I did so, moaning when he grabbed my hair to crane my neck so he could use my mouth. He thrust between my lips, setting a desperate pace that made my eyes water. My tongue traced the vein under his head when he slowed, and I sucked hard when he fucked my head into the ground. Then I tasted him, felt him shudder, and licked the last of him from my lips when he departed, satisfied.
He clambered back between my legs to take up his favorite pastime of utterly ruining my neck. My body hummed in the aftershocks, leaning into calloused fingers drawing circles against my side.
“You’re going to force me to wear turtlenecks for this entire tour, aren’t you?” I craned my neck for him, regardless.
“That’s your choice.” He kissed down to my chest before looking up at me. “But if you’re really that worried, I could leave moreelsewhere.”
He proceeded to leave many all over my chest down to my hips. I lay there, reveling in the sensation of his mouth all over me, shuddering when he sucked my cock just because. It was incredible feeling his hands all over me for no reason than to feel. A quick tug and my pants were back on, and I still hadn’t quite come down from the high.
By the time he finished, I glanced down at my red-marked skin. “I look like an army of bugs laid siege upon me.”
“One bug,” he said. “And I’ve counted, so if any other bugs come around, I’ll know.”
“So youarejealous?”
Snorting, he fell to my side. He tossed an arm behind his head, our labored breaths steadying in the growing silence. My mind was quiet, the world nothing more than us in a field under the stars. It was oddly nice. I didn’t need to hear him talk, although admittedly, I kind of wanted him to. I just didn’t know what to talk about. Ours never usually ended well and, for once, I wanted this to end well. To be different.
“It is pretty out here. You didn’t see this at your colony?” Roys whispered.
“Look through my record, did ya? That’s rude. I didn’t see yours.” I knocked my leg against his. He hooked his foot around my ankle like it meant nothing, like it was normal.
“I told you more than what is on my record.”
His touch felt like too much, even after what we did. I pulled my leg away and tugged at the grass, twirling the blades around my fingers. “Why? Aren’t I a bastard?”
“The word was invented to describe you.”
We laughed. His finger brushed mine between us. I wanted to hold his hand, to interlock our fingers and know what it would feel like just tohave him there. But I laid my hands on my chest instead, where my heart refused to steady.
“You already know I’m from Earth. There’s no point hiding that, and it is quite clear I did not come from the wealthy part of Earth, so I figured it would be fine,” he said.
“What if I gossip about it to my friends?”
“I imagine you will. You are incapable of keeping your mouth shut.”
“I told you, I act out because I like when you get rough with me.” I glanced at him, a little surprised to find a smile on his face far more alluring than his frowning.
“Sure.” He shut his eyes. “All captains are given basic information about their troops. I don’t even know what colony you came from, if that is any consolation to you.”
I wondered how many were right in front of us, out there drifting through space, as invisible as the lives they wasted.
“Doesn’t matter.” I picked at one of my nails. “They’re all the same — cold, dark, disgusting wastes of space. The first time I saw the sky was when I left that place.”
Without my sister. Huddled on the Katlan, I was too terrified to move. I sat there, curled up in a ball, staring in the dark where I saw Maddy, bloodied and broken, staring back at me. I dropped my pack during the attack. Without food or water, I hardly had the energy to crawl off the Katlan once docked. No wonder I was caught immediately. It wasn’t until I was a cadet that I had a moment to look out a porthole and savor the world beyond.
“Do you prefer this to the view from a speeder?” he asked.
“Yeah.I don’t know why.”
“Me too.”
We fell silent for a while before Roys started making up stories for the stars. Apparently, Earthers gave them meaning a long time ago, stories about constellations long forgotten, but some people tried to cling to the tales by making their own.
Roys thought a set resembled a horse, a type of Earth creature. He saw pictures of them on adverts. Supposedly, there were a couple brought back from extinction being bred on Earth and, of course, sold as expensive rides for the rich and curious. I pointed at a set that looked phallic, and Roys had a look of such disappointment that I laughed, and he did, too.
“Your mind is in a constant state of horny,” he said.
“I am surrounded by muscle-bound, sweaty men all day. How else am I meant to feel?” I slapped his chest to squeeze his pec. He really had an amazing body. I wanted to curl up against his side and awake to those arms wrapped around me.
