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“Such unexpected depths!” Tadek said admiringly. “One day he’s a walking stone wall, and the next we find out he had sex in a broom closet with Nihani Baltakan of all people.”
“I never—” Evemer began, aghast, and snapped his mouth shut with a furious blush.
Tadek and Melek studied him in curious silence. Kadou wondered, again, if this was a good time to leave the room. The conversation kept moving too quickly for him to get traction on it, and he had to fight against his own interest—kahyalar wereawfulgossips. “Never had sex in the broom closet or never had sex with her?” Tadek asked at last, and then turned to Melek. “Should we have made a drinking game out of this?”
“Oh, probably.”
“Don’t tease him,” Kadou said quietly, seizing the first moment he could. “He won’t tease you back, so it’s not fair.”
“You don’t have to defend me,” Evemer mumbled, but Kadou couldn’t have imagined the way Evemer relaxed incrementally and angled himself closer.
“True, he’s very capable of defending himself,” Tadek said. “He’s welcome to retaliate however he likes, and if that means dragging me out into the garden to demand a duel of honor, I’ll take those consequences.” Tadek refilled his cup one more time. “Now. Evemer, darling, honeybee, new best friend. I want you to look straight into my eyes when I say this next thing. No need to reply, got it? Good. Here we go: You blush like a virgin.” Evemer did not reply. He stared stonily into Tadek’s face and let himself be scrutinized until Tadek sat back, drank the rest of his ale, and set his cup aside. “Ah, poor pet. That explains why you haven’t brought anyone home.”
“No, wait, this is great!” Melek said. “Me too! I’ve never even wanted to! I thought I was the only one, because everybody else seems so obsessed with sex all the time, and I really don’t see the appeal—you really haven’t?”
“Technically,” Evemer growled.
“Technically,” Tadek said, suddenly rapt again. “Technically! What doestechnicallymean? I mean, I suppose you could say it doesn’t count if you’re sixteen and shoving your hands down someone’s pants in a broom closet.”
Evemer muttered something.
“Say again?” Tadek said, leaning forward.
“We didn’t get that far,” Evemer repeated, crisply.
“You didn’t get as far ashandjobs?”
“I mean, why would you?” Melek murmured sagely. “You don’t know where that’s been.”
Evemer huffed. “I was busy. Classes, training. And . . . people kept walking in on us,” he added in a mumble.
“Genuinely shocked that I don’t remember this bit,” Tadek said, and shook his head. “No matter. Who else?”
“None of your business.”
“Fine, fine. But for my own peace of mind—there’s been more than just Nihani, hasn’t there? Tell me that much at least.”
Evemer hesitated.
“Oh, hell,” Tadek said. “He has tothinkto remember whether he’s kissed anyone else.”
“I know Ihave,” Evemer said irritably. “I’m only trying to decide whether the other one counts.”
Kadou’s heart skipped a beat. That explained why Evemer had been so clumsy about that pretend kiss in the alley—or real kiss. It was a real kiss, wasn’t it? They’d gotten the whole lecture from Eozena as if it was. He cleared his throat. “If you have to think about it, it probably counts,” he said, and—no, why was he pleased to see Evemer’s ears go pink like that? He shoved the thought away and got up. “If we’re all done interrogating each other about our personal lives, I’m going to bed.”
“Do you require any assistance, my lord?” Evemer asked.
“You know what, I think I do,” he said. He’d almost deferred just then, had almost said something likeNo, I’m all rightorUnless you have somewhere else to be. But Evemer had a look in his eyes like perhaps he did want to be rescued after all, despite earlier claims to the contrary. Kadou wasn’t about to leave him here with Tadek in an appalling making-friends mood, asking questions that were outrageous and out of line and—and a whole host of other nascent thoughts that Kadou quashed as soon as he saw the shape of them, before they even fully formed into coherent ideas, let alone rose to the level of verbal arguments.
When they were safe in the upstairs bedroom with the door firmly shut, Kadou whispered, “Sorry.”
“What for?” Evemer dropped the blanket from his shoulders, folded it, and got a new underlayer from the wardrobe: loose, pale yellow linen that was somewhat finer than a common artisan’s son’s would be—the benefits of a weaver mother with commissions from the palace. His bandaged shoulder moved stiffly as he shrugged it on and tied the knots at the waist. Kadou told himself firmly that he was only looking at Evemer’s poor bruised back, not stealing glimpses of the way his muscles shifted beneath his skin.
“Sorry that you had to . . . put up with that. The way they talked.”
“I don’t want to be friends with Tadek,” Evemer said grimly.
“Good luck with that, since he’s apparently decided he’s going to be friends with you regardless of your opinion.” Kadou winced. “Sorry for that too.”
