Page 7 of Lay It Bare

He looked Lisa and Rei over. Rei wouldn’t speak until bidden. He was admitting to wrongdoing and waiting for Sevastyan to decide when he wanted to deal with it. He’d kneel there until he fell over if Sevastyan left him.

Lisa looked up, eyes wary. “It’s my fault,” he snarled.

Sevastyan raised one eyebrow. Up close and not through an edited photo, Lisa looked almost gaunt. “Alexi know you’re here?”

Lisa gritted his teeth. “Not his property.”

“You’re safer as his property. So for your sake, if not his reputation, we’re going to pretend you are, as long as you’re here.” Sevastyan pressed three fingers to his temples. Lisa was most certainly Alexi’s property in the eyes of the Merchari. Except Alexi liked to play between the lines. Sometimes Lisa was also Alexi’s agent, gofer, thief, or date. Also pet. That was the clout that Alexi had. A former director who had stepped back because he wanted to—not because he was forced—could do that. It wasn’t like Alexi couldn’t find Lisa whenever he wanted.

Sevastyan moved to the couch and sat down. Lisa watched him with eyes that saw too much. Sevastyan looked back, waiting to see where Lisa was going to take this impasse. Except it didn’t seem like Lisa wanted to move forward.

Sevastyan let out a slow sigh. Time to poke the feral dog, then. “You’re thin.”

Lisa’s lip predictably curled in outrage. “Oh, so you do care.”

“I could care more and add you to my harem, since you always want at my slave, even when you don’t have permission.”

Lisa’s body collapsed in on itself, making him smaller. It left him looking even more malnourished, all wide pointy shoulders and thin arms. He really was model gaunt, like the shows in Paris, or worse. But still beautiful. With exercise and proper food, Lisa would be a powerful man, but like this he called out for someone to abuse him.

It wouldn’t be Sevastyan. Hopefully.

Sevastyan rubbed his temples again. “You should go.”

Rei’s shoulders tensed. Sevastyan looked between Rei and Lisa. Ah, so Rei wanted to keep him. Whatever was going on with Lisa, Rei knew something. Sevastyan glanced around the room, taking in the imprints on the couch, the cold, untouched tea on the coffee table. They’d been sleeping together, clothes on, but skin to skin, if he knew them as well as he thought he did.

Sevastyan closed his eyes. He needed to sleep. He needed time to find his masks. Sleep required that he find a way to know they were all safe. “Rei.”

Rei rose and came to Sevastyan, dropping to a kneel again.

“How did Lisa get inside?”

“I saw him on the sidewalk and went down and brought him in, master.”

Sevastyan’s inner being froze in place. Rei never went out. He crooked a finger under Rei’s chin and raised his slave’s face. “Why?”

“I was afraid, master. He was lying in the snow, not moving.”

Sevastyan gave Lisa a slow look.

Lisa looked away first. “Had to ring the doorbell, ya know?”

“Thank you for taking care of Master Alexi’s property,” Sevastyan said slowly to Rei. “You will be punished tomorrow for going out without permission and endangering my work.

“Yes, master.”

Sevastyan turned his gaze on Lisa, who was half crouched on the floor behind Rei, just beyond reach, but not so far away that he couldn’t have leapt to Rei’s defense. His face was a mixture of defiance and fear. And yet he’d made his move anyway, days before Sevastyan expected it. Been desperate enough to set a trap to get what he wanted.

Unless he had actually collapsed. It was possible. He’d seen slaves falter and fall, only to pull what shreds of strength they had together and appear fine a moment later. They weren’t, but if they had to, they could look functional even as their lives seeped out of them. He’d been there himself, at points.

“Come here.” Sevastyan pointed to the floor between his feet.

Lisa’s eyes widened. His limbs tensed. Sevastyan waited him out. Slowly, Lisa slunk forward, not standing but prowling on all fours, as suspicious and wary as his Russian namesake, the wild fox. He came to rest in front of Sevastyan, not in a proper form, but still crouched, one knee on the ground, his heel ups, balanced on the balls of his feet.

Sevastyan slid his palm along the sharpness of Lisa’s jaw, his fingers gliding through the shoulder length locks of Lisa’s hair. There were streaks of blue and silver mixed into the deep brown and overtaking the tips. It must have been something he’d done recently. Alexi never allowed such plumage on his property. The color was masterfully layered. Sevastyan ran his fingertips carefully over Lisa’s skull and down his neck. Lisa was still, eyes fixed on Sevastyan.

Except for all too close to the surface bones, there was no damage he could find. Sevastyan moved his touch to Lisa’s hands, lifting them one by one, turning them over, examining the nails. They were ridged and damaged from malnutrition. He moved up over Lisa’s wrists where the pale blue veins stood out even from beneath the kiss of the sun. He wasn’t always this color. It was new. When Sevastyan had first seen Lisa, he’d been ghost-pale from not seeing the sky for years.

Lisa bore Sevastyan’s touch with gritted teeth, even when Sevastyan pulled up his shirt and ran his hand over his abdomen.