Other Worlds Than These

Star-Crossed-3

He stayed with the captain for the rest of the evening, unwilling to bow to the emotions that tore him up inside. Turning Xan down apparently hadn’t worked—Reth was still attuned to every little thing he said or did. Despite the room full of people, Xan seemed to perform for only him. When the captain handed Reth another cocktail and suggested they get to know their new gunners a bit better, Reth downed the drink and begged off. He didn’t need to come face to face with Xan again—he’d probably apologize, then ravish him right there in front of everyone. He didn’t trust himself around the gunner. And besides, as he explained—his speech slurring more than he would’ve liked—he had a ship to steer come oh-five hundred. He had to turn in.

But once he left the party, he didn’t head to his room. His wayward feet had a mind of their own, and they carried him down to the simdeck instead. Twice he heard heavy footsteps ringing off the grated floors behind him; both times he glanced back to find only his shadow. The second time, his body swayed as if lying down sounded like a great idea, but the simdeck was just up ahead. With one hand on the wall to steady himself, Reth managed to make it the rest of the way.

The simdeck was a simulated reality facility open to all the crew. With the celebration still going strong in the ballroom, Reth had the place to himself. As large as the flight deck three levels above it, the simdeck was segmented into a dozen private gaming rooms that ranged in size from one player to twenty. Each room was coded shut—only a viable crew ID card could grant access for simulated play. Inside Reth’s ID card were a handful of saved realities. He came here often during a long flight—space could be a lonely place, and the simdeck provided quick, guiltless, solitary entertainment. Too many hassles could arise when dating a crewmember.

Case in point, Reth thought bitterly as he unhooked his ID card from where it hung on his belt. He wasn’t even dating Xan, and already things were going to be strained between them. This would be one long ass mission, Reth just knew it. His only consolation was that Xan would be busy with the other gunners. Once the ship was underway, Reth wouldn’t have a chance to interact with him much.

God willing.

Choosing one of the smaller simrooms, Reth jammed his ID card into the slot. The green light that indicated the room was empty blinked, then flipped to a deep red that meant occupied. Into the number pad below the card slot, Reth typed a series of numbers—his ID code, a game code, then two separate passwords that he’d placed on his card to keep anyone from accessing it. Some of the crewmembers used the simdeck to lounge on sunny beaches or dance the night away at noisy clubs—whatever form of R&R they preferred. On Reth’s card, each game was a different s****l situation, from blowjobs in crowded restrooms to anal intercourse in a lush park on a cloudless day. In Reth’s opinion, the simdeck was better than m**********n and safer than s*x.

When he finished entering his numbers, the door to the room slid open. Leaving the card in the slot, Reth stepped inside and found himself walking out onto the empty flight deck.

The shields were up, displaying a dazzling array of stars scattered across the darkness of space like diamonds winking on black velvet. The console beeped to itself. Crossing the deck, Reth dropped into the navigator’s chair and checked the course out of habit. They were steady, and everything seemed fine. Sinking back into the chair, Reth stared at the endless span of space out the ship’s main window and wondered what number he had miskeyed to get this scenario. It was peaceful, true, but he’d wanted something to relieve the throb at his crotch, to take his mind off Xan. If he had to do it himself, why bother with the sim?

As if on cue, the door behind him opened. It sounded so real, Reth had to remind himself it was simulated. Nothing was real in here. Nothing but himself. The flight deck flickered around him as if to confirm its ephemeral nature. With a lazy push of his foot, he spun the chair around to see what the game had in store for him tonight—

Shit.

Xan stood just inside the door, leaning on the short railing that divided the deck, head c****d in Reth’s direction. His hair fell in a satiny rush over his shoulders, as if he’d been holding it back as he entered the simdeck and just released it. His eyes rivaled the stars outside. “Hey again.”

Reth’s mind spun out in half a dozen different directions at once. Xan, here, but how? He’d just boarded the ship a few hours ago—he wouldn’t know where the simdeck was, and wouldn’t be authorized to access it yet, even if he’d figured it out.

Which meant he was part of the simulation. What wicked combination of numbers had conjured him up? Hadn’t Reth heard something somewhere about the simdeck being upgraded to include memory imagery? Was the upgrade already installed? Why hadn’t he seen the memo?

More importantly, of all the men in his past, why did the damn computer latch onto this one?

He was already on my mind, Reth reasoned as they stared at each other across the flight deck. The system’s just picking up on things I’m already thinking, even if I refuse to believe it. He’s not real, not here. He’s not.

Still, he couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you upstairs?”

Xan spread his hands to indicate the deck around them. “Isn’t this the top deck?” he countered.

Reth thought maybe his voice sounded just a tad off, and that made him feel better. It was simulated, after all. It had to be.

With a roguish grin, Xan raised one eyebrow and added, “I came looking for you.”

“Why?”

Crossing the deck to where Reth sat, Xan trailed a hand down Reth’s arm as he circled him. There was a promise in his eyes, the same one Reth thought he’d seen back on that balcony so long ago. Picking at the sleeve of Reth’s flight suit, Xan purred, “Like you don’t know.”

Before Reth could answer, that hand jumped from his wrist to his lap. Eager fingers kneaded his erection as Xan knelt before him. “You like that?” he whispered, rubbing the front of Reth’s suit.

Reth nodded and closed his eyes. This was a sim, he reminded himself—this was the reason he was here. To lose himself, to forget. To conjure up scenarios with Xan because you brushed him off upstairs, his mind whispered, but Reth pushed that thought away. He concentrated on the hand at his groin, the sure touch stroking his c**k through the flight suit, his own muffled moan as delight shivered through him.

Amid the quiet noises of the deck, Reth heard a faint metallic zip as Xan eased down the zipper of his flight suit. He felt the material grow slack against his chest and waist, then a cool hand strummed low over his belly where his undershirt didn’t quite meet his briefs. His stomach fluttered beneath the touch and Reth slid down into his seat, legs spreading wide on either side of the man who knelt before him. The zipper parted further.

Through hooded eyes, Reth watched Xan open his flight suit until the erection straining the front of his briefs stood between them. Reth gripped the arms of his chair, waiting. Slowly—oh, God, so slowly—Xan peeled the taut briefs away, exposing first pale skin, then a shock of thick dark curls, then the ruddy base of Reth’s d**k. The tight fabric cut across his shaft, pressing it into his balls. “Yes,” Reth gasped, one leg rising beside Xan on its own accord. “God, yes.”

Then Xan pulled the briefs down all the way, and Reth’s hard shaft swung up to bump against Xan’s chin. The tip of Reth’s uncut c**k peeked from its foreskin, already dribbling filmy white c*m. Gentle fingers lifted his nuts, rubbed them, squeezed them playfully. Xan tucked Reth’s briefs below his dangling balls to keep them out of the way. Tracing the curve of Reth’s c**k with one finger, Xan murmured, “Don’t tell me I missed out on this.” Then he caught the spongy tip between his lips and hummed.

All thought flew from Reth’s mind. His body was a raw nerve, pulsing with Xan’s tuneless song. One hand encircled Reth’s d**k, the other rubbed low on his trembling stomach, as those wide lips kissed his cockhead. A fevered tongue swirled around his sensitive tip, tickling him, and Xan struck a steady rhythm that worked Reth’s foreskin up and down his thick length. Reth’s fingers were numb from the hold he had on his chair. When Xan took his entire c**k between those wide lips of his, Reth raised up off the seat, shoving deep into Xan’s damp, hot mouth.

Xan pulled back, letting Reth slip from his mouth but at the last second, his lips clamped down to keep Reth’s tip inside. His tongue fondled the flared head as he massaged Reth’s d**k, tracing the slit that split the underside, sucking the juice from his shaft. The hand fisted around his length stroked up and down. The fingers kneaded him harder, guiding him toward release. Reth hovered on the brink of orgasm, unwilling to come, but the hand milking him, the tongue suckling him, the ardent mouth hungry for him, the night and the party and the flood of memories all conspired to set him off. He came in an explosive rush that gagged an unsuspecting Xan, who sputtered a moment before swallowing.

“God,” Reth gasped, spent. He sank lower in his chair, his whole body as limp and empty as his flaccid d**k.

Xan wiped a hand across his mouth but didn’t manage to erase his grin. “I should’ve done that months ago.”

Silently, Reth agreed.

Starlight shone in Xan’s eyes with a wicked gleam. “I followed you here,” he admitted.

Reth roused himself. “What?”

The confusion on his face only widened Xan’s grin. “I knew where you were going. They gave us a tour this morning, before the crew came on board. Gave us ID cards, too. Coded and ready to rumble, so to speak.”

Reth’s blurry mind reeled. Wait, did that mean…

“This is just like the rec deck back at the Academy.” Reaching into a pocket on his flight suit, Xan extracted an ID card and held it out so Reth could see his own picture staring back. His card, there in Xan’s hand, meant that someone else’s card was in the room’s slot outside. Someone else was running this scenario, not Reth. “You don’t know how many times I hacked into that system just for kicks.”

Reth felt trapped in that starry gaze. Xan’s smile never faded as he raised his voice to call out, “Sim four five niner.”

Beneath Reth, the chair spread out into a soft bunk covered with thick blankets. The headrest morphed into a pillow beneath his head. The flight deck console disappeared, replaced with the smooth contours and flowing design of the ship’s living quarters. The window shrank to a tiny hole through which stars twinkled like dew. Struggling to sit up, Reth frowned at the bedroom he found himself in. “What the…”

Anyone created by the game was just a simulated character, nothing more. They had no control over the computer, no authority to change the setting or the action or anything about the game. Only living beings could do that. Which meant…

Reth scrambled to cover himself. “No.”

Suddenly Xan was there, beside him on the bed. Before Reth could unhook his briefs from behind his balls, Xan caught his wrists and held his hands together, cuffed by his own. He lay down alongside Reth, who backed up against the wall but found himself trapped. Despite that fact, his body began to respond to Xan’s closeness again. His c**k twitched when Xan’s leg brushed Reth’s crotch.

Reth imagined Xan flipping him onto his stomach, ripping his flight suit away, raising his ass in the air and diving deep inside, parting him with mouth and hands and c**k. The thought made Reth weak, and an unconscious whimper escaped his throat. One thought rolled through his head as he stared into Xan’s dark eyes. Please.

Aloud, he managed, “I don’t—”

Xan silenced him with a kiss. Reth’s own juices on Xan’s lips took his breath away. “Can I just tell you?” Xan murmured, his words mere breath between them. “Back at graduation? You scared the s**t out of me.”

His eyes were bright, pinning Reth in their stare. “Me?” he asked, incredulous. There was nothing scary about him, nothing this valiant flyboy beside him needed to fear. “Why?”

With a shrug that settled his body closer to Reth’s, Xan admitted, “I don’t know. I’d never—I mean, I wasn’t…”

He shrugged again, then burrowed nearer, his hands covering Reth’s. “It was cool when we were just fooling around, you know? Then you invited me upstairs, and suddenly we went from fun to serious in two milliseconds flat.” Xan kissed him again, trying to smooth Reth’s frown away. “I was afraid of getting too attached to you too fast,” he whispered. “Afraid of getting hurt.”

“You hurt me,” Reth pointed out. He tried to sound angry but couldn’t, tried to move away from Xan’s insistent touch and couldn’t. “Funny as that may seem to you—”

“No.” Xan kissed Reth’s fingertips and shook his head, his hair tickling Reth’s face. “I’m so sorry. Why do you think I followed you? I just want—”

“What?” Reth snapped. I just want your mouth on me again, he added silently, but he wasn’t about to admit it. Instead, he shook his hands free from Xan’s and demanded, “Just what is it you want from me, Xan?”

Those sparkling eyes widened, those lips curving into a slow, sweet smile. Xan leaned forward to claim a quick kiss before Reth brushed him away. “I want whatever it was you had in mind that night we first met,” he whispered. “Do you remember?”

Now Reth sighed. “How could I forget?”

A strong hand trailed down his chest, picking at the hem of his undershirt before fisting around his semi-erect c**k. “Then show me,” Xan breathed. “Show me why you invited me to your room in the first place. I was wrong to leave you like that, and I won’t do it again, honest. I want this—” He gave Reth’s d**k a gentle squeeze that sent pleasure shattering through him. “I want you. If you’ll still have me. Please…”

Reth reached out and ran a hand through Xan’s thick hair. It felt as heavy and full and alive as he’d always imagined it would. With his hand on the back of Xan’s head, he pulled the man to him until their lips met. Reth’s words were only shapes that left themselves imprinted on Xan’s mouth. “I told you I’d wait.”