CHAPTER 28
They lay like that for a long time, sweaty bodies tangled on the couch.
Adam had no idea how much time had passed when he lifted his head and looked down at Harry’s flushed, pleasure-struck face. So damn beautiful. So pretty. Harry.
A persistent thought niggled at the back of his mind, a sense that he had forgotten something, but it hovered on the edges of memory.
Adam frowned, finally remembering the most peculiar thing.
Reaching down, he touched the strange slick on Harry’s inner thighs. It was colorless and scentless, similar to lube, but... Even if Harry had prepared himself before coming here—which was hard to believe—this stuff had leaked out of Harry non-stop. Adam distinctly remembered Harry getting slicker the longer they had fucked, which…shouldn’t have been possible. It shouldn’t have been fucking possible.
His brows furrowed, Adam lifted his eyes to Harry, not sure what to think.
Harry was looking at Adam warily. “I...” he said. “I can explain. I’m going to explain everything I couldn’t explain before. I’ll explain why I left.”
Adam’s lips thinned. He rolled off Harry and sat up. Now that his brain wasn’t fuzzy with desire, he did remember that he was pissed off at Harry. But if Harry was really going to explain everything, he would hear him out.
“Go on,” he said coldly.
“I…” Harry said, wringing his hands before looking down and flushing when he realized that he was naked from the waist down. Harry sat up and tugged his shirt down to cover his crotch. He cleared his throat and looked at Adam apprehensively.
“I’m an alien.”
Christ, what an anticlimax.
Adam gave a harsh laugh. “It’s not funny anymore.” He had thought he was really getting an explanation. So much for that.
Harry frowned. “I’m not trying to be funny. I’m an alien. As in, from another planet. That’s the truth.”
“Right,” Adam said. He couldn’t believe Harry was reducing everything to a joke again instead of giving him an honest answer for once.
“I’m an alien,” Harry insisted, a note of desperation creeping into his voice.
“Okay,” Adam said, tucking himself in and zipping up his trousers. He was so damn sick of this.
“Adam!”
“What?” Adam bit out.
Harry smiled at him shakily. “I’m telling the truth. Look at my mouth. See? This is the proof that I’m telling the truth.”
Adam scoffed. But then he stopped and stared.
Harry’s mouth wasn’t moving. And yet he could hear Harry’s voice perfectly.
“I’m an alien. A telepathic alien,” Harry’s voice said as Harry’s mouth didn’t move an inch. “That’s why I couldn’t stay with you. That’s why I couldn’t tell you much about me. I’ll show you.”
Before Adam could even think what he could have possibly meant, there was an image of a green-and-blue planet in his mind. It looked a little like Earth, but it clearly wasn’t. It was a lot greener, for one thing. It had only one continent, for another.
“This is my home planet,” Harry’s voice said in his mind before the image disappeared.
Adam shook his head slowly. He was seeing things. He must have been hallucinating. There was no other explanation.
Maybe he was dreaming and Harry wasn’t even there.
“You are not dreaming, Adam,” Harry said aloud, smiling at him uncertainly. “I’m really here.”
Adam stared. “Are you reading my mind?”
Harry bit his thumb. “Sorry. I just wanted to prove to you I was telling the truth.”
“And the truth is you’re an alien,” Adam said without any inflection.
Harry nodded with a hopeful look. “Do you believe me now?”
Adam stood, walked to the window and opened it, allowing the cool evening air into the room.
He closed his eyes, trying to make sense of it all. A part of him was still certain this must have been a joke, that Harry was going to laugh any moment now and say he was kidding. But he had heard Harry’s voice in his mind. He had seen Harry’s planet in his mind. Unless he was going insane, he would have to seriously consider the possibility that Harry was telling the truth—that he was an alien.
An alien.
Fuck, the mere idea was ridiculous, but Adam forced himself to consider it seriously. An alien. That would certainly explain a few things about Harry. More than a few things.
Adam bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about the fact that his MI6 friend couldn’t find a person matching Harry’s appearance in any country—or the fact that Harry seemed so completely oblivious about most basic things any human would just know. Or the fact that Harry had always been shady when he talked about his home and his family. Or the fact that Harry apparently produced natural slick when he was aroused. Or the fact that the bones in Harry’s knee were oddly shaped. Or the fact Harry had the most unusual porcelain skin that didn’t even seem human at times. Or the fact that Harry’s hair had always seemed silky-smooth. Or the fact that Harry had very unusual violet eyes. Or the fact that Harry had always been unusually passionate about aliens and the way they were portrayed in the media.
Or the fact that Harry had literally told him he was an alien after they had met.
Adam opened his eyes and turned around. “Please tell me you aren’t actually from a star system in the Sagittarius constellation,” he said with a pinched look.
Harry gave him a sheepish smile. “No? We don’t call it Sagittarius.”
“But you’re really an alien from the Sagittarius constellation,” Adam said tonelessly.
Harry nodded. “We don’t call it that,” he said again. “Stars look different from different planets.”
“We,” Adam repeated. “Who is that?”
Harry cocked his head to the side and eyed him warily. “Calluvians,” he said. “Or to be precise, Cal’luv’vians, but the planet’s name was standardized when we became part of the Union of Planets, because most other races couldn’t even hear the whole word—” Harry cut himself off. “Sorry. I’m babbling. It’s probably not interesting to you. Are you really taking it well or are you going to do this thing humans often do when you laugh for no reason?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said with a crooked smile. “Probably.”
Harry pouted. “I thought you believed me.”
Sighing, Adam raked his hand through his hair. “You do realize how insane all of this sounds, right?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, let’s say I believe you. You’re an alien. Great. What are you doing here?”
“Here?” Harry looked around and then down at his half-naked body Adam was trying hard not to look at. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. It was already hard enough to wrap his mind around all of this.
“On Earth,” Adam clarified before chuckling. “Are we being invaded or something?”
Harry gave him a disappointed look. “I really don’t understand why humans are so fixated on the notion of aliens being interested in invading you. I thought I told you my thoughts on this.”
“Ah, yes,” Adam said, not without sarcasm. “I remember us discussing the totally hypothetical subject of aliens.”
Harry, to his credit, had the grace to look ashamed.
“I never wanted to lie to you,” he said quietly. “I just couldn’t tell you anything. There are laws, you know. Earth hasn’t yet reached the technological and cultural level required for Contact.”
Adam suppressed the urge to look around for some hidden cameras. Despite the telepathy, despite everything Harry had told him, a part of him still couldn’t believe that what Harry was telling him was real.
Harry—the cute, quirky guy he’d met at the coffee shop and fallen in love with—couldn’t possibly be an alien. Aliens were supposed to be ugly, with big gray heads and creepy black eyes. Aliens were supposed to be evil and creepy, not... not kind and ridiculously endearing.
His Harry couldn’t be an alien.
His Harry.
Harry.
“You said your name was really Harry,” Adam said, closing his eyes for a moment. “Was that another lie?”
Harry shook his head. “You could say it’s a nickname for my name. I liked it so much that I told my family to call me Harry. It is my name now. I swear.”
“And what is your given name, then?”
Harry pulled a face. “Humans can’t pronounce it. I’m not sure you’ll even hear all of it.”
Leaning back against the window sill, Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “So what is it?” He caught Harry’s eyes lingering on the muscles of his arms and chest and nearly laughed when his cock twitched in response to the appreciation in Harry’s eyes. Bloody hell. Harry was telling him he was an alien, but apparently his body didn’t give a damn.
Harry said something softly. It sounded like music.
“What?” Adam said.
Harry repeated it slower, “Harht’ngh’chaali. That’s my full name.”
Adam’s brows furrowed. That was quite a mouthful. “And what does it mean?”
“Well, Harht is my first name, I guess, though not really. It’s hard to explain it in human terms. Chaali is the name of my clan. The ‘ngh’ means... high, I guess.”
“High?” Adam said.
Harry shrugged. “Some things are hard to translate. I guess you could say it means royal or noble, maybe.” Harry frowned, looking pretty frustrated with his inability to explain it.
Adam blinked slowly. “Royal?”
Harry scrunched up his nose. “My mother is a queen.”
“A queen,” Adam repeated. “As in, the queen of the planet?”
“No!” Harry said with a laugh.
Thank fuck.
“Our planet has twelve grand clans,” Harry said. “Which are like kingdoms, I suppose.” He frowned again. “Sometimes the translating chip is so useless. I would never call our grand clans kingdoms, but that’s what it comes up with as the next best thing.”
“The translating chip?”
“Yeah, it’s a chip we have under our skin. Our chips are connected to our brains and help us learn foreign languages quickly, but it’s not faultless.” Harry chuckled. “You should have seen how I sounded the first day on Earth! No one could understand me! But by the third day, I finally got pretty good at your language.”
“You learned English in three days?” Adam said. For some reason, that was more mind-boggling than anything else.
Harry nodded. “My parents always said I had a natural knack for languages,” he said, not without pride, and smiled.
Adam wondered how it was possible to be so angry at someone and also be so endeared by them at the same time.
Inwardly, he laughed at himself. Apparently even the fact that Harry was an alien didn’t change a thing. A year apart, and he still had it as bad.
A year.
“It’s been a year, Harry,” Adam said. “Why did you leave? Why come back now?”
“I don’t know where to start,” Harry said slowly.
“From the beginning would be good.”
Harry chewed on his lip. “Long story short, my parents originally sent me to Earth as punishment for my misdemeanor. I used my familiar link to my sister to learn her secret and was caught. Technically, it was a crime. My parents were angry. They sent me to Earth to ‘learn some responsibility.’” Harry looked at him. “You have to understand that I couldn’t tell you that I was an alien. There are—were—laws forbidding it. I told you the truth: the first time I left, my parents simply had me transported back without any warning.”
“And you couldn’t even say goodbye?”
Harry shook his head. “I didn’t know they were going to teleport me back. The TNIT— transgalactic teleporter—takes just a few seconds. It locked on my identification chip and transported me back.”
Adam gave him a pinched look.
Harry’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “You don’t believe me.”
“I do,” Adam said with a sigh. “It’s just pretty hard to wrap my mind around aliens, teleporters, identification chips and...” He shook his head. “Go on. So your parents transported you back. Why did you return? With that friend of yours?”
“I told you—Seyn helped me get here. My parents had forbidden me to go back to Earth. And legally, I couldn’t visit a pre-TNIT planet more than once a year. So Seyn had to ask his friend from another planet to sneak us in.”
“And why did Seyn tag along?” Adam said.
Harry pulled a face. “He wanted to get rid of his bond.”
“His bond?”
“It’s a long story,” Harry said. “I could show you, if you would like? It would be faster and easier. I promise I won’t pry into your thoughts.”
Adam studied the earnest expression on his face. After some hesitation, he nodded stiffly.
Harry beamed at him. “Just look me in the eye.”
Adam braced himself, but he still wasn’t prepared for the sudden onslaught of thoughts and memories that weren’t his. Fuck. There was so much information on Harry’s culture, on the bond thing, on how it limited Harry’s race’s senses and hindered their telepathy.
“Wait,” Adam said, blinking and interrupting the flood of information. “You used your telepathy on humans? To trick them?”
“It was just those few times,” Harry said defensively. “Seyn and I didn’t have any documents or money to get from Los Angeles to London.”
“Have you ever used your telepathy on me?”
“No!” Harry said.
Adam eyed him. His heart insisted that Harry would never do it to him, but the sheer force of that belief made him wary.
“I’ve always wanted you too much,” Adam said slowly. “Wanted to protect you and take care of you from the moment I saw you. I always thought it was bloody strange how badly I wanted to protect a bloke I barely knew. You always felt like mine, even back then. It was so unlike me to fall for someone so hard and so fast.”
Harry blushed and looked very pleased for a moment before frowning and shaking his head. “I swear I didn’t influence you in any way. I swear, Adam.”
Clenching his jaw, Adam looked away. “Go on,” he said. “So you came back the first time because your friend wanted to break his bond.”
“And because I missed you,” Harry said.
Adam pursed his lips. “And then what? Your brother found you and took you both back? You couldn’t convince him to let you stay?”
“I couldn’t stay. He found out about our relationship and was furious that I put our family at such risk.”
“What risk?” Adam said tersely. He still wasn’t sure he believed that Harry had never influenced him in any way. He wanted to believe Harry. He wanted it too much. That made him wary.
He couldn’t help but remember Jake’s words. I don’t get what you see in him. He’s cute, yeah, but there are plenty of cute boys out there. I’ve never seen you so gone over a bloke before.
“Ksar was angry, because I broke several intergalactic and Calluvian laws,” Harry replied, tearing Adam away from his thoughts. “I couldn’t stay on Earth. Sooner or later, I would have been found, and the ramifications for my entire family wouldn’t have been pretty. Legal trouble aside, my family’s social and political standing would have been destroyed if anyone found out about us.”
“Why?” Adam said, bristling. “I know we humans don’t have fancy identification chips and teleporters, but we’re hardly barbarians.”
“I know. I know that. But...” Harry pulled a face. “My species can be a bit... arrogant.”
“Yes,” Adam said. “I met your brother.”
Harry winced. “Ksar can be a little high-handed, but he’s a good person deep down.”
Somehow, Adam doubted it.
“It still doesn’t change the fact that you left because of fucking politics,” he said. He didn’t know whether to laugh or rage.
“It’s not that simple,” Harry said, a look of concern flashing through his face. “The political landscape on my planet is very shaky. There’s a growing faction of telepathically null politicians trying to overthrow telepaths from the grand clans’ thrones.”
“I thought all of your race was telepathic,” Adam said.
Harry shook his head. “Telepathically null Calluvians aren’t entirely non-telepathic like you. They have some passive ability—they can have bonds and familial links—but they’re pretty much useless. They can’t use their telepathy actively, so they’re not classified as telepaths. The t-nulls used to be a minority, but in the last couple of centuries they have become the majority.” His brows furrowed. “There’s a real concern that they might overthrow the current royal families. They just need an excuse to do it. If I remained unbonded, if I remained a Class 3 telepath, I would have been declared dangerous and they would have used my case to prove that telepaths aren’t suited for positions of power. So I went home with Ksar before anyone found out.” Harry looked at him imploringly. “Please say something.”
Adam walked to the mini bar and opened a bottle of whiskey. “So you always knew we had an expiration date. Must be nice.” He didn’t try to soften his voice. He wasn’t in the mood to spare Harry’s feelings. He felt used in the worst possible way. While he was falling for Harry, Harry had always known they had no future.
“I—”
“Why are you here, then?” Adam bit off and took a swig of whiskey. “To fuck me, fuck me up again, and then go back to your top-lofty planet? What happened to wishing me happiness and new love?” He laughed, thinking about the note Harry had left. He hated the fucking thing. Hated it for knowing it by heart.
“I never thought I’d be back,” Harry said quietly. “I thought I’d never see you again. When I returned home, Ksar restored my bond to my bondmate before anyone could find out. I thought I could learn to live with it again. But I... I was wrong.”
Something in Harry’s voice made Adam turn around.
Harry was looking down at his hands. “Please don’t think badly of my brother. He’s not a bad person. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. I’m here only because Ksar worked so hard to make it possible.” Harry caught his bottom lip between his teeth, hesitation flickering on his face. “If it weren’t for Ksar, I could’ve died.”
Adam felt his muscles tense up and had to consciously relax them. Harry was there. Harry was fine.
“What do you mean?”
Harry pressed his cheek against the back of the couch, his lashes hiding his expression. “A few thousand years ago, there was a planet-wide war on Calluvia. Some truly terrible biological weapons were used. By the time the war ended, the population was mostly sterile. Our geneticists solved it, but the experimental genetic therapy had unexpected side effects.”
“I know,” Adam said. He had seen something about it when Harry had explained the bond thing in his mind. “You said it caused telepathic mutations.”
Harry nodded. “Not only. Some mutations were physical. After the gene therapy, there started being born babies that shared a specific gene with our long extinct ancestor, the surl’kh’tu.” Harry looked at Adam. “I have the gene.”
Adam was starting to get a bad feeling. “And?”
Harry shrugged, looking mildly flustered. “It’s different for all of us, but usually it means that people with the gene—we call them throwbacks—are biologically equipped to have sex with either gender.”
Adam’s forehead wrinkled. It seemed bizarre, but it did explain why Harry produced natural lubrication. “What does it have to do with your nearly dying?”
Harry brushed a hand through his hair. “Every throwback is different. Some share more traits with the surl’kh’tu while others are barely different from modern Calluvians. It was theorized for centuries that if it weren’t for the bond binding us to a specific person, throwbacks might have retained other aspects of our ancestor’s biology.” Harry blushed. “Like the fact that after their first mating, the surl’kh’tu started needing their mate physically. It was supposedly a natural mechanism that ensured procreation, because they mated for life.”
Harry swallowed and said quietly, “Some time after I got home, I started feeling off. Everything felt wrong. I felt wrong. Empty.” Harry rubbed his chest absentmindedly, as if chasing away the lingering phantom ache. “I don’t know if I would’ve really died, but I was losing my mind. To be honest, I don’t really remember the last few months all that well. Everything was a blur. I couldn’t think. I just needed you.”
Adam bit the inside of his cheek. “What you’re describing sounds like an illness.” Illness, not feelings.
“It was, sort of.”
Right. Harry hadn’t come back because he missed him. He’d come back because of some biological imperative.
Adam took another swig of whiskey.
Oblivious to the sick feeling in Adam’s stomach, Harry continued, “Ksar restored my bond to Leylen’shni’gul, but it didn’t feel the same. It could suppress my senses, but it couldn’t suppress my biology. When Ksar realized I had to go back to you, he launched political campaign not only on our planet but also in the Ministry—”
“How nice of him,” Adam said, looking at the bottle in his hand. “Now get out.”
Silence.
“What?” Harry whispered.
“You heard me,” Adam said. He knew his voice sounded cold and mean. He made no attempt to change it. “Get out. You got what you came here for. Now get out.”
He could hear Harry inhale and exhale shakily. “Did you—do you not want me anymore?”
Adam brought the bottle to his lips. “Of course I want you,” he said, intentionally misunderstanding Harry’s words. He looked Harry in the eye. “I fucked you, didn’t I?”
Harry’s mouth fell open. A small wrinkle appeared between his brows. “You’re being mean,” he said, looking more puzzled than hurt. “You’re not mean.”
Adam took a small swig from the bottle. “People change. That’s life. You should go. It’s been a long day. I’m knackered.”
Harry stared at him.
“What?” Adam said. “Your ride isn’t here yet? The teleporter has to recharge? Sorry, I’m just a barbarian human, good only for fucking. I have no idea how your sophisticated technology works.”
Harry cocked his head to the side, studying him like a bird. A very pretty bird he wanted to kiss all over.
Adam closed his eyes for a moment. For fuck’s sake.
“Get out,” he grated out, angrier at himself than at Harry.
He didn’t watch Harry leave.
He felt it more than he heard it when Harry left.
Adam looked around the quiet living room. It didn’t look any different. It didn’t look darker or emptier. It didn’t make him feel lonely. It didn’t make him feel anything.
He felt nothing.
Adam dropped himself on the couch and brought the bottle to his lips again, looking at the ceiling without really seeing it.
He could remember the day he had met Harry so clearly. The funny thing was, he usually went to the coffee shop around the corner and never went to the coffee shop Harry worked at—he didn’t like it much. If his favorite coffee shop hadn’t been so crowded that day, he would have likely never met Harry.
He wished he never had.
Adam took another swig from the bottle, relishing the burn, and then another.
He paused with the bottle at his lips when the door slammed open. Harry marched back in, an uncharacteristically mulish expression on his face.
“I won’t let you do this,” Harry said, striding to Adam.
Adam could only stare at him. Before he regained the ability to speak, Harry straddled his lap and pinned Adam’s shoulders to the back of the couch with his hands. Adam could have easily pushed him off. He was just too stunned to move.
“I refuse to believe you don’t feel anything for me anymore,” Harry said, looking in his eyes intently. “I know you still feel something. I felt it. I felt it during sex.”
Adam put on a blank face. “Sex is just sex. Don’t misunderstand it for something else. You told me to get over you. I have.”
Harry’s lip wobbled. “You’re lying. You’re just hurt that I lied to you. I didn’t want to. I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Those eyes should have been outlawed. Of course they were inhuman.
“I don’t want your apologies,” he said coldly. He told himself it was the right thing to do. Harry had never loved him the way Adam loved him. Harry had come back only because of some biological imperative, for fuck’s sake. Harry had lied to him for ages and nothing would stop him from lying to him again. Harry could disappear anytime he wanted, whenever he didn’t need Adam’s cock. Their relationship had always been too skewed, with Adam always waiting for Harry to come back and stay. He had to cut his losses, no matter how much he wanted to wrap Harry in his arms, fill him up and swallow him whole, taste and mark and memorize every inch of him, hide him somewhere only he had access to, and breathe him in, always.
“I’m not lying,” Adam said, looking Harry in the eye and hoping Harry wasn’t reading his mind. “You told me to get over you. It’s been a year. I got over you. Numerous times. I’ve been with other people.” The fact that he felt guilty about it proved how fucked up he still was over Harry. He didn’t owe Harry anything. Harry had used him and ditched him for his family, and had the nerve to tell Adam to be happy in a goddamn letter. He owed Harry nothing.
Harry’s nostrils flared at Adam’s words, his hands tightening on Adam’s shoulders. “You didn’t love any of them,” he said, his voice thick and laden with possessiveness. “I’m your only babe. You told me so.” Harry’s voice broke a little and he stopped to take a deep breath. “I don’t believe that you don’t love me anymore. Please just tell me what made you upset. Maybe I can explain. I want to explain. I want to be with you.” Harry smiled shakily, looking at him with such longing and need in his eyes that Adam felt himself respond in more ways than one, against his better judgment.
Adam averted his gaze for a moment, trying to get control over his body and his emotions.
“What you feel for me isn’t love, Harry,” he said. “That’s my main problem.”
A look of confusion settled on Harry’s face. “What?”
“You returned not because you loved me,” Adam said flatly. “But because of some biological need I won’t pretend to understand. Yes, you needed me. You needed my body. Where’s the guarantee that you’ll stay this time for good? I’m tired, Haz. I’m tired of feeling like shit whenever you disappear.” He chuckled. “Now that I know you aren’t even from this planet, it’s way worse. If you disappear again, I can’t even follow you. No one would tell me if something happened. Living in constant doubt and fear isn’t fun.”
Harry’s hand traveled along Adam’s jaw, soft against his stubble, his fingers running through the hair at the back of his neck. “I understand. Do you think I’m not scared? I am. You’re a completely different species. I need you, but you don’t need me. I know you’re it for me, but you don’t. You might stop having feelings for me any moment.” Harry’s eyelashes lowered. “You have no idea what it’s like to need someone the way I need you.”
Adam laughed harshly and tipped Harry’s chin up, forcing him to look him in the eye. “No idea? I dreamed about your smile even after I convinced myself that I hated you. I fucked other men and hated them—and hated myself for imagining you in their stead every goddamn time. I couldn’t even go into your room for months without losing it. You might need me physically, but I want more. Needing isn’t enough. You’re here because of fucking biology. The truth is, if you didn’t literally need me, you wouldn’t have come back.”
Harry stared at him for a long time before a broken, bitter laugh left his throat. “I couldn’t, Adam,” he choked out. “Ksar wouldn’t have helped me if my life and sanity weren’t at stake.” Harry shook his head. “You misunderstood it. The mating for life thing the surl’kh’tu did? It wasn’t just biology. They weren’t some kind of mindless animals. They were very selective, and after choosing their partner, they courted them for a long time. The studies proved that they couldn’t even feel arousal if they didn’t have emotional intimacy with their partner—their sexuality was similar to human demisexuality. Only once the surl’kh’tu mated physically, the biological imperative kicked in.”
Harry smiled at him shakily. “I loved you and wanted to be yours long before we even had sex. It wasn’t biology. It was all me. I just didn’t understand completely what I wanted because of my bond.” He chuckled, blushing. “Don’t you remember how I was always all over you, wanting cuddles and hugs and your hands on me? I loved being close to you, loved your scent, even when you came from the gym and claimed that you smelled gross. I loved being your babe, your love, and your sweetheart.”
Adam stared at him.
He didn’t know what to think. What to believe.
“I always loved touching you,” Harry said softly, licking his lips. He moved his hands from Adam’s shoulders and slipped them under Adam’s unbuttoned shirt. “Even when I was incapable of feeling arousal, I was still attracted to you so badly I felt the attraction even despite the bond, but I couldn’t quite understand what I felt until the bond broke completely.” Harry looked Adam in the eye, his face open and earnest. “I was ridiculously smitten with you. You were my sun and my moon and my stars. I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to impress you. I wanted you to smile at me and call me love. I wanted you to say I was special to you, your only babe. I fell in love with you long before I was even capable of feeling lust.” Harry took Adam’s hand and brought it to his lips. “I love you,” he murmured. “I always have. The fact that I need you physically doesn’t negate the fact that I love you so very much. Because I do.” He nuzzled into Adam’s hand like a kitten. “I love you. I love you more than you can imagine. I don’t care what people back home will think of me because of our relationship. I want to be yours. I am yours. Your Harry.” Harry kissed Adam’s palm, looking at him with open longing in his eyes. “Yours. For as long as you’ll have me.”
Adam could only look at him, his heart pounding. “Really?” he said, his lips barely moving.
His eyes shiny, Harry nodded. “You are all I dream about. I want to grow old with you. I want to kiss your wrinkles when they appear. I want to have kids with your eyes and your smile someday and spoil them rotten. I want forever.” Harry kissed the inside of Adam’s wrist, sending goosebumps up his arm.
Adam licked his lips, trying to shake off the fog of want that started to cloud his mind again. He frowned as something occurred to him. Harry had said he had throwback traits of his ancestor who had been intersex. “Wait. You can’t actually get pregnant, right?”
Harry burst out laughing, hiding his face in Adam’s shoulder. “No! I’m male. I have some biological traits of the surl’kh’tu, but I can’t actually conceive.” He paused, a wrinkle appearing on his forehead. “Well, I’m pretty sure of it.”
“He says he’s pretty sure,” Adam said dryly, amused despite himself. After all the stuff Harry had told him, a male pregnancy wouldn’t have been the most shocking.
Harry smiled at him, his eyes a little moist as they searched Adam’s. “So do you forgive me? Do you believe me?” Harry swallowed. “You still love me, right?” His voice cracked a little, and Adam couldn’t.
He couldn’t keep fighting it anymore.
He crushed Harry in his arms, hugging him tightly and burying his face in his chestnut hair. “Of course I do, Haz,” he murmured, his throat thick with emotion. “I never stopped and don’t think I ever will.” He kissed Harry on the temple. “I love you, baby.”
He felt Harry smile against his shoulder before Harry lifted his head.
“Babe,” he corrected Adam with a grin before slotting their mouths together.
Adam laughed and kissed him.