“You could,” Everet allowed. “But you gave me the right to speak for you in certain matters when you agreed to come under my protection—at least until you can speak politely about them on your own behalf.” He turned back to Mr. Johnson.
The older man bowed his head over a ledger. “Does he have any special skills that might be of use to the nest?”
“I give excellent blowjobs,” Kane said, before Everet had a chance.
Mr. Johnson ran a finger down a column. “Unfortunately, we don’t appear to have anything that requires that particular skill…” he murmured. “However, there’s a position on one of the cleaning flocks that—”
“No way in hell I’m—!”
“He’ll take it.”
Both statements hit the air at the same time.
Mr. Johnson’s lips twitched. “Fantastic!”
Kane jerked to his feet and planted his hands on Mr. Johnson’s desk. “I said—”
“That you would defer to my decisions,” Everet interrupted. He really wished there was a way to turn down the volume on Kane. His head ached like he’d been punched by an albatross. And he’d thought looking after the mute and motionless version of Kane had been exhausting!
Kane glanced over his shoulder at Everet. His eyes narrowed. “Whatever.”
He’d started plotting something. Everet had no doubt about that. Kane wasn’t simply giving in. Even after such a brief acquaintance, it was obvious that wasn’t his style.
Mr. Johnson looked at the clock on the wall opposite his desk. “As it happens, one of the cleaning flocks is due to congregate in the upper hallway in just a few minutes time.”
“Perfect. Thank you. We’ll go straight up and meet them there.” Everet stood and offered Mr. Johnson his hand. The owl extended a hand toward him in return.
Kane strode out of the room as Everet shook hands with Mr. Johnson, his own hands once more shoved deep into his pockets.
Everet caught up with him at the end of a row of chairs in the corridor, just in time to grab hold of his arm and turn him toward a set of service stairs leading up to the top floor.
“Me. A cleaner?” Kane demanded. “Seriously?”
“There’s nothing wrong with cleaning.”
“Fine, then you can do it!” As they stepped into the upper hallway, Kane planted his feet firmly in the deep pile of the long, maroon carpet. “I’ll do your job.” Kane’s frown deepened. “What do you do?”
“Nest security,” Everet told him, not for the first time. “You wouldn’t like it.”
“I don’t like this, either. I’m not going to be a cleaner!”
Everet didn’t bother to answer. He’d already seen the group of avians milling around at the other end of the hall. He strode forward, his hand still wrapped around Kane’s arm, ignoring any of the other man’s attempts to slow them down.
The group caught sight of them when they were just a few yards away. One man nudged his neighbor in the ribs, by the time Everet and Kane came to a halt, all the men faced them expectantly.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Everet said. “Kane will be joining your crew today. He’s new to the nest. He’s also restricted to light duties for the time being.”
One of the avians stepped forward. His stance and attitude made it clear that he was the highest-ranking man there and therefore in nominal charge of the group. “Yes, sir.” He tipped his head respectfully to Everet.
The man looked to be somewhere in his forties, short and dressed with a neatness that hinted he’d probably be fanatical in his attention to detail. Everet glanced down at the other man’s wrist. His mark proclaimed him to be a partridge.
All in all, the man looked like a fine choice to lead the flock—and no match at all for Kane’s current standard of behavior.
“I’ll stay and follow your progress today, too,” Everet went on. “To observe Kane, make sure he settles in and that everything goes well on his first day.”
“You’re very welcome, sir.” The partridge nodded to him again. When repeated so often, the gesture made him look a little like a puppet with a faulty string.
Everet acknowledged him with a very slight dip of his own head and took three steps back, leaving Kane as part of the group while he removed himself from their immediate sphere.
Kane glared at the group of drab little men standing before him. He could already sense how badly they resented his presence. Well, screw them. Kane pursed his lips, not bothering to hide his distaste at the company he was temporarily forced to keep.
Everet’s eyes bored into the back of Kane’s neck so fiercely the other man might as well have been put in a permanent choke hold. If he’d just have buggered off and left him to it, it would have been so easy.
The guy who’d been so deferential to Everet handed a yellow duster and a canister of spray polish to Kane. Damn. With Everet there, he’d at least have to pretend to play along for a while. Kane snatched both items from the other man.
There was a mark on the inside of the guy’s wrist but Kane didn’t recognize it.
“You’re a magpie?” the man asked.
“Yeah.”
What about it?
The other man glanced toward Everet. It was obvious that his decision not to answer the unspoken question was based entirely upon the raven’s presence.
Kane huffed his disgust. What a coward…
The guy cleared his throat in that prissy little manner self-important men had. “You’ll work on the left-hand side of the hallway. Make sure you get all the wooden surfaces. One of the others will be around to take care of the glass and the soft furnishings. Until we know what sort of standard you work to, I’ll make regular checks on your progress.”
Kane said nothing.
The other members of the group picked up equipment from a wheeled trolley in the middle of the hall and spread out to do their various jobs without any orders hitting the air. Apparently, they were all well trained.
Kane tilted up his chin. He’d
never
be like them.
They all worked in silence, just to make the task that little bit more boring than it would have been anyway. Kane sighed and halfheartedly squirted some of the polish on a side table set between two doors.
Perhaps the job would have been slightly more tolerable if it had looked like something worth keeping clean, but it was the most boring thing in creation. No sparkle or glitter, just drab brown wood. He gave it a quick rub with the cloth because Everet still lurked nearby, and moved on to the next one.
“Kane.”
Rolling his eyes, Kane returned to the table and tapped his toe against the floor as the same guy as before gave him an in-depth lecture about making sure he moved things and cleaned beneath them rather than just around them. He went on about how it was important to work the duster over the detailing on the sides of the table too. Apparently, it was also vital to make sure no dust clung to the rail underneath the table. As if anyone could possibly give a damn about what was down there.
“Any questions?”
Kane let his face go carefully blank. “Maybe you could show me on the next table along? I’m sure I could get the hang of it then.”
He offered the man a carefully calculated smile and saw color rush to his checks in response.
Gotcha!
This one would be so easy to wrap around his finger, it would be—
“No.”
Kane looked over his shoulder and there was Everet, well within eavesdropping range.
The head of the work party blinked, as if he had completely forgotten about the raven’s presence.
“He knows what to do,” Everet said, coldly. “He just wants to con you into doing it for him. Every table you demonstrate the correct technique on is one less that he has to do himself. If you’re not careful, he’ll flirt his way into getting you to do them all for him.”
Kane glared over his shoulder at Everet.
Bastard.
There was no point trying to get out of doing it again, at least, not straight away. Kane snatched the equipment off his self-appointed cleaning instructor and stomped off to the next table lining the hall.
Everet silently took up position barely a yard away from him, arms folded across his chest, as still as a statue. If Kane didn’t do the job right, he had a horrible feeling that Everet would make him re-do it over and over again until he was satisfied.
Quick to spot out the route of least resistance, Kane did exactly as he’d been shown. He even remembered the bar beneath the damn big lump of oak.
The only way to reach beneath the table was to get down on his knees. Kane turned to Everet the moment his knees hit the hall carpet. “You know, there are far more interesting things I could do in this position.”
The raven wasn’t an idiot, he knew exactly what Kane offered him, but Kane still licked his lips, just to make things that little bit clearer.
“You’ve used sex to manipulate men for too long. It’s time to stop,” Everet said. His face remained expressionless, but the way his shoulders tensed made it clear that he was far from as unaffected as he’d like to appear.
“You think that’s the only reason I’d want to suck your cock?” Kane asked. “I’d never have guessed you were so modest!” He turned and ran the cloth over the carved wood running between the legs of the table. There wasn’t even any damn dust there to be wiped away, talk about bloody pointless.
“Flattery won’t get you out of doing your fair share of work,” Everet snapped.
A few of the other men had vacuum cleaners going as they attacked the carpet with apparent pleasure in their work.
Despite the fact a dozen avians lurked in the hallway, Kane realized that there was no one within earshot of them. “It’s only flattery if I’m lying.”
Everet’s face remained impassive. He even managed to relax his shoulders and look stress free. It was only the way his trousers tented over his growing erection that let Kane know that all his kneeling and flirting wasn’t going to waste.
“You’re not an idiot,” Kane said. “You have to know you’re hot—in a grumpy sort of way. After bending over for rich old men who’d never have a chance of getting laid if they weren’t paying for it, you’d actually make a nice change.”
Everet stepped forward, giving another member of the work party room to open a door behind him and step through it. The door swung closed, but Everet didn’t retreat.
He was now less than half a yard away from Kane.
“More subtle attempts at manipulation aren’t going to get you anywhere either.”
Kane laughed. “Do you want to screw me just because you think it will give you a better chance of getting some kind of obedience out of me the next time you try and order me around?”
“Of course not!” Everet snapped. “That has nothing to do with—”
“So why can’t I just want to screw you because I think it might be fun?” Kane stood up. “If I’m going to spend all day doing this.” He brandished a duster. “I could use something hot to look forward to when I’m done. Sometimes sex is just sex.”
Everet’s gaze narrowed. He didn’t trust him.
Kane smiled. He’d been right to say the other man was no idiot.
“You’re neglecting your work,” Everet finally said.
That wasn’t a no. As Kane made his way to the next table, he had no doubt he’d be able to make the answer a very firm yes by the time they went back to Everet’s rooms that night. Leaning over to wipe all the way to the back of the tabletop, he made sure that his arse faced Everet and the fabric of his jeans stretched very nicely over his buttocks.