by Pelaam
“I must. He’s my uncle.” This time when Nathan met Nicolas’s gaze, there were tears in his eyes. “His guilt is mine. Mother said I must stay aboard the ship for a year. I still have six months to go.”
That such a sweet, caring man like Nathan could in anyway be related to Melbeck turned Nicolas’s stomach. The men were as chalk and cheese.
“I see.” Nicolas wasn’t sure what else he could say. “Could you not explain this to your mother?”
“I haven’t seen or heard from her since I came aboard the ship.” Nathan sighed. “I must have been a great trial to her growing up. She said I was a very sickly child. I have no memory of my childhood. Mother said I was prone to fevers of the mind and they always robbed me of my memories, although since I’ve been aboard the ship, I haven’t had a single episode.”
“So Melbeck’s not taking the children to have a better life at all. It’s just a sham. A scam.” That made a lot more sense to Nicolas. Melbeck as a philanthropist was impossible to imagine. But a charlatan, a blackguard, then yes, Nicolas could see that without any difficulty. It also made sense in regards how his uncle would know him.
Such a scheme would need backers—rich men to give it a veneer of respectability. Some might even genuinely believe their contribution was a charitable act—but most assuredly not Nicolas’s uncle. Nicolas’s skin crawled at the thought Secundus knew of what went on aboard Strawberry Fields.
If Nathan felt guilt by his relationship with Melbeck, then Nicolas took his share from his uncle.
“Please … don’t hate me.” Nathan could barely manage more than a choked whisper, and the sound instantly got Nicolas’s attention.
“No, no. You misunderstand.” Nicolas shuffled closer and wrapped an arm tightly around Nathan. “I could never hate you.” Nicolas softened his voice. “Whatever evil scheme your uncle is involved in, you are just as much an innocent victim as those children. I’m sure if your mother knew what her brother was doing aboard this ship, she wouldn’t have entrusted you into his care.”
“I haven’t set foot outside of this ship for so long. I’ve forgotten what it must be like to walk on anything but a metal floor. Oh, Nicolas, I want to go home. I hate it here, the ship, everyone and everything about it.”
There wasn’t much consolation Nicolas could offer Nathan as the dam of restrain finally cracked, then shattered. Instead, he held Nathan tight, rocking him gently, and crooning nonsense until Nathan was finally in control of his emotions once more.
As Nathan’s tears ceased, Nicolas rubbed his cheek against Nathan’s, pressing soft kisses to his brow.
“It’s going to be all right, Nathan. I don’t care what your mother said, she wouldn’t want this life for you. When I leave Strawberry Fields, you’re coming with me.”
“Can you really be so sure?” Nathan pulled away slightly to gaze into Nicolas’s eyes.
“Yes, I can.” Nicolas had never been more certain of anything. “I know it, I feel it. Trust me, Nathan. Don’t let Melbeck come between us.”
“I … I won’t.” Determination shone in Nathan’s eyes, and it gave Nicolas added courage. Leaning in close, Nicolas finally kissed lips he’d dreamed of. They were as soft, warm, and pliant as he’d imagined. But one kiss wasn’t enough.
The position was awkward, but they held tightly to each other, and Nathan responded eagerly to Nicolas’s kisses. Nicolas wanted more, needed more. Reluctantly he pulled back to gaze into Nathan’s shining eyes.
“I don’t want just a few kisses, or a snatched encounter here and there. I don’t want us hiding ourselves away, and constantly worrying someone may notice. I want more, so much more. I want to spend my life with you. I don’t know how we’ll manage, only that we can, and we will.”
“Oh, Nicolas.” Nathan clutched at him. “Are you sure? So soon? You hardly know me.”
“I know all I need. It doesn’t matter to me that you can’t remember your past. Nor that you are related to Melbeck. You aren’t him and could never be like him. If you cannot trust yourself, Nathan, then trust me.” Nicolas held out his hands and was elated when Nathan grasped them tightly.
“I shall. I do. Oh, Nicolas, I yearn to be free of Strawberry Fields and Melbeck. What can we do?”
“I need time to think about how I can get you off this ship. But for now, come with me to my workroom.” Nicolas squeezed Nathan’s hands. “It won’t matter if Melbeck has a key. I can get Rusty to stand in front of the door and keep it closed. Plus, I doubt that Melbeck will be bothered to come down there. Not that I’d expect him to come to my room, but the workroom gives us more security.”
Want and need warred with anxiety and indecision in Nathan’s beautiful big eyes, and finally Nathan nodded.
“Yes, I will come to the workroom.”
Elated, Nicolas scrambled to his feet, and pulled Nathan up and into a tight embrace. “I promised I would look after you. I meant it then, I mean it now. I love you, and I want to make love with you, and I won’t bed you and walk away. Somehow, when we get back to Earth, I will get you away from Melbeck. Away from this god-forsaken ship. You have my word on it.”
“Don’t promise such things.” Nathan buried his face into Nicolas’s shoulder. “I so much want to believe, but fear my dreams will be crushed beneath Melbeck’s heel. My mother must have had some reason that I had to stay with him for a year.”
“Perhaps she didn’t realize just what kind of brigand Melbeck is. No mother would expect her son to endure this life if she knew of it. Give your dreams the wings they deserve, Nathan. I won’t let Melbeck destroy them.”
The promise was rash, but Nicolas meant it to the depths of his soul. His own heart would be crushed if he and Nathan were separated for another six months, especially if he was on Earth while Nathan remained on Strawberry.
“Let’s hurry.” Nathan tugged at Nicolas’s hand. “I want to be with you somewhere I feel safe. This used to be my sanctuary, but of late, even here hasn’t felt as safe as it once did.”
Nicolas didn’t resist and kept close to Nathan. Now that he’d voiced his feelings, the urge to keep Nathan safe proved strong and compelling.
The journey through the ship to his workroom seemed to last forever. At each intersection, Nicolas stopped, listening and looking for any of Melbeck’s crewmen, before indicating it was safe for Nathan to follow him.
But the reward, once they were safe, was a prize beyond reckoning and made all their caution well worth the effort.
Chapter Thirteen
Finally, the workroom was just ahead, and Nicolas ushered Nathan inside. Only once they were in his workshop, the door locked and braced shut by Rusty, did Nicolas finally feel safe. The moment Rusty was in place, Nathan burrowed against Nicolas’s chest and Nicolas held him tightly, nuzzling at his cheek, and kissing the warm, still-smooth skin.
“Relax. There’s only us. No one else in the world.” Nicolas crooned softly into Nathan’s ear. The awkward kisses they’d shared spoke eloquently of Nathan’s inexperience. Not that Nicolas could boast of much more.
A few fumbles in his youth, and even fewer romantic liaisons since he became a man, hardly made Nicolas a Casanova of any repute. But they did give him an advantage, and so Nicolas would have to be Nathan’s guide in the ways of sharing intimate pleasure.
But first, Nicolas needed to make sure that it was what Nathan wanted now they were alone and able to act on their desires.
“Nathan, I want to make love with you, but you are in control here. I shall do only what you want, nothing more. Do you want to make love with me?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve dreamed of being in your arms, of what it would feel like to love and be loved. I have no knowledge. You will need to teach me, Nicolas.”
“I shall. But we will truly learn together. You are the only man I have ever wanted in this way, and you always will be.”
“Teach me, Nicolas. Show me how to love.”
With slow deliberation, Nicolas turned Nathan in his arms,
flicked open the ancient jacket Nathan wore, and eased it from his shoulders. Tossing the garment to lie on the workbench, Nicolas nibbled his way from Nathan’s ear to his neck, running his tongue above the shirt’s worn collar.
“You don’t need that.” Nicolas slid his hand over Nathan’s chest, toying with the top button of the shirt. “And you don’t really need this. May I remove it?”
“Y-yes. Please.”
At the touch of Nathan’s fingers against his own unfastening the shirt buttons, Nicolas pulled his own hands away, rapidly shrugging out of his jacket, and unbuttoning his shirt. Both garments fell to the floor at the same time, and Nicolas gently guided Nathan to turn around and face him.
Unlike Nicolas’s own smooth chest, Nathan was blessed with a generous pelt of dark hair, out of which two dark nipples peeked enticingly. Kissing each of Nathan’s bare shoulders, Nicolas, daring, bent lower and kissed Nathan’s left nipple.
At the gasp of his name, Nicolas parted his lips and took the firm flesh into his mouth. Ignoring Nathan’s bruising grip of his upper arms, Nicolas scraped his teeth over the taut nub, before treating Nathan’s other nipple to the same attention.
“Nicolas.” The deep, throaty sound from Nathan sent Nicolas’s arousal soaring. He kissed a path up Nathan’s neck, along his cheek, and finally claimed Nathan’s lips. Pressing his tongue along the tight seam, Nicolas was delighted when Nathan opened his mouth.
A low moan—his or Nathan’s, Nicolas neither knew nor cared—rose into the air and Nicolas slid his arms tight around Nathan as he slid his tongue past Nathan’s parted lips.
They were so close, that Nicolas felt the hardness at Nathan’s groin that matched his own. Grateful he’d taken bedding into his inner sanctum sanctorum to be able to nap during the day, Nicolas walked Nathan backwards into the small stockroom.
“Lie with me?” Nicolas pulled back enough to look into Nathan’s eyes. There was no fear, no doubt, just heat and need, and Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
“Let me remove your brace.” Dropping to one knee, Nicolas worked at the brace’s clasps, and it eased away with a hiss and wheeze. Remaining on his knee, Nicolas ran his hands up and down Nathan’s still-clothed legs, daring to skim his fingers close to Nathan’s groin.
Stretched out on the bedding, Nicolas continued to kiss Nathan while mapping out the contours of his chest, teasing his nipples, and gliding his hand ever closer to the waistband of Nathan’s trousers.
His hand resting on the top button, Nicolas shifted just enough to gaze into Nathan’s eyes. “May I?”
“Please, Nicolas. I think I may die of want if you don’t.”
The deeper, huskier tone of Nathan’s voice was a potent aphrodisiac and Nicolas tried not to squirm as his own dick pressed uncomfortably against his pants. Nathan’s comfort had to come first.
His touch as light as he could make it, Nicolas slowly eased each button open. “I’m going to touch you, my love.” Nicolas whispered the words against Nathan’s cheek, hoping that his lover wouldn’t spill too quickly.
A long, low moan accompanied Nicolas’s careful movements as Nathan’s prick emerged from its confines. To Nicolas, the organ was every bit as beautiful as the man in his arms. A good length, slender, and curving slightly to Nathan’s left, it fit perfectly in Nicolas’s hand.
“I want to taste you.” Nicolas shuffled into place quickly, aware of how much Nathan was trembling. Although there would be other times—he would never give Nathan up now—this was their first time and he wanted them to share as much, and as varied, pleasure as possible.
Nicolas moved his head down to encircle the head of Nathan’s cock with his lips before sealing them over the flushed skin. He had time enough for the juices gathered there to burst on his tongue, and to slide halfway down the pale column, before Nathan shuddered, and a choked gasp of Nicolas’s name broke free.
Not caring that Nathan had spilled so quickly, Nicolas swallowed all his lover could offer, reaching into the baggy trousers to cup Nathan’s sac and roll his balls, encouraging them to give him all they had.
When Nathan finally lay still, panting harshly, Nicolas looked up at him and smiled. Although Nathan had looked attractive before, it paled in comparison to now. Nathan seemed to possess an inner radiance as he recovered from his release. Nicolas decided then and there, that he wanted to see his lover in this way as often as he could.
“Nicolas.” Nathan reached up for him, and Nicolas carefully blanketed himself over lover. This time their kisses were slow, tender, and affirmed their love.
“I never knew…” Nathan gazed up at Nicolas. “I never…” Nathan’s voice trailed away, and Nicolas dropped a gentle kiss to his lover’s full lips.
“There’s so much we can share, my love. So many ways to give and receive pleasure. My experience is limited, I assure you, but we can learn together.”
“It doesn’t matter. Only here and now matters. I don’t care about your past, and I don’t know if we can share a future. But we have here and now.”
“We will have a future.” Nicolas didn’t care his vow was rash, nor that he had no way in mind in which to fulfil it. “We’ll make one together. Promise me, Nathan. I want you to promise you’ll not sacrifice our happiness when the opportunity to break free from here arises.”
“I promise.” Nathan framed Nicolas’s face in his hands. “Melbeck may be my uncle, but my heart is yours.”
“Then nothing shall come between us.”
“Nicolas. Although I haven’t…” Nathan’s voice tapered away, then he coughed and started again. “I’ve heard the crew talk. About how men … make love.”
“Nathan, I believe I know what you refer to, but this is hardly the place—”
“This is the only place we have. I want to know such … intimacy with you. I want you to love me. Please.”
There was no mistaking the determination in Nathan’s tone, even if such things were difficult for him to speak of openly. Nicolas knew what Nathan alluded to, but his experience didn’t reach that extent.
“Nathan, I have never loved another enough to be that intimate.” Nicolas knew the mechanics, but no more.
“Then, as you said, we shall learn together.”
Before Nicolas could reply, Nathan pulled him down into a kiss. This time when Nicolas thrust his tongue past Nathan’s lips, Nathan ran his own alongside the slick invader. Nicolas didn’t rush the kissing, ignoring the ache from his own prick, wanting to give Nathan exactly what he wanted.
Still stretched over Nathan, Nicolas's ground down, letting his lover feel how aroused he was, how much he wanted Nathan. Eventually Nicolas slowed the kissing down until he could pull away and look into Nathan’s eyes.
“Are you ready, Nathan? Are you certain you still wish me to make love with you?”
Nathan sighed softly and nodded. “Yes, I do, Nicolas. I wish to … to take you within my body. But I have no idea what I should do.”
“Don't worry.” Nicolas stroked Nathan’s cheek softly. “Let me take care of everything."
A storeroom was hardly the place to take anyone’s virginity, but it was important to Nathan that they consummate their love, and Nicolas would do all in his power to make it memorable for the right reasons. But there were essential considerations to be made.
Preoccupied with thoughts of how he could make the experience the best possible for Nathan swirled in Nicolas’s head. But when he made to move, Nathan clutched at him, his expression stricken.
“You haven’t changed your mind?”
“No, no.” Nathan kissed his lover tenderly, tugging gently on the full lower lip before releasing it. “There are just some … some things I need to do that will help us when we love one another. I’m only going into the next room. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Out in the main workshop, Nicholas hunted for a small, specific oil can. The bedding would have to do, they couldn’t improve on what was already in there. But he needed oil to make sur
e Nathan was slick.
With an exclamation of triumph, Nicolas spotted the small, distinctive red tin. He poured a little onto his fingers and inhaled the fragrant almond oil. It was perfect for what Nicolas needed. He also collected a few candles and a box of matches.
The dim lighting of the ship never faded, but was insufficient for the close and intricate work Nicolas undertook with the mechanicals. He therefore used candles inside small glass holders for extra illumination, and, dotted around the floor, would add a slightly romantic aspect to an otherwise bleak room.
In a few strides, Nicolas was back in the stockroom. Nathan looked up at him, and Nicolas’s heart skipped a beat. In his absence, Nathan had stripped completely. His pale skin luminous against the dark bedding.
“You look beautiful, Nathan. I brought some candles.” Nicolas dotted them around quickly. “And the oil we need. Now, let me join you.” Nicolas undid his pants and pushed them down his legs, aware that Nathan was fixated on his every move.
It suddenly occurred to Nicolas, that he might be the first naked man Nathan had ever seen. That thought only served to arouse Nicolas even more. When he pushed his drawers down, his prick sprang free, standing to attention as Nicolas kicked his clothing free, turned in a slow circle, and allowed Nathan to look his fill.
“I hope you like what you see.” Nicolas held out his hands and was pleased that Nathan instantly reached out to him.
“You’re magnificent. Everything a man should be. While I—”
“You are perfect.” Nicolas knelt beside Nathan, and ran a hand over his smooth chest, then upward to cup an equally smooth cheek. “I love how soft your skin feels, how large and dark your nipples are, and your cock is perfection to me. But, much, much more important to me than how beautiful you are on the outside, is how beautiful you are on the inside. Intelligent, gentle, caring, resilient, courageous, how could I possibly ask for more? I consider myself a very blessed man.”
“You speak too highly of me.” Nathan shook his head, and tried to turn away, but Nicolas wouldn’t let him.