Page 27

By early afternoon, Po had managed to pull Tiiran aside, but instead of digging for information or teasing him, had said, “You should do something with your hair. You look one step out of bed. Ask Mattin to braid it.”

Mattin was nowhere to be found, which meant he was in a cubby reading or fast asleep. Tiiran likely could have found him, but didn’t feel like attempting all the stairs when every step already reminded him of spankings and Orin’s cock. Instead, he stood at the desk, making notes on passages in three different books someone wanted pages copied from, while Nikoly, just returned from his room to shave and finally change his clothes, combed his hair for him and arranged it in two puffy pigtails that rested on Tiiran’s shoulders.

Then, with both of them now more presentable, Nikoly had taken Tiiran’s current work from his hands and walked off, leaving Tiiran with the choice to yell at him or follow.

It was a matter of balance, he supposed. Nikoly served him, as it pleased him to do, and Tiiran did as Nikoly wanted. That didn’t quite feel logical, but neither did it feel bad, so Tiiran decided to humor the pup, as Orin would say, and was not terribly surprised when Nikoly led him to the abandoned office with the window seat. What did surprise him was the cushion on the chair at the desk already waiting for him.

He gave Nikoly a suspicious look which Nikoly ignored as he set down Tiiran’s work and arranged it just so, adding an inkpot from a drawer in the desk as if he had also put that there in anticipation of Tiiran’s needs.

Tiiran gave him another look that was also ignored, at least until he was seated and Nikoly likewise sat, but in the window seat and with no work in front of him. His feet were on the floor, since he wasn’t short like Tiiran, his hands were at his sides, his back was straight.

“Are you certain you’re not one of the trained people of the Rossick that you spoke of?” Tiiran wanted to slouch just looking at him. “The nobles and their sworn guards don’t sit nearly as straight as you—especially when you’re waiting on something.” Tiiran paused at Nikoly’s quick blink. “I didn’t mean that as insult,” he added so Nikoly wouldn’t be hurt. “It’s only that I’d like you to be comfortable.”

Nikoly stuttered over his answer, briefly glancing away. “I was wild, as I told you. I’m wild still. You might worry over my training, but please don’t. It was originally a way to help me get into less trouble, but I grew to like it. You’re frowning,” he observed. “Anyone might be educated and trained as I was. It has nothing to do with what else I do.” Nikoly flicked a look to the floor, then back up to Tiiran. “What I should say is that I was not trained by my teachers to do what I do with you outside of the library. I chose to apply to my lessons there to better contain my wildness. I take great pleasure in it, in fact. Please stop frowning, although your concern touches me.”

“Wild?” Tiiran didn’t understand enough of the other subject to ask about it yet. “Like I was… or am still, as Orin would no doubt imply with a look.”

“I was reckless,” Nikoly confessed as if ashamed of it, but then smiled faintly. “My nature is… to not be patient. So I was taught to appreciate patience.”

That went against everything Tiiran had seen about him, but then, Nikoly had spent years mastering patience so maybe it was true now . “You did say like to challenge yourself.” He’d meant picking up new skills, but patience was a skill too. Tiiran tried to imagine what it would take to wait a little more each day, or to resist greater and greater temptations. He tossed his head and pulled in a breath. He was possibly starting to understand why Nikoly was the way that he was. “Do you want me to challenge you?” That was what confused him. “Or reward you for your patience?”

Nikoly raised his head and to give Tiiran a glittering look of pleasure through half-closed eyes. “Only if you wish to.”

Tiiran ignored his body’s response to that look. Spanked and tupped, and now it seemed pleasure was all he could think about. He was going to have to relearn patience the way Nikoly had. “You could just say yes or no,” he pointed out, perhaps sharply.

If anything, Nikoly’s gaze brightened. “If you challenged me, I would try to make you proud.”

The air rushed out of Tiiran.

“That’s not something to joke about,” he insisted. “Yet you’re smiling again.”

Nikoly wasn’t, but his lips were twitching as if he wanted to. “I suppose it isn’t,” he allowed, forcing his smile away when Tiiran glared, “but most haven’t viewed it that way, so hearing you immediately declare that surprised me.”

Tiiran’s glare became a scowl. “‘Most’ meaning your other lovers.”

“Meaning my past lovers,” Nikoly corrected smoothly.

“You and Orin.” Tiiran nearly hissed to himself. At least the thought of Orin was useful. “Orin told me to take the matter seriously and so I will.” He looked Nikoly right in his beautiful eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you again. It was accidental the first time… well, except for when I called you pup. I intended that to sting because I thought you and Orin had done something.”

Nikoly inclined his head, some of his amusement returning. “You said you’d thought about it.”

“I’m not jealous!” Tiiran was a step away from huffing and puffing like an angry spouse. “I mean, I was , but not as you both keep implying. I was angry then because I wanted his attention as well as yours in a silly way. That’s all!” He didn’t mean his thoughts about Nikoly’s other lovers since those people all clearly belonged in a midden heap. Tiiran quieted. “I was worried that you would look only at him the way you look at me, because Orin is striking and wonderful as I’m not. And I hadn’t really allowed myself to believe that you did—do—look at me differently than you do the others until that moment. But you should look at Orin that way. It makes sense. And you still look at me, so it’s all right.”

Nikoly opened his mouth, then stopped and closed it again. Orin had done that too.

“You’re doubting me.” Tiiran huffed and puffed as he’d expected and only allowed himself a moment of embarrassment over it. “Orin won’t see but you should. I never thought I’d be Orin’s only duckling, but I let myself think stupid things—we don’t need to go into them. But I’d been imagining Orin tupping me, and suddenly it was very easy to imagine Orin tupping you, and I was too surprised by that. I reacted badly.”

“And now he has tupped you,” Nikoly remarked. His smile had gone. Tiiran wasn’t sure when it had disappeared.

“Are you jealous?” Maybe Orin hadn’t been wrong about the burn Nikoly might feel. “About what Orin and I did this morning?”

He got an eye roll. But then Nikoly held himself still. His expression wasn’t angry, and if it was sad, it wasn’t wholly sad. Tiiran finally decided it was sweet and sad together, like when Nikoly had mentioned missing his family and his home.

“No,” Nikoly answered at last. “I worry over my place with you when you speak adoringly of Orin. But then you speaking adoringly of me. And Orin approves of me staying with you. So no, I’m not jealous, and I like to see you happy. But now that I’ve seen you with Orin… I wouldn’t mind seeing more.” Nikoly managed to be delicate and tactful while speaking of fucking. “Or experiencing it, if you ever decide to try having me.”

Envy, Tiiran recognized. That was Nikoly’s expression. Then longing and lust.

Tiiran could imagine putting his cock in Nikoly, much, much easier than he had before, now. But he didn’t think he could ever do it well or as forcefully as Orin, not with all the coaching in the world.

“Do you want to ask me about what Orin and I did?” Tiiran’s voice had gone husky but he ignored it. “Po does. The others usually share some details after trysts they enjoyed.”

Nikoly actually seemed offended. “You and Orin aren’t like the others with their sport.”

It was Tiiran’s turn to glance down. His chest warmed pleasantly. “No,” he agreed. “Neither are we… unless you shared with anyone already? That’s all right if you did,” he lied there, just a little, but Nikoly wasn’t Fial, so it was probably fine.

“Tiiran.” Nikoly gave him a beautiful, if slightly exasperated, smile. “We aren’t like the others either. That has never been what I wanted from you. What I do for my mentor, I would do for you, and more than that, as you know.” He might have added that to cut off Tiiran’s visible displeasure with the idea of Nikoly behaving with a mentor as he did with Tiiran.

“That’s not what mentors are meant to do with those they have power over,” Tiiran said anyway, just to have it said.

Nikoly was a sunbeam. “She doesn’t, and I don’t and wouldn’t anyway. These marks are my choice. I’m not sworn to be of use in bed . That’s a preference. And not with her anyway.”

But he made comments about Tiiran being worthy. Worthy to serve was what that meant.

“But why me for either one?” Tiiran refused to be blinded by that smile, even as it continued to warm him. “Do not say I am fae-touched.”

“Because you’re working hard here and you need help.” Nikoly implied this was obvious. “You care for everyone but not yourself. Everyone here admires you.”

“And fears me?” If the outguards did refer to Tiiran as a terror, they were chicken-hearted niddy-noddies who deserved to sleep in the dirt.

“Admires you,” Nikoly said again, firm. “The founding of the country is linked with this library. You’re keeping the tradition alive, but you’re not bound by it. You’re brave enough to reject what no longer works and make changes to help people. We’re honored to serve you, all of us. And for those who don’t care about grander traditions, to whom the library is mostly about steady, safe work, you are a fair and responsible leader.”

Tiiran raised his head. “I’m not a Master Keeper to lead anyone.”

“You’re mine, which I already told you.” Nikoly was sly and then smug when Tiiran put his hands to his hot face.

“But, Nikoly,” Tiiran had to whisper it, “what if I do something wrong, or having you around makes me believe I really am a full-of-myself Master Keeper?”

“You wouldn’t,” Nikoly answered with confidence. “But if you did, Orin would be there to make you beg. Would you like me to ask him to if I feel you need it? To be honest, I think he would make that decision himself.”

Tiiran dropped his head. That did sound like something Orin would do. All he’d have to do is take away his approval and Tiiran would probably crawl to him to get it back.

Nikoly interrupted Tiiran’s internal wriggling. “Do you want to stay over there, Tiiran, or would you like to sit next to me?” He gave the space next to him a pat.

Tiiran swung a look to the open door to the office, then to the empty spot on the window seat. “There’s not much cushioning there.”

“Cushions can be moved,” said Nikoly, who had brought a cushion in for Tiiran and placed it on the desk chair where he’d wanted Tiiran to sit.

“You serve me here, and you also want to serve me in the manner of one of Orin’s cockwarmers, and yet you move me around as you please,” Tiiran grumbled. “I’m not a cushion.”

“You don’t have to do as I suggest.” Nikoly was innocent and sweet, then anything but. “You want to please me. Tiiran, that’s… if you’re worried about me, you should know how powerful you make me feel.”

“Powerful?” Tiiran echoed in surprise, his voice cracking.

Nikoly tipped his head to the side. “That isn’t how you feel with Orin?”

“Aaah,” Tiiran said. Then added, “Uh,” about as eloquently as an assistant on their first day. He supposed he felt powerful whenever Orin admitted Tiiran had tempted him. But mostly, no, and he didn’t want to. “Orin is the one person I like to be powerless around. No, not powerless but… I don’t have to do anything. I’ve always had to do everything for myself, by myself. Until now. With you and with him, although differently with him.” With Orin, he could be helpless if he wanted to. Tiiran glanced to the open door again before lowering his voice. “Orin asked me about last night and looked me over this morning. For injuries,” he elaborated.

“Only for that and for no other reason?” Nikoly wondered, batting his eyelashes like a flirtatious noble trying to get Mattin to notice him.

Tiiran loudly cleared his throat. “Should I check in with you? For injuries or what-have-you?”

Nikoly exhaled, long and low. His gaze made Tiiran tug at his clothes and clear his throat again .

“What?” Tiiran finally demanded.

“Do you want to check me over?” Nikoly asked, leaning back. “See for yourself?” He shrugged his robe off in one impossibly graceful move. He went for his shirt next, pulling at the laces.

Tiiran was up and out of his chair before Nikoly had reached for the hem to pull his shirt up over his head. He shoved the door closed although he had no key to lock it, then he was headed toward the window seat as though he had no choice in the matter.

“Shameless sunflower,” he murmured, falling to the seat beside Nikoly and then swallowing a small cry as the careless action.

Nikoly had a hint of longing in his smile when Tiiran paused to rub his backside but mostly his expression was softly and deliberately hurt. “Shameless?”

“Lovely,” Tiiran amended himself. “ Lovely sunflower.”

“But you like roses.” Nikoly teased him and Tiiran did not care.

“I can like both.” He studied the glinting silver bars in Nikoly’s nipples and the blue gem nestled into his navel. “Those aren’t what you had in yesterday.”

“You liked them. I wanted to please you.” Nikoly was shameless, no matter how he pouted over it. He ran a hand down his side. “Are you pleased?”

“Fuck you,” Tiiran said breathlessly. “Yes, of course I am. Can I touch them?”

He expected the look, but waited until Nikoly supported it with an alluring, “Please,” to reach out.

Two small, faint bruises were nearly hidden among Nikoly’s ink markings. Looking at them made Tiiran understand Orin. Anyone who saw Nikoly naked would know someone had kissed him. They might even guess that Tiiran had been the one to do so.

He brushed the bruises with palms and fingertips. “Do you have others who share your room with you? Do they know I did this?”

“Do you want them to?” Nikoly returned, head up and eyes closed while Tiiran pressed on his jewelry to feel if it was cold or warm from his skin. “More,” he whispered.

Tiiran obeyed. “If you wish to.” He tried to answer like Nikoly, then shook his head because he was not Nikoly and he did want them to know. “Yes. But do you want to see my bruises? Would that be fair? Are you truly not jealous? Orin is, you know. A little. It’s all right if you are.”

“More,” Nikoly urged again, breath hitching when Tiiran lightly flicked one bar to press him to answer. “Ah.” He grabbed the fabric of Tiiran’s robe over Tiiran’s knee and held it. “ Ah. ” His voice went up when Tiiran did it again, not as lightly. “I bet you’re pretty like that, black and blue from him. I’m not jealous. I’m worried you might prefer him once you’ve grown tired of kissing me or having me. Or that I won’t be enough. You and Orin are clever with books. That’s not my great skill or interest. Please, Tiiran, the other.”

Tiiran looking up and down from Nikoly’s chest to his face, chose to ignore him and rub the same nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Nikoly made incredible sounds for it. Tiiran wasn’t sure he could trust himself to stop.

“And you don’t like nobles,” Nikoly admitted, clinging to Tiiran’s robe. “What if you don’t accept me?”

Tiiran kissed the side of his throat. “You have worries. Orin has worries. I have worries.” It was strangely reassuring. “Do you really want me to move on to your other nipple or should I use my mouth on this one?”

Nikoly’s lips parted. Then his eyes opened, although it took him some time to look at Tiiran. “It’s whatever you want, Tiiran. I will bear it for you unless I truly can’t.”

Tiiran grew hard so fast that his head spun. “Or don’t want to? Would you mind if I ask you to help me pleasure Orin again, or if told you to? Or if I said I don’t possess the skill to take you as you might like and suggested that Orin take you instead of me? I liked having him inside me very much. You likely would too.”

Nikoly’s pupils were wide and endlessly black. He sank his teeth into his bottom lip.

“You find Orin attractive.” Tiiran was panting but doubted Nikoly cared. “Nearly everyone does. It’s all right. I don’t mind that. My real question is, would you want to do more than watching him with me?” He stroked the piercing with just his thumb, back and forth, over and over, and Nikoly’s breathing developed a rasp. “If I wanted you to touch him, or if he helped me learned how to please you with my fingers, say.” Tiiran couldn’t look away from Nikoly’s beautiful, flustered face, or stop toying with his body.

“Yes,” Nikoly admitted, exquisitely strained. “But, Tiiran….” He was beginning to sound like Tiiran.

“You don’t want to risk hurting me.” Tiiran kissed his shoulder because he thought he saw a freckle. Naturally, Nikoly would have gone shirtless in the sun, and probably looked even more beautiful doing it. Perhaps the fae wouldn’t mind if Tiiran took Nikoly to a palace garden and undressed him.

They’d probably like it, the randy rabbits, and want him for their own. Well, they couldn’t have him. Not ever.

Tiiran kissed him on the shoulder again before dropping to feel the silver bar against his tongue.

“Tiir-an.” Nikoly had a harder time bearing gentle attentions than rough ones, Tiiran noted to himself, shivering at Nikoly’s rising whine when Tiiran sucked and used his teeth. “ Tiiran ,” Nikoly tried a second time, and Tiiran belatedly remembered that he had been speaking to Nikoly about something. “You ran away. You avoided me.”

Tiiran eased off. “I’m sorry. I can tell you I won’t do that again, but it might take you some time to believe that. Trust is difficult for some.”

Nikoly angled his head to give Tiiran an incredulous look as if Tiiran had said something ridiculous. But Tiiran returned to using his mouth and Nikoly exhaled slowly before tipping his head back again.

“I want you to be fulfilled,” Tiiran continued to insist. “For now, will it do for you to watch me with Orin, or to help me sometimes? I’ll need help.” He shifted up to kiss around Nikoly’s collarbone, gentle at first, then intent on making another bruise. “And we both know that Orin would have had you already if not for me.”

Nikoly scraped at Tiiran’s knee, desperately seeking a hold.

“Does that idea excite you?” Tiiran lifted his head to watch Nikoly as Nikoly imagined being fucked by Orin, or Tiiran with Orin behind him, or over him. Or Tiiran riding Orin. People did that too, and Tiiran would like to try it. “Wild Lyli,” he added in a mean whisper, then slid his palm over Nikoly’s other nipple. The metal was already warm. Tiiran pinged the bar with his fingernail before peering down at the rigid line inside Nikoly’s pants. The blue gem glinted above that. It must be glass. Even Mattin only wore glass with all his finery.

“Do you ever wear the fine chain sort of jewelry like what other nobles wear?” Tiiran wondered, distracted. “Like what Mattin sometimes puts in his hair? Could you drape that from these so they were connected to each other? You wouldn’t be able to move, but you’d look irresistible. Not that you don’t already do.”

“ Honeybee .” Nikoly squirmed. He controlled it quickly, but he did. He was as bad as Tiiran but he hid it better. How useful to know.

“How do these work?” Tiiran asked next. He flicked each bit of jewelry in turn. “Don’t your clothes brush against them?”

“Yes.” Nikoly wet his lips. “That’s part of why.”

“Oh.” Tiiran stared at him, arrested. “Another challenge? How long you can go without stroking yourself off in a corner? Or for the fun of teasing yourself all day?”

“Tiiran.” It wasn’t a warning and it wasn’t telling Tiiran to stop. And to be honest, if Nikoly was close to finishing, Tiiran didn’t mind.

“Both?” He was never going to stop touching them now, or the rest of Nikoly’s skin, hot under his hands. “And you wore them around me and wanted me, but then went into the capital to find people?”

“You said you weren’t jealous.” Breathless, Nikoly gripped Tiiran but let Tiiran explore him as he pleased. Tiiran gave him another kiss.

“Of you with Orin ,” Tiiran explained for what felt like the dozenth time although then he wasn’t sure he ever had. “ Those people didn’t appreciate you or you’d still be serving them. Do they call you Lyli?”

“Tiiran. Tiiran, no.” Nikoly’s eyes were shut, the sunlight behind him hiding not a single thing from Tiiran’s ravenous gaze. “Lyli to you .”

“Even though I’m scary?” Tiiran pressed down hard over Nikoly’s trapped cock. Nikoly gave a start but didn’t push up as Tiiran would have done.

“I like scary,” Nikoly confessed, turning his head to look at Tiiran again with pleasure all over his face. “You worry over using Orin, most worthy. Orin . I’m safe with you even when you’re jealous.”

“I’m not…” Tiiran withdrew his hand, leaving Nikoly to groan. “You flirt on purpose.”

“To help you.” Nikoly scooted closer and curved in to hide his face against the side of Tiiran’s head. “And to prod you into showing what you feel for me. Forgive me.”

“Scheming.” Orin had been right about that. Direct words would have made more sense, but Tiiran probably wouldn’t have believed them. “I’m sorry I made you wait,” he admitted finally. “Look at me.”

Nikoly straightened.

“Nikoly of the Astvan,” Tiiran began, only to stop when Nikoly didn’t quite hide a flinch. He started over. “Lyli.” It was soft on his tongue, like the lovely before him trying to sit up straight and still though Tiiran had left him aroused and wanting. “Lyli when we are alone?” Tiiran made it a question but got no answer, just a hungry, expectant stare. Nikoly was waiting. He was patient—he wanted to be patient.

“My Lyli,” Tiiran tried next, pleased when Nikoly’s breathing picked up, “if you choose to be so friendly with other library visitors, even to help me, know there will be consequences.”

Nikoly liked that. He licked his lips. “Yes, Tiiran.”

Tiiran wanted to kiss him, but decided to try some patience too. He should practice because Nikoly wanted to be challenged and do well, so Tiiran should do the same.

“I’ll have to learn how to give you pleasure so I can learn how to delay it,” he observed out loud, and turned to kiss Nikoly’s mouth, slow and gentle since that seemed to undo him the most. “Once I learn, I will test you as you like, but you will be safe. As protected as this library. Will that do?”

“Honeybee,” Nikoly returned, impossibly soft. He had a tone that meant please too.

Tiiran cupped the side of his face, enjoying one more moment of Nikoly’s dazed stare before nudging the tip of his nose against Nikoly’s to make him smile. Then he kissed him again.