Page 7

“That was different.” Khoth lifted his chin up.

“No, it wasn’t.” Jace shook his head. It was more a rubbing his face against the pillow, but Khoth knew what that movement was. “You’re just as important and necessary as me.”

“Hardly. I am merely one Thaf’ell Commander. You are the Pilot.”

“You’re necessary to me,” Jace might have said, but his voice was too blurred by the pillows to be sure. Then he turned his head and said clearly, “But you were asking me about my, ah, experiences with… uhm, people. Special people. Because of the pain… I just couldn’t really do the da--I mean the massage thing with anyone.”

Khoth read into these words what he thought that Jace was telling him.

“You have never engaged in sexual contact before?” Khoth asked.

“Ah, well, I’ve--I’ve kissed someone, but… yeah, no, I’ve never done any of that. Really. I’m not sure if this is that,” Jace told him. “I mean are you just massaging me or is this… something more?”

Jace went a very interesting red shade and he wiggled, which had Khoth abruptly moving and straddling Jace’s thighs. This allowed him full control and access to the young man’s body. His own heart rate increased and more arousal pulsed through him.

“Something more,” Khoth finally answered.

There was so much that could be said here. But he wasn’t sure of the human words. He really wasn’t sure of the Thaf’ell words either. His tongue seemed abnormally large in his mouth and didn’t wish to work. So he just swallowed and left it at that. Ambiguous but full of meaning.

Jace let out a sigh and stopped wiggling. “O-okay.”

Khoth placed both of his hands on Jace’s broad shoulders and dug his thumbs into the skin and muscle there. Jace was as soft and hard as he had imagined. It was Khoth’s turn to sigh.

“You are very confident in all you do, Jace,” Khoth said as he got control of his voice again.

Touching Jace was quite an experience. Things inside of him that had been dormant seemed to turn on as he smoothed his hands down the sweep of Jace’s back to the waistband of his pants. He wondered if he should have asked Jace to strip completely. But no, that ran counter to what he was going to say and what they were going to do.

“I’m just a good bullshitter,” Jace answered as he adjusted his head on the pillow so his face was to the side.

His eyelids were half shut and his breathing had increased. He was relaxing and getting aroused. Khoth knew this without being told or knowing human biology well.

“I do not know how excrement--”

“You’re putting me on! You know what that means!” Jace laughed.

Khoth grinned. “Yes, I know. But you are not a liar.”

“I’m a fake it until you make it sort of a person sometimes.” Jace shrugged and let out a moan as Khoth’s thumbs framed his spine at the base of his back. “I mean, I had to pretend all the time that I wasn’t too sick to do things. I just pushed forward until I was doing them. Sometimes the pain would recede and I was okay.”

“And when it did not?” Khoth inched his way up Jace’s back, pressing in all along Jace’s spine.

“Then I paid for it. In bed for days with the blinds closed. Parents angry and worried, threatening to not let me go out and do anything if I kept doing stupid things,” Jace told him.

Khoth imagined this beautiful young man shaking with pain, one forearm over his eyes in a darkened room, not knowing when the agony would end, unsure if it would or if he would pay a yet greater--and permanent--price for pushing himself.

“Yes, I can well picture this.” Khoth stroked Jace’s arms with the backs of his fingers, running them down to Jace’s elbows.

Jace shivered and arched up beneath him. “Oh, God, that’s really--really nice.”

“Yes, it is. You are very responsive. It will be a pleasure to learn your body and teach you,” Khoth remarked softly.

“Ah… oh, fuck, yeah, that sounds… hah, oh my God, I don’t know what to say,” Jace squeaked, excited and eager and… nervous.

Khoth had leaned over Jace’s back. His lips were mere inches from the young man’s skin. He licked his lips and swallowed the sudden rush of saliva. It would be so easy to just allow himself to sink down the rest of the way and kiss that flesh. To open his mouth and let his tongue linger against that tender, untouched skin. To feel the vibrations of Jace’s moans as he…

Khoth pulled himself to a fully seated position. His cheeks were flushed a dark blue. The color likely had spread all the way down to his stomach. His sexual organ pulsed. He remembered… remembered being young and needy and overwhelmed. And an older Thaf’ell face over him. Hooded eyes. A slice of a smile--a cruel smile, he would think later--on that handsome face.

That is not this. That is not… But Jace is new to this. He is dealing with so much. Am I taking advantage with my cruel smile hidden?