CHAPTER TWENTY

Aiden

I t wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that I was completely shocked by the transformation in Kade after the funeral. He was less fretful, doing his household chores, but not constantly needing to find more things to do once he’d finished. He took more initiative in planning his own day, declaring at one point that he was going to the gym, and asking if I wanted to join him. I hadn’t worked out in a few days, too caught up in organising things for Kade and for the funeral, so I said yes.

Kade found a few recipes on the grid and asked for my advice on which might be the more appropriate one to cook. He asked if there was anything in particular he should be reading, to prepare for entry into the Alliance Military, so I sent him a few documents and watched him surreptitiously as he read them, the subtle play of emotions over his face as various details caught his attention.

I dared to ask him what he wanted to eat for lunch on Sunday, wondering if his change in attitude had just been a fluke. He suggested he make us both an omelette, to which I’d readily agreed.

What I hadn’t quite worked out, though, was what had brought about this sudden change. Was it something Bryce had said to him? Was it the fact that we’d had sex? Was that a particular milestone for a dimari? Or was there once again something else going on, something too subtle or abstract for me to be aware of it, that meant we’d finally settled into a peaceful rhythm?

And more to the point, was this what happiness looked like for a dimari? I was quick to praise him when he did his work well, clearly refused his suggestions when I disagreed with him, and made sure I explained what our plans were going to be for the next couple of weeks. On Monday, we would head back to the base, where Kade would go through some training and assessment – assuming that Henderson had cleared his admission request – and then, all going well, we would be assigned a couple of missions to fill out the rest of the two week rotation.

So was this it? Had I achieved my goal of making my dimari happy? Maybe so… but if that was the case, then I’d somehow failed to catch the details of how I’d done it. And that meant I had no idea how to replicate that experience for other dimari owners.

On Sunday night, the first quarter-final of the Water Relay was playing on the sports channel, and I made sure that we’d finished dinner and cleaned up the kitchen before the Relay started. “Come and sit down,” I said to Kade, settling myself on the sofa in front of the wall screen and patting the spot next to me. “Have you seen any news about the Relays? Do you know what this is?” I indicated the screen, where the two teams were setting up for the competition.

He came and sat, curling his legs up underneath him, and peered at the screen. “No, I don’t,” he said, in the sort of tone that said he was curious, but confused.

“The Relays are the major sporting events on Rendol 4. They have different ones at different times of year. It started about fifty years ago with what’s now called the Field Relay. There are about twenty different teams, and each round is between two teams. The goal is to cross a number of obstacles in order to get to the flag at the end of the course. The first team to grab the flag wins. For the Field Relay, it’s relatively straight forward stuff; climb a wall, swing over a canyon, cross a bridge, that sort of thing. But it’s never set up to be simple. Like, crossing a bridge is never just a bridge. It’s a bridge in high wind, or a bridge with half the planks missing. They’ve all got safety harnesses on, so no one can fall off and die, but if you lean your full weight into the harness, an alarm goes off and the team has to reset back to the end of the last challenge they completed.

“This one is the Water Relay. Which is exactly what it sounds like; a bunch of obstacles over or in water. The teams are given a bunch of equipment that they can use to get across, but the catch is that they have to carry the equipment with them over the obstacles, if they want to use it later in the course.

“The fun thing is that the whole team doesn’t necessarily have to get to the end. They only need one team member to grab the flag. But it’s always designed so that one person can’t complete the course on their own. It’s this weird combination of strategy and teamwork and just chaotic fun.”

Kade chuckled at that last description. “Sounds intriguing,” he said, snuggling into the corner of the sofa. “Which team are you going for?”

“Get over here,” I said, crooking my finger at him. He shifted closer, then closer still, finally ending up curled against my side, rather than at the other end of the sofa. It had taken me a shockingly short time to get used to cuddling with him. “I’m going for the Rogue Wave. See the Denzogal with the white fur? He is absolutely brilliant. He comes up with these completely off the wall plans, and more than half the time, they actually work.”

For the next two hours, we sat and cheered, or yelled at the screen, with Kade occasionally asking for clarification about what a particular team had done to earn a penalty, or what the rules were on a particular challenge. At one point, he sat up and firmly declared, “That’s never going to work.” He watched with rapt attention as the team attempting to drag a small raft across a rushing river got halfway there… then three quarters… and then the raft suddenly upended itself, tossing the entire team into the water. He sat back in a fit of giggles as the Derelian in the team dragged himself out of the water, sopping wet and looking like a drowned rat.

Finally, soaking wet and exhausted, the huge Denzogal on the Rogue Wave team faced the last challenge. Beside him, the tiny Derelian seemed to be arguing with him. Behind them, the other team were closing fast, and if they didn’t do something quickly, they were going to lose. Eventually reaching an agreement, we both watched in astonishment as the Denzogal picked up the Derelian and simply hurled him with all his might across the final obstacle. The Derelian sailed straight up to the flag, fluttering weakly on a pole at the end of the obstacle, grabbed onto it like his life depended on it… and kept right on going, plunging headfirst into a pool of murky brown water.

I leapt off the sofa, cheering as the on-site audience went wild. Kade was still sitting down, staring at the screen in bafflement. “Did he win?” he asked, once I’d calmed down. “But he ended up in the mud. You said they’re not supposed to go in the mud.”

I flopped back onto the sofa and shrugged. “He got the flag. At the final challenge, that’s all that matters. Once he’s got the flag, his team have won, so it doesn’t matter if he ends up in the mud after that.”

“This is a very strange game,” Kade said, still frowning. “Fun,” he added, “but as you said, rather chaotic. And there are more different styles of this game?”

“In winter, there’s the Ice Relay. The Ropes Relay runs in spring, which is done in the jungle, and the whole thing is about using ropes to get through the challenges. And they’re trying to design a Wind Relay as well, but the difficulty there is it can only be played when there’s strong enough wind, which makes it a bit hard to organise. That might end up being more like a novelty event rather than a whole season.”

Kade had a sly smirk on his lips, and I quirked an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“You’re so enthusiastic about this,” he said, with a note of wonder in his voice. “I could just see you out there, climbing ladders, swimming through whirlpools. I think you’d do well.” He stroked a finger down my cheek, snuggling into my side again.

“Unfortunately, no one in the military is allowed to compete. Part of my contract. I don’t know if they think we’ll get distracted from work, or if they’re worried we’ll end up getting injured. And there are plenty of injuries, by the way.”

“Hm. That’s a shame. I suppose I’ll just have to settle for watching you kick ass in the jungle, instead.”

I blinked, my brain finally catching up with what was going on. Kade was… flirting with me? Good god, it had been a hell of a long time since anyone had done that. But was he just teasing, or did that mean he wanted…?

I wasn’t very good at flirting. I turned to face him, trying to think up something witty to say, and found that suddenly, his face was right in front of mine. I looked up into his ice-blue eyes, thinking it would be so easy to drown in them. I leaned forward slowly, wondering what he would do. Would he wait for me to close the distance? Or meet me halfway? A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Our mouths were only an inch apart now, and I leaned in… only to find that Kade had leaned back, maintaining the distance between us exactly. I pulled back, trying to look annoyed, and knowing I was failing. I leaned in again… and he once again leaned back.

“Hm. You said the other day that you liked taking risks. If you keep playing hard to get, you take the risk that I’ll just…” I looked pointedly down at his groin, where his erection was beginning to tent his pants. “…find something else to do.”

“Surely not,” Kade purred. But the warning must have hit a nerve, because in the next instant, he’d leaned in and plastered his lips to mine, opening his mouth eagerly when I sought entry with my tongue.

I tugged him up into my lap and he straddled me, balancing his weight on his knees, rather than on my legs. We kissed for long minutes, slowly shedding our clothes, and I revelled in the feel of his smooth scales against my skin. He kissed my neck and I stroked his hair, and then discovered that he was delightfully sensitive behind his ears. He retaliated by licking my nipples, then peeling my pants slowly down my legs, deliberately bypassing my groin. He made a display of stroking himself until I cursed at him and tugged him back onto my lap. And it was only then that I realised I’d forgotten the lube, until Kade leaned over to snag his pants from the end of the sofa and pulled a tube out of his pocket.

“Oh, thank god for that,” I said, as he flipped the cap open. But then I was groaning and biting my lip as he slicked up his own fingers and reached around to prep himself. Fuck, he must have had some practice at doing that, because he managed to maintain eye contact, stroke my cock and finish lubing himself all at the same time .

I cursed as he settled down into my lap again, lining my cock up with his entrance. He pressed down slowly, and I gave a strangled moan as his impossibly tight passage gripped me. He kept going until he’d sunk all the way onto me, his breathing erratic and an odd little ripple of colour pulsing across his collarbones. It was kind of like he was trembling, but with his scales, instead of his muscles.

He rode me with the grace of a ballet dancer, hips gyrating, lithe waist writhing in my grip. His head was thrown back, his eyes closed, and his cock bobbed in time with his movements, hard and weeping, and bright blue as he came all over my chest. It was impossible not to believe that he had enjoyed it, in that moment, chest heaving, legs shaking, as he gripped my shoulders with deliciously strong hands. He realised a moment later that I hadn’t finished yet, and muttered a breathy, “Oh, sorry,” before starting to move again.

I was entranced. I could have stayed like this forever, lost in his ice-blue eyes, poised on the brink of ecstasy. But I was genuinely concerned about making him sore, given how tight he was around me, so I dived willingly over the edge and climaxed inside him, holding his body close to me, never wanting to let him go.