Page 81 of Sinner
He’d skipped the floor Yejun’s studio was on entirely, knowing that was the first place Lake and June would go. Westwas positive Nix had brought it up to lead them astray. He’d felt so clever, thinking he understood Nix’s mind best.
Not so much now.
“Shit.” He cursed as another flower sprayed him with sugar water and almost kicked the damn thing. Ruining someone else’s work and destroying the place wouldn’t get him anywhere, though, and if Nix saw, he’d get an earful, so he controlled himself. Barely.
Just as he was about to give up and turn around, he caught sight of a flash of red and gold darting out from behind a large fake oak.
West took off after Nix, a rush of adrenaline spurring him on. He caught sight of him again at the end of the next hallway, but just as he was about to reach the turn, an arm shot out of an open doorway and caught him off guard.
He was spun on his heels, momentarily losing balance, and before his mind could process what was happening and he could even think to fight back, a foul-smelling cloth was pressed over his mouth and nose.
West slammed his elbow backward, connecting with his attacker's ribs, but it was too late.
As soon as the person holding him let go, he dropped to his knees.
The world swam and then went completely dark.
Chapter 26:
“Think West has found him by now?” Yejun asked between harried inhales. He was spread out on the square dais in the center of his studio, the future emperor between his spread thighs.
His pants and boxers had been discarded earlier, once they’d gotten tired of waiting for Nix to appear. Technically, the point of the Haunt was to actually give chase, but Yejun understood what Lake was doing.
The guy would never admit it, but he had his own twisted sense of romance. Letting West and June have Nix first tonight? That was no doubt his angle.
“Trying to mirror our humble beginning with the Firebird?” he teased, and Lake finally pulled his head away from where he’d been sucking on Yejun’s right nipple to give him a stern look.
“Trying to make it better.” Lake’s mask rested on one of the stools nearby, but Yejun had kept his on. He flicked the forehead of the plaster now, snorting when Yejun made a sound of protest. “Relax. It’s not going to break that easily.”
“Yours won’t, I made it out of metal. But mine?”
“No wonder it’s so heavy and stifling.”
“You’ve got to learn to suffer for art.”
“I’m an Imperial,” he corrected. “I don’t have to suffer for anything.”
Yejun fell back when he punctuated his words with a pump of his fingers. There were currently two buried in his hole, and he moaned when a third was shoved in to join them. “What if Nix sees?”
Lake grunted. “You want him to see.”
He really did. June had picked up on the fact that Nix enjoyed watching them together. Enjoyed seeing him submit to West and Lake. Maybe it was out of a sense of revenge—there was always the chance Nix liked it only because it made him feel better about what happened to him. Made him feel like he was forcing Yejun to experience the same things he’d undergone.
Or maybe Nix liked the idea of getting to pass sex off to one of them when he wasn’t in the mood. Who knew. It was far too complex a situation for Yejun to work out right away, and the right time to bring it up hadn’t appeared yet.
Little by little, day by day, he was proving to Nix that he’d never hurt him again.
If that meant taking his best friend's fingers or cock up the ass occasionally? So what? It wasn’t like he didn’t also enjoy it.
“Think he’ll ever fully forgive me?” June asked, hating that he was having a moment of vulnerability. Having sex with Lake was one thing, moping in front of him was another.
“Think he’ll ever forgiveus?” Lake didn’t seem to have that same problem, easily expressing himself without hesitation. “We have a long way to go. But at least he’s acting normal again.”
That was true. It’d been at least a week since he’d flinched in Yejun’s presence. For a while, he’d been hyper aware of even raising his voice too high in front of Nix, for fear of triggering him. It was sad to say, but Juri’s death seemed to have forced Nix to “get over” some things faster than he would have typically.
It was selfish, but June liked that he’d needed to lean on him badly enough to forgive him.
Which probably meant he still wasn’t a great person. But the goal was never to become a good guy. It was to become a good guyforNix.
