Free Base Instincts by Larissa Ione

choke out one simple, yet devastating word. “Dead.”
    Slake appeared in the doorway, his magnificent body still glistening with sweat. “I’m sorry,” he said. “What happened?”
    Raze studied the ceiling again. It was pretty unremarkable as far as ceilings went. “The apocalypse shit that went down a couple of years ago.”
    “Aw, fuck.” Slake stepped out of the bathroom, and Raze figured he was heading for his clothes, so he was surprised as hell when Slake stretched out next to him on the bed again. They weren’t touching, but this was still the most private, most intimate moment he’d ever shared with anyone, including Fayle.
    The knowledge left him off-balance, would probably have freaked him out if they hadn’t been chin-deep in conversation about the worst period in Raze’s life. He wasn’t used to sharing, not because he was an overly private person, but because, besides Lexi, he’d really not had anyone to talk to. His life was work and sex. Sex and work.
    Keeping busy kept him from wishing for things he couldn’t have. Like a male partner.
    Like Slake.
    “They were killed during the upheaval. I tried to save them . . .” Raze trailed off, the memory of finding their remains, scattered all over their house, still too fresh to open that wound. He looked over at Slake, who was lying on his side, propped up by one elbow. “What about you? Where’s your family?”
    Slake’s dark eyes iced over. “As far as I know, they’re alive and kicking in their special little isolated compound in Sheoul.”
    “I’m guessing there’s a long story and some bad blood there?”
    “You could say that.”
    Yawning, Raze closed his eyes, content to bask in the afterglow of the sex and the surprisingly . . . pleasant conversation. “What do you do for a living, anyway?”
    “I work for a law firm.”
    Raze cracked his lids just enough to eyeball his bedmate. “You’re a lawyer?”
    Slake barked out a laugh. “Hell no. My species, Duosos, are weapons specialists. We make and control weapons no one else can, like my handy little sinispheres . I work for Dire & Dyre, using my skills however they need me to. Mainly because, like an idiot, I signed a contract decades ago that ties me to them until the end of next week.”
    “What happens at the end of next week?”
    “I’m a free agent.” There was a note of hesitation in his voice, but Raze didn’t want to pry. Not into that, anyway. He was too curious about something else.
    “So . . . when you say you’re a free agent . . .” He trailed off, gave himself a heartbeat to get his head in the right place, the way he always did before making the first cut of a delicate operation. “Does that apply to relationships?”
    Slake sucked in a harsh breath, and Raze immediately regretted the question. He wasn’t sure why he’d even asked. It wasn’t as if he was available, not when Fayle made being with anyone difficult.
    “I’m not with anyone,” Slake said slowly, “if that’s what you mean.” He turned his head to stare at Raze. “What about you? I mean, I know you’ve got this thing with Fayle, but have you ever tried being with a male without her?”
    Raze sighed. “Right after I went through the maturation phase I told you about, I tried to come with a guy. It didn’t work.”
    He’d hoped, had prayed to a hundred different deities he didn’t even believe in, but right when his climax had been imminent, so hot it burned, pleasure had abruptly shifted to bone-searing agony. Fayle had been there to help, and she’d never let him forget it.
    “But if you found the right guy, could you, I don’t know, do a threesome kind of thing? Have you ever tried?”
    Raze nearly laughed. Once, he’d been hopeful that somehow he and Fayle could work something out. That somewhere out there was a guy who could accept his arrangement with Fayle, and that she could accept Raze’s desire for someone else.
    He’d been such a fool.
    “We’ve done the