"Kamikaze, how good to see you."

Sulu looked up at Cal's warm, friendly voice, returning the fond smile.

"Great party, as always, Cal," he replied.

Cal gestured expansively. "Nothing is too good for my Clavists."

Sulu nodded agreement, glancing around the lavish penthouse. There was little in the way of furniture except for a few almost bed-like pit sectionals and the low, wide, lacquered tables. Most of the people gathered there lounged on huge floor pillows and bolsters, where the food, drink and chemicals laid out on the tables were readily accessible.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Cal continued.

"Sure," Sulu answered easily. He wasn't aware of any undertones to his voice, but Cal reacted as though he'd heard one. The older man crouched down at Sulu's side, his lips almost at Sulu's ear.

"But it's not quite - enough?"

Sulu shrugged, but he was intrigued by the question.

"Pleasant, but just that," Cal went on. "Not - stimulating. Not - inspiring." His hand touched Sulu's arm, a firm, caressing touch.

Something in his manner made Sulu turn fully toward him. Cal's dark eyes gleamed, his lips half smiling in a way that was very compelling. "You have something better?"

Cal gave a suggestive chuckle. "For special friends."

"Am I a special friend, Cal?"

"I hope so, Kamikaze. It's up to you."

Cal stood, moving away. After only a moment's hesitation, Sulu rose and followed him.

So young, so lovely... such potential. It was nearly a mantra. It ran through Ruis Calvario's thoughts as he held his brief conversation with Kamikaze. He had no real doubts that the young man would follow. Kamikaze was restless, aggressive, a vital spirit in need of challenge, much as had been the young Janeiro nearly fifty years before. Challenge I will give you, Cal thought passionately, and such endeavor that you will revel in your skill and power. Such heights you will reach, and such glories you will know that to share with an old man will seem the most natural of generosities. And in you I will have the son my body could not sire; through you, perhaps, if I prevail, I will see grandsons and great-grandsons and we will both be immortal.

Cal stopped at the foot of the stairs, turning again to Kamikaze. "Amber first," he said. He saw the excitement mount in the dark almond eyes. Kam loved it already. Promising, so very promising. Cal held out his hand, revealing the shimmering butter-gold capsule. "Take it."

Kam did.

"Don't swallow it," Cal said softly. "Let it melt. Hold it in the back of your mouth."

Cal watched avidly as the heat of the drug found its way into Kamikaze's veins, watched his eyes close in ecstasy, watched the glow overtake mind and body. Impressionable mind, young, strong, virile body. "Now," he crooned, "come upstairs with me. I have something for you."

Sulu shuddered at the promise in Cal's words. Something for him that needed amber first. The possibilities swarmed in Sulu's mind, all of them arousing and enticing. The drug made him feel powerful and potent, a king, a god. Supreme confidence, imperious surety. The release it gave of all inhibitions was addicting, the heady ability to do whatever one wanted unfettered by the restraints of nagging conscience. Sulu loved it, had since first taking it months before. Now he followed Cal up the stairs like a cat on the prowl, every nerve alive and anticipatory.

They came to the heavy door of Cal's private rooms, the only off-limits part of the spacious apartment. Cal unlocked the door, beckoning. Sulu's eyes went wide in amazement, but he went in.

If the rooms downstairs were luxurious, this could only be called opulent. The pile of the copper rug was easily two inches thick. Lush copper velvet hung from cathedral windows, the windows themselves perfect stained glass replicas of erotic art. The walls were lined with mahogany chests and closets, shelves, hutches, curios, each filled with the finest books, elegant china and silver, the most delicate crystal; clothes for an emperor, jewelry for a god. There was artwork there, too, carvings and statues all exquisite in their carnal beauty. The bed was huge, covered in a rich spread of gold, copper, and black brocade, the wall above it a panel with a holographic rendition of a seated couple in an amorous embrace. Low tables, almost benches, flanked both sides of the bed.

"This is fantastic," Sulu breathed. Cal waved the comment away.

"There is a small entrance fee," he said, then laughed at the wary look that came into Sulu's eyes. "Just your name, Kamikaze. I have to know the names of my special friends."

Sulu considered, but only briefly. It was a breach of the strictest Clavist rule, but he could see no danger in it, not from Cal. He was obviously rich enough to find out anyway if he really wanted to. "Sulu," he answered. "Takeda Sulu."

"Sulu," Cal repeated. His voice caressed it, made it into a sensual chant. "Sulu." He smiled. "Come, Sulu, and choose appropriate apparel."

"Appropriate for what?" Sulu asked, even as his eyes roamed over the closets full of extravagance.

"For a god on amber, what less?" The tone was light, but Sulu heard the near reverence behind it. It fed the feeling of potency and he stepped forward, reaching for the clothes.

It pleased Cal beyond measure simply to watch Sulu - ah, Sulu! - examine and caress the clothing hanging in his wardrobe. He had made a small wager with himself as to which pieces his beloved Kamikaze would choose. He prided himself on being a good judge of appetites and he was not wrong. A robe of black silk trimmed in copper, simple but astoundingly erotic. No Clavist was body shy, and Cal reveled in Sulu's easy movements as he shed his shirt and slacks, finally slipping the robe over his naked, sun-bronzed skin. It came to mid-thigh, clinging lasciviously to Sulu's hips. Cal nodded silent, pleased approval. Sulu's smile was all the thanks he could ask for. He moved to the inset control panel at the side on the bed. At a touch, a curio across the room revolved, exposing three full-length mirrors. He gestured to them, then drank in the sight of Sulu's critical self appraisal. The amber made it completely unselfconscious, and Cal found the immodest vanity as promising as Sulu's love of the drug. "You are beautiful," he said softly. "Truly a god."

Sulu laughed, a dark, sultry sound, turning from the mirrors. "I feel like a god, Cal."

"Come. Choose your supplicant."

Another touch of the controls and the hologram of Rodin's "The Kiss" slid up into the ceiling, revealing a panel of screens. Each screen showed a furnished room, each different but each sensual. One had the feel of a dungeon, another of a brothel, a third as luxurious as Cal's room, a fourth spartan, a fifth simple, elegant Japanese. There was a different type of person in each room. In the dungeon was a young woman with deep red hair and flashing green eyes. The brothel held a slender young blonde male, his painted eyes and body elaborate decadence. A tall, mahogany-skinned female, her eyes coal black and smoldering, waited in luxury, while an equally tall, strong, sinewed, dark-haired man with eyes of liquid chocolate occupied the spartan room. Fittingly enough, a small, beautiful Asian woman was in the last room, her hair a waterfall of black silk over her shoulders. The only thing they had in common was the fact that they were all naked - and all bound to the beds in their rooms. Cal's eyes sparkled as he watched Sulu's reaction. Intense desire, obvious and strong, first of all. Greed, growing hunger and fascination. Fierce pleasure at the thought that Cal had gone to such lengths for him.

"Cal..." he breathed.

"All for you, Sulu," Cal said, loving the sound of the name. "For your hunger, for your need. Something exciting, something surpassing mere mundane pleasure. Your choice, my pet." The word caught Sulu's attention.

"Pet?" he asked.

Cal smiled, almost apologetically. "Pet. Pampered, indulged, cared for and tended to. Cherished. Spoiled, if you will." He moved to stand behind Sulu, tentatively caressing the young shoulders that were still broadening. "I would provide for your every need, Sulu, cater to your every desire. And ask for nothing but the joy of watching your fulfillment." Sulu turned to face him, his eyes dark with wonder and pleasure and amber's glowing strength.

"Why me?" he rasped.

"Because, my glorious, exquisite, most vital of divinities," Cal said, gently brushing back the silk of Sulu's black hair, "because I love you."

Sulu marveled at the words, the soft, adoring sincerity in Cal's voice and eyes. With the egotism of the drug in his veins, he didn't question it, only wondered why, how he had come to be so favored. "How can I...." he began. Cal cut him off.

"Choose, pet. Take one of them, show your power and majesty. Show me my efforts have not been in vain. Choose."

Sulu's very being swelled with exultation and anticipation as he turned eagerly back to the screens. Fire pounded in him, fantasies of how he could enjoy the feast presented to him. But to choose... god, how could he choose? Each body before him beckoned, the ropes on their flesh only adding to their allure. The thought of caressing the bound figures, of their helplessness under his touch, of the response he knew he could evoke made him dizzy with desire. His eyes roved over them, his need becoming more keen and still he couldn't decide. To forsake any of the satiation they promised was impossible; amber's hunger demanded them all. He swallowed. "Cal..."

Cal chuckled, a knowing, sensual sound. "Ah, I've given you too hard a task, have I, pet?"

Sulu's answer was hoarse and vehement. "I want them all."

Cal's hands slowly caressed his sides, sending a burning thrill through his loins. "In time. For now, you must choose."

Sulu closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. There was no way he could reach such a decision, so he simply raised a hand and pointed.

"Ah, begin with what one knows best," Cal's voice whispered. "You wish to savor diversity before claiming it. I understand, Sulu. I approve." When Sulu opened his eyes, all the screens but one were dark, that of the delicately featured Asian. Amber's attention focused on her and he said, "Now, Cal." So aroused was he by his thoughts of her that he paid no heed to Cal's lips moving sensually at the back of his neck.

"Now, my pet," Cal agreed.

It was sheer ecstasy. Cal had planned everything, even to consulting a doctor to instruct him in the particulars of the culmination he so desperately wanted, but had never before desired with a male. He had not wanted the attraction, had fought it, had even arranged matters that should have, in ordinary circumstances, halted his ardent desires. But it had done no good, and he had at last allowed himself to succumb to the obsession. His heart thundered, his body fevered with raging need as he watched Sulu's skilled assault on his captive's mind and body. He sat straight in a throne-like chair before the screen, dressed in a loose robe of white silk. His erection throbbed and he savored the pleasure of it. There was precious little that could arouse him to full tumescence now, but seeing Sulu's sweat-shimmered skin, his precise control and straining hunger was lightning in Cal's veins. It was too hurried, over with much too quickly for Cal's jaded appetites, and he was not pleased that Sulu eventually released the whore from her bonds - but that would change with time, he knew. With guidance and patience, Sulu would learn to extend the pleasures, to enhance and relish the waiting, the control and mastery. He would learn how to evoke the desperate need in his victims, even without the chemical help Cal had so thoughtfully provided them. Cal would choose his partners carefully, leading him to the darkest of desires in inevitable ecstasy. And would then himself at last know completion.

He left his room and walked down the private hallway to the room where Sulu waited.

....Yukio was clinging to him, her panting now calmed to slower, deeper breaths. He gently stroked her hair away from sweat-dampened shoulders, then kissed the skin that almost glowed amber. There were emotions swirling in him, carrying him both deeper into himself and far away, into her. He wondered at them. He hadn't felt this way making love to anyone else. This was new, exciting in a warm, slow kind of way. He found himself wondering if he could be in love... With a woman you just met, whose only contact with you has been wildly sexual? Not too likely. Still, it had the same feel of contentment that he got spending lazy summer afternoons with Jeremy. Acceptance, no impossible expectations, being yourself and at ease with that self.

He looked down into her eyes, deep almonds of ebony. They reflected the light of joy and warm pleasure which he knew must be coming from his own - but there was a touch of awe in them as well. He tilted his head, questioning, but before he could say a word, she did.

"I never knew it could be like this," she whispered.

He smiled, the amber making it impossible to be self-conscious. "You sound like a virgin," he chuckled.

She laughed with him. "Hardly. But you..." She shook her head. "You're something else."

"Maybe it was you," he replied quietly, leaning in to punctuate the remark with a long, lingering kiss...

Then suddenly she was pulled out of his arms. He found himself going ice cold, both inside and out. All the feeling of contentment vanished to be replaced by dread and revulsion. Cal was hitting her, yelling at her, coarse, crude words.

"Whore! Do you think he cares for anything beyond your cunt? You are hardly worthy of him, slut! Keep your tricks and your fakery, your false flattery! I paid you to fuck him! Don't think it will be anything else!" She cried out with the blows, but didn't fight back. Sulu stayed, frozen, staring, while Cal threw her into a corner of the room. Then Cal grasped his wrist, pulling him out of the bedroom. Sulu barely managed to grab the robe he had worn, stumbling after Cal, a part of him still numb and cold....

He followed Cal, slipping on the robe he had discarded while enjoying Yukio. He had teased her with it for a while, bringing her to the brink of orgasm using its silky, feather-light texture and his own skill. The memory was a source of ever-renewing pride. He had kept her writhing, hungry and loving every moment, for over an hour. She had begged him repeatedly for the one more touch that would send her into a shattering climax. He'd withheld it until he was ready to give it. Her incoherent cries, her fevered need filled him with a power that was fierce, yet controlled. Potent, invincible, unconquerable. True mastery. A god. He shuddered with the hunger of the thought, eagerly anticipating further excitement.

He was led to an ornate bathroom done in muted blues and greys. There was a large shower stall and a separate sunken bathtub, already filled with steaming, fragrant water. Cal moved to the shower, adjusting the controls, then shed his robe, smiling at Sulu in invitation. Sulu returned the smile and dropped his own robe, joining Cal.

Cal's touch startled him for only a moment. The older man was carefully, erotically tracing the lines of his muscles. He remembered the brief caresses as he'd made his choice, but his awareness hadn't then been on Cal. Now he realized the passion behind the touch, and willingly surrendered to it. At length, Cal turned on the shower, washing Sulu's body with loving attention. Amber glowed in Sulu's veins, becoming attuned to the hunger in the fingers that roamed freely over his skin. Cal soaped every inch of him, rinsing with directed spurts of water, then led him to the tub.

The bath was hot and felt wonderful, adding to the heat already coursing through Sulu's being. The water was laced with scented oil, a clean, spicy aroma that enhanced the eroticism of the heat and Cal's attentiveness. He slowly massaged the fragrance into Sulu's skin, his eyes gleaming with devoted passion. Sulu responded, falling more deeply into the sensual spell Cal wove, every sense becoming heightened and aroused. It seemed hours that Cal's hands explored him, and he was far removed from normal awareness when Cal rose and brought him a towel.

Cal relished the feel of Sulu's body, his hungers growing as his young god's perceptions narrowed. There was only sensation, only arousal and Cal drank in the ecstasy on Sulu's face. Some awareness returned as Cal dried the water from him, and Cal smiled at him, kissing him fully on the mouth. He responded, sending shivers into Cal's very soul. Yes, my pet, he thought fervently. Feel what I give you, let it pleasure you. Learn to take your pleasure where it may be found. Be master, my young god, my passion and beauty. Be master, and let me master you.

"Come, my beloved," he whispered, and led Sulu back to his bedroom.

He had turned down the bedcovers. The room was dimly lit, all the wall panels turned now to reveal copper and black edged mirrors. He guided Sulu to the bed, urging him to kneel upon it. Amber's glow was enhanced by the lighting, the mirrors, Sulu's bronze body the elegant center of the black-sheeted bed. Cal knelt behind him, caressing the muscled flesh, his lips worshipping the spice-scented skin. Sulu's eyes were glazed, focusing on the erotic reflection that repeated to infinity. Softly, sensually, Cal began to speak.

"You were beautiful, my pet," he said. "Such power, such skill. There is no one, Sulu, no one who can match your power. Know it, my pet. You are perfection, you are mastery. Yet you are young - gods, how young! - Years are before you in which to grow, to explore. 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. A little at a time, pet. Tonight you did well. Tomorrow you will take more. A little more. And the next night, a little more. Fill yourself with it, my beloved, my beauty."

Cal's voice surrounded Sulu's still drug-filled mind, swirling and enticing, penetrating with emotion and sensation rather than understanding. The words didn't matter. Cal's hands and mouth, the beckoning, arousing reflections, amberglow and the feeling of adoration filled him, giving passion and hunger and yet decadent lethargy. He had done, he had controlled. Now he wanted only to be catered to, to have his pleasure given to him - to be Cal's spoiled, pampered, indulged pet. And so he let Cal thoroughly explore his aroused body....

....then felt the touch of fingers against his anus.

"Cal... don't..." he said.

"Hush," was the only response.

He tried to turn in Cal's arms, to turn from the too-vulnerable position, and found his reactions sluggish. "Cal, no... I don't want..." he began.

Cal's arms locked around him like steel bands, his voice no longer hoarse passion. "You will come to want it, my pet."

Sulu began to struggle. Cal pushed hard and Sulu found himself face down on the bed. He tried to raise himself on one arm and felt it jerked out from under him, pulled behind him. He could feel Cal's body astride him, felt the older man grabbing his other arm, pulling it, too, behind his back. Fear seized him, and he cried out, thrashing wildly. Cal pushed his head into the mattress, and Sulu felt the fastening of some kind of restraint at his wrists. His head was released and he gasped.

"Please..." he begged, "Cal, please, don't!"

He heard Cal's voice, hard, set. "I have to, my beloved. This is the only way you will accept it."

"No...! Cal, no, please!"

"In time, you will learn to enjoy this."

Sulu felt hands grasping his buttocks and again some memory touched his awareness with cold resignation - then was gone just as swiftly - leaving only the knowledge that this was not something he wanted. He bucked viciously. A fist connected with the small of his back, then with the back of his head. He cried out again, the sound muffled by the mattress. His legs were jerked apart, Cal's fever-hot body between them, pressing on his thighs. Hands again, clawing at him, opening him. He could hear Cal's harsh breath, the murmured repetition, "You will come to want this, Kamikaze. You will learn to love what I do. This is the only way."

He screamed soundlessly into the black sheets...

.... letting the older man's arousal press hedonistically against him. He let the desire take him, control him, let the need build until Cal's voice was a heavy rasp of passion. He let Cal urge him onto his stomach, allowing, wanting the penetration that mastered him.

....He was sobbing when Cal finished. He burned inside. The bruises where Cal's hands had held him throbbed with each haggard breath. Cal had tangled his fingers in Sulu's hair, pulling, controlling the movements of his head, and his scalp felt on fire. Something warm and sticky was dripping down his thighs, his stomach quivering as if he'd been vomiting. His shoulders ached. The band that had held his wrists had been removed sometime during... he couldn't bring himself to name the act, even in his thoughts... but Cal had held onto his arms just the same. Sulu had never felt pain like this before. It made him feel weak and vulnerable. He couldn't rise, couldn't get off the bed... couldn't even roll over or curl into a ball around his spasming stomach. He was cold, shivering, but couldn't move to get the blanket that was at the foot of the bed. The whimpering sounds that came from his throat frightened him.

He heard Cal moving about the room, felt it when the older man sat on the bed. Hands pulled his thighs farther apart than they already were and Sulu gasped - unmoving - but all that happened was the placing of a warm, wet towel over his buttocks and between his legs. Fresh tears started in his eyes as the towel was rubbed firmly over him. He blinked the wetness away in time to see the copper-colored towel come away with a stain of darker red. He gagged, and Cal's face came into view, smiling as his fingers moved through Sulu's sweat-soaked hair.

"I did not know there would be blood," Cal's warm voice murmured, "but I think you will live. Next time, maybe you will not fight me, and there will be no blood, hmmm Kamikaze?" Cal leaned down, his lips at Sulu's ear. "And when you do not fight, you'll find it will be very good, my pet, as good as anything you have ever had. As good as it was for me. I promise you that."

Cal sat back up, returning to his task between Sulu's legs. "You will rest a while," he went on. "And then you can make another choice from among my offerings. We will share this often, my beloved. And you will come to love it."

Slowly, without his noticing, Sulu's sobbing stopped.

He awoke slowly, becoming aware of the deep satiation that filled him, the lethargy, the near total lassitude. The bed was warm, blankets up just barely over his buttocks. He could feel Cal's hand against the small of his back, the touch firm and possessive and loving. "Cal?" he managed, his voice still hoarse with sleep.

"Here, beloved," Cal replied. There was a sensual chuckle. "I thought you would sleep the best hours of the evening away."

Sulu turned to face his new lover. "I think I was already awake for those," he returned, his low voice containing volumes of innuendo.

Cal kissed him. He started briefly at the taste of amber on Cal's tongue, but swallowed the melting capsule. "A most generous thing to say, my pet," Cal murmured, "but hardly true..." There was a meaningful pause. "...as you will soon see." With a movement of his arm toward a control panel, the screens over the bed again lit. Four this time; the Asian room was dark. "Choose," Cal's voice breathed in his ear.

Sulu felt the heat rising in his body again, hunger flaring inside him as though he had not taken... For a moment, he couldn't remember her name. It shamed him, and he determinedly searched his drug-clouded memory until he found it. Yukio, her name is Yukio. The memory only fed his desires, and he examined the choices before him. The blond man didn't beckon to him... not now, though he could not have said why. Neither did the Spaniard who waited in Spartan surroundings. But the black girl, with her flashing eyes and mahogany skin... so much like... Sulu cut that thought off before it was finished, but it made his decision for him. He pointed. "Her," he said.

Cal nodded, then got up, slipping on a white robe. He opened the closets. "Adorn yourself, my young god," he said, "and remember, this is your due. Take, Sulu, take what is yours."

Amber's fire filling him, Sulu rose from the bed.

The setting was one of incomparable luxury, and so Sulu chose a modern outfit; blood-red, skin-tight slacks and a waist-length jacket with equally tight-fitting sleeves. He didn't bother with a shirt. The double-dose of amber was filling him with a remote arrogance, a sense of disassociation from what he was doing - as though he was watching himself on Cal's screens. He'd never experienced it before - but he'd never taken two hits in the same twenty-four hour period, much less in the six hours it had been since he'd gone up to Cal's rooms - though how it had been six hours, he wasn't quite sure. He hadn't thought he'd slept that long. Amber's hunger quickly dispelled any such disturbing thoughts as he entered the special bedroom. For a while, he simply looked down at the beauty who lay spread-eagled on the huge, white bed. Her mahogany skin glistened, sweat-dampened already, her full breasts trembling with her breath. The fire in her eyes beckoned to him, a red tongue darting out to moisten cinnamon-hued lips.

"I'm on fire," she whispered, her voice dark entreaty.

He heard his own voice answer, and it sounded far away. "I know."

"Fix me, baby."

"In time."

She shivered. There was fear as well as need in that shiver, and Sulu found he liked it. It brought him close again, stopped the unsettling, remote, distant feeling. He wanted to explore that, to play with it. Fear and need, need and fear. He licked his own lips, some half-memory swirling at the edge of awareness, threatening to disturb his arousal. The woman let out a breath in a long sigh and his attention was recaptured. She was squirming on the bed, heat rising almost visibly from her body. He smiled. He'd start, he thought, with memorizing her taste.

It was better than the first had been. The second dose of the drug was just what Sulu had needed. His passion was more disinterested, more calculated. He wouldn't lay breathless, romantic, in this one's arms.

Cal felt his body responding as he again watched Sulu's hedonism. A second full erection in the same day? Such a thing had not happened in years. It only served as proof of the worth of his decision. Even his body was telling him that Sulu was the key to his immortality. The memory of his first taste of mastering his young god swept through him with shuddering pleasure. The feel of the oiled skin, its scent, its languorous heat.... and the fight, the strength, subdued and at last submissive... Fire raced through Cal's blood. He had told Sulu that perhaps it would be better if the young man didn't fight. Now Cal found himself hoping Sulu would never stop fighting. He began to imagine ways in which he could insure the fight and still bring his pet to helpless, unwilling, yet undeniably powerful arousal. Which his beloved could slake with any number of nameless whores, returning then to his master to begin all over again.

A cry from the screen interrupted his erotic reverie. Sulu was inside the whore, his movement harsh and fast. Cal felt a twinge of disappointment. He had hoped Sulu would tease her far longer than this....

Then Sulu pulled away, the whore sobbing, "No!" and trying to arch her body up to his.

"I said in time," Sulu whispered. The voice was hoarse but had an edge of amusement. He leaned forward, kissing the whore full on the lips, his mouth moving slowly down to her throat, her breasts, her stomach....

Cal watched, smiling to himself, and waited.

Sulu had wanted it to go on. The drug wanted the hunger, the stimulation to last. But his body had had other ideas. It needed the release. She'd needed the release, and he could feel that pulling at him, joining his own need. He had managed to stop his own climax three times inside her. The fourth time, his body took over. She shrieked in his ear, her body surging beneath him, sending pleasure crashing over him - like the waves of the Pacific on lazy summer afternoons with....

Quickly he wrenched the thought away and lost himself in the orgasm, dropping against the sweat-slicked body which was still tied securely to the bed.

The thundering of his heart gradually slowed as the woman wriggled her hips against him. She was murmuring compliments, words of lavish praise. He found he believed them less than Yukio's quiet, ‘I never knew it could be like this.' Raising his head to look at her undeniably beautiful face, he found, however, that he cared just as much that it be true. He stroked the smooth, dark skin, kissing the full lips, stopping the flow of words. "You were good, too," he whispered. She smiled, then actually blushed.

"Was I goin' overboard?" she asked.

Sulu grinned. "Just a little."

"I meant it."

"All of it?"

Her brown eyes smoldered at him. "Untie me and I'll show you," she said.

"I wouldn't do that, Kamikaze," Cal's soft voice remarked…

....Sulu glanced up. Cal stood in the doorway, his eyes dark warning. He held out an imperial hand. "Come, pet."

"I want more from her," Sulu replied.

"You had that chance," Cal returned. "You are spent now, yes?"

"Give me a few minutes..."

"With me, Kamikaze."

"I want...."

"I said with me."

Sulu felt his skin growing hot. Anger was rising in him, the amber making it careless. "I'll be with you, Cal, when I'm good and..."

Cal crossed the room, grabbing Sulu by the hair. "You will come when I am ready, pet," he snarled.

At the touch, Sulu twisted, trying to get off the bed and out of Cal's reach. His scalp protested as several clumps of hair held fast, refusing to release him. Another hand clamped vise-like on his arm, pulling him across the woman's body and toward Cal. He was jerked into a bear-like embrace, Cal's arms tightening around him. Obdurate hunger filled the older man's eyes, and he repeated, his voice thickly sensual, "Come, pet." Sulu was half dragged from the room, all his anger disappearing in cold dread....