Maris laughed over the fact that Ture hadn’t even noticed as he’d slowly stripped in between pleasuring him. “Told you, I’m that good.”
“Yes, baby, you are.”
Maris moved to Ture’s side so that he could pull him into his arms and hold him.
Ture placed his hand over Maris’s as he leaned against his chest and threw one leg over Maris’s thighs. “I shudder at how many people you’ve been with to acquire your level of expertise.”
Cringing at something he hated to think or talk about, Maris sighed. Unfortunately, he also knew better than to lie about it. Sooner or later, Ture would find out and either he could accept it or he’d walk. And if he was going to walk, Maris would rather Ture leave now before any more of his affections took root. “You want the truth?”
“No...but yes. I don’t like lies.”
With a deep breath for courage, Maris braced himself for Ture’s anger and moral condemnation. “I was a whore.”
“Mari, you shouldn’t insult yourself like—”
“No, Ture. I was a trained prostitute. Bought and sold.”
Ture stiffened. “What?”
Here it comes...
“Don’t worry. I’m not diseased. I’ve been thoroughly tested.” He ground his teeth as pain surged forward to slice open his heart. “And it was a lifetime ago... When my parents found out I was gay, they disowned me. My father took everything I had and destroyed it. Even my clothes, and the money I’d legally earned and saved. All my assets were seized by the Phrixian government— beauty of having noble parents with political pull. I had nothing except the battlesuit on my back, and the handful of credits in my pocket. I was too embarrassed to tell Darling...or anyone, for that matter, how they’d done me. Humiliated and wanting to get away from the horrors of my life, I ran. Since I didn’t want to sign on as a soldier or assassin, and I had absolutely no other marketable skills, I ended up with the first guy willing to take me in. I thought he cared about me, but he was a slaver, looking for easy marks. Within a week, he’d hooked me on drugs and sold me to a brothel.”
“Oh sweetie...”
Maris savored the lack of condemnation as Ture brushed his hand through his hair and kissed him lightly on the lips.
“I’m so sorry, Mari. How long were you there?”
“Longer than I want to admit to. I’d probably still be there had Darling not busted hell itself open to find me, risking his own safety with his uncle to do so. By the time he located me, I was so high and sick I didn’t even recognize him.”
But Maris would never forget the sight of Darling as he wrapped a blanket around Maris to cover his naked body on that soiled, disgusting bed in the room where he’d been imprisoned and chained. Furious over what had been done to Maris against his will, Darling had held him close to his chest. He’d been equally as furious that Maris had failed to go to him when he needed help.
“Darling held me to his heart and told me that he was taking me home with him, slaver be damned. That he would never let me suffer so long as he lived. And he had to fight hard to get me free. Trained whores are worth a lot of money. They sent everything they had to stop him.” And Darling had cut through them and carried Maris out.
He smiled down at Ture. “As a token of my eternal gratitude for rescuing me, I threw up all over him on the way home. He didn’t say a single word about it. Instead, he took me to his friend Nykyrian and they, with Syn, nursed me back to health. And as soon as I was safe, Darling found the guy who’d sold me and the slaver who’d owned the brothel and tore them apart.”
“For that alone, I love Darling.”
Maris scoffed. “You say that now...”
Ture rose up to stare down at him. “I will always say it, Mari. He saved you for me. I owe him for that.”
Still, Maris didn’t believe it. He’d had too many guys tell him that they would never be jealous of Darling and in time, none of them had been able to tolerate the fact that if Darling called for him, he’d go without hesitation.
Day or night.
He owed Darling too much not to.
Maris pulled Ture against him and cradled his head against the center of his chest. He shifted slightly so that Ture’s body lay between his legs. “What about you? How did your parents react when they found out?”
“As well as yours. My dad slung everything I owned onto the lawn and set fire to it. Then they moved and made sure I didn’t have their new address. They were mortified at the thought of anyone learning the truth, so they told all our friends and family that I’d died. They even held a funeral.”
Maris flinched as raw anger went through him. He’d never understand the cruelty of others. Especially not against their own children. “You’re kidding?”
Ture shook his head.