The bed creaked. Arana loomed over the railing. “Are you bothered at all?”
“Yeah, but losing sleep over it won’t change anything. Shit happens, A.”
“I’m tired of shit happening.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“Would you have abandoned me?” she whispered, her eyes nothing but deep voids.
My hand clenched where it lay behind my head. “I saved you from that flora.”
“Because you thought you could. You didn’t think your life was on the line. If I were in Lilea’s place back there, if I couldn’t have followed you, would you have left me?”
To die,lingered on the end of that question, a cruel, crawling creation between us, sucking the air from the room like a black hole. In that space, drifting in and out of reality, was that voice again.Hervoice.
“Yes,” I replied, and Arana flinched. “I’ll always choose me first, so should you, so should all of us.” I turned my back on her. “Go to sleep.”
The bunk creaked. Arana flipped and turned above me, reminding me of another body lying beside me, softly snoring. When I shut my eyes, I sawHer,black hair splayed across a pillow, and I knew I needed a distraction more than anything. I needed Roys to blind me to all else, to pin me to the desk and take whatever he wanted.
The commlink blinked 2209, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Arana snored.
None of them woke when I slid the commlink off my wrist, leaving it under the blankets of my bed. They didn’t wake when I grabbed my smokes—I enjoyed having one afterward—or when I opened the door, letting in the pale light of the hall. They didn’t wake when I left, wandering to Roys’ office on the other end of the barracks closer to the armory.
I wondered whether he would really be there. The month he had been around was a horrid one because he obeyed the rules, and this was entirely against them. But when the door opened, he leaned against the desk. Light came from the sleeping holo screen, casting the office in a deep blue haze.
He said nothing at first. Neither did I, as if we waited for the other to change their mind. If anyone would, it would be him. I expected an excuse to form that he’d inevitably cast aside because, in the end, we were trapped here for three months and he’d eventually get as bored as I was. The thought must have been there, a ghost haunting the edge of his mind. His fingers tapped, like he needed those candies, but he didn’t offer them a glance. All his attention remained on me, the representation of our agreement. I left it up to him to determine whether the agreement stood.
“I was starting to think you were the shy one,” he finally said.
A pair of gray sweats hung low on his burly waist and a muscle shirt stretched over a firm chest that I wanted to feel again.
“I don’t see how you could ever even consider that,” I replied, biting back an enthusiastic grin.
“Youarelate.”
“Because Arana wasn’t asleep yet. Trust me, she would have followed, and I don’t think you want her to see what we’re about to do.” I crossed the room to meet him. He never let me get there.
Hand on my chest, he ordered, “Take off your clothes.”
Excitement hummed hot from the insatiable look in his eyes. They weren’t hesitant anymore, replaced by the hunger he had in the cave, the bud blooming where others could not see. I took my time undressing for him. Roys’ attention melted through me, his eyes pitch black in this light, sensual in a way I once believed him incapable of. He had always been too rigid, a foundation that wouldn’t crack. Now there was a fluidity to him, more like an ocean offering the promise of adventure.
My shirt fellforgotten. My pants hit the floor, too. I shivered under his attention, the way his eyes fell over every piece of me. His low voice came out as a growl. “There’s lube in the console table. Touch yourself.”
I opened the drawer for the bottle, blood already running hot. First, I let my fingers trail over my stomach, more than eager to comply when I knew what would come next. Lower and lower I went before coating my hand. The lube was cool and the first brush of it over my cock had me moaning. I cupped my balls, massaging, rubbing, then my finger traced the vein on the underside of my cock before smoothing over my head. I left the bottle on the console table to focus on the task at hand, working myself for him, savoring the lust growing in his eyes.
Roys’ lips tilted into an amused smile. “You really will obey orders here.”
“I’m an enthusiastic listener, mm, depending on the outcome.”
Roys cut the space between us to seize the back of my neck for that cherry-flavored kiss. I moaned into his mouth, into all the promises he gave without a word. I kept the pace of my hand slow, wanting to ensure I didn’t finish before we even started.
Then Roys caught me under the thighs and lifted. I grabbed his shoulder, ensuring our mouths didn’t fall apart until I fell onto the desk, hand still around my cock and the other lost over broad shoulders. I felt his scars through the shirt, raised patches of skin crisscrossing over sturdy muscle.
His calloused hands rubbed my thighs, spreading them so he could bring us chest to chest. He rolled against me, strengthening all the desires unspoken between us since the cave. Since maybe before that, considering I wanted between his legs from the moment I saw him.
We broke apart purely for the removal of his shirt, which ripped in our eagerness. I caught his complaint with a kiss. We didn’t take our timebecause this was meant to be messy, all biting and scratching and pulling. Not a yearning, but a greed that couldn’t be satiated in any meandering way.
He really was all muscle, and those muscles were mine to adore. My hand ran up his arms, over his back, down his chest where my palm rubbed him through the irritating fabric, daring to separate us. His skin broke out in goosebumps from the attention. My attention. That had to piss him off, and it made my desire burn all the wilder.
