Authors: Tracy St. John
Egilka spluttered. “Do I feel – Clajak,
I don’t know what the fuck is going on. How about explaining it to
me?”
Clajak settled into a cross-legged
sitting posture. “All right. After I put you out, I went to the
cargo hold where the Adrafs stored the cloning devices. I made a
copy of myself, set the lifepod to escape, and stuffed the copy in
it.”
Egilka grinned. Except for the part
where Clajak had slugged him, it sounded like a pretty good scheme.
“You knew Ru’imbu would scan the pods to see if we were on
any.”
“Right. He grabbed the one containing
my doppelganger, just as I’d hoped he would. Fortunately he didn’t
think to check that it contained a live Kalquorian. He secured the
pod, docked with this ship, and came hunting for the second
Kalquorian he wanted to tag.”
“You jumped him? How many of those
Tragooms did you have to fight?”
Clajak put his hand over his heart. “My
Imdiko, do you think me so rash? Don’t answer that. I’d taken the
precaution of setting up a stasis field. The device was hidden in
your shirt and timed to activate a few seconds after Ru’imbu and
his monsters surrounded your unconscious and yet still utterly
gorgeous body.”
Egilka frowned. “Don’t you dare try to
sweet talk me. You didn’t have to knock me out. I could have played
like I was unconscious.”
Clajak shook his head, his expression
serious for a change. “I wasn’t leaving anything to chance, not
with your life depending on it. That little gray bastard had given
us way too much trouble, so you had to take a nap for real. I am
sorry about that, Imdiko. Truly.”
Egilka thought it over. Clajak could
have given him a concussion. Yet the Imdiko knew he was no actor.
He might not have been able to play his part in the prince’s
brilliant if haphazard plan.
“I can’t believe you pulled that off,”
he said with grudging appreciation. “Trapping and killing the
Tragooms, not to mention outsmarting—”
A chilling thought shut the Imdiko up.
Terror, which was beginning to feel like a constant companion, woke
in his heart. He looked around wildly before grabbing the Dramok by
his shoulders. “Clajak, where is Ru’imbu? Holy shit, as bad as our
past relations with Bi’is have been, if you killed one of their
princes...”
Clajak pulled a face. “He’s alive,
against my better judgment. Unhappy, but unfortunately very alive.
I cryo-froze the hateful little shit, reclaimed the lifepod from
his ship, and stuck him in it. He is currently on his way to
Galactic Council space with a full report from me outlining my
complaints against him.”
Egilka stared at Clajak. He could
hardly believe Clajak had tamed his infamous temper long enough to
not kill Ru’imbu. Good sense had prevailed, however, leaving Bi’is
no reason to start a fight with the Empire.
The Imdiko’s laughter echoed in the
empty bridge.
Impressed that the prince had managed
such an enormous feat, Egilka said, “You lead a charmed life, you
crazy bastard.”
Clajak joined in his laughter. “I do,
and you should be a part of it. Starting here and now. Say you’re
my clanmate, Egilka. We can still do the ceremonial thing, but I
want you as a clanmate this very second.”
Egilka shoved at him, though he was
sure his grin ruined the pretense of anger. “I don’t know. I’m
still pretty pissed off at you for this entire fiasco.”
Clajak handed him another device. This
one was a portable stasis enabler, no doubt the one the prince had
used to subdue their enemies. “I’m man enough to offer myself to
you in compensation, but too much of a Dramok to not take over and
dominate. Go ahead. Take your revenge.”
Egilka’s cocks perked up at the offer.
He lost no time fiddling with the small metallic box’s controls. “I
get to fuck you like I own you? I’m not passing up that
opportunity.”
He set the stasis field for a single
lifeform and aimed it at Clajak. The prince’s face strained as he
fought his sudden inability to move. As he had said, he was a
Dramok. He couldn’t help but struggle against being held
prisoner.
Egilka looked him over, his smile
stretching so big that it made his face ache. Clajak scowled. “Try
not to enjoy yourself too much, okay?”
“Oh no, my prince. I am going to enjoy
you as no other man ever has before.” Egilka was adamant about
that.
“Will I enjoy it too?”
“Let me think about it.”
Egilka took hold of Clajak’s ankles. He
was not affected by the stasis field that held the prince, so he
stretched the other man’s legs out. Then the Imdiko pushed against
Clajak’s chest, lowering him to the floor so that he lay on his
back.
“Comfy?” Egilka teased.
“I already regret letting you do this,”
Clajak grouched. “Damn my sense of justice.”
“Will I have to listen to you bitch the
entire time? Because I like it. It shows me I’m in
control.”
“You’d better like it for a lifetime’s
worth, because it’s not happening again.”
“Oh, just as I was about to say yes to
your offer too. Never mind.”
Clajak yelled. “Don’t joke about that!
I need you to be my Imdiko. I love you, you aloof
bastard!”
The hilarity drained from Egilka. The
passionate desperation on Clajak’s face was nothing to laugh about.
He meant every word of it.
The Imdiko reached up and stroked the
prince’s face. “You do, don’t you? Even though I’m the biggest
stick-in-the-mud, duty-driven, most boring man in the
universe—”
“Stop that,” Clajak said, his eyes
overly bright. “You are my conscience. My inspiration to do better.
My heart and soul.”
A lump grew in Egilka’s throat. It was
hard to choke words past it, but he managed to do so. “You drive me
crazy, my prince. Absolutely insane. Yet I only feel truly alive
with you.” He blinked hard against the sting in his eyes. “I never
realized how closed off I’d let myself become until these past few
days. Losing my sister, who I loved better than anyone else.
Dealing with Wej’s jealousy that made it feel so unsafe to open
myself up to others.”
“Yet inside remains the caring man who
once he does open up, is the finest person in all the Empire to be
with,” Clajak said. “Tell me what’s in your heart right now,
Egilka. Speak it and know that it’s safe with me.”
For a moment, Egilka didn’t think he
could do it. The feelings were there, slamming against the blockage
in his throat – but that wall had been built so thick. Hurt, loss,
and self-imposed isolation had added the layers until it had become
an almost insurmountable barrier.
Almost
insurmountable. Clajak looked at him, the raucous boy become
resourceful man, who in time promised to become a strong leader.
His purple eyes were warm and caring, his admission of love still
singing in Egilka’s ears. A crack appeared in the wall behind which
Egilka hid. It was enough for the emotions to slip through and
bring words to his lips.
“Love. It’s love that’s in my heart. I
love you.”
Clajak smiled. “Ancestors help
you.”
Egilka laughed. And laughed. And
laughed.
When the hilarity that was part release
and part grief subsided, Egilka said, “I don’t think even the
ancestors can do much when it comes to you, my prince. I’m going to
have to deal with you on my own.”
Clajak wiggled his brows, his daredevil
grin back. “How do you plan on doing that, you gorgeous creature?
Because I have a few suggestions if you’ll take this stasis field
off me.”
“Oh no you don’t.” Egilka’s libido
experienced a fresh surge as he looked over the helpless man
splayed on the floor. “I might be mentally incompetent for falling
for the likes of you, but I haven’t taken leave of all my
senses.”
Clajak sighed. “I had to
try.”
Chuckling, Egilka set about undressing
his prize. He tugged Clajak’s boots off. A few seconds were spent
in outright torture of the Dramok when Egilka discovered his feet
were ticklish. He might have continued to make Clajak curse between
shrieks of laughter, except for the lust making things go full and
tight below the waist.
Despite being so different in
personality and drives, Clajak had found something to love in
Egilka. It made the Imdiko eager to join with the prince, to feel
not just the entwining of bodies, but the merging of hearts that
his soul cried out for.
He left off tormenting the Dramok’s
feet in quick order. Egilka crawled over Clajak’s prone body until
he crouched face to smiling face above him. They gazed into each
other’s eyes but did not speak. They’d said all they’d needed to
for the moment.
His eyes still locked on the handsome
man beneath him, Egilka tugged gently on Clajak’s collar. The
blue-trimmed formsuit’s seam purred apart, parting to give him
access to the warm flesh beneath. Egilka pulled the top of the
jumpsuit down to Clajak’s waist. He opened the prince like a
present that had been long anticipated and must be revealed with
reverent ceremony.
Only then did Egilka move his gaze from
the Dramok’s face to take in his prize. Once again, he was struck
by the perfection that was Clajak. The lines of his body were
physical poetry, with every muscle an ode to masculine beauty.
Egilka thought he could lose himself forever in discovering each
tiny nuance.
He set about doing so with fingers,
mouth, and tongue.
* * * *
Clajak had seen many others regard him
with delight and lust. Yet no one had ever looked at him the way
Egilka did. Egilka looked at him as if no other man existed in the
universe.
Now as he touched and kissed and licked
his torso, it was like being worshipped. Clajak experienced the
wondrous attention with equal parts arousal and guilt. He was no
god. He could barely be recognized as a decent being. Yet there had
been no doubt that Egilka had meant it when he’d said he loved him.
Clajak had seen the effort it had taken for the Imdiko to open up
like that. Egilka wouldn’t bare his soul to someone like the Dramok
unless he was so overwhelmed by emotion that he couldn’t stop it
from happening.
I don’t deserve him. I’ve
always known that, which is why I took so long to make him mine. I
don’t know that I’ll ever merit a man like Egilka, but I will try.
I probably won’t succeed, but Mother of All, I’ll do my
best.
Subverting the overriding need for
dominance, handing himself over to Egilka the way he had was a part
of that. Clajak didn’t expect to get much out of laying there and
letting the Imdiko do with him as he wished. He thought the
pleasure he’d gotten out of his lover topping him at the
Dantovonian brothel must have been a fluke. Still, it wasn’t sexual
satisfaction that motivated Clajak at this point. It was gaining
the love and companionship of the man he’d dreamed of for so long.
Being with Egilka and making him happy would be pleasure
enough.
Yet feeling the Imdiko’s mouth and
hands on his torso felt pretty damned good after all. Egilka’s
touch, while gentle, was not tentative. He outlined Clajak’s
abdominals with fingertips, chest with tongue. Every now and again,
he juxtaposed those tender strokes with a nip or a pinch. One
moment Clajak was lulled, the next jolted with excitement. His
cocks stirred, finding the attention agreeable.
Egilka’s mouth found a nipple. He
sucked hard on Clajak’s flesh, his tongue stroking over the brown
circle. The sensation was profound and the Dramok’s back
instinctively fought to arch, to fill his lover’s mouth with more.
The stasis field held him motionless. All Clajak could manage was a
moan. His cocks began to fill.
Clajak’s nipple became a hard stub,
stiffening under the delicious assault. Egilka seized it between
his teeth, pulling carefully to stretch it to a point. The slight
sting – and great pleasure – tumbled from the point of contact
straight down to his dicks. Desire heated deep in his groin and
overflowed into those two members, now nudging at the bottoms he
still wore. He was abruptly erect.
Egilka released the nipple and swirled
his tongue over it in a languorous circle. “I can smell your
desire,” he sighed, his uplifted eyes heavy-lidded.
The spicy scent of arousal washed over
Clajak. Moisture coated his cocks, making him slippery and ready
for love. He groaned, wishing he could move, wishing that he could
put Egilka beneath him and claim his gorgeous tight ass.
Instead, Clajak was forced to lay still
as Egilka kissed his way across the Dramok’s chest to capture and
torment the other nipple. Suckling, nipping, and licking Clajak
into a state of desperate arousal, the Imdiko was thorough in his
attentions. He made Clajak’s body thrum with need.
“You’re trembling,” Egilka observed as
he began to taste his way down the indented line that ran down the
middle of the prince’s stomach.
“You’re driving me insane with lust,”
Clajak groaned. The Imdiko’s tongue rasping lower and lower made
his cocks jerking violently in the prison of his formsuit. “What I
wouldn’t give to have my hands all over you and my prick inside
you.”