Chapter 84: Unfair Advantage

Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Unfair Advantage

Dax laughed outright.

Sebastian returned his attention to his phone before Nero could accuse him of conspiring with the king again, opening the game he had abandoned nearly half an hour earlier and pretending that the arrangement of tiny kingdoms on the screen required significantly more concentration than the actual crown prince sitting across the room.

It did not.

He moved one unit toward a neighboring territory, collected a ridiculous amount of virtual grain, and listened while Idris began explaining the Rohan delegation’s revised agenda.

Nero objected to three points before Idris reached the second page.

Not because he was impatient.

Because he had already read the preliminary memorandum the night before and remembered it.

Sebastian glanced over the top of his phone.

Nero had turned slightly in his chair, one elbow resting against the walnut desk while he reviewed the schedule on the largest tablet. The open collar of his black shirt exposed the pale line of his throat and the beginning of his collarbones, while the sleeves had been folded to his forearms sometime during the morning, revealing lean muscle that shifted whenever he reached for another document.

Sebastian looked back at his game.

He accidentally sent his army into a lake.

Wonderful.

"Rohan wants agricultural concessions tied to the southern transport agreement," Idris said.

"They can request them separately."

"They believe combining the negotiations gives them stronger leverage."

"It gives them more opportunities to lose both."

Sebastian’s thumb stopped above the screen.

There was something profoundly irritating about competence when attached to someone already unfairly attractive.

Nero had always been intelligent.

Everyone knew that.

Being an enigma did not automatically make someone clever, regardless of the mythology people liked attaching to rare secondary genders, and Nero had never relied on whatever natural advantages his mind provided. He studied constantly, remembered almost everything worth remembering, asked questions when he lacked information, and altered his opinions when better evidence appeared.

Sebastian had noticed that years ago.

He had simply tried very hard not to appreciate it.

Nero was not brilliant because he happened to understand complex things quickly; he was brilliant because he had spent his entire life training himself to become more difficult to surprise.

That distinction was becoming increasingly attractive.

Sebastian frowned at his phone.

His little kingdom was apparently starving.

Appropriate.

Across the room, Nero continued discussing transportation tariffs, switching without effort from trade projections to military logistics when Dax raised a concern about the eastern supply corridor.

Sebastian listened despite himself.

He knew enough about the subject to recognize when someone was merely repeating prepared conclusions.

Nero was not.

He challenged one figure, asked Idris to open a previous quarter’s report, then compared the projected freight capacity against troop movement requirements during emergency mobilization without once consulting his own notes.

Sebastian stared at him.

Nero looked up.

Their eyes met.

Sebastian immediately lowered his gaze to his phone.

"You’re staring."

"I’m playing a game."

"You were playing a game."

"I still am."

Nero’s voice acquired a faint smile.

"Your soldiers have been standing in the same lake for several minutes."

Sebastian looked down.

They had.

"Strategic positioning."

Dax made a noise suspiciously similar to a laugh.

Nero returned to the report.

Sebastian rescued the soldiers and decided the entire situation was becoming offensive.

It was not as though Nero’s appearance helped.

At seven feet five, very little could make the man physically inconspicuous, but Nero had never built himself like the enormous alphas who considered visible mass a requirement of masculinity. He trained enough to maintain strength, speed, and the absurd endurance demanded by his schedule, but his frame remained long and controlled rather than excessively broad.

Christopher’s influence was obvious in that.

Sebastian had seen enough photographs of a younger Dax to know what Nero might have looked like if he had inherited more of his father’s heavier bone structure.

Probably a mountain.

A beautiful, terrifying mountain with white hair.

Instead, Nero had inherited something between his parents: Dax’s height and presence stretched over the finer architecture of Christopher’s face and frame, producing a body that made tailored clothing look unnecessarily indecent.

The black shirt was particularly offensive.

Sebastian watched the fabric pull slightly across Nero’s shoulders when he reached for another tablet.

His phone vibrated.

He looked down.

His kingdom had been invaded.

Sebastian sighed.

"You’re distracting me."

Nero glanced toward him.

"I’m sitting six meters away."

"Exactly."

Idris lifted his eyes from his tablet.

Dax became very interested in something outside his screen.

Nero leaned back.

"How am I distracting you, sweetheart?"

Sebastian immediately regretted speaking.

"By talking."

"I have been informed talking is generally required during meetings."

"Not this much."

"I’m working."

"Yes, I noticed."

Nero’s eyebrows lifted slightly.

Sebastian looked back at his phone.

There was absolutely no reason for warmth to gather along the back of his neck.

None.

The silence from the desk lasted long enough to become suspicious.

Sebastian finally looked up again.

Nero was watching him. Not with the worried scrutiny that had become common since the episode. Something much more familiar had returned to his expression.

Interest.

Amusement.

Predatory curiosity.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes.

"Work."

Nero smiled and returned to the documents.

Sebastian exhaled quietly.

That smile was also a problem.

Perhaps the entire man was the problem.

He had spent years telling himself that Nero’s obsession was precisely why he needed distance, carefully categorizing every attractive quality as irrelevant because acknowledging any of them would make refusing him more complicated.

That system had worked reasonably well when Sebastian was committed to refusal.

Now he had chosen Nero.

Apparently his brain had interpreted that decision as permission to begin cataloguing everything he had previously ignored.

The result was becoming inconvenient.

Nero was beautiful.

That had never been debatable.

Sebastian had eyes.

But physical attraction was simple.

He had experienced it before.

This was not.

He liked listening to Nero think.

Liked the way he adjusted instead of digging into an argument merely because the original idea had been his. Liked how quickly he separated useful criticism from pointless resistance, and how little ego he attached to changing course when someone else was correct.

Even the arrogance was earned often enough to become irritatingly attractive.

Sebastian rested his head against the couch and watched him openly this time.

Nero was discussing a parliamentary proposal with Dax now, one hand moving as he spoke, long fingers tracing an absent line over the edge of the tablet.

He looked elegant.

Dangerous.

Completely at ease inside responsibilities that would exhaust most people before lunch.

And somehow, that was what affected Sebastian most.

Sebastian’s mouth curved.

This was unfortunate.

Nero stopped mid-sentence.

His eyes shifted toward the couch.

"What?"

Sebastian looked down at his phone.

"Nothing."

"You’re smiling at me."

"I’m smiling at my game."

"Your capital is on fire."

Sebastian looked at the screen.

It was.

He locked the phone. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"I hate this game."

Nero’s smile widened.

Sebastian settled deeper into the couch and reached for his coffee.

He was not going to explain.

Especially not while Dax and Idris were listening.

Unfortunately, Nero had already realized something was entertaining him.

That meant Sebastian had perhaps fifteen minutes before the interrogation began.

He took another sip of coffee and looked toward the rain.

Still worth it.