“This is the figure per carat that candar is fetching on the open market. This is the figure that we are asking.” Griffin had entered numbers on a small handheld monitor, and then he turned it, showing it to Tomas.
From there, the bargaining began in earnest. I was surprised at Griffin’s skillful handling of the negotiations. No wonder he’d been able to fleece U’shma at the gambling table!
I watched the bodyguard carefully, and she kept a close eye on her boss, clearly waiting for a signal. When no signal came, she relaxed a bit, her gaze moving between Griffin and myself. Clearly he interested her as much as I did. Maybe she was picturing us together. Maybe she was picturing herself in that scenario with us. That brought a smile to my face, as I briefly indulged in the fantasy.
Maybe someday. For now, I wanted Griffin to myself. I deserved that, didn’t I? After all, I might just lose him again at the end of our journey. Nothing in life was certain. I smiled at her gently and rested my fingers on the pommel of my sword. She lifted a single brow and returned to her surveillance of the room.
The negotiating came to an end, and an unworldly amount of money was agreed upon. Griffin opened a program on the black-screened unit in his hand, and Tomas did likewise. In the middle of the table, the candar lay flanked by the lesser stones, which Griffin had added to the deal at no charge. Carlotta stood to Griffin’s right, between him and the gem broker. I’d moved to Griffin’s left, mirroring her posture. Payment was completed with a tiny chime from Griffin’s unit, and he leaned forward, pushing the treasure to Tomas’s side of the table. I leaned forward, lifted the cloth, and dropped the glistening gems into his trembling palm, stroking his finger as I did so. Lust and greed warred in his eyes, and I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake. The bodyguard had to tug his sleeve to move him along. All the while, he kept the tiny hoard clutched in his fist.
To my relief, we finally saw them to the door without any trace of violence or trouble. Tomas walked out ahead of his bodyguard, his entire body radiating tension. She threw a glance over her shoulder and stepped into the elevator, glancing around the small cubicle. She nodded, and Tomas stepped onto the lift with her. The doors closed, and one more dark glance told me we hadn’t seen the last of Carlotta Berne.
Griffin set the security system, sealing the elevator closed. We looked at each other, and we both exhaled heavily. I felt like I hadn’t taken a single breath over the past hour.
“It’s amazing to believe that something so small as a rock could transport a man to such ecstasy.” Under Tomas’s proper business suit his cock had been hard, and I didn’t think it was all in response to me.
Griffin put an arm over my shoulder and guided me to the sofa. We sat and stared at the figure in his account. The rough hand holding the comp pad trembled slightly. “Those stones have just purchased many months of security for us. Food and weapons and fuel. More than that, Helios. Much more.” He took a shaky breath. “We can rebuild. We can bring water to the surface.” I looked at the numbers again, stunned at the row of zeroes in the deposit.
I wanted his attention yet felt his urgency as he composed a letter to the council, informing them of the sale. He then arranged for a portion of the funds to be transferred to the community account. The rest went into a separate account. One that could be accessed by the two of us. It felt like a declaration of war. After sending the letter, he sat back, looking troubled.
“They will wish to know why I didn’t sell the lot. And why I withheld funds.”
“Are you going to tell them? About me, I mean?”
“No. Not yet. I need to do that over a secure, encrypted transmission. Your safety is paramount, Lio. I don’t know that all who currently hold power can be trusted. Your cousin had allies, and I don’t know who they are.”
I flopped backward, my head resting on the arm of the couch. “I don’t really want to be king, you know. It sounds like the community is doing well with a democratic council.”
“But it isn’t.” Griffin lay back at the other end of the couch, his hands crossed over his belly. Our legs intersected midway. “It isn’t democratic, and it isn’t ruling wisely. For example, you immediately saw the big picture when I told you about the mineral deposits on the planet. Our councilors see only the quick fix. They’ll exploit our resources and allow the planet to be raped for its riches.”
“Thus rendering it uninhabitable. Haven’t we learned our lessons from the past?”
“They are desperate, Lio. Watching children grow thin and pale can prompt rash behavior. I think they still believe we can go home again.” His eye had dropped closed, and as I watched, Griffin began to submit to the great fatigue that he’d fought off for days now.
“Griffin. Stand up.” I rose and reached a hand out to the man. Wearily he clasped it and rose to his feet. I might not have the answers he needed, but I could at least tend to him right now. We walked into the sleeping area, and he collapsed onto the bed without removing his clothing.
I knelt to pull off his boots, and as he struggled from his shirt, I unfastened his pants, doing my best not to be distracted by the beautiful body I uncovered.
Easier said than done.
Once he was undressed and in bed, he watched lazily as I stripped, carefully unfastening the high boots, folding away the pants and silken shirt. I wanted to fling them aside, to dive into the bed. But for so long I’d had so little, I learned to take great care of what I had. The habit was hard to break.
I slid between the sheets, sighing at the feel of fine linens against my skin. His arm stretched above my head, and I rested against it.
“Who did that to you, Griffin?”
He rolled his head to look at me with his good eye.
“The eye, the testicle. You were tortured. Badly.”
His mouth quirked into a half smile. “Occupational hazard, Helios. You know that.”
“Do I? Torture is not something I’d expect my people to suffer. Not on my behalf.”
He rolled onto his side to face me. “We’d never fought anyone like this before, Lio.” He sighed, no doubt realizing that his sleep would be delayed a bit longer. I felt bad, but since he was willing to talk, I needed to hear.
“Later on I’ll give you the history of the conflict. For now, it’s enough for you to know that our neighbors, the Kingdom of Talis, made the unwise decision to reach out to the Landaun. The Talisians betrayed us and in so doing, brought about the downfall of their own people.”
“Were they forced into exile as well?” These names meant nothing to me. How could an event this huge have been wiped from my mind?
“They suffered a rather unfortunate fate. While we were forced off the planet, they remained behind. The entire royal family was slain, and the survivors are now slave-laborers for the Landaun. The aliens ripped apart the planet in search of minerals and other resources. When they left, our planet was a toxic, poisoned shell of what it was.”
How ironic. Here we were planning the best way to conserve the resources of our new, inhospitable home, and our beautiful planet had been destroyed. I’d seen glimpses of our old home in Griffin’s holo-images. There’d been trees the color of emeralds, sky the color of sapphire. My heart ached for the destruction of a planet that had been far more beautiful than precious gems.
I desperately wanted… needed to know more. I wanted to know how many survived, the condition of our army. But all this could wait. I had more questions for Griffin.
“They tortured you. Why?” He didn’t answer. “Was it because of me?”
“You’d vanished. When you retreated, you split their troops, enabling us to get the majority of our people to safety. Unfortunately, I fell. I was tortured. They wanted me to disclose your location.”
Nausea roiled my stomach. Guilt tied my heart into a painful knot. “I’m sorry.”
He reached out and clasped my shoulder. “You saved thousands of lives. Tens of thousands! Even as they held us… tortured us… you harried them. You rallied small g
roups of guerilla fighters and picked them off one at a time. You’d appear in the west and then in the south. Their armies degenerated into a confused mess, allowing our people to evacuate the planet. I don’t know how you were finally captured, but by then, I was taken away with the others.”
I frowned in confusion. We were not a space-faring people; that much I knew. “How did our people evacuate?”
“Several planetary governments that we were unaware of stepped in at great risk to themselves. It was a humanitarian effort.”
I lay flat on my back, looking at the ceiling. So very much had happened. “I can’t believe you don’t hate me. All of you.”
“Helios, you are a hero. Your actions were noble and daring. In years to come, our children’s children will hear stories of your exploits.”
“I’m not a hero. I’m a whore. A slave. That’s all I know.”
He smiled and pulled me close, tucking my head under his chin.
“You may have been a whore, Lio. But you were a most uncommon whore indeed. Now stop talking. Stop thinking. Just rest.”
His words were couched as a command, and I found myself unable to deny him. I lay silently, awake long after he’d fallen asleep. Fear and anxiety mingled and then blew away like ash in the breeze. He believed in me. How could I not?
I draped one leg over his and closed my eyes, feeling a deep sense of arrival.
I’d come home.
Chapter Nine
WAKING WITH an erection is no unusual occurrence in my life. However, waking with an erection and a clear plan of action was something of a novelty.
I opened my eyes a bit blearily, aware of a large, warm… no, make that a hot body next to mine. We hadn’t moved much as we slept. Griffin was splayed out on his back; I was on my side, my leg pinning his. My cock was rigid and hard, and as I stroked his leg with mine, I grinned at the sheer luxury of the sensation.
Through the thin sheet, I could see the outline of his heavy shaft. Carefully I shifted position, moving the fabric aside. He was flaccid, but when I breathed lightly over his skin, his cock stirred. I grinned. I licked and nuzzled the soft, loose skin and then pulled him into my mouth. I reveled in the sensation of him growing, filling my mouth as his cock grew long and hard.
He cursed softly as he woke, one big hand settling on my head, guiding my strokes. His hips bucked, and he moaned. Letting his shaft slip free, I nuzzled around the base of his cock, licking and nipping with my lips. I moved lower, down to his scrotum, kissing and loving every scar, every injury that he’d suffered on my behalf. I trailed the tip of my tongue over a long, jagged scar that ran up the inside of his thigh. I lightly kneaded the iron-hard muscle of his legs.
Returning to his cock, I braced it in one hand and went down on him, tasting the salty tang of precum on his glans. I relaxed my throat, letting his length glide down as far as possible, sucking hard as he pulled out. He buried his hand in my hair again, alternately stroking the skin of my face and urging me along faster and faster.
He wasn’t far from climax when he forced my head away.
“Fuck, Lio!” He gasped. “I know what you’re doing… and you won’t get away with it this time.” His voice had lowered to a growl, and he pulled me up the length of his body.
“Just what is it that I’m doing?” I trailed my tongue along his chin, steadily pumping my hips into his. I nipped his throat and then licked away the sting.
“You’re going to get me off, and then you’ll want to fuck me.”
“And what’s wrong with that? It sounds like an excellent plan….”
“Except you know I hate being bottom.”
“I do?” I had already guessed that, but when Griffin’s face went sober, I knew he’d forgotten. Muddled by sleep, he’d gone back all those years in his memory. I smiled and kissed him, hoping to soften the moment for him. “I guessed that our first time together, but you weren’t too unhappy once I was in. In fact, you seemed rather unhappy when I pulled out.” I pressed my cock to his, reminding him there was more than one way for men to fuck. “And if you don’t like being bottom”—I sat up and straddled his hips. I’d slicked him up pretty good with my saliva, so I arrowed his cock into my anus—“you can always bottom like this.”
I relaxed and let gravity carry me down onto his cock. He was big—bigger than most men I’d taken—so I gasped a bit as I rose, wishing for lube. Griffin reached blindly for the table by the bed, coming up with a tube. I love a man who comes prepared.
He slicked his cock, and I came down again. Each time I repeated the penetration it became easier, until I was relaxed and slick and riding him easily. He reached up and fondled my cock, massaging it with the lube he’d used on himself.
“You think I’ll do it like that?”
“I’m hoping you will.” I rather liked being up here on top; it gave me a perfect view of Griffin’s face. I controlled the penetration and shifted to the perfect position, moaning slightly as his cockhead slid over my prostate. “Mmmm. You have no idea what you’re missing, Griffin.” He laughed a bit, throwing my rhythm off. That little jolt was enough to steal my focus, to push me headlong into a climax that had me bucking and gasping. He grasped my hips, steadying me as I shuddered. Then one hand clasped my cock and pumped me hard and fast, just as I liked it best. My body gripped his shaft, and he moaned and cursed but held out till my orgasm had shaken every bit of seed from my balls, leaving me limp and weak atop his body.
When my heart slowed and I caught my breath, Griffin pulled me down to cover his body, and he arrowed up into my ass. He moved steady and slow at the start, and then faster, harder, until he was shouting out his climax. His arms wrapped around me like iron bands, holding me in place. I felt the heat of his semen spilling deep into me. I heard the slamming of his heart in my ear. He strained into my body, groaning with every last spasm, until we both lay weak and content in one another’s arms.
I lay on top of him, smiling at the novelty of his strength, the rise and fall of his chest under mine. I lifted my head and caught his mouth in a deep, soulful kiss.
“Was it always this good for us?” I rolled off his body and rested my head on his outstretched arm.
“Always. Even after….” He broke off, looking up at the ceiling. He was still protecting me.
“Griffin, once this chip is deactivated, I’ll probably remember. If I don’t, I’ll rely on you to remember for me.”
He looked over at me, the expression on his face indescribably sad.
“The good, and the bad, Griffin. Life is both, and we’ve lived.”
He sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Even after we split, we never got past this passion. Even once you married, it was still there.”
“I was unfaithful?”
He smiled, a surprisingly gentle expression. “No, Helios. Not in deed. You were faithful to your lady-wife. I believe that you came to love her. Once I realized it was truly over, I sought out Suzan, and we married. She’d been our friend early on and knew of our feelings for each other. I grew to love her greatly.”
“And my wife?”
“She was never fond of me.” He rolled to his side and reached out, fingering my hair. “She… walked in on us once. Nothing too shocking, but enough to alert her to our feelings.”
“How did she die?”
“An accident. She was traveling and her skimmer overturned. She was killed immediately.”
There was more to the story than he was telling, I was sure of that. But at the moment, I didn’t want to know.
“Griffin?”
“Mmm?”
“I’m starving.” As if to support my claim, my stomach growled noisily. He laughed that rare, precious laugh.
“Are you recovered enough to get out of this bed?”
I sat and considered that. Maybe. I looked at him through my lashes. “Are you recovered?”
That prompted more laughter. He was out of the bed and strutting across the room, heading for the shower. It had real wate
r. I hurried after him; the bathtub was easily large enough for two grown men.
And judging by what I’d just seen, he was quite recovered. Thankfully the hotel provided room service.
HELIOS AND I made love.
I wanted to kick myself in the ass. I wanted to call the council and get someone out here to take him off my hands, because I was causing more harm than good. I’d forced an imprint, brought him to a hotel, and now we were fucking like teenagers. And while I hadn’t lied, I’d been less than truthful.
But the room, the world we created while we were alone and untroubled was a thing of magic. I watched him constantly. I watched him wander the room, exploring and touching, closing his eyes and feeling the space. Those weren’t simply the instincts of a sensualist; that was the warrior peeking out. He still had a hand with a blade, I had to give him that. Even as he bled from his eyes and ears, his forms with the kilij were flawless and fierce. I was good with a sword, but few men ever mastered the complexity of the curved blade and its hundreds of linked forms as Helios had.
He hadn’t held a weapon in years. His body was soft and unconditioned. Sometimes he seemed to have the emotional depth of a rivulet of water back home on our dry, nameless planet. He flirted. He laughed at nonsense and frequently caught sight of himself in a reflection. But then his wits were sharp as the blade that was his badge of office. He watched. He read. He learned and eventually, he’d remember.
The bed in which we lay was the center of our world for now. The elevator was secure and there was no access via the windows. Even the ducts were too small for the smallest Zamoran to negotiate. He hadn’t noticed that I scanned the food and drink as it was delivered.
We were safe.
The room’s temperature adapted to our body heat. Now that we were resting, it was cool. I pulled a silken blanket up to his shoulder and watched as Helios stirred slightly. His ability to sleep was different. In the past, he’d been restless. Always moving, always thinking. I wasn’t sure if he’d adapted to sustained inactivity or if the chip affected his sleeping patterns, because he slept hard.
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