Royal: A Sci-Fi Romance (The Jekh Saga Book 5) Read online

  And he left.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Luke swiped his bootlegged universal key card across the sensor pad of Duke’s ship lock, watched the blue light flash in acceptance, and then the door slid open.

  He took two steps into the darkened ship, nudged away Duke’s arm and the gun at the end of it, and made his way to the bed.

  The door slid closed and beeped as the automatic lock engaged.

  “What are you doing here?” Breathing heavily, Duke set his handgun on the narrow table beside the built-in bed.

  Luke heeled off his shoes, pulled off his shirt, and slid under the covers. Duke had left a nice warm spot. “I would have thought you’d be happier to see me.”

  “I’m not unhappy; I’m confused.” Duke threw his hands up. “What the hell am I supposed to think? You indicated during dinner that this sort of rendezvous wouldn’t be happening and yet here you are.”

  “It’s not a rendezvous if you didn’t know about it in advance, right?”

  Duke furrowed his brow. “You don’t make any sense.”

  “Apparently, you’ve forgotten who you’re dealing with.”

  “Maybe I never knew in the first place,” Duke said.

  “And yet you still want a piece of me.” Luke laced his fingers behind his head and chuckled.

  “Shouldn’t you be wooing your soon-to-be wife or something?” Try as he might have to sound unbothered by Autumn’s arrival, his arrhythmic articulation and the way he clipped his words hinted that the opposite was more likely true. “Or at least pretending to?”

  “Plenty of time for that. I got the princess settled in at the lodge with her sister,” Luke said. “After the tensest good night conversation in history, I went home to The Tin Can.”

  “Not straight here, then.”

  “You mad?”

  No response from Duke.

  “Anyhow, Ais was standing outside The Tin Can waiting to yell at me.”

  “My sister wouldn’t yell.” Dude took a seat on the bed’s edge and leaned back on his forearm. “In spite of being raised in the unholy frontier of space, she has a natural kindness and poise that most royals need training for.”

  “Okay,” Luke conceded. “She didn’t yell, but her tone was definitely pointed.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Oh, you know.” Luke narrowed his eyes and clucked his tongue. “Something about…utter incompatibility, and suggesting that if this is all about me feeling guilty about hogging her and Owen’s bed, that I shouldn’t. Yada yada yada.”

  “So she what? Extended an open invitation for you to sleep in their bed as long as you send Autumn home?”

  “That seemed to be the insinuation, but…” Luke gave him a sharp look. “Of course she would never be so crass as to say that in precise language.”

  “No, Ais certainly wouldn’t.” Duke settled onto his left side and propped his cheek against his fist. His eyes took on a reflective quality in the dim light, shining with each blink like rare turquoise. He was a pretty bastard, and one glance of him always seemed to spark possessive impulses in Luke that he should have been too smart to act on. When it came to self-preservation, Luke was generally a force of nature, but even nature couldn’t always protect itself from the will of man.

  “How did you get in here?” Duke asked after staring back for a minute.

  Luke didn’t immediately answer because he wondered what Duke must have been thinking when he looked at him so intently. The other man generally spoke his mind, even if what he was saying wasn’t the whole truth. “A guy like me always has ways of getting into places.”

  “Interesting. In some places, that might be called breaking and entering.”

  “You gonna report me?” Luke laughed and gave up the fight on keeping his eyelids open. His sleep deficit had turned into a mistress who’d no longer be sidelined. He had to deal with it or it was going to derail him. “You gonna call the peacekeeper dispatcher and let them know the exact person you want in your bed happens to be in it, but he’s not being nice to you? I’m sure Jasper would have a hell of a laugh if he had to respond to that call.”

  “So, you’re just going to—”

  “Can you turn that red light off? The one over the stove? Thanks.” Luke wriggled lower beneath the covers and fitted his body into the grooves of the mattress. He needed to make some Luke-shaped ruts and disrupt the Duke-shaped ones.

  “That dim light is bothering you?”

  “Yep. I’ll keep waking if it stays on.”

  “So you intend to sleep here.”

  Duke didn’t wait for an answer—a good thing, because Luke didn’t see the point of giving him one.

  Duke murmured something to the ship’s computer in what must have been Norwegian and the light clicked off.

  Luke chuckled. “Your ship doesn’t know English?”

  “Not lately, no. Seemed safer to switch the computer language, seeing as how most pirates in this part of space are English-speaking. Assuming any of them could manage to steal the ship, they’d never be able to get the damned thing started without wiping the computer. That takes a great deal of time.”

  “So, I’d never be able to fly your ship.”

  “You could fly it if I was aboard, but not start it. Why would you want to, anyway? You have your own.”

  Duke eased closer. Slow, calculated motions. Finally, the heat of his breath tickled the side of Luke’s face. Not as assertive with Luke as he was with so many other things, but still moving. Still inching toward what he wanted, and of course, Luke was satisfied that the thing he wanted was him. Anyone would have been.

  “Precious takes my ship a lot for her trips,” Luke said after squelching a rude yawn. “Leaves me in the lurch, and I can’t tell her no. She’s got a pretty brisk business going and we all benefit from her work.”

  “And disappointing her would mean disappointing all the people waiting for the goods she brings back from Earth.”

  “Exactly.”

  Duke moved even closer as if Luke’s engagement in the conversation gave him wholesale permission to approach. His body’s weight disrupted the physics of Luke’s position. He made the mattress sink toward the middle, making Luke roll toward him, and then half onto him, with the help of a fist gripping the waistbands of Luke’s boxer shorts and sweatpants, and sheer will.

  Eyes glittering in the dark, Duke swallowed loudly and drew in a breath and let it out.

  Luke just stared.

  “I imagine you’re going to tell me that you’re here because you couldn’t sleep,” Duke said.

  “Yeah. That’s what I’m gonna tell you.”

  “And you didn’t want to sleep with Ais and Owen.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded.”

  “I see.” Duke loosened his grip on Luke’s underwear and, after a moment, unhanded him completely. He didn’t retreat, though. Instead, he slid his hand down the back of Luke’s pants. Touching nothing, just hovering over the flesh.

  “I bet you’re hard right now,” Luke whispered, closing his eyes again. He could bet he knew what Duke’s face was doing, too. His eyes were going to be opened wide with curiosity and hope and maybe a little fear. Lips parted. Face heated and flushed. “I bet you’re so hard that you’re already dripping.”

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Duke murmured.

  “Sure it does.” Carefully, Luke moved Duke’s hand out of the back of his pants and relocated it to the front where it could actually do some good. “I’m something you didn’t know you wanted. I’m something that’s hard for you to attain, and that makes me more desirable. Must suck for you. I was already such a catch.”

  Duke groaned. “I don’t know why I bother with you.” And yet Duke’s fingers encircled Luke’s cock head and toyed cautiously with the tip.

  “In all your years, you never played around a little?” Luke moved closer, hoping to improve the awkwardness of Duke’s grip. “You never did a little ‘show me yours and I’ll show you mi
ne’?”

  “Only with girls. I wasn’t attracted to boys that way.” There was more confidence in Duke’s grasp then. He held Luke more like he would hold his own cock, squeezing firmly and toying with the underside of the hood.

  “Really? Never once did you look at someone and stare too long because they made you feel a certain kind of way?”

  “Besides you?” Duke drew his fist down the length of Luke’s shaft, and then up again. Repeating until Luke’s feeble efforts at mind-over-matter failed and his dick was as stiff as steel.

  Fuck, he missed being touched.

  Luke sucked in some air and thrust his hips forward. “Yeah, besides me.”

  “No. I can’t say I’ve ever even felt that way about women I’ve encountered.”

  “I don’t believe you. You probably get more ass than the entire roster of the Red Sox on a good day.”

  “Do I have a hard time finding women to fuck? No. But that’s all I do with them. Fuck them and then send them home with all their hopes dashed.” Duke pulled his hand free, only to tug down the front of Luke’s sweatpants the best he could. “Take these off.”

  “Why? I’m comfortable in this position.”

  “If you come to my bed, I believe I should get to set the rules of how you should behave while you’re in it.”

  Luke laughed and remained exactly where he was. “Oh, I see. My company’s not good enough for you? You’re gonna be bossy, too?”

  “I think that’s a fair price for you to pay, seeing as how you broke the law by entering.”

  “I could always say that I was doing a well-being check on you. Nobody would have any reason to doubt me. Even if they did, they’d take my side, anyway, because I’m the likable one of the two of us.”

  “Bullshit,” Duke murmured.

  “Seriously. I’m sure your sister would agree.”

  “Stop bringing up my sister when you’re in my bed. Actually, I would appreciate you not bringing her up at all. In fact, stay away from her.”

  “You’re cute when you’re jealous, but nah. I’m not gonna stay away from her. Maybe you don’t understand that people who care about each other tend to actually want to see each other on occasion.”

  Duke let out a grunt of frustration and fisted Luke’s waistband again.

  Luke pushed Duke’s hand away and moved in until his lips found Duke’s ear. “You want some action? Then you take yours off.”

  “You’re in my bed.”

  “Yeah, you said that before. I haven’t forgotten. Maybe you want this to become my bed, too, though, and a guy’s gotta set some limits. If his lover doesn’t want to be seen in public with him, the least he can fucking do is be the first to take off his pants. That’s reasonable, don’t you think?”

  Another loud swallow from Duke followed by silence thick with anticipation.

  Luke could wait. Far more resistant men than Alex Hauge had been on their knees in front of him before. He’d shattered their wills, made them docile so they obeyed prettily and so they gave up their emotions when they needed to. That was the headiest part of it all—making them feel things even if those things were just anger and spite toward Luke. Even with the anger, they still came hard because they needed to. Hate fucks had their places the same way tender lovemaking did.

  So Luke waited quietly, lying still. Patient.

  Minutes later, Duke moved. He rolled onto his back and shook the bed with his jerky movements. The soft whisper of fabric onto the floor marked payment in full. He’d relented.

  Luke listened to the sounds of their entwined breathing. His long, even breaths. Duke’s faster, less rhythmic ones.

  “Easy,” Luke whispered. He danced his fingertips down Duke’s chest where they tripped over a stiff nipple. Tugging it between his thumb and forefinger, he eased his body closer and slung his leg over the other man’s. “Relax. You want to be the one in control all the time, but you can’t be. Sometimes, other people need to be in control more than you do, and letting them have it is best for both parties.”

  Luke leaned down and pulled the tight knot of flesh into his mouth.

  Duke’s startled gasp made Luke smile. Made him tug the other nipple between his teeth, too, while plying the first between his thumb and forefinger.

  “I bet you’d be so fucking fun to play with. You like pain, Duke? Hmm?” Luke eased onto him, straddling his hips and then sitting on his thighs. He found the nipples again and mashed them both at once beneath his thumbs.

  Duke bucked helplessly beneath him, hand landing on Luke’s knee and squeezing.

  “You probably don’t know. You’ve probably never let anyone touch you the way you needed to be, right? You’ve probably never fucked anyone who made you get over yourself—who made you get out of your own head.” Luke pulled the nipples hard and immediately bent to soothe one in his mouth. Then the other.

  Duke’s breathing was a melody of submission, one whimper after another. The sound was Luke’s favorite aphrodisiac.

  Had Luke not been so weary after a day that was far too eventful, he might have spent some time exploring all of Duke’s erogenous zones and cataloging every spot that made him behave a certain kind of way. But when he was tired he didn’t think well, and he couldn’t be fair to the person he was making demands of.

  His head needed to be right so he could make sure theirs was.

  He took off his pants and his boxer shorts—not because Duke had asked him to, but because he wanted to. His craving for skin-to-skin contact could rival that of a newborn babe yearning for his mother.

  Luke couldn’t control Duke the way he wanted, but he could still make him give up some of his fire to him.

  “You know…” Luke laid atop Duke’s reclining body, cock to cock, lips to ear, and Duke kept his hands to himself.

  Fast learner.

  “No one’s ever going to know what happens behind closed doors. If you want to give something to me, give it. I’m not going to shame you for wanting to.” Luke pistoned his hips and aligned their cocks with the help of his hand.

  He would have liked to have a slick of lube to ease the resistance of flesh, but there was something sexy about dry, desperate friction.

  He pulled Duke’s arms up over his head and pinned his wrists together near the headboard. As Duke’s lips parted wordlessly, Luke circled his hips, let his hardness dance alongside the other man’s. He let the scent of him and sound of him heighten his arousal and stoke the heat building in his belly and loins.

  “That’s right,” he whispered and pulled Duke’s earlobe between his teeth. He sucked it tenderly and lashed his tongue around the soft flesh before letting go of it, in spite of Duke’s delicious moans that egged him on. Luke still had things he wanted to say. “Let me give you what you need. I know better than you, don’t I?”

  No answer from Duke. Just a helpless roll of his hips beneath Luke. Just a gasp.

  “Answer me, Alex,” Luke whispered. “You’ve got to give me some words so I know you realize who’s on top of you.”

  “Y-yes.” Duke parted his legs more and worked his erection even faster into the press their bodies made.

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I know it’s you. Luke. Please…”

  “Please what?” Still gripping his wrists, Luke pushed up onto his forearms to change the angle of their grinding. He wanted to feel his balls bouncing against Duke’s smooth, heavy sac.

  “Yes, I…” Duke swallowed and groaned. His belly sunk inward and knees bounced up as his back bowed. “I want this from you.”

  The plaintiveness in Duke’s voice had Luke curling his toes and making deals with the devil in his head to just hold on a few moments. But Duke felt so good, smelled so fucking good. He was almost too much, which perhaps made him just right for what Luke needed.

  “What do you want me to do to you? Hmm?” Luke reached between them and gripped their cocks. If he was going to come, he was going to make sure he came the same time Duke did. Duke was close. He
could feel it in the way his belly shuddered beneath his and the way he was digging his toes into Luke’s calves.

  “Just take what you want.” Duke’s voice dripped with urgency, with need. His fingers curled with desperation. Luke understood that need for the tactile. He was feeling it himself with each movement of his body against Duke’s.

  “I will.” They were making their own lubrication. Not nearly enough for Luke to slide the way he wanted, but enough for him to really feel the man beneath him—enough that their cocks pressed rather than bumped. “But I’m learning what you need, too. I think you’re a greedy bastard. Aren’t you? You don’t care what’s done to you as long as you come.”

  If Duke had a response to that, he didn’t speak it. He opened his mouth and dragged his tongue across the bottom lip.

  “You want to give me your mouth, too?”

  Duke nodded.

  “Maybe next time, I’ll put something else in it. I’ll force you down onto your knees and shove my cock between your lips. Would you like that? Having a cock in your mouth?”

  “Just…your cock.”

  “Good answer. I like that answer. Nice to feel special sometimes.” Luke lowered his torso onto Duke’s, still working his hips, still doing the best he could to ignore the tremors building at the base of his spine and around to his belly. It was like trying to ignore the threat of a volcano erupting. Impossible, but he was going to make the effort, anyway. He needed more of Duke before he rolled over and decided he was done for the night. Before he decided that enough was enough and that he didn’t actually want what Luke was offering after all.

  He speared his tongue between Duke’s lips and let him hungrily suck on the tip. He ate his whimpers and relished Duke’s writhing. Duke kept flexing his fingers and wriggling his arms beneath Luke’s grip, but not fighting him enough to make him unhand him.

  He was stronger than that. He may not have been trained to fight the same way as Luke, but if he really wanted Luke off of him, he could have forced him off.

  As their tongues fought, Duke pulled his heels back toward his ass and raised his knees, ensconcing Luke between his legs. Changing the angle of his groin ever so slightly and leaving his hole exposed.