CHAPTER 16
C HAPTER 16
“H AVE YOU EVER BEEN HERE before?” Seth asked Raider as their server departed, leaving behind an elaborate kahve service.
Like many businesses in Kastari, the kahve house was open air, essentially a deep portico with a columned front open to the street. They were in one of Kastari’s wealthy quarters, a fact made obvious by the arcane fans chasing out the late-morning heat. Fine carpets and plump cushions softened the knee-high platforms.
Settling back with a glass cup of kahve, Raider snorted at Seth’s question. “I would never have been allowed in this place.”
“Why not?” Seth asked, surprised, as he sat cross legged with his own cup. He knew that he looked out place here in his structured Curator garb. Certainly, his black leather boots, removed by custom in such establishments, stood out on the floor next to Raider’s sandals.
Raider, however, looked entirely at home. The drop-crotch style of his teal shalvar pants easily accommodated his partially reclined position. He had one leg extended, the other drawn up. An elbow on one of the cushions propped up his upper body. His dark blue vest hung open, offering a tantalizing glimpse of his bronzed abdomen above his violet sash. Most of the wealthy women kept looking at him—and a number of the men.
Why the hell wouldn’t he have been allowed in here? Fuck, they should pay him to be in here, looking like that. More than one passerby had given him a double take then come inside.
Raider replied in a dry tone, “I guess you haven’t realized this, but before I was whisked away into a brief life of imperial luxury, I was gutter trash. A street rat.”
Anger lashed hot and fast through Seth’s body. “You better check your fucking tone.”
Raider laughed. “It’s true.”
Oh, so he thought he was safe to talk shit like that, four feet away from Seth in a public space?
When Seth set his cup on the silver tray beside the fluted carafe and the plate of pistachio-crusted pastries, Raider looked amused. That look shifted to wariness as Seth crept across the platform.
Outside Raider’s extended leg, Seth knelt on one knee. His other knee was up, his stockinged foot planted on the rug. He knew Raider would understand the readiness of his position, would recognize how Seth was prepared to deal with him.
Raider’s amber eyes watched him with both wariness and interest. His lips were slightly parted. His breathing was quickening.
“Why don’t you try that again,” Seth suggested in a low, intent voice as he planted one of his hands in the open space between Raider’s legs, “without pissing me off?”
Raider’s eyelids fluttered. A flush hit his prominent cheekbones. “Unless you want to fuck right here in front of all these people, I’d suggest you return to your side.”
An image flashed through Seth’s mind. He imagined pulling Raider under him, stripping away his pants to reveal the cock he could see stirring under the teal silk. He imagined unlacing his own pants to free his stiffening cock. He imagined spearing into Raider in front of everyone, so that everyone who kept eyeing Raider could see that Raider was his.
As Seth blinked the image away, he could see in Raider’s eyes how the thought had shown in his face. He could see that Raider liked it.
Seth let out a long, slow breath, trying to calm his body, but he didn’t retreat. He settled his hand on Raider’s knee and said, “Tell me.”
Raider closed his eyes in a way that didn’t at all help Seth regain his self-control. “Gods, Seth, sit back. I can’t think when you’re touching me.”
Seth didn’t want to stop touching Raider. He loved touching him. He loved how Raider responded.
Another image flashed: Raider finding such pleasure on Seth’s cock this morning, his own cock jutting straight up, flushed and threaded with veins. The position had allowed Seth to watch the building of Raider’s orgasm, the way his balls had tightened and his body had primed for the most erotic sight Seth had ever seen: the high spurt of Raider’s cum as he found such intense release on Seth’s cock. Seth hadn’t had a chance of holding back another second, not when he saw that, not when Raider’s ass had clenched on his own aching shaft. As much as Seth loved to dominate Raider during sex, he loved that reversal too.
But he had to stop thinking about sex. He was trying to have a conversation. Because as much as he craved, even needed, sex with Raider, he needed words too.
Seth lifted his hand from Raider’s knee and settled back. He picked up his cup of kahve from the tray, wincing slightly at the way his cock was torqued in his pants.
Seth eyed Raider’s obvious arousal and said, “Sorry.” (He wasn’t though, not really.)
“You’ve completely made me lose my train of thought,” Raider complained.
“You were about to tell me about your life before the palace.”
“Was I? That doesn’t feel accurate.”
“Please, Raider.”
Raider sighed. “Not fair. You know I can’t refuse when you ask me like that, all sweet and demanding at the same time.”
Seth sipped the strong kahve. “Huh. I didn’t actually know that, but thank you for the useful information.”
“Don’t expect it to work every time. It depends on my mood.”
Seth huffed a laugh. “Naturally.”
A smile tugged at Raider’s lips and, gods, that was good to see. There had been too many hard days lately. How Raider could come back from them like he did, Seth didn’t know. Oh, he was still hurting. Seth had seen this morning how deep that hurt was, how Raider had to carry it all the fucking time. But he rarely lost himself in it, like he had in the palace the last few days. Maybe it had been the place itself or maybe it had been the lingering effects of being drugged and strapped down to that table in the dungeon. Whatever the case, Seth was really damn glad he’d gotten Raider out of there.
Raider leaned forward to snag a piece of honey-soaked pastry from the tray. He sat back with it dripping into his kahve cup.
Seth prompted, “You said once that you’d been a thief since you were ten years old.”
Raider looked exasperated. “You remembered that? I mean, it’s true, so I must have said it, but I don’t remember telling you that.”
Raider had said it in anger soon after they’d escaped Aqarat, but Seth didn’t want them to backtrack to that moment, so he only sipped his kahve, hoping Raider would tell him why he’d become a thief so young.
But Raider skipped that part and said, “I was a very good pickpocket, as you yourself have experienced.”
“Many times, yes,” Seth agreed dryly.
“I had to be though, in the beginning. I wouldn’t have survived otherwise. It was safer to pick a pocket than to steal from under the nose of a watchful vendor. So I would steal money, hide in terror, then I’d go buy food. Looking back, I’m sure it was obvious that I was buying with stolen money, but no one ever refused to sell.”
Seth frowned. “Ten is very young to be on your own.”
Raider shrugged. “I managed.”
Seth wanted to press the point, but Raider obviously didn’t want to explain, so Seth let it go and listened to what Raider was willing to tell him.
“I spent the rest of my time watching the street performers. Studying their movements, trying to understand their tricks. I did a bit of juggling and dabbled in magic tricks, but I was always best at dancing.”
“I can imagine.”
“You can?”
“Your movement is incredible. Fighting, fucking, dancing. You’re beautiful to watch.”
Raider’s breath seemed to catch. Then he smiled and ate the pastry.
“Go on,” Seth prompted.
“I feel like that’s a good ending place.”
“Why? What don’t you want to tell me?”
Raider looked uncomfortable but said, “Well … the emperor thought that too.”
“Ah.” That cooled Seth a little. “He saw you dancing?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“I do, if you’re willing to tell me.”
“Okay,” Raider said like he was bracing himself. “So … yes, he saw me dancing. I was about seventeen by then—”
“Seventeen? He was a lot older than you,” Seth interrupted as he realized that suddenly. He should have put that together before, but he hadn’t really thought about it.
“He was, I don’t know, forty-five?”
Seth winced. He didn’t like that. There was already a huge power imbalance with Hassan’s status. The extreme age difference made it even worse.
Raider had said that he loved Hassan, but that looked a little different to Seth in this context. Raider had been very young. Vulnerable. He’d been swept into a world he couldn’t possibly have understood, not back then.
Raider said, “I can see what you’re thinking, but I wasn’t a child, Seth. I hadn’t been for a long time.”
“You hadn’t gotten to be one, not if you were on your own at ten.”
“Stop fixating on all the worst aspects of everything. Drink your damn kahve. Have a pastry.”
“That makes everything better, does it?” Seth asked sourly.
“Yes, Seth, it actually does—if you fucking let it.”
Seth huffed and downed the rest of his lukewarm kahve. He poured another cup.
Raider said quietly, “This was all a long time ago. It feels like a different life. I prefer the present. With you.”
Raider’s hand reached toward Seth. Seth reached back, gripping Raider’s offered hand.
Raider added, “Stop worrying so much. I’m better now.”
“You barely slept last night.”
Raider narrowed his eyes. “You were asleep, so how do you know that?”
“Because you weren’t stiff this morning.”
Raider sighed loudly. “Fucking Curators. Nothing gets past them.”
“Not if we’re interested.”
“And are you? Interested?”
“You know I am.” Seth raised their joined hands and nipped Raider’s fingers. Then he licked the traces of honey from them.
“You’re going to make me hard again,” Raider complained.
“That seems only fair, since you make me hard all the time.” Seth released Raider’s hand. “Now let’s finish this kahve and go get some real food. I don’t know how you can eat sweets first thing in the morning.”
“First thing?” Raider laughed. “It’s almost noon.”
“Is it? Fuck, I lose track of time with you.”
Seth had seen hundreds of beautiful things in his life. Ancient tombs and pristine temples. Magnificent animals and exquisite artwork. He might have used the phrase breathtaking for any of them. But it wasn’t until Raider smiled at Seth’s words that Seth really understood that phrase. Because that gorgeous smile quite literally took the breath from his lungs.
***
“What are you looking at?” Seth asked.
After a meal of pita bread stuffed with lamb and cucumber sauce, Seth had suggested they walk through one of the finer bazaars. He knew he’d promised to return to the library sometime today, but that promise felt distant and unimportant. He didn’t want to leave Raider. Partly because he wanted to keep an eye on him. Mostly because … well, he just didn’t want to leave him.
They were standing at a silk merchant’s stall, and Raider was looking through the offerings on a crowded rack. He pulled out a short green sarong with a subtle gold pattern from amid the colorful assortment and showed it to Seth.
“Put it on,” Seth said.
“I was mostly teasing.”
“Well, I wasn’t. Fucking put it on.”
“You’ll have to imagine it without my pants.”
“Oh, I will.”
Raider’s eyes sparkled as he tied the sarong at his waist. Seth’s body heated instantly as he imagined what it would show of Raider’s toned legs. How it would part at the side when he walked. How easy it would be for Seth to lift it. His mouth watered as he stepped close to Raider and played with the knot at his hip.
He knew his nostrils were flaring. He knew his voice was gravelly when he spoke. “That’s going to show a lot of thigh.”
“It would, yes.”
“It will .”
“I don’t have money, remember?”
“I owe you money, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. The Kesh.”
Seth shook his head. “You know, when I first met you, I thought all you cared about was money. But you don’t pay the least bit of attention to it.”
“I do, though. Because I like beautiful things.”
“So do I,” Seth said and started untying the sarong.
Raider’s hands came up to Seth’s chest, and his eyes, at least his right eye, darkened at the tease of Seth undressing him, even though he was fully clothed underneath.
“After we buy this,” Seth said roughly, “we should go back to the inn. I want to see it on you properly.”
But Raider’s eyes had lifted over Seth’s shoulder. “You might have to hold that thought.”
Seth turned to see Nasrin on the other side of the street. She was wearing the same sleeveless blue gown that she’d worn that day at Atri’s temple. It covered her leather skirt and breastplate, leaving bare only her muscled arms, banded with gold rings.
That muscle should have given her away that day, not to mention the tight, intricate braiding of her hair. Had she been wearing those boots as she climbed the temple steps? Could he possibly have missed that? Maybe. He’d been focused on Raider. Still, Seth couldn’t get over his annoyance at how she had fooled him. Knowing her now for what she was, it was so painfully obvious.
She dipped her chin in acknowledgement of having been seen and crossed the street, pausing for a wealthy woman’s palanquin, a small covered litter carried on poles by two large men. By the time Nasrin reached Seth, Raider had slipped away to talk to the silk merchant.
“Enjoying your day?” she inquired.
“I was.”
Her lips quirked. “And you think I’m here to spoil it?”
“I think you’re here to tell me to get to work, which, yes, would spoil it. Have you been watching us all day?”
“From a distance.”
Seth narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like that. He should have spotted her. Then she made it even worse by saying, “Raider saw me over an hour ago.”
“What the hell,” Seth grumbled.
“He didn’t say anything?”
“No, he fucking didn’t.”
“Probably because he knew you’d be annoyed, and he wanted to keep you to himself a little longer.”
That interpretation simultaneously soothed and annoyed Seth because she was probably right, and he didn’t like her showing insight into his man.
“So are you here to crack your whip? Is it hiding under that gown?”
“Are you interested in what’s under my gown?” Her lips twitched as though enjoying a private joke.
“Oh, go away.”
She laughed, reminding Seth a little too much of Raider. What the hell was taking him so long anyway?
Oh. He was paying. With money he’d clearly lifted from Seth. How the hell did he do that? Why couldn’t Seth tell?
“I’m afraid I can’t go away,” she said. “I need you to resume work. I’ve given you all the time I can.”
“I need more.”
“You’re worried about him.”
Something in her tone, in her face, made Seth confess, “I don’t want him in the palace, but if I’m there, I’ll be too far away if …”
Her eyes showed understanding. She had seen Raider last night. She had helped Seth get him out quickly. She didn’t make Seth explain.
“I’ll watch him,” she promised. “From a distance. I’ll leave him alone.”
“No. He’ll notice. He wouldn’t like that.”
“Someone will be watching him though, me or another. Empress’s orders. What’s your preference?”
“Are you actually asking?”
“Yes.”
Seth sighed and said reluctantly, “You.”
She dipped her chin.
“I’m going to tell him, though.”
“I’ll draw back. I don’t think he wants to talk to me, not after last night.”
Ah. Seth should have realized that was why Raider was taking his sweet time with the merchant. He was uncomfortable with Nasrin after what she’d witnessed.
Seth said, “I’m walking him back to the inn. Then I’ll go to the library.”
She nodded and moved off into the crowd. When she was gone, Raider returned to Seth’s side, proving Nasrin right about him avoiding her.
“Am I losing you?” he asked.
“Never,” Seth replied and heard Raider’s breath catch. “But maybe for the afternoon.”