Page 67 of On A Rift's Edge
Kat didn’t care.
“This was never about the control object. You wanted to punish Lyall for not protecting Remi by targeting me. But Lyall stayed to help him, and I stopped Cesmak from killing you because Remi’s my friend, too.” Kat felt he could understand Ari or at least his motivations. “Giana agreed to help me when my mom told her I could get through to Remi, because she wants to make sure he’s safe. Look, I’m not going to try to convince you that Kaveh loves Remi so much that he’d never force him to stay with him. Iamgoing to remind you that Remi is the son of two of the best con artists on both Earth and the Riftworld. If he didn’t want to be with Kaveh, he’d find a way to leave.”
“Kat’s right.” Giana’s voice came from behind them. She made her way around the hole in the floor. “Remi may have a concussion, but otherwise he’s fine. Maybe he’ll agree to talk to us after this, and maybe he won’t. But he’s with Kaveh because that’s what he wants.”
Arimanius regarded both Kat and Lyall, his eyes all but colorless in the sunlight streaming in from the broken windows. “I badly underestimated you, Kat. I’ll follow the requirements of our seymour contract and leave with my wife.”
“You owe Kat an obligation.” Lyall growled out the words. “He saved you from Cesmak ripping out your heart and eating it. As you may have noticed, she’s big on hellhound traditions.”
“I’m aware of that.” Arimanius took Giana’s arm and began to limp toward the door of the penthouse. “Kat can call on me to resolve my debt at any time. For now, I’ll leave both of you a few words of advice. The creature inside the control object—this Lyric—is a threat to both the Earth and the Riftworld. I’m not the only one who will come after them.”
24
Some time later, after Kaveh had left with Remi to take him to a local emergency room for evaluation, Lyall finally had a chance to talk with Kat alone.
“Wow, this place is a mess.” Kat circled around a floating holographic replica of the office building, evaluating the flood of information from Bug, who had done reconnaissance flights to gather the data. Evangeline had left with Giana, albeit reluctantly. “Fortunately, it’s still structurally sound, according to the cyberbug. Do you think we should leave everything as is?”
“I’ve got any weapons or tech that shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands in here.” Lyall picked up a stuffed backpack. He had modified this and other Earth travel bags to keep items like that safe. As for Ari’s clothes and the Pouch Twin’s stuff—he didn’t care what happened to them. “I don’t feel like explaining what happened here to any Earth authorities who might have ties to creepy government agencies, and neither do you.”
“I’m okay with that.” Kat was a lot less concerned about legal technicalities than when Lyall had first met him. “We should head out then, I guess.”
“Wait.” Lyall couldn’t go another minute without talking to Kat. There was so much he had messed up. “I need to say a few things first.”
Kat’s face fell. “If you’re telling me that our relationship can’t work, can it at least wait until I’ve called my family? Only my mother knows what I had planned, but I’m sure she’s worried, and my dad can always tell when she’s upset.”
“No.” Lyall realized too late that was exactly the wrong thing to say, since Kat probably thought he was in such a hurry to break up with him that he couldn’t wait long enough for Kat to reassure his family he was alive.
Shit. He was terrible at this.
“Please let me get this out.” Lyall couldn’t stop himself from touching Kat, and he reached out to grab both of his hands. “That’s not at all what I’m trying to say. I want to apologize to you for being a total fucking fool since I met you.”
Kat shook his head. “Honestly, Lyall. You’re worse at apologizing than being reassuring. And that’s saying a lot.”
“I didn’t trust you.” Lyall’s voice cracked a little. “Was I attracted to you? Of course, from the second I met you.”
“You were a terrier when I met you.” Kat had a half-smile on his face now. Progress. “With a cute little spiked collar. I’m not saying I want to see you wearing that in human form, but I’m not saying I don’t, either.”
Lyall had to laugh at that. “I’ll wear anything you want in bed. If you want me in your bed, that is. What I’m trying to say is that I assumed you needed protecting from everyone, including me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. You pulled off a con on the Colony’s mafia boss, convinced his son and mother to help you, and in the end you risked your life to save the people who kidnapped you. You stood up to an Azdaha drakone, for fuck’s sake. You’re devious and kind at the same time, and I love you more than anything.”
Kat squeezed Lyall’s hands back. “I didn’t give you much of chance. First, I thought you were another bad-boy type I would fall for and get my heart crushed. Then the Matchmaker thing weirded me out because I have so many people in my life who want to protect me, I feel smothered as it is, and I didn’t trust you, either. I love that you want to keep me safe, but I need you to realize I want to protect you as well.”
“You did a fantastic job at that.” Lyall remembered the panic and despair that he’d never be free of Arimanius’s grasp, and those weren’t emotions he wanted to feel ever again. “I hope you never have to take the kind of risks you took today, but I love the idea that we can look out for each other.”
Kat beamed at him, and Lyall couldn’t resist pulling him in for a kiss. It started off soft and progressed to them clawing at each other. Lyall wanted to devour Kat’s mouth, and Kat had already progressed to running his hands over the bulge in the front of Lyall’s living leathers.
They both broke off to breathe, and Kat choked out, “Let’s fuck on Ari’s bed.”
“You have the best ideas.” Lyall tapped on his chest to tell the living leather organism to revert back to a necklace as Kat yanked him toward the bedroom. “And I love when you’re bossy.”
Kat’s clothing took longer to remove, but a few minutes and several ripped-off buttons later, both Lyall and Kat were stretched out on Arimanius’s bed wearing only matching fang necklaces and kissing each other.
Kat propped himself up on his hands and knees and straddled Lyall. His long black hair was loose, the silky ends tickling Lyall’s bare chest. “About that bossy thing.”
Lyall made an approving humming noise. “This sounds like it might be another one of your great ideas.”
“I usually bottom,” Kat began, then shook his head, his voice growing more confident. “Okay, I’ve always bottomed, but I was wondering if you would want to switch things up this time.”
“Anything you want, kitten.” Lyall laughed as Kat gave him a swat on the head. “You made Teo promise to stop calling you that, not me.”
