“I understand.”
“You believe Kane can be rehabilitated?” Ori asked, eagerly, leaning forward in his seat.
“Yes,” Everet said.
Poor, delusional sod.
Kane only just kept back a burst of laughter.
“What do you think, sir?” Ori asked Raynard.
“If Everet thinks he can reform him, I see no reason why he shouldn’t be allowed to try. However, I’d give the venture no better than fifty-fifty odds of success.” He studied Everet for a moment. “I’d suggest each man be allowed to swap the arrangement for Kane’s sentence in the cage if and when the need arose.”
Ori smiled, as if he’d been given permission for a huge treat. Without warning, he turned to Kane.
“Do you understand what this would mean, Kane? You’d belong to him in every way,” Ori said. He looked down for a moment. “Everet is a good man, but being under any man’s protection can’t always be easy. He could set any rules he wished you to follow. If you did something wrong, he’d be allowed to punish you in whatever way he saw fit.”
Yeah, right. Kane was sure they all thought that was the way things would be between them. “I understand,” he said. He understood far more than any of them ever would!
Silence filled the room for several seconds.
“So, what do you think, Kane?” Ori eventually asked. “Will you accept Everet as your master and agree to do your best to be a good submissive for him?”
Kane smiled, all his faith in his ability to find a nice safe perch to land upon very nicely confirmed. “Of course, sir.”
If he’d given a damn about being honest with any of the men in the room, he might have crossed his fingers for that last bit. As it was, he didn’t even bother.
Chapter Three
Everet closed the door leading into his set of rooms at the nest carefully behind him. It was important that he pay attention to every single thing he did. Monitoring his future actions was now essential in a way it had never seemed to be before. If he didn’t keep a careful watch on himself, he might let another insane act slip through all the barriers of common sense he possessed.
Everet still didn’t know what the hell he’d been thinking, agreeing to take the damn magpie under his wing. He was reasonably sure that it would always remain a mystery—possibly because he’d lost his mind.
Holding back a curse, Everet turned away from the door. He was just in time to see Kane stride into the middle of the small sitting area that took up most of his accommodation at the nest.
Kane ran his gaze over the space with obvious distaste. “The guest quarters were much nicer.”
“I’m not a guest,” Everet said. “I work here. Once you’ve healed, you’ll be working here, too.”
Kane made no comment on that. Selective deafness seemed to be one of his current specialties. Everet added it to the end of the ever-increasing list of behaviors he’d have to try to modify if Kane could ever be allowed any kind of freedom.
Everet stepped away from the door as he watched the other man examine his surroundings.
Sofa, armchair, shelves, coffee table. He didn’t miss a thing.
Whatever Kane had taken, it obviously did a sterling job of keeping him oblivious to his pain. Every movement he made was fluid and easy. It was almost possible to believe the bruises were just colors painted onto his skin.
The boy would have a hell of a shock once his high wore off.
“Are you hungry?”
Kane shook his head, not even bothering to look over his shoulder.
Everet, however, was hungry enough to eat whatever anyone would put in front of him. Stepping over to the fireplace, he picked up the phone from its holder on the wall and called down to the kitchens.
Kane glanced into the bathroom before drifting into the apartment’s only bedroom.
Everet listened out for a crash, just in case Kane’s high ended with a bang, but no sound emerged from the bedroom. No comment regarding the fact Everet’s apartment only contained one bed made its way out to him either.
It was a big enough double that it would easily hold two men who had no intention of touching during the night. If Kane hadn’t exuded sex through every pore in his body, that might have actually been a possibility…
Everet hung up the phone as soon as he’d placed his order, and made his way into the bedroom. He half expected to find Kane crashed out, asleep on the bed.
He was partially right. Kane was certainly on the bed, but he wasn’t curled up and sleeping off his high.
Kane lay in the center of the bed, propped up by several pillows, invitation shining in his eyes.
“Well?” Kane asked.
Everet couldn’t help but run his eyes down Kane’s body. God, he was gorgeous. But, he bloody well knew it, too.
“Well what?” Everet said.
Kane laughed. “Well, now that you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?”
Everet remained just inside the bedroom door. A good three yards of dark blue carpet stretched out between him and the other man, and that was the way it would stay.
“Now, I’m going to break you of all your bad habits and make you a credit to the nest,” Everet said, very simply.
This time Kane’s laugh contained less flirtation and far more real mirth. “Of course you are. And I’ll bet stage one in that plan involves you sticking your cock up my arse, right?”
When Kane smiled it was so easy to focus on his expression and forget the rest. Everet folded his arms across his chest and held his ground through sheer force of will. The bruises—those were the important things to remember. The bruises, and the track marks, and the fact that Kane had probably spent so much of his life either whoring himself out or stealing from those who screwed him, he couldn’t remember how to do anything else.
“No,” Everet said. There would be no sex. “The first stage is to get you clean and sober. It shouldn’t take long for all the drugs to leave your system, but it probably won’t be pleasant for you.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed. He seemed to remain deep in thought for a few seconds. Then, the smile came back. He trailed one hand down his body, teasing the tears he’d slashed into his clothes and caressing the skin visible through them.
“The second stage will involve finding a role in the nest that suits your abilities,” Everet went on, doing his damnedest to pretend the little show didn’t have any effect on him.
Kane’s hand reached his crotch. He caressed the line of his shaft through the denim. He had indeed dressed to the right. The tip of his cock became visible through the rip in his jeans as he hardened.
Everet had seen Kane naked in the bath. It should have been easy to ignore the glimpse of his cock, but it wasn’t.
“My abilities,” Kane grinned as he looked down at his hand. “Yeah, I’ve got lots of those. You wouldn’t believe the tricks I learned over the years. There’s this thing I can do with my tongue that—”
Everet took several quick steps back and slammed the bedroom door, sealing Kane in the bedroom and himself outside it. There weren’t enough curse words in the world to release his frustration in that moment.
“Get some sleep,” he yelled through the door. “We’re making an early start in the morning.”
Kane’s laughter was muffled by the door, but there was no doubt the cheeky little bastard thought he’d won round one of their little war of wills.
Everet reached down and pressed the heel of his hand against his straining fly. The magpie had certainly done a wonderful job of getting him all hot and bothered. On the other hand, Everet hadn’t given in to temptation.
Everet frowned. At best, that could still only be counted as a draw.
A knock fell upon a door. For a second, Everet thought Kane wanted permission to leave the bedroom, but no, it came from the door to his apartment. A distraction! That was exactly what Everet needed.
He jerked open the door more than willing to invite in whoever was there.
Ambrose stood in the corridor, his huge albatross form practically filling the entire doorway. “Your food was delivered to my place by mistake.” He proffered a plate. The sandwich was huge, just as Everet had ordered, but in Ambrose’s hand it looked dainty.
“Thanks.” Everet took the plate and stepped back to let his friend in.
“You’ve had a busy day,” Ambrose said. “The rumor mill is working overtime.”
Everet grunted. Well, wasn’t that great? “What is it saying?”
“A hundred different things about you and a magpie,” Ambrose said, folding himself carefully onto one end of the sofa. Like every other piece of furniture, it seemed to be the wrong scale for him. No matter how small he tried to make himself, he was just too big for the rest of the world.
Everet slumped onto the other side of the sofa, rested his elbow on the back of it, and let his temple fall against his fist. “His name’s Kane, he’s in the bedroom.”
Ambrose glanced across at the bedroom door. “Seriously?”
Everet nodded.
“That’s…nice?” Ambrose hazarded.
“It’s bloody insane, that’s what it is,” Everet said with a half-sigh, picking at his sandwich as his appetite deserted him. “I told the elders I can rehabilitate him, make him a credit to the nest.”
“Perhaps the magpie side of him isn’t as strong as—”
“I brought him here from a human club,” Everet recounted, without the slightest hint of emotion. “He serviced the owner, and probably half the other men there. They wanted to get rid of him because he stole from them.”
“Oh.”
Everet smiled wryly. Nothing anyone could say would make the situation any better than it was. The light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t an oncoming train, it was a serial killer shining a torch as he searched for victims. “I’m screwed.”
“Maybe…” Ambrose frowned. “No,” he finally admitted a minute later. “You’re right. You are screwed.”
But Kane hadn’t been—not by Everet. That was important. Everet kept the words to himself, but that didn’t mean they were any the less vital to his sanity.
“What are you going to do?” Ambrose asked.
“I’m going to do my damnedest to follow through and sort him out. It’s not as if I can—”
The bedroom door swung open. Everet and Ambrose both turned to stare as Kane stepped into the living room, completely naked. He strolled past them and disappeared into the bathroom. The door clicked closed behind him.
Everet felt Ambrose’s attention swing back to him, but his own gaze never wavered from the bathroom door. A minute passed and Kane emerged, just as naked as before.
All his movements leisurely and graceful, he walked past the sofa once more, and draped himself across the armchair opposite them. His legs fell open, putting his crotch on display. He was still half-hard. “What are we talking about?” he asked, his voice a veritable purr of pure seduction.
Everet’s eyes narrowed. “Ambrose, meet Kane. He’s going to be under my protection for the foreseeable future. Kane, this is Ambrose. He works with me on the nest’s security team.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Ambrose said, politely.
Kane’s eyes sparkled. In one erotic little movement he was off his chair and kneeling at Ambrose’s feet.
He turned his hand up to show the mark on the inside of his wrist, which was all good and proper, Everet supposed. It just wasn’t so essential that he rested the back of his fingers against Ambrose’s fly when he did it.