“Why?”
“League mandate. They wanted a member of the immediate ruling family to study human behavior so that we wouldn’t be so warring against them. They couldn’t take Kyr because he was heir at that time, so my father held a random drawing for the rest of us, and mine was the name the computer spat out.”
Ture heard the bitterness in Maris’s tone. “You really don’t like humans, do you?”
“I didn’t like my classmates. Humans are all right so long as they’re human.”
He couldn’t agree more. “Did the League’s plan work?”
“Might have had the gay son not been sent. As it was, my father blamed my personal choice on the exposure to an inferior species at such an impressionable age. In the end, all it did was fuel Kyr to rise up in the League ranks and wage his own war against the rest of the worlds. And my father now hates all humans with an unreasoning madness.”
“I’m sorry, Mari.”
“Thanks, but you didn’t do it. I don’t know what happened to Kyr. He wasn’t soulless until he was seventeen. Something he won’t talk about changed him forever. Whatever it was, it killed what little compassion he had and turned him into the monster he is today.”
Ture heard the sadness and regret in Maris’s tone. “You still love him?”
“He’s my brother. I’m not the one who disowned him. And even though I don’t agree with his actions or opinions, it doesn’t sever the blood tie we share.”
That was the heart that had won Ture’s affections.
Ture pulled up to a small parking garage and docked. Maris got out first and waited until Ture joined him. It was a nice apartment building just a few blocks from the restaurant. A uniformed doorman let them in.
Maris didn’t speak as they entered the lift that took them to the top floor. Ture’s place was at the end of a long, elegant hall.
Ture unlocked the door. “I’m hoping Anachelle’s asleep.”
“She’s not asleep,” Anachelle called from a bedroom in back. “But she’s closing her door and putting on her noise-cancelling headphones. You two have all the fun you want and don’t even think about me being here. My room fridge is fully stocked and I’m locked up for the night.”
Maris laughed. “I really like her.”
“So do I. Let me check on her and I’ll be right back.”
Maris stayed in the living room, but he could hear their playful exchange as Ture fussed at her for being awake and not resting.
“Go mother the boyfriend you don’t have and tell him that yes, my feet are up. I’m fine, Grandma.”
Ture was still smiling as he returned, shaking his head. “She’s incorrigible.” He headed for the kitchen. “Would you like some wine?”
“I better not. I don’t want to be tipsy.”
Ture arched a brow at that.
“I had a bad drug and drinking problem for a while. Really don’t want to go back to it.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know.”
Maris draped his jacket over the back of a chair. “It’s not something people wear on a scanable collar around their necks. Hey, Universe, I’m a recovering addict.”
“If it makes you feel better, I had a brief bad period myself.”
Maris locked a gaze with his that sent a shiver down his spine. “Doesn’t make me feel better for you. It sucks to be all alone in hell.”
“But you always had Darling.”
Maris didn’t comment. There had been a brief time, due to his own stupidity, when he’d been alone. But he tried not to think about that.
And he prayed to the gods that he never had to go through something like that again.
Ture came up behind him and wrapped his arms around Maris’s waist. “I have to say you look delectable tonight, but nothing like what I expected.”
He sucked his breath in as Ture teased his earlobe with his teeth. “I’m not always a flamboyant queen. I do have occasional moments of screaming normality.”
“It makes no never mind to me how you dress, Mari. I adore all facets of your personality.” He slid his hand down to cup him while he continued to swirl his tongue around Maris’s ear. His breathing turned ragged.
Leaning back, Maris ran his hand through Ture’s hair, and closed his eyes while he savored the sensation of being held and touched again. It’d been way too long. And it made him ache for the one thing that had always eluded him.
A real relationship with someone who could give as much as he took.
He was so tired of selfish users. Of people who were even more emotionally damaged than he was.
His heart pounding, he captured Ture’s lips as Ture sank his hand down into Maris’s pants to stroke him. He growled at how good it felt.
“You are really hard.”
Maris smiled. “I’ve been like this since you called.”