He blew out a breath, then nodded. “Okay.”
I smiled, placed a quick kiss on his lips, then turned to face the others, all of whom were pretending not to look at us, even though they were totally being nosey. “What do you guys think? Do you mind if Tenj comes to live with us?”
“I’m good with it,” Nolan said, “but what about when we’re not here? I mean with his medical issues or whatever.”
I shrugged. “I’m sure we can set something up with one of the doctors up in medical. And I’m sure Lenahz would be okay with it. She already stays here with Mandy when we’re gone. I don’t foresee it being a problem.”
Everyone nodded, then each gave me the go-ahead.
I smiled at my family, then said, “Okay, let’s go find him and see if he’s up for it.”
We all made our way down to the mess hall and when we got there, I sent my family ahead for food while I searched for Tenj. It didn’t take long to find the poor kid sitting at a table in the corner all by himself.
I sat beside him this time and said, “Hey, Tenj. Is it okay if my family and I eat here with you?”
“Sure.”
I decided to ask before he was overwhelmed with the others. “I have a proposition for you.”
He looked over at me questioningly.
I took a deep breath and blew it out. “Would you like to come stay with me? In my suite? There’s seven of us and we just figured out that we have an extra room.”
“Are you serious?” he whispered.
I nodded. “Yeah. We’re sometimes gone overnight, but Mandy is only eleven, so she stays there and a friend comes over to stay with her. But you’d have your own room and everything.”
He just continued staring at me for a long time.
When he didn’t say anything, I prompted, “What do you think?”
I let out an, “Oomph,” when he suddenly collided with my chest. His tiny arms wrapped around my waist in a tight hug, so once I realized what was happening, I hugged him back.
“Thank you,” he whimpered into my chest, making me squeeze him a little tighter and rub his back.
When he finally let go of me, I smiled and asked, “So I take that as a yes, then?”
He nodded with wide, amazed eyes.
I laughed. “Good. Oh look, here’s the rest of my family, just in time.”
When everyone settled at the table, I made introductions. Tenj hardly spoke the rest of the time, but he looked happier than I’d seen him since I found him in the god-awful cage.
Orrean let Ozias know what we’d decided and Orr said his brother was relieved and thankful, so we went ahead and had Tenj come back up to the apartment with us. We told him we’d get all of Orrean’s belongings out of the room tomorrow so he’d have room for his stuff. He told us he didn’t have any belongings.
So we’d have to get him some at some point.
We left him in his room and Orr followed me inside mine. I was exhausted and I could tell Orr was, too. The past week had worn us out, no doubt. Plus I was worried about the new kid in our suite, the mole we still hadn’t found, and the fact that Ozias hadn’t been able to get ahold of anyone at the Northern Independent base. From the lack of movement outside the base—our satellites couldn’t seem to get a good picture—we were pretty sure they’d been attacked.
Everything seemed like shit.
Orrean cupped my cheek, bringing my attention to him. “Hey. It’s okay. We’re okay, just focus on that.”
“I know, I just…” I looked into his eyes for a moment before closing mine and dropping my forehead onto his chest. “Everything is going to shit.”
He started rubbing my back. “Don’t worry about that right now. You just did a wonderful thing by making that poor kid feel welcome. You made him feel like he has a home.”
“He does,” I mumbled. “He belongs here with us.” I shrugged. I didn’t know why, but I felt like it was true.
Orrean kissed the top of my head. “Come on, Renuella. Let’s go to bed.”
I nodded against him before stepping back and pulling my shirt over my head and my pants down so I was only in my boxers. Orrean did the same. I bit back a groan at seeing his mostly-naked body because even though I was exhausted, my cock, of course, took notice.
Orr smiled and held out his hand. I took it immediately and he flicked off the light, pulled me into bed and covered us with the blanket. As the skin on our chests touched, my body seemed to zing to life. Only moments ago, I’d been ready to drop, but being in his arms, in our bed, had me wide awake. So I leaned back, ran my hand over his braid and used it to pull his mouth down to mine. When our tongues touched, I moaned softly and couldn’t help but press farther into him.
I pulled his underwear down, then my own, and we both wiggled the rest of the way out of them until we were naked. I rolled us, holding him down into the mattress so I could press my hips against his, making our cocks rub against each other. His braid draped across my shoulders, the end occasionally brushing across my throat or over my chest. It felt glorious. We were both suddenly overtaken with passion for one another. I laughed into his mouth when he rolled us so he was on top of me. He smirked before devouring my mouth again and thrusting his hips against mine.
I ran my hands all over him. His soft skin felt amazing under my callused hands, and his braid sent pulses of pleasure across my skin everywhere it touched.
“I want you, Orrean,” I breathed into his mouth only a moment before I flipped us so I was on top again. He groaned and kissed me hard for a minute, but gradually eased his kisses until he lightly pecked my lips, then pulled away slowly, looking up at me.
“Will you…” he looked away and didn’t finish, so I used one hand to push his cheek and make him face me.
“What, Orrean?” I whispered, “You can ask me anything, emm Balu.”
His eyes softened and I felt him quiver. He reached up and rubbed my cheek with his long fingers. “Will you… take me?”
I felt my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “You want to bottom?”
He nodded slowly.
I didn’t know why that surprised me so much, but it did. Not that I wanted to bottom or anything—I never had—I’d just thought we were going to have to fight over topping or just do other things, like a long sixty-nine session or something. I could still see some hesitation in his eyes, so I asked, “Are you sure?”
He nodded, but said, “I’ve never done it before.”
“You’re a virgin?” My voice rose an octave.
“No, I mean I’ve never bottomed before.”
“Oh.” I rearranged my arms so my weight was on my elbows on either side of his face and I started running both of my hands over his hair. “We can do something else this time.”
He shook his head. “I want to feel you inside me.”
I groaned and closed my eyes which he chuckled at, then he grabbed my ass and pulled me closer, rutting his hips up into mine. I captured his mouth on a moan and we started kissing fiercely, almost frantically. I was completely desperate for him. For every part of him, inside and out. He was gorgeous and beautiful, sweet and fierce, brave and selfless. He was everything I’d ever wanted, more than I’d ever dreamed I could have, and so much more than I deserved. He was perfect in so many ways, more than perfect for me. I’d been an idiot to push him away for so long. He hadn’t deserved it, and I’d do whatever I could to make it up to him.
“Jeremy, please,” he said into my mouth.
I groaned, then pulled my mouth back and panted out, “Lube? Condom?”
He shook his head. “We don’t need a condom. We’re Balu, we could never pass one another diseases or hurt each other or any such things.” I’d never gone without a condom, so that would be a new experience for me… and I couldn’t wait. Orrean was out of breath and his cheeks were flushed. I was happy that I’d been the one to put that look on his face. It was such a far cry from the typical stoic expression he wore around others, though he was usually more rela
xed with our family. Still, it was a good look on him. He asked, “You have lube in your nightstand, right?”
I nodded. It had been there when I came to my room the very first time. I had a feeling that Cal had thrown it in there, though I never asked him, ‘cause gross.
Orr must’ve seen it when he put some stuff in here earlier. I leaned over and grabbed it, then whispered, “Lay on your side.”
I moved behind him as he rolled to his side. His braid maneuvered around to stay draped across my shoulders and the back of my neck, which forced us to stay closer together, not that I was complaining. I had one arm under him so my hand was flat on his chest. As soon as I started pressing my light into him, like he’d done to me, he groaned and started trembling. My chest was flat against his back, so after pouring some lube on my fingers, I pushed my hand between us. Before I found his hole, I said, “Kiss me, Orrean. My Balu.”
His body started trembling even more and he twisted back to close his mouth over mine. When my finger pressed into his hole, both of us moaned as one, and before I knew what was happening, Orrean was pressing himself back onto my finger. He was so hot and tight, I couldn’t even fathom how it would feel once my cock was inside him, let alone barrier-free. He wasted no time before he was demanding, “More,” and I was adding a second, then a third finger. Then Orrean reached back and grabbed my cock, slicking it with lube and saying, “I’m ready.”
As soon as I pulled my fingers out, Orr lined me up and pressed his ass back onto my cock, making me gasp and groan loudly. He let go of the base of my cock and grabbed my ass as he slowly pressed himself onto me. When I bottomed out, I saw purple stars and whispered, “Enimus.”
He chuckled at my small curse, then leaned back and whispered my words back to me, “Kiss me, Jeremy. My Balu… don’t stop kissing me.”
I whimpered at that, then leaned up a little to better reach him. I kissed him slowly, relishing his mouth, and I wrapped him in my arms, holding him tight and waiting for him to adjust. A few seconds later he nodded slightly and released my ass, telling me he was good to go. As I pulled out slowly, he laced his fingers with mine while our lips and tongues kept up their sensual dance.
I could feel him everywhere as I thrust in and out of him at a slow, leisurely pace. If I went any faster, I wouldn’t be able to stop my orgasm from igniting and I wanted this to last. God, I just wanted to stay here with him for as long as we possibly could. He seemed to be of the same frame of mind because he was still trembling, but didn’t try to take over the pace.
But after a few minutes, I lost all control over my body. It was as if my body was just seeking its own release, trying to bury itself inside of Orrean’s heat and stay there forever. I gradually started to speed up. Our bodies were completely in sync with one another. Our lights were mingling, playing with each other, our skin was buzzing with purple electricity all over, our hearts were beating as one, our souls were touching and clinging to one another, and our cocks were throbbing with more pleasure than I’d ever thought was possible. His pleasure was mine, and mine was his.
The world disappeared and there was only him and me, me and him.
There was no difference between us. We were of the same body and soul, and when we came, the whole world imploded, then exploded, then came back together as our bodies floated away in carnal bliss. We both cried out, but our mouths didn’t part.
We rode it out together, our bodies, hearts, and souls singing and dancing as one.
When we finally started coming down minutes or hours later, we were both shaking. We kept our mouths fused as I pulled out of his ass. He turned around and we wrapped each other in our arms, tangling our legs together. I gently started rubbing my hands over his cheeks, his neck, his back, all over his skin, and he did the same to me, though we never stopped kissing.
Gradually, our kisses slowed, even if our lips never parted, and we eventually fell asleep, wrapped in each other, breathing one another in.
When I opened my eyes, we were in the field, lying together naked, much like we were in the real world. We stayed that way for a long time, just holding each other and staring into each other’s eyes.
“You’re beautiful,” I told him later that night.
He smiled at me and ran his fingers over my forehead and cheek.
“Does it bother you that I keep pulling you to me again? I’m not even doing it on purpose,” I said.
He smiled at me. “Not at all. I enjoy our time here.”
“I missed it, missed you… when you were blocking me, I mean. I kept trying to pull you here, but it didn’t work,” I told him as I rested my cheek on his shoulder.
“Had I known, I wouldn’t have used the fekioirs to block me from dream-walking. I didn’t know you wanted me here.”
“I know. I’m sorry… for everything I did to you,” I said quietly.
“Can you do something for me?” he asked after a silent few minutes.
“Anything,” I responded, meaning it completely.
“Can you stop apologizing? You don’t need to and I don’t want it.”
I smiled a little at that. I didn’t know how the hell he was still always so sweet to me. I knew I’d treated him like shit. Still, I said, “Okay.” I took a deep breath and when I inhaled that cinnamon scent, I mused, “Even here, you smell like cinnamon.”
He made a sound of happiness in his throat and whispered, “Cinnamon is your favorite, right?”
“Mmhmm. How did you know that?”
“You smell like my favorite scent, too.”
“I do?” He nodded, so I asked, “And what’s your favorite?”
“Itudo.”
“What’s that?” I didn’t recognize the Taoree word.
“It was a… fruit, I suppose is accurate. It used to grow on the Oreslum part of my home planet. When the Oreslum started to crumble, the itudo was just one of many things that died along with it.” He put his nose against my hair and took a deep breath. “I hadn’t smelled it since I was a young child until that day we met at the fence.”
“You smelled me from the other side of the fence?” I asked amusedly.
He nodded. “It was one of the many reasons I knew we were Balu.”
“What do you mean?”
“Besides the pull I felt toward you, your scent clued me in because Balu are made for one another in every way, so they always smell like each other’s favorite scents.”
I took that in for a little while before asking, “Are there other human-Taoree Balu pairings?”
He blew out a long breath. “Not that I know of.”
“Hm.” After another minute, I stated, “You accepted it easily enough.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time, so I thought he was going to accept the statement and move on. But when he spoke, he ran his fingertips over my cheek and smiled so softly that I had to cup his cheek just so I’d have more contact. “I felt drawn to Earth as soon as we could see it from space, and when we broke into Earth’s atmosphere, I knew exactly where I needed to go. The spot behind your house was not our original destination. I made my driver go off course. When we were floating in the air for the week before we were finally grounded, all I wanted to do was jump out of the ship and hunt you down.” He offered a little smile and started tracing my jawline. “But I couldn’t, and I didn’t want to put you in danger, so I stayed away. But then I felt you come up to that fence. I sensed you close and I had to get to you.”
He smiled in amusement. “When I saw the weird eye with whites and browns and a circular black pupil, I honestly didn’t know what the hell I was seeing at first. I had never seen a human in real life, I’d only seen some of the shows and such. It was kind of shocking and just so strange-looking.”
“Hey.” I laughed a little and gave him a small push.
He laughed back and grabbed my hand, kissed it, then put it flat on his chest. “But there was no denying my pull toward you. I wanted to go after you when you ran away that night, but I knew it wo
uld be safer for you to stay away, at least while I was so deep undercover. There was no way any Legion would’ve accepted us as Balu, whether they felt it to be true or not. They would’ve killed you and either killed or tortured me. So I kept my distance. But I kept my eyes on you.”
“You did? How?”
“I made sure to know where you were. Know your schedule and things like that.”
I blinked at him. “You were totally stalking me.”
He cringed. “No, I wasn’t stalking you, I was making sure you were safe.”
“By stalking me.”
He sighed, resigned.
“You were like creepy-looking-in-my-window stalking me.”
He sighed again. “I didn’t stalk you.”
I gasped. “You had a wall covered in pictures of me, didn’t you? You followed me around and threatened my boyfriends and snuck into my house to steal locks of my hair and made a shrine and—”
He cut me off with a kiss and I laughed into his lips, but kissed him back fiercely.
When he leaned back he said, “You are the most frustrating human I’ve ever met.”
I cupped his cheek and smiled. “You are the easiest Taoree to tease that I’ve ever met.” He rolled his eyes, so I leaned up and kissed his forehead. “I’m lucky to have met you, Orrean, and I’m grateful to have you in my life.”
He pulled me into a tight embrace, tucking my head under his chin and wrapping his arms and whole body around me. His whispered voice was soft, sure, and comforting. “You are my whole world, my Balu… and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
We stayed there all night and I’d never been happier or more at peace. I was right where I was supposed to be.
Chapter Fifteen
Orr and I were woken by a knock on the front door of the suite. Orr was out of bed in a flash, calling out to the others, “Let me get it.” I wasn’t surprised that he wanted to answer it since we’d never had someone knock on our door before. I stood in my doorway and noticed Cal and Nolan in theirs too. “Can I help you?” I heard Orrean ask.
Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2 Page 25
