Chapter 5
Chapter Five
C live
“It’s Wednesday,” Clive announced as he walked into the living room to find Bain settled in the same chair as the day before. Clive was an early riser, so he’d been surprised to see the bedding on the floor empty when he awakened.
Bain stood to face Clive. Today, the tall man wore a pair of jeans, but they weren’t regular blue ones, no. These were dark purple. They matched the solid purple button down he wore. His belt was a shiny gold color. On anyone else, that outfit would look ridiculous, but Bain pulled it off. He looked long and slinky, and his silver hair was braided off his face, leaving his narrow features sharp and clear.
He took Clive’s breath away.
And it was so surprising because he was nothing like the men who usually attracted Clive. He was flashy and almost too beautiful for this world. He moved in such a sinuous fashion that Clive couldn’t stop staring at him. Everything about him was graceful.
Bain moved toward him slowly, and not for the first time, Clive wished he’d lose the dark glasses so he could see the man’s eyes. “Do you have a light sensitivity or something?”
Bain pointed to his glasses. “You mean these? Yes, I do.” He paused about three feet from Clive. “What’s so special about Wednesday?”
“It’s the day I run errands.”
“Then let’s run errands.” Bain tilted his head. “So you only do that the one day of the week?”
“Schedules are important to me,” Clive mumbled as he turned to grab his keys from their holder next to the door.
“So, what’s on the agenda?”
Strongly flustered, Clive fiddled with his keys. “Bank, pharmacy, then groceries. Are there any particular foods you’d like to have?”
“If there are, I’ll pick them out myself and pay.” Bain held up his hand. “Wait here while I check outside.”
Clive nodded, watching as the bodyguard slinked out the door. He must have walked around a bit because it took him a few minutes before he came back and waved Clive out. “I’ll drive,” Bain said.
Clive couldn’t stop watching Bain’s hands once in the car. He had such long, elegant fingers, and he drove with a casual assurance that set Clive at ease. Bain was so intriguing. Flashy, yet he emanated strength and self-assurance. His face was almost pretty with his sharp cheekbones and chin, but still held a distinctive masculinity.
He was truly fascinating, and Clive longed to ask why he’d become a bodyguard, because he really did look like someone who would play an instrument in a rock band or spend his days painting wildly colorful canvases. Did he have a girlfriend? Or—since Clive had recognized the book Bain had been reading—a boyfriend? Not that his choice of fiction said anything about his sexuality. But surely he had a person in his life. Someone that beautiful couldn’t be alone.
Clive purposely looked away from him, instead focusing on the city outside. He loved Seattle and had picked it as his home for several reasons. Mainly because of the tech industry that gave him so many clients, but also because when he did manage to get out of his house, the city was pretty. Surrounded by evergreen forests, mountains and water—if he talked himself into braving the outdoors, there was so much to enjoy. And the atmosphere worked for him. Some found the amount of rain and gray skies depressing, but he liked that. He found rain soothing. And the amount of rain they got was kind of blown out of proportion anyway. Yes, the skies were often gray, but to him, that just made the evergreens pop even more. He had a few in his backyard that looked beautiful when he left his curtains open.
He watched a guy in a bright yellow helmet riding his bike in the designated path. Clive had always wanted to try that form of transportation here, but that would mean crowds—something he just didn’t like to face more than one or two days a week.
He directed Bain toward his bank. Clive was surprised when Bain got out of the car, too. “You can wait, if you’d like. I’m just making a deposit so it won’t take long.’
“I go where you go. Always.”
Clive was about to respond when he caught one of his “sightings” out of the corner of his eye and every muscle in his body went tight.
Don’t look. Don’t look.
He couldn’t help it. He looked. The man, or creature, had blue-tinted skin and a long, thin tail that snapped around his back. Black eyes whipped his way, and Clive hurriedly turned his head.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Bain came around the car and wrapped his fingers around Clive’s arm. He turned his head, obviously looking at the same man before his head whipped back to Clive. “Clive? What do you see?”
“Nothing!” Clive snapped. He pulled away and marched inside the bank. As he approached the teller, he reminded himself that it was okay. He’d seen these…beings…before. He was safe. He had a bodyguard.
It’s not real. It’s not real.
But the mantra didn’t help. The usual fear filled him, turning his legs to jelly, and his hands shook the whole time. He should have started these deposits online, but this was one of his only places for outings, and he needed those. Needed to have his schedule.
Hurrying through the transaction, he tried to ignore the way Bain was studying him. But he wondered why Bain had asked what he’d seen.
He kept wondering as he directed Bain toward his grocery store, and they stayed quiet while they were inside. He felt Bain watching him, could actually feel the questions Bain obviously had for his behavior.
Needing a moment to himself, Clive stopped in the canned goods aisle. “I forgot the chives. I’m going to run back and grab them. Will you get the rice and pasta? I prefer angel hair.”
Bain shook his head. “Remember what I said about where you go?”
He waved his hand. “I’ll be just a moment, and there are people everywhere.” Not waiting for a response, Clive hurried off. The chives were toward the back of the produce aisle, next to the door that led to the back of the store.
As he was bagging a couple of batches, he suddenly felt heat against his back.
“Walk with me and not one word.”
The gravelly voice sent chills down his spine, freezing his legs into cement pillars. There was no way his muscles were going to work, so he started to shake. “Please leave me alone,” he whispered.
“I said move.” A hand grabbed his arm hard enough to leave bruises as he was nudged toward the back door. Clive had no choice but to walk that direction.
Utter terror gripped his throat, turned his mouth desert dry.
He was shoved through the door and into a wall. He grunted as his cheek smashed hard against the sheetrock. Then he was viciously turned to face a huge man with big, bulging nose and a body built like a brick wall. One who sneered down at him. Clive instinctively tried to kick the guy in the groin, but he blocked Clive easily.
Bulging nose opened his mouth to speak only to croak as an arm slammed around his throat from behind.
Bain had found them. The relief was so instantaneous, Clive nearly slid down the wall because the fear that had locked his legs disappeared. He just knew Bain could take this bigger man down. He didn’t know why. Some instinct maybe.
Bain bent the guy’s arm behind him and held him in a chokehold. He growled into the man’s ear, “You fucked with the wrong man. Who hired you?”
Bulging nose tried to jab his elbow back but Bain easily dodged it and tightened his arm until the guy’s eyes bugged out and he started to turn blue.
Then Bain expertly flipped him around, his forearm going back to the man’s neck so fast Clive blinked. That was…too fast. Insanely fast. But he was still too flustered to make sense of it.
“Talk,” Bain ordered, pulling his arm slightly away.
He just gasped, some color returning to his cheeks.
“We’re waiting.” Bain’s low taunt in that velvety voice made Clive shiver.
Bulging nose took in several deep breaths before he spoke in a gritty tone that sounded like his throat had been rubbed down with sandpaper. “Don’t know. It went through anonymous channels as usual. I’m just a gun for hire.”
“Bullshit,” Bain bit out.
“I don’t know anything. I swear.”
“Then today is not your lucky day.”
Bulging nose’s eyes flew open wide. “You going to kill me here? In the store?”
“Like you were going to do with my friend here?”
“Was just going to talk to him.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me. You’re an assassin. But here’s the thing. I’m not going to kill you. Not here. You’re going to go back through your channels and tell whoever hired you that Clive Manning has protection now.”
“So you’re just letting me go?”
Bain’s grin was so feral, pure, raw lust hit Clive’s gut. His eyes went wide. What the hell? Were the violent intentions turning him on?
“No, not just letting you go.”
Again, Bain moved so fast Clive couldn’t follow. The next thing he knew, the bad guy was groaning on the ground, his arm bent at a hideously unnatural angle and blood smearing his nose and cheeks. That huge nose of his was no longer centered on his face, and his jaw wasn’t sitting correctly.
Clive’s stomach churned violently but he wasn’t shocked by that. He’d never been a fan of violence. Or so he’d thought. It was the lust tearing through him that truly shocked him. Watching the slim bodyguard take down such a huge man—and with so little effort—had been hot as hell.
Bain must have some kind of martial arts training—but even so, how could he move so fast? He’d been almost a blur. That thought raised that first feeling he’d gotten from Bain when they’d met at the hotel—that there was something off about him. Something that felt not quite…human.
“Come on,” Bain said, holding out his hand to Clive. “Let’s get our stuff and go.”
Clive just stood, blinking at him.
This time, Bain’s grin was so much friendlier, not feral at all. “Told you I’d keep you safe. But no more wandering off away from me, okay?”
Clive nodded.
They left the guy on the floor, went back to their cart, and checked out as if nothing had happened. There wasn’t even a speck of blood on Bain’s pretty purple clothes.
The whole time, Clive was reeling. Bain might dress like David Bowie but he had skills beyond Clive’s belief. He was tough. Strong. Powerful.
And apparently all of that absolutely did it for Clive because he stayed turned on all the way home.