Page 13 of Xerxes Ascendant
“You need space,” Akira said hollowly to Kyle, backing up into the doorway. His expression was one of utter misery. “Of course you do. I’ll...go.”
“No one’s been stopping you.” His cousin made a shooing motion.
Akira hesitated. “Please tell me you’re coming back to work, Kyle. When you’ve recovered, I mean. You don’t…”
Kyle couldn’t afford to lose his job. As much as he would have preferred to never see Master Epsilon again –liar,a voice whispered in his head – he simply didn’t have the credits to put principle ahead of practicality.
“I’ll be there. I’m sure we can keep it professional,” he said stiffly.
Akira winced and then dipped his head in concession. Dressed in a fine suit but looking entirely wretched, he gave a final, longing glance at Kyle before dragging himself away.
“By the stars.” Indira flopped onto the bed, draping herself dramatically over Kyle’s ankles. “What the fuck happened between you two? It used to be that you couldn’t keep your hands off each other.”
Kyle shrugged but she just watched him intently, staying quiet and still until he gave in. His cousin could be very persistent, and if he tried to fob her off now, he knew from experience the questioning would only return with a vengeance later.
“He’s married, Indy. Epsilon has a wife.”
The words hurt to evensay.
She flinched, blinked, and then immediately curled herself around his sheet-wrapped form. Strong fingers patted vaguely at where she assumed his knee to be.
“He’s a fucking cheater? Oh, Kyle. I’m so, so sorry. Damn. Want me to punish him for you?”
Kyle hiccoughed a laugh. “What?”
“Slicing off his dick seems fitting for a bastard who can’t keep it in his pants. Beyond, you know, House work.” She brightened. “I could make him eat it too, if you wanted?”
He paled and subtly drew his hands together to protect his groin. “Does your husband know you’re a fully-fledged psychopath who feeds people their own cocks?”
Indira grinned, flashing white teeth. “Bensen would never be foolish enough to cheat on me.”
Of that, Kyle had no doubt. The man was devoted to her, and she, him.
“No,” he said firmly. “No dick slicing. Besides, he said...he said it wasn’t as simple as Theta had made it out to be.”
“What’s Master Theta got to do with anything?”
Then Indira deflated and waved a limp hand. “I mean, I know what happened to you that night. Epsilon told me about the men who attacked you both, and Theta going full villain mode in trying to sell you off to the Mackenroth brothers. But he didn’t say anything about...”
“About how he’s been lying to me for the past five years?”
Coward. Of course Akira had conveniently omitted that from his retelling of the night’s events, because the man was a manipulator at heart. He’d wormed his way into Kyle’s affections and his bed, never once mentioning the tiny, miniscule fact that he wasalready married.
How long had he been planning on hiding that from him? Forever?
Akira Miyasaki wasn’t the first married man Kyle had fucked. Many who sought his services at House Epsilon were similarly hitched, with boredom or curiosity or a thousand other reasons directing them his way. But as he’d yelled at Akira that night, what they’d had together was supposed to be incomparable to the hundreds of appointments and hookups they’d both facilitated in their jobs as whores.
They’d had arelationship. Something built on trust, and transparency.
At least, Kyle had thought they had.
Akira had apparently thought otherwise.
“He has a daughter, too,” Kyle said softly to the unfamiliar hospital room. His cousin listened quietly, patting his hand. “He kept it all from me, pretending I actually mattered to him, and I just...”
He took a long, deep breath, doing his best to expel the ugly, twisting thing that had taken root in his heart and lungs. “Enough about that prick. How are Chaos and the others?”
“Your little gremlins are fine,” Indira assured, easing his worry. When his cats had fled after being shot at, he’d fearedthe worst. “They’re enjoying being House Epsilon royalty, and I swear Havoc has doubled in size.”
