t know better, Nuri would think he’d hurt the Emperor’s feelings. But it would take a lot more than a flippant statement like that to cut through Silver’s ironclad exterior.
“Does it matter?” Nuri ended up asking, and though he’d meant it to be rhetorical, the Emperor replied anyway.
“How can you expect me to improve if I don’t understand what it is I did wrong in the first place?” Silver ran a hand through his hair. “Fine. You said you’d work until your ankle healed without complaint? Let’s table the rest of this discussion until the end of the week then.”
“That isn’t going to solve anything,” Nuri said. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Then we’re at a stalemate because neither am I.”
Nuri cocked his head, realizing where this was going. “You think you can find a way to convince me in a week? Not possible.”
“Why?” Silver challenged. “Because you’ve been planning this for over a year now?”
He sucked in a breath and stilled under that accusatory gaze.
“Did you think I wasn’t aware?” Silver quirked a brow. “Of course I knew.”
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” All this time, he’d thought he’d kept a tight lid on the secret, worried that he might be discovered and how the Emperor would react if he ever was. Now he was learning that all that anxiety was for nothing and he’d actually known the whole time?
“There was never a need,” Silver told him, “since you never brought it up yourself. If you weren’t going to act, I certainly wasn’t going to risk pushing you in that direction. But since we’re here now, I may as well make myself perfectly clear.”
Silver leaned down, resting his palms flat on the end of the bed, and the dark, intense heat in his gaze had Nuri’s lungs locking up.
All at once, that heavy, tight feeling of the room closing in on him returned full force and then some.
“Whether it’s as your emperor, your CEO, or something else, you are mine Nuri, and I have no intention of ever letting you go. ”
“I’m not an object.” For the life of him, Nuri had no clue how he managed to find his voice amidst the pounding in his ears and the very real sense of danger cloying at his insides, but he did. “Keeping me against my will is illegal.”
“To hell with laws,” Silver said. “You know I’ve never cared about such things anyway.”
“You’re the emperor,” he reminded. “It’s your duty—”
“And you’re mine,” he cut him off, holding his gaze captive as he spoke. “What about your duty to me?”
“That’s not—”
“I’m barely keeping myself controlled as it is,” Silver stated, “I advise you to be careful selecting your next words.”
Nuri grew silent, unsure of what to say. He’d known it was a long shot and had figured the Emperor would fight him on resigning but…He honestly hadn’t anticipated this level of possessiveness.
“Guaranteed yearly leave to see your siblings whenever you’d like,” Silver offered then. “Provided you give at least a month’s notice so I can prepare and come with you. I’ll also give you a raise, how does another three-thousand-coin sound?”
“Sir—”
“Your brother’s been wanting to get into Flir Corp. I know the CEO. I can get him the job so he can quit that crappy one he’s been forced to work to make ends meet.”
“Nate is capable enough and can get his own job.” That wasn’t just brotherly pride speaking either, it was the truth. Nate had graduated top of his class.
“He’s applied three times already and been rejected. Why he still wants to work there is beyond me, but according to him, he does. Besides,” the calculation in Silver’s eyes gave him away before his words did, “your brother won’t be able to find a job anywhere with a criminal record.”
Nuri’s hands tightened on the covers. “You promised to drop all charges if I played this stupid game of yours!”
“And you’re already telling me that no matter what the results of this game are, you fully intend to go back on your word.”
Nuri wanted to argue with that and yet…He had a point and he hated it. He slumped back against the headboard, feeling defeated.
“Don’t look so sad, pet,” Silver coaxed, sounding like he meant it. “I promise I’ll take care of you. You’ve been unhappy? I’ll fix it. You’re worried for your siblings? I’ll protect them. All you have to do is keep your word. If you lose this game, swear you’ll never ask me to resign again.”
Nuri hesitated.
“Do it,” Silver insisted. “Swear it, and I’ll keep my word too. I’ll never again threaten to arrest your brother for what he did the other night. It’ll be like it never happened, no matter what you do from here on out.”
He bit his bottom lip, working it between his teeth as he considered. Only, just like when they’d made this bet in the first place, the truth was staring Nuri in the face. He didn’t have a choice here.
He had to agree.
“If I win though you have to let me go, like you promised,” he reminded.
Silver’s expression turned stony and unreadable. “I’ll let you quit, of course.”
He’d secretly hoped he could try again in a year if he was unsuccessful this time around. He figured by then Silver would have had more time to adjust to the idea of him quitting and might be more open to it. Nuri had never considered that Silver never wanted him to leave, but maybe he should have.
No, he definitely should have.
“We could still keep in touch you know,” he said, tentatively at first. “Even if I’m not your secretary, that doesn’t mean we’ll never see each other again.” They’d been fixtures in each other’s lives for so long, after all. “If that’s what you’re afraid of—”
“Unless you want me to shut you up with my cock, you’ll stop talking, Narek.”
Nuri clamped his mouth shut. They both knew if they went another round between the sheets, he wouldn’t even make it to the foyer to send Nate off.
“I’ll fuck you again once your brother is gone,” Silver promised darkly, his irritation toward him palpable. “I’ll take you until your voice is hoarse and you no longer have the ability to argue with me on this.”
“Majesty.”
“We don’t roll again for a week, and until then, you can try to deny me all you want, but you won’t be able to keep me out. I want back inside of you. Every day. If that means you’ll never walk comfortably again? Well, you only have yourself to blame really.”
He should have been more concerned over that mild threat, but Nuri was too stuck on the first part of that statement to bother dreading the other possibility.
“Once a day?” He sputtered, sure he’d misheard. “You want to—”
“Fuck you,” Silver confirmed, “daily. Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’ll have you submissive and lapping out of the palm of my hand,” Silver told him, “and then you’ll never think about leaving me again.”
The smarter part of him knew better than to ask, but Nuri found himself voicing his confusion anyway, unable to hold it in any longer.
He’d been fooling himself these past couple of days, playing the idiot, pretending like he couldn’t hear the subtext for what it was.
Mostly because, even now, he was certain it was all a ploy, a crafty manipulation tactic Silver was using against him. But…
“What do you really want?” Nuri’s voice was low, trembling.
“Don’t be frightened,” Silver eased his tone as though he meant it.
“I don’t understand,” he admitted. “You’ve had years to sleep with me if that’s what you were after.”
“Does it really matter that I didn’t take you before? I’ve taken you now.”
“That,” he pointed out. “That.”
“What of it?”
“I’m a person, Silver. You can’t own me.” It was rare for him to use the Emperor’s name, but at this point, Nuri figured that was the least of his worries.
“And yet,” he straightened, “I do.”
So long as Silver continued to believe that, there was nothing Nuri could say to convince him otherwise and he knew it.
* * *
“I’m sorry I can’t come with you to the airport,” Nuri said solemnly.
He was standing in the foyer, using the banister at the foot of the stairs to keep himself upright—and not because of his ankle either.
It’d only been an hour since his conversation with the Emperor and his ass still smarted whenever he moved.
“I understand,” Nate told him with a smile. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” He clucked his tongue at the bandage around Nuri’s foot. “Could have been way worse.”
“I was lucky.” He almost gave himself away and rolled his eyes after saying that. Lucky. Yeah, right.
“The Emperor told me this morning at breakfast that you’re going to come visit next week? Really?” the hope in his voice was glaringly obvious, a mirror of the way Neve had sounded the other day over communications.
“Yes.” Nuri needed to remember this the next time he pushed back against Silver’s possessive claims. He’d lost this first round anyway, the next few days belonged to the Emperor anyway.
At least if he behaved, he’d get to keep his promise to his siblings.
If for no other reason than that, giving into Silver for now would be worth it. “I’ll be there. No matter what.”
“Great.” Nate scratched the back of his neck, suddenly awkward. “Cause I’ve really missed you, and so has Neve. You’ve never even seen what our lives are like on Vitality, or met any of our friends…It feels like we live—”
“On entirely separate planets?” Nuri teased if only to wipe that embarrassed look off of Nate’s face. It worked too, because his brother laughed.
“Whatever. You know what I’m trying to say, and now that I’ve said it,” he bent and picked up his backpack from the ground, swinging the strap over his shoulder, “I’ve got to head out.
Falc is waiting in the car already and, not going to lie, that guy kind of scares me a little. Is he always so…stiff?”
“Pretty much.” Nuri grabbed him and forced him into a hug. “Call me when you get there.”
“Will do.” Nate stepped away from him but paused by the door. “Keep your promise about visiting.”
“I will,” Nuri replied. “You heard it straight from Silver. There’s nothing that’s going to keep me from coming.”
“Yeah,” he nodded, mulling that over. “I guess you’re right. He did tell me he was serious and he wouldn’t change his mind and try to hog you anymore.”
“He what?”
“Nothing. I’ll call you.” Without another word, Nate sprinted out the door, leaving Nuri hanging off the end of the banister, frowning after him.
“Master Narek?” One of the maids, Glinda, appeared from around the corner then and presented a silver tray with a single tube of ointment on it.
“His majesty ordered me to give this to you. He suggests you apply it now to give it enough time to work before…” she cleared her throat, “Apologizes, Master Narek, but he demanded I say it…”
“It’s all right, Glinda, go ahead.”
“Before tonight’s mating commences,” she finished, and if the reddening of her cheeks were any indication, it was clear she hated hearing it out loud every bit as much as Nuri did.
Nuri groaned and took the tube of sun cream off the tray. “To save the both of us from further embarrassment lets agree to never speak of this again. Shall we?”
“Yes,” she bowed low, her relief palpable. “Thank you, Master Narek.”
Nuri turned the tube over in his hand and sighed.
What had he gotten himself into?