Page 67 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

Brannal caught his chin in two fingers and gently tilted it up until Perian had to look at him.

“We didn’t talk about it,” Brannal said. “Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t include anyone else without discussing it?”

“You told me to spend time with Molun and Arvus,” Perian mumbled.

“That is not at all the same thing as saying I was going to spend time with anyone else.”

“But that would be fair,” Perian insisted.

“And you would hate it,” Brannal pointed out.

“I wouldn’t—” But Perian couldn’t finish the words.

Quietly, Brannal repeated, “You would hate it.”

Perian bit his lip and then admitted tearfully, “Iwouldhate it.”

Oh, he was an awful partner, what was wrong with him?

“Whatever you’re thinking, stop it,” Brannal said, voice intense.

It made Perian look at him again. “But how can I not want the same thing for you that you want for me?”

“Think about it the other way around,” Brannal told him. “You like Molun and Arvus and what you do with them, right?”

Perian nodded, still feeling a bit miserable.

“And if I told you I didn’t like it, would you still do it?”

“Of course not!” Perian said, feeling a little bit outraged, because if Brannal thoughtthat—!

“Exactly,” Brannal said firmly. “So why would you imagine for a second that I would do something like that if it hurtyou?”

Oh.A little bit of the tension leaked out of Perian. “But that’s not fair, is it?”

“It means we like slightly different things. And we should probably have discussed it before I left, so you wouldn’t have been in any doubt. I apologize.”

Perian blew out a breath. “I didn’t think of it until just now, which is definitely a good thing, because I was enough of a mess without having added that to the mix.”

Brannal looked sad. “I’m sorry, was it terrible?”

Perian immediately felt bad for his incautious words. “No, it wasn’t terrible. I mean, the first couple of days were a bit rough. I just wanted you to be here so much.”

Brannal sighed and pulled him close again. “Me too.”

“But Nisal and Molun and Arvus and Renny and Prince Horsey and the doctor and Onadal and Bennan all helped. They distracted me and reminded me I have friends.”

Brannal was silent for a moment. “Bennan… is one of the Warriors?”

He sounded like he could almost but not quite place him.

Perian hummed an agreement. “So pretty. All those muscles.”

Brannal huffed a laugh, but Perian could feel a bit of extra tension in him now, and he thought maybe they weren’t so different as Perian had first imagined in those incoherent moments where he’d thought Brannal might have been having sex with strangers while he was gone.

Perian pressed a soft kiss to Brannal’s lips.

“Not what I wanted. And like you said, we didn’t talk about it. I mean, there is totally a rumor about me throwing you over for him because wow, the rumor mill at this castle, but that’s just because we both like to flirt. I was actually busy trying to set him up with Chamis, the shy Warrior who really wanted him but didn’t quite know what to do with all that flirting, and it looks like everything went to plan yesterday—I think—so hopefully they’re busy working things out, and the rumor mill can have fun withthat.”

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