Chapter 30 Bruno
brUNO
There was something steely about Alan on Monday when Bruno dropped Gil off, and he lingered at the gate, clearly waiting for Gil to trot off to play so he could talk to Bruno privately.
“Any information from your new girlfriend?” he asked mildly.
Bruno could feel the hairs on his neck prickle. This wasn’t a harmless question or pointless conversation. “You’re concerned about something,” he guessed.
Alan gave him an appraising look, probably consulting his own instincts and inner animal. “There’s been some…restlessness along certain channels,” he said vaguely. “We’re hoping to stay ahead of anything we can.”
“I didn’t spend a lot of time interrogating her this weekend,” Bruno said, trying not to feel cross, but mindful of his duty to Clarice’s privacy. It figured that when he finally started to open up to someone, she came with complications.
Well, it wasn’t like he was without his own.
Alan scrutinized him, then turned away when there was a wail of a new timber from the play kitchen.
“I’ve got an appointment coming up,” Bruno said briefly. “I’ll be back at five.”
Alan gave a cool nod in parting.
Bruno spent some time untangling his feelings on the drive back to his office. He didn’t want to keep information from Alan that might endanger the shifter community, but he didn’t want to approach Clarice—his girlfriend?—the way he might any random informant.
He desperately wanted to trust her, wanted to believe that she really did fit as perfectly with him as she seemed to.
Certainly she did physically. But how much of Bruno’s blooming affection was his own longing for connection and his own desire for her hot, curvy body?
He knew how easy it was to see what he wanted to and he wouldn’t be the first man to get swept up in sex.
The afternoon’s appointments took all of his focus and concentration, and he was mentally exhausted by the time he picked Gil up.
“We played TAKE IT WITH YOU and I remembered my clothes EVERY TIME but Tara was FASTER and Franzi skinned her KNEE and—”
“Tell me about it when we get home,” Bruno prodded him. “You’re supposed to be putting on your boots.”