The Mating of Michael (24 page)

“Keep him in the quarantine area. The guards won’t go in there.”

Lamb felt dizzy with gratitude and something that might be joy. He fell to his knees in front of Rebben and took the king’s hand. It was square, strong with veins and resilient with life, even though a few of his fingers had been clubbed and twisted by Virillium. How much of the body under the heavy robes had been maimed? Lamb could not tell, but he had an urge to see, and comfort, all of him.

“Thank you,” Lamb whispered again.

Rebben looked abashed at the display of sentiment, but he did not withdraw or rebuke. Hesitantly, he reached out and rubbed Lamb’s cheek with his thumb. “Your beauty will lift my people’s hearts. Go now. And think you on how you might find your way off Oriven once we get there. It’s no place for you.”

Where you are is my place,
Lamb thought, as the last of his heart turned its face toward the light.

M
ICHAEL
WAS
daydreaming in the Expanded Horizon’s weekly meeting when his name caught his attention.

“—need Michael,” Jack was saying.

Michael sat up straighter. Jack was looking at him expectantly.

“Er… what?”

“Late night?” Jack asked with a mildly annoyed smile.

“Sorry.” Michael had been thinking about James, of course. He grimaced sheepishly. “Could you repeat—”

“I said I have two new patients that I’d like your help with. The first is Miles Darvin.” Jack waved at the projection on the wall where the bio sheet for the patient was displayed. The headshot showed a fragile-boned young man. “I’ve had two sessions with him so far. He gets performance anxiety that leads to difficulty maintaining an erection. Unfortunately, Miles had a rather abusive lover in the past who belittled his endowment. He needs to regain his confidence.”

Michael nodded, chewing his lip as he studied the picture. Poor guy.

Jack changed the screen to a new patient bio. “And the second is Rupert Jones. He has problems with premature ejaculation. I think he’d really benefit from working with Michael on techniques to delay orgasm.”

“Sure,” Michael said enthusiastically—and then he caught himself and remembered what it was he had to do. His heart sank.

Jack was watching him closely. “Everything okay, Michael?”

“Yeah, Jack. There is, uh, something I want to discuss with you later.”

Jack nodded reluctantly and went on. “I also have another new gay patient scheduled for later this month. Seems our reputation is spreading out there with the gay community.”

Trudy smiled. “It’s about time. You deserve it, Jack.”

Jack smiled at Michael. “We have a good team.”

Michael forced a smile back and looked down at his notepad. He scribbled down the names of the new patients and next to them he scribbled
fuck me
.

Of course, his surrogacy work would be picking up
right now
. Of course, it would be the worst possible timing.

A
FTER
THE
meeting, he and Jack made coffee in the staff kitchen and took it to Jack’s office. Michael didn’t perch on the desk as usual. He needed some space. He plopped into the patient chair.

Jack frowned at him and sighed. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

Michael put his coffee on the desk and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. He rubbed his face with his hands and peered up at Jack through his bangs.

“Well?” Jack insisted, his mouth firm.

“I met someone.”

Jack nodded as if he wasn’t surprised, his jaw tight. “He doesn’t want you doing surrogacy?”

“He doesn’t know,” Michael admitted. He put his face in his hands. “God, Jack. I’m a fucking mess.”

Michael heard Jack move around the desk, felt a firm hand on his shoulder. “Are you planning to tell him?”

Michael stood up, shaking off Jack’s hand. He started pacing. “I thought I’d… I thought I’d just quit. And then he wouldn’t ever have to know. I know it stinks, Jack, but I’m
in love
with him.”

Jack sat on his desk and crossed his arms. His face was serious. “Michael… you have a gift. You’re very good at what you do.”

“Not helping,” Michael mumbled, his stomach in a knot. God, he really didn’t
want to do this. When he thought of Tommy, and Lem, or even the new patients Jack had talked about in the meeting today, his first instinct was to raise his hand—
Choose me. I can help
.

But it wasn’t right to keep this from James. And the idea of telling him was terrifying. He felt as if he was being torn in two, like the proverbial baby sentenced by King Solomon.

“Maybe if I talked to him,” Jack offered. “Tried to help him understand surrogacy from a professional point of view.”

Michael shook his head, more uncertainty than a ‘
no
,’ and bit at a nail. He didn’t stop pacing.

“Michael, look at me for minute,” Jack ordered. The tone Jack used—you did not disobey that tone.

Michael managed to halt his anxious feet and look Jack in the eye.

Jack hesitated. “As a therapist, there’s a lot I can do. But sometimes, words aren’t enough. I meant what I said in the meeting. We’re a good team, Michael. I’m sorry if I haven’t told you how much I appreciate working with someone of your caliber to improve the lives of my patients. You’re… a gentle soul.”

Michael sort of melted, but it was a bittersweet rush. Very bittersweet. He got a bit choked up. “Thank you, Jack. I really like working with you too.” And he did. Jack was right—they were a good team. He appreciated having Jack’s guidance on his sessions, knowing Jack was backing him up with the best therapy possible.

But.

He shrugged. “I love him, Jack. I won’t hurt him. And I definitely won’t lose him.”

“Okay,” Jack said in a resigned voice. “But my advice,
seriously
, is to talk to him. Try to explain. Don’t give this up before you’re certain it’s a problem.”

Michael didn’t answer; he just bit his nail worriedly.

“So… is this your official notice, then?” Jack asked, sounding unhappy about it. “If it is, you should tell Trudy yourself, and we’ll have to start looking for a replacement right away.”

“No!” Michael felt a sense of panic at the words, though of course, that had been his intention. It had been his intention for several weeks now. But now that it was here, the line in the sand, it was so, so difficult to step across it, to give up his work with Expanded Horizons for good.

His palms were sweating.

“Talk to him,” Jack urged quietly.

Michael nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Can you give me a few weeks?”

“I can hold off on the new patients for a bit. Can you still handle Tommy and Lem Peterson?”

Michael nodded. “Yes, Jack. Of course.”

Jack put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Sorry I haven’t said it yet, but I’m thrilled that you’ve found someone. He’s a lucky man.”

“Thanks, Jack,” Michael said, and then he gave Jack a hug because, well
shit
.

Jack hugged him back, patting his back awkwardly. “You’re still dangerous, Michael Lamont,” Jack muttered in his ear.

Michael grinned. “Yeah.”

“Y
OUR
NEW
book comes out, when? Next week?” Devon asked, picking up a card from the deck.

James looked at him suspiciously. “Yes.”

“Hey, congrats!” Lance said. “What’s this one called?”

“
Tears From The Dragon’s Eye
,” Michael said proudly, looking up from his cards. “James let me read it. I loved it.”

Michael had come to James’s monthly writer’s-group-turned-game-night for the first time. It was clear no one was quite sure what to make of him, but James thought it was amusing to let them speculate. Of course, James had a hard time keeping his eyes off Michael in the sexy burgundy sweater he was wearing, so it really wouldn’t take a genius to figure it out.

Devon discarded. He was currently beating them all in Pinochle. He snorted sarcastically. “Yeah. Too bad real reviewers aren’t so easy to impress. Saw a two-star and a three-star on Goodreads on the ARC yesterday. That’s never a good sign, is it?”

His voice—fuck, Devon had the ability to be so goddamn
insulting
just with the tone of his voice. Was he purposefully trying to make James look bad in front of Michael? Or was he just being an oblivious ass?

Knowing Devon, he had every malicious intent in mind. James opened his mouth to retort but was distracted when Michael shifted in his chair and winced. James gave Michael a worried look.

“Ow. Sorry. Ignore me,” Michael said.

Devon looked at Michael blankly. “Lance, go, man.”

Lance picked up a card from the deck.

Michael sat forward gingerly on the edge of his chair. “No, it’s just…. James is really hung. I mean,
God
! Aren’t you, babe?” Michael leaned over and kissed James on the cheek and then, when James turned his head to look at him in surprise, planted one on his lips.

Mmmm.
James kissed him back. With tongue.

“Worth every inch, though,” Michael breathed seductively as he pulled away with a last little lick. He gave James a lewd wink and picked up his hand, ignoring the circle of slack jaws around the table—and James’s sudden erection. “So… whose turn is it?”

B
ACK
AT
James’s house, James handed Michael a glass of lemon-lime sparking water along with a warning look.

“What?” Michael said innocently.

“
You
,” James said with a low growl that was part amusement, part reprimand.

“I liked your friends.” Michael put his glass on the coffee table and flopped down on the sofa. “Even if I did lose every
single
game.”

“You’re the worst game player in the history of forever. I mean, if you’d been in the cave when the Neanderthals invented the first game of tic-tac-toe, you would have lost,” James said seriously. “You should call Guinness. Bet you could nab a title.” He leveraged himself from his wheelchair onto the couch.

“I know, right? I guess that means I’m lucky in love.” Michael batted his eyes at James flirtatiously and took a sip from his glass. “Anyway, it was nice to meet some of your friends.”

“Nice, huh? You told them I had a big dick,” James said with a sigh of resignation. He leaned his head back on the couch.

“Well, you do! And that Devon guy was pissing me off! I bet he’s, like, four inches. Did you see his face when I said that?” Michael giggled. “He looked like a lobster.”

Michael was a little tipsy, James decided, even though he’d only had two beers at Devon’s place. And it was, fuck it, damn adorable. It was very hard for James to pretend he was annoyed when, honestly, he’d about burst a seam on his stupid ego when Michael shoved their sex life in Devon’s face.

“It was epic. Except for the minor detail that we’re not even
having
anal sex,” James reminded Michael in a dry voice.

“They don’t know that. Besides, we should be.”

James turned his head so he could grace Michael with an arched eyebrow.
Oh, really?

“Only…. you’re so big!” Michael cooed with huge scared eyes.

James laughed. “Shut up.”

“I don’t k-know if I can
take
it!” Michael flopped over into James’s lap like a fainting damsel.

“I’ll make you take it,” James growled.

And just like that, he was hard. Fuck, what Michael did to him. And yes, he’d been thinking about it, but the idea of actually fucking Michael, as in
tonight
, had just jumped his libido into hyperspace.

“Come ’ere,” he ordered, and then to help matters along, he grabbed the back of Michael’s neck and brought him up for a kiss.

Michael responded with a moan that said he was just as turned on as James was. They kissed for a long moment, the tide rising between them, but when James cupped Michael’s groin in one large hand, he pulled away.

“Wait. I… wanted to try something tonight. Do you trust me?”

James studied Michael skeptically. “That depends. What does this relate to exactly?”

Michael arched an eyebrow. “Sex,” he said in a lascivious tone, accompanied by a deliberately slow tour of his lips with the tip of his tongue.

James swallowed. “I could possibly be persuaded to trust you,” he said with a straight face. “What did you have in mind?”

Michael got a serious look. “I think we’re both ready for more, babe… I want to explore and kiss every inch of you.”

A bolt of fear offset James’s arousal, but he didn’t flinch. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want anything between us. Because I want to show you that I want all of you, just as you are.” Michael dropped a kiss just under James’s ear—one of his most sensitive spots. “Besides, there are some choice bits of you I can’t really get too with your sweatpants in the way.” He scooted to the side and put his head into James’s lap, nosing into James’s scrotum by way of demonstration. “Like right here.”

James laughed. “Hey now, that tickles!” Which was true. Michael’s breath and his nuzzling chin tickled the hell out of his upper inner thighs, which weren’t used to getting much attention. But he was panting.

“Twenty minutes of free exploration, carte blanche,” Michael bargained, sitting up. “And in return, you’ll get the same.”

James thought about it. He knew he didn’t have to comply. He could continue to push Michael back on the issue. But eventually… he did want to be able to be naked with Michael. And the truth was, they’d been intimate for six weeks now and James did trust him. He was still afraid. It was not something he really wanted Michael to see. But he knew Michael well enough to know he wouldn’t run screaming.

Besides, it was hard to say no when Michael was making it very clear what the rewards would be.

“Thirty.” James gasped as Michael drew his finger up his denim-clad erection. “You—
ah
—get twenty minutes. I get thirty and I can do
anything
.”