Page 31 of Palaces and other Prisons
Months gave him time to decide if he wanted to invite Dawson to stay or if this affair had a natural time limit. Not all relationships were meant to be forever. “You are welcome to stay here as the official liaison to your people. A most necessary role, as I cannot write in your language.” Ul smiled.
“Is that the only reason you want me here? Which is fine, but I need to know where I stand and what’s…” He waved his hands in front of him. “Are we sneaking around, or are you hoping to lay eggs?” Dawson closed his eyes and shook his head. “That was not a sentence I ever thought I’d say.” He opened his eyes, his gaze steady. “If that is all you want from me, then just tell me. Because for me this is…you’re a king, and I’m a platform painter. I’m not what anyone would call a strategic match, and I knowyour previous husband was from a prominent family with an important trading partner.”
Ul sucked in a breath even though it felt as if all the air in the room had suddenly vanished. It appeared palace gossip travelled in multiple directions. “That is true. And it is also true that he made my markings, freckles, turn pink.” He liked Dawson’s word for his markings. He liked that Dawson also had a few freckles on his nose and cheeks and dusting his shoulders, and the way his skin sometimes turned pink. But that was all simply lust, and lust didn’t care about a person’s status or compatibility. Once again, he had two out of three. “On paper, we were a good match. In reality, it was a sometimes-difficult relationship made worse by the weight of duty and the lack of results.”
There was no way to dance around the obvious issue, and he was sure that if Dawson asked the right people the right questions, he would uncover more.
“I feel as though this would’ve been easier if your freckles didn’t turn pink.”
For a human who was twenty years younger than him, Dawson was sometimes surprisingly wise. “I cannot deny that accusation. I also do not know if I am ready to deal with the prospect of more failure.”
“Then we ignore that part. I am stuck here for the foreseeable future, so I am making myself available. And…I also can’t believe I’m going to say this…if you want to sneak around and keep it on the down low, then I guess that’s the way it has to be.”
Ul stared at him for several heartbeats. He had kind of understood most of that sentence, but sometimes Dawson used language that didn’t seem to make sense. “Down low? As in the rock pools?”
Dawson laughed. “No, it means that you don’t want people finding out. It’s often used by guys who have a girlfriend anddon’t want to admit they like hooking up with men because they are gay or bisexual.”
That explanation did not help much. Ul leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand. “What is gay?”
“You know, men who like to sleep with men. Or is that not allowed on this island? And you’re not technically a man either…which also gave me pause because I’ve identified as gay for the last ten years and now, I’m obviously not, which is fine, I’ve sorted myself out.”
“Is that important to you? To the people of your world?”
“Oh yeah, it’s very important to a lot of people, and in some places, it is not allowed.”
This was the first time Ul had heard of such a thing. Even amongst the humans on Felloi, there was no such prohibition. “Your world prevents people from falling in love?”
“Well, they can’t exactly stop it. However, they make it very difficult because they believe it’s a sin. That is not the case here, I am guessing.”
“No. We have the term ‘non-breeding pair’, which is used when there are no offspring produced. Shifters cannot have young with a different kind. My kind can only produce young with a human, so this would not be a non-breeding pair. But we do not make laws around it, or shame people for it. Everyone deserves to fall in love.” Even him, though he had written off that possibility many years ago. Perhaps that’s why he was hesitating. What if he fell in love and then Dawson got on the boat to rejoin the people of his world, leaving him shipwrecked and alone?
And if he never took a chance, he would never find out, and living with regret and what ifs would be far worse, as they were a kind of self-inflicted wound that never healed.
Which meant his mind was made up in the short term. “I’m glad you want to stay here for the moment, and I want to explorethis; however, I am also wary of feeding gossip, so I would like us to use discretion.”
“Okay…what does that mean exactly?”
“It means we take advantage of times when we are alone, because I cannot invite you to my bed chamber, nor should I take you to the rock pool.”
“We are alone now.”
Ul’s eyes widened. He had not expected Dawson to be so forward. But he was right, this was a chance they should seize. Ul pushed back his chair, intending to get up, but Dawson was already on his feet and walking around the desk.
He placed his hand on Ul’s cheek. “Is this okay?”
“Yes.” How could it not be?
Dawson kissed him as if they had been separated for far too long when really it had been only days without feeling his touch. The back of one of his tentacles brushed up against Dawson’s leg, and beneath his tunic.
Ul pulled him closer until Dawson was kneeling over him, still kissing him. While he had four tentacles to touch him and hold him with, he wanted two hands. He ran his branches through Dawson’s dark hair and cupped his head, enjoying the feel of his beard on his hand, deepening the kiss and demanding more. His tentacles wrapped around Dawson’s thighs and tugged him closer. Already his cock was pushing out and seeking his lover’s touch. The tip of his tentacle slid higher, expecting to find their skin, and instead found cloth.
He flicked the edge of the garment. “What are you wearing?”
“Underwear. I can’t walk around with everything bouncing around, or worse, pointing towards you.”
“You could have asked for some pants.”
“No one else seems to wear them.”
