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“You look good like this,” Raider said, painfully aware that he wasn’t the only who thought so.
Seth frowned. Then, as Malik called Seth’s name, he turned. After casting a vaguely critical look at Raider, Seth followed Malik into the shifting, sensual crowd.
CHAPTER 32
WHEN SETH OPENED the latticed door onto the shared balcony and found Raider there gazing out over moonlit Aqarat, his skittering heart settled. Thank the gods.
Raider had escaped the dining hall long before Seth had been able to, and he’d spent an hour tormented by the thought that he might return to their rooms and find Raider gone. Raider had been off at dinner. He’d been off all fucking day.
Barefooted, wearing only the sarong he’d worn at dinner, Raider was leaning down, his elbows on the balcony’s stone railing. Moonlight painted his back.
When he glanced over his shoulder at Seth, the moonlight caught his cheekbone and the line of his jaw. Gods, he looked good clean shaven. His face was so exotic, so masculine, so fucking beautiful. Seth loved seeing every inch of it.
He loved that strong back too, and he couldn’t help that seeing Raider bent like that, wearing only that loose sarong, made an image flash through his mind: his hands whipping that fabric away, baring the muscled perfection of Raider’s ass. His hands parting those round globes to take possession of that tight rim, to plunder it.
But first.
“What’s your goddamn problem?” Seth demanded.
Raider looked away from him, gazing out across the moonlit rooftops again. “I already told you. It’s not safe here.”
That wasn’t at all what Seth meant or wanted to talk about, but he couldn’t stop himself from responding to it. “We haven’t been safe since we left Shalaa. Why the hell is this so different?”
Raider yanked upright and wheeled to face Seth. Well, at least that got his goddamn attention.
“Are you really that fucking naïve?”
“Do you want to explain what you mean, or do you just want to be an asshole?”
“I’m the asshole? You hired me to keep you safe, but you make it so goddamn difficult because you don’t fucking listen to me. You should have consulted me before dragging us both here.”
“There wasn’t time.”
“You make time. You make it work. You tell that prick that we have some business to take care of, that we’ll come to the palace later, then we sort some shit out before diving head first into the snake pit.”
“There was plenty of time to sort shit out, and you kept cutting me off.” That wasn’t entirely fair, but Seth felt like he’d tried more than Raider had.
Raider’s right eye flashed gold. “That’s not what I’m talking about!”
As Raider came stalking his way, Seth braced for a different kind of conflict, a physical one, but Raider stormed straight past him into Seth’s room, snapping, “Get in here!”
Seth remained stubbornly in place. “Why?”
“Because it’s too easy for someone to listen to us out there.”
Seth closed his eyes and took a calming breath. (He took a breath anyway. It wasn’t exactly calming.) Then he followed Raider into the dark room.
Seth didn’t like arguing without being able to see Raider’s face, so he switched on an arcane lamp on the bedside table.
When the lamp’s glass globe bloomed with cool light, it revealed Raider standing with his arms crossed furiously and his eyes trained on Seth like weapons. At the sight, heat spilled into Seth’s groin, thickening his cock. Why the hell did that turn him on so much?
“What I’m talking about,” Raider snarled in a low voice, “is you not having any fucking clue about this place. Did you notice the assortment of dancers? Did you notice their decorative chains? The prince is a collector of unusual and beautiful things, Seth. And you, with your fair coloring and green eyes, not to mention your body? You are an unusual and beautiful thing. That arcanist? He belongs to Rahim. All that flirtation is him testing you for the prince’s bed, for their bed. You surely see that!”
Part of Seth warmed at the compliment buried in all that criticism, but he couldn’t let it distract him. “Give me some goddamn credit. Of course the prince is a fucking collector. They all are, every rich man, everywhere. This area is no different from anywhere else. I am always navigating exactly this kind of thing. What Rahim wants is not me but whatever arcane oddity he thinks I can add to his collection.”
“Malik has been flirting with you outrageously! You can’t possibly be that oblivious—”
Seth gaped at Raider. “Are you jealous?”
