Page 21 of Devil May Lie
“We sure he’ll last it now? That sounds—” A particularly bloodcurdling scream echoed through the closed door just then, and Yuze lifted a brow pointedly. “Yeah. What he said.”
Heaving an annoyed sigh, Berga headed toward the door, grabbing a small canister on his way. He keyed in the code and yanked the metal open, then popped the top on the canister and tossed it inside. Once they were sealed off once more, he returned to his station.
“What did you just do?” Yuze asked.
“Sleeping gas.”
“…What if they die in their sleep?”
“I’m testing Impression on two of them,” Berga reassured. “They won’t die from a boner. Your suspect currently has wraiths swimming through his bloodstream, hence the screaming. It’s painful but not life-threatening, either. He just feels like he’s dying, that’s all.”
“Oh, is that all?” Yuze snorted and then flicked through the pages of notes on the tablet. “Thanks, looks like you were able to get a full confession and a list of his accomplices.”
“You’ll have to double-check. People are willing to say anything to make the pain stop.”
“Will do. Now that that’s out of the way.” Yuze crossed his arms. “You good, Butch? You’re looking a little out of it? Anything I can help you with?”
Berga started to shake his head but then paused. “Are you a top or a bottom?”
Yuze blinked at him, clearly caught off guard. “Okay, admittedly not where I thought this conversation was going. Um, typically a top?”
“Have you ever bottomed for anyone?”
“Once or twice.” He ran a hand through his platinum hair. “Why? If this is a proposition—”
“No.”
He chuckled. “You could have at least pretended to consider it for a minute.”
“Why?” Berga tipped his head. “You aren’t my type.”
“Do you even have a type?”
“Yes. Small, cute guys. Or red hair.”
“You like redheads?”
“No.”
It took Yuze a moment to catch on, but once he had, some of his mirth drained from his eyes. “You mean Vital red. Like shades of crimson or burgundy or maroon. That’s pretty specific. How many small, cute guys have you found with that exact hair? I can only think of one, and he isn’t small at all. Cute, but definitely not an adorable twink by any standard of the definition.”
“I’ve found enough.” Or, so he’d thought. If that’d been true, though, surely Berga would have fucked this want out of his system long ago. Maybe then the night at the Docks would never have happened in the first place. “You didn’t find yourself…unsatisfied after bottoming for the first time?”
Yuze pursed his lips. “Not really. Sex is sex. As long as I’m being stimulated, I don’t really have a preference.”
“But you said you usually top.”
“Yeah, because the guys I sleep with tend to prefer to bottom. Also, I like to be in charge. But I don’t always have to be.”
“Can’t you be in control if you’re on bottom?”
“Power bottom?” Yuze shrugged. “Sure. I know a few. They’re a good time in their own right.”
Berga’s eyes narrowed. “How many people exactly have you slept with?”
He laughed. “More than most. Certainly more than you. What’s up? Did you fuck someone recently in a way that was out of your comfort zone?”
“You could say that.”