Kane waited, hoping like hell there wasn’t a punchline on its way. He wasn’t sure he’d survive it, if there was.
“Because, in a way, you’d know everything in the room would already be yours,” Ori said. “You’d be responsible for it. You’d know you’d come back here every day. And you’d know that it would be safer here than it could be anywhere else in the nest.”
For a few minutes both of them remained completely silent and absorbed in their work.
“Do you think you’d need to take it out of the strong room if you knew it would be there for you whenever you came back to it?” Ori eventually asked.
Kane stroked his fingers over the glistening metal. A swan was part of the group who ran the nest because he didn’t think like a bird of prey.
An eagle would send a thief to prison.
A swan… Kane looked up at Ori. A swan tried to make sure he had exactly what he wanted, then there’d be no need for him to steal anything in the future.
“You really think you could get me the job?” Kane asked.
Ori smiled slightly. “I know I can get you a trial period in the job. If you do it well, there’d be no reason why anyone wouldn’t want you to take up the position permanently.”
Kane nodded very slowly. Everything around him, even the ideas in his head, they were all so new and interesting. Even better than that, they were all shiny, too.
Chapter Twelve
Everet lifted a hand and knocked on the door leading into the nest’s strong room. His heart raced so fast he was sure that the guard standing to the left of the door had to be able to hear it.
It wasn’t a good idea to look like an idiot in front of a man he’d probably need to give orders to in the future. Everet couldn’t allow himself the luxury of a hesitation when Ori called out permission for him to enter the room.
As he stepped inside, Everet’s eyes went straight to the workbench. Kane sat hunched over with his polishing cloth in hand, apparently so hard at work he hadn’t even registered Everet’s arrival.
“Good afternoon, sire,” Everet said to Ori, even though his attention remained completely focused on Kane.
The words had barely left his mouth when Kane’s manner did a complete one-eighty. He leaped out of his chair and raced across to Everet.
It was only his first day. Everet couldn’t expect too much from him. It would have been cruel to think that one day in—
“Look!”
Kane caught hold of Everet’s hand and dragged him across the room. Everet was so shocked it didn’t even occur to him to try to hold his ground. At the bench, Kane indicated several rows of sparkling silverware, laid out on a length of purple fabric with a neatness that bordered on reverence.
“Look!” Kane ordered again.
“You polished all of this today?” Everet asked.
“Yes. Isn’t it beautiful?” Kane whispered. He moved closer to Everet’s side, his left hand crossing his body to grip Everet’s nearest elbow. It was hard to know if the posture was a request for reassurance or if Kane just wanted to snuggle into his side after a day of being apart.
Everet turned to Kane. The cutlery was nice enough, but Kane, high on success, with pleasure softening his features, was gorgeous.
“Everet!” Kane protested, tugging at both his hand and arm. “You have to look at them, not me!”
Everet smiled down at him. “You did wonderfully,” he said. “You must have worked non-stop since I left.”
Kane nodded, grinning with triumph. There was a smudge of silver polish on his cheek. Everet lifted his free hand and wiped it away with his thumb.
Dipping his head, he brushed their lips together. He’d intended it to be a chaste little bit of praise, but the moment their mouths touched, it became something very different.
Kane’s shorter frame molded itself against Everet’s body, like ivy growing up and around an oak tree, covering every branch and completely engulfing a creature far larger than itself.
All at once Kane was pure sex, pure submission. He wrapped his arms around Everet, threaded his fingers into his hair and tugged him down into the kiss.
Somehow, Kane managed to demand more from Everet and make it feel like he’d offered to submit and follow his lead at the same time. It was a bloody good trick and one Everet instantly fell in love with.
Relief at finding out that Kane had taken to the new job like the infamous duck took to water, mixed in with the lust Everet always felt whenever he was in the same room as Kane until it was impossible to untangle them.
Sliding his arms around the magpie’s body, Everet braced himself for the stab of pain he expected to burn across the skin on his back. Nothing. He was finally free to do whatever he liked without the after-effects of the whipping holding him back.
He grabbed Kane’s arse and pulled him even closer, rubbing their bodies together. Deeping the kiss, Everet took complete control of Kane’s mouth. Of course, the magpie didn’t just let that happen, he made Everet fight for it. But the way he thrust even more firmly against Everet’s crotch, his cock already hard and his whimpers needy, let Everet know that Kane was desperate to lose that particular fight and—
A polite little cough cut through the air like a very well-polished silver knife through butter melted by the sexual heat that filled the room. Everet jerked up his head.
Ori smiled shyly across at them from the other side of the room. “You’re very welcome to have the room to yourselves,” he offered. “I wouldn’t have interrupted at all, except you’re standing between me and the door.”
Everet automatically looked over his shoulder. As they’d rubbed against each other, they had indeed moved toward the door.
“I’m sorry, sire,” Everet began.
“I’m not,” Kane said, still grinning.
Everet couldn’t bring himself to chide Kane for being cheeky right then, especially when it sounded more like friendly banter than petulance toward a man he’d previously shown an unaccountable dislike of.
“I’ll leave you to, um…” Ori blushed as he hedged past them. “I hope you’ll join me here again tomorrow, Kane.”
The door was heavy and, no matter how gently it was closed, the mechanism still thudded loudly into place.
For several seconds, neither Kane nor Everet moved a muscle, neither of them uttered a single word.
“I did really well today,” Kane eventually said.
Everet stared down into Kane’s eyes, loving the peace and happiness he saw there. “Yes, you did.”
“I know I can’t be rewarded for that,” Kane said. “But does that mean you’re not allowed to celebrate with me.”
Even as he smiled, Everet studied the magpie a little more warily. “What are you plotting, Kane?” There was more than a touch of warning in his voice.
“I’m thinking: you, me, right here, coming harder than either of us ever have in our lives.” Kane whispered each part of his plan into Everet’s ear. Heat ran down Everet’s spine as Kane brushed his lips against the lobe.
Lifting his head, Everet used their height differences to take his ear out of range. “I said no sex outside the bedroom,” he reminded Kane.
“You also said
for now
. I remember.”
Everet swallowed and did his best to keep his brain above his belt.
“I know you’re not screwing me for being a good little silver-polisher,” Kane said. “You’ll just be getting us off because we’re both really,
really,
happy right now.”
Everet glanced around the room. He’d seen Kane’s expression when they’d arrived there that morning. He knew how much he liked the sparkle and glitter that surrounded them.
Maybe there wasn’t any reason why they couldn’t have sex there… Maybe it was the perfect time to make the line between their sex life and Kane’s training, a mental rather than a physical barrier… Everet sighed, maybe he just really wanted to screw Kane right there and then, and any excuse that let him do that was fine with him.
Was he thinking like a good master or a horny man? He had no idea, but he also knew that, while he’d been busy thinking it all through, the decision had been made in a far more instinctive part of his brain.
“Stay exactly where you are.” Everet stepped back as he gave the order.
Kane glared at him with obvious disapproval, but he also obeyed.
Striding across to the door, Everet jerked it open. The guard in the corridor leaped to his feet and shoved the book he’d been reading behind his back.
Everet glowered at him, but he didn’t say anything. They’d talk about keeping his attention on his job the next time they met. “No one is to enter this room until we leave. No one. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” The guy straightened his back as if springing to attention. It did nothing to make up for his earlier lapse in concentration.
Everet slammed the door and turned to face Kane.
“Strip.”
“Because you want to make sure I’m not hiding the cutlery in my pockets?” Kane asked.
“If I wanted to know that, I’d frisk you,” Everet corrected, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the door. “I want you naked because I want to see every single inch of you. Now.”
Kane pulled his T-shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor at his side. Their eyes met across the room. Kane paused for a moment.
Everet didn’t move. He didn’t even take a deep breath.
Smiling to himself, Kane kicked off his trainers.
Socks. Jeans. Boxers. One by one, he tossed each item aside. Finally, he stood in the center of the room stark bollock naked.
It was only then that Everet allowed himself to step forward. He walked around Kane very slowly. The other man remained as motionless as Everet had a few moments before. He didn’t turn to watch Everet. He didn’t say anything bratty. The atmosphere in the room was very different to that which usually fell over their bedroom.
Even if he was in control in their bed, the atmosphere was light and friendly. In this room, it all felt far more serious, much more important. It wasn’t just about making sex about something other than money now, it was about wrapping it up in the tight bindings of dominance and submission. Down here, sex wore a collar and walked at heel on a lead made from heavy silver chains.
Kane’s breaths turned uneven and Everet hadn’t even laid a hand on him yet.
“I told you I want to see every inch of you.” When Kane would have spoken up, Everet put a fingertip against his lips. “That’s because, as soon as we make our time here about sex, I own every inch of you.”
Kane’s eyes sparkled with interest. For once, he didn’t bite Everet’s finger the moment it came within a yard of his mouth.
Everet’s lips twisted into a smile as he dropped his hand to his side and began to walk around the magpie once more. “You love all this glitter, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
Everet picked up one of the knives Kane had polished. The handle was molded into some complicated pattern that had probably been the latest fashion a few hundred years ago. Every nook and cranny of it gleamed.
Kane’s back was toward Everet. He had no warning before Everet brought the knife to rest upon his bare shoulder.
“What?” Kane twisted his neck and peered around at it.
“It looks good against your skin,” Everet mused, as if entirely to himself.