The Android and the Thief

by Wendy Rathbone

It made Khim not want to miss a beat.

  This was nothing like what had happened to him in House of Xavier. Not messy. Not dark. Not sly and painful.

  This was bright, like new dawn. As fresh as something colorful growing, pushing through layers of ash and pain and blood. As if all the worlds he’d been a part of destroying, including the deep core of himself, caged behind transparent crystal, took deep breaths as their seasons and winds returned, bringing them back to life.

  He took his time, reveling in the scent, the flavor, the beauty, before crawling back into Trev’s arms, where Trev, breathing fast, gazed at him in disbelief. Khim lowered himself to kiss him, and Trev’s arms came up and around him. He wished he could stay like that forever.

  After a couple of minutes, Trev pushed him onto his side, brushed his fingers through his hair, and said, “May I?”

  Always asking first, that was Trev, who would never, ever hurt him.

  Khim nodded. “Whatever you like.” And kissed him again.

  Trev said, touching Khim’s hairless chest, the hardness of the curves there, the dents of muscle farther down, “Hmm, I think I like it all.”

  Khim fisted his hands in Trev’s hair.

  Trev said, “I need to practice what you just did to me.”

  “Okay,” Khim said. And he thought, Practice all you want. I’m here.

  The beautiful lips took him to new worlds, his cock so heavy and full. Trev managed to get halfway down on it, and that was all. It was more than enough. Khim was nearly bursting at the first touch.

  Afterward, he lay on his side, tracing the edges of Trev’s face, moving his hand down to the center of his chest. He could feel the thrum of heartbeat and life force. He kissed him softly on the jaw, behind the ear, as Trev, on his back, ran his palms up and down Khim’s arms, curving over the muscles, pressing his fingertips into them.

  Trev said quietly, “I never thought it’d be like this.”

  “Sex?” Khim asked.

  “Love.”

  Chapter Thirty-one

  THEY DID not know how long the food in the kitchen had been there.

  Khim said, “I used to camp on alien worlds. I know how to make meals out of almost anything.”

  They found meats and cheeses in tins. Khim made bread fresh from the oven, and Trev said, “Mmm, smells like you.”

  They ransacked and found beer, wine, flavored waters.

  The day grew hot, so they took sandwiches and beer and whatever else they could carry down to the beach.

  Trev had found old clothes in another room—shorts that were too small for Khim, too big for him, but they didn’t care.

  Trev never tired of seeing the bronze line of Khim’s body making perfect dives into the oncoming turquoise waves, then coming up spouting water, hair flipping back in sopping-wet, dark gold strands.

  After their swim, they rested on towels on the warm sand, grains of it glittering on their arms and legs.

  Together they dozed. To Trev it seemed as if they opened their eyes at the same time. They lay on their sides, facing each other. Khim’s eyes were like the undershadows of blue in the sea, his pupils pinpoints in the bright sunlight. Khim reached out with his metal hand and ran the tip of his forefinger over Trev’s ribs, trailing along the waist, stopping only at the hip where the waistband of the shorts hugged him.

  “Feels cool, like the water,” said Trev.

  Khim bent so that his forearm above the metal touched Trev’s flesh, and Trev could feel the steam rising off Khim. “Because your skin is so hot,” Khim replied.

  Trev half closed his eyes until he gazed at Khim through his lashes. He never looked away.

  Khim never looked away.

  Trev licked his lips, tasting salt. The tide sang a hushed and sighing strain. Birds cried. The sky was like melted blue wax.

  Khim’s eyes pulled him in until all of that—the warm sand, the damp towels, the abandoned bottles of glistening beer—ceased to exist.

  Trev was not going to be able to stand this for one more minute. He pulled himself into a sit-up, got his feet under him, and stood, looking down at Khim, who lay very still, although his eyes had moved to follow him.

  “Come on,” Trev said, finally glancing toward the stairs.

  The left side of Khim’s mouth twitched to a hint of a smile. Trev felt warm sweat drip down the center of his chest. His hair was still wet at the nape.

  Khim rose. There was very little covering him. The tops of his rounded buttocks peeked out from the waistband of the too-small shorts. The whole picture was driving Trev crazy.

  He turned and began to jog toward the wooden stairs at the cliff.

  He did not have to look behind him to know Khim followed. He could feel that golden presence, like the waves of the glinting sea at his back, only steadier, a constant furnace on the air.

  They raced each other up the steps two at a time. Crashed through the front door. Scrambled down the hall, which was too long, way too long, and barely made it to the bedroom because they stopped to kiss, Khim pushing Trev against the wall and Trev breathing hard, saying, “Only a few more feet.”

  The white sheets received them with a cool embrace. Sand was everywhere. They didn’t care.

  Shorts fell over the side of the bed, legs entwined, sun-slicked bodies slid together.

  Afterward, they showered and did it all over again under the warm spray, covered with soapy foam, hands and fingers going everywhere. Neither could get enough of the other.

  The next day was spent much the same.

  The next night, Trev found candles and brought three into the bedroom. Their light filled the room.

  In bed, Trev turned to Khim. “Look what I found in the bathroom.” He held out a bottle of clear oil. The bottle said it was massage lubricant, but they both knew what it was for.

  Before Trev could explain what he wanted, Khim went stiff.

  Trev said, “Hey, don’t pull away. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” He rolled over Khim, pulling him forward to face him, wrapping his arms about him. “I’m sorry,” he said, lips against his cheek. “That’s not why I brought it to bed.”

  After all Khim had been through, Trev had not meant to scare him or demand anything of him he didn’t want. “I know you don’t—” He stopped, taking another track. “It’s for me. I want to feel you inside me.” He felt himself blush. “But only if you want to do that. To me, I mean. I know how it works. I just never tried it before.”

  “You told me you never tried any of this before,” Khim said smugly, his body slowly relaxing in Trev’s arms. He added, voice pitched low, “You might not like it.”

  Trev planted a kiss on his lips in answer.

  Khim took the bottle from Trev’s hand, gaze speculative. “You must be sure,” he said softly. All fear had vanished from his face. What was left was pure adoration.

  Trev said, “With you, I am.”

  “We’ll go slow.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Then Khim tackled a laughing Trev and began to kiss him all over his body.

  Trev luxuriated in all the attention. Every touch from Khim felt more intense than the last. When Khim’s hand finally delved into the cleft of his buttocks, he started to turn over.

  “No,” Khim said quietly, kissing his shoulder. “Face-to-face. It might be harder, but I need to see you.”

  “Yes,” Trev said.

  Khim explored him gently. Trev let his knees bend and go wide. He tilted his hips up, and Khim reached for a pillow to put underneath him. It helped.

  Slowly, Khim’s oiled fingers entered him. One. Then two. He leaned down and sucked softly at Trev’s cock, never enough to make him come as fingers moved in and out of him.

  After a while, Trev became dazed. He felt on the cusp of shattering, completely open and ready. “Khim,” he breathed. “Please.”

  Ever patient, Khim replied, “When I think you’re ready.”

  Leave it to Khim to obey anything he said until now. T
rev was beyond frustrated, poised on the brink of utter pleasure, hands tearing at the sheets at his sides. He heard himself call Khim’s name again. Again.

  Trev was hot all over. The room seemed to be swaying, as if he could see beyond the walls to the sea. Night glimmered on the edges of rapture.

  Khim’s weight moved over him and he reached up, blindly grasping.

  “Relax,” Khim said, “or it won’t work.”

  “I am,” Trev breathed, hands rubbing, then clasping over Khim’s hips.

  Khim pressed against him, and he was slippery and open, so it was all fine. Trev surged upward, but Khim had the control now and did not move to meet him. He felt the hardness against his opening, but no more pressure.

  Trev let out a long, loud sigh.

  He knew Khim was shy of this, so Trev waited.

  Khim was careful as he began to push. Almost too careful, and yet Trev was glad because as he was filled, he loved that he could feel every inch and that the pressure all around him gave him time to respond fully, feel his pulse connect with the swaying of the room and recede away from all tension.

  It seemed like forever before Khim finally brought them fully together. Trev opened his eyes and reached up. He loved the feeling of being joined to Khim more than he could ever articulate. “You can move if you want,” he whispered.

  He had felt no pain, only sensations of being stretched, wanting to push down at the feeling of being so filled up.

  The look on Khim’s face was bliss. He rocked very gently.

  Trev saw stars as the sensitive place inside him was brushed. “Do that again,” he said.

  Khim obeyed.

  Then they were moving together as if they knew the dance by heart.

  Trev was taken up, up into ecstasy. He wanted more and curled his upper body off the sheet toward Khim. “Sit back,” he ordered. “Lift me onto your lap.”

  Khim did as he was told in one fluid motion, and Trev wrapped his legs about the smooth, lean waist and buried his face in Khim’s shoulder as they rocked to the rhythm of their hearts.

  Nothing had ever prepared Trev for the intensity of this experience. He sobbed into Khim’s skin, then turned his head and kissed him. Khim kissed deeply, with passion, as he pumped into Trev faster and faster.

  Trev started to fall back; Khim’s strong arms held him.

  Trev said, “Touch me.”

  One of Khim’s arms snaked between them and stroked him from root to tip. It was all the stimulus Trev needed, and he was crying out, coming in arcing white lace all over Khim’s chest.

  As a strangled sound escaped Khim’s lips, Trev felt an answering warmth inside him. They fell back on the sheets, still joined, chest to chest. Trev ran his hands up and down Khim’s back. Still breathless, they kissed again as Khim slid out of him, tugging, but gentle and sweet.

  Trev’s body was made of flame. Khim nestled against his chest.

  Before Khim closed his eyes to sleep, Trev thought he saw the stars all the way through the second story of the house, as if the ceilings and roofs were invisible, as if two realities converged and nothing in that moment was solid.

  TREV HEARD a crash and came rushing into the kitchen. The little glass window by the door was broken, shards glinting on the tile floor like pieces of a shattered sun.

  “What happened?”

  “The last of the barriers has fallen,” Khim said, staring dumbfounded at the mess.

  “What?”

  Blinking, as if trying to focus, Khim said, blushing, “I don’t know.”

  Khim’s left hand was bleeding at the top of the palm. “Here.” Trev cupped Khim’s hand in his own and led him to the sink, where the water rushed. He carefully washed away the blood.

  Khim said, “You don’t have to do that—”

  Ignoring him, not letting go, Trev said, “It’s not deep. Don’t need actual synthiskin. Just a synth patch. Stay there. Be back in a sec.”

  Trev went to the bathroom and rummaged for a patch. When he came back, Khim was obediently standing by the sink, the afternoon light streaming over him in the kind of splendor that stopped clocks in midtick, stars in their paths, hearts from reaching another beat.

  Epilogue

  A WEEK later, Arch and Renn arrived at the house.

  For all that had happened to Trev and Khim, it was a quiet arrival, casual and polite. They brought supplies. They took rooms in the upper level. There was an underground garage where they parked their flier.

  At first, Khim thought the presence of others would intrude on his newly acquired happiness with Trev. He stood back, trying not to resent them, all the while knowing it was Arch who owned this place.

  Khim watched purple-haired Renn approach Trev with a real-paper contract in his hand. “You own me now,” he said.

  “I wanted no online trail. That’s why you have the papers.”

  Renn nodded.

  Khim frowned. Trev owned Renn? His chest hitched for a moment, almost jealous, until Trev said, “You can stay with Arch as long as you wish. Maybe after that the laws will have changed and I’ll be able to free you.”

  Renn bowed his head. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you for taking us in when we most needed it.”

  Trev turned and shot a smile at Khim, who let that look warm him all the way to his bones.

  LATER THAT night, Khim and Trev lay together on their snowy sheets, listening to the shushing of the tide caressing the shore.

  Khim let his passion ebb and flow, softly, softly in their brand-new life.

  You seem different now, Trev had said on the glass porch of Arch’s estate. Khim thought no truer statement had ever been observed about him. No one had ever bothered to look at him in any depth beyond his android status. No one had ever seen him. Until Trev. Until now.

  The days continued, leaving golden trails of the sun in their veins.

  The nights spilled like magic around them, as if the whole of life were a big flower opening, engulfing them in endless burning-sweet pleasure.

  For the first time in their lives, they were both free.

  WENDY RATHBONE lives with a cat, three dogs, and her partner of thirty-six years, Della. She has been writing since the age of twelve. She lives in the high desert of southern California.

  Male/male romance has been a passion of Wendy’s since before the signature “m/m” was even invented. She wrote a lot of slash fanfic in various fandoms to assuage that obsession but moved on to original writing in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, where she is published in many anthologies and magazines.

  She is an award-winning poet, a graduate from UCSD, and runs her own retail business. Her self-published science fiction and m/m romances can be found on Amazon, and her novel The Android and the Thief is available everywhere.

  Wendy’s blog: wendyrathbone.blogspot.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/wendy.rathbone.3

  E-mail: wrathbone@juno.com

  By Wendy Rathbone

  The Android and the Thief

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Android and the Thief

  © 2017 Wendy Rathbone.

  Quote from Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1

  © 2004 Marcel Proust as translated by Lydia Davis

  Cover Art

  © 2017 Anne Cain.

  annecain.art@gmail.com

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This boo
k is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  ISBN: 978-1-63533-407-4

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-63533-408-1

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2016917545

  Published April 2017

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America