Kaden groaned. “Good points. Er… Maybe we played online games. The police could probably check the chatrooms but why would they bother unless you’d done something wrong? If I’m offering you a place to live, that should be enough. One less person for them to worry about.”
I need to come out of you somewhere you can get help if there’s a problem. A hospital.
“Really?” Kaden tensed.
I want you to have help if you need it.
Kaden couldn’t think of anywhere in a hospital he could access that would be private. There probably were places but he’d get caught on camera looking for them. Unless…
“A hospital toilet might work. The only problem is that toilets are small. Though accessible ones are bigger. Oh, and they have a red cord you can pull if you’re in trouble. How long will it take for you to come out of me?”
I don’t know. How long can you last without oxygen?
“I can hold my breath for around 70 seconds. But under stress not as long as that. Brain damage starts after three minutes, I think. We’d need to use a toilet that isn’t in a busy area. Maybe I could put an out-of-order sign outside, if there’s one handy.”
A lot of planning was required.
8
Had Kaden found a way for him to exist in this world? Joe didn’t know. What he did know was the longer he stayed inside Kaden, the more dangerous it became for them both.
Joe was growing. He could feel his presence knitting deeper, the integration strengthening. If he remained in him, stayed silent, he could keep Kaden healthy and prolong his life, at least for a while. But the cost would be Kaden himself. His essence would erode, and Joe didn’t know how long it would take before it was more his body than Kaden’s.
Maybe survival outside of Kaden was impossible. But if Joe stayed inside him, Kaden would eventually break or others would decide he’d broken. How could Kaden ever have a boyfriend while his body was occupied by someone else?
Worse still, Joe didn’t want him to have a boyfriend.
Kaden was his.
The thought was dangerous. Selfish. Illogical. Joe knew that. And yet, with every fibre of his being, he wanted Kaden as his mate. He didn’t understand the thought. He shouldn’t have had it. Hewouldn’thave had it as 294. Joe had changed. Was still changing. He couldn’t tell Kaden how much he cared for him, at least not without frightening him. Not without destroying what little peace Kaden still had.
Joe had to come out of him. And Kaden had to be kept safe. Then, Joe could tell him how he felt. He’d have to pick his moment. And if it all went well, he’d go and see Harris and find out if Gash and Lanu were inside him. Though what he’d do if they were there he wasn’t sure. Or if they weren’t.
Kaden had already done more than anyone had the right to ask. And Joe hadn’t asked, he’d taken. Forced his way in. Not hurt him in the way Harris had, but close enough that Joe could no longer pretend otherwise. He understood now just how awfulthat violation had been. Harris was a bad person. Joe wasn’t. Or at least, he didn’t believe he was.
He was kind. Like Kaden. Well, learning to be kind.
Kindness—giving it or receiving it—was something Joe had never known. In his world, his only value had been as protection for hisother. Lanu had been his third assignment. The other two had reached their release date and he’d been reassigned. Lanu had been the worstotherhe’d ever known. Those like him seemed happy with their roles in general. Not all, but most. Maybe it was Joe who’d been wrong somehow, expecting more than he’d received. His purpose had been to preserve hisother’slife at the expense of his own. Gratitude had no place in that arrangement. He was never thanked. No one needed to be kind to him, so no one was.
But they should have been.
I’m different. I was different as 294 and I’m changing every day.
Now, for the first time, he stood on the edge of a different kind of world, one where everyone was valued, or should be valued. And he didn’t know how to exist in it without risking the one person who mattered the most.
But there was more to be done before that happened. More to learn. More to think about. He’d assumed the others in the tank were dead because he needed that to be true. But what if it wasn’t? If they were still in the building, Joe would know. He’d feel them. Perhaps Kaden should go back to the lab. He implanted the idea of checking for the remains of the craft while Kaden slept.
But going to the lab was not the first thing on Joe’s mind when Kaden woke. Sex was. Joe had woken earlier than Kaden and wished he could properly wrap his arms around him, hold him, touch him, be outside him. Kaden’s cock was hard and Joe couldn’t resist. He wanted to give Kaden another mind-blowingorgasm. Never mind that he got to experience it too. This time, he made Kaden feel as if his cock was inside a warm, wet mouth. Kaden gasped as Joe sucked. Not all his time online had been spent looking at immigration.
Please don’t tell me to stop!
He didn’t. Everything that Joe did, Kaden liked, judging by the sounds coming from his mouth and the way his hips were rising up from the mattress.
It was…glorious.
And Joe wished Kaden was coming in his mouth and not onto his own stomach.
One day.
