Page 30 of Inceptive (Ingenious #3)

30

WILL

W ill continued to work at the Wild Pony. He served drinks, faked smiles, and brushed off friendly hands. For extra tips, in the evening, he performed on stage in tight black pants and a billowy red shirt. He played the flute, sang, and performed with Belle. Tips were generous. As were the offers of company.

He needed the income after retiring the title of viceroy and donating drilling rights to a monitored fund that financed settlements in the outland. Davis had called him a fool for not securing a wealthy future by building a chain of saloons in the outland. Elliston had laughed his ass off and left on the second transport out, probably eager to set up a new government and become the chairman of the drilling fund before Will left on the last transport.

Elliston was in for a rude surprise. The Triangle Alliance governed the outland until the people were debt-free and self-sustainable, and the fund’s charter prohibited Elliston from regulating the profits.

Max, Beau, and their husbands visited the saloon the week after Will had signed over the drilling rights. Max informed him that he was being offered the position of artistic director in the boys’ academy in the Triangle’s capitol city. He’d wear the black robe of an academic and live in a rent-free apartment equipped with advanced tech. Elliston would farm in overalls and share a crude cabin with five men.

When Will stopped laughing, he asked, “Do you think the cadets will be interested in my classes?”

“You have a good mouth for the flute,” Max drawled. “Your students will pay attention.”

Beau grinned at Will. “You are young and pretty, and all the cadets will study hard to please you.”

Quiggs sighed. “I remember when I was in the academy—young and desired by cadets,”

Max elbowed his husband. “You’ve forgotten it was just me who desired you.”

Jagger lifted a brow at Will. “Max has forgotten about Beau’s infamous tryst with Quiggs.”

“We were just saying hello,” Beau said.

Quiggs bristled. “It was nothing. Quit mentioning it, or Will won’t believe it’s nothing.”

Max whispered to Will, “Their hello is legend.”

“And if the cadets fall asleep in class, Belle can peck them awake,” Jagger said.

Three hectic months passed with Beau and Max seldom visiting the saloon, as they supervised transports to and from the Triangle and finalized contracts with Fort Hope on leasing power outlets in the rampart to fuel the equipment for constructing an airbase on the Island.

Although Fort Hope had signed leases for the power outlets, they stubbornly refused to vote for a clinic. Belle had tried to deliver messages to Zach but returned, moping that the meeting house and its windows were locked down to outsiders.

Will suspected the vote would pass if Zach agreed to marry and step down as mayor.

The saloon closed at midnight, and Will locked the doors and swept while Davis counted sales and tips. The last transport was leaving in three days, and they’d finally earned enough to build a simple saloon in a military outpost in the outland.

Will pocketed a tip to splurge on a ride to the steam lodge, where his visitation permit was active. Sometimes he picked up gossip from late bathers—before they covered their junk and fled from his lecherous gaze. In the early morning hours, the pool was usually all his, and the events of the past year seemed like an outrageous drama, ending with a curtain call where all the actors bowed except him. A soak in a pool with soothing fizzy salts would help him cope with the reality that saying farewell forever to Zach was happening. He would never forget him, but he would move forward with a new beginning.

Bots at the bridge operated three-wheeled taxis to destinations. He paid with a voucher and gave his destination.

In the steam lodge, Will stripped in a cubicle, then walked to the large pool with a towel around his waist. A few young bachelors soaked on the opposite side, discussing the pros and cons of the new hospital. Talk stopped when they saw Will. He looked down, giving them privacy to stand and cover themselves.

Before they left, Will asked, “Has Mayor Zach won the clinic vote?”

“He finally did.” The man who answered ignored his friends, who were urging him out of the room. They all looked similar—strong builds, dark hair, brown eyes. “The council announced he’s stepping down as mayor and ready to marry. Lots of talk that Maya’s the one.”

“His cousin Riley’s Maya?”

“She’s a sensible woman, eager to start a family. They’ll do well.”

“Tell him his friend Will wishes him well. The last transport leaves in three days, and the boys’ academy in the capitol has hired me to teach music. Could you tell him that for me, please?”

“Sure.”

Will waited until they’d gone before sitting in the corner with the thickest steam. The news hit his chest like ten stunners. He’d known marriage was inevitable. Zach belonged here, and Will couldn’t accept living here. Love wasn’t enough. Like the rains, love flooded and overwhelmed. Inevitably, the rains dried, and one reaped the harvest, either content with the yield or staring at a rotting field with regret.

The Triangle had welcomed the transports with few hitches. Messages spoke of soft grasslands and the whisper of gentle breezes instead of breaking waves. The paved sidewalks in the cities were clean. Bakeries and pubs served a wide variety of fresh food. Hunger was nonexistent. Their society was a blend of old-fashioned crafts and advanced tech.

When comfortable with the new society, when his heart opened its battered door, Will would welcome love. Until then, he’d experiment before committing to wedlock. Same-sex unions were called wedlock. Marriage was a union of a wife and up to three husbands. Ugh. Not his cup of tea.

He closed his eyes and remembered callused fingers shyly mapping his body. Brown eyes wide with wonder and desperate need. He remembered rocking in front of the stove when words weren’t necessary because a shared smile spoke volumes. He remembered that gratification was more than having sex. It was having the one you loved sleeping, eating, working, and breathing the same air with you.

Booming laughter echoed from the cubicles. Beau’s laugh. Bare feet slapped against the floor as Jagger chased after him, yelling for Beau to quit playing and give him back his towel. Beau bounded into the room, dangling his husband’s towel out of reach.

“Not funny, Beau. What if townspeople are in here? They’ll call us degenerates.”

“Not within my hearing.” Max sauntered into the room and unwrapped the towel around his waist to hand to Jagger before wading to the middle of the pool, giving Will a glimpse of bronze skin and a generous but odd manhood with a bulge in the middle. Beau possessed the same shape, and Will guessed it was a feral trait. Ferals were vicious human mutations that had survived the apocalypse outside of sanctuaries. Beau and Max were children of human parents abducted during breeding heats. Beau was a half-breed, and Max was a quarter-breed. Neither was ashamed of their heritage.

Max cupped his balls, hissing as he eased down until sitting with the water lapping his hairless chest.

“How’s the water?” Quiggs walked to the edge and tested the water with his toes. He wore a white robe, as if self-conscious around Beau’s and Jagger’s porn-worthy magnificence. “Where’s a valve to raise the temperature?”

“If you want hotter, ditch the robe and join me.” Max jerked his cock.

Will should speak up and stop the play, but his cock had plumped and told him to shut the fuck up and watch. He believed Quiggs would back down and scold his husband.

Instead, Quiggs gleefully shed his robe. He reminded Will of a wading bird with long thin legs and a slightly soft middle. His mop of brown hair curled from the steam and framed a face that was boyish, despite him being in his early thirties. “Damn, this is good.” He sat on the edge, swirling the water.

“Cover your junk,” Max growled and waded toward him.

Quiggs lifted a foot and pushed at his husband’s chest.

Max stood firm, captured his foot, then licked the insole before suckling each toe. Quiggs’s green eyes lidded with interest as he eased back on his elbows, his free foot rubbing circles on Max’s thigh.

Right in front of their wedded friends?

Beau yanked Jagger’s towel and spread it on the side. He tossed Jagger up, caught him, deftly flipped him, and placed him face down on the towel. He straddled his waist, then began massaging his shoulders with long, digging strokes.

Was Beau purring? Hard to tell above Jagger’s ragged groans. They’d played this game often because Jagger hadn’t protested when tossed.

Will’s presence was beyond awkward, and he cleared his throat, expecting them to cover up and yell at him to get out. The men simply looked at him and continued as if they’d known he was sitting there all along. Oh, the sign-in chart with his name and authorization code was on the door—they’d known.

“Need some company, Will?” Beau drawled.

His jaw dropped. “You’re wedded!”

“I have never cheated on my Jagger.” He pressed a kiss to Jagger’s shoulder.

Jagger groaned. “True. Though sometimes I wish he’d give me a break from his attentions. The man’s always horny.”

Beau preened as he worked the knots from Jagger’s shoulders. “I ask because my men always beg to meet you. Single soldiers don’t shy away from sex.”

Quiggs added, “Yeah. Like fucking after two minutes of small talk. I remember when—ouch!” A sharp bite to his big toe halted the memory.

Max moved between his thighs and pinned both wrists above his head. “One glimpse, and I knew I wanted your plump mouth on me.”

“Uh… fellows…um… I’m right here,” Will squeaked.

“Heh.” Quiggs gripped Max’s head, guiding him down to engulf his cock. “Mmmm. Hollow your cheeks like that. Mmmm.” Quiggs watched Will’s reaction. “After ten years of marriage, exhibitionism adds spice.”

Max lifted his head. “My Quiggs never lasted two minutes our first year.” He rubbed his jaw. “Now he wears me out.”

Quiggs pushed him down. “Suck me off. Haven’t come in two weeks.”

“You and your brain fogs. Poor Max.” Beau snickered at a private joke.

“Still watching.” Will slid a hand to his hardening cock.

“What the heck! You men are shameless. You have reputations to uphold.” Zach’s shocked voice echoed off the dripping stone walls. His feet slapped the floor as he strode to the edge. “Men don’t spend in the pool. It violates our code.”

“Then put a sign on the door.” Frustrated, Quiggs thrust his pelvis for attention.

Zach fired back, “Cum floats. I signed in. The janitor will wonder if I was with you.”

“Max will swallow, won’t you, dear?”

Max’s shoulders shook with laughter.

Beau adjusted his position to ride Jagger’s crack. Both sniggered like students in a bathroom stall.

“Will, stop watching this filth!” Yanking off the towel from around his waist, Zach waded over to Will and held it up to block his view.

Will leaned around. “Oh, shut up, Zach. Sex is like pie. Can’t quit after one tasty bite.”

“Cream pie.” Quiggs sniggered. This playful side of him shocked Will because the man was a genius and always seemed so serious.

Jagger clenched and unclenched his ass cheeks. “Hey, Zach, how do you know cum rises to the top, hmmm?”

Zach sniffed Will’s neck. “Are you in rut?”

“I’m horny. My dick won’t dry up and die just because… You’re… I’m…” He jerked harder, but the image of Zach atop a wife wilted his erection. “Dammit. You ruined a great orgasm.”

“It happens.” Beau shrugged. “Where’s lube? In the Triangle, public pools supply lube.”

“Here, lube’s by the bed, and a husband spills his seed inside a spouse,” Zach quipped.

Beau tsked . “Your poor balls. No wonder you’re fussy as a rooster in a separate coop.”

“Jerking off is permitted to relieve pressure, but a man must derive no pleasure from the act.”

The play stopped, and the four husbands’ jaws dropped at such nonsense.

Will nodded. “True. Zach’s a fussy rooster.”

“He’s a stupid male with a withered nut sack,” Beau said.

Zach gritted his teeth at the censure. With clenched fists, he plowed through the water and confronted Beau. “I don’t understand why you let other men stare at your husband or why you flaunt your body in front of Will.”

Beau rolled off Jagger and stood, his cock going flaccid in his anger. “You dare imply I cheat on my husband?”

Zach stood nose to nose with Beau. “You treat Jagger like a… a slut by drawing attention to his fine looks. Do you mount gawking soldiers while they’re too besotted to resist?”

Beau’s good nature snapped. He punched Zach’s chest hard enough that it should’ve knocked him floundering into the water. “Ha!” His smug grin faded.

Zach hadn’t budged. His belly had clenched, then released. “A coward hits without warning. My turn. You’re warned.”

“Pffft.” Beau clenched his powerful abs. “Go ahead. Hit me. I won’t display my feral claws.”

Beau never saw the punch thrown to his gut. He doubled over, then an uppercut sent him into the pool with a hot splash that struck everyone. His surged to his feet, spitting water and gasping for breath.

Zach jeered, “Dante created his beloveds with three times the strength of normal men so that they could survive danger and work with the endurance of the machinery they lacked.”

Jagger’s face lit. “He created threat boosters that activated like sexual pheromones when stimulated. If those boosters aren’t passed on by both parents, then conception fails. Because, for the species to continue against the unknowns, nothing must interfere with defense. Huh. Possibly removal of this gene in an egg and sperm and implanting the embryo in a surrogate will propagate the species.” He snapped his fingers. “I’ve been analyzing the wrong pathway.”

Max hauled Beau out of the pool. His blond hair dripped, the long sensory hairs flicking water. If Beau displayed claws, Zach hadn’t a chance.

“Enough play.” Max brought Quiggs a robe. “Quiggs?” Quiggs stared slack-jawed at the ceiling. “Dammit, Jagger, your theory has sent him into a brain fog.”

“Fuck him anyway,” Beau mumbled.

“Consensual sex is the rule.” Max slung Quiggs over his shoulder and carried him out. “You’ve ruined my night, Colonel Beau.”

Beau picked up Jagger and chuckled. “We finish in our bedroom.”

“Later. I want to discuss my theory with Addie.”

Beau groaned. “It’s well after midnight.”

“Addie doesn’t sleep.”

The couple left with Beau pouting and Jagger apologizing for messaging Zach to come to the steam lodge.

“Who’s Addie?” Will knotted a towel around his waist.

“Dante in a female android form.” Zach grasped Will’s arm. “Stay. I think they arranged getting us alone together. I’ve missed you. Let me lock the door and take down the sign-in journal. No one will know. Give me tonight… please.”

“Pfft. You’re courting Maya.”

“Maya loves Riley. Ours will be a practical marriage.”

“Strip and change her mind. Worked for me. Whew, did it ever.”

“Did you ever love me a little bit beyond the sex, Will? You know I love you.”

“I can’t stay. You can’t leave. In time, I’ll find a special someone. He won’t be as… as… wonderful as you.” Will’s words ended in a teary gurgle.

“Stay with me until dawn. I’ll submit. Give me your first time.” He cupped Will’s chin.

Will brushed the hand off like a bug. “Uh-uh. That first goes to my future husband. Besides, you haven’t prepared.”

Zach lowered his eyes and blushed. “We could meet here tomorrow night.”

The temptation hardened Will like a rock. He ached down to his toenails. To slide into the heat, the clench, spilling inside… and painful memories ever after.

“Goodbye, Zach. Fill your house with children. I do love you. But I can’t live here, and your people need you.”

The next day, Fort Hope announced that the town had approved a hospital and Zach was resigning as mayor and getting married to Maya, who had campaigned for the hospital.

Ironically, the traditional wedding was scheduled in the meeting hall the evening of Will’s special farewell performance in the saloon. It was as if the townspeople feared Will would crash the wedding and steal the groom.

Beau visited the saloon and consoled Will who sat at the bar holding his head in his hands after drowning his sorrow in three beers. Beau shoved the mugs out of the way. “Enough grieving. You’re pretty and brave and worthy. Important men will court you. Let soldiers comfort you until you’re ready for wedlock. It’s foolish to rub off alone when warm mouths are available.”

Will lifted his head. “He doesn’t love her, Beau.”

“My Jagger and I thought you’d change his mind in the pool.”

“I turned him away. He wanted one time. I wanted forever.”

Belle flew to the bar chittering angrily. “Town is excited over wedding. Bad Zach. I wait outside meeting hall and drop a wedding gift on his head.”

“Yes!” Beau chortled. “Big wet gift .”

Will tapped her beak. “No. You stay with me. We have to rehearse for our last show tomorrow night.”

“Bah. You are too honorable, Will.” Beau laid a generous tip on the counter and left.