Page 39 of Villain
“It’s an office space we’ve used since we were younger,” he told him, seeing no reason not to. “It’s where the Enigma App was created and developed. Only the three of us and our staff have access, so we can go over everything comfortably inside.”
“Does everyone know you’re behind the app?”
“Yes.” It hadn’t started out that way, but in the years since, Lake was pretty sure it was a well-known fact amongst the student body. Everyone at the club knew, obviously.
“Why did you create it?”
“Why do you think, Songbird?”
“I think you’ve never needed a hookup app to get laid.”
“Very true.”
“I’m not the only one hiding things,” Nix pointed out, but that was seemingly the end of the discussion, as he quieted afterward and didn’t ask any other questions.
He also didn’t make any moves to get out of the car.
Was Lake going to have to drag Nix in kicking and screaming or—
“Okay.” He undid his belt and had one foot out the door in an instant, pausing only to send Lake a questioning glance when he didn’t immediately follow suit. “Coming?”
He chuckled before he could help it. Nothing was ever as it seemed when it came to the Songbird.
That was half the problem.
Chapter 11:
The building was just your everyday average office building. There was a small lobby with an elevator just beyond it. Nix was quiet the whole ride up, noting that Lake had pressed the second highest floor, but not trusting himself to ask about what was at the very top.
Truthfully, he was nervous. Part of him was convinced this was another trap, that the whole boyfriend angle had been a mere ruse to lure him here so that Lake could…He didn’t know what, but nothing good. People like the Demons of Foxglove, the type that grew up wanting for nothing, used to always getting their way, wouldn’t understand things like boundaries.
Wouldn’t understand Nix even if he told them no.
The other night was proof of that, and if he’d been smarter, as smart as Lake assumed, he would have ended this whole thing there and then and gotten out.
But it was too late to get out now.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, Lake grabbed Nix’s wrist and pulled him out and down the hall. He wasn’t gentle about it, practically hauling him into a room at the end.
“What was that for?” Nix demanded as soon as Lake released him. He rubbed at the tender flesh, scowling at Lake’s back as the other man headed straight for a large oak desk to the left.
The office was a decent size, nothing too flashy. Much like the rest of the building he’d seen so far, there wasn’t anything unusual or spectacular about it. A large window took up most of the wall across from the door, the panes of glass giving him a view of the bustling city. It’d started to rain since they’d entered, droplets pinging lightly around them.
The desk had a built-in holo-strip for the computer monitor and a stack of paper books organized neatly on the side. A single leather couch tucked against the far corner and a wooden shelving unit were the only other pieces of furniture. There was nothing identifying to be found; the place could have been the workspace of literally anyone.
“Is this more your style?” Nix found himself asking, mostly just to fill the quiet while Lake pulled open a desk drawer and rifled through it. He took in the beige walls and the thin forest-green carpet beneath his feet.
“As opposed to?” Lake said.
“The Roost.” Their home on campus was all high beams and glass and nature. It’d felt like it had a life of its own. Had felt…He stopped himself from thinking the word special, but it hovered on the outskirts of his mind anyway.
“Both the Roost and this place came as they were,” Lake told him, coming back around the desk with a file and a pen in his hands. “They’re passed down. The Demons of Foxglove Grove always live in the Roost for all four years of their life at the university, and this office space used to belong to Yejun’s older sister. She gifted it to him when he told her about our app project. We were kids at the time and didn’t bother changing the décor.”
“And now?”
“Now?” Lake humored him by considering, and it was obvious that’s all he was doing. Allowing Nix a reprieve, some time to work himself up to things, the same way he had with every one of their sexual encounters through Enigma. “It just doesn’t matter now, I guess. We don’t spend much time here.”
“Was Yejun’s sister a King too?” If there were only Seven Kings total… “What happens when they graduate? Or something happens to them?”