“Stop squirming, before you have us both tumbling down there,” Raynard snapped.
“You’re not my master. I don’t have to obey you!” Kane pushed against Raynard with his other hand. “Where’s Everet? I want Everet. Now!”
They reached the bottom of the long flight of stairs without tumbling. Raynard immediately pulled Kane around to face him. “That’s enough. Your master left you in my care. That should be all you need to know in order to conduct yourself appropriately.”
Kane pushed against his chest, not sure if he wanted to get away from him or just hit him because he was so pissed off.
Raynard pulled Kane closer, tightening his hold on him, apparently entirely on automatic.
Kane sensed the anger building in the other man. That was good. Anger wasn’t all that different from passion. Raynard already held him so close they were almost in an embrace. Their lips could easily be brought together if the hawk dipped his head and—
“Raynard?”
The hawk leaned back, jerking his face away from Kane. He glared at someone standing just out of Kane’s line of sight. Suddenly, Kane found himself stumbling backward as Raynard shoved him away so hard Kane barely kept his balance.
Kane spun around as he regained his footing. A group of old guys, who were probably those elders that Everet was always on about, congregated just a few yards farther down the hall. The swan stood slightly apart from them.
“Raynard?” the same voice repeated. It was the grumpy git from Kane’s first day there.
The eagle, Hamilton, turned his attention to Kane. “Where is your master?”
Kane waved a hand toward Raynard. “Ask him. No one told me a damn thing, they just told me to do whatever he wanted. As if it’s
my
fault he’s not getting what he wants from his own submissive.”
Raynard didn’t say a single word, but Kane could sense the pure fury emanating from him.
“Ori.”
The young man with the white hair hurried past Kane to stand in front of his master, as eager to obey as a puppy who’d just learnt a new trick.
“You have too much sense to believe him,” Raynard said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, sir.” The swan’s tone was as mild as ever. “You told me earlier that you would be watching over Kane while Everet stretched his wings.”
Kane mentally cursed. How hard could it be to drive a wedge between two guys? What kind of man refused string-free sex from an expert?
“If Everet can’t handle—” Hamilton began.
“I ordered Everet to take a break from watching the brat,” Raynard cut in.
Kane looked up at Raynard. Everet hadn’t wanted to rush off?
The sound of footsteps pelting down the hallway to their left seemed very loud in the silence. Hamilton and Raynard glared at each other and no one seemed brave enough to disturb them until Everet appeared around the corner.
The raven appeared to blur as he went from a full out sprint to a man determined to look as if he’d never achieved anything above a moderate pace on his way across the nest.
He strode down the short length of corridor that still separated him from the group. Every man’s eyes were on him. For some stupid reason, Kane found himself not just looking at, but truly feasting his eyes on the raven.
Everet wasn’t the best looking guy on the planet. On a purely points-based scale, Kane knew that Raynard would have easily outscored the raven. Yet, somehow, it was impossible for Kane to look away from Everet.
There was a new ease and confidence in Everet’s movements since he’d been out on the wing. He was hotter than ever. Raynard didn’t even play in the same league as him when it came to a pure, raw
I want him to screw me
score.
“Sire, sirs, is there a problem?” Everet asked. He glanced at Kane for a moment, but soon transferred his attention back to the other men in the hallway.
“No problem at all,” Raynard said. He pushed Kane’s shoulder, shoving him toward Everet. “He’s all yours.”
“Thank you, sir,” Everet said. As if he’d just been handed a bloody parcel.
Kane stepped away from him. The moment he moved, he sensed Everet’s attention snap toward him. Yes, that was the way things should be. “Raynard and I had a wonderful time,” he said.
Everet didn’t even blink. It was as if he found it impossible to believe that Raynard would want to screw him, even for a second. Another wave of heat coursed through Kane. Since when did the entire world consider him not even worth a quickie in a conveniently discreet alcove?
Everet turned back to the others. “I’m sorry if he was any trouble, sir.” He paused for a beat. “If there’s nothing else?”
“No,” Raynard said, with an idle wave of the hand. “You may both go.”
“Thank you, sir.” Everet reached out and caught hold of Kane’s arm. When Everet set off down the corridor, there was little Kane could do but try to keep up with his long, rapid strides. He needed all his breath to trot along at Everet’s side. Speaking was out of the question.
The raven didn’t slow down until they were back in his apartment. Finally, he let go.
Kane leapt away from him, as if being close to the other man weren’t a very enjoyable thing indeed.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Everet ordered.
“Why?”
Everet fell perfectly still, staring at some apparently random point on the wall. Silence descended. Several seconds passed before Everet looked toward Kane and met his gaze. “Because I am your master, and I can’t look after you properly if I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you buggered off and left me with that trumped up bastard!”
Everet’s expression changed. The skin between his brows furrowed as if he were thinking deeply about something. “I’m sorry if I scared you by leaving so suddenly. Before I stretched my wings, I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I should have been.”
Kane gawped at him as if he’d just beamed down from a spaceship filled with little green men. The raven’s reaction was so at odds with anything he expected, it took Kane a full minute to take in what Everet had said, what kind of accusation had actually been leveled at him. “I wasn’t scared!”
Everet sat down on the sofa and indicated the chair opposite him.
Kane planted his feet.
“Sit down, Kane,” Everet said, very calmly. “That’s an order. I am your master, and I expect you to obey me.”
“And if I don’t?” Kane demanded.
“Then I will pick you up and put you in the chair. If I need to tie you to it in order to make you stay there while we have this conversation, I will. It’s time certain things were made clear. Obedience is not optional. You’ll end up in the chair one way or another.”
He was serious. Kane saw that in his eyes. Moving both slowly and carefully, he took the offered seat. His curiosity over what would come next was too strong to deny.
“That’s good,” Everet told him. “And, as I said, I’m thinking a lot more clearly now. I can see that I made mistakes before—”
“Like playing with me?” Kane demanded, very ready to hear the insult and retaliate by any means necessary.
Everet seemed to think about that very carefully. “Like playing with you before things between us outside the bedroom were more clearly settled,” he specified. “I don’t regret what we did, just that we didn’t talk more first. We’re not doing things in the right order.”
Kane frowned. Leaning back in his seat, he pulled his feet up to rest on the cushion in front of him and glared at Everet over the top of his knees. If Everet thought that they could go back to a time before they fooled around, he’d have another thought coming very quickly.
“You need to try to understand that, as your master, I have your best interests at heart. The orders I give you outside the bedroom are all ultimately for your own benefit.”
Kane huffed his disbelief.
“I know you don’t see that yet, but in time, you will.”
Kane didn’t bother to argue. He recognized what that tone meant when it appeared in an avian’s voice. Everet had flown high in the sky, seen the whole world stretched out beneath him. All the people probably looked like little toys he could push around on a whim. It would take a little while for reality to reassert itself and for him to remember that Kane wasn’t the type to take that kind of treatment quietly, he’d always shove back.
“Now, I want you to answer my original question. When you were with Raynard, what happened?”
Kane shrugged, but deep down he knew that it wouldn’t get him anywhere with Everet. He sighed. The path of least resistance was obvious. “He’s a grumpy sod. I flirted. He frowned. That’s about it, really.”
Everet nodded to show he had heard. “Will Raynard say the same when I speak to him?”
“You’re going to check up on me behind my back?” Kane demanded.
“No.” Everet smiled slightly. “I’m not going to do anything behind your back. I’m telling you to your face that I’m going to ask Raynard the same question.”
Kane rolled his eyes. “Yeah,” he muttered. “He’ll say the same.”
“Good.” Everet straightened in his seat. His tone changed, as if he was done with that subject and was more than ready to set it aside. “Do you have any questions for me?”
“Yeah.” A God-like feeling of authority wasn’t often the only side effect of an avian having stretched his wings.
“Go ahead, you can ask me.” Everet encouraged him with a nod and a slight smile.
Kane raised one eyebrow and smiled back. “Wanna screw?”
Chapter Eight
Everet didn’t laugh, but it was a close call.
He should probably have expected that to be the foremost question in Kane’s mind. It was obviously his perpetual default mode. If in doubt, turn to sex.
“You can’t be the only avian in history who doesn’t want to get laid after being on the wing,” Kane said.
“I want to,” Everet agreed.
Kane’s gaze turned suspicious. “Does that mean you’re going to, or are you going to get all talkative again?”
Everet allowed a smile to touch his lips, but behind the calm façade he maintained through sheer force of will, his mind raced faster and faster. He knew what he wanted. But what was the right thing. What would a good master do? What would…
No, it was no good wondering what Raynard would do. Ori and Kane were so unlike each other it would be useless. Raynard wouldn’t have made a good master for Kane.
Hamilton? He didn’t give a damn about anyone other than the ranking birds of prey. It was impossible to consider him to be a good potential master for anyone.
There was no suitable example for Everet to follow, no one whose advice he could take. In unchartered territory, all he had to guide him were his instincts. After his shift, while the raven side of himself flew so close to the surface, it was easy to believe that his avian instincts would guide him toward the right solution.
Everet stood up. He extended his hand toward Kane.
The magpie just stared at him for several seconds, as if he were an idiot. With skepticism filling his gaze, he finally put his hand in Everet’s grip.
Leading Kane to the bedroom door, Everet stopped just short of entering it. “Do you remember what we discussed earlier?”