Page 18

Titan

“ You, ” Ezra gasped from the floor, which he had slid onto for reasons unknown. “What are you doing in my room?”

“What am I doing in your room?” Titan arched a brow and bit his lip in the seductive way of the “fuck boy.” “I thought it would be obvious—I am here to mate with you.”

Ezra groaned and dropped his head against the door with a thunk!

“Oh, yes, you have an aversion to the word ‘mate,’” Titan remembered upon seeing Ezra’s reaction. “I forgot this. I mean to say that I will fuck you, Ezra, and I have come to your room so that fucking may occur.”

“ Not better,” Ezra grumbled. “Just… dude. Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

A curious question.

Was there a way to fuck without occupying the same place at the same time?

Humans did not have psychic abilities, so surely Ezra spoke in jest, yet there was no humor in his voice. It was, Titan concluded as he stood from the bed and approac hed Ezra’s position, a simple mistake. Ezra had surely meant to use a joking tone, but had forgotten.

It was of no matter. Titan was a great interpreter.

“You do not wish for me to leave you alone,” he said as he dropped to his hands and knees, straddling Ezra’s thighs.

Their noses were close enough to touch, although Titan purposefully did not let them.

He let his eyelids lower until his eyes were nearly closed and spoke in a low whisper—the kind reserved for those who shared bedsheets. “You desire me… and I desire you. ”

“Why me, though?” Ezra asked, voice small and somehow fragile.

“I mean it. There are nearly eight billion human beings on Earth, but here you are in my bedroom. You can literally turn yourself into anyone’s greatest fantasy.

Your personality? Well, there’s not much you can do about that one, but there have to be plenty of people who are into that whole ‘arrogant piece of shit’ thing you’ve got going on… ”

“What is the point of your words?”

“My point is that you’re putting all your horny eggs in my basket, but you don’t have to. We would both be much better off if you found another human to screw around with. Save us both the trouble.”

Titan cocked his head to the side, considering.

“But I want to put my horny eggs in your basket,” he said earnestly. “I have mated—fucked—many times in my life, and I am wanted by many beings across the galaxy because I am very appealing as a mate?—”

“Good god.”

“—but you are also very appealing. You are a beautiful creature—the most beautiful of your kind—and you have intelligence, and status, and are well above average in mat— fucking ability. I do not desire to put my eggs in any other human. I only desire to put my eggs in you. ”

Ezra stared unblinkingly at him for a long increment, his cheeks a delightful pink color.

His lips parted slightly and Titan internally preened, sure that Ezra was soon to give in to lust and surrender himself with a kiss…

but instead, Ezra pressed the base of his palms against his eyes and groaned out something that sounded as though it might have been English had only his teeth not been so tightly clenched.

“I cannot understand you,” Titan helpfully informed him. “May I put my eggs in you now?”

Ezra dropped his hands and gave him a flat look.

“Listen, clearly we have sexual chemistry. It’s stupid of me to pretend like we don’t, okay?

I get it. Just the thought of you putting eggs in me makes me want to tear your clothes off and push you down right here on the floor so I can put them there myself.

Which is fucked up, but we can unpack that later, when you aren’t trying to seduce me.

The point is, as hot as you make me, you’re also the dickhead brother of one of my best friends.

I already feel like shit for not telling him about what we did before, and I can’t add onto that or I’ll go crazy.

I can’t be with you again, Titan. The guilt will eat me alive. ”

“Guilt is an emotion. It is not capable of consumption.”

“It’s a turn of phrase, dude.”

“There is no need for formal titles here.” Titan, wishing to put Ezra at ease, slid a hand up Ezra’s leg.

Looking pained, Ezra swatted his hand away. “I can’t do this. Al?—”

“Our union does not concern my brother,” Titan interjected before Ezra could finish. “We are mature beings, and are capable of making our own decisions. He should understand this. After all, he has found a mate of his own.”

“No, that’s not it.” Ezra drew a shaky breath and lowered his eyes, although what good that did him, Titan didn’t know, as it seemed to him that Ezra was now gazing longingly at his lips.

“Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, but it’s a betrayal of trust to me, and I can’t go through with it. ”

Was that it?

Was Ξ.A.kr’ξ??’p the driving force keeping Ezra from him?

Titan set his hand on Ezra’s thigh, and this time was not swatted away.

“My brother does not need to know what we do together,” he said, turning his head to bring their lips close.

“There is no reason to confess your choice of mates to others, Ezra, especially as there is no risk that you will actually carry my eggs. This is personal, private knowledge we can easily keep to ourselves.”

“But we’re coworkers,” Ezra objected quietly, voice strained. “Aren’t there rules about fraternizing in the workplace?”

“This job is new on your planet. We can make any rules we want.”

“Any rules?”

Their lips brushed. Titan closed his eyes. He didn’t move away, but he didn’t initiate the kiss, either.

“Any rules,” he whispered back. “Speak them, and I will ensure every being in our orbit will obey.”

Ezra shivered, their lips more than just brushing now.

It wasn’t a kiss—not really—but it was no innocent gesture.

Still, Titan did not act. He would not until Ezra made it clear that this was what he wanted.

He was assertive, but he was not without manners.

He would wait for permission. The way Ezra trembled in want of him promised in time, it would.

One breath followed another.

Ezra’s lips remained on his, loose, parted, warm.

Ezra closed his eyes and slowly—very slowly—moved his head so his bottom lip brushed Titan’s.

When Titan didn’t move, he did it again.

It was a slow progression from that silken, gentle dragging of his lips to an actual kiss, and by the time it happened, Titan’s human heart was hammering with such force, it felt like it might break free of his chest. Could it be an adverse reaction to something?

Was it possible for humans to secrete toxins from their pores?

Because between his elevated heartb eat and the heat burning high in his cheeks, it felt as though he had been poisoned.

One kiss had never been enough to cause such a reaction in him, but then again, Ezra was no casual mate.

Being with him wasn’t just about physical pleasure. Being with him made Titan feel things.

The kiss grew bolder by Ezra’s doing. He parted Titan’s lips and licked into his mouth, and while Titan usually liked to be the one in control, he let it happen.

It was different than what he was used to, but he found it was what he needed, and he savored it.

Enjoyed it. Let himself be swept up in the feeling of being wanted after having been lonely for so long.

Of being cherished and desired.

He hoped his display of gentleness would prove to Ezra that he was cherished and desired in turn.

While Titan remained meek, Ezra kissed him hungrily, locking his arms around Titan’s neck as though he never wanted him to pull away.

The heat rising off his body was sweltering, and the hotter it got, the heavier the kiss became.

It only ended when they were breathless, Titan panting as his sore jaw hung open, and Ezra not much better off.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Ezra muttered, but he did not move away. “Al is gonna kill me when he finds out. He let me move in when I had nowhere else to go and this is how I repay him? By screwing his brother?”

“We were only kissing,” Titan pointed out. “It is not as bad as you make it seem.”

“No, it’s worse.” Ezra let out a gust of breath and let his head fall once more against the door. “It’s worse because I want to fuck you. I want to pretend like you’re the one seducing me into making these bad choices, but you’re not. I want to climb you like a fucking tree.”

Titan’s heart fluttered. “I feel similar desire for you.”

“Then let me ride your cock. Let me feel it inside of me just one more time. Just one more time and that ’s it. We won’t… we won’t do this anymore. I just need to work you out of my system, and then I’ll be fine.”

“Whatever you want, Ambassador.”

Ezra’s cheeks reddened. “Just… this is the last time, okay?”

It was becoming clear that Ezra would talk himself in circles if left to his own devices, so Titan took matters into his own hands, claiming Ezra’s lips as his once more.

It was not the frantic, hungry kind of kiss they’d shared previously, but there was still heat to it—enough heat that soon enough, Ezra was panting into his mouth.

“Clothes off,” he demanded, and who was Titan to deny him?

He undid the buttons of his shirt, shrugging it off his shoulders before tugging his belt free of its buckle.

When he pulled back to sit and tug off his pants, Ezra hurried out of his shirt and undid his fly, shimmying free of his pants before Titan was able to rid himself of his own.

When they were both nude, their eyes met, and the light from Ezra’s strange lamp made it seem as though they burned orange with the heat of his desire.

“I want to ride you,” Ezra said, then corrected himself. “I am going to ride you.”