Page 136 of Xerxes Ascendant
CHAPTER 44
Kyle
“Stay,” Kyle murmured in Akira’s ear when the meeting was called to an end. The other Masters filed out of the room, heading back to their Houses for the night – with Omicron catching one of the newly refurbished shuttles back to Xerxes for his. Rho smirked and pointedly left the door open behind her, but Kyle just offered a polite smile and closed it.
He indeed wanted privacy for what was about to happen, but it wasn’t anything like she was imagining.
Did Kyle want to bend his man over the Coterie’s fancy table and fuck his brains out? Absolutely. But there was something more important required of him.
Because his kitten needed comforting.
And sure enough, as soon as they were alone, the panic crested. Kyle had begun to sense it rising in Akira over the last half hour despite the carefully contained, almost bored expression he’d been giving the others, and now it all spilled free.
Akira dropped his face into his hands and let out a choked, stricken gasp. “Fuck! What just happened?”
“Master,” Kyle said. He turned Akira’s chair away from the table to face him. “You’ve got this.”
“No, I can’t...I can’t be mayor.”
“Why not?”
“Kyle, I’m too much like Benedict Mackenroth. The need to control, the instinctive manipulation, the-”
Kyle kissed him everywhere he could reach. “Shush,” he soothed, prying Akira’s fingers away from his face and stroking his hair. “You’ll be excellent.”
“You can’t know that. If the power goes to my head like it did his, what then?”
“You alreadyhavepower,” Kyle pointed out. “You’re Coterie. And look what you’ve done with it! You’vehelpedpeople, Akira, not just House Epsilon’s staff but people all across the city.” He dropped to his knees on the carpet in front of the chair and hauled Akira close by hugging his suit-clad legs. “Consider all the work you did on restoring Xerxes after the Fall. You’ve given people credits. Jobs. Hope. Remember the family you saved from that pair of Carrions looking to extort them, for absolutely no benefit to you in turn?”
Akira swallowed and then scowled, evidently still unconvinced.
“Sweetheart,” Kyle murmured then. “You’re more than you give yourself credit for. This city needs someone to look after it and I can’t imagine anyone better for the job. Who else will have five contingencies in place for every microscopic scenario, will protect Nitobe’s finances and resources with an iron grip, and not let anyone get away with bullshit?Epsilon, that’s who. Let the city learn how much your staff have had to put up with all these years: it’s Nitobe’s turn to have a devastatingly hot, competent boss.”
That same boss shook his head. “I’ll go too far. I can’t be trusted.”
“Then how about this?” Kyle tugged Akira down off the chair and into his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around him so heknew he was safe and loved. “If I think you’re getting too big for those posh shiny shoes of yours, I’ll flog you so hard you’ll be seeing stars. Deal?”
Akira melted into him, relief flooding through his expression as he gazed adoringly up at him. Everything they’d gone through together, enduredandsurvivedtogether, was written in his eyes. “Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
Kyle highly doubted it would come to that. Akira wielded power like he did a whip: with finesse and carefully controlled precision, and Kyle expected he’d have more difficulty convincing his boyfriend that he was right for the job than that he was abusing it. But if it gave Akira comfort that his Sir would be there to keep him in line while he kept therestof them in line in turn? Kyle would happily take on such a delightful responsibility.
There was a lot that would be expected of Akira as mayor. Nitobe was a brand-new life form, ready to discover and embrace life in the skies of Earth. Its leader would need to hold firm against Miles Mackenroth’s proven ruthlessness, make hard decisions for long-term benefit, and balance the needs of hundreds of thousands of people.
But one thing Akira would never be expected to do, was do it alone. Kyle would be at his side every step of the way.
No matter what.
He brushed his thumb across the volar aspect of Akira’s right wrist, slipping beneath his sleeve to where he knew the tattoo was permanently etched into his skin.
“Remember,” Akira murmured, almost absently, and then exhaled a long, quiet breath. “Wewillremember, Kyle. We’ll remember all the bad things that happened to us as children: the poverty, the abuse, the exploitation…and we will do our fucking best to ensure it doesn’t happen to any other child.” His voice trembled; not with weakness but with a ferocity that burned withthe same level of single-minded determination that Akira gave everything, including his daughter and the sacrifices he’d made to ensure Robby lived a better life than his own. “It is our duty to guide Nitobe’s future with the weight of Xerxes’ past.”
Kyle mentally added that line to the speech he was preparing for Akira’s inauguration. An event his pet would detest, he was sure, but a toy or two hidden beneath his clothes would keep him suitably focused. Kyle would take care of Akira, and Akira would take care of everyone else.
Like they always had.
Like they always would.
“We can build this dream together,” Kyle murmured against his mouth. “Standing strong forever.”
