Perian smiled at him, then tugged him closer. “I think you said something about a fast recovery.”
And Perian could feel it, tickling along his spine, the rising desire in the other man, something that it hadn’t occurred to him other people couldn’t sense the way he could.
Brannal grinned at him, and in a move too fast for Perian to follow, he was suddenly on his back on the rug with Brannal on top of him, grinding down against him and showing him just how recovered he was.
Yes, Perian could definitely get used to this.
What with all the sex they were having and falling into a routine, it took longer than Perian had meant before they got to the doctor’s book. Perian had loved every gesture that everyone had sent that showed their support of him, but the book had sat on the shelf for several weeks before he found it again.
“Oh,” Perian said, as he flipped it open. “It’s a novel. I was totally imagining some sort of special text. I thought I might start making salve, but I’m not sure I can do it on my own.”
Brannal said, “I’m sure Elorinn would be happy to send suggestions and resources. Are you planning to hurt yourself a lot?”
Perian made a face. “I certainly hope not. But maybe we could give them away in town.”
“Or sell them,” Brannal suggested. “That would cause fewer questions.”
“Or sell themcheaply,” Perian correctly. “But they’ll be good quality.”
Brannal nodded, like they’d come to a solid compromise, and maybe they had.
Perian eyed the book. “But we’ll start with this. I wonder why she wanted me to read a novel.”
“There’s a note,” Brannal said. “It was addressed to both of us, so I didn’t openit.”
Sure enough, an envelope had been tucked into the pages. Perian plucked it out and opened it.
I think that in the wonder of the abilities and the shock of the allegations, you lost sight of thehow. Understandable, under the circumstances, but extremely important. I apologize for the prose, but I think you need to read it.
Perian stared at it, then handed it to Brannal, who looked as puzzled as he was.
“Give it a try?” Perian said.
Brannal nodded, which began their tradition of taking turns reading it aloud each night. Because they could only take it in small doses. The book was small, leather-bound, and a bit battered. It was old, the language dated, flowery, stiltedandoverblown. It was extremely dramatic and featured a ridiculous heroine who seemed to spend the entire book needing to be rescued.
“Ugh!” Perian yelled. “Why can’t you just escape on your own? You’re not even locked in!”
The reading had gotten slower when they’d started interjecting their own commentary, but it had become a more enjoyable process.
“I think she’s in shock,” Brannal pointed out.
“She can’t be in shock through the whole book!” Perian protested.
“Well, shocking things keep happening,” he pointed out.
“And the correct response is to try to deal with them!”
Brannal regarded him with amusement. “That is certainly how some people react. I’m not sure you realize that you are, perhaps, not exactly typical.”
Perian regarded him with bemusement. “You thinkIhaven’t realized that I’m not exactly typical?”
But Brannal was shaking his head. “I don’t mean being a child of two worlds. I mean that bad things happen to you, and you just… keep going.”
“As opposed to stopping?”
Brannal huffed a breath, looking at Perian carefully. “Yes, actually. After someone was burned badly and cut badly in training exercises, they could legitimately decide they were never doing that again.”
“Oh,” Perian said, considering this. “Right. Yes, I suppose that would have been a way to deal with it.”
