by R. Cooper
Trenne left behind goosebumps as he traced the line of the alay. He stopped at the back of Taji’s neck, hesitating as though expecting Taji to comment or look at him, but then continued his gentle exploration.
The pinprick sensation at the front of Taji’s throat vanished. Taji curled a hand around his neck and exhaled before letting go.
“The key to turn the alay off is usually simple. I am sorry I do not know the key to remove this one,” Trenne explained quietly. “Does it hurt? There are other ways to remove them, but I would not like to see you bleed.”
His hand was solid on Taji’s nape. Taji sank forward until he could hide his face against Trenne’s chest, and Trenne tugged him in closer, held him tight with one arm. Taji breathed in and swallowed without it being a struggle. He clutched Trenne’s shirt and waited for the numbness to fade. If they couldn’t get it off safely, he would rip it off. But later. Later. He needed this now.
“Trenne,” he croaked, somehow embarrassed about that too, but also so grateful to feel Trenne beneath his cheek. “What are you doing here?”
Trenne stiffened. He pushed Taji away and Taji frowned up at him in displeasure but by then Trenne’s hands were gentle along his jaw and on his face, carefully forcing Taji to look at him. Trenne’s ears were flat. “I am here for you, peha. I was not going to leave you.”
Taji met his stare and then couldn’t stand it and closed his eyes. “Oh. That’s…that’s reckless. You’re about assessing risk and this is dangerous. You shouldn’t—”
Trenne returned a hand to the back of Taji’s neck. Taji grabbed his arm and held it. Trenne’s palm was rough on skin Taji had nearly scrubbed raw but Taji wanted it there forever.
His thoughts raced with vague ideas of things to do and memories of something shadowed and looming. Then, without warning, they steadied and settled on one thought only.
“Trenne.” Taji’s voice slipped into something tremulous. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry but I just…I tried to…” He opened his eyes. “Trenne, I ache.”
Trenne did not appear surprised, but he exhaled and pressed his fingers lightly to Taji’s cheek. “I worried you would. It took too long to find you.”
Taji sighed and gripped him tighter. “I made it. But please.”
“Wait one moment more, peha,” Trenne warned, but didn’t stop Taji from leaning in. “Nev,” Trenne said a second later, activating his comm and startling Taji into looking up. “I have him. He is well. Tell Lin. I will report in when we are done.”
“They’re here, too?” Taji asked in feverish confusion while Trenne reached up to disable his comm.
Trenne was still for a moment, watching him. “You do not understand.”
Taji didn’t understand anything. That had become more than clear when he’d tried to challenge Larin and wound up “honored” with these rooms. It didn’t matter now. Dozens of questions slipped from his mind because Trenne was in front of him and Taji’s body wanted.
He stretched onto his toes to drag his nose and then his tongue over the skin exposed at Trenne’s collar. He didn’t taste blood, and wondered briefly if even that would stop him now. “I tried to make it go away. I was pretending. But here you are. Please. Please, Trenne.”
He belatedly realized Trenne was trying to calm him with a low, gentle stream of, “Yes, shehzha. Of course, Taji. What do you need, peha?” but it wasn’t enough, so he tugged Trenne’s hand to the nape of his neck again and pushed it down before letting go.
Trenne obediently kept his hand there. “What else do you want? Tell me and I will give it.”
Taji was on fire with embarrassment at the sound he made. He shook his head a little, trying to not be an animal about it, but struggling for words. “Not here,” he managed at least, although it was some other, sensible person talking, not Taji shehzha.
“Here,” Trenne disagreed softly, “but quick. I am sorry.”
“They know we’re doing this,” Taji realized out loud, much later than he should have. “The others?” He peered up at Trenne and then around him to the doors, which were only partially closed. He turned back to Trenne with a frown, not sure what he intended to say, but Trenne seemed to understand.
“What is through there?” he asked, nodding toward the doorway leading to the bed Taji had ignored.
He took Taji’s soft, “Please,” for an order and led Taji there by the hand, as though Taji wouldn’t have followed him anywhere without that.
Taji was in Trenne’s lap before Trenne had finished sitting down, hands on his face, kissing him breathlessly. Trenne put his hands on Taji’s hips, possibly to steady him, but Taji ground down, needing Trenne to get hard. He didn’t think he could come again after what he’d done in the bathing room, but if he didn’t taste Trenne, he could die.
“You will not,” Trenne assured him, as if Taji was saying all of that between kisses. “Taji.” He put his hand back on Taji’s nape with deliberate care and Taji stopped, cracking apart as he tried to hold still. “I am not upset. But be calm, Taji, please.” Trenne spoke into Taji’s hair and then against the shell of his ear. “You want me in your mouth?” he asked, making Taji nod gratefully. Trenne captured one of Taji’s hands and tugged it down. “Take what you need.”
Taji slid to the floor in an ungraceful heap. He was too weak for anything else and this floor was warmed, too. Trenne reached for him, but eased into a less alarmed posture when Taji focused on his fly with single-minded interest.
Taji moaned around the tip of Trenne’s cock the second it was on his tongue and sucked hard enough to make Trenne catch his breath. “Sorry,” Taji pulled off to whisper, rubbing his palms anxiously over Trenne’s thighs.
Trenne lightly steered him back without a word, only gasping again faintly at the rough pressure of Taji trying to draw the taste from him as fast as he could. Trenne’s cock hardened in Taji’s mouth despite any discomfort, and Taji tried, tried, to slow down. His full mouth was already dripping with saliva as if knowing he would get what he needed soon.
He kneeled up to take in more, keeping himself as stuffed as he had wanted to be while fucking himself on the bathing room floor. He worked his tongue, suckling for just a drop, and moaned when it finally came. Trenne shuddered, beautiful and pained, and Taji opened eyes that had fallen shut to look up at him.
He liked how Trenne watched him, the heat and softness of it, when Taji was drooling and grunting for hints of pre-come. He liked the flex of Trenne’s hand on the back of his neck, warm and real. He pulled away to lick his lips and swallow. His voice was husky and slow. “I’m your shehzha.” Trenne needed to know that. “Not his.”
Something unfamiliar flashed over Trenne’s face. “Yes.” His voice was husky, too.
“You earned me.” Taji’s words were as rough as the rest of this. “Your shehzha.” He fit his mouth over the head of Trenne’s cock again so Trenne could watch and understand. Taji’s eyes fluttered closed, and he moved a hand to the base of Trenne’s cock, first to curl around it and stroke upward, but then dropping to run his fingertips through the small, slick patch at the base. He was a little bit in love with how wet Trenne got for him, and slipped his fingers into his mouth alongside Trenne’s cock to swallow more of the salty-sweet fluid.
Trenne scratched needy lines through his hair. “Taji,” he whispered, low and pleased. Taji pulled his fingers out and dipped them down again to circle Trenne’s little pussy. Trenne spread his legs and Taji pushed forward. He tasted his fingertips again, his chin messy with spit, then rubbed his slippery fingers over the shaft of Trenne’s cock.
Taji’s cheeks were hot. A steady trickle of flavor ran down his throat, and he eased off Trenne’s cock to swallow and swallow again. The desperate ache had vanished. He was warm and nearly content. He vaguely recalled the rest of the universe, or at least that they were supposed to be quick, but his movements were languid as he fell back to his knees and slid down to the floor. He shoved his fingers into his mouth to suck them clean and get t
hem wet for this at the same time, and pushed his loose pants down with his other hand.
“I was thinking of you,” he tried to explain, showing Trenne how open he was. “The tip is enough,” he lied, high and breathless. “Please, Trenne. I’ll beg. If you want, I will. It’s okay if it’s you. But I need to not ache anymore. I need—”
He shut up when Trenne fell to his knees. Trenne pulled Taji toward him, and hitched Taji’s hips to press Taji’s legs nearly to his chest. He left Taji’s pants half on, trapped him like that while he rumbled, “You are my shehzha. Not his.” He tested Taji’s hole with a thick finger, sending streaks of electricity up Taji’s spine.
“Are you going to make me come?” Taji squirmed at the rising pressure, the warmth of the floor at his back. He was already drifting. “You don’t have to.”
“You do not understand your power,” Trenne told him quietly, pressing in to make Taji gasp. He could milk another orgasm from Taji like that, something strained and perfect, but Taji didn’t resist when Trenne withdrew his finger and pulled him closer.
Taji shut his eyes when he finally had Trenne’s cock in him again, and struggled to find his breath even while bringing his hand up to his mouth to seek more of Trenne’s taste. Trenne stopped without filling him, without even coming close, and Taji opened his eyes.
“I will not hurt you,” Trenne said, unrelenting. Taji squirmed again, deliberately, and Trenne briefly shut his eyes but allowed it. Taji felt tight and small and trapped. He had absolutely no way to get off unless he used his hand and instead, he was wriggling to watch Trenne breathe harder.
“Resist your greedy shehzha,” Taji dared him, shifting up to feel hints of stretch and friction. He put a hand to his dick, which wasn’t fully hard, but that didn’t matter because Trenne’s gaze was so hot and Taji didn’t ache.
Trenne moved his hips in slow increments, ears up as if his attention was entirely focused on the sounds Taji made. He leaned down, nearly crushing Taji, but Taji reveled in it. Pressed and trapped and pinned, and Taji was so warm with it.
“This,” he sighed nonsensically, feeling no pain.
He came with a startled, tiny burst of light behind his eyes and a shocked moan. His body clenched tight, and he squeezed his half-hard cock in surprise at the pulse of semen over his stomach.
Trenne watched him with a look Taji was too high to pinpoint, somewhere between satisfied and starving, but he let go easily when Taji wriggled again. Taji rolled onto his side and pushed himself onto his hands and knees only long enough to shamble forward and fall mouth-first onto Trenne’s cock.
The flavor was sharper now, stronger. Trenne made a fist around the base, but when Taji whined softly, he let go, slid that hand over the back of Taji’s neck instead, and let Taji suck him until he came.
Taji swallowed it all, and what he missed, he left across his cheek and down his chin to lap up after he cleaned Trenne with his tongue. The flex of Trenne’s fingers was the closest Trenne would ever come to losing control with him. It made Taji want to purr. He’d thought he would never have Trenne like this again, so he savored the taste and the feel of Trenne’s cock until Trenne’s hand finally tightened as if in real pain.
Limbs heavy, Taji took his mouth off Trenne at last and dropped down to lie on the floor, his head on Trenne’s knee.
Trenne traced the shell of his ear. “We cannot stay here, shehzha. Will you allow me to care for you?”
Taji nodded dreamily. He woke from his daze what could only have been moments later, after Trenne had moved him to the bed and used the bedding to wipe them both clean.
“I cannot give you more time now.” Trenne dressed Taji like he was already practiced at it. Taji frowned in confusion while watching Trenne find and return with his boots, which Trenne then put on Taji as well.
“You’re barefoot,” Taji observed, then shook his head as several things struck him at once. “You’re here. With me. In Larin’s house.” He sat up. “Trenne, this is dangerous!”
Trenne let go of Taji’s foot, then straightened and switched on his comm. “Nev? We are safe. Situation?”
Taji got to his feet and stayed up by clinging to Trenne’s shirt. Trenne’s coat was twisted around his arms and he yanked it into place while straining to listen to whatever was being said.
“Trenne, there are Guards!” Taji hissed at him. “Larin has all his friends here so he can show them—Nadir!” Taji hated how clouded his thinking was right now. “Nadir is here. Trenne, he might still be alive. There are dungeons—real ones! He’s there and he’s injured! We have to…you said Lin? Lin’s okay? What about Tsomyal and everyone else?”
“Taji will also like to hear your voice,” Trenne remarked to Nev. He brushed his fingers over Taji’s cheekbone.
“Eshe,” Taji gave in weakly, then heard himself and scowled. “Trenne.”
“I will expect them,” Trenne said, again not to Taji, before the comm link must have ended. “We must go. Are you able?”
They had just had sex on the floor. Taji’s brain was a supernova. He stared at Trenne blankly. “Nadir is dying and I made you stop to have sex,” he realized out loud, horrified. Trenne covered Taji’s mouth with one hand, apparently to stop it from running away with him, because Trenne removed it when Taji went quiet.
“You are a dream made solid, Taji shehzha,” Trenne told him seriously, “but I need you to be my Taji Ameyo again, if you can.”
“Your Taji Ameyo?” Taji regarded him in amazement, although why he was so amazed slipped from his mind. He tried to focus. It helped when Trenne kept touching him. “Wait. Where is Nev, exactly?”
The softening of Trenne’s expression was a ray of light. “With Nadir, Taji shehzha.”
“Ah!” Taji exclaimed and kissed the palm of Trenne’s hand. “You pretty genius!” Trenne did not seem to know what to do with his ears. “Nev is with Nadir! You found him! He’s in so much pain, but at least he isn’t alone.”
“I am sorry you were—” Trenne started to say and Taji shushed him with a hand over his mouth this time.
“You’re supposed to be on the moon.” Taji pulled his hand away. “I’m glad you’re not. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without seeing you since I arrived on Mirsa. I missed you. So much. Larin told me…” Taji hid his face. “He said a ship had left for the moon. That he had allowed it to go. I…I missed you.”
“Taji,” Trenne exhaled it into Taji’s hair. “A ship left. Ledo and Tsomyal were on it. I was not. I would not leave without trying to find you.”
More stars exploded behind Taji’s eyes. He went still. “You came back for me?”
Trenne took several moments to answer. “Did you believe I would not try? That…is a wound.”
“I’m sorry,” Taji said automatically, without understanding. “But I’m not important. There’s no reason for you to risk yourself for me. We’re friends, but you against Imperial Guards, Trenne? That’s almost suicide no matter how capable you are. And for what? You don’t feel the bond like I do. You—you and everyone else—were safer where I left you…oh.”
Taji almost peered up but couldn’t look at Trenne now. “It’s a Sha thing, isn’t it? You can’t leave your shehzha in danger. Well, I was doing my best, and I didn’t blame you.” He pulled in a shuddering breath, oddly grateful for the chemical orgy in his mind right now that meant this didn’t hurt that much. “Why am I talking about this? You’re risking your life for me and I’m fretting over honor rules. Sorry. I’m a mess, and I love you, and I was so…I was so scared, and alone, and now I can’t think. Ignore whatever I’m saying. I have some words built up. That’s all. I’m glad you came back for me.”
A gentle touch settled over his neck, across the alay. Trenne spoke, measured and level. “You have been waiting?” he asked, making Taji look up. Trenne addressed whoever was at the other end of the comm link. “You are welcome now. He will like to see you.”
“What?” Taji hissed. “Who’s here? What’s going on?” He mo
ved away from Trenne to look out the bedroom doorway, then returned to him because not touching Trenne made him shiver.
“It had better be safe,” Markita’s voice rang out from the other room. “Scarred for life already—uh, sir,” he added respectfully once Trenne came into view.
Taji swung a look from him to Trenne and back again. Rodian appeared next to Markita, both of them in black, guns in their belts, knives in their hands as if stealth had been their objective. They sheathed their knives when Trenne made a small, chiding noise.
“The hall stayed clear?” Trenne asked. They nodded.
“Not that many around right now, anyway,” Markita added.
“Not on this level. This is part of Larin’s rooms,” a soft voice contributed. Mos, in black pants and a shirt like the others, peered around the doorway at Taji, glanced over how he was pressed to Trenne’s chest, then quickly looked elsewhere. Her ears looked strange, but a small spot of dried blood was visible where the ring had been. Her feet were also bare.