Rainbow Snippets: Like a tavern menu…

Because it’s celebrate pride month, I’m showing pieces from across my stories in the theme of coming out to their love interests…

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Like last week, this snippet is from In Pain and Blood. This tale focuses on the spellster, and closeted bisexual, Dylan and his bi-awakening when fate puts him (and the group of women he’s travelling with) square into the path of the elven spellster-hunter, Tracker.
The snippet itself is Tracker explaining how he sees sexuality…

“I guess… I thought I’d lost my chance to decide.” Dylan tore his gaze from the flames to find the hound watching him. “Until I met you.”

Tracker’s lips gently curved in what had to be the most genuine smile Dylan had seen from the hound. His whole face was soft and receptive.

Dylan quietly considered the merits behind bridging the small space between them to kiss the man.

Then, all at once, the elf cleared his throat and the look vanished. He shook his head, his breathy chuckle heating Dylan’s shoulder. “Did you think there was a cut-off period where it would go away if not admitted? Because that is really not how this works.”

“So I’ve learnt.” It seemed so obvious now. He could even recognise how much he’d denied it over the years. “When did you realise you were attracted to… men with meat on their bones?”

Tracker grinned, a short blast of mirth hissing through his teeth. “That is quite the question. Well, for starters, my realisations came from another direction entirely, although I was quite young when the notion occurred to me. But if you are seeking to find if I have a preference, I am afraid the only answer I can truthfully give is ‘with a pulse’.”

“How is that even possible?” He’d been trying to figure it out ever since the man told him. He just couldn’t see how… “You’d sleep with anyone you’d happen to come across?”

Tracker straightened. A small huff of affront gusted through his open mouth. “And I suppose you have slept with every woman you have spoken to, yes?”

“Of course not.” He couldn’t even say he’d been successful with the majority of those he’d propositioned.

“But this is what you expect of me?” The man’s brow arched high.

“You’re the one who just said he’d slept with anyone who had a pulse.”

“Potentially, yes. But do not mistake attraction and possibilities for desire and action. In a perfect world, I would have no qualms in sleeping with whoever asked, but I do have standards. Fancying many things does not equate to everything. It is…” Tracker rubbed at his mouth, silently grumbling to himself. “It is like a tavern menu.”

“What?” He peered at the man. How had their talk managed to find its way to taverns and menus?

The hound sighed. “That is how it was explained to me as a boy. When it comes to intimacy and who you choose to lay with, the world is like a menu. Most people stick to one thing. A stew, perhaps. There are many kinds and people have their preferences as to what belongs in one, but it is all stew. Others are the same with soup. Some might try the soup and decide it is not for them and some bounce between both whilst others might prefer fish.”

Dylan’s stomach twisted at the mention of fish. “Did you have to drag fish into this analogy?”

Tracker chuckled. “Actually, fish is a good one to use, you would never eat it bad.”

I’d never eat it at all. “So…” Dylan frowned, trying to wrap his head around the analogy. “If I understand you right, you’d prefer to try everything from the menu?”

“Until I found something I liked a little more than the rest? Yes.”

“And where do I fall on this menu of people? What food am I under?”

Tracker shook his head. “That is not how it works. It is just an example. You are not food.”

Grinning, Dylan leant against the man. “Then why do you keep trying to devour me?” he whispered.

The hound tipped his head back and laughed. “You have me there.”

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more snippets from my other books. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

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