Return to Part One
Del had searched all the Fleet shops, restaurants and bars with no luck. Ruth was nowhere to be found. The pressure of the crowds was getting to him, and he was nearly ready to admit defeat and return to the Hood. Maybe he could get Chief Engineer Jacobs to use the sensors to find an Antari life-form. He grit his teeth against the increasing din in his head, and started for the transport station. He hadn’t gotten very far when a voice that was actually directed at him reached his ears.
“Hey, Maker, wait for me!”
DelMonde stopped and waited without turning, then growled, “Tell th' galaxy, Paget.”
Jeremy Paget smiled at his friend and roommate. “Like anybody cares, NC.” Del growled again, and Jeremy ignored the expression of foul temper, as Del knew he would. “I thought you might be interested in some business,” Jeremy added blithely. “Willow’s in port.”
“When you gonna grow up?” Del muttered.
Jeremy made a face of wounded astonishment, then snapped to mock-attention. “Yes, sir, Lieutenant DelMonde sir,” he answered, then grinned again. “When are you gonna take off that tunic and start your leave?”
“I be lookin’ fo' Ruth,” Del snarled.
A look of frank disgust crossed Jeremy’s features. He gave Del a disdainful once-over. “Like that?” he asked, his voice contemptuously askance. “An upstanding officer in uniform will keep Spike at least a mile away.”
Del closed his eyes in a pained grimace. “I give, Cobra,” he surrendered. “Do what you will wit’ me.”
“Tempting,” Jeremy grinned, “but no. I know of a shop just down the street. It’s very exclusive.” Jeremy paused and Del understood. The TerAfrican meant it was quiet – and Del silently thanked him for his caring. “I’ll bet I can find Spike for you, too. If you’ll see what you can do for Willow’s tapestry.”
“Tapestry?” Del muttered. “She gone twitchy on us, mon ami?”
“Of course,” Jer responded. “She’s a Monolem.”
“What she want?”
Jer laughed. “She says its got too much weight.”
"Shee-it,” Del groaned. “Where th' hell I work on a tapestry on Naois?”
“Gage – “ Jeremy began.
“Mon Dieu, Gage,” Del snarled.
“ – has a bay on board Leather.”
“Jer, when you gonna…”
“Yes sir, Lieutenant.”
Del sighed. “All right, Cobra.” He followed Jeremy down the street. He just hoped the relative silence of the Haven ship would be worth it.
Del bought a shirt of black silk decorated with silver stars in a style with full, tightly cuffed sleeves, a full collar and deep ‘V’ neckline. It fit tightly around his torso and waist, coming down to about mid-hip. Jeremy talked him into black slacks with a strip of silver down the outer seam of each leg and tall black boots. A gold pendant shaped remarkably like the coiled lightning of an Engineering insignia competed what Jeremy referred to as ‘the outfit.’ As a final touch, Jeremy found a skin stencil of an encircled star, and artfully placed a mark in gold-dust to Del’s left temple.
“Now you look the part of the infamous Cajun,” Jeremy told him with a devilish grin. “And I look like Cobra’s wild, flashy reputation.” He’d chosen a blindingly opalescent jumpsuit that sported only one long, flowing sleeve. His bare arm wore three silver bracelets, cobras, of course; one at his wrist, one on his forearm, the third around his muscled upper arm. A silver cobra was wrapped around his throat, its head facing down his chest. His finalé was opal-dusted eyelids and short black boots with silver toes and buckles.
“It’s a safe bet we’ll find Spike on the seamier side of town,” he said, and Del growled. Jeremy grinned. “Let’s go, you foul-tempered son-of-a-bitch.”
It was the sense of haunted need that drew him into the bar called Black Crescent. It was familiar and frightening, but Del could not have disregarded it with all the sapphire in the galaxy. The sight that met his eyes in the darkly illuminated room was delighting and annoying and overwhelmingly erotic – and he understood why he had been compelled to go into the place. Ruth, his Ruth, was a beacon of gold moving in hard-driving seduction at the center of a staring, urging, excited crowd. The music thundered in his mind and in his body, calling up arousal and hunger that couldn’t be denied or ignored. But Ruth wasn’t dancing alone. Blood-red intensity moved with her, against her, feeding her and feeding from her, as desperate and as seductive as she was.
Kamikaze.
Sudden anger welled inside him, emotions that seared him yet carried no memories consuming his thoughts and his being. All he knew was that he – Kam, Collector, Casanova – was about to deliver Del's golden salvation to depths of despair and depravity.
Non, not this time, Kam, he thought fiercely. She mine!
He heard Jeremy’s lustful moan beside him and glanced at him. The tall black man’s agile tongue whipped over full lips, the opal-dusted eyes hard and staring at Sulu with breathless urgency. You take him, then, Del snarled at him, and headed through the crowd of people onto the dance floor.
Sulu didn’t know what it was that made him take his eyes off of Ruth. He’d been oblivious to all but her golden beauty for what seemed like an etern—
The pressure that had been so close to release tightened with sharp cruelty. He began seeing the crowd that had encircled them, and he caught sight of a dark, intensely handsome figure in black, pushing through the crowd. Noel DelMonde, Cajun, Kamikaze’s Maker – and Ruth’s Academy lover.
With sudden anguish he realized what he had come so close to doing. With Ruth. Jilla’s roommate, her best friend, my best friend… He damned himself, pain and grief shooting through him, deepening his despair and self-hatred. How would I have faced her in the morning? he asked himself with tortured recrimination. How would I have faced Jilla after leave? With deliberate agony, he caught DelMonde’s eye, backing away from Ruth, relinquishing what should never again, could never again be his.
The more Ruth fell into the music, the seduction, the hunger, the easier it became to forget who she was dancing with. They needed. There was venus waiting for them. They could forget it all, forget Spock, forget Jilla…
Fever grows higher, what can you do? Wild in the darkest places of your mind…That’s when I needed you… Don’t blame it on us, blame it on… Damn it, it’s their fault…
Mine!
The sudden call was darkly telepathic, intensely sensual, desperately familiar. It snapped her attention away from Sulu and the fevered guilt – away from the music and the despair – away from longing and thoughts of Spock. She answered with aching demand, an unconscious, fierce dominance and surrender. She could feel possessiveness and strength, power and pleading and a demand to equal her own. The source of the call moved toward her, stepping between her and Sulu. The sight of him eclipsed the blood-red need with sapphire-blue shadow, the dark memory of a moon to a weak, dying sun. Only then did his identity register in her thoughts.
Del!
She threw herself into his arms, their lips crushing together as his body automatically took up the rhythm of hers.
Finish th' dance, babe, he murmured silently.
Venus! she told him. The smile in her mind was as dark as her hunger.
Wha'ever you want, he promised, and threw her body into a savage, joyous spin.
Sulu turned his back on Ruth and DelMonde, unable to endure the avid rapture enveloping them. He could feel the pressure in his chest, the sobs and tears that were blocked by frustration and hopeless desolation. He pushed through the crowd back to the bar and his saké. “Not enough,” he muttered to himself, and asked the tender for Black Scotch. It was a Haven liquor, the ultimate in alcoholic ecstasy, both potent and effective, and he gulped it like water.
A hand suddenly grasped his wrist and he froze. Then lips touched the side of his throat with sensual moisture.
“LeRoi,” Jeremy Paget’s voice whispered reverently in his ear.
He closed his eyes. Of course. If DelMonde’s here, the Hood is in port. He knew it should please him. He hadn’t seen Jeremy in nearly a year, and here he was, on leave, with no one else to occupy his time… no one else. Not ever. Despair again overwhelmed him, and he poured another glass of the scotch.
“Rise, Jer,” he said tonelessly. It was the accepted response to the ‘royal’ greeting.
“Already have,” Jeremy returned suggestively, then grinned. “How’ve you been, Kam?”
Sulu glanced at the searching, eager eyes. He stopped the ‘celibate’ before it reached his lips, not wanting his oldest friend and lover and not at all sure why he didn’t. “In Fleet,” he answered instead. “You?”
“Wanting you for the last ten minutes.” Jer paused. “Not to mention the last ten months.”
Sulu shook his head. You can’t avoid it, so get it over with. “Not tonight, Jer.”
“Damn.” The disappointment quickly left Jeremy’s face. “You on to someone else?”
“No.”
“Chemical?”
“No.”
“Jesus, Kam, what’s wrong? You dead?”
“Must be.” Sulu sighed. “Don’t let me ruin your leave, Jer.”
“Let me fix it,” Jeremy said, and was moving through the crowd before Sulu could object.
Ruth and Del finished the dance with an erotic, graceful backward bend, her arms around his neck, his lips at her breast. The crowd cheered wildly, wanting more, but they quickly swept out of the limelight.
“Del, how did you...” Ruth began breathlessly.
“You need,” Del replied. “We always drawn t' each other…”
“I love you!”
“Je t'aime, aussi.” He kissed her, his hands grasping through her hair. When it broke, his eyes were gleaming. “You say some’t’in’ 'bout venus?”
Ruth nodded excitedly. “I’ve got three.”
“Two enough, babe.”
“Now. Please, Del, now!”
“I got a week. You?”
“Four days.”
They stared deeply into each other’s eyes. Emotion, need, passion and old memory passed between them, and with the exchange came a bitterness.
You need, but not me.
You’re here!
It hurt.
I love you!
An’ I love you. So I be here. But it hurt.
I can’t have what I want, Del, but you’re what I need! Maybe only for now, but... believe me, please!
I do, babe. I do.
Ruth kissed him again, clinging to him, but he put her away. “One t’ing we got to get settled. On th' venus, we won’t.” She looked down, but he grasped her chin harshly, forcing her to face him. “You know I right, babe.”
She sighed, nodding. “Odds,” she said. Fingers were extended and counted. The tally was an odd number and Ruth bit her lip. “Right,” she murmured. Del pulled her close again.
“We not t’ink 'bout it now, cher. Sweet aphrodite wait.” She smiled, kissing his chest, and they left the bar.
The woman was beautiful, a rich mahogany with flashing chocolate eyes and claret lips. Her full body taunted from beneath a cream-colored silk dress. The neckline was draped and loose, ready to be slipped to her waist at the smallest provocation. Jeremy gently caressed her arm, smiling at Sulu.
“You are in a black mood,” he said. “Her name’s Karry.”
Sulu wet his lips, taking in the sight of her. She had sharply curled, almost blue-black hair, lush, heavily sensual features, and a wicked tongue that kept moistening her shimmering lips. Her hands rested on her hips, the long-nailed fingers subtly caressing her own curves. The skirt came to a point between her legs, about three inches lower than indecent, exposing long, lithe legs. She smiled at his stare, an inviting, beckoning curve of her full, sweet mouth.
He smiled back, his fingers itching to stroke the dark skin. She leaned forward, moved her shoulder under his hand. The touch was electric. It was what he needed, yielding flesh, an eager, exotic release of the pressure within him. His blood began to race, his body more than ready to give in to her skill. His fingers moved, meeting the edge of the cloth, slowly giving it the provocation it asked for. It answered as promised, sliding almost magically from her shoulders and her lush, naked breasts. Her head came up, her eyes closing, lips slightly parted. The dark creaminess was an unbroken expanse of heady stimulation, swelling into sensual curves that were capped by huge, erect points of deep, wine red –
Wine red.
Burgundy.
Sulu groaned as his senses were claimed by the memory of Jilla’s thick, rich hair. That was what he wanted, not some skilled professional, not an old friend and good cock, not even Ruth’s golden release. He said a strangled, ‘sorry’ to Karry and turned back to the bar.
He could feel Jeremy’s eyes on him, staring in utter disbelief. Karry glanced uncertainly at him.
“Did I...?” she began.
“No, nothin' wrong, sweet thing,” Jeremy told her. “You just aren’t what my man wants. Go on.”
She shrugged, pulling up her dress and strutted away on cream-colored high heels.
Jeremy sat down next to him, leaning close. “What’s wrong, Kam?” he whispered.
“Jeremy, leave me alone,” Sulu muttered.
“I want to help.”
“Nothing for it here.”
“We can go elsewhere. Willow’s in.”
Sulu closed his eyes. “Not Loki, either.”
Jeremy’s face grew worried, then he stood abruptly, again grabbing the chain-adorned wrist. ‘Come on, Kam,” he said.
Sulu rose, sighing, relenting. He finished his scotch, putting the jet capsule in a small pouch concealed in the sash at his waist. As they strode through the streets of Naois, Jeremy reminisced about the days and nights they’d spent at the Clave. Sulu tried not to hear, but the words seared at his already burning mind. He’d had no trouble with release then. There had always been some groupie, or a racer just off a run, ready and willing to get into anything. He remembered that feeling, the exhilaration, the throbbing excitement, the hunger to prolong the feel of inexhaustible power… Power. Get into anything. For your hunger, for your need. Something exciting, something surpassing mere mundane pleasure. Your choice, my pet.
A shudder ran through him. Intensity. Need. Harder, faster… god, Jeremy, shut up!
He realized he’d growled it out loud when Jeremy stopped, staring at him. The dark eyes searched him concernedly.
“I thought you said you were straight,” Jeremy said.
“I am,” Sulu replied tightly.
“Then why are you actin’ like you’re cruisin’?”
Cruising. Amber. Sulu swallowed. Before he’d gone into Fleet – even on breaks at the Academy – amber cruising had been his personal predilection. Sweet amber. Not as strong as venus, not addicting, not even really an aphrodisiac. It was a release. It enabled the mind to let the body to do whatever the emotions wanted. His memory gave him sharp pictures of his last cruise, the one that made him stop. He’d lost himself, and had woken up in bed with a woman he’d never seen before. The sheets were blood-stained. The woman’s dark skin was covered with welts and cuts, her wrists and ankles raw and chafed beneath the ropes that still bound her. There was blood-tinged saliva around the tight gag in her mouth. And there had been blood on his hands, his face – his cock. He couldn’t recall what had happened, how he had met her or what he had done to her. He had paid her extra for the trouble and had sworn off amber. He swallowed again, his body tense and tortured. Images swarmed in his mind, unbidden – if he could find a supplier, take a hit or two, go back to the Enterprise, to Jilla’s quarters… Ruth’s with DelMonde, she won’t be back for days. I’d be able to ignore her reluctance, I could persuade her, I know I could. All she needs is a little push, a little…
What are you thinking?! Is that how you want her – coerced, manipulated, forced? What kind of love is that, you sick, twisted…
I lay the galaxy at your feet, my Kamikaze. Yours, for the taking, to experience to the fullest. There are pleasures, my pet, that you have not yet dreamed of; excitements, arousals - and satiations far beyond amber and tonight. These I would give you, teach you to take them and make them yours. They are your due, my beloved god, just and proper acknowledgment of your power and divinity. All you need do is reach for it.
He shuddered again, damning the memories, yet wanting, needing…
“Maybe because I wish I was,” he muttered in response to Jeremy’s question.
Jeremy smiled, unaware of the inner dialogue that tormented his friend. “Let’s go to Starfire,” he said.
Outside, Starfire was lit as bright as a nova, electric wizardry pulling the light waves into representations of stellar flares. The effect was stunning and it made the darkness inside seem heavier and more absolute, somehow chilling. Jeremy wove his way through the crowd, greeting nearly everyone. Sulu had to wonder how Jeremy had found the time or inclination to keep up with the Clave life-style once in Fleet. Of course, Jeremy was in Security, and redshirts tended to party harder than other Fleet officers when on leave. You’re Chief of Security, too, you know, he reminded himself, but it was sour.
They reached a corner booth and Sulu watched, not really surprised, as Jeremy gave a warmly friendly greeting to Lane Gage, Haven Dealer Extraordinaire. Gage, of course. Where else would Jeremy take him after seeing that nothing at Black Crescent interested LeRoi? He met Gage’s always slightly cynical smile with a curt nod. Damn it, Jer, if I wanted…
“Sulu?”
He turned abruptly at the hesitantly delighted voice of Diane Jaris.
The instant Diane saw Jeremy she knew who he was with. The Enterprise was in orbit and he wouldn’t’ve been able to resist seeing Sulu for long. And unless Sulu had changed a great deal, Jeremy would have no trouble finding him. She closed her eyes. Sulu. Cadet Sulu Takeda. It was so long ago, would he even remember her?
No, that’s not fair. Any bitterness is your own fault. You never told him how you felt.
How could I? Cage that beautiful, free, hawk? And it would have, you know that. He would’ve made some arrangement if he’d known how much you loved him. And it would have hurt him so…
Stop this! Just go over, say hello. He’s still the hawk, you still can’t cage him.
And I still love him.
She turned, ready to greet him and her words melted with the sight of him The six intervening years had matured him, Fleet life had improved and refined his sensuality. Part of his casualness was gone, replaced by a determination that enhanced the basic strength of his personality. His body exuded masculine grace and potency and she remembered how it felt and tasted, the sinuous muscles, the perfect control, the smooth, warm, bronze skin… Her desire had grown no colder with time and all she could manage was a half-frightened murmur of his name.
“Sulu?”
He whirled as if startled, and the movement made her heart pound. His eyes swept over her, a thousand emotions flashing in them too quickly to even begin to identify them or comprehend their meaning. She smiled, forcing it.
“It’s been a long time,” she said.
He nodded.
Didn't he remember her? She stared, feeling foolish and ashamed, and was about to turn away when he spoke.
“Yes, it has, Diane.”
She felt herself flushing at his voice, affected by its rich resonance as she always had been.
“Can you hold on a minute, Di?” he went on.
She smiled again, easier this time. “Sure,” she returned, and her hopes picked up.
Sulu found himself staring at one of the myriad women he’d had affairs with at the Academy. Diane Jaris was a small, soft, dark-haired angel; wide, soft brown eyes, soft lips, soft body. Her figure looked startlingly lush in the bright blue bodysuit she wore. The need that had been torturing him pulsed in his hard cock, and it was a while before he could return her greeting. He heard Gage snort suggestively, questioningly behind him, heard Jeremy murmuring “amber.”
“Can you hold on a minute, Di?” he asked, got her answer, and turned to Gage.
“Cobra says amber,” Gage said, smiling at him. “My credit’s on venus.” The dark eyes studied him. “Which is it, Kam? On the house for an old friend,” he added smoothly.
Sulu hesitated. Amber. Take it, take Diane… God, it would feel so good…
Choose, pet. Take one of them, show your power and majesty. Show me my efforts have not been in vain.
He glanced at her. Her face was shining, her eyes almost pleading. She’ll do anything, Kam, you know that. On amber, so will you. Take it… take her…
Kam? I haven’t been Kamikaze for years! Damn it all to hell, I can’t do it!
He closed his eyes, trying as he had all night to shut out the pain and despair. His body screamed at him, his mind sobbing and shouting and swearing in bitter desperation. His voice came out in a dark, bitter rasp.
“Keep it, Gage.”
“What’s with you?” Jeremy asked incredulously.
“Jer, I told you to leave me alone, didn’t I?”
“Kam, I just…”
“Have I called you Cobra!” Sulu demanded.
“Ease up,” Gage broke in. “Let’s get you some fresh air.”
The Haven took his arm and Diane said, “Sulu?” He took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Diane. I can’t make it now, I just – I can’t. I’m sorry.”
She looked stricken and he swallowed both regret and the sudden desire to relent and followed Gage.
Del had thought that just finding Ruth, having her for as long as possible would be enough. But the thought of Ruth and venus…It wasn’t easy for him to keep the impatient desire in check long enough to find some privacy. He knew this wasn’t at all like her – she had never indulged in Haven chemicals, she said no empath had the right to do that to themselves. But there was a pain and a despair within her sweet mind that was poisoning her, and if venus would burn it away, he was more than willing to aid her desperate need. He didn’t know what had triggered it – not yet. The contact once they started making love would undoubtedly reveal it to him, and he was content to wait, to enjoy the heady rush of the drug for as long as he was able.
The hotel room was lush and expensive, decorated, appropriately, in gold and black. Del told the management to disconnect the com and paid extra to insure no solicitous bellboy would come around asking if they needed anything. The door was double-locked and when he turned from it, Ruth was already naked, the spread thrown from the bed, her hand bringing the shimmering red capsule to her lips.
He moved quickly to take her in his arms, letting her feed the venus to him. Her sensual fingers caressed the clothes from his body. She knelt at his feet to pull off the gold-heeled boots, lasciviously licking at his erection as she did so. She let her body writhe all the way up his as she stood back up, then gently reached up to stroke the star at his temple. A bolt of ravenous hunger shot through him at the touch, and he never knew whether it was their joining telepathies or the first wave of venus need. He drew her down on top of him and surrendered to passion and desire – and love.
Gleaming scarlet and black desire burned in the star of gold from Del’s temple and Ruth was drawn to it, mesmerized by it. It seemed to hang before her senses like a call or a path, a symbol for all her needs. She felt the heat of the venus coursing into her veins, a burning that was a hair’s breadth away from agony. It was very much like the fire of a healing, yet building, not fading and completely beyond her control. It took her hunger, focusing and magnifying the dark, desperate fury. She would drain Del, exhaust him, take and use his strong body and tormentingly vivid mind. He would sate her, give to her all the mindless, savage passion she could never have with…
She stopped her thoughts, deliberately letting venus fire overwhelm her vision. Her eyes encased all she saw in crimson. The gold star took on a ruddy sheen, Del’s chest pulsed with a claret film of being. Red, I want red! her mind screamed, and her hands formed into claws of obdurate desire, coming down against the rose-hued skin, digging in with careful obsession. She scratched deeply into the flesh, leaving fiery trails of scarlet glory.
It flowed in breathless anguish before her, deep red, dark red, and Ruth fed from it, licking the color in rapt fascination. It seared renewing hunger into him, and she fed from that as well. She closed her eyes, her fingers staying clawed into his chest. His hands dug into her hips, lifting her, positioning her, supplying the penetration she so desperately needed. Coherency fled as she soared on wings of claret leather, nothing soft or light or feathery. The air around them grew hot and dry, taking the sweat from their bodies as soon as it formed. Her lips and throat felt parched as she swallowed, the body under hers sending shooting arousal through her, into her. She bent forward, eyes opening. The blood-red haze deepened as she slaked her thirst at his tempting mouth. The lines she had clawed on his body seared into her thoughts, a bitter voice screaming, Not red…green! Olive, emerald, verdant, virescent, fiery green!
The color shifted as though she had willed it. The lines of blood became a dark, glistening living green, still rouged with her eyes’ crimson. The skin was pale jade, the mouth she meant to kiss a darker olive, hooded eyes seeing into her soul. The star of gold had vanished.
Fierce angry joy flooded her as she drove her body on, taking from him with brutal insistence. It isn’t finished! her mind laughed hysterically. Kah if farr, golden one, Iocasta! She shrieked in delirious passion, glutting herself with his slender body, her hands once again bringing the sweet hot flow from his chest. Dark olive, brilliant emerald, he lurched beneath her with her finger’s dancing agony. Fire, flood, soaring incoherency took her to a crashing peak and she slid down it, falling against the bloody skin, panting with glorious triumph.
She opened her eyes as Del brutally flipped her onto her back. The scratches she’d made in his chest gleamed at her, the hallucination fading rapidly. She searched his face, seeing only his savage need. If his mind had joined her fantasy, he hadn’t cared. How could he? Sweet venus made everything good.
She lost awareness as he sunk his teeth into her throat, welcoming whatever vision would claim him, knowing it would carry her back to desperate gluttony.
“Some problem an old friend can help with, Kam?” Gage said as he and Sulu strolled along the dark street outside Starfire. The soft glow from his pipe intermittently wafted the sweet scent of Rigellian to Sulu’s awareness.
“Look, Gage,” Sulu said wearily, “there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do. And cut with the Kamikaze. I haven’t been near her in years.”
“Cobra thinks you’re jacketed,” Gage replied. “Let me loosen you up.” The dark eyes glinted at him. “Have I ever let you down?”
“All I want to do is get drunk, then check out on jet,” Sulu murmured, rubbing his hands over his face. “It’s all I can do.”
“Fleet, Mr. Sulu?” Gage sneered pleasantly. It stung old pride.
“No, not Fleet!” Sulu snarled. “I’ve got reasons and they’re mine! Get off it, Haven!” He turned, heading away from Gage.
“You need, Kam!” Gage snapped after him.
Sulu stopped. He’d get no peace now, not even the slight hope he’d had for jet’s darkness. Gage would keep at him, he could smell weakening. Jeremy wouldn’t let up. Diane – or a hundred like her – would be waiting… There’s not enough left of me to take it, he nearly sobbed.
You must do more. You must show them your power. You must make them know it, and fear it, and want it... and fear the wanting, and, my pet, you must make them want the fear. You must enslave them to your will. You must allow them to sacrifice themselves on your altar....
He turned back. “Yeah, I need, but not amber and not a whore and not you!” he snapped. “There’s no help for it, Gage. I can’t have the only thing that can make it right – “
“I notice you didn’t say ‘not venus’,” Gage broke in coolly.
“All right, fuck it, sell me!” Sulu exploded. “Why the hell should I care?”
“How about a needle, a tapestry?” Gage continued just as coolly. “Or – ”he paused, crossing to where Sulu stood, gently cupping his chin, tilting his head up. “- both.”
The word was sensual, languorous and Sulu caught his breath. Racing, on venus? Only a lunatic or a suicide would try that…
Or a desperate man who couldn’t have anything else.
No, it’s ridiculous, impossible. And a tapestry? I’d get caught. Or die. Or…
Can’t you do it, Kam?
Hell yes, but…
Can’t you handle it?
I always have.
What’s left? Lonely, painful emptiness, agony for four days, then back to dancing attendance on a fantasy? Take it, or break. No other choice. If you don’t do it now…
I’ll end up on amber, and…
Harder, faster, more….
Venus, and a needle.
Sulu gave Gage a savage kiss. “Both,” he growled.
Gage smiled.