by Ariel Tachna
“Don’t be a prick, Jeremiah,” Melanie snapped. “I won’t be gone any longer than if I’d gone to the bathroom.”
With Melanie added to their number, they separated and spread out through the main building, calling Fido’s name. Finally, in desperation, Derek peered out the door, only to see Fido sitting patiently at the sill. He opened the door and let the dog inside. Fido was sweaty from the heat, panting a little, but otherwise seemed unharmed. “How did you get outside?” he asked the dog, running his hands over the animal’s limbs to make sure there were no injuries.
“Oh, good, you found him,” Sambit said, coming around the corner. “Where was he?”
“Outside,” Derek said, his voice flat. “Last time I checked, he didn’t have prehensile toes. Someone let him outside and didn’t let him back in.”
“That’s terrible,” Melanie said. “Is he okay?”
“He seems to be, although we’ll have to see if he got exposed to enough radiation to be dangerous, but I think it’s time for me to finish my work and blow this Popsicle stand. I’m not taking chances with someone being cowardly enough to hurt my dog instead of coming at me.”
Chapter 10
AFTER they found Fido, Derek took the dog with him back to the room where he was working on the robots. Sambit and Lyrica moved their cots and Derek’s things as well, in case whoever had let the dog out decided to get at Derek by damaging his belongings. When that was done and Derek had not reappeared, Sambit excused himself to Lyrica and went in search of the man who, an hour ago, had been trying to seduce Sambit into a relationship and now seemed equally determined to flee the scene as fast as possible.
He found Derek much as he’d found him earlier, bent over the robot, but where before he’d seemed lighthearted, having fun as much as working, now he seemed grim, his full concentration on the task at hand. “So you’re just going to run away?”
“I’m not running from anything,” Derek said, “but I’m not about to let anyone hurt Fido. If they want to come at me head on, fine. I’ll fight fair. Coming at my dog isn’t fighting fair, and I won’t let him be hurt.”
“You don’t know that it was intentional,” Sambit said.
“If it weren’t, when I asked, someone would have remembered letting him outside and said something,” Derek insisted. “And before you go getting some screwed up thought in your head, this doesn’t change a word I said earlier. It just means I might be leaving a little sooner than later.”
The words shouldn’t have made any difference. Sambit should have been as distrustful of this promise as he had been of everything else Derek had said, but Derek wasn’t flirting with him this time. He was angry, ready to leave, and he was still promising to keep in touch with Sambit. Granted, he wasn’t angry at Sambit since they hadn’t been more than an arm’s length apart since lunchtime. Sambit couldn’t have been the one to leave Fido outside. Even so, he was angry, and Sambit already knew Derek well enough to understand the difference his moods could make in his opinion on matters. “You sounded pretty definite earlier about leaving as fast as possible.”
“I am,” Derek said, “but I’m not the only one involved in that decision. Tucker has to agree that I’ve done what the NRC is paying me to do, and someone has to be able to come get me. I have no idea what’s going on in Houston as far as recovery efforts, but it’s not like the Army is just sitting around with helicopters waiting to come get me as soon as I feel like I’ve done what I need to do.”
“True.” Relief swamped him at the thought of having Derek there for a few more days. “You have to teach someone how to operate the robots too. It doesn’t do us any good to have them if we can’t make them do what we need them to do.”
“I’ll teach you, and you can teach the others,” Derek said. “Or I suppose I can teach you and Lyrica. Right now, I don’t want anything to do with the others. I don’t know which of them tried to hurt my dog.”
“Is he still doing okay?” Sambit asked.
“Well, he hasn’t thrown up. I can’t ask if he has a headache, but he seems to be acting the same as usual,” Derek said. “I’ll take him to the vet as soon as I get somewhere that has a vet. Who knows where the one near my house is right now?”
“Are you going to go home?” Sambit asked. “Even with all the damage in the area?”
“Where else would I go?” Derek asked in reply. “The house wasn’t damaged. I have a generator and plenty of food stocked up. All my clothes are there, my bike is there. Now that I have a dog, I might have to actually buy a car, God forbid. Even if I don’t stay, I have to go back and get what I’d need to be gone for a longer period of time. I didn’t have a lot of time to pack before I came here.”
“I don’t think any of us did,” Sambit agreed. “Can I help? I don’t know a lot about robots, but I’d be a second pair of hands. Just tell me what to do with them.”
“You don’t want to make that broad an offer,” Derek said, cracking a grin, the first Sambit had seen since they’d realized Fido was missing. “You might not like where I suggest you put them.”
“I never said I wouldn’t like it,” Sambit said. “I said it wasn’t wise. Not the same thing at all.”
“Well in that case—”
“Still not wise,” Sambit interrupted. “Still not playing games.”
“I’m not playing games either,” Derek promised. “If you want to help, have a seat. You can hold things in place while I solder them.”
They worked together for another two hours before the ache in Sambit’s back and neck got to be too much.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I have to stop. The headache is coming back, and we have to work another twelve-hour shift tomorrow.”
“Go take a shower,” Derek suggested. “Even if there’s no pounding spray, the heat should help, and being clean will make it easier to sleep. I’m going to work a little longer.”
“That’s a good idea,” Sambit said. “I think I’ll try that. Thank you for the shower, in case no one else thinks to say it.”
“I only care if you say it,” Derek replied with an absent smile, his mind still clearly on his robot.
Sambit shook his head with a soft snort and left Derek to work. He gathered his toiletries from his bag in Lyrica’s office, glad he’d thought to toss a towel in along with the couple of changes of clothes. He took his last pair of clean underwear—maybe he should wash out some of his dirty clothes while he was showering—and headed for the restroom Derek had modified. He hung the “showering” sign on the door so people would know he was inside and turned on the water before stripping down.
It wasn’t the relaxing spray of water like he had in his shower at home, but it was hot and running and it felt wonderful as it cascaded over his skin. He scrubbed at his scalp, the clean water making him all the more aware of how sweaty he was. He’d wash his hair and then soap it again and let it soak while he washed his body.
He sighed as he rubbed the bar of soap over his skin, feeling the stickiness of too many days without bathing give way beneath the cleansing foam. He arched his back, trying to get every inch of his skin, when a blast of cool air startled him. He spun toward the door to find Derek flipping the lock, something Sambit hadn’t bothered to do, and pulling his own shirt off.
“What are you doing here?”
“Getting my hands on you,” Derek replied. “You looked like you could use a hand.”
Sambit scowled, turning his back on Derek again. He refused to watch the other man undress. It would just make him want things he couldn’t have. “I learned how to bathe myself a long time ago.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t nice to have help now and then,” Derek said, his voice right in Sambit’s ear. Sambit froze as Derek took the soap from his hand and ran it over his back. It wasn’t all that different from the massage Derek had given him, except this time they were both naked and wet and in a locked room and Derek had been flirting with him all day and….
Sambit groaned a
s Derek’s hands left his back and smoothed their way around to his stomach, pulling him back against Derek’s muscled body. He told himself to pull away, but it felt too good to be held. Derek’s cock, half hard already, pressed against Sambit’s buttocks, and his hands, hard and callused, massaged Sambit’s chest as they had once massaged his back. The hair on Derek’s chest rubbed against Sambit’s back, sensitizing his skin, and he melted, his good intentions disappearing beneath the flood of attraction he’d been fighting since the first time Derek had snapped at him. He’d worry about regretting it tomorrow.
Derek must have sensed his decision because he kissed the patch of skin behind Sambit’s ear, the spot that always made him weak in the knees, and whispered, “You won’t regret this, I swear.”
Sambit didn’t know how Derek could realistically keep such a promise, but he’d already decided to leave those concerns for later. Instead he tilted his head to the side, inviting another kiss, and rested his hands on Derek’s forearms. Derek rubbed against Sambit more purposefully, making Sambit wish for condoms and lube. He’d had no reason to pack any when he’d gotten the call to come to the plant, and he was sure Derek hadn’t thought that far ahead either, but the feeling of Derek’s cock rubbing against him, slipping between his thighs to nudge his balls, made him want to say to hell with the dangers. He didn’t, of course. He was too practical for that, but it was more proof, if he needed it, of how invested in this his body, at least, had become. With his flirting and teasing touches, Derek had primed Sambit’s body for this moment, and now that it was here, he couldn’t do anything but tremble and give in.
“Next time,” Derek murmured. “Next time we do this, we’ll be somewhere we can plan ahead and have everything we need. Tonight, let me make you feel good.” As he spoke, one hand moved lower to circle Sambit’s shaft, stroking its length slowly and deliberately. Sambit groaned and pushed into the caress, the movement working Derek’s cock between Sambit’s thighs.
“Yes,” Derek said, the sound more hiss than word. “Just like that. It feels good.”
“Good,” Sambit gasped, squeezing his legs together more tightly, trying to give Derek a narrow space to thrust into. Derek moaned, making Sambit smile. He’d make this good for Derek too, one way or another.
He expected Derek to pick up a fast rhythm of thrusting and stroking. As needy as Sambit was, it was what he would have done if their positions had been reversed, but Derek had other plans, his hand moving leisurely, alternating strokes with tender squeezes. His thumb circled the hooded tip, playing over the foreskin before drawing it back. Sambit gasped when the hot water splashed against the usually veiled skin as Derek’s thumb probed the slit, his back arching in need.
“Which part of that did you like?” Derek asked immediately. “If it gets that kind of reaction, I want to do it again.”
“Your thumb,” Sambit said, his voice husky with desire.
“This?” Derek said, doing it again. Sambit moaned and bucked into his hand. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Sambit shook in Derek’s arms as he settled in with that simple, powerful touch, mixing whisper-soft brushes of the pad over the sensitive skin with probing passes of the tip through the slit. Sambit’s breath sawed in and out of his chest in hoarse little pants that, he hoped, conveyed the depth of his approval to Derek. He wished he could be more eloquent, but between Derek’s thumb and his cock still rubbing provocatively against Sambit’s balls, words were beyond him.
Derek’s other hand, which had been drawing soothing circles on Sambit’s stomach as if to hold him in place, moved higher, finding the muscles of Sambit’s chest and eventually the nipples at their centers, moving back and forth between them.
It was slow and languid and far more tender than Sambit would have expected from a “fling.” Derek peppered little kisses and nips over the side of Sambit’s neck and jaw until Sambit finally turned his head, meeting Derek’s lips with his own. Even then, they lingered, exploring each other’s mouths as Derek explored Sambit’s body. Sambit was tempted to turn and return the favor, but that would mean moving out of Derek’s embrace and away from the shaft riding between his thighs. He’d take care of Derek before they left the restroom.
Just… later.
Derek broke free from their kiss, biting down on the juncture of Sambit’s neck and shoulder, the sudden spike sending erotic shivers through Sambit’s body, electrifying every nerve ending. When Derek picked up the pace of his strokes with both his hands and his hips, Sambit trembled and moaned, feeling his climax building deep in his belly. He rocked between the two sources of stimulation. Derek pinched at his nipples, twisting them between his thumb and forefinger, one side, then the other, then back to the first side again until the sensual assault reached a crescendo and Sambit could hold back no longer. He shuddered, his body clenching as he climaxed. Behind him Derek groaned as well, his hips bucking against Sambit’s, and Sambit felt sticky fluid coating his thighs.
So much for taking care of Derek later.
Derek nipped at Sambit’s shoulder one more time, adding to the aftershocks still zinging through Sambit’s system, then licked that little patch of skin beneath his ear again. “Oh, yeah, I’m already looking forward to getting you somewhere horizontal,” Derek murmured in Sambit’s ear. “If you can do that to me when I’m the one giving you a hand job, I can’t wait to see what happens when you get your hands on me.”
“I was planning on returning the favor, but you beat me to it,” Sambit said.
“That’s what you get for being so damn sexy, Sambit. Now give me your soap again because I have a mess to clean up.”
The sound of his name, his full name, not that ridiculous nickname, on Derek’s lips sent a fresh burst of desire through Sambit. Maybe he’d better stop correcting Derek. Having heard his name that way once in Derek’s bedroom voice, he’d be begging every time he heard it again. That might not be any big deal if they only saw each other in the bedroom, but since they had to work together for at least another few days, it probably wasn’t a good idea now. He handed Derek the soap but pulled away when Derek reached for him with soapy hands. “That got us into trouble the last time you did that.”
“I wouldn’t call it trouble,” Derek said, stroking a soapy hand over his own cock instead. “I enjoyed it too much for it to be trouble. And so did you, so don’t try to deny it.”
Sambit bit back the denial that sprang to his lips. Hard to say he hadn’t enjoyed it when he’d covered Derek’s hand with all the proof he needed of Sambit’s enjoyment. Deciding silence was the best option, he took the soap back and washed the stickiness from his inner thighs, wishing as he did that they could have lingered longer in that moment of togetherness. He wasn’t a big cuddler by nature, but he enjoyed a little snuggle now and then. He’d bet good money Derek was a snuggler. He put on a fierce front in any situation that might be a threat to him, but Sambit had seen him with Fido. Derek hid a soft heart underneath that prickly exterior, and if he let that guard down, Sambit bet the man lucky enough to see it wouldn’t escape Derek’s embrace for hours. Then again, if that man had any sense, he wouldn’t want to. Sambit repressed a sigh at not getting the chance to be that man, but their current circumstances precluded such intimacies, and he knew better than to think he’d get a chance later. It would simply have to be one of those things he’d regret missing out on.
“You look pensive,” Derek said, nuzzling Sambit’s neck again.
“I am,” Sambit admitted. “That door can’t stay locked forever. Eventually we’re going to have to put clothes on and go back out there, and when we do, this will be over.”
“Not over,” Derek said. “On hold for a while, but not over.”
Derek’s assurance humbled Sambit enough that he nodded. “On hold, then. Either way, I’m not eager for it to happen.”
“Neither am I,” Derek said, “but I’m not going to let it stop me from enjoying the time we have left. Get some sleep. I’m going to clean up the mess
I made working on the robots before I come to bed.”
“Lyrica and I moved your cot and pictures,” Sambit said, reaching for the towel and starting to dry off. “We didn’t want anything to happen to your stuff.”
“Thank you.” Derek pulled the towel from Sambit’s hands and ran it over Sambit’s body, whisking away the droplets of water. “How’s your head today? I haven’t even had time to ask.”
“No headache today,” Sambit said, stepping away and beginning to dress. “Being clean helps too.” He took a deep breath, not entirely sure what he was about to ask was a good idea. “I wouldn’t say no to another backrub.”
Derek smiled and paused in drying himself. “Let me put my tools away, and I’ll see if I can oblige.”
Chapter 11
DEREK sat on the floor of the room where he’d been working on the new robots, Fido lying in the corner again. He sorted through the parts, separating what he still needed to install from what he had ripped out of the insides of the two robot frames.
“I see Sambit isn’t the only one who had a shower,” Lyrica said from the doorway.
“I installed it for everyone to use,” Derek replied, his voice level.
“I wasn’t suggesting otherwise,” Lyrica replied, “but it must have been a fast shower.”
Derek understood what she was hinting at, but he didn’t rise to the bait. Not this time. He wasn’t a prude, and he hadn’t hesitated to share tales of his conquests with friends in the past, but Sambit wasn’t a conquest. Sambit was special. “How long do you think it takes to take a shower?”
“Depends on what you’re doing in there,” Lyrica teased.
“Getting clean,” Derek said, hoping to infuse enough finality into his tone that Lyrica would drop the conversation.
“Always a good thing when you’ve gotten dirty,” she agreed. Derek muttered a curse as he felt his cheeks heat, thinking about how exactly he and Sambit had gotten dirty.