Exile by Aleksandr Voinov

Author:Aleksandr Voinov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: bisexual, romance, enemies to lovers, military, space opera, aliens, lgbt
Publisher: 44 Raccoons
Published: 2017-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Rarely had Arkady awoken under stranger circumstances—on a planet whose population would just as easily execute him as honor him (both in one, even), after killing a large animal for purely ritualistic purposes and nearly drowning, and now wedged between a warrior and his lover, both male, who’d somehow saved his life.

Not much of that would make it into his final report on the Tamene mission. The thought amused him and roused his spirits. He deepened his breath, flooded his limbs with strength in an exercise that was adapted from the Doctrine, yes, but his own tribe had taught him something similar when he’d been a boy. He’d excelled at some techniques because he’d already been practicing their equivalents for a decade before the Doctrine even arrived on his planet.

Lighting up the heart. He focused on the beat of his heart, his pulse rushing through his whole body, then narrowed his attention on the tireless pumping muscle in his chest, focused on its strength, felt the heat of it. He imagined the heat turning into light, like a supernova flaring up and then growing stronger, almost blinding, then held it there, heated it up further, until it had become the reddish gold that his tribe considered the color of power. He expanded the light throughout his body, filling first the chest, and imagined it flooding every organ, every cell and the space in between. He breathed the power up into his head, all the way down to his hands and feet until both the top of his head and the soles of his feet felt hot.

Grimm underneath him shifted his weight.

Arkady opened his eyes and met Grimm’s gaze. It was a dark, knowing gaze. And it seemed strange, but Grimm didn’t look human in the least just then. Something was very strange about him, but Arkady couldn’t have placed the exact reason why.

Grimm smiled. “Fear not.”

“Ah, no.” Arkady still felt the energy in his body, but returned his attention to his surroundings. “What time is it?”

“I think that’s about four or five hours of sleep. So, afternoon.”

The changed tone of the light coming in through the window would bear that out. “At some point they’ll come looking.”

“Maybe.” Grimm chuckled. “Maybe not.”

That strange feeling of dislocation receded. Grimm’s deep chest widened and he gave a sigh that Arkady could almost feel in his own bones. Some kind of connection, even beyond touch, but while that should maybe have worried him, it didn’t. Arkady lifted his head enough to study Grimm’s face. “Would it be terribly impolite if I told you I desire you?”

“Flattered.” Grimm shifted his weight again and took Arkady’s face in his hands. “And by ‘you’ you mean Kyle and me?”

“Yes.” Arkady lowered his gaze, noted Grimm’s strong forearms, the large veins visibly swollen under his skin, the biceps rounded from the movement, the strong shoulders. All his life, he’d felt he couldn’t really justly look at a man that way, because a lot of the men were his comrades or reported to him.

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