Letters to an Android by Wendy Rathbone

Author:Wendy Rathbone [Rathbone, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780989693875
Publisher: Eye Scry Publications
Published: 2017-04-17T06:00:00+00:00

*

The square bed stretched under a wide, curtain-less window. The view dumped straight down to Drebnot, the silver-stormed planet the station orbited. It was dizzying at first because you believed you were constantly looking down a huge drop-off to the world below.

Liyan got used to it.

The three of them, Lark, Tiri and Liyan, had bought the room for four days.

He wanted to write to Cobalt.

He wanted to describe the view.

But he wasn’t sure what to say. He kept procrastinating, thinking too much, avoiding getting his waves.

What words would he use? He couldn’t tell Cobalt about Lark and Tiri. It just didn’t seem right to say out loud (or in a wave) what he was doing with them, how he was feeling. And what was he feeling? A longing that just would not abate? Cobalt would understand, of course.

Still, he was all tangled up inside and wasn’t sure about anything. In the moment all he felt was ecstasy and warmth. But the loneliness inside him remained.

Lark could see it, could always read him. Now they were off-duty with a few vacation days to enjoy. The stars were behind them both at the moment. They had time to gaze into each other’s eyes, feel what the other was thinking. Tiri had gone off for a swim. With her permission, they’d stayed behind to make love in the radiant light.

They lay in the aftermath of affection in a pool of red silk sheets, arms and legs tangled, facing the huge window, the black and silver view like a stark winter dream. Lark’s chin pressed Liyan’s shoulder, breath hot on his neck. His eyelashes swept down Liyan’s cheek.

Lark put a gentle hand on his hip, warm and solid. He said, “Go on. Just write to him.”

“What?”

“You want to write to him. You need to write to him. It’s part of who you are.”

Liyan stayed quiet.

“Cobalt is special. I accept that he’s in your heart.”

“We’ve met only three times.” His voice came rough, small.

“Doesn’t matter. You’ve known each other for years. You knew him before you met me.”

“Only days before.”

“It’s everything. You may not have known it at the time, but he swept you off your feet and sent you into the stars where he couldn’t follow. He’s still doing it, sweeping you up with intelligence. With kindness. And all his words since. And he’s an underdog. Trapped. Someone who needs a hero. Ah, how enticing.”

Liyan rolled over and faced him. “But I’m not…a hero.” He nuzzled Lark’s neck, kissed him there on the heated skin. He smelled of salt, adventure, love. The muscles of Lark’s upper arms pressed his own as they embraced, pale amber to tawny gold, and Liyan kissed him.

The stirrings in his body filled him up until he was overflowing with need. He pressed himself tight against Lark as Lark said, “You are a hero to me. You are to him.”

Something twisted in his heart. He shut his eyes hard. “I’ve never been so happy, but I don’t know how to say that to him when he’s so alone, and so imprisoned in his status.

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