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His eyes soften. He swallows and looks at me again, and now there’s something warmer there. “They taste the same.”

I lean one shoulder against the back of the couch. “That was the goal.”

He nods, then looks down at the cookie in his hand for a moment before saying, a little more quietly, “You remembered.”

“I always remember.”

He takes another bite, savoring it. The tension he’s been carrying since I walked in eases just a fraction.

In the middle of our conversation, I hear footsteps and look up just in time to see Dimitri walk in.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, since this is his mansion.

But it isn’t Dimitri who catches my attention.

It’s Ilya stepping in beside him.

And there he is.

My little prince.

He’s been ignoring me ever since the classroom incident. Since then he’s looked through me, around me, past me, like if he refuses to acknowledge I exist I might disappear.

He doesn’t look at me now either, but I see the twitch in his hands the second he notices me.

His spine goes rigid. His eyes flick to the side, then the ceiling, then literally anywhere that isn’t my face.

I smile.

Dimitri crosses the room and goes straight to Rei. His whole face changes when he gets close, all that natural violence in him softening at the edges in a way I wouldn’t have believed possible if I hadn’t seen it myself. He leans down and kisses the top of Rei’s head.

“Are you okay, my little fairy?”

At least he treats him well.

That matters to me more than Dimitri will ever fully understand.

Rei looks up at him with that private warmth he saves for very few people and says, “I’m okay.”

Then Ilya sees the box.

His entire attention shifts with the speed of a thief spotting unattended jewelry.

“Ohhh, cookies.”

Before Rei can stop him, Ilya swoops in and snatches one. Rei makes a protesting sound, already trying to pull the box away, but it’s too late. Ilya has the cookie in his mouth.

I watch him bite into it.

A soft, pleased sound escapes his throat, one that makes my dick hard.

“These are so good,” he says around the mouthful.

Rei, vindictive little thing that he is, immediately says, “Kento made them.”

Ilya chokes. He coughs once, twice, glares at the cookie in his hand, and then sets it back in the box with theatrical disgust.

“These are awful.”