Page 41 of On A Rift's Edge
“Garreth has told you three times to go home.” Lyall released Kat’s arm only so he could wag a finger at him. “Not to mention that while you were calling your family again, I told Chrissie to make him take a break.” Garreth’s wife was unusually sensible for a human. “The Colony doesn’t do frontal assaults when their enemies are expecting them. They are literally sneaky rats.”
Kat pressed his lips together, and the two of them had a glare off for a few moments. Then Kat shook his head and followed Lyall to the storm gong in front of the main mess hall. Jeanette stood there with a clipboard, making sure everyone was accounted for as they left the ranch. She gave Kat a kiss on the cheek as she checked off his name and told him to get a little sleep.
Lyall worked to tamp down his jealousy for once. Jeanette was a beautiful and charismatic woman, but Kat had told him that he only dated men. That was a big sister kind of kiss. Lyall still wanted to put his arm around Kat and pull him away.
They drove to Kat’s apartment, with the young human being unusually quiet, even sullen, for most of the trip.
“You’re awfully bossy tonight,” Kat finally burst out, and since he wasn’t good at expressing reasonable frustration at being tired, hungry, and harassed by a hellhound, he apologized to Lyall instead. “I’m sorry. Everything that happened is sinking in, and I’m worried about tomorrow.”
“I’ll protect you.” Lyall felt a stab of guilt. He hadn’t done a good job of keeping Kat safe at all. Teo had twice put the young human in danger while immobilizing Lyall. That would be unacceptable even if Lyall had been hired as a bodyguard, far less when he had a sacred duty to protect the person the Matchmaker had chosen for him. No wonder Kat was anxious.
Kat glanced over at him, confusion written on his face. He had the vehicle on auto-drive mode but Lyall had noticed that he always kept his eyes on the road regardless. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing. Yes, Teo and Arimanius worry me, but my mother and the rest of my family worry me more.”
“I’ll protect them, too,” Lyall said.
“I mean I’m worried about dinner.” Kat pulled into one of his apartment’s charging spots and got out of the car. Lyall, now baffled, followed him into the building, and they took the stairs up to Kat’s floor.
“My family is upset as it is and now I have to come up with a cover story for you.” Kat threw up his hands. “I don’t even know your last name.”
Lyall didn’t have one, at least not the way humans thought of it. The fake one on his human online information didn’t count. But Kat was right, the two of them needed to be open about Lyall’s past, Kat’s future, and the whole Matchmaker thing.
“I think we should talk.” Lyall stood by as Kat waved his watch over his door, and a sensation crept over him, like an itch that needed to be scratched. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
The hallway lights died, leaving them in darkness, and Lyall realized what he had been feeling. A rift storm had rolled in. He took out a lightfish from his armor, and the creature unfolded its eight arms, allowing its glowing center to bathe the door in light.
Kat swore, but quietly, and pulled out a metal key, fitting it into a manual lock above the electronic sensor. The door swung open, and Kat stood there for a long moment, breathing hard.
Then he turned to Lyall. “No, I don’t want to talk.”
Lyall started to protest, but Kat leaned forward, grabbed Lyall’s neck, and pulled him into a fierce kiss. Then he broke off and locked eyes with him. “Today has been too much, and tomorrow’s going to be worse. Whatever you want to tell me can wait. I don’t want to talk or argue or even think. Take me to bed.”
Lyall’s body made the decisions from that point on. Part of his brain was arguing that dinner and a painful but honest conversation was the right thing to do, but he was too busy peeling off Kat’s shirt as he pushed him into the apartment.
The lightfish clinging to Lyall’s arm was the only source of illumination in the main room, so Lyall plopped the Riftworld creature on a nearby table and activated the shroom lights throughout the room.
He didn’t want to miss any details of Kat’s beautiful skin.
Kat kicked off his boots, standing in front of Lyall bare-chested, his lean physique and narrow waist breathtaking. The living leathers Lyall had given him hung inert around his neck, a rawhide string with a fang attached. “Not fair. I have no idea how to get that armor off of you.”
Lyall laughed and touched his neck. The organism covering his body retracted, returning to a mirror image of Kat’s necklace. He undid Kat’s belt and yanked at his jeans as the two of them kissed, tongues intertwining. It felt crazy and enthralling at the same time, and Lyall couldn’t get enough of it.
They were both already hard, and Lyall wanted more skin-on-skin contact. He ran his hands down the back of Kat’s spine, sliding down the curve of his lower back to the swell of buttocks below.
Kat broke off the kiss, laughing and breathing hard. “I’m a sweaty mess. Shower first?”
Lyall would have gladly licked sweat off anywhere on Kat’s body, but a mutual shower did sound like fun.
The apartment bathroom had a different species of shroom lights, a humidity-loving variety that gave off a more violet glow. The two of them stepped naked under the spray of water, the light turning the drops into a purple waterfall.
They stroked and petted each other, Kat’s mouth hungry against his. Lyall tried to slow things down, not wanting to rush the amazing feeling of intimacy with Kat. He pumped out far too much of the foaming cleaner from the dispenser onto both of them, creating a big enough of mess that they both ended up slippery and laughing.
After rinsing off and making a half-hearted attempt at patting themselves dry, they made it to the bedroom.
Kat turned serious for a moment. “Can I ask you for what I like?”
Lyall pressed a kiss to Kat’s lips, then moved over to nuzzle his ear. “Anything,” he whispered, his hands tangling in the damp locks of Kat’s hair. He kissed his way down Kat’s neck, tasting a touch of salt on the human’s skin, and breathing in the faint scent of mint and mesquite that clung to him.
Kat pulled back to face him, then drew in a breath. “I want to ride you.”
