Joston
The door to Chlo’s bedchamber opens, a streak of tearful kid rushes into me, and I hold on to him even though he’s fighting me.
“You are a liar,” Aeryen says to me, punching me in the chest.
“He isn’t,” Niya says, defending me against some lie I didn’t know I told. There are probably scores of them.
“What the hell?” I say.
“Let go of me,” Aeryen says. “I don’t ever want to see you ever again ever.”
Niya reaches out for him and he says, “I don’t want to see you again either. Ever. Ever.”
Chlo taps me on the shoulder and mouths I’ll take care of him.
“Get some sleep,” Nik says to me and Niya. “You’re going to need it.”
“Come with me,” Chlo says to Aeryen. “I think I might be able to find a uniform shirt that would fit you.”
“Really?” Aeryen says between sobs.
“Absolutely,” Chlo says. “And don’t you want to see the rest of the ship?”
“Yes,” Aeryen says, sobbing somewhat less now. Whatever’s devastated him isn’t so devastating that it’s also killed his excited energy. Maybe nothing could be that devastating.
A moment later, Nik, Aymee, Chlo, and Aeryen are gone. It’s just me and Niya.
“What the hell was that about?” I say.
“It’s not about you,” Niya says.
“It’s not?”
“It’s not completely about you. It’s just that Aeryen thinks that . . .”
She can’t look at me.
“He thinks that you’re going to come with us. To the Triangulum. That we’re leaving Engra to go settle somewhere. Together. With you.”
“I hope you told him we’re not,” I say. I wouldn’t settle in the Triangulum if it were the last habitable place in the Seven Galaxies. I’d rather spend the rest of my life as the Majnian overlord’s private pilot.
“Of course I told him we’re not,” she says. “Of course I did!”
“Okay,” I say.
“Not okay,” she says. “Of course I told him we’re not all settling down together. Anywhere. I don’t even know you!”
“Okay,” I say. “You don’t.”
“I don’t even know if I want to leave Engra,” she says.
“You don’t?”
“I was going to leave Aeryen here with Chlo,” she says. “That was my plan. That she would find a better home for him.”
“What better home could he have than with you?”
“Joston, I’m sure you’ve realized this. I’m not even Aeryen’s real mother.”
“You are his real mother,” I say, because she is.
“Not his biological mother,” she says. “And it’s not just because he’s probably Chengdry—if you’re right about that. Or his vestigial tail. Or the hairs on his wrists.”
“He’ll be fine,” I say.
“Not on Engra,” she says. “And especially not now. I think there’s going to be a war. Soon.”
“Then you can’t stay there either,” I say. “Use this opportunity to get away. Both of you.”
“That’s what Chlo said.”
“She’s right.”
I’m suddenly exhausted, and we do have to get some sleep if we’re going to pull off tonight with a minimum of fuck-ups.
“You take the bed,” I say to Niya. “I’ll sleep out here.”
“Like you did last night?” she says.
Despite everything in my mind that’s telling me this is the worst thing I could possibly do—further encouraging Niya Redmor in her son’s dreams of our having a sort of a family together—my body is telling me something else altogether.
“Exactly like last night,” I say. Even arguing with Niya seems to arouse me. How is that possible?
“Why?” she says, asking the most unlikely of questions.
“Because I want to. And because you want to. Is there any other reason?”
She puts one hand on my collar and holds on to it. I start walking toward the bedchamber and she lets go of my collar and follows me.
“We’re going to be on this ship together for a couple of months, at least,” she says. “So this is going to have to be the last time. Because—”
“I’ve never seen such a huge bed,” I say, interrupting Niya. I’ve been in Chlo and Lasson’s quarters before, but only in the outer room.
“Joston, you have to listen to me,” Niya says.
I pull apart the snaps on my uniform shirt. Niya hoists her sweater off over her head. I stare at her while she kicks off her shoes and steps out of her pants. I sit on the edge of this humongous bed and work on my boots.
“I’m listening,” I say.
“Liar,” she says.
“This is the last time,” I say. “I did hear you.”
Niya’s naked, her curves spurring me on to get out of my pants faster, her stiff nipples making my mouth water, and this gigantic bed underneath us urging me to get going already.
I tug off my pants, and Niya gasps a little as my cock springs out. Maybe she didn’t see it so well last night. I forget that Engra don’t have the same acute night vision as Choryneans.
“You’re . . .” she says, searching for an appropriate word. “It’s . . .”
Niya is just out-and-out staring at my cock now.
“It’s huge,” she says, and I start laughing, which makes her laugh.
Then she leans back onto the bed and opens her legs. I immediately forget every single foreplay technique that’s taken me years to perfect—and they are perfect—and simply plunge into her.
“Joston!” If this is a protest, there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. I pound into her wildly, like I’ve never had sex before and am never going to have it again. Like this is my first and last chance. Ever.
But her yelling out my name is no protest. She hooks her legs over my shoulders while she pushes herself onto me. She’s gasping and I realize that I am too.
“Niya,” I say, but I can’t say anything else. We’ve been at it for only a few minutes and I’m losing control already.
Between thrusts and grunts, I look down into her eyes, which are dark, dark violet now. Then her body starts shimmering. Her trembling hands are in my hair. Her sex is clenched around mine, making me part of her.
I have never felt like this. The world around us is wiped out. She moves her legs so now they’re around my waist. Her hands are clutching my ass, helping me get deeper and deeper into her.
Leaning down, I lick her left nipple, then the right one. Then I put the left one in my mouth and run my tongue over it, then kiss it, then nip at it.
“Joston,” she says from the back of her throat while I keep up the small bites. “Joston.”
The tempo increases. I can’t stop myself. I forget everything I’ve ever known, immersed in this moment only.
“No, no, no. Not yet, not yet,” Niya says just as her shimmering body explodes in a meteoric burst.
“Niya,” I say as if it’s the true name of the universe, as if it’s the only name for all of creation.
My hips cannot move any faster. I close my eyes against the clash of need and satisfaction as I pour myself into her while she crests once again.
Then, still lying on top of her exquisite, pulsing body, still untethered from my usual self, I succumb to something less like sleep and more like unconsciousness.