Chapter 7
When Kila didn’t show up at Fleet Command Headquarters first thing in the morning to hound Piras, the Dramok felt a mingling of relief and disappointment. He growled bad-temperedly at himself for the disappointment and lost himself in going over the latest war reports.
The numbers swam before his eyes, particularly the reports of the failed attempt on Lobam. The casualty reports made his stomach curl in on itself.
The awful news, a terrible headache, and the lack of sleep the night before put Piras in a mood more pissy than usual.
Stim tabs would at least wake Piras up. But no, his desk drawers had none of the restorative aids. Piras sighed and looked towards the reception area where his assistant Dramok Gim’s desk sat empty.
No doubt Gim was running the many errands that tended to keep him out of the office for most of the workday.
Piras’s aide was more likely to be missing than present, as many admirals’ assistants were.
They did the necessary running around, staying in touch with their bosses through com units.
Piras thought about calling Gim and having him pick up a supply of stims while he was bustling around Fleet Command.
He looked once more at the casualty list on his computer vid.
Fuck the stims.
He needed a drink.
He wondered if Gim would protest the breach in protocol if Piras ordered him to fetch a bottle or two of bohut.
Probably. So it would be stim tabs after all.
Piras turned from the grim stats, reaching towards his desk com. Kila’s face hovered inches away, his gaze intent and sneering smile ghosting over his face.
“Good day, Admiral.”
Piras barely stopped the startled shriek that strained to escape his throat. Fortunately for his pride, it was a manlier shout which emerged. “Damn it, you fucking Nobek! Announce yourself when you come in someone’s office!”
“I think I just did.”
Kila stood up straight, having been bent over Piras’s desk to give him the scare that still made his heart jackhammer. The Nobek bowed formally before teasing, “How was your night after I left?”
“You insufferable asshole. How do you think it was?”
Piras activated the sound blocker he’d acquired on his desk and switched it on. He sat up in his chair and straightened the collar of his uniform before giving Kila his best steely-eyed admiral’s gaze. “I’ve decided to refuse the mission. I can’t be a part of it.”
Piras’s back-and-forth decision had swung back in the direction of refusal overnight after not finding a target he could live with. Seeing Kila’s leer reinforced that choice.
“Any reason besides the fact you’ll be working with me?”
Kila flopped into the seat on the other side of the desk.
His suggestion of a smirk set Piras’s teeth on edge. “Don’t flatter yourself that you have anything to do with it,”
he lied with ease. He brought up two large-scale quadrant star maps, the ones that showed the border areas under Maf’s control.
“The best targets, the ones that would matter to the revolt, are the ones that would incur the heaviest civilian casualties. I’m not handing innocent lives over to Maf and his traitors.”
Kila sighed, erasing his irritatingly smug expression. “Did you think this would be easy, Piras? That innocents would be spared in any case?”
He leaned forward. “The places that have fallen had their share of civilians too, people doing nothing more than trying to live their lives. It’s happened time and again. It will keep happening. There is no way around it.”
“I’m not adding to that count. I refuse.”
Kila considered him until Piras felt uncomfortable enough that he almost fidgeted. The discomfort sharpened his temper, which was already burning his guts.
Piras snarled, “You can stop trying to bore a hole in my face with that stare. I said no. I’m out.”
“Not acceptable.”
Piras’s teeth ground together and he made himself stop. “Not even Admiral Hobato can force me to take this on. I can’t handle the guilt. I refuse to send civilians to their deaths. Even one is too many.”
Kila’s teeth flashed in his dark face. He looked absurdly proud of Piras. “It’s that very conscientiousness that makes you the perfect man for this job. You’ll do it, and you’ll follow through no matter how much you hate it. No one else has that blend of caring and strength.”
Piras jumped up and waved at the star maps. “I tell you, I won’t be a part of this! Not when these are the obvious targets, the ones Maf will want.”
“If you don’t like the obvious targets, find a not-so-obvious one. Something you can live with.”
“Do you see anything here that fits the description? Because I sure as hell don’t.”
“You have to pick, and you have to do it soon.”
Kila’s gaze turned chilly with intent. “Is it a shit assignment? One that could cost those of us involved our last shreds of sanity? Our souls? Fuck yes, it is. But you and I, we’re going to do it anyway.”
“Why should we?”
“You know why. As bad as the situation we’re stuck with is, not getting close to Maf will make it worse. There won’t be a single person, civilian or military, Earther or Kalquorian, who won’t be harmed if the Basma wins.”
“None of this is acceptable. Damn it, this fucking war is unacceptable!”
Piras turned away, furious at the situation Maf’s fanaticism had brought on. Furious at the Empire’s leaders for letting it reach this point. Furious at fickle life itself. Furious at Kila for being right.
Above all, he was furious at himself for being unable to take on the task that would end up saving Kalquor because the price of admission was too high. The thought he would decide who would live and who would die was not one he could face.
Lost in blinding rage, he started when rough hands slid over his shoulders. He tried to jerk away, but Kila held him in place, his greater strength keeping Piras from escaping.
“Easy, Piras. Easy.”
Every sense burst into acute life as Kila pulled him back so that their bodies met.
When Piras struggled anyway, Kila wrapped his scarred arms around him, pinning him tight. The Dramok didn’t miss the growing hardness pressing against his ass. Nobeks loved a fight, and Kila took pleasure in Piras’s attempts to pull free.
As an admiral being manhandled by a subordinate, Piras was infuriated. As a lonely man who had been granted a taste of what Kila could offer in a more private setting, he wanted to melt into the demanding embrace. Confusion swirled as he tried to sort out the disparate sides of his personality.
“Get your hands off me,”
he snarled between clenched teeth.
“Why? You liked them all over you well enough before.”
Kila’s breath warmed Piras’s ear, setting off a shiver. “I felt that, my pretty Piras. I wonder how much more you’d tremble for me.”
Keeping one arm wrapped around the Dramok, Kila went right for his weakest – and currently hardest – parts. His big, strong hand cupped Piras’s avid groin and rubbed with an expertise that robbed the admiral’s knees of their strength.
Heavy bliss filled his twin pricks as they bulged in reaction. The anger drained from his head, taking all identity as a commanding officer away. The fog of desire billowed through his senses. Everything melted into a sweet throb of need, of warmth, of feeling sheltered by the man nuzzling his ear and jaw.
Kila nipped the side of his neck. The sharp sensation traveled straight to Piras’s pulsing crotch, a swift lightning strike that brought him up on his toes with a cry. The Nobek held him easily, playing with him, arousing him.
Controlling him. The feeling of the robust man behind him wielding power sent sweet surrender sweeping through Piras’s body, making him helpless with arousal.
“I won’t fight for dominance,”
he whispered. His heart boomed so that his entire body throbbed with its rhythm.
“I’m not asking you to,”
Kila reassured him, his voice rough silk in Piras’s ear. “So damn few give themselves up like you do. Now that I know who you are, I’m ready to enjoy it.”
He rubbed his iron erections against Piras’s ass to underscore the claim.
Piras moaned. He felt he could fall apart in Kila’s grasp, literally crumble into pieces. At that moment, there was only the Nobek, only his touch, only his demands. Nothing else existed.
Kila stopped rubbing, though he still held Piras. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the time or the place.”
Piras keened a complaint. Kila was more than capable of giving him what he craved. He didn’t want to wait. Unable to stop himself, he ground his crotch against the other man’s hand.
Kila growled a warning. He yanked Piras around, forcing him so they stood face to face. The Nobek stepped forward, pushing him up against his desk. “I said we’ll wait. Now say, ‘yes, Nobek’.”
The face glowering threateningly was as enticing as it was frightening to Piras. Still in the throes of sexual excitement, he didn’t hesitate to answer. “Yes, Nobek.”
“Good boy.”
Kila grabbed the back of Piras’s head, holding him in place for a lip-bruising kiss. His tongue glided into the Dramok’s mouth. Piras acquiesced, his body softening even as his cocks surged with eagerness.
Kila tasted him until Piras couldn’t draw breath. Yet he didn’t try to break the kiss, content to have the Nobek’s mouth work his until he passed out. As the first hint of dizzy faintness stole over him, Kila seemed to sense Piras was going woozy. He released the fierce embrace.
His pupils wide-slitted with desire, he stared down at Piras as the admiral gasped. “I like that you fall apart for me so easily, you lovely creature. I like that instinct for quick obedience.”
Piras had no reply. His brain could only offer wispy bits that didn’t count as real thoughts.
Kila chuckled, and the deep sound of his approval vibrated through Piras’s body. “From now on, if we’re discussing or having sex, you will immediately say ‘yes, Nobek’ to any demand I put to you. Not obeying me means punishment. And I am a harsh disciplinarian. Understood?”
Piras collected enough of his senses to find the correct reply. “Yes, Nobek.”
“Very good. In here, you are my commanding officer. You are the powerful Dramok everyone knows you to be. But alone, when we are having intimacies, I am in control. My orders are to be obeyed without question. This body is mine to do with as I please.”
As he spoke, he emphasized his demands by pinching Piras’s nipples and squeezing his cocks hard enough to send the Dramok up on his toes. Kila threatened pain with each touch, but stopped just shy of it. Showing he could have Piras in any way he wished. Asserting his dominance.
Piras’s head swam with ecstatic arousal at the display. This was what he had always craved. What so few would give him. There was no hesitation as he gasped, “Yes, Nobek.”
“I will come to your home tonight after your shift is done. You will give me the access code to your home so that I can enter when I am ready. You will be waiting for me in your sleeping room, naked, on your knees, and ready to serve me.”
Piras quaked all over. Kila’s commands and touch had set a firestorm ablaze in his center. He would have given anything for them to be in his home at that moment. To be able to go to his knees and serve this perfect and domineering man in every way possible.
For now, he could only secure the future ability to realize such paradise. It took two whispered words. “Yes, Nobek.”
Kila sealed the bargain with another mind-numbing kiss.
Piras gave himself up to it, molding himself against the other man with abandon, running his hands over the powerful, muscled frame he’d thought he’d never enjoy again.
The kiss seemed to go on forever…and yet it was done far too soon.
Kila broke free.
He stared into Piras’s eyes for another eternity that passed in a flash.
In that endless moment, Piras saw emotions flit across the Nobek’s face, most gone too quickly to register.
He recognized a few however; hunger, possessiveness, hope, and an anxiety that sat strangely on his broad face.
Then Kila released him and stepped away.
Without another word, he left the office.
Piras didn’t worry over the encounter right away, or what it meant for later.
His first order of business was to keep his knees from buckling and spilling him to the floor.
He felt an absurd pride when he made it to his chair before collapsing.