Chapter 28 #2
“You wanted it just as much as I did.” Silver knew, on some level, he should probably shut up, but his temper seized hold, and the looks Nuri kept giving him only made it worse.
Maybe some of this was about control, but not all of it, not nearly, and if Nuri would only calm down for a moment Silver could explain.
It was the wrong thing to say though, because as soon as the words left his mouth, Nuri straightened and went still.
“You’re right,” he stated, but it was somehow worse than when he’d been yelling a second ago even though he was seemingly agreeing.
“I did want it. I wanted to know what it would be like to be fucked by an Imperial, and since Brix was shipped off planet when we were in college, you were the next best thing. I wanted to know what it was like to be screwed by an emperor, and now I know. So, I guess since that curiosity has been appeased, there’s no reason for me to stick around. ”
“Narek.” If he was implying he’d used Silver for his cock he was going to pay.
He couldn’t allow himself to dwell on that comment about Brixton or he really would explode, which wouldn’t do either of them very good in this situation.
His hands clenched at his sides, hard enough his knuckles turned white. “I’m warning you.”
“What? Don’t like hearing the truth?” He snorted.
“That makes two of us. I certainly didn’t enjoy learning all the ways you’d played me, and yet here we are.
In some ways, I suppose we both lost, and I wish I could tell you I’m sorry for it but I’m not.
I hope you rot, majesty, but I won’t stick around to see it. ”
Nuri was already halfway to the door by the time Silver’s brain processed what was about to happen.
He was going to leave. Really. And once he was out in the hall, once he’d taken that first step outside of this room, there was going to be nothing Silver could do to stop him.
There was always the option of tying him up and forcing him, but if the way Nuri was reacting to all of this was any indicator, all that would do was push the other man further away and that wasn’t what Silver wanted.
They’d been so close…Just a few more days, a week maybe, and Silver had been positive he could convince Nuri to accept the title of Royal Consort.
It couldn’t end like this.
He couldn’t lose.
Whenever Nuri had gotten angry with him before, Silver had been calm.
Able to come up with ways to defuse the situation, since he’d known he had plenty of time thanks to the six-week long game.
He’d been confident he could convince Nuri to forgive him for any and all past transgressions before the end.
But now that he’d been caught, there was no guarantee. Nothing to fall back on.
He didn’t know what to do, and that was so far out of character for him, the feeling of hopelessness, a feeling he’d certainly never experienced before, was overwhelming.
Without thinking, he rushed to him, dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms tightly around Nuri’s middle. He clung to him, uncaring how he may come off or that he was groveling. If he needed to bow before Nuri even, he would do it. He’d do it happily if it meant he’d get through to him.
If it meant not being left alone.
He felt Nuri tense up in his hold, felt the way he inhaled sharply and froze even before he spoke and the shock rang in his voice.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry,” Silver said, the apology rushing out of him along with his desperation. “I was selfish. I was wrong. I’ll never do it again. Just please. Please.” He pressed his face against the small of Nuri’s back. “Please.”
“What’s—” Nuri seemed to be struggling as well, “What’s going on? Are you…Are you crying?”
He sniffled in response and tightened his arms even more, honestly just as surprised by the tears as the other man seemed to be.
“You don’t do that,” Nuri said. “You didn’t even cry at your father’s funeral.”
“My father was just my father. You’re you.” Had he felt bad that the old man had died? Sure. But he was bound to go at some point, and at least his death had given Silver another reason to keep Nuri close.
“I…,” Nuri shook his head, “I don’t know what that means.”
“It means you’re everything,” he told him. His hands fisted in the material of Nuri’s robe over his stomach, clinging to him. “You’ve always been my everything. Isn’t that obvious by now?” Hell, he’d found out the lengths Silver had gone through just to keep him, how could it not be?
“What about last night?” Nuri demanded. “Were you responsible for that too?”
“Yes.”
“How much of it?”
“All of it. The leaked dashcam footage, the drug—”
“Did you threaten Scotch D’ver?”
“Who?”
“The guy currently sitting in a jailcell for drugging the emperor!”
Oh.
“I didn’t threaten him,” Silver said. “I paid him.”
“Good Light.”
“His grandmother is sick and he can’t afford the treatment.
I offered to cover all of her medical expenses for the rest of her life in exchange.
He agreed to it, I didn’t force him.” Scotch, or whatever his name was, had been the one to approach Silver even.
“I wasn’t sure the dashcam footage would be enough to—”
“To what,” Nuri growled, and when Silver hesitated added, “Say it.”
“I didn’t want us to fight anymore.”
“So you tricked me into feeling bad for you instead? Into having sex with you? I thought I was helping you!”
“You felt better afterward too,” Silver pointed out. “I know you did. Neither of us feel good when we’re at odds.”
Nuri was quiet for a moment, and the wait was pure torture for Silver, but all he could do was hold on and refuse to let go.
“What else?” Nuri sounded tired. “Tell me everything.”
“I overheard your conversation with your sister. She was going to try and keep you from me. That’s why I tried so hard to get you to call off your trip. When nothing I did worked, I resorted to placing your name on the No Fly list.”
“You were eavesdropping on our conversation?” He shook his head. “How often do you do that? Why would you do that?”
“Not often,” he swore. “Only when I’m uneasy.”
“This is insane.”
“N.I.M. has built in spyware that only I can access. The tracking chip, which you already knew about, and a backdoor into your multi-slate. I listened in that day because I felt bad that work was keeping you from going on time, and I wanted to know how you were feeling. But the second I overheard the plan to keep you on Vitality…” Silver hadn’t wanted to risk it.
“Your siblings are the only people in the whole universe you care about more than you care about me.”
Nuri gave a sharp bark of laughter that held no humor in it. “Is that why you wouldn’t leave us alone? You weren’t worried I’d make a run for it when we visited last week, you were worried one of them would—”
“Aren’t they the reason you won’t agree to be my Royal Consort, Nuri?” If they were going to do this, they may as well lay it all out on the line. “You’re concerned they won’t approve.”
“They sure as hell will not. Especially if they find out about all of this.”
“So don’t tell them.”
“Now you want me to lie to my siblings?”
“I want you to lie for me,” he corrected.
“Wow.”
“It isn’t fair,” Silver continued, barely hearing him. “If not for them, I would have had all of you already.”
Nuri pulled away so quickly, Silver fell over. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on them.”
“I would never hurt them,” he insisted. “I would never do that to you, pet.”
“Bullshit! You’re just saying that now to keep me from leaving.”
“Of course I’m doing this to keep you,” Silver said. “Everything I do is to keep you.”
Nuri paused. “Do you understand what you risked by pulling those stunts? What if I hadn’t been able to control the news? Hmm? What if the board decided to remove you as CEO? What if—”
“I don’t care about any of that.” He thought that much was obvious, but he guessed not.
“You’re all I’ve ever wanted, Nuri, can’t you see?
I don’t have a Nate or a Neve. There’s only ever been you.
You’re literally the only thing I have ever cared about on this entire planet and possibly in the whole universe.
All those times I said you were mine I meant it exactly how it sounded.
What kind of psycho would go through these types of lengths just to keep a secretary? ” he asked. “Even one as good as you?”
“You’re forgetting you are a psycho. And you don’t like to lose.”
“No one likes losing.”
“So you admit that’s all this is?”
“Stop putting words in my mouth. I want you as my Royal Consort because I love you.”
Nuri shook his head slowly.
“You’re in love with me too, Narek.” Another mistake that Silver was too slow to catch himself from making. He winced when he saw the shutter slam over Nuri’s expression.
“All right.” Nuri snapped his fingers and N.I.M. rolled over to him. “Let’s play for it then.”
“Nuri.”
“What? You think you love me, and I’m not convinced you know the meaning of the word. Whenever we’re in a disagreement like this, we play a game. So, let’s play. Same rules as last time to keep it simple, agreed?”
“Nuri.”
“You’ve been manipulating me this entire time, Silver.
That isn’t love, that’s obsession. Real love is sacrificing for the other person.
It’s putting them first, no matter what that means for yourself.
Even if it’s hard. But you won’t listen to that, will you?
You only listen to what you want to hear.
Well, I’m done talking. This is it. The same agreement you gave me.
One round. Highest number wins. If you win, I become your Royal Consort.
If I win,” he stared him down, “you have to do whatever I say.”
Silver wanted to refuse, but anything short of dragging him into the bedroom and chaining him up again wasn’t going to work. And he didn’t want to do that. It was clear that if he did, Silver really would lose him forever.
“What’s it going to be?” Nuri tossed the N.I.M. an inch in the air and caught it. “Are we playing or not, majesty?”
“It isn’t fair,” he sounded like a petulant child.
“It’s no different than the offer you made me at the start of all of this,” Nuri pointed out.
Ah.
Nuri was teaching him a lesson.
Silver hung his head. “All right. I agree.”
“Great.” Nuri held the orb closer to the ground but didn’t drop it. “N.I.M, roll the dice for the Emperor, please.”
He looked this time, wincing when the dice were tossed and he’d gotten five total. He’d hoped that Nuri had simply undone the coding he’d given N.I.M. but what if he’d—
“N.I.M., roll the dice again, please.”
Seven.
“You rigged the game,” Silver whispered. He rested back on his legs entirely, completely defeated now, and squeezed his eyes shut.
“It’s not so fun being tricked, is it?” Nuri dropped N.I.M. to the ground, letting it roll where it pleased. “Either way, you lost.”
“What do you want?” He was almost too afraid to watch when Nuri went for the door and grabbed onto the handle.
At the last second, he turned back, meeting Silver’s gaze unflinchingly. That cold, disinterested look back in his eyes.
“Let me go, Silver Rein.”
Even though every atom of his being screamed at him to chase after him, Silver remained on the ground, listening to the sound of Nuri’s footsteps get further and further away.