Callum shivered, and reached back, stroking a hand down his body. Kai shivered.
Slowly, with delicate fingers, Kai unbuttoned Callum's shirt. He ran a hand down his lean chest, amazed at the strength he found there.
Callum, shivering now, rolled over and reached up to unbutton his shirt, too. His eyes were deep with care and absorbed with delight as he slowly unbuttoned each link, revealing the flawless, toned body beneath.
“You, my dear, are beautiful.” he sighed. He rolled over and kissed the patch of skin.
Kai leaned towards him, closing his eyes. His own hands worked slowly down Callum's back, stroking him.
Callum half-sat. They undressed quickly then—pants and shirts and shoes and socks and everything. Naked, they collapsed into each other.
“Turn.” Kai said, imperious again, and Callum chuckled.
“So you tell me.” He rolled over though, turning as he instructed.
Kai swallowed, and pressed close against him. He shivered as Callum's hand reached back, stroking his waist and lower. He closed his eyes. Pressed into him again.
Kai moved his hands over Callum's back, kneading and massaging. He did what he did by instinct, having had less experience in this than he would have liked, right now, to lead him.
Callum moaned, and pressed back towards him. His body moved on Kai's own in a way that aroused him beyond what he could have imagined.
“You're mine.” he whispered, not really intending Callum, himself, or anyone to hear. He just needed to say it. It amazed him.
At that moment, he leaned back and gently pressed into Callum.
The intensity of feeling was too great for either of them, and they both cried out.
Kai moved back, and, loving the sensation, pressed slowly back into him again. Again, they both cried out.
Kai moved faster, then, caught up in the intense, cresting, building wonder that was filling him slowly, pulsing up from his loins to his head, firing his blood, driving him on.
He was crying out regularly, each pulsing, pushing drive into Callum making his breath sigh out.
Callum, too, was making sounds he had never heard himself make before. Moans of pure pleasure, unlike anything he had ever felt in his short, intense life.
The waves of pleasure were sweeping through them. Kai felt himself pulsing, drawing close to his climax, and pushed out and pushed in, and out and in and out and...
He cried out. The feeling broke over him like an explosion, washing fire through every vessel of him. He collapsed, and heard, faintly through the rushing in his ears, that Callum had cried out, too, and that he was, now, sighing in much the way he was himself.
They lay together, arms wrapped around each other, holding each other as their heat cooled and their skin dried and the evening air folded both of them in a silence.
The next morning dawned with wonder for Kai, waking naked beside the man who was, according to decree, his intended partner. He rolled over and smiled.
They made love again and then Callum rolled out of bed and walked lightly across the room, yawning. Seconds later, Kai heard the sounds of running water, cascading like a shower of rain, and steam and a sweet scent flowed in under the door along with the sound of someone humming, off key.
Kai smiled, understanding. Where he came from, they washed with water only occasionally, and used a warm infrared sterilizer to waterlessly cleanse themselves every other morning. It saved water, and lying under the warming, pleasant lights was a nice way to spend time. This daily water-washing was surprising, but not really, Kai mused, considering the live-for-today mindset with which humans used up their resources.
“Morning.” Callum smiled down at his guest, when he emerged, dripping and steaming, a towel around his body.
Kai smiled back. “Ablutions?”
Callum blinked, surprised. “You could say so...fancy kind of word for a shower, isn't it?” He grinned.
Kai looked back, pleased to know what the contraption was called, but not wanting to show he hadn't known. “Sure.” He said instead, an artless smile on his face.
Callum chuckled and removed the towel as he walked out, drying his hair. Kai lay back and watched him as he wandered through to the kitchen, admiring the strong, long legs and hard-muscled back.
“Morning, sunshine.” Callum said again. “Breakfast? No meat.” He grinned, holding up his hands in a deprecatory gesture.
Kai grinned back. “Thank you. I would like that,” he said sincerely, still ravenously hungry after all the tension and stress of the preceding days.
“I'll get it on.” Callum smiled. “And the towel on the rack is yours, if you want to use the shower?” he tilted his head, indicating the small cupboard-like indentation in the back wall, where he had been earlier. Kai nodded.
“I will do that now.”
He felt some trepidation – bathing on Cyanos involved stepping into a deep pool, in which the water was not often replaced, but was sterilized with laser immediately after use to make it clean for the next time. What happened in there, he was not sure. He was curious enough to want to find out.
Inspecting it from the outside gave no indication of how it worked. There was a nozzle protruding through the wall, still steam-wreathed, through which the warm water clearly emanated. But Kai could see no way to make the water come out.
Kai shook his head and took a deep breath. Go boldly, he thought, and boldness finds its way.
“Uh..?” Kai groaned as he slipped and grabbed onto the handle in the back of the glass cube, to gain his purchase. When the water cascaded onto him from above, he almost screamed, and then laughed. That must be the lever to make it go!
He was still laughing as he found the soap, and something which, on closer inspection, turned out to be a bottle of pale creamy substance, which smelled good. Kai assumed, rightly, that it was for cleaning his hair.
The warm water running down his back felt wonderful. Even though he was shocked that people could have cleaned themselves so wastefully, he could understand why it might be hard to give it up. A plunge pool or an infrared room were not bad alternatives, though, he smiled. If people tried them, they'd catch on just as quickly and inextricably, he was sure.
He dried himself on the cloth indicated for his use, and walked through, naked, to join Callum.
“Almost ready.” Callum smiled. He appeared to have exchanged the towel for a loose robe while Kai was in the shower. He was now wielding a knife to spread a white sticky substance on two pieces of wheat-derived matter. Well, Kai assumed it must be a product of their local grain, since it smelled similar to the porridge they made on Cyanos.
“So.” Callum breathed, as Kai came to stand beside him. “Hungry?”
“Mm.” Kai nodded. He did not recognize much of what was there, but the smell in the small warm room made him salivate.
“Good.” Callum smiled. They moved closer together, and Callum rested the knife on the plate beside him, he and Kai embracing at the same moment.
They kissed, and leaned back, and kissed again, and both could feel their arousal start again.
“Breakfast will cool.” Callum said, drawing a deep breath.
Kai nodded, wordless. His hand remained where it was at Callum's side.
“So...” Callum said, looking a little pleading, “let's eat?”
Kai nodded. Callum indicated the table in the corner, and Kai took a place down one side. Callum went to find some things, and came back with two receptacles, and a large, steaming urn. He placed these on the table, and returned with two filled plates.
“Egg and tomato,” he smiled, looking proud of himself, and then indicated the central receptacle. “Coffee.”
Kai nodded. The food smelled amazing. They had eggs on Cyanos, too – or at least, he knew their primitive ancestors had eaten the eggs of birds. The eggs they had now were synthetic – the protein made by splicing in the lab, and then constituted to look and behave much like the eggs the ancients ate. These people still clear
ly ate the original, animal-produced eggs. Kai shuddered. But he did recognize them, and he knew enough to know he killed nothing. He ate.
The taste of lightly-fried egg-yolk shot down his throat like fire, warming him internally. He closed his eyes and gave a hum of pleasure.
“Good?”
“Good.” he nodded deeply. Callum laughed. “You'd think you hadn't eaten for days.” he said, chuckling, then stopped. Perhaps his guest had been out on the street for some time, and had in fact not eaten. “Is there enough?” Was all he asked.
Kai, hearing his thought and concern, blinked back sudden tears. “Yes.” He nodded.
“Good.” Callum said, deferentially. “More toast?”
“Yes, please.” Kai nodded. He chewed the sample of the toast he had just tried, enjoying the semi-sweet taste. It was almost like the breakfast porridge he had been raised on, but so much better – crispy and crunchy and hot.
Callum slid out of his seat and returned five minutes later with more for both.
“Coffee?” He asked.
Kai eyed the urn with skepticism. The smell emanating from it suggested it contained something dense in poisonous alkaloids. He was sure he had studied them with the botanists on Cyanos – that was, some analogues of the chemicals in that hot drink.
“Maybe...”
Callum burst out laughing. “Very well.” He reached for the sugar to add to his own cup. “If you're okay with it, that is.” He paused. “Say if you don't drink coffee...I wouldn't want to break someone's oath or something.” His brow creased in a frown, green eyes concerned. He knew nothing about his guest, and seemed to keep on causing offence.
“Oath?”
This made no sense at all, and Kai chose to ignore it. Why would someone take an oath not to drink a substance? He thought then of people he had heard of on Cyanos, who had become addicted to the narcotic effects of some poisons, and swallowed. Maybe that was why these people avoided coffee.
“I can drink it.” He agreed after a moment's pause.
“Good.” Callum smiled. He lifted the jug and poured out a generous helping of a thick dark fluid. The smell of alkaloids was overwhelming and Kai swallowed hard.
“Sugar? Milk?” Callum asked.
“Yes.” Kai nodded, hoping they would dilute the poison and make it easier to swallow.
He lifted the cup and wet his lip. He didn't die, and so he felt emboldened. He drank some.
The blissful grin on his face made Callum smile. “While without coffee, eh?”
“You cannot imagine.” Kai smiled. They both laughed.
Kai drank again, letting the warm, scalding darkness flow down to his feet. It hit his head, then, making him feel suddenly awake.
“More?” He said, putting his cup on the table.
“Sure.” Callum grinned. “Glad you like it. I buy the imported stuff. Way too expensive, but really amazing.” He nodded.
Kai smiled. Handsome, strong, discerning...he was starting to love this man after all. And if all mornings were like this one...well. He could learn to love it here, after all.
It took longer than ever before for Callum to dress and leave for work, he and Kai kissing more times than either could count before he walked out of the door. Kai, left alone in a house that smelled of coffee and shampoo, fell back on the bed, smiling and watching the dawn spread final fiery tendrils over the top of the buildings below.
Chapter 5
It was a week later and the last rays of dawn were touching the tips of the clouds outside the window when Kai sat, looking out over the city from the window of Callum's apartment.
He blew the steam off his coffee – a drink he had found he quite certainly liked, despite having read about its chemistry and knowing how bad that much caffeine could be. Sighing, he sat back with the cup cradled in his hands and contemplated the past seven days.
Callum was at work, it being a Monday morning. Kai chuckled. The idea of going in to work was a new one for him, being a young lord just come of age. He had had to get used to Callum's sudden disappearances. He had been, he recalled, quite uncomprehending, and later, when Callum only finally returned just before suppertime, quite upset, the first time it had happened.
Now, watching the last rays of a spectacular sunrise streaking their way across the clouds, Kai felt, for the first time in his life, completely at peace. He was here, on this strange, grimy planet, he was in love, and his future was gold.
He rolled his shoulders experimentally, wincing slightly with the pain in one muscle. He must have slept holding Callum again, with his arm going to sleep under his body. It happened once or twice, but the pleasure of sleeping like that was too great for him to stop doing it, despite the pain next day.
“Callum.”
He shook his head. He was so in love. He had never expected to feel like this. He had not, he realized, known anyone could feel like this, until he felt it. A warm haze filled him, making him smile every time something came to mind that even made him think of Callum. It was wonderful.
What would his father think of this? Kai thought, and laughed. His father would never have expected, he was sure, that Kai would find fulfilling his duties such a pleasure, after all.
The only snag in all of this, he thought, drinking more of the coffee, was that Callum had to be away so often. And, he wondered, blowing at the steam again as it rose afresh, he did not really know how Callum felt.
“It should be obvious.” He chided himself. For him, a Cyanarian, reading thoughts should be, plainly and literally, child's play. But Callum was surprisingly difficult to read. Despite their closeness, there seemed to be a veil separating his thoughts from Kai.
“He probably doesn't care much about me.” Kai said, sadly, to the clouds outside the window.
He would never have guessed, before he came, that this would be the one and only difficulty. That he, Kai of the Lorei, would end up in love with his intended, so madly so that his only difficulty in taking him away from his planet would be his concern that Callum might not want to go.
He shook his head. This was the last thing he expected. He came here, hating the idea, to carry out a duty to his beloved father. Now, he found himself loving the idea, and thus unable to carry out the duty. He could not take Callum back against his will! The idea was horrifying. And Callum, so loving, so desirable, seemed somehow distant. He came in, ate his supper, talked, made love, slept. Left early, sometimes before Kai had awoken. Came back, beginning a fresh round of supper, love and parting. How could he carry on like this? And if Callum really loved him, wouldn't he do something to change it?
These thoughts chased themselves around Kai's head as he sat watching the dawn break outside.
“Right.” Kai said to himself, and laughed mirthlessly. He was already speaking English as if it was his mother tongue, already verbalizing more.
“Right,” he repeated, “let's go through the facts. Callum is...everything.” He stopped, letting the feeling rush through him. “Callum does not care about me.” He swallowed. Saying it was horrible, but he suspected it was true. “So...” he concluded, “what will I do about my mission here?”
The solutions were all unpleasant. The first was simply to leave. To admit to his father that he had failed the mission, and never return to Earth again. That was impossible. Not because of the inheritance, but because he would never see Callum again. The prospect of inheriting all his father's power was nothing in comparison to losing his own beloved.
The second option was unthinkable as well – abducting Callum against his will. He loved Earth more than he loved his current partner, Kai was sure. He could not do that to him.
And how, he thought, could he ever tell Callum about who he was? He had managed to avoid most discussion about his origin, saying only that he was on a mission here for his company, and that he had grown up “far away”. How, he thought, was he going to address the idea that he was not even from this planet? Not human? He sighed. He could not risk Callum finding out, cou
ld not bear to see his affection, even distant, change to revulsion and distrust. He loved Callum too much, he accused himself sadly.
“Love has no rules.” He reminded himself, smiling a little sadly as he thought back to the discussion with Leoris all that time ago. He was right, he realized.
“I guess plan A will have to do.” He said. He finished the coffee and walked over to the window. The pane, caught half in shadow, showed him his reflection. Still the same pinkish color as the other humans, he looked haggard. His pale brown hair was curly, still, but he noticed his cheeks had sunk and his eyes had a haunted look. He was, he realized, pining. He could not make himself believe Callum loved him – Callum was too distant for that to be true.
“I'll stay tonight, try and discuss it.” Kai said to his reflection. “And if he says he does not care for me, I will leave.” he sighed. Somewhere in his heart, he could not believe that Callum would even notice if he were to go.
He put the cup on the sideboard and went through to the bedroom to make his weekly report to the team back on Cyanos.
“Hi!” Callum's warm voice echoed through the apartment. He sounded excited, high-spirited. Kai, sitting in the bedroom working on some complex administrative details he had just been informed of from on Cyanos, heard his voice and looked up, smiling.
“Hello?” Callum suddenly appeared in the bedroom, smiling warmly. “There you are!” He went over to the bed and wrapped his arms around Kai, holding him close. Kai hugged him back, feeling suddenly better.
“Hi.” He huffed against Callum's shoulder, feeling his chest crushed in the powerful hug.
Callum released him, laughing. “Come on, you! I brought us a special dinner back...my cell protocol is working! We have to celebrate!”
Kai grinned. “You didn't bring...”
“Surprise!” Callum came back from the kitchen, holding two boxes made of Styrofoam. “Fresh from the kitchen.”
“Oh, Callum.” Kai grinned. “You didn't.”
“Well, of course!” Callum beamed. “It's your favorite.”
Celestial Seductions: The Complete Series: An MM Gay Paranormal Mpreg Romance Collection Page 16