Ksar looked over his shoulder. “It’s not that simple. I already told you that.”
“It’s been ten days,” Seyn said, gripping his shoulder harder. “You’ve had more than enough time to find a solution.”
Ksar said nothing.
“You know what?” Seyn said softly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you don’t want me to be free of you.”
Ksar gave a sharp laugh. The couples around them turned and stared at them, not even pretending anymore that they weren’t gawking. “Yes, that must be it,” Ksar said dryly. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s not that ridiculous,” Seyn said, his voice becoming honey sweet. Smiling, he met Ksar’s eyes. “I have ample evidence that you want me.”
Ksar struggled to keep his face expressionless. He didn’t appreciate being reminded of his lapse of self-control. “On a very superficial level. No more than I would want any passably good-looking man.”
“Passably good-looking?” Seyn glared at him, rage coming off him in searing waves. “I felt how much you enjoyed yourself when I…” He flushed, glancing around, and whispered into Ksar’s ear, “You loved making me suck your cock. You loved sticking your cock in me. You can’t deny it.”
Ksar licked his dry lips. “I’m not a slave to my baser instincts,” he said, even as his hand on Seyn’s lower back tugged him closer. “I assure you I don’t allow them to control me.”
Warm breath tickling the shell of Ksar’s ear, Seyn said in a low voice, “Are you saying that if I offer to suck your cock right now, you’ll say no?”
The cock in question twitched, and Ksar felt a twinge of disgust with himself. He wasn’t a slave of his body. He would be damned if he let his cock—and Seyn—manipulate his actions. Seyn didn’t want him. Seyn wasn’t physically capable of wanting. All he wanted was to manipulate him to achieve his goals.
Rationally, Ksar could almost admire Seyn’s shrewdness. The irrational part of him wanted to wring Seyn’s pretty neck for daring to play him.
“No,” he said coolly, looking Seyn in the eye. “But I won’t say no if Prince Aedan makes the same offer. Or Lord Zayne. Or your precious Ambassador Denev. I’m not particularly picky about where I put my cock. Even you will do.”
A look of pure hatred flashed across Seyn’s face. “Heavens, I hate you so much.”
Ksar bowed to him mockingly and strode away as the last notes of sanguinn sounded in the ballroom.
He refused to be bothered by Seyn’s words. Seyn’s hurt pride was of no consequence to him. It was nothing the brat didn’t deserve for attempting to lead him by his cock. That should teach Seyn that trying to manipulate him was an exercise in futility.
Ksar ignored the small voice at the back of his mind that said,
But why won’t you let him go?
Chapter 7
Seyn’s hands were shaking as he moved down the dark corridor. Part of him wanted to turn back and leave before he was caught. If he got caught in the Second Royal Palace so late in the night, his reputation—what was left of it, anyway—would be absolutely destroyed.
He didn’t turn back. Every time he was tempted to, all he had to think about were Ksar’s sneered, mocking words that anyone, even Seyn, would do. No, he wasn’t turning back. He would show Ksar. He would prove to him that Seyn wasn’t just anyone. He would make Ksar beg. Beg and crawl. And then he would laugh and reject him.
The mere thought of it—of Ksar being reduced to a pathetic, obsessed thing, crawling and begging for crumbs of his attention—was so sweet that Seyn couldn’t stop himself from smiling.
It was worth the risk to his reputation. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d broken into the palace or anything. He’d merely stayed after visiting Harry, stayed long past visiting hours, hiding in one of the hundreds of uninhabited rooms. Not that he’d been hiding, per se; he just wanted to avoid the society members and politicians visiting the Queen or the Lord Chancellor. The last thing he needed was for people to notice that he’d been hanging around the Second Royal House at night. After the dance yesterday, he and Ksar had been the focus of enough gossip and talk without adding to it.
And if the room he’d stayed in happened to be one of the few rooms not monitored by the palace AI, Seyn could always claim obliviousness. Harry was the only person who knew better—it had been Harry who had told him years ago all the secrets of the palace—but after their return from Earth, Harry wasn’t exactly in a talkative mood and he wasn’t likely to tell anyone the truth. Harry had been very distant and withdrawn, actually, but Seyn figured it was normal, given the circumstances, and he respected Harry’s wishes to be left alone for the time being.