Stowaway

by Becky Black

  “Because I’ve served on this ship for three years, and I can tell you that everyone is watching to see who everyone else is going to bed with.”

  He might have a point. Kit and Gracie spent many an hour entertaining themselves with gossip sessions about the rest of the crew. The crew’s love lives were always their favorite topic.

  “Okay, so they’ll know. So what? Like I said yesterday, this is just physical. I’m sure we’ll get tired of it soon enough.”

  Raine looked at him for a long time before he spoke. “You think so? Just physical?” He sounded like he wanted reassurance.

  “What, you think I’m in love with you? Think again. You’re an annoying bastard, and you drive me crazy. But I’ve gotta have you, Raine. You…feel the same way, right?”

  Now he was looking for reassurance. Because if Raine had stronger feelings, beyond the physical, this could become complicated. Kit didn’t want to hurt him—annoying as he was.

  Hard to read him—he wore a frozen expression. This bothered Kit. He liked being able to read people—it was one of his core skills. Frustrated, wanting to force him to react, Kit moved closer. Raine couldn’t step back without falling over the weights rack right behind him.

  “You work hard in here, don’t you?” Kit said. He stroked one of Raine’s impressive arms. “The results are worth the effort.” The skin goose-fleshed under Kit’s hand, and Raine shivered. A flush rose up his chest, into his face.

  “I bet you’re in here most of your off-duty hours, right? Nothing else to do? So I’m giving you something else to do. You can count it as exercise, if you like.” He leaned in for a kiss, and Raine gasped, opening his mouth to Kit, but only for a second, before pushing him back.

  “We’re in a public place.”

  “Then let’s go somewhere private.”

  * * *

  Raine couldn’t believe he had agreed, but he came out of the gym’s changing room to find Kit waiting for him, looking impatient.

  “Come on. I have lunch service in a couple of hours.”

  Raine led the way with Kit at his side and became instantly self-conscious. Whenever they passed anyone, they were the subject of a curious glance.

  “Maybe you should put me in cuffs to allay suspicion,” Kit said, smirking.

  “I think it’s too late.” He hated the idea of the crew gossiping about his sex life. Especially his security staff; it couldn’t be good for discipline. He suddenly took Kit’s arm in his hand and speeded up.

  “Mmm, keen.”

  Keen to get them both out of sight, more like it. Raine hoped he looked like the security chief dragging their resident stowaway off someplace. But since the someplace was his cabin, the playacting went only so far. He breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the crew cabins and went inside. Kit didn’t sigh; he shouted an exclamation as the door closed.

  “Fuck me, it’s hot in here! Is there something wrong with the environmental controls?”

  “I told you, I’m from a hot place. This is comfortable for me.”

  “Comfortable if you don’t intend to wear any clothes the entire time you’re in here.”

  Raine shrugged. “I wear clothes.” Kit was already stripping. Not from passion but because of the heat. “I’ll turn it down a bit.” Raine fiddled with the controls.

  “What, are you part lizard or something?” Kit pulled his shirt off over his head, loosened his hair, and shook it out. “Do you have to lie on a hot rock to become active?” His pants went next, and he still had no underwear, so within thirty seconds of coming into the cabin, he was gloriously naked. His cock stood sort of at half-mast, filling, not yet full.

  Kit jumped onto the bunk and sprawled in an enticing pose, seeming to take up the whole bed, despite his slenderness. His legs fell open, one knee up, resting against the wall.

  “That’s better,” Kit said, of the temperature, Raine assumed, as cool air poured in through the vent. But sweat still broke out, gleaming on his skin, dampening his hair. “Come on over here, then. It’s your bed after all.”

  Raine slipped off his jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. Nimbly, Kit sprang up to his knees and slid his arms around Raine when he came close enough.

  “You realize I haven’t seen you naked yet, big fella? Me, you’ve barely seen me with my clothes on, but I can’t seem to get you to expose much flesh.”

  Raine looked down into Kit’s face, turned up to him, silky black hair spread on his shoulders. So beautiful. How could he believe Kit wanted him? Oh, stop that. He’s here, naked in your arms, ready to make love to you. What more do you need?

  He dipped his head, closing his eyes, and their lips met. A softer, slower kiss than any they’d shared so far. Kit might complain about having only a couple of hours before he had to get back to the galley, but that gave them plenty of time. They got busy on Raine’s clothes, unzipping, unbuttoning, peeling off. Kit growled when he found an undershirt under Raine’s T-shirt.

  “For fuck’s sake, how many more layers? I’ll have to go back to work before I get hold of so much as a nipple.”

  Raine laughed and pulled the undershirt off over his head, giving Kit full access to both nipples. Instantly he flicked his tongue over the left one, and Raine moaned. Arousal and cold air made the nipples stiffen and poke out of the wiry hair on Raine’s chest. He felt self-conscious about the hair, hoping Kit didn’t find it a turnoff. He sometimes got rid of it if he was going to be ashore for a while.

  Kit didn’t appear to mind. He ran his long fingers through it and teased Raine’s right nipple with his thumb. Kit himself had a trail of finer, dark hair dusting his chest and belly, and Raine traced it down to the thicker nest below. It was damp with sweat already. His skin glowed, and the musky scent of arousal rose from him, mingled with that of ship-issue soap and shampoo.

  “I can turn the heat down some more,” Raine offered.

  “It’s fine. Stand still.” He went to work on Raine’s pants, undoing the zip and easing them down. Unlike him, Raine had on underwear. “At least it’s not long johns,” Kit muttered. He shoved the pants down to Raine’s knees, but Raine stopped him.

  “Wait, wait. Let me get my boots off.” He sat on the bed and hauled them off fast. The second one had barely left his foot before Kit pushed him down on the bed and stripped him of socks, pants, and underwear, tossing them aside. He leaned over Raine on all fours, hair hanging down.

  “At last I have you right where I want you,” he said, grinning. Raine pulled him down for a kiss, and his hair bushed Raine’s neck and chest. The soft touch sent a thrill through him, making him push up against Kit involuntarily. His cock rubbed against Kit’s and made them both moan softly.

  “Any requests?” Kit asked, smiling against Raine’s mouth, the smile more felt than seen.

  He’d like to fuck Kit again, but there was no rush. And he felt he’d been too selfish the other two times—too quick to take his pleasure, barely thinking about Kit’s. Kit had had to ask Raine to finish him off, for God’s sake. A man shouldn’t have to ask.

  “Whatever you want to do.”

  “Then let me to show you what I’m best at.” He dropped kisses on Raine, dipping his head, pecking at him, pulling back quickly.

  “Would that be teasing?” Raine asked. “You’re good at that.”

  “You’d better believe it.” Kit pecked a few more kisses down Raine’s neck, flicking his tongue into the hollow at the base of his throat. “But I mean what’s earned me promotion on more than one occasion.” He laughed, and Raine stirred uncomfortably. Is this how Kit used to get on at work? Sleeping with men who could offer him promotions? Is that how things worked back on Drexler? He certainly didn’t seem shy about admitting it.

  The kisses trailed down Raine’s chest, warm lips, warm breath through his wiry hair. Raine reached down and stroked Kit’s hair. It felt like silk. How he kept it so soft was a mystery to Raine but one he didn’t care to solve. He wanted only to slip his fingers through
it and see the light slide across the surface of it, liquidlike.

  Kit kept moving down, and Raine resisted any urge to push him faster. Why hurry? They had no need to rush to finish before anyone got suspicious. They could relish it. Kit touched Raine’s cock, encircling it with his fingers, but didn’t pump it, just stroked up and down slowly a couple of times. His kisses, meanwhile, had reached Raine’s naval, and he teased the little hollow with his tongue a few times before moving on. His fingers were cool and firm on Raine’s hot flesh, in contrast to those soft, warm lips.

  Looking down, Raine couldn’t see much, everything hidden by Kit’s hair as it trailed down Raine’s body in the wake of his kisses. As lovely as Raine found the hair, he knew what he wanted to see more. He reached down and gently pushed it aside. Kit raised his head, smiling.

  “Curtain up, show’s starting.” He dipped his head again, and this time his lips slid over Raine’s erection. Down he went, taking it in deep until his lips touched his fingers, which were still curled around the base of Raine’s cock. Raine couldn’t help writhing and arching his back. He wanted to savor this, but he wasn’t made of stone, and the reality of what he’d daydreamed about so often came close to unbearable in its intensity.

  Kit’s hair tumbled over his face again, and he used his other hand to sweep it away to lie on his back. His head moved up and down, quite slowly at first, his other hand still at the base of Raine’s cock. He was squeezing, Raine realized, slowing Raine down. Understandable he’d think Raine had a hair trigger after the first two times they’d done it. Raine feared he’d still come sooner than he would any other time, with any other man. Even the short walk from the gym had been long enough for the anticipation to build in his belly. Not as ready to explode as he had been the other times but certainly not a cold start either.

  Kit’s gentle squeeze must have had an effect, though, and they fell into a slow, easy rhythm. Raine thought he could last for some time, even when Kit teased his tongue up and down the shaft, flickered it over the tip. Even when Kit stopped squeezing and stroked instead, thumb running up and down the throbbing vein. Was he getting tired? Did he want Raine to come? Raine didn’t want to—not yet. This was too good. Too much warm, intense, bone-deep pleasure. He cried out in frustration when Kit raised his head, letting the cock slip out of his mouth.

  “Please, don’t stop!”

  “I’m getting a cramp. Fucking hell, Raine, I thought you came fast. My jaw’s locking up, and I’m ready to come from frotting your damn bedspread.” He gave a half-hysterical giggle.

  He couldn’t stop, he couldn’t. Raine’s cock quivered, too sensitive to touch, so close. “Do…do whatever you want. Anything. Just need you.”

  “Hang on. Where’s the lube?”

  Raine’s eye widened, but he pointed at the drawers above the bed. Kit found the little tube, smeared a load on his fingers, then grinned down at Raine. “Let me get to the nub of the issue.”

  Before Raine could speak, Kit was bending over him, Raine’s cock in his mouth again, and one finger slipping into Raine’s ass. The invasion gave him a second of pain, but he quickly got over it and writhed against the digit.

  “More…”

  Two fingers now and Kit found his prostate. Raine yelled so loud they must have heard him on the bridge, and he didn’t care, because there was no bridge, no ship, nothing but this bed and him and Kit.

  “Fuck me!” The words surprised him, the crudeness and the request itself. Not something he asked for often. But he didn’t often have a man in his bed he desired as much as he desired Kit. Even as he spoke, he came, and anything Kit might have said was silenced by Raine’s climax. Kit raised his head a moment later, panting, grinning, face red and sweating and savagely beautiful in his excitement.

  “Fuck me,” Raine said again. Wanted Kit in him, utterly joined to him. Kit’s eyes widened.

  “Oh, you want me to actually fuck you. I thought you were just, ah, expressing pleasure. You know like ‘fuck me, that was good’?”

  “Shut up and fuck me, you damn fool.”

  Kit giggled, somewhat disconcertingly. “I warn you, I can fuck and talk at the same time.”

  “As long as you do the first, I can take the second.”

  “I’ll bet.” He shuffled around on the bed, wincing from undoubtedly cramped muscles, rummaged in the same drawer where he’d found the lube, and came out with a pack of condoms. “Hmm,” he said, looking at Raine as he put a condom on. “I think it’s best if you turn over.”

  Raine did. Best position for them in the cramped space. Being completely, bonelessly, wiped out from his orgasm would make anything more than lying sprawled impossible anyway.

  His cock, still hard, rubbed against the bedsheets and jerked when Kit positioned himself and thrust in. Quite rough in his excitement, close to coming already. He buried it to the hilt, and Raine grunted. Been a while.

  “Okay?” Kit said, a tiny edge of concern in his voice.

  “Yes! Yes, it’s…” He moved himself until he found a good position, and the head of Kit’s cock grazed his prostate. “Oh God!”

  Kit wasted no words—a miracle. He leaned over, his legs nudging Raine’s farther apart, his hands planted either side of Raine’s body, and thrust strongly. Those long, lean legs had more strength than Raine might have expected—Kit’s thrusts were powerful and deep. He quickly set a fast rhythm, and despite his earlier assertion about being able to talk and fuck at the same time, he didn’t say a thing. When Raine looked back over his shoulder, he saw Kit’s eyes were screwed closed, sweat was shining on his face, and his hair hung limp and bedraggled. But still beautiful. Right at this moment, Raine would give him anything. He didn’t care if this was all a plot to get Raine on his side to help him. He’d give Kit the launch codes for the captain’s yacht as long as he just didn’t stop.

  He had to stop in the end, but a spectacular stop, after building to a frenzied rhythm, breath coming in gasps. Raine writhed under him, the pounding on his prostate more than he could stand without crying out in a mix of pleasure and pain. Too sensitive, too close, too intense. Never like this before. Never like this.

  “Kit!”

  The word and the orgasm were one, his mind wiped out to a blank, blind thing for he couldn’t tell how long. Then awareness of reality returned. Kit was lying over Raine’s back, panting, limbs sprawled around him. The weight of him felt good, but the heat was too much even for Raine. He needed some air on his skin and stirred.

  “Gotta move,” he said. Kit didn’t protest. He rolled off Raine—fortunately toward the wall, not the open side of the bunk—and Raine turned onto his side. With so little room, they were still crammed close, sweaty and overheated skin pressed together, but there was a cooling draft on Raine’s back at least. He reached out to stroke Kit’s hair, no longer silky but coarse and heavy with sweat.

  “That’s nice,” Kit sighed, and Raine smiled to hear the pleasure in his voice. A lazy, blurred edge to it, like a half-asleep cat. They lay quietly for a few minutes, breathing slowing. Kit’s eyes were closed, but Raine kept his open, looking down at the man in his arms and thinking impossible things.

  “Didn’t think you’d want that,” Kit said after a while, opening his eyes. “Guys like you never want me to top them.”

  “They don’t know what they’re missing.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere. Except me back here this afternoon, when you can fuck my brains out.”

  Raine sighed. This afternoon, because Kit would have to go back to work soon. The thought splashed cold water down Raine’s spine. This might feel good, but that didn’t make it right. He slipped out of Kit’s embrace and off the bunk.

  “You can have the shower first, since you need to get out of here sooner.”

  Kit leaned up on his elbows, some disappointment in his face. But he rallied and put on his cocky grin again. “What, we’re not going to share?”

  “Hah, you’ve never seen the showers in the cabins have y
ou?” Had he? What about Parker’s? Kit didn’t correct him.

  “They’re smaller than the ones in the bunk rooms?”

  “Much smaller. Trade-off for the extra privacy, I suppose.” He put on his bathrobe. “Go on, I can wait. There are towels in there.”

  Kit looked at him oddly but got off the bed and walked into the tiny bathroom area. The shower started running. Raine smiled, letting himself picture Kit in there, knowing he could walk in and see it if he wanted. But it was no exaggeration to say the showers were not big enough for two. They were barely big enough for one. A muffled curse made him guess Kit had banged an elbow against the wall.

  The shower shut off a few minutes later, and Kit emerged with one towel around his waist and blotting his hair dry with another.

  “If I didn’t have claustrophobia before, I do now.”

  Raine thought of Kit’s tiny nest they’d discovered after they captured him the first time and of the crate he’d tried to escape from the ship in. “You don’t seem like a man prone to claustrophobia. Okay, my turn.”

  Kit frowned as Raine swept past him.

  “You got anything to drink around here?”

  “There.” Raine pointed at the door of the cooler built into the wall. “Help yourself.” Then he closed the door behind him. When he came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Kit was lounging on the bed, naked except for a towel draped on his shoulders to keep his wet hair off his skin. He was drinking a cold soda and eating chips.

  “Done already?” Kit asked. “On the double, eh?”

  “No need to linger or waste water.” He cinched the belt of his bathrobe around himself. The room felt extremely chilly to him. How could Kit stand to lie there naked? “Um, do you want a robe or a shirt or something?”

  “I’m fine. Want some chips?”

  “The chips weren’t in the fridge,” Raine observed, sitting down beside him.

  “Call me a thief and I’ll act like one.”

  A fair point. Raine took a couple of chips.