by Flynn Eire
A banging at the door woke me several hours later. I shot out of bed, blinking in the darkness. Okay, so it was night. I picked up the towel that had fallen off and tucked it around my waist before yanking open my door.
“Sam?” I breathed, rubbing my eyes to make sure that was who was really standing there.
“You weren’t in my bed,” he slurred as he pushed past me and came into the room. He closed the door behind him and backed me up. “You promised to always be in my bed at night and you were mine. You’re finally back and you don’t show up to lunch and you don’t even come see me.”
“We’re still together?” I blanched as my heart did flip-flops in my chest.
Apparently it was the wrong thing to say, because Sam growled, narrowing his eyes at me. “Did you find someone else in Denver or something?”
“No. What? No, Sam. It’s just, you never texted me back ever, and then stopped altogether. You wouldn’t Skype or—”
He shoved at my chest and almost fell back he was so drunk, but I wasn’t ready for the move so I did, landing hard on the bed. He followed me down, pinning my hands over my head. “I don’t know how to Skype, Bowie. I’m five hundred years old. I keep up with medicine and practical things, weapons, not teenybopper shit.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know if I should be insulted or accuse him of being an old fart who couldn’t keep up with technology and was covering it up by calling it names.
“Yeah, oh,” he snarled. “If you would just pick up the damn phone when I called and had a normal conversation like lovers who are separated by their jobs, we could have talked.”
“I’m not good on the phone,” I muttered, my cheeks flushing. “I always sound like an idiot.”
“And I don’t understand code!”
“Huh?”
He growled and then buried his face in my neck, kissing under my ear and up my chin. “God, it’s hard to be mad at you when you’re here, smelling so good and looking so hot. You fucking drive me crazy and I want to bounce on your cock all night.”
“So we’re together?” I couldn’t get over the turn of events.
He lifted his head and nodded. “Yes, you are mine,” he hissed, but still had a bit of a slur to it. How much had he had to drink? It was oozing out of his pores. “No more rolf-ing or lamos or codes, Bowie. I spent so much time Googling your damn texts and trying to figure out what the hell you were saying it was driving me nuts. And what the fuck is TTFN?”
“Ta-ta for now,” I muttered, staring up at him. Then it hit me. He was saying ROFL and LMAO. He hadn’t understood my texts. Oh boy.
His eyes went wide. “It was that one. Why? Why would you use that? You’ve never said ta-ta ever that I’ve heard. Why would you put it in a text? And who the fuck is Tigger?”
“Oh boy,” I breathed, getting a better picture now. “Tigger’s a cartoon character. Winnie the Pooh, Sam. Okay, so you didn’t watch that when you were a kid. I did.”
“No, we didn’t have cartoons when I was a kid,” he drawled. “No more texting. I didn’t even know what that beeping was on my damn phone at first. I kept trying to answer a call.”
My eyes went wide. “Doesn’t anyone text you?”
“No! They pick up the phone or come see me in the infirmary. Everyone knows I’m not Rune and a techie person. I’m old school. I like face to face.”
“Well that’s Skype—” I shut my mouth so fast I bit my tongue when I saw the evil look he was giving me, but then he frowned. “So you wanted to talk to me?”
“Yeah, I missed you,” he whispered and went back to kissing my neck. “I hated you were gone so long from me. But then you kept making me feel ancient and out of touch like I couldn’t keep up with my young, different generation lover. You wouldn’t call me back or answer my calls like you were brushing me off. This distance growing between us again was killing me. I thought we’d talk when you got home but then you ditched lunch.”
“I was tired and I thought you were done with me,” I admitted. “Like I didn’t matter enough to even get a talk about it. I just couldn’t handle that today.” It was getting hard to focus as his lips did wonderful things to my body, his sliding against mine. “I missed you so much, Lasam.”
“Mm, say my name again, hon. I love how only you say my full name.”
“Lasam, Lasam, Lasam,” I chanted, moaning as I was rewarded with his hand cupping my groin over the towel. “I’m yours, Lasam. I’ll teach you how to text and Skype in case I’m ever on another assignment.”
“No, you’re never leaving me again,” he declared, slurring deeper. “I thought you’d come to me tonight and I’d just have a drink and wait. Then I had another and another but you never came. Why didn’t you come to me, Bowie? Wasn’t I worth fighting for?”
“Of course you were. I didn’t know what to do,” I whispered. I was going to say more but I realized he’d stopped moving. Then I heard a soft snore and realized he’d passed out. I sighed and sagged into the bed.
What a mess. Here I’d been so upset thinking he was done with me and he’d been worrying over the same thing. We were definitely a pair.
In my defense, I hadn’t known he was so technology deficient. I’d tried to keep in touch with him. He could have just told me he didn’t know how to Skype, and I would have been better about the phone. I kept getting night watches though, being one of the youngest warriors, and Sam’s work was during the day. It just happened that way.
Well, now I knew and we were together again… Or so I hoped. We still had things to talk about probably. Right?
I rolled us over and tucked him into my bed before locking the door and crawling into bed next to him. At least we were together. We’d only had one night with each other, but I’d missed having him next to me when I fell asleep. Funny how a person could get used to something so quickly and miss it so much when they’d never had it before and then needed it almost fundamentally to survive.
6
I woke before Bowie and feeling like a complete asshole. Who shows up like a petulant child whining that he didn’t come over, proclaiming he was still mine like a possession, and then passes out? It wasn’t like I’d handled the distance thing all that well. If I’d owned up to the fact I was technology impaired I could have avoided all of this heartache for us.
Him especially. He didn’t deserve it or to feel anything but overwhelmingly wanted and loved. As I stared at his gorgeous face, soft with sleep, that was all I wanted for him. I pushed back the strand of his blond hair that had fallen into his eyes.
But how to fix this? I wanted to get him assigned to the infirmary with me but that wasn’t something I should do without his okay. It was one thing that he liked my taking charge in bed, but doing that with his career was crossing a line I didn’t even feel comfortable with.
No matter how much I wanted him at my side day in and day out.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” he muttered, startling me.
“I thought you were sleeping.”
“Clearly,” he chuckled, his long lashes fluttering as those piercing golden eyes focused on me. “I think the tension in the room woke me. What’s bothering you so much, Lasam?”
I took a deep breath and decided to go with the truth. He deserved that. “How I handled things last night. I shouldn’t have shown up drunk and declaring you were mine.”
“Am I not yours?” he whispered, hurt filling his eyes.
“I want you to be mine, but you get a choice, hon,” I clarified.
He smiled brightly. “I’ll always choose to be yours. I’ve always been yours. I’m glad you were firm and told me what’s what. Always feel free to do that with me. I was dreading coming back as much as I hated being away because I thought we were over with the way you stopped returning my texts and even the way you answered them.” Then he frowned. “I’m sorry I didn’t know you weren’t into texting. I would have talked on the phone with you then. Why didn’t you just tell me?”
Because I d
idn’t want to look like an idiot who can’t keep up with you? “How do you get on Skype with someone to tell them you can’t Skype?”
His frown deepened. “You could have left me a voicemail, Sam.” I winced at him using the nickname everyone else did, feeling like he was talking to anyone else then. “I listened to those when I was on duty. I replayed them over and over again just to hear your voice.” He scooted back from me. “I was honest with you about all my insecurities and being a virgin, my fantasies. What does it say about me, about us, that you can’t tell me you don’t know how to text or Skype until months later when I think we’re done and you’re drunk?”
I actually felt his hurt like a slap to the face as he rolled out of bed. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” He shrugged, his shoulders lower than normal. “I mean, you didn’t do anything wrong, Sam. I wasn’t worth being honest to you.”
“No, Bowie, that’s not it.”
“Really?” he whispered, picking up the towel and hurrying to wrap it around his naked hips. “It’s not? It was better to let me think I didn’t matter to you or you were ending things because I had an assignment in Colorado? Or that Zibon’s drunken admission about what happened between us embarrassed you in front of the guys here and you didn’t want to acknowledge you’d been with me?”
“No, of course not!” I hurried out of bed and grabbed his arm. “Please don’t walk away, hon. Let’s talk about this.”
He shrugged again. “I’m not sure what there is to say.”
“For one, you sound like you’re ending things and that’s the last thing I want over something as stupid as me not knowing how to text.” I realized my mistake when he flinched. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m stupid, not how you’re feeling. I handled this badly—”
“It’s fine,” he lied, pulling away, putting more space between us and not just physically. “I’m not ending anything, Sam. I’m yours. I just have to get going because apparently I’m going to learn the joys of filling out assignment reports. We can talk later, of course. I need to think about what you said and I—I don’t know—wanted you to know that’s how things look from my side.”
“That’s fair,” I hedged, trying to search his eyes as he grabbed his shower stuff, but he carefully kept from looking at me. “Can I join you?”
He nibbled his lower lip. “Maybe not. After Zibon’s thing, I’m going to try and—”
“That’s the second time you’re bringing up Zibon, and I don’t know what you’re taking about,” I admitted as I ran my hands over my hair. “I’ve pretty much been locked up in my new lab attached to the infirmary since you saw me last, hon. All I’ve been doing is work and missing you.”
“Oh, right, okay.” He bobbed his head and walked over to his desk. He pulled out his phone and tapped it a few times. “I wasn’t there and Wally didn’t catch the whole thing, but he sent me part of it. Just tap the play button in the middle.” He handed me the phone and then walked out the door.
I frowned at the phone, hating this crap. On the bright side, it was idiot proof since it was just a side arrow in the middle of a frozen picture so there really was no screwing up the play function. I tapped it and the shaky video started.
“It was a sight to behold!” Zibon slurred, throwing his hands out. “Bowie screaming his head off as he climaxed time, and time, and time again from getting finger fucked. God was good to our fair Bowie when he handed out prostates that’s for sure. He skipped the rest of us schmucks and gave ultra-sensitive to our dear friend who I even now want to tap just to see what it feels like around my cock. I mean, can you imagine what an ass that has orgasms like that would do to you during sex?
“Who here doesn’t want to find out?” Several agreeing mutters went up in the background as Wally chuckled. “Amen, brothers! All hail Bowie and his magical ass we want to tap and the prostate we’re jealous of because it never stops coming. Maybe there’s a shot we can get? Oh, I bet that’s what Sam’s doing in his fancy lab. I’ll sign up to be his first test subject. He can finger fuck me through multiple orgasms anytime because I almost creamed myself just watching him and Bowie.
“I’m sorry I missed the sex, but from what I heard, damn, I’ve got enough for the spank bank for a while. Who needs porn? We should get a camera in their room, play it on the big screen in the lounge. That’s my idea of entertainment.”
Dimitri came on and smacked Zibon in the back of the head. “Enough, drunk boy. You’re just jealous.”
“I am! I want a magic prostate too!”
The video cut out then and I wanted to die of embarrassment for Bowie. There was a knock at the door and I set the phone down before I pulled it open.
Only to find Zibon. My fangs came out as I snarled, “You asshole.”
“Right, so you talked to him.” His eyes were wide, and I saw sweat form on his brow.
“Oh, I just saw the video. Do you have any idea the shit this could cause?”
“Yeah, I do now,” he muttered, holding up a note in his hand. “I didn’t think of that.” I snatched it from him and quickly read it, my blood going cold.
“Shit,” I hissed. “Bowie’s right. You just instigated every gay man at camp to want to ride him after a challenge if he can’t win.”
“I thought challenges had to be for position or insult though,” Zibon argued.
I raised an eyebrow at the boy, thinking he was kind of dense. “How many men do you know who aren’t insulted when they’re rejected?”
“Oh shit,” he whispered as his face paled.
“Yeah. I have to go handle this.” I pushed past him, harder than needed and left. There was no way I was going to let a bunch of warriors have fun with my man just so they got a taste of how perfect he was.
Especially after the way I’d been screwing up all over the place and they might steal him from me. I bolted to Helios’s room, not caring that I was wearing what everyone had seen me in yesterday at dinner or that I reeked of tequila, this was more important than that. I knocked on his door and winced internally when Rune opened it.
“Hey, Sam, what’s up?” he muttered, glancing away. Things were always awkward between us. I’d been one of the few who’d never jumped into bed with him even though he’d been open to anyone before Helios, but it wasn’t because he was into taking things to the edge—or so we all thought—but I’d known there was more to his pain than that. I could feel it, and he always dodged me because of that.
And I had my own reasons too.
“Hey, is Helios around? I kinda need to speak to him.”
“Yeah, I gotta run.” He pushed open the door all the way and scooted by me. “Later.” I watched him head out in workout gear and knew he meant run, like go for a run as he did every morning. Then I looked back to Helios’s frowning face.
“One day either of you will explain to me whatever happened that makes both of you squirm around the other or so help me I will use my gift on you both,” Helios threatened darkly.
I adjusted my neck, biting back a hot retort since I needed his help. “You could just ask, Helios. I can’t speak for Rune but my guess would be that my gift is I feel other people’s pain so I knew every time he tried new things sexually with others or by himself, you know—before. I used to try to talk to him about it after he transferred here, but he always shut me out. Other than that, it’s privileged since I’m the camp’s medical practitioner.”
“And you’re weird around him because of what he used to be into,” he surmised, bobbing his head.
“Um, no, not at all,” I chuckled. “I mean, I wish now that I’d pushed harder and gotten to the bottom of things, maybe I could have helped him but sometimes I think fate wouldn’t have let me because he was waiting for you. But no, that’s not why I clam up around Rune.”
Helios blinked at me a moment. “That’s actually really nice of you to say, that you think I was the only one who could have helped him.”
I shot h
im a grin. “A lot of us do, Helios. You weren’t the only one who did try to help Rune. You were just the only one who got through to him.”
“Okay, so why are you weird around him?” he hedged, studying me carefully.
I shrugged. “Rune speaks tech. I swear it’s like another language. I speak English, medical, and Latin because most medical stuff is in Latin but he speaks in bytes and signals and, oh my god, shit I don’t understand and it hurts my head.” I scrubbed the back of my neck. “Apparently I’m really outdated with that stuff. I upset Bowie too from not admitting I didn’t know how to text or Skype. I kept having to Google what all the damn acronyms he was sending me meant. Hell, Googling crap hurt my head.”
“Wow, you are old school, man. You gotta roll with the times or you’ll never make it to being ancient.”
“Whatever. There’s nothing wrong with picking up a book to get the information I need,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him. “I like the medical technology. The machines to analyze blood, DNA, and our internal components are fascinating. I aced medical school. I just don’t give a shit that LOL means laugh out loud or that there’s different types of ports in my tablet and what they’re for.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded, holding up his hands. Then he glanced down the hall where his mate had run off. “Can I tell Rune that’s why you get squirmy around him? I think he believes you’re weirded out because you know about his abuse.”
I felt the blood drain out of my face. “God, Helios, of course you can. I would never judge Rune like that. What happened to him wasn’t his fault. I’m impressed how far he’s come given what he’s been through.”
“Thanks, I’ll let him know.” I nodded and he cleared his throat. “So what’s up?”
“Right, yeah, sorry to bother you but Bowie just showed me the video of Zibon’s drunken rant about Bowie.”