Off World 2: Sanctuary

by Stephanie Vaughn

“Love you? Absolutely.”

  “I…” Taking another step closer, Alex raised a hand and Sandy instinctively opened his arms for Alex to walk into. When Alex’s hands came to rest on Sandy’s bare chest, Sandy looped his arms behind Alex’s back, holding his lover steady. “I don’t understand how that could possibly be. But you’ve never lied to me.”

  “Believe it, because it’s true.”

  “I want to believe it. I want to so much.” So close now he was whispering against Sandy’s lips, Alex slipped his arms behind Sandy’s neck and they kissed. Once, twice, their mouths met and blended as Sandy tried to put everything he was feeling into his kiss for Alex to recognize.

  He couldn’t stay away for long, but Sandy took short breaks as he tried to simultaneously catch his breath and remove Alex’s clothes. Then they were down on the bed, kissing like nothing could ever come between them, touching like they only had moments and hours to memorize the feel of each others’ skin, instead of days and weeks and years.

  Rolling on top of Sandy, Alex was bolder than he’d ever been, pushing back on Sandy’s shoulders to indicate Sandy should stay put; kissing his way down Sandy’s chest to his stomach, taking Sandy’s dick in his mouth. With Alex crouched over him, sucking and licking, a groan fought its way out. Sandy tried to watch Alex’s face to make sure Alex was into it and not just taking care of him, but it was too good, too intense.

  His feelings for Alex were big and complicated, entwined with thoughts of the past and dreams of the future.

  “Sandy, can we fuck? I’d really like to fuck you.”

  Looking up at his face from where Alex sat between his legs, Alex’s puffy lips and messy hair made him even more irresistible than usual. It was the look in Alex’s eyes, though, that made Sandy’s breath catch in his throat. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Alex knew by now where Sandy kept the lube and had them both slicked up before Sandy had time to urge Alex to hurry up. Slipping a finger inside Sandy, Alex stroked knowingly across Sandy’s sweet spot, Sandy sighing and reveling in the feeling of Alex doing this because he wanted it, too.

  By the time Alex replaced his finger with his cock, Sandy was groaning and muttering, urging an oblivious Alex on, as Alex lost himself in sensation. They were both moaning and grunting by the time Alex found his rhythm, holding onto Sandy’s thighs as he stroked mindlessly in and out.

  With anyone else, Sandy might have been bothered by the fact that Alex seemed preoccupied with his own pleasure. Ordinarily Sandy liked to be at least a factor in the pleasure equation, but there was no doubt Alex was out for himself this time. The pleasure Sandy got from seeing Alex this way almost trumped the pleasure he got from just how bloody good it all felt.

  Almost.

  Then Alex found a new angle, one that had him nailing Sandy’s prostate with every inward stroke of his dick and Sandy stopped thinking about anything else. He just rode it, letting the waves of pleasure build up in him until they crested and broke.

  Epilogue

  Eight weeks later.

  Alex leaped off the tram, not waiting for it to come to a full and complete stop. It was an automated train, so there was no human attendant to give him grief -- not that it would have made a bit of difference to him if there had been.

  The Vigilant was home and Sandy was back!

  Ever since she’d hailed the traffic control warden that she was approaching Doradus station, Alex had been watching the clock and counting the minutes. Longer than that, even. Since the day she’d left him standing on the deck of the docking station, biting his lip, determined not to disgrace himself by crying, Alex had been waiting for this moment.

  He and Sandy had been in almost daily contact by video link, but that wasn’t nearly enough. Alex missed Sandy. Missed Sandy so much he’d even stopped touching himself, because nothing seemed to make any difference.

  Skidding to a stop in front of the bank of screens detailing which ship was docked at which berth, Alex breathlessly scanned them until he found the Vigilant, then ran the rest of the way to the south dock’s waiting room.

  “I told you they wouldn’t be through the airlocks yet.” Kai ambled into the room a few moments later, his usual air of preternatural calm only slightly disturbed.

  “Oh, shut up.” Alex’s mind was racing, too preoccupied with thoughts of Sandy to come up with anything more original.

  Hands in his pockets, Kai was a hundred times more relaxed than Alex was, but Alex didn’t care. The lights above the airlock door signaled that personnel were moving through the system, with only two more doors left to clear. That meant one more door cleared and Alex would be able to see who it was through the narrow window.

  “After all that, that’s what you decided to wear?” When Alex turned his head, Kai was looking him up and down, a perplexed look on his lean face.

  “What’s wrong with this? I look good in this.”

  “No, you look fine. You look great. I just thought…”

  Frantically scanning his clothes, Alex looked for anything wrong. No stains. Nothing torn. His fly was zipped. Did they make his butt look fat? “What?”

  Kai’s snicker was his first clue. Alex looked up to find the other man openly laughing at him, his shoulders shaking with mirth.

  “You dick.” Alex knew slugging Kai in the arm would only hurt his own hand, but he did it anyway. After eight weeks of working with each other constantly, Kai now treated him like a pest of a younger brother, needling him relentlessly. It was a measure of Alex’s distraction that he hadn’t caught on sooner.

  “I know it’s wrong, but I’m weak.”

  “Oh, go fuck yourself.”

  “Wouldn’t life be a lot simpler if we could all just master that particular skill?”

  Alex wasn’t paying attention to Kai’s smirk any more because the second set of doors was sliding open and Sandy was the first one through. Alex’s breath caught at his first glimpse of his lover. Sandy was wearing some kind of high-necked jacket, buttoned all the way from his chin to his waist. Below it was something colorful that Alex couldn’t quite make out, then Sandy was standing close to the window, pressing one huge hand against it while he smiled and mouthed something to Alex.

  I love you, Alex.

  Pressing his own hand against the glass, Alex took a quick swipe at his eyes with the other, a whispered “I love you, too” coming unbidden to his lips.

  “Thank Christ no one here’s diabetic. It’s getting pretty thick.”

  Alex turned briefly to flip Kai off before returning his gaze to the window, staying that way until the door slid back and Sandy was sweeping him up into a powerful embrace. Alex’s arms were around Sandy’s neck in a death grip and they were kissing, Sandy squeezing a handful of his ass in one big hand.

  “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too.”

  “God, you feel good.”

  “You look great.”

  Breaking away long enough to steer Alex back to the tram, Sandy tugged self-consciously at the collar of his jacket. “I wanted to get cleaned up for you. It’s called a lava lava. It’s Samoan. Very traditional.”

  Looking away from Sandy’s face, Alex followed the sweeping arc of Sandy’s gesture. The bottom half of Sandy’s outfit was a long wrap-around skirt of some kind; colorful, it followed the contours of Sandy’s powerful body. The boots he wore on his enormous feet should have looked incongruous, but they only completed the picture as far as Alex was concerned.

  “Come sit with me.”

  Following Sandy onto the last seat of the last section of the tram, Alex couldn’t resist running his hand along one muscular thigh, slipping his fingers underneath the fold of the skirt. Encountering bare skin beneath, Alex jerked his hand away, shocked.

  It wasn’t until Sandy turned to sit that Alex spotted his smile. Drawing Alex astride his lap, Sandy moved Alex’s hand back to the skirt’s side-opening.

  “It’s a long ride into town.” The tram kicked into gear and Alex
began to explore beneath the loose folds of the lava lava, encountering only centimeter after centimeter of warm, smooth skin. “Not all of the old ways are bad.”

  The heat that had been present, building inside Alex since the Vigilant had docked, since he’d laid eyes on Sandy, touched and smelled and tasted him, threatened to send Alex up in flames.

  “Welcome home, Sandy.” Smiling, Alex’s hand moved unerringly to Sandy’s dick, grasping its familiar weight, giving it a preliminary tug.

  “It’s good to be back.” A hitch in his breathing, Sandy smiled back. “What’ve you got planned for tonight?”

  “I’ve got a few ideas.”

  Taking a firm hold of Alex’s ass with both hands, Sandy leaned in for a kiss. “Yeah? So let’s hear ‘em.”