Page 24

Not in the library, of course. Not without preparation beforehand at least. Tiiran had not enjoyed being nearly carried out of the library—supported by Orin on one side and Nikoly on the other, after Nikoly had first gone downstairs to make Tiiran’s excuses and apologize to Po for stealing Tiiran away for the rest of the day. Tiiran wasn’t actually sure an apology had been required. Po had pursed her lips at the sight of him but then pretended to go back to her work.

With Tiiran and Nikoly gone, the others were likely not doing much. But Tiiran couldn’t blame them for wanting a rest. The library needed more assistants, and since that wasn’t happening any time soon, they needed breaks to compensate for the extra labor.

That thought was clearer than most of Tiiran’s thoughts had been in the hours since they’d carefully settled him on the bed with a pillow and his robe bunched beneath him. He decided not to share his realization, partly because the other two might decide to interfere to fog his thinking again but also because… doing nothing while he truly felt like doing nothing wasn’t all that terrible. Maybe he was more tired than he’d thought after the snuffles and everything else. But sitting with his back to the small bed’s headboard and staring at two beautiful people suited his current mood. It was as close as he could imagine to what being ruler might feel like—at least, the rulers who hadn’t been in fear of their lives every day.

Orin and Nikoly continued to sit apart, which was distantly vexing. Tiiran almost wanted to snap at them about it, and the more his mind cleared, the stronger the urge was. He didn’t think they were feigning disinterest for his sake. But he doubted either of them would have been as careful with some other bed partner’s bed partner or recent cocksucking partner.

No, they weren’t pretending anything; their conversation made that clear. But they were distant, as they were distant from Tiiran, and that was a thread more than willing to settle in Tiiran’s chest and knot into a new mess.

Orin hadn’t even gone to the barracks yet. He’d come straight from his journey to the Great Library to find Tiiran and then had spent several hours seeing to Tiiran’s—and then Nikoly’s—needs.

Nikoly was nearly the same, might have been if he didn’t also with work with Tiiran. He and Orin could cluck over Tiiran’s doubts all they wanted, but no other lover would have required this much effort just to get into bed. Tiiran was not wrong about that.

Although, technically, Tiiran was only in bed now because they had put him there and then stood over him until he’d agreed to stay put.

Bossy, the pair of them. Even Nikoly, who claimed he liked to be used.

Tiiran narrowed his eyes. He considered what he hadn’t gotten done today, and his “avoidance” projects, as Nikoly called them, and what he’d need to get done tomorrow, and if any more of the assistants were going to catch the snuffles.

He wasn’t avoiding anything. Those were real issues. And anyway, the only thing to avoid right now, outside of the mess Piya was creating, was the memory of what Tiiran had said, or done, or felt, that day, including why he had to sit on a pillow now.

His face wasn’t the only part of him warmer than it should be.

“That Head of House…” Orin said, far away on his chair in front of the fireplace. Nikoly had told him why the fireplace was unused because neither of them was to be trusted. Tiiran should be paying more attention. It had been bad enough when Orin had entered his room and stopped to look over the three small beds, two of them without bedding, Tiiran’s with extra blankets only because Nikoly had requested them for him. Orin had then turned to study Tiiran, and Tiiran had known he was going to hear about that later.

That he’d probably like what Orin had to say to him, or do to him, was irrelevant.

“…Dipping into the wine too much, or so they said. It’s certainly a nicer reason to give an outguard who asks why you let your Head of House go than ‘used to bully and beat the younger servants.’ At least they got rid of him in the end, but he’ll be harder to find now.”

That was not what Orin had told Tiiran he was currently doing for the Outguard, but perhaps outguards often found things to investigate. The country was full of problems, probably even in calmer times. Then again, Orin did love to investigate, by his own admission.

“In any case, he can wait. The situation here is far more urgent.” Orin sat back in his chair, looking momentarily exhausted.

Nikoly must have seen it too. “Time to rest,” he suggested softly. “It was a long day for you, wasn’t it? Do you travel tomorrow?”

“No, thankfully.” Orin reached up to rub the back of his neck. “Which is good, as it will give me a chance to calm him if he needs it after this.”

Tiiran pushed out a silent breath.

“And to sleep,” Nikoly added, unusually firm. “You need that too.”

Orin’s eyebrows rose again. “You’re as bad as Tiiran, fussing over whether or not I’m cared for after an encounter.”

Tiiran still couldn’t see Nikoly’s face, but he could hear the sweetness in Nikoly’s voice hardly masking his stubbornness when he said, “Then, in Tiiran’s stead, I insist that you rest before you worry about calming him. What about you? Today must have been…”

“What?” Tiiran demanded, giving himself a start as well as clearly surprising the other two, who both turned toward him. Tiiran raised his head and hoped he didn’t look a complete mess. “Today must have been what ?” On the heels of the question, he flinched and looked to Orin. “Did I ask too much? I didn’t mean to. Are you dead on your feet? Do you need to lie down? Here—”

He pushed himself into a better position to rise from the bed, but then there was no need with Nikoly perching on the edge of the bed on one side of him and Orin coming to stand at the other.

“Are you feeling better, bee?”

Tiiran stared at Nikoly, more than a little baffled, then looked up to Orin. “You should tell me no if I’m bothering you, Orin. Or… you will not say ‘bothering’ but if you’re tired. Really, Orin. Or you too for that matter, Nikoly. Don’t ‘But, honeybee’ me either, I…” Tiiran stopped, nearly biting his tongue.

Nikoly’s eyes were wide but Orin’s great belly laugh had Tiiran blushing.

“I didn’t mean it like how it… fuck.” Tiiran crossed his arms to wait for Orin to stop laughing.

“He’s not making fun of you,” Nikoly assured him.

“I know that,” Tiiran insisted. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“What?” Orin wondered mildly. “Hearing yourself and realizing what a demanding kitten you actually are?” Orin wasn’t bothered by Tiiran’s glare. “We like you demanding. Don’t worry too much about it.”

“…Don’t make sense.” Tiiran grumbled to himself, which Nikoly seemed to think meant Tiiran needed to be petted more… which was nice.

Orin gave the top of Tiiran’s head a pat. “You don’t need to understand in this moment. A real bath and some proper rest would serve you better. You’re still recovering from an illness.”

From the snuffles, which were not that serious no matter how the two of them went on about it.

Tiiran made a face. “I don’t want a bath now.” He had clumsily cleaned himself in the privacy of his bath room while they had poked around his unremarkable bedroom. In truth, he didn’t want to move, and slid down and closer to Nikoly. “But I might sleep soon.”

Orin smiled, an odd twist to his lips Tiiran hadn’t seen before. “Let me help with that before I go.”

He lifted the table by Tiiran’s bed, unconcerned with the weight of the table itself or the books on top of it, then was in the middle of pushing one of the other beds closer to Tiiran’s when Tiiran noticed what had been said.

“You’re going?”

Orin shoved the bed across the last bit of space it took to get it even with Tiiran’s bed, then stopped. “Nikoly, are those two extra blankets the only other bedding? You two are going to be packed tight, and you’ll need a rolled-up blanket to fill the gap between the beds.”

“You’re staying?” Tiiran turned to Nikoly, who mumbled something before swooping to his feet in one smooth move.

“Would you like me to leave?” Nikoly was awfully formal for someone who had sucked Tiiran’s cock a few hours before.

Tiiran immediately shook his head. “But Orin.”

“Just so,” Nikoly agreed, back straight as he turned to Orin. “Tiiran doesn’t want you to leave. So you will stay.”

It didn’t sound like a question.

Orin considered Nikoly, then Tiiran, that odd, unhappy smile disappearing, replaced with something happier, though only briefly seen. “If you’re certain.”

“Thank you, Nikoly,” Tiiran said to make Nikoly glow. “You can wash here,” he told Orin. “Bathe if you want. You came straight to see me.” His face flamed at the reminder. “You should get to clean and have a place to sleep that isn’t the barracks. Though you might prefer those beds.”

“Should I move the last bed over, or would you prefer the distance?” Nikoly was more cat with cream than a dog wagging his tail, and yet Tiiran suspected Orin was a heartbeat away from calling him pup again.

“I can take care of it, but thank you.” Orin dropped his shoulders. “I am tired,” he admitted, with a glance to Nikoly. “I haven’t been traveling far, but I have been traveling frequently, back and forth escorting other outguards down the river to the capital.” He answered Nikoly’s possible questions before Nikoly could answer them. “It’s a little like when the old queen died, or so the older guards tell me. When the Canamorra were all newly dead except for a few children and wizened elders. Chaos reigned, but the outguards tried to continue their duty. They paired up then too. It made them harder to kill, or capture, or torture.”

Tiiran would have jumped up to shout in Orin’s face if he could have reached it. “Then why were you alone when I met you today?”

“A snarl,” Orin observed with relish. “You’ll be fully yourself by morning. I was alone, you demanding moggy, because I am not carrying any reports at present and because I’d rather not have my friends witness me bowing to your every whim.”

Nikoly cackled and then appeared very surprised with himself. “Sorry.”

Tiiran huffed at both of them. “I don’t have whims .”

Orin simply nodded and considered the room again while Tiiran sputtered. “I can put my bedroll in the other gap if I bring the last bed over.”

“Bathe if you like.” Nikoly waved toward the other room, ever graceful. “I’ll take care of the bed. Tiiran, do you have night clothes or do you sleep without them?”

“Do you sleep without them?” Tiiran asked, not a thought in his head except for naked Nikoly, and then naked Orin when Orin snorted a laugh. Then he thought of them nude with him between them. Tiiran opened his mouth but a strangled version of his voice emerged. “Who could sleep with you both undressed and in bed with them?”

“Someone exhausted and pushed toward his limits several times already today.” Orin stretched to pop joints. “But I will bathe, if neither of you mind.”

With the little smile lingering on his face, Orin dug through his pack, then handed his rolled-up bedding to Nikoly before slipping into the bathing room. The sound of pouring water followed shortly thereafter.

Orin hadn’t fully closed the door. Tiiran dragged his attention from the glimpse of Orin’s arm and bare back as he undressed, to Nikoly, shoving the last bed into place and then shaking out Orin’s bedroll before rolling it back up again and putting it into position. The bedroll looked clean, which meant Orin really hadn’t been journeying far enough to need it or had stayed in places with beds.

Nikoly fussed with the blankets next, so much that Tiiran was tempted to ask if Nikoly had trained with the housekeeping staff. But though Tiiran was a rude stray, he wasn’t good enough at teasing to try it with a lover he didn’t want to offend. Anyway, if it had been him in Nikoly’s place, he would have been fussing too.

“Are you nervous?” he asked, or started to ask, a sympathetic tone that fell to a dry rasp when Nikoly, satisfied with the bed situation, began to remove his clothing. His shoes, then his socks, both placed neatly by or on the chair also holding Orin’s pack.

He pulled his shirt away, rendering Tiiran speechless, but left his pants and belt on as he came around the bed toward Tiiran. He plucked at Tiiran’s sleeve.

“Do you plan to sleep in this?”

Tiiran made a confused noise.

Nikoly narrowed his eyes. “You fall asleep in your clothes a great deal of the time, don’t you? With a book for a pillow, I’ll bet, even when the ink doesn’t come off on your face. Well, the pants and belt must go. You should be comfortable.”

“You’re going to undress me?” Tiiran made that noise again, as though Nikoly hadn’t competently undressed part of him already that day.

Nikoly paused, and then, slowly, deliberately, ducked his head to look at Tiiran through his lashes. “Don’t you want me to make you comfortable, Tiiran?”

“I want you to do anything you want to do,” Tiiran answered immediately, a breathless fool.

But it made Nikoly smile as he kneeled on the bed to sweep his hands over Tiiran’s stomach and ribs, pushing Tiiran’s shirt up to his armpits. The shirt was gone in the next moment, with Tiiran shivering not with cold, but for how quickly Nikoly’s hands then went to his belt.

“I’m sorry,” Tiiran apologized, his swelling cock more than obvious.

“You’re not used to being touched, or touched with affection.” Nikoly leaned in to rub the tip of his nose against Tiiran’s, and why that should make Tiiran blush, Tiiran had no idea. “And I’m flattered you desire me so much. Sit up for a moment, please. I’m sorry if it pains you. I’ll be quick.”

Tiiran’s pants were shoved down to his thighs and then Tiiran fell back onto his pillow with a hiss and an embarrassing twitch in his cock.

Nikoly smiled again, as if Tiiran’s tastes pleased or amused him, or maybe his pleasure was in getting to fold Tiiran’s clothing and set it aside. He took the robe too, putting it at Tiiran’s back instead of leaving it beneath him. He was strange, but so was Tiiran. Tiiran nearly wanted to ask him which of the two of them was supposed to do the fucking, but then he realized Nikoly would undoubtedly tell Tiiran to use him however he pleased, and that Nikoly could theoretically be inside Tiiran without doing any fucking at all.

He swallowed dryly.

“Did you want to leave your underclothes on?” Nikoly asked next, eyes down on his own clothing as he removed his belt, and then his pants, and then the rest of his clothes.

Nikoly’s cock was slender but longer than Tiiran’s. He had hair around it as Tiiran really did not. Another problem with fae blood, at least for Tiiran; Tiiran did not have much body hair to speak of. Nikoly had hair at his thighs as well, and the neat trail leading up from his cock to his chest. The metal at his nipples glinted in the light from the window and the candles Orin had lit above the fireplace. The spangle at his navel didn’t, but Tiiran stared hard at it anyway. There might have been a gem of some kind in it, or maybe simply glass.

“Could I…?” Nikoly put a hand to his mouth as if about to chew his thumbnail again but caught himself and dropped it. “Could I comb your hair for you?”

Tiiran closed his open mouth before he could ask if Nikoly always combed his hair before bed, if people were supposed to and not just quickly finger-comb the mess in the morning on the way to the kitchens.

He said, “The comb is in there,” with a wave toward the bath room, and Nikoly frowned. Or pouted, possibly.

“I’m sorry,” Tiiran heard himself saying, which appeased Nikoly slightly. Nikoly, who was still naked, and who considered Tiiran for another moment before removing the decorations at his nipples and then unpinning the piece at his navel. He put those and the rest of his jewelry with his clothes, and then rubbed his peaked nipples as he came around to one side of the makeshift larger bed to get in.

“Orin can sleep on your other side,” he remarked almost absently, scooting closer to Tiiran before sitting up to gently use his fingers as a comb on Tiiran’s hair. “Does it never tangle?” he wondered with quiet interest.

Tiiran gave him a puzzled look. “Always. Constantly. Whenever I try to do anything with it, which is why I stopped bothering long ago.”

“Well, it’s fine now,” Nikoly informed him with a sigh, leaving Tiiran to wonder if fae hair only behaved when someone who didn’t have any was brushing it. But Nikoly finished playing with his hair and tugged a blanket up over Tiiran, who was still in his underclothes, stiff as a fucking board from a hand in his hair and watching Nikoly rub his nipples. Nikoly noticed and patted Tiiran’s prick fondly, mortifying Tiiran, only to curl up next to him while simultaneously pulling Tiiran down into a position more suitable for sleeping.

Tiiran winced, but the mattress was not a hard one, and if he turned into his side, the pain lessened and he got to look at Nikoly.

“Orin can lie on the other side of you. There should be room.” Nikoly didn’t seem to mind Tiiran’s staring at him, but then, he was staring at Tiiran in return while smiling a little. “There will be more room for him if you scoot closer to me.”

Tiiran scooted. “I’ve never shared a bed except when I was a very young servant. They packed us in one bed tighter than buns in a pan headed to the ovens. It’s been narrow cots or this bed since then.”

“Are you nervous?” Nikoly shuffled closer, not seeming to mind having no pillow since he was now on Tiiran’s. “I don’t usually sleep with my lovers. That’s not what they want me for—which I didn’t mind,” he added it, then exhaled as if annoyed with himself. “Sometimes I did mind, if I’m honest. But my heart was never broken. I was never… I never thought of myself as lost, or a stray. Don’t worry over this too. We can be nervous together.”

“You’re actually nervous?” Tiiran asked. “About what? I already told you why I said no to you in the beginning. Well, really, I didn’t; you guessed why. But I haven’t said no to you since.” The truth of that made his face flame.

Nikoly brushed noses again, lingering this time to let their mouths nearly touch. “I’m usually wanted for what I offer: my service, my mouth, my face, my body. But I haven’t had much time to train here or spar as I used to. My body is not as it was, and I imagine that will continue as we go on. You don’t mind some softness?”

“Are you joking?” Tiiran scowled and nearly went cross-eyed for it. “I’m skinny but terribly soft. Orin is softness over hard muscle. I have seen none on you, but… oh, I do stare at you, don’t I? Did you think that was all I wanted?”

“No,” Nikoly answered, but after a small pause. “You wouldn’t be so worthy if you did. I worry anyway. Everyone worries, I think. Nobody wants to be hurt. That is,” a grin burst from him, “except for the way you like to be hurt.”

“You like it too.” Tiiran tried to nuzzle noses as well, perhaps not doing it well because Nikoly held him still with a hand to his cheek.

“But differently from you. I should like to watch Orin make you give way some time. I want to know the effort it takes to make you submit to him.”

“You don’t require effort?” Ah, of course, he didn’t. “You choose to,” Tiiran realized.

“Yes.” Nikoly stared at Tiiran as if Tiiran was as pretty as Nikoly was. “And I don’t like the idea of being humiliated or embarrassed in that way. But you do—for Orin only.” He didn’t let Tiiran squirm away. “But you can tell me what you want, or tell me to be still and take what you give me. Or let me do as I’ve been doing, if that’s all you want.”

“Pushing me around as you please but in a more subtle way than Orin?” Tiiran didn’t scoff, but it was close.

Nikoly widened his eyes. “You think I was subtle?”

Tiiran surged forward to kiss him and shut him up, but froze just as their lips touched. “I can kiss you now?”

Nikoly tipped his face up, bringing their mouths together again with an impatient sigh. Tiiran meant to offer something slow, to linger at kissing the way Nikoly must like because it was how he kissed, but Nikoly’s lips parted and he gave way to Tiiran’s clumsy force with a full-body shiver that meant his cock brushed against Tiiran. The feel of it, on its way to fully hard, had Tiiran licking his way into that mouth, tasting Nikoly’s soft moans and wanting more of them. Nikoly found Tiiran’s hand beneath the blanket and pulled it up to the base of his throat, near the markings.

Tiiran tore himself from Nikoly’s mouth to pant at Nikoly’s collarbone. The markings were against his lips, so he tasted them, using his tongue until Nikoly’s put a hand in his hair. Then he kissed them, sucking carefully when Nikoly gasped and held him tighter.

“It will show tomorrow,” Tiiran warned him breathlessly, sucking another kiss higher up, on thinner skin, with his leg sliding between Nikoly’s so he could feel Nikoly react.

“Please.” Nikoly begged sweetly for so little. He gave way , as he called it, for barely anything compared to what Tiiran went through. Tiiran moved to suck another kiss at his shoulder before coming back up to Nikoly’s mouth. He could do nothing but kiss that mouth for hours and Nikoly would nearly shake himself to pieces with wanting but never stop him.

Tiiran curled his fingers over the markings, the ink within his skin that said, Use me , and the bruises from Tiiran’s mouth that said, Use me, Tiiran .

He pushed.

On his back, Nikoly blinked up at him, dazed and bright, flushed hot, his cock against his stomach pointing to where there should have been a bit of jewelry.

Tiiran straddled Nikoly’s thighs slowly, vaguely aware that he was still wearing his underclothes but hardly about to look away from Nikoly to bother with them. He leaned down, putting one hand on the bed and leaving the other below Nikoly’s throat. Nikoly’s arms fell to his sides. He stared at Tiiran, pleased and beautiful, and tipped his head back as if to offer himself that much more.

Tiiran was small, a soft librarian with a sore ass. If Nikoly didn’t want to be beneath him, he didn’t have to be.

“Happy brown at first,” Nikoly remarked, “but deeper purple the longer you stare. So much desire for me.” His obvious pleasure at this only made him more alluring. “Whatever you want to do with me, you don’t have to do it all tonight. A few hours or days is not what I want from you.”

In the rules of ducklings who gave way, the ducklings got what they wanted. They were selfish, Orin had said, and that he liked that about them.

“I enjoyed seeing the tears in your eyes earlier,” Tiiran revealed, then sucked in a breath. “Did you cry when you got those markings?”

“Yes,” Nikoly answered easily. “And I grew hard.”

Tiiran pushed down, pinning the shameless sunflower to the bed. “And were exquisite? Crushed berries on buttered toast?”

Nikoly briefly closed his eyes. “The next time I’m being marked, you could be there. If you wanted.”

“To help you when you get hard?” Tiiran distracted himself with his own question and had a hand around Nikoly’s cock before he knew he intended to. Nikoly’s eyes fluttered open. He kept his hands flat on the bed.

“I like it when you touch me,” Tiiran revealed, stroking the cock that had been given over to him while watching Nikoly react. “I like that you lie beneath me like this too, and let me do as I please. But I like when you touch me.”

“Do you want me to touch you now?” Nikoly’s hips twitched, only slightly, but enough to feel. Nikoly tried to stop himself, Tiiran could tell from his glance away and how still he got, only to inch up again when Tiiran left off stroking him and explored just the head of his cock instead.

“No,” Tiiran decided aloud, marveling at himself for tormenting Nikoly but not enough to stop doing it. “But keep showing me what you like.”