Chapter 19

"If you're bored," Nix mumbled out of the corner of his mouth so as not to be caught by the professor, "you can go."

It was a class in a lecture hall, with several rows curved to face the small stage at the head of the room where the professor stood. The man was about ten years older than them and spoke with a steady voice. It was clear he knew his stuff but…

"Of course I'm bored," West replied, leaning in. He rested his arm on the back of Nix's chair and then dove his fingers through the strands of hair at the back of his skull. "Aren't you? You know all of this already."

This was one of the classes required for them to get their degree in their particular major, but yes, he was right. Nix did already know about all of the source material. That didn't mean it was okay to cause a disturbance in the middle of it, however. He still needed a good grade, and respecting Professor Michaelson should have been a given.

"Cut it out." Nix tried to brush West off, a pained sound slipping past his lips when those fingers tightened and tugged. He was yanked a full inch back in his chair, instinctively reaching to grab onto West's wrist.

Professor Michaelson glanced their way, paused, and then continued as though nothing were happening. Nearby, a few students also turned to look, one or two staring longer than the rest before they turned back and pretended not to have seen.

"You seem to have gotten too comfortable, Nixie," West growled against the curve of his ear, at least keeping his voice down. "What, because Yejun was a little bit nice to you, did you mistake that the four of us are somehow tight?" His tongue darted out, flicking against his earlobe once. "I'm not Lake. I'm not infatuated by you. I've been friendly because you promised to go along with things. If you're choosing to misbehave instead…"

"Stop," he risked saying, clenching his jaw when that had his hair pulled a second time. "We're in the middle of class."

"Exactly," West said. "Half the point of this little game of ours is to be seen with you. Bet every single person in here rushes out the second the bell rings, eager to gossip about how I disciplined you in front of all of them."

Nix had forgotten his situation. He'd also made the poor assumption that because the three of them were best friends, they must be alike. Yejun had stripped him and held him down that first night, and yet he'd been almost sweet since. Stupidly, Nix had hoped it would be the same with West.

Things were already hard enough as it was with Lake and his frosty disposition. Hell, Nix hadn't even heard from the guy in the past couple of days, not even through the Enigma app. It was almost as though he'd made him sign that contract and then had pushed him off on his friends as soon as he was done with him.

Nix didn't like how that made him feel.

"Believe it or not, you aren't the only one who's afraid of me," West continued, hand dropping to Nix's left thigh when Nix snorted in response. "Oh? Not so shocking, that it?"

Considering the guy was built like a fighter and supposedly liked to blow off steam in a boxing ring? No, not really. This time, however, Nix smartly kept his mouth shut, thinking perhaps things would go smoother if he remained silent and just allowed West to do and say as he pleased.

Wrong.

West's hand on his thigh lifted and went for the button of his pants.

"No!" Nix whisper-yelled, latching onto him and trying to push him away. The closest student in their row had only left a single empty seat between them, and they were in the middle of the room, which meant all of the rows behind would simply need to lean forward to catch an eyeful of— "West. Please, stop."

The Demon paused, observing him. "Are you…crying, Nixie?"

Tears burned at the corner of his eyes, but they'd yet to spill. Stubbornly, he fought them back, biting down on his tongue. He was too afraid to do more than that, not wanting to risk moving or letting go of West's hand, which was still in his lap.

He tensed when West's tongue flicked out again, this time over the rise of his cheek. "Going to cry for me, baby? I won't mind that at all. In fact, I'll most likely get off on it."

Nix gave a single, curt shake of his head.

"I've been thinking about it, you know," West carried on. "The way you sobbed for me our first time. How hot you were with spit dripping down your chin and your eyes all puffy."

"Later," Nix blurted, pretty much willing to agree to anything at this point just to get this to end. They'd given more than enough fuel to the rest of the students for gossip.

West cocked his head, waiting for him to elaborate.

"You wanted me to blow you again," he reminded. "I'll do it. After—"

"We already agreed you'd suck me off once class ends," West stopped him, nosing the underside of his jaw before he followed the same path with the tip of his tongue.

It was somewhat ticklish and Nix pulled away before he could stop himself, hissing when he was yanked back into place by that same harsh grip on his hair. At least the hand in his lap was still, no longer trying to get into his pants.

And now he was grateful for things like not being sexually assaulted in public.

What the hell was wrong with him?

What the hell was wrong with this school? He'd known about the power imbalance, of course, but this…The Demons were just allowed to do whatever they pleased, even if it meant forcing one of their fellow classmates?

"You're clever, Nixie," West said, as though having read his mind. "You should have picked up on the fact that if I chose to bend you over this table right now and fuck you through your protests, no one would come to your rescue. In fact, if I allowed it, I bet half of them would pull out their multi-slates and start filming even."

Nix's chest constricted. Tulniri might be a planet open to sex, but that didn't mean something like that wouldn't haunt him throughout the rest of his adult life. Getting any sort of respectable job would be seven times harder. His dream of working for a major game development company? He could kiss that goodbye as easily as Yejun had kissed him the other night.

As easily as West was laving at him with his tongue.

The real problem here was that it seemed like West was the type who really would be into that sort of thing. This wasn't just a threat—the growing bulge in the Demon's pants was proof of that. He was turned on by the thought of publicly overpowering him.

If a blow job wasn't enough, he was going to have to debase himself further.

"I'll cry for you," Nix offered quietly. He had no real concept of what that even meant or how he'd go about it, but since West had seemed eager for his tears…Maybe that could work.

Amazingly enough, it seemed to catch the Demon's attention the way he'd hoped. West's hand loosened some, allowing Nix's tender scalp a small reprieve as he considered the new proposal.

"My time and place?" West asked, as though this really were some deal.

"Not in public."

For a moment, Nix feared West would push that issue, sinking into his chair when he was suddenly released.

West swiveled to face forward once more. "Well played, Nixie. There's hope for you yet."

He didn't know what that meant.

But he sure as shit wasn't willing to push his luck and ask for an explanation.

Nix didn't want them to, but his thoughts turned to Branwen. There weren't any indicators that she'd had any type of interaction with the Demons during her years in attendance here, but considering the way the rest of the student body treated them like gods, that wasn't as comforting as it'd once been.

What if this King she had been involved with was close to them? What if she'd done something to upset that person and they'd gotten the Demons involved anyway? With his mere presence alone, West controlled the room—even the professor pretended not to have noticed the scene they'd just put on.

This wouldn't do. Nix needed to speed the process up. He'd been too afraid of misstepping, hadn't even risked bringing his cousin's name up to Grady, but that had to change. If he was able to find at least one of Branwen's old friends, maybe they'd be able to point him in the right direction.

The rest of class went without a hitch. West surprised him by keeping his word. He left Nix alone and played on his multi-slate quietly for the next half hour, not even glancing in his direction once.

It should have made it easier for him to concentrate, but Nix found himself hyperaware of the man at his side, unable to focus. Every time West shifted he tensed, but the Demon never even brushed up against him. His first week at Foxglove and Nix was discovering things about himself that he maybe could have lived without knowing. Least of which, that apparently he had fucked up preferences when it came to the bedroom.

He still drew a line at public humiliation, and no part of him wanted to be fucked in front of a live audience but…His reaction whenever one of the guys used that threat against him wasn't…normal. His heart rate kicked up into overdrive, and he panicked, sure, but there were other sensations as well.

Nix didn't want them to follow through, but something about their controlling nature seemed to call to him and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Bad, mostly. Guilty, definitely. He hadn't come all this way to be used by three dicks—both literally and figuratively.

West was hotheaded and aggressive, not Branwen's type even a little, so Nix highly doubted he was the King he was looking for. Still, he needed to confirm as much. He'd talk to Grady and see if his roommate recognized her name, if he got a lead from it, great. Either way, his first matter of business had to be clearing the Demons off his suspect list, that way he could turn his attention elsewhere.

He recalled his talk with Yejun the other day, tuning out the professor entirely now to the point he no longer bothered to fake taking notes. Out of the three of them, West was technically the one Nix should be trying to get closer to. He needed an invite into the man's bedroom and a way to sneak onto his computer to search through the King accounts. That definitely wouldn't happen if he pushed him away.

But Nix couldn't exactly stop resisting either, not only because it would be highly suspicious for him to suddenly have a change of heart, but also because he really just wasn't sure he had it in him. Was he turned on whenever one of them cornered him? Yes. Did that mean he wanted to be coerced into giving sexual favors and having intercourse whenever they wanted it? No.

Well…not really.

Mostly.

What was happening to him? Since when had he been the type of pathetic loser that caved for decent cock? His sex life prior to arriving had been lackluster at best, but also not something he'd actively ever thought about. He'd never found himself studying in the middle of the night, wishing he was screwing instead.

Then again, his fantasies had also always been relatively tame. The types of boring daydreams he was certain the Demons would all laugh at if he voiced them out loud. Things like flowers and first dates leading to making out in the corner of a dark movie theater or at most, passionate lovemaking in a locked bedroom with the lights dimmed.

Nix was grateful that he was adaptable. Adjusting to his surroundings had always been easy for him, but he couldn't help but wonder if he might not be taking that too far in this case. How much of himself was he willing to change or lose here?

The anger that had driven him to upend his entire life was still simmering beneath the surface despite everything that had been done to him so far, but he needed to speed things along. The initial plan had been to get in and get out. He'd given himself one semester to wrap things up, find answers for himself and Branwen's brother, and then he was meant to reenroll at Hyacinth.

The only person he'd said as much to was Briant, since there'd been no good way to explain that to his parents. That was still the goal. Nix had no intentions of graduating from Foxglove Grove, which meant he would only be here for four months.

Surely he could keep himself together in that brief amount of time?

If he had to suck a few more dicks and spread his thighs, who cared?

And if he secretly kind of liked it sometimes? What did that matter either?

Nix was merely immersing himself in the role. That was all.

The bell rang and he started collecting his things on autopilot, mind still circling. He was so caught up in his own world, he didn't notice West until an arm came into view and stole his backpack just as he was closing it.

"Stalling, Nixie?" West asked. He'd already stood and was now sitting on the edge of the long table that connected the row, eyeing him down with mild suspicion like he thought there was a chance Nix might try and bolt now that it'd come time to pay up.

"No," he said. "I keep my word."

"Something we have in common."

He didn't bother mentioning it was probably the only thing they did. Just as he was about to rise, his mutli-slate went off and Maestro flashed across the surface.

West snorted and snatched Nix's arm, lifting it into the air and taping the accept call button before he could stop him. Since he left the earbud attachment set in the side of the device, it automatically switched to speaker, Lake's monotone voice cutting the air between them a moment later.

"I'm almost done with practice," he stated. No hello or anything of the sort. "Come to the stadium."

"Nixie's a little busy at the moment," West answered before Nix could think of anything to say.

Lake was quiet for a breath before asking, "With what?"

"A taste test." West grinned when Nix tried to end the call, grabbing his hand roughly and shaking his head. "I've been eating kuy berries for days in preparation for this, so you better be prepared to hear how much better I taste when you get home later."

Nix's mouth dropped open. He couldn't be serious…could he?

Kuy berries were a sweet fruit found on the opposite side of the planet in the hotter regions. It was considered to be an aphrodisiac, not because they legitimately increased a person's sex drive, but because they had the odd after-effect of altering the taste of…well. There'd been more than a few studies on it, of course, but like with most things, taste was subjective. Some people swore by the kuy effects and others claimed there'd been no difference.

Nix had never even considered trying it out for himself, whether as the one consuming the berries or the one feasting on come after someone else had.

"You should seriously get that complex of yours checked," Lake stated, only for West to snort.

"Says the guy who's clearly jealous right now."

Was he? Nix hadn't picked up on any changes in his tone, how could West tell?

"Fuck off, West."

"I'm about to, Maestro ," he dragged out the username, laughing when Lake actually cursed on the other end of the line. "Have fun jerking off on your own." He clicked the end button and dropped Nix's arm. "Ready to go?"

Nix stared at him. "I really wish you two would stop using me as a pawn between you. What's even up with you guys? I thought you were best friends."

"We are," West confirmed. "What? Never heard of friendly competition before?"

"If it were friendly, you wouldn't have spent days eating fruit." Although…Nix's eyes narrowed. "You didn't really, right?"

West leaned in. "How about you get up so we can leave and you can find out for yourself?" He swung Nix's backpack over his shoulder, dropping his gaze to the ground when something slipped out and hit the floor with a heavy thump. "What is that?"

Nix moved over to see, frowning when he spotted something rolled up in paper. "I don't know."

"It came from your bag."

"It's not mine."

West read his face and seemed to conclude he was telling the truth, then he reached down to pick it up.

They both yelped like little bitches the second they saw what it was.