Chapter 65: Timeline

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Timeline

"Obviously."

Nero stared at him for several seconds, and Sebastian could practically see restraint reassembling itself piece by piece behind those violet eyes.

Which was fascinating.

Nero could threaten governments without raising his voice, manipulate entire diplomatic rooms while smiling, and walk through danger with the confidence of someone convinced probability simply did not apply to him.

Sebastian put one knee in the wrong place, and apparently civilization became fragile.

"You have become significantly more dangerous while I was asleep," Nero murmured.

"I was bored."

"So you decided to torment me."

"I needed entertainment."

Nero’s hand tightened slightly against the mattress beside Sebastian’s head.

Sebastian noticed and, naturally, his smile widened.

"You’re doing it again."

"What?"

"Trying very hard to behave."

"I am always well-behaved."

Sebastian laughed directly in his face.

Nero’s expression flattened.

"That was unnecessarily rude."

Sebastian’s grin only widened, because somewhere between watching Nero attempt to preserve dignity while hovering above him and realizing that he genuinely felt better than he had in months, he was beginning to question the wisdom of spending seven years avoiding this.

Perhaps he should have ignored the visions earlier.

Perhaps he should have ignored everything and enjoyed irritating Nero instead of enduring years of distance, pain, and increasingly elaborate attempts to convince himself that wanting the man would eventually stop if he refused to acknowledge it.

Fuck those lives.

If this one ended badly too, Sebastian was at least beginning to think he deserved to enjoy it first.

"Well," he said, shifting just enough beneath Nero to make the enigma’s eyes narrow, "you can make me stop."

Nero’s gaze sharpened.

Sebastian let the pause linger deliberately before adding, with the kind of pleasant smile that had gotten him forgiven for considerably worse things throughout his life, "But, just for fun, sex is after marriage."

Nero went completely still.

Then his eyes narrowed. Not frustrated. Offended.

Sebastian recognized the distinction immediately.

"Oh, don’t look at me like that."

Nero slowly lifted his head.

"You cannot possibly be serious."

"I am."

"You?"

"Yes."

"Are imposing premarital chastity?"

Sebastian bit the inside of his cheek.

Nero’s expression became increasingly insulted.

"This is not judgment," he said, apparently deciding clarification was necessary before Sebastian could accuse him of hypocrisy. "I do not care how much sex you had before me, with whom, or how frequently, provided none of them unexpectedly appears at our wedding."

"Our wedding?"

"That is not the relevant part."

"It sounded fairly relevant."

Nero ignored him.

"What I object to is the spectacular injustice of you having lived exactly as you pleased for years and then reaching me and suddenly discovering traditional values."

Sebastian laughed.

Nero looked genuinely wounded.

"That is offensive."

"You’re making it sound as though I have personally persecuted you."

"You are currently doing something remarkably close to it."

Sebastian glanced meaningfully between them.

Nero followed his gaze, realized exactly what position they were still in, and looked back at him with an expression promising that Sebastian’s amusement was being carefully recorded for future retaliation.

That should probably have encouraged caution.

Instead, Sebastian smiled.

"You’ll survive."

"I have survived seven years already."

"Then you have experience."

Nero stared at him.

The offense remained for another second.

Then something changed.

His eyes lost that wounded edge, the corner of his mouth lifted, and Sebastian immediately felt the first cold thread of apprehension slide down his spine.

Nero grinned.

Not the warm smile Sebastian had wanted so badly.

Not even the smug expression that accompanied a successful argument.

This was the smile of a man who had just discovered that what sounded like deprivation was actually information.

Sebastian’s own smile disappeared.

"What?"

Nero said nothing.

That was worse.

His gaze traveled over Sebastian’s face with slowly increasing satisfaction, while the hand beside Sebastian’s head relaxed against the mattress and his entire posture shifted from frustrated to almost offensively pleased.

Sebastian knew that look.

He had seen ministers realize too late that they had accidentally supplied Nero with exactly the detail he needed to dismantle their position.

A bad feeling settled in his stomach.

"Nero."

"After marriage."

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.

"Yes."

Nero’s grin widened.

Oh, hell.

Sebastian had given him a timeline.

He had attached the restriction to a legal event that Nero could plan, arrange... and accelerate.

Possibly organize before lunch if someone gave him enough administrative staff.

Sebastian stared up at him.

"You wouldn’t."

Nero’s pale eyebrows lifted with almost angelic innocence.

Sebastian knew better than to trust an expression Christopher’s son could produce that perfectly.

"You just told me exactly how to solve the problem."

"That was not permission to move the wedding."

"I did not say I would."

"You’re thinking about it."

"I think about many things."

"Nero."

The grin remained.

Sebastian planted a palm against Nero’s chest and pushed just enough to make his point, though moving a giant enigma who had no intention of going anywhere remained mostly symbolic.

"We have not even agreed on a wedding date."

"Correct."

"You are not calling anyone."

"I am currently in bed."

"You have a phone."

"I have several."

"That was not reassuring."

Nero finally laughed, low and delighted, before dipping his head until his forehead rested lightly against Sebastian’s.

"You should know better than to give me achievable conditions."

Sebastian stared at him from inches away.

"That sounds like a threat."

"It is motivation."

"It was supposed to make you suffer."

"Then you made a strategic error."

Nero’s hand moved from the mattress to Sebastian’s waist, holding him securely without pressing down, while his expression softened just enough to make the triumph more irritating.

"You gave me an endpoint."

Sebastian closed his eyes.

There it was.

The problem with loving someone who treated every obstacle like a logistical exercise.

"When exactly did I lose control of this conversation?"

"The moment you said after marriage."

Sebastian opened his eyes again.

Nero looked unbearably pleased with himself.

He sighed.

"I already regret waking you."

"No, you don’t."

Unfortunately, Sebastian did not.

That was becoming the problem.