Page 15 of Basilisk

“There’s nokind ofabout that,” Bain teased. “I still can’t believe you made your bed the night you ran.”

“Oh, my god,” Clive moaned, clasping his hands over his face. “When I first woke up, I thought it was just me waking early,and I usually make the bed first. I was actually doing that when I heard the intruder.”

“Yet this morning, you left your bed unmade when you got up.”

“Yeah, well…” Clive glanced away before looking back. “I was distracted.”

Bain turned a little in his direction and leaned his head down a bit. “Do I distract you, Clive Manning?”

“Yes,” he breathed out. His heart began to race from the way Bain was looking at him. It was so hot it made his toes tingle. He wanted to see Bain’s eyes so badly right then he almost reached for the glasses. Something made him hesitate, though—some inner voice that told him not to. Before he could really dig into that thought, someone brushed past them, and Clive couldn’t stop his mouth from dropping open briefly before he snapped it shut. He looked away quickly, slamming his eyes shut.

Not human. Not human. Not human.

Huge black wings had been on his back. And his face? Had it been a face? No, more of a beak, really. A human face with a long orange beak.

“Clive? Are you okay?”

He hurriedly nodded and forced himself to open his eyes and look up at Bain. “Fine. Fine. Just ready for some food. How about that mac and cheese now?”

He could tell Bain had his eyes narrowed because of the way his eyebrows drew down, and he stayed silent for several long seconds before he nodded. “That sounds good. How about we get our food and take it to the park at the end of the street. We can enjoy the sunlight, feel the grass under us.”

“I’d like that.”

So that’s what they did. Clive was so excited to try the food he took a bite right away on the walk to the park. Bain was right—this was probably the best pasta he’d ever eaten. And he was damn good at making his own sauces.

When they reached a grassy knoll, Bain surprised him by stretching out and setting his container on the ground. He lounged on his side, balanced on one elbow, and scooped out the cheesy goodness with his free hand. There were other people enjoying the warm summer day around them.

Clive cast about his brain for a topic of conversation. He’d never found conversations easy, and although Bain set him at ease more than most, there was still something about him that made Clive hesitate to relax completely. It could be the strong attraction he felt, but if he were being perfectly honest, it seemed to be something more, and he didn’t want to delve too deeply into that feeling. But he wanted to know things. Everything really, when it came to Bain.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” he blurted out, hoping the flush on his neck could be attributed to the heat from the sun. He hurriedly wiped his lips with his napkin and set his container of mac and cheese in his lap.

“No. No boyfriend either.” Bain watched him steadily as he took another bite of pasta.

“So you prefer men?”

“I don’t exactly fall comfortably in place on the queer spectrum. Let’s just say, I like everything.”

“So…pansexual.”

Bain lifted one shoulder. “Maybe. I don’t really give it much thought. I’ve also been in trysts with more than one person at a time, so I could be called polyamorous, as well.”

“Oh.” Clive knew he’d said that too quietly. But the disappointment had been so immediately intense, he’d almost choked on the bite he’d just taken. He had no problem with polyamory. At all. But he definitely wasn’t. He didn’t like to share, and knowing Bain was so much more open andadventurous, that he’d had so much more experience, made his earlier hope turn into a bitter taste in his mouth. He’d had sex with only three different men—had been a virgin until he was twenty, and there’d been long periods of abstinence between each of those men. Andrew had felt like a last attempt, and as he’d told both Andrew and Bain, the sex just hadn’t been worth it. He’d tried so hard to convince himself it was enough, but he’d always wanted more. He wanted a person he could call just his. He felt he had a deep well of love inside him, but he just hadn’t figured out how to tap it.

He also really wanted to know if those fireworks were a real possibility.

“Why did that upset you?”

Clive jerked his head up at Bain’s question. “Oh, it didn’t.”

Bain’s eyebrows went so far down, they disappeared behind his tinted glasses. “Don’t ever lie to me, Clive.”

Well hell, that underlying steel in Bain’s voice just turned him on again. He tried to think of how to explain his feelings without giving what he wanted away and couldn’t think of anything. His mouth turned traitor then. “I don’t like to share.”

Bain stared a long moment before he slowly sat up to face Clive, crossing his long legs and leaning in intimately. “Are you saying you don’t want to share me?”

“I didn’t mean… That is, uh… Fuck.” He closed his eyes, shivering at Bain’s low chuckle.

“Clive, even if I wanted to start something with you—and trust me, I do—my company has very strict rules against that.”

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