by Sean Kennedy
“Lady Bartholomew!” Albert admonished her.
She looked back at him. “Oh, Albert! It’s not like one gets to practice on live targets at the range. This needed a higher level of skill, and I rose to the challenge most admirably.”
“Most admirably,” Jazz echoed.
“Sleep well, dear Albert,” Bart said. “And don’t disturb us until we rise of our own volition.”
Albert blushed again.
Taking pity on the older, staid man, Jazz gave him a small smile. “We’ll be getting up at first light, Albert. I want to get those parts replaced and get the Lilliput back in the air by afternoon.”
Albert nodded. “Right you are, Miss.”
Bart linked her arm through Jazz’s, and together they re-entered the ship, sealing the door behind them, while Albert climbed back into the carriage and wished that Jazz would sleep through the first rays of the morning sun and allow them a little more rest.
Chapter 17
EZRA opened his eyes, feeling colder than he had last time he had been awake.
Icarus was no longer in bed with him. Ezra rolled over now that he had the room, and winced at the fact that the sun had risen and the cave was no longer dark but an impressive shade of murky cream, diffused by the light now coming in through the holes that must have been in the roof leading to the outside desert.
He sat up, looking around for Icarus.
And found him standing, naked, with his back to him, beneath the small waterfall that ran freely on the large wall that opened up the cavern.
Ezra was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open as he drank in the sight of the man blissfully unaware of his watchful gaze. Small rivers of water ran over his dark hair and down his back, coursing over the creamy skin until they spilled over the rise of his buttocks.
Ezra heard Icarus sigh, and the man turned so that he was now facing him. But his eyes remained closed, as he obviously enjoyed the water and the sensations it was causing across his body. He had a small bar of tar soap, and he lathered himself up. But Ezra could no longer watch that. His eyes, unbidden, had dropped down past the many square inches of flesh of the chest he had committed to memory, past the navel, which had a healthy tuft of hair arrowing to the sweetest of sights—the thick bush that accentuated rather than disguised the delicate but sturdy shaft that lay between his legs.
As Ezra continued to watch, Icarus began to soap himself down there, making sure he got a thorough cleansing. The suds began to run down his legs, which were surprisingly wiry with strong veins. Ezra guessed he got a lot of exercise running around the desert from one scrape to another.
“Enjoying the view?” came Icarus’s voice, interrupting Ezra’s appreciative summation of his body.
Ezra knew he should have been chastened, put in his place, but he couldn’t bring himself to muster the required response. Instead, he met Icarus’s eye and said simply, “You’re beautiful.”
Without a hint of self-consciousness, Icarus chuckled. “That’s not exactly a compliment that makes a man feel comfortable with himself.”
Feeling his own self-consciousness slip away, Ezra pushed the point. “It’s the truth.”
Icarus stared at him for a long moment. “I guess I should say thanks?”
“Say whatever you want,” Ezra said gruffly.
Icarus nodded down toward his pile of clothes that lay messily beside the bed. “Pass them up to me.”
Ezra was hoping for more, but he obliged and crossed the short expanse of the cave to pass Icarus’s clothes up to him. Icarus began to wash them with the soap, methodically rinse them beneath the small waterfall, and beat the excess water out upon the rock shelf next to him.
“Won’t they be uncomfortable to get into wet?” Ezra asked.
“Would rather they were clean,” Icarus said. “Plus they’ll dry off quickly in the sun.”
“We’re not staying here?”
Icarus gave him an amused look. “Did you think we were going to hole up in here forever?”
“I wasn’t thinking that far ahead,” Ezra admitted.
“Well, I have somewhere else where we can go. And we can get horses from there to ride to the nearest town. It’s a bit of a hike, though.”
Ezra nodded.
“You might want to clean yourself up as well,” Icarus suggested.
“Are you saying I smell?”
“I might realize that you do, now that I’m clean and my own stink isn’t covering you up,” Icarus said lightly.
“Well, maybe I should.”
“And maybe,” Icarus teased, although there was an edge to his tone, “just maybe, I’ll get to see if you’re as beautiful as me.”
Ezra knew they were heading into dangerous territory, but he felt compelled to ignore all the warning signs and just plunge ahead. Icarus stepped out of the natural rock pool, and Ezra began unbuttoning his shirt. He was just slipping it off his shoulders as Icarus pushed aside his drying clothes and perched upon the ledge to watch him.
“Didn’t know I would have an audience,” Ezra said with a frown.
“You had your watch,” Icarus replied. “Now it’s my turn.”
Emboldened, Ezra let his shirt fall to the floor.
“Messy,” Icarus noted.
“I thought you could hand them up to me later.”
“Sure.”
The sound of the zipper of Ezra’s jeans was disconcertingly loud in the cavern. He pulled them down, along with his underwear, in one easy motion. He stepped out of his jeans and left them puddled on the floor. Trying to appear as free and easy as Icarus, he stood there for a moment as Icarus appraised him. His cock felt heavy between his legs, and he tried through the power of sheer will to make the usually unruly member play dead.
“Well?” Ezra asked as the silence remained in the air for some time.
As if he was drawn out of a trance, Icarus looked up at him. “I guess you’re not so bad yourself.”
Ezra laughed. “I think I was better with my compliment.”
“I don’t want you getting a big head,” Icarus said, and when he was aware of the possible innuendo that could come from his statement, he flushed slightly.
“Oh no?” Ezra teased.
“Don’t look so pleased with yourself,” Icarus admonished him. “Neither of us is huge, but we’re perfectly adequate.”
Ezra finally moved past him and stepped into the rock pool, pleased that Icarus didn’t take his eyes off him. “I don’t know,” he said, trying not to wince as he realized just how cold the water really was. “You seem more than adequate.”
Icarus really didn’t seem to take compliments well. He pushed the bar of soap into the small pool of water Ezra was standing in. “You’ll need this. You stink.”
Ezra laughed and pushed his head beneath the water. It was freezing, but he liked it. He had been run through dusty towns, kidnapped and imprisoned in greasy holds, fallen through skies, and slept in gritty caves over the past couple of days, and this was his only opportunity for who knew how long to get any semblance of clean. He scrubbed at his hair with the soap and grinned as he could feel it getting cleaner. He then soaped the rest of his body, and even though he was blinded by the water, he thought he would tease Icarus by paying special attention to his groin.
“Clothes!” he called out, and felt them slap against his body with force before falling into the pool of water he was standing in. “Charming.”
He scrubbed at his dirty clothes. He knew it wasn’t a proper wash, but it would be somewhat better than the state they had been in before. Ezra was surprised by how finicky he had become now that he was away from his creature comforts; what he wouldn’t give for properly washed clothes, a cold beer, and the latest download of the netpaper.
Which made him think of Icarus. He pulled his head out of the water and wiped his eyes free. Icarus was still sitting on the edge of the pool, watching him without any hint of self-consciousness at being caught doing so.
“How do you
stand it?” Ezra asked.
The question seemed to catch the other man off guard. “Stand what?” Icarus asked suspiciously.
Now feeling self-conscious himself, Ezra stepped directly out of the waterfall and sat beside him, crossing one leg over the other so that his sex lay concealed. “Living like this.”
Icarus’s eyes narrowed and his gaze suddenly dropped to the floor, where the water running off Ezra’s body pooled by his feet and turned the sand into mud. “You get used to it.”
“But why? Can you really see yourself doing this forever?”
Defensively, Icarus stood up. “What else am I going to do?”
Knowing that he was sounding like he was trying to placate a caged animal ready to strike, Ezra kept his tone low and, he hoped, comforting. “You sound like an educated man. I’m sure there’s lots you can do.”
Icarus laughed bitterly. “You don’t sound like a hick, yourself. And yet you’re flying airships and acting as a mercenary. Should I aspire to be you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Ezra spat, and then realized he was lying. Both to himself as well as Icarus. “Okay, there’s some things I could improve upon. If I could take it back, kidnapping you, for a start.”
“Thanks for that.” Icarus had stopped pacing, but he made no motion to sit down again.
And Ezra suddenly felt his own nakedness. Not just the fact that his pecker was hanging out for all to see, but that he wanted sorely to communicate with this other man. About his feelings, no less. Jazz would have a field day if she knew. “I told you before, I was desperate. But I was wrong. But you know what? I’m glad I met you. Because there’s something between us. Maybe I’m just picking up on how much you hate me, and if so, I’m an idiot. But you kissed me that day on the mesa, and it wasn’t just for fun.”
His voice echoed in the chamber, and the last couple of words reverberated back to him. He waited a moment, then wet his lips and threw all caution to the wind. “Was it?”
“Maybe not.” The words came out of Icarus like molasses, slow and resistant.
But his actions proved otherwise. Before Ezra even knew what was going on, Icarus had crossed over to him and suddenly he was holding the other man in his arms as he pressed up against his wet body, fingers scratching at the beard on his cheeks as they found a stronghold with which to hold him in place as their lips met. Ezra allowed no resistance as Icarus insistently laid claim to him with his tongue. The cave seemed to disappear from around them as if they were spirited away to the mesa again, where they had first given in to this temptation of each other. Was that a hawk Ezra heard, crying in the distance, even if he was aware that they were still beneath the ground and far away from the sky?
Icarus pulled away from him, and Ezra had to cross his legs once again to try and hide the state of his arousal. Icarus had a sly grin on his face; he had obviously noticed.
“Get dressed,” he instructed Ezra. “We have a long walk ahead of us.”
WHEN Jazz awoke in the morning, Lady Bart was not beside her. Perplexed, she yawned and stretched in the sunlight streaming through the cockpit window. She reached for her clothes and dressed hurriedly.
Stepping out of the ship, she was bemused by the sight of Lady Bart and Albert crouched around a pitfire they had built themselves. Bart was laying strips of bacon down in a heavy griddle, which Albert then took from her and settled amongst the stones and wood of the fire. The meat immediately began to sizzle and spit, and Jazz’s stomach growled in appreciation.
Bart heard the foreign but recognizable sound and turned. “Jazille! That’s most unbecoming!”
Jazz shrugged. “What can I say? I’m hungry.”
“It might be a while,” Albert said. “I still have to make the bread.”
“Fresh bread?” Jazz asked. “Have I died and gone to heaven?”
“Thankfully not,” Bart replied. “But start getting the ship fixed, or we may just die out here after all. Especially if those ruffians come back with numbers.”
Jazz took the hint and started rummaging through the carriage looking for the parts that Bart and Albert had brought with them. She could have kissed them as she gathered up the brown paper parcels in her arms; in fact, she could have kissed the parts as well. The sooner the Lilliput was in the skies, the better off they would all be.
Ezra couldn’t help but cross her thoughts again. She felt guilty for thinking of hot buttered bread with bacon when she didn’t even know where her partner was, and if he even had anything to eat for his own breakfast.
She stepped back out into the sunlight and caught Bart watching her. “You will let me take a break to eat, won’t you?” she asked.
Bart smiled. “Depends how hard you’ve been working until it’s ready.”
That was a challenge if there ever was one. With the underbelly of the ship her destination, Jazz made sure to put a little extra wiggle in her hip to tease her woman. The things you did for love.
ICARUS hadn’t been kidding when he said there was a long walk ahead of them. But how long was it, really, in the scheme of things? As he stumbled along in the heat and the choking dust, Ezra knew that the distance they had crossed in the past couple of hours would have been little more than five or ten minutes in the Lilliput.
Icarus had resisted telling him where they were headed, and Ezra had wondered if maybe kissing him again would drag his secrets out into the open, but his mouth was too dry. And Icarus had insisted that the amount of water they had managed to collect from the cave had to be rationed carefully in the heat. So Ezra decided his saliva wasn’t to be wasted at all—even if it being wasted on a kiss was better reason than most.
“Come on,” Icarus called over his shoulder. “You’re slowing us down.”
“I need a break,” Ezra managed to say in between pants for breath.
“You know what your problem is?”
“At the moment I’d say it’s this bullet in my leg, and you.” Even when struggling to get words out, Ezra could always rely upon a cutting remark to make it through.
“Your problem,” Icarus continued, undeterred, “is that you’re too used to sitting in your comfortable ship all day. You don’t get enough exercise.”
Ezra couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was being lectured to about his exercise regime, or lack of one? “How much exercise are you getting a day when your wings carry you around and do all the hard work?”
“I’m not the one begging for a break, am I?”
Ezra would have swung for him if the distance between them hadn’t been beyond the reach of his arms. He didn’t have the time anyway, as he tripped over his own fool feet and fell face down in the dirt.
He was surprised, and strangely touched, when he felt the slight pressure of Icarus’s hand upon his arm, helping him back on to his feet.
“You don’t have to resort to such tactics to get us to stop,” Icarus said with a gentle smile.
Ezra decided to play along. “Nothing else was working.”
“Five minutes,” Icarus commanded. “And one mouthful of water.”
“You’re all heart,” Ezra muttered as he thankfully sought the desert floor again to rest upon.
Icarus, he noticed, remained standing, his hands on his hips and his chest gleaming in the sun thanks to the light sheen of sweat upon it.
A strangled beeping noise suddenly sounded from his wrist. Ezra almost jumped up, the sound was so foreign to him after a day of its silence.
“What’s that?” Icarus asked.
“My cuff,” Ezra replied, tapping the object in question carefully.
“I thought it was broken?”
“So did I. Maybe my fall jostled something within it to work again.”
“Don’t rely upon it to work for long, then,” Icarus advised him. “One more shake and it’ll probably self-destruct again.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” Ezra chided him. “Technology is the marvel of our age, wingboy.”
“Did you j
ust call me wingboy?”
Ezra grinned up at him. “Yeah. You like it?”
“No!” Icarus protested, although the corner of his mouth twitched a little. “Anyway, technology is only a marvel when it works for you.”
“I hope you don’t think like that when you’re relying upon your wings to keep you up in the air.”
“They’re a means to an end, just like anything else.”
“You’re sounding hypocritical,” Ezra observed as he pulled a long thin wire out of the wrist cuff and used it to pry open the casing.
“Maybe. But don’t you think we’re going too fast, too soon? There seem to be more ships in the skies than on the seas now. And with this talk of mechanical humans—”
“Mechmen,” Ezra corrected him, the wire now between his teeth.
“What?”
“They’re called mechmen.”
“I don’t care what they’re called. They’re just… wrong.”
“I had no idea you were a Luddite.”
“Maybe they had the right idea. They challenged the iron revolution of their time; we’re just lying down and letting it run right over us.”
“I don’t think we’re in any danger of having mechmen take over the government,” Ezra said, grinning, removing the wire and using it to slide two small pins back into place. There was a spark, and the cuff squealed in what sounded like pain.
“Is it working?” Icarus asked.
Ezra stared at the now-mute cuff. “I… don’t know,” he admitted.
“See?” Icarus said. “There’s technology for you. Now let’s get moving again, we’ve wasted enough time.”
Ezra struggled back to his feet. “I bet you wouldn’t say that if Jazz suddenly appeared in the Lilliput to give us a lift the rest of the way.”
“Maybe not. Especially if she gave me my wings back.”
Ezra didn’t know if he’d won the argument, but he let himself believe so, hoping it would make the rest of their “walk” bearable.
JAZZ was attaching the new filter and enjoying the smell of baking pan bread when an alarm sounded from within the cockpit. She pulled herself out from the belly of the ship and ran to the source of the noise. Lady Bart and Albert were standing up, obviously waiting for her to make an appearance.