Page 57 of Martyr

“Okay.”

“I’m not,” he insisted.

“I believe you.”

“Lake.”

“Yes?”

“Are you really going to let Juri be the sacrifice?”

He placed an arm around Nix’s middle and leaned on it, caging him in casually. “I don’t see any cons. His reasoning made sense. It’ll be good for you to have an ally in the Club other than us. Someone who can keep their eyes peeled for you and be a shoulder when you need one.”

“And you…trust him?” Nix couldn’t help but be a bit baffled. “You trust that that’s all he wants?”

“What? To be your friend?” Lake asked. “Because of what Yejun said? I might have been jealous of Juri before, but not anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because you never would have lost yourself like that if you had a crush on him,” Lake explained. “You’re too self-conscious for that. Sure, you’re a good faker, but I know the sounds you make when you’re desperate to come. You weren’t putting on a show today.”

Nix hesitated and then decided to take a leap of faith and just be honest. “You agreed to a compromise. You didn’t force me. If you had, if you’d made me strip down and be touched like that in front of someone other than you three, I never would have forgiven you.”

“I know.”

“I mean it, Lake.”

“That’ll never happen, Songbird. The only ones allowed to steal your dignity is us, and we’ll do it behind closed doors, in the security of our own home.”

“I should tell you you’re disgusting for saying that,” he sighed. “But I don’t want to.”

“I heard what you said in your dorm yesterday,” Lake told him. “I got a list of names from—”

There was a sharp knock on the door a second before Yejun entered without waiting to be asked inside. He strolled toward them and set a steaming glass mug on the end table, eyes scanning over Nix before he bent to press the back of his hand against his forehead.

“What are you doing?” Lake didn’t bother moving out of the way.

“Checking his temperature. He looks flushed,” Yejun replied.

“Of course I do,” Nix stated. “I just came so much I passed out. You want to try it?”

“You offering?” Yejun waggled his brows and then laughed and took a step back when Nix glared. “All right, all right. I was just kidding.”

“I thought you were going to get notes from his class,” Lake said.

“I called someone taking it and told them to send a copy of theirs over,” Yejun replied. “Made more sense than going all the way myself. Do you need anything else, Firebird? Hungry?”

He shook his head.

“You sure? Then how about…” His gaze swept down Nix suggestively.

“Get out,” Lake ordered.

Yejun grinned. “It was just another joke, calm down.”

“Go find someone else to get your dick wet.”

“Dude, not in front of Nix.”

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