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WES
Okay, so I’m a pretty smart guy. I’ve mentioned that, right?
No, really, despite all appearances and the fact that I somehow ended up freezing my ass off on an alien planet, I am.
So while snuggling into Jax’s impressive warmth was happily distracting, I was pretty sure he was still keeping something from me. Maybe lots of somethings. Maybe there was no chance anyone would come help us before we died of exposure, and he was planning on killing me quickly in my sleep.
That seemed like something a warrior would do for someone he thought of as a helpless kid.
“You should not worry so,” he whispered against the back of my neck, his breath hot as he pulled me even tighter against him.
How had I gotten into this?
Oh yeah, I’d agreed to join him in his blanket fort. He’d been right, suggesting it would help us stay warmer. That was a plain old fact. But of course, it also ignored the fact that he was a hot guy, half alien or not, and I was a gay man with a fully functional libido.
I cleared my throat awkwardly and didn’t look up at him. “I’m not worried.”
He chuckled right next to my ear, voice throaty and resonant. “There is no shame in worry. The best warriors worry.”
“Do they?”
“My father told me so,” he agreed, and his tone changed as he spoke the sentence. Like it was more important than anything else he’d said in our acquaintance. Like it was an immutable law of the universe. It reminded me of a little kid, still convinced his father was perfect, but I didn’t think Jax was anything like that, so—“My father was Thorzan’s last truly great warrior. He said that worry is natural, and the best warriors use it to their advantage. That we trust our feelings.”
Ahh. That made sense, then. His father wasn’t just his father, but someone his entire culture still remembered with honor. It must be odd, to be the son of a legend.
Still, I snorted as I thought of humanity while snuggling back into him. “Sounds like your father was pretty great, but I think I heard the voices of millions of gamers cry out in anger for a second, though.”
“What are gamers, and why would they be angry with my father?” Jax asked, playing with the front strands of my hair.
Unlike every other Thorzi I’d met, Jax didn’t seem to be capable of sustained seriousness. Even the prince, so determined to do what was right, had been pensive and almost sad, without a hint of a smile. The Thorzi at Crux’s lab had been angry and frightened, or at least as dour as the kidnapping asshole himself. Crux’s... muscle? Guard? The warrior from that first night, who had hung around the lab, covered with tattoos, had been dead eyed and blank-faced, and I would have bet him incapable of even smiling. So even when I suggested a group of people would dislike someone he clearly venerated, he just asked why, playfulness filling his voice.
“Not, like all the gamers or anything,” I finally answered with a shrug, and it didn’t even make me dizzy, so clearly I was getting better. “There’s just this pervasive attitude among a lot of people that men need to act a certain way, and feelings don’t come into that.”
“Ahh.” He nodded, his stubble brushing my cheek. Only the hybrid aliens seemed to have facial hair, so I supposed it was a trait they inherited from their human ancestors. Either way, I’d always been a fan of the scrape of a little stubble. “Many Thorzi warriors also have this attitude. My father called it warrior inflexibility. They train to be strong, to be stoic, and forget that while stoicism has its place, feelings are what set us apart from unthinking beasts. The ability to see things from another angle than our own limited view.”
A warrior trying to sell me on empathy. Damn. Consider me sold. I pressed deeper into him, giving a little shiver like I was cold to excuse the shameless snuggling.
Jax didn’t seem bothered, though.
In fact...
If Jax had been a human, I’d have said he was pretty happy to see me. And, well... Jaxwashalf human, wasn’t he?
Between losing Dad the year before and then spending most of my time trying hard not to lose the house too, I hadn’t had a whole lot of time for recreational snuggling in a long while.
Not that most men were too interested in a nice snuggle. It was a shame, and Jax was pretty damn good at it.
Behind me, he took a deep breath, like—like he was sniffing me.
Could Thorzi smell emotions? Or, gods forbid, arousal?
Jax’s hot breath ghosted over the shell of my ear. “I would not wish to make you unhappy, Wesley. But you appear to be in a slightly uncomfortable state. I could help, if you so wish. What was it Kaelum said humans called it? Hard up?”
I didn’t know how he knew I was interested, but I couldn’t hold back a laugh at the comment. To make sure he didn’t take offense, I reached back and grabbed his hand, twining our fingers together on my hip. “Believe it or not, that actually means the opposite of what you think. ‘Hard up’ means you haven’t had sex in a long time. It’s not literal.” I bit my lower lip and wiggled my hips back into the cradle of his groin. Into the rather hot, scarily large bulge pressing into my ass. “But speaking of that particular problem, I don’t think I’m alone in it.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw that roguish grin of his make yet another appearance. Hell, the guy was like Indiana Jones with that grin, and that stubble, and just... I couldn’t be the only guy whose sexual awakening involved Harrison Ford and a bullwhip, right?
“No,” Jax agreed, his voice going even deeper against my ear, like rough gravel. “You are most definitely not alone, Wesley. I would not leave you with nothing but a blanket to care for your needs.”
