and meeting Niko’s gaze again, but this time his beautiful eye was glassy, as though he fought his emotions back into their box.
“I know you like nobody else dares.” He straightened, putting himself chest to chest with Vasili. The prince’s fingers still played lightly at his jaw, stiffening him with desire. “I know you love the sun on your face.” He stroked his knuckles down Vasili’s cheek, and when the prince leaned into the touch, he fought to keep his heart from hammering out of his chest. “I know you love the simple things.”
“Such as?” Vasili asked. His voice had grown rich with the same desire that strummed through Niko.
“My hand on you now. This kiss…” He brushed a painfully light kiss against Vasili’s lips, resisting as he tilted his chin up for more.
Vasili’s breaths fluttered into Niko’s. His steady hands pressed against Niko’s chest, forcing space between them, but it was reluctant. A step back, and he was slipping through Niko’s fingers. “I won’t provoke him,” Niko vowed. “I’ll do everything you want me to.”
“I don’t want this,” Vasili denied, his vehemence quickly returning. “I don’t want any of this. What I want is a cabin in the woods with the man I fear I’ve come to care for, despite all my efforts not to. But what I want has never mattered.” He turned suddenly, quickly retreating to the door. “Amir will offer you spice. Take it.”
Care?
“Vasili, stop!”
Vasili opened the door but stayed, gripping against its edge instead of passing through.
“You can’t…” Niko started forward but stopped again, leaving space between them so as not to push him away. “You can’t say that and leave.”
Vasili peered over his shoulder, only half turning, his escape a step away, but the sly look on his face wasn’t an accident. “Get high, do whatever you need to, but don’t provoke my brother.”
“Fuck Amir.” Another step. “I don’t want to talk about him. Stay. Talk.”
“If Amir finds me here, your suffering and mine will be worse. There is nothing else to say.” He stepped through the doorway and pulled the door shut behind him. The lock snicked over. Niko swore, crossed the room, and pressed his hands to the closed door, knowing Vasili was on the other side.
Bowing his head between his braced arms, Niko asked, “Did you say you care to keep me here?”
“I said it because it’s true,” came his muffled reply.
Niko splayed his fingers and stared at the grain in the wood. “How long?”
The quiet dragged on, but he was still out there. “Some time between the kiss at the farmhouse and you saving me from the fire, but mostly in the woods, after you built us a life. It… surprised me.” His voice had deepened, like he’d stepped closer to the door. “It’s probably a phase,” he said haughtily. “You’re really not my type.”
Niko laughed softly and thumped his forehead against the door, imagining Vasili on the other side. “You have a type?”
“Hm.”
“Submissive and obliging?”
“Something like that. I cared for you and you despised me in return, so there was no use dwelling on it.”
“I didn’t hate you,” he replied softly.
Vasili’s laugh was like liquid honey. “Liar,” he purred, so close to the door that if Niko closed his eyes, he could imagine Vasili beside him. “You hate me still.”
“Sometimes—most of the time—but then you’re the real you, and I…” Niko wet his lips and wished he’d open the door. “Well, there was no saving me then.” He curled a hand into a fist and thumped it lightly on the wood. “Tell me you plan to survive all this?”
The quiet dragged on. When he did speak, it was almost too soft to hear. “You will.”
“Vasili,” he warned, knowing that careful reply for the misdirection it was, “What of you?”
“I’ll do what’s necessary to stop the elves.”
The sounds of his footfalls faded into the palace corridors until there was nothing left of the prince but his confession in Niko’s head.
Chapter 35
Don’t provoke my brother.
Niko paced, then sat on the edge of the cot bed, listening to Vasili’s voice in his head.
The man I fear I’ve come to care for.
Gods, he didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to be Amir’s plaything, didn’t want any of this. He just wanted their real dream again; the cabin and the man who had just told him he cared. He might have thought it lies if Vasili hadn’t tossed him that wicked little grin, the real grin that said he knew what he was