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He was letting things get out of hand. His heart was pounding, he could feel how high his color was, and a sharp hunger was running through him, overwhelming the terror and paranoia, crashing into all his ideas of propriety and comportment and gentlemanliness—a hunger to see the rest of Evemer’s famous discipline fray away to nothing, to find more of the person who lived underneath all those iron bands and stone walls of restraint, tohearhim again like that night in the alley when Kadou had had only to command him with a word to have Evemer’s mouth against his.
No—no, too much. Too much, even for the sake of pretense. Kadou tried to draw away, to turn his head. “Don’t,” Evemer breathed.
Kadou’s heart stuttered. “He’s looking?”
“No.”
“Don’t what, then?”
Evemer said nothing. Did nothing. Except—except the faintest pressure on the back of Kadou’s neck. Except another tiny tilt of Evemer’s head, which Kadou wouldn’t have ever noticed without being pressed up so close to him.
Kadou realized with a jolt—Evemer wasasking. He was pulling Kadou in, even if it was so light and tentative, and baring his neck like that. His heart thundering in his chest, Kadou set his lips against him again, his mouth softening and falling open just enough to taste the salt of his skin.
Evemer’s breath caught, and he made that sound.
Kadou’s borrowed control failed him, cracking like a ship in a tempest. He shoved himself closer, pulling Evemer’s head aside by his hair and scraping his teeth up the tendons of his neck. Evemer’s breath caught silently and he jerked in Kadou’s arms, and Kadou’s blood was singing, throbbing through him, and he could feel every burning nerve in his body—
Evemer turned sharply, pulling him up, pulling his face up, and Kadou met him in the middle, crashing into him like his mouth was the rocks that Kadou’s ship finally wrecked itself upon. He kissed him wildly, ardently, desperately. He clutched at Evemer’s coat, at his hair, pushing him back against the seat and licking into his mouth, sinking his teeth into Evemer’s impossibly soft lower lip. Evemer made that sound again—not quite a moan, and not quite a whimper, just a soft vocalization of undeniable want in his throat, and Kadou wanted todrinkit, flood his veins with it, drown himself in it. He wanted to tear Evemer’s clothes open and set his palms on Evemer’s bare skin and make him make that noise until it was carved as deeply into his memory as the touch-taste of gold was on his fingertips.
But—fuck, one of them should be watching the room, one of them should—
He tried to turn away, and Evemer caught his face in his hands and brought him back, kissed him again, whispering into his mouth, “Wait. He’s—he’s paying her. He’s standing.”
Kadou let his breath out slowly. “Leaving?”
“I think. Yes, but—wait—” He pulled Kadou back in, kissing him once more—he wasn’t even very good at it, but godsdamnhim, it wasn’t making Kadou any less frantic. Evemer kissed like he wasn’t used to it (only two people and one of them is you,whispered Kadou’s brain helpfully), like he’d had better things to do with his life than learn the more elegant points and the artistry of it. And, frankly, like he was distracted—Kadou opened his eyes and saw that Evemer’s already were. He was still peering through the curtain of Kadou’s hair as someone walked past, coming far too close to their table for comfort.
Then Siranos was gone—Kadou could tell the moment that the danger passed. He could feel it in the muscles of Evemer’s shoulders, now no longer tensed to spring into action.
He ought to shift away. He ought to slide out of Evemer’s lap, where he had somehow ended up, and give Evemer back his personal space. They ought to run right out of the incense lounge and find better shadows to hide in, or pounce upon Siranos and take him immediately.
But that would not be what Evemer would describe as risk-conservative. Siranos could have his mercenary guards with him. He wouldn’t be wandering around the city without protection. Evemer had ruled that they would do this slow and steady, and that there would be no heroics of any kind.
And then there was another consideration: Evemer’s arms were still tight around him and his eyes were on Kadou, hot and wild but . . . uncertain. He was waiting for Kadou to make a move, one way or another, so that he could match it. He wouldn’t let go until Kadou did, and Kadou couldn’t yet.
“It would look suspicious,” Kadou ventured, “if we were to stop the very instant he walked out. Wouldn’t it?”
“Yes,” Evemer breathed. “Yes,” and, without waiting a heartbeat longer, kissed him again. He was, to his credit, a quick study when he was paying attention—the clumsy press of his mouth was already refining by leaps and bounds.
Kadou ought to pull away, just as soon as there had been enough of an overlap not to be suspicious. He really ought to pull away—but now?his heart whined. Just as Evemer was starting to get a handle on the idea that he had teeth and a tongue and could do interesting things with them?
He stifled a small noise of his own and rubbed his thumbs over Evemer’s cheekbones as Evemer bit gently at his bottom lip, sending a thrill of starry want sparkling from the top of Kadou’s head all the way down his spine.
He forced himself to pull away. He was breathing rather heavily, he noticed. They both were, and Evemer looked . . . deliciously mussed. His hair was sticking up every which way, as if Kadou had been running his hands through it—he hadn’t noticed. And the color was in his cheeks, and his eyes were bright and a little glassy with—
Kadou licked his lips. “Is anyone watching?” he murmured. His own hair was probably a wreck too, and he could feel that some of his clothes had been yanked out of place, no longer lying comfortably and in alignment.
Evemer stared up at him for a long moment, his mouth open and—and red and soft and wet, kiss-bitten. It made Kadou dizzy to look at him. Evemer seemed to come back to himself suddenly and looked around the room. “No one’s watching,” he said, and Kadou slid out of his lap.
He was probably imagining the way Evemer’s hand lingered on his waist. “We’d better go,” he said. He was feeling rather muzzy—between the incense and the kiss, it was no wonder. “Home now. Quickly.”
Right before his eyes, he watched Evemer reconstruct his walls of discipline and iron bands of control, watched the wanting anguish disappear brick by brick. “Yes,” he said, sounding almost normal. “Yes, we’ll go.”
Kadou snatched up his scarf and wound it over his hair and face as he walked out the door—
And came face to face with Siranos and five hired blades.
“How convenient,” Siranos said. “Take them.”
