Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Oh Cari...really?

So here I am editing together The Captain stories into one volume to make available to you guys...


Yay, right?  Fun story, my first every posted, I haven't read it for years, this is gonna be great!

Except then I get into the nuts and bolts, and...




Oh my god, grammar, woman!  Punctuation!  Mother of God, did you not attend college?  Don't you know the difference between "to" and "too?"  Did you even read this before you posted it the first time? 

Which, of course, I did, but as this was my very first story to be publically posted anywhere, and I was a total noob, I didn't get it beta'd.  I should have.  Oy.  I'm finding it hard to resist the urge to restrict myself to only technical and not substantive rewrites.  Guess I just need to write another part.  Incidentally, there will be an epilogue of sorts added onto the end of the completed story.

Also...I have grown as a writer and a human being.  I know I need a beta.  Readerwife, prepare to be mobbed.  Any other interested parties, let me know.  I want this to be good before I pay for a cover and get my peeps to help me massage it into different file formats for public consumption.

Happy Tuesday, people.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Paradise Post #7


Notes: Moving on!  I wanted a Cody chapter here, so there isn’t as much development of heavy plot as there could be, but it’s still fun.  Things are percolating…

 

Title: Paradise

 

Part Seven: New Friends, Old Acquaintances

 

 
 

***

 


                Breakfast was a big meal here on Paradise.  Back home, Cody might eat with his dad or with Garrett, but not usually with both, ‘cause they had to get to work at different times.  Here though, everyone showed up.  Maybe they only did because it was a “special occasion,” like Claudia said, but everyone was there, even Miles and Robbie.  They probably made sure to come because the food was so amazing.  Cody got to have pancakes with chocolate, caramel and whip cream in them, all coated with bright purple syrup.  Dad’s pancakes were plain and Garrett just had coffee, which was weird because he usually ate some cereal or something, but he looked really tired, and kept staring down into his mug.  Cody patted him on the knee.

                “I think you need a nap.”

                Garrett raised one eyebrow.  Watching it drove Cody crazy, he had been trying to learn how to do that for months, but he still hadn’t figured it out.  “Really?”

                “Yes.  You look sleepy.”

                “Huh.”

                “You sound sleepy too.”

                “Out of the mouths of babes,” Wyl intoned as he made another espresso.  Cody frowned.

                “I’m not a baby,” he told Wyl.  “I’m seven.”

                “It’s meant to be taken as kind of a metaphor…” Wyl began, then sighed.  “Never mind.  Why are you so tired anyway, Gare?”

                “I had an early morning meeting.”

                Dad looked over at him.  “So that’s where you got off to last night.  Who were you meeting?”

                “He was with me.”  Robbie didn’t speak loudly, but everyone always stopped what they were doing and looked at him when he spoke out.  “I wanted to pass on some information I thought the two of you might find interesting.  The timing of the rendezvous, by the way, was completely Garrett’s idea.  I was all for sleeping through the night.”

                “Oh, traitor.”  Garrett threw his unused napkin, which he’d folded in the shape of a space ship, at Robbie’s chest.  “See if I ever lie for you again, Benedict Arnold.”

                Cody was completely confused by now.  “Who’s Benedict Arnold?”

                The table was quiet for a moment.  “He was a general on Old Earth,” Miles said at last.  “He tried to betray the army he was working for to the enemy.  His plot was foiled, but after that people started using his name to refer to traitors.”

                “Note the personal contiguity that I’ve tailored to you with the military nature of the reference,” Garrett added, his fingertips tapping out a rhythm on the tabletop. He didn’t seem to notice he was doing it. “I could have gone with Judas, or Brutus, but one was too religious and the other too political.”

                “I’d prefer to be compared to Guy Fawkes, if I had to choose,” Robbie said.

                “Well too bad, because traitors can’t be choosers.”

                “Mind telling me what the information is?” Dad finally interjected.

                Robbie stared at Garrett.  Garrett stared back, his fingers tapping faster and faster against the table.  Dad finally reached over and took his hand, stopping the rapid beat.  “Darlin’?”

                “Yes.  Right.  There’s a Drifter ship in orbit right above Rapture.”  Garrett said it fast, like he was spitting out words that didn’t taste good.  “They’ve been here for a while.”

                “What’s the name?”

                “Is it Grandma’s?” 

Cody and his dad spoke at the same time.  Cody thought it would be fun if it was his Grandma’s ship, he hadn’t seen her for…oh…he couldn’t even really remember the last time he’d seen her.  Everything that had happened in his life up to Pandora was kind of blended into one big Before.  The things he did remember were short, tight hallways that went up and up and over and under like ropes tied in a big knot, with rooms in strange places and bluish lights that flickered on and off.  There had been lots of other kids to play with, but lots of sharp edges, too. 

This one time when he’d been playing hide and seek, Cody had wedged himself into a crawlspace that went all the way back to the bulkhead.  It had been really cold back there, and he’d cut his shoulder scootching all the way in and hadn’t even realized it, because the metal was so frosty it made him numb.  None of the other kids found him, and Cody didn’t realize that they’d given up and the game was over until he heard his daddy shouting for him.  By then he was too cold and stiff to crawl back out.  They’d had to move parts of the ship to reach him, and Daddy hadn’t been happy when he’d found Cody injured.

“It’s called the Gondola,” Robbie said.  “The family name is Dechiara.”

“Kilroy,” his dad said thoughtfully. “I know him.  He usually does business out of the Triad cluster, though.  Strange for him to be here.”

“Strange how?” Robbie asked immediately.

“Strange in a way that’s none of our business, because we don’t care,” Garrett interjected.  He and Robbie stared at each other again.  Cody felt his shoulders tense up and didn’t know why.

“O-kay!” Wyl’s voice was a little too loud, but at least he got everyone’s attention. “I think I’ve had enough to eat. Cody, are you full?”

“Well…” Really, he could eat another pancake probably, but…Wyl probably wanted to do something fun.  “Yeah.  Why?”

“I thought now might be a good time to go for that hoverbike ride.  It’s not too awfully hot out there yet.”

“Yes!”  Cody slammed down his fork and kicked the chair back, ready to go.

“Ah, but—” Garrett held up a hand that stopped him.  “You’re supposed to start your lessons today.  If we get back to Pandora and you’re behind the class, your teacher will hang me up by my toes.”

“Miss Lowenstein just says that,” Cody reassured Garrett.  “But she never actually does it.  I mean, I’ve never seen her do it.”

“If anyone could drive her to it, it would be me,” Garrett said, but he was smiling now.  “Okay.  Or, it’s okay with me as long as you’re back by lunchtime, but you should ask your dad.”

“Fine with me, bucko.”  His dad ruffled his hair fondly.  Cody rolled his eyes and tried to smooth his curls back down.  “Have fun with Wyl. Be good.”

“I’m always good!”  Cody paused just long enough to kiss his dad’s cheek, then Garrett’s, before hopping onto the floor and heading out of the kitchen at Wyl’s heels.  “Where’s the bike?”

“It’s in the lot, in my personal parking space,” Wyl said, buzzing them through the connecting door between the mansion and the military base.  “It’s my favorite way to get around here.  Robbie likes tanks, but I think they lack subtlety.”
                “I’d like to ride in a tank!”

“I bet you would,” Wyl chuckled.

“I would be very careful if you let me drive it, too,” Cody continued, trying his Wide, Innocent Eyes Look on Wyl.  It got him what he wanted all the time with his dad and Garrett, but Wyl just smirked. 

“Nice try, Cody, but no.  Now.”  They stopped in an equipment room, where a bored-looking sat reading a magazine at a desk.  Behind him was a cage of some kind, with a glowing, filmy outline.  “Sergeant Powell.”

“Mr. Leyton.”

“I’d like to requisition a helmet for my friend here.  I had one ordered special a few months back.”

“I think we have something like that.”  The sergeant stood up and swiped his palm over a reader, then hummed low in his throat.  The glow vanished and he opened the door.  “Just a second.”  He went inside and Cody bounced anxiously on the balls of his feet.  When the man came back out with a shiny, nearly-transparent helmet that had the black Space Ranger emblazoned on top of it, Cody’s mouth fell open.

“Wow.”

“Your dad said you’d like this one,” Wyl grinned.  “Try it on.”

Cody shoved the helmet down over his head and pressed the loose strap to the other side.  The strap bonded to the helmet with an audible snap.  “You have to use a special tool to release it,” Wyl explained.  “It’s the safest version on the market right now.”

“Cool, can we go now?” Cody didn’t want to hear about how safe it was, he just wanted to go fast.

“I think your friend’s got an agenda,” the sergeant noted.

“I guess so.  C’mon, let’s head out.”

Cody didn’t pay attention to anything other than the weight of his sweet new helmet and how awesome it must look until they were in the lot, and Wyl’s bike was right there in front of them.  It was so much better than Cody had imagined. “You didn’t say it had lightning bolts!”

“How could it be perfect without lightning bolts?” Wyl replied.  He took his own helmet off the handlebars and put it on, then started up the bike, which rose to hover a few feet from the ground.  He lifted Cody onto the back of the bike, then swung his own leg over.  He revved the engine, which growled dramatically.  Cody shivered with excitement and wrapped his arms tight around Wyl’s waist.

“You ready?” Wyl shouted over the noise.

“Yes!”

They roared out of the lot and into the sun, and if Cody’s initial yell of joy was a little tempered by a momentary fear, well, Wyl would never tell anyone.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Where is it, my precious?!?

WHERE IS IT????



Don't worry, the next Paradise post should be up in, like, 12 hours.  Maybe less.  Cross my heart, hope to die, writhe on the ground in agony!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Omg, we're finally moving...

My fingers are trying to spontaneously curl forward thanks to three days spent schlepping boxes and furniture into our new house.  Everything that you remember as painful when you've moved yourself: arms, hands, back knees...yeah.  Feelin' that.  This is the first time in over three years that all of our belongings have been in the same place at one time.  I had no idea we owned so much crap.

On the plus side, I'm living in a great big beautiful house, I have access to my library again and I have carte blanche to walk around in the nude whenever I want (TMI?) because this house is in the mountains and we have no close neighbors and no housemates.  Freedom!!!  On the minus side, the contractor forgot to do a few things, like seal off the base of the shower, fix the electrical outlets in the bedroom, and ensure that the heat not only turns on, but that it turns off as well.  He refuses to fix such things until he talks to the owners of the newly refurbished house, who live in Germany and are working in Alsace for the next two weeks, rendering them unavailable.  So.  My own personal Mr. Fix-It is plotting ways around this obstructionism and I'm just trying to get internet installed.  If I'm mostly absent for the next few days, that's why.  It's surprisingly difficult to get certain amenities in the mountians.

I'll attach a picture of the new place when I can find my camera; so pretty!  In the meantime, I'll have more Paradise love up soon and will discuss my upcoming serial story.  Mmm...serial. 


And PS--hard labor has its perks!  A couple of boulders rolled onto our access road (yes, actual boulders, big rocks that weighed hundreds of pounds, this is where we live now) and it fell to us to move them with rock bars, break them up with sledge hammers and for me to ogle my man wielding said implements.  All this equals a free peepshow for me.  Gotta love it:)

Friday, September 14, 2012

Paradise Post #6


 

Notes: Finally I have a path forward in my head, a clear and present plot.  This means you get Garrett and Robbie and real development.  And more soon, because this is working on me now, making me love it, making me want to go deeper.  We’re going to meet some very interesting people soon.  I don’t know yet if I’m going to love them or hate them.  On verra, as they say in Togo.  We’ll see.

 

Title: Paradise

 

Part Six: Trip On Guilt, Stumble Over Honesty

 



***

 

                At 0300 in the morning, not even a day after arriving on Paradise, Garrett shouldn’t have been awake.  No matter that the artificial days and nights on his ship didn’t match up perfectly with the cycle on Paradise, it had still been an exhaustively long day, and Garrett should have been too tired to be up. In truth, he was too tired to be up.  There was nothing he wanted more than to be nestled face-first into the gigantic bed in his ridiculous suite, taking up more than his fair share of the space and getting away with it because Jonah was good that way.  He could be sleeping in his fiance’s arms right now, and instead he was dressed (in loose, informal house clothes, but still, dressed was dressed) and making his way to the juncture of the Governor’s mansion and the military’s headquarters.  All because Robbie had to “talk.”

                Garrett didn’t care for Robbie’s talks.  They usually had the dual purpose of shaming and educating him, and just anticipating it was making Garrett preemptively defensive.  The worst of it was, no matter what Robbie had on his mind, it was probably worth listening to.  Because he couldn’t be happy with being a superior human being, he had to try to improve everyone else too.  Fucker.  Some of Garrett’s most epic bitch sessions with Wyl had been on this very subject, although Wyl was better about having his imperfections pointed out to him than Garrett was.

                It wasn’t until the marines let Garrett into Robbie’s office and went off to fetch their commanding officer that Garrett realized, a little too late to be useful, that when Robbie had said, “We need to talk soon,” and given him that meaningful look, he might have meant sometime during the actual day, not at 0300 in the morning.  But the prospect had gnawed at Garrett, taking tiny, vicious bites out of his subconscious until he had given sleep up as a bad deal and forced himself up with a sigh.

                If he had been a little more forthcoming, Garrett probably could have avoided this whole conundrum in the first place.  He knew what this talk was going to be about.  But honestly, it wasn’t relevant—it wasn’t—that there was a Drifter ship in orbit above Paradise.  There were hundreds of clans, probably thousands of ships.  There was no reason for this one to be important, not even to Jonah.  So why bother mentioning it?  It might not be relevant, but Garrett knew it would perturb his lover; Jonah was the type to brood if he thought he could get away with it.  Garrett had just been saving them all some grief.  And naturally, of course, Robbie was about to undo all that patient circumspection with his own brand of taking care of someone, which was forthrightness, honesty and a bunch of other crap.

                “When I said ‘talk,’” Robbie’s voice said from the door, and Garrett swiveled around in the chair he had claimed to face him, “I didn’t mean ‘wake me up to come and deal with your issues at all hours.’”

                “Not true,” Garrett teased with a smile, determined to get his jabs in while he still had a leg to stand on.  “You never put limitations on discussions of serious subjects.  You should, it would make you a healthier and more rested person, but you don’t.  I can only assume that’s the military training taking over your greatly diminished free will.”

                “Do not be an asshole to me right now, Gare, I’m this close to yelling at you,” Robbie growled.  He had on grey gi pants and a black t-shirt, and he looked completely edible.  Robbie had always worn “annoyed” so well, with that little line between his eyebrows and the harder line of his mouth.  Garrett appreciated the fact that he could look and not want, now.  It made the teasing easier.  “You were supposed to let Jonah know about the Drifters.”

                “I don’t really see why.”

                “Because it’s something that might affect him and you’re supposed to discuss things like that with your significant other, Gare.”

                “Still not seeing the relevancy.”

                Robbie rolled his eyes and took a deep breath.  “Here’s some relevancy for you: that ship has been up there for over a standard month, keeping a careful distance from the surface and only trading through intermediaries, like most Drifter ships do.  Now all of a sudden, just minutes after Jonah landed your ship actually, they want permission to dock a shuttle.  Not just that, they want to dock it in the closest port in Rapture to the mansion.  Any guesses as to what prompted their sudden request?”

                Garrett had spent his entire life surrounded by tacticians.  It didn’t take more than a second to figure out what Robbie was referring to, and why it had taken him and Miles away from the group yesterday.  “Oh, damn it.  They must have a skimmer.”

                “Exactly,” Robbie agreed.  “They heard Jonah’s transmission to the Tower here, recognized the accent and now someone’s curious.  That in and of itself isn’t a problem, but…”

                “If they heard that, what else have they been listening to?” Garrett finished.  He felt really tired all of a sudden, tired down to his bones, tired on the inside of his skull, just behind his eyes.  “They’ve been listening to ship transmissions going into and out of Paradise.”

                “With a pretty high tech skimmer, because we didn’t detect anything when we inspected them before allowing them a long term space dock,” Robbie said.  “It’s just circumstantial right now, but I’m betting that tomorrow we’ll start seeing some of them in town, asking questions, trying to get in touch.  I think they’re interested in Jonah.  I’ve got several theories on why.”

                “And you want me to facilitate testing those theories by telling Jonah about these newly loquacious Drifters.”

                “He can hear it from you, or he can hear it from me,” Robbie said.  He was wearing his “determined” face now, and Garrett knew there was no gainsaying it.  “For all I know they just caught a sliver of conversation and someone recognized him and wants to say hello.  Drifters are a very insular, tightly bound society, it’s not impossible that Jonah misses certain aspects of it.  He shouldn’t be denied the right to make a connection just because you’re nervous.”

                “Fuck you.”

                “No thanks.”  They sat and stared at each other in silence for a minute.  “What are you really worried about?”

                “Nothing I can put a name to,” Garrett said morosely, resigned at this point to telling Robbie the truth.

                “Is it the wedding?”

                “Only insofar as I wish the wedding was over already so that I could have proof that Jonah and Cody belong to me.”

                “They’re here, with you.  Isn’t that proof enough?”

                “It’s never enough,” Garrett scoffed.  “You know me, I want a dozen impossible things done for me before breakfast, just to feel secure enough to go about the day.”

                “You’ve gotten a lot better, Gare,” Robbie said soothingly.

                “Yes, well.  It’s always a relative measure.”  He sat quiet under Robbie’s gaze, then gave him a half-smile as his former lover walked over to him and clasped his shoulder in one broad, warm hand.

                “You’ll be fine,” Robbie stated.  No prevarication, just belief.  “Both of you.  You’ll tell him in the morning?”

                “Yes,” Garrett sighed.  “Can I make it seem like I just learned it, or does that not queue up with your code of honor?”

                “Whatever makes you more comfortable.”  Robbie squeezed his shoulder, then let go.  “Now, I’m going back to bed.  Wyl won’t get any sleep if I don’t.”

                “Aww, you’re his teddy-Robin,” Garrett cooed, happy to have a change of subject.

                “Don’t call me that.”

                “But it’s your legal name, Robin of Locksley.”

                “Go to bed, Gare.”  Robbie left, and Garrett swung the chair back and forth in a 90 degree arc, rhythmic and blank.  Go to bed.  He could do that; in fact most of him yearned to slide back into his warm bed and cuddle up to his own teddy-Jonah.  But he was awake now, wide awake and pensive and jittery, and he’d be a miserable bedmate at this point.  Better to let Jonah sleep.  Coffee was what he needed, and some time alone.  By the time his fiance woke up, Garrett would have worked out what he needed to do, he’d have found that fine line between Robbie’s abject honestly and his own penchant for obfuscation.

                Coffee, then deep thoughts.  Garrett got up and headed toward Claudia’s kitchen.

               

Thursday, September 13, 2012

New Cover and post-conference news!

Hey darlins

First off, I got the cover for my story The Solstice Gift coming out in December, and it is so beautiful I have to share.  My story is part of an anthology, but it seems like it still gets its own cover, which, okay!  No bitching from this corner!


Oooohh!!!  Niiiiice!!!
 
 

In other news, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's conference was a hell of a learning experience.  Fun, because I met so many interesting people (and believe me, any circumstance where I'm not the most awkward person in the room is both rare and entertaining to me) and challenging, because I learned a lot about the publishing industry, writing craft and getting an agent, which I need to do.  So.  Lots of connections, lots of people with similar interests and goals, and even one erotica author to chat with (love you, Thea!).  I'll let you guys know if anything concrete comes of this experience.

And yes, more Paradise is on deck.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Paradise Pt. 5


Notes: Part Five, yay!  I put this story ahead of polishing my pitch for the conference I’m at, guys, feel my love for you.  Speaking of which, if any of my new conference friends are reading this…hey, I warned you.  Smut.  Dirty post ahead, darlins, I hope you all enjoyJ  Not as much conflict as I originally planned, but it’s coming!

 

Title: Paradise

 

Part Five: Settling In

 

 

 

***

 

 

                The mansion was…immense.  That was really the only word for it.  Jonah had been inside some damn big houses before; hell, he had lived on a Drifter commune ship that meandered through space for over a mile in a million different directions, only cohesive in the central core.  That had been big, but it wasn’t the same as this place.  This was meant to hold a single family: the Governor’s.  The governor of an entire Federation planet who was also Garrett’s father, and a general, and the son of one of the oldest, wealthiest central system dynasties.  To say that Jonah was comfortable with the situation would have been grossly overstating it.

                Cody was clearly having the time of his life, though.  His shyness had lasted all of a minute, and from there on out he became the cheerful, friendly and above all loud child that Jonah recognized.  He bounced between the different members of the welcoming committee, talking nonstop about the movie he’d made for them and how soon they could watch it, about how different it was here and whether there were any toys in his room, when they could have dinner and what it was going to be and when he could go for a ride on Wyl’s bike.  Wyl was encouraging him, and Claudia looked completely smitten, even with the baby in her arms.  Miles was quieter, but Jonah kind of liked it that way.  The man intimidated the hell out of him.

                They got to Cody’s rooms, which were around the size of the entire top floor of Jonah’s house back on Pandora, and his kid promptly lost all semblance of control and just ran around, eyes wide, mouth open and joyfully whooping at everything he saw.  The rooms looked like they had been designed for Cody.  They probably had, actually, given the company.  The walls were covered with Space Ranger holograms, the bed was shaped like a rocket bike, and the floor had pressure sensors that triggered a lightning bolt effect wherever someone took a step.

                “You can change it to do other things,” Wyl added, pulling up a control pad on the wall beside the bed.  “Jump.”  Cody jumped, and a ripple effect flowed from his feet across the floor.

                “Wow…”

                “Jump again.”  This time it was a firework, a different color every time. 

                Cody looked over at him worshipfully.  “What else can it do?”

                “Oh man, whatever you can think of, come here.”  Cody ran over to join Wyl and they settled in to play with the floor.  Claudia held up Renee to watch the colors change as she stepped around the room, and the baby seemed transfixed.

                “That’s it, hand her over.”  Garrett made peremptory, grabby fingers at his stepmother.  “You’ve had her forever, it’s my turn to hold my little sister.”  Claudia rolled her eyes but handed Renee over to Garrett, who curled her into the crook of his arm and grinned widely at her.  It was an expression Jonah didn’t see very often on his fiance, totally open and uncalculating, even more than with Cody.  Renee was too little to need teasing or coaxing, all she wanted was Garrett’s undivided attention, and apparently his face to grab onto.  Garrett let her little hands roam freely over his mouth and nose, but backed up a bit when they got close to his hair.

                “What?” he said when he saw Jonah smile.  “It took forever for me to get it this way.”

                “I didn’t say anything.”

                “I can hear you thinking it,” Garrett sniffed, turning to look back at his little sister.  “You’ve got good genes, Renee, but remember, being beautiful still takes work.  You can’t let the haters bring you down to their sartorial level.”

                “Hey, I like the way you look,” Jonah protested.

                “Gare spent hours in front of the mirror as a kid,” Miles said.  “I’m hoping Renee won’t be quite so attached to her own reflection.”

                “We can’t heeear you,” Garrett sing-songed, spinning in a slow circle.  “La la la la la…”  Images of blue orchids sprang up beneath his feet, the result of Wyl and Cody’s latest try, and Jonah couldn’t have looked away if he tried.

                A quiet knock sounded by the door.  They turned and Jonah finally saw the last member of their intimate group, Robbie Sinclair.  He was in his marine uniform, a black military jacket and slacks with a colonel’s insignia on each shoulder.  His hair was short, sandy with grey at the temples, and he had a calm, almost grave expression on his handsome face.  It changed to a smile as soon as he and Garrett made eye contact.

                “There you are!  Honestly, what is wrong with your people, shooting guns at tanks and making you late for the important things in life?” Garrett groused.  “Hang on a sec.”  He turned to Jonah.  “Can you take her for a moment?”

                “Uh…sure.”  An instant later Jonah’s arms were full of baby and Garrett was at the door and in Robbie’s embrace.  It was tight and warm and close…Jonah turned his eyes back down to Renee.  She stared back at him with bright, curious blue eyes.  They looked a lot like Garrett’s, actually, the same warmth and long, long lashes.  She reached for his face and he intercepted her little fingers with one of his own, letting her tug on that instead.  It had been a long time since he’d held a baby.  Those had been a tense couple of years, with Cody, always worried about his health and dealing with a slow and painful separation from the life he’d always known.  Renee started to squirm, and a moment later Claudia was there, reaching for her.

                “She’s probably hungry,” she explained.  “I should take her back to our wing and feed her.  Miles—” She turned toward the door, then frowned. “Where has he gotten off to?” Miles and Robbie and Garrett were all missing, although Garrett came back into the room after a few seconds.

                “Sorry, Robbie had to steal Dad because he’s a heartless bastard with a lousy sense of timing,” Garrett explained nonchalantly.  Wyl sent him an aggravated look.  “I’m sure it’s nothing serious,” Garrett added. “Some kind of a thing over a thing, whatever, their work is never done. So!” He looked at Jonah. “We should get moved in ourselves. Our suite is right down the hall.”

                “We should get Cody settled first, grab the rest of his stuff out of the ship—” Jonah started, but his son looked up with wide eyes.

                “No, not yet! Wyl has to show me how the rest of the room works. Can we do it later? Please?”

                “It’s not a problem, I have nothing else on my schedule today,” Wyl added, his fingers tapping fast against the tops of his thighs.  He never seemed to be entirely still.  “I’d love to spend some more time with Cody.  You guys go get moved in, and you,” he pointed at Claudia, “feed your baby. We’re good here.”

                “You sure, bucko?” Jonah asked.  All he got was a distracted nod as Cody began experimenting with sound effects.

                “I guess we’ll all meet for dinner,” Claudia sighed.  “Your rooms are all set up, Gare, but just let me know if you need anything else.”

                “I’ll let the staff know, not you,” Garrett chided her.  “Honestly, woman, are you not busy enough?  Do you need another baby to use up that extra time?”

                “One is enough, thanks,” she said dryly.  She left, and after a few moments of reassuring himself that Cody would be fine, Jonah let Garrett tug him out of his son’s rooms.  They walked fifty feet down the hall and turned into the open door.

                Garrett’s suite was huge.  The ceiling was vaulted marble, the furniture was sparse, there were no rugs to soften the hard, cold lines of stone and metal.  It felt oddly sterile, and sort of uncomfortable.  Garrett shut the door behind them, then looked around.

                “I almost never stayed in these rooms,” he said, glancing around.  “I always preferred sleeping on my ship.  I’ve had the Icarus for more than half my life, and no matter where I was living, it was a constant place that was just mine, where I could do what I wanted to.”

                “Yeah, this place is…it’s…” Jonah wasn’t quite sure how to express how awkward he felt here, not just in these rooms but in this entire place.  He had none of his son’s ease of integration; instead he felt every footstep like it hurt.  “Different,” he finished.

                “I know.  Try to ignore it.”  Garrett took Jonah’s hand and pulled him further into the suite, past an uncomfortable-looking couch and a tremendous holo-screen.  “Honestly, the only advantage that these rooms have over the ship is the size of the bathroom and the size of the bed.”  Garrett pulled Jonah through an archway with a holographic barrier for a door, showing a stone façade on the outside.  Jonah flinched a little as he passed through, then relaxed once he saw they were entering a bedroom. 

                “Wow.”  That was a big, big… “That’s a big bed.”

                “Yeah, I think the original decorator just lost their mind when it came to this room and decided, fuck it, let’s just fill it all with mattress.”  It covered the entire back wall and left a slender walkway around the edge of it to lead to the bathroom and a retracting closet in the wall.  “I mostly used this place to store my wardrobe.”  Garrett considered the bed for a moment.  “And to have threesomes, but I didn’t really do that very often.”

                Jonah could just see it.  “You sure we can’t sleep on the ship?”

                “Oh baby, are you jealous?”  Garrett wrapped long arms around Jonah’s back, holding him securely.  “You don’t have anything to be jealous about.”  Warm lips pressed to the back of Jonah’s neck.  “I never loved my life here, no matter who I was with.  I never even came close to loving it with anyone who came into this room.  But I love my life now.  And I could totally love you on my bed right now.”

                Sometimes sex was the question and the answer all in one.  “Hope they’ve changed the sheets since the last time you were in here,” Jonah said.

                “Oh, they’re fresh,” Garrett assured him, swiveling around Jonah’s body and sitting down on the edge of the bed.  “White and virginal.  Perfect for making all delicious and filthy and debauched.”

                “You wanna debauch our sheets?” Jonah asked, distracted by Garrett’s swift undressing.  Blue cloth fell away and was tossed aside as Garrett got nude.  He wasn’t hard yet, but he looked well on his way.

                “Well, I want to debauch you on them.  It’s debauchery through osmosis, baby.”  Garrett tugged Jonah closer, then set to work getting him naked.  Jonah tried to help but Garrett slapped his hands away.  “Mine,” he said simply.  Jacket, shirt, belt, pants…Jonah’s brain went back online when he realized he was effectively hobbled as long as he kept his shoes on, and he kicked them and his pants off before joining Garrett on the bed.

                “We don’t have a lot of time,” Jonah mumbled around the kisses they shared, both of them on their knees, touching each other nonstop.  “Cody could come in here any time.”

                “No, Wyl knows the score.  He’ll keep him occupied for at least half an hour,” Garrett said, biting gently at Jonah’s lower lip.  “That’s enough time for me to blow you.”

                “Oh, hell.”  Jonah clenched his eyelids shut for a moment.  “Gotta save some time for me, darlin’.  I don’t want to leave you hangin’.”

                “I can come just from looking at you,” Garrett assured him.  “But we’ll see.”  He pushed Jonah onto his back and crouched between his legs.  He looked strange there, beautiful and a little feral all made up, and Jonah reached down and worked his fingers into Garrett’s sculpted hair, messing it up as well as he could from that angle.

                “Better?” Garrett asked archly, no word about his hours of work gone to waste now.

                “Almost.”  Jonah tugged and Garrett bent down immediately and sucked him into his mouth.

                Fuck…there was nothing like this, nothing.  Being inside of his fiance’s body was good, it was so good, but when it came to coming hard and fast, there was no substitute for Garrett’s mouth.  Warm heat enveloped Jonah’s length, sliding up slowly, with his slick tongue bathing the underside of the shaft and circling the head eagerly.  Eager, Garrett was always so fucking eager to take him in…

                A hint of teeth caught at the flare of his foreskin.  “Fuck,” Jonah groaned, his body caught between flinching away from the sensation and moving into it.  Garrett hummed appreciatively as he pulled back. 

“Good?”

                “Bad,” Jonah said, and Garrett smiled.

                “But good bad.”

                “Garrett—”

                Warmth again, heat and pressure and fast, this was going to be really fast, so fast it would have been embarrassing if they were at home, but this was the first time since they’d left that Garrett had really laid hands on him outside of a few very tight, very hurried showers on the ship, and fast was all Jonah was capable of giving right now.  Fast, hips rocking up without him realizing it, noises he hadn’t approved coming out of a rebel throat, all of it tight and on the edge of losing control, the very fucking edge, and when Garrett just opened his throat and took him deep and pressed down hard on the skin right beneath his balls—

                It was over.  Done.  He came with a flash of light, with a flare of darkness, all the effects Cody had been displaying on his floor erupting behind Jonah’s eyelids.  He came hard and panting and mostly delirious, and Garrett just let him flail and grasp and hold his once-perfect hair way too tightly as he rode out the sensations one shivering wave at a time. 

Slowly the tension slid away and so did Jonah’s grasp on Garrett, dissolving into pleasant lethargy.  Garrett pet his thighs gently for a moment before straddling his chest.  Jonah’s arms were trapped by his sides, and it was all he could do to open his eyes and look at his lover as Garrett took himself in hand and beat off quickly, short, jerky strokes of his wrist culminating in a spray of white all across Jonah’s neck and chin.  The scent of it filled his nose and made his mouth water.  Garrett, because he had to be psychic, caught his breath and swirled a finger through the mess, then lifted it to Jonah’s lips.  He took it into his mouth and suckled gently, cleaning it off with his tongue.

“You’re mine,” Garrett said hoarsely, his expression strangely fevered and needy.  “We’re for each other.  Nothing else matters.”

“Just you,” Jonah said, wondering how they had gone from sexual to soothing so fast.  “’Course it’s just you, darlin’.”

For a second it looked like Garrett would say something else, something serious, but then his body became like liquid and he slid down onto his side, draping himself casually over Jonah.  “Good.  Shower?  Because no offense, but you’re a fucking mess, baby.”

“I blame you.”

“Fair enough.”

 

               

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Cool Sh*t!

Let's start with the shit that I want to give you:)  By unanimous decision (2 whole votes plus me = a majority) I'm going to so an ebook for The Captain series first.  Yay!!!


Gotta love us some Age of Sail, Napoleonic-era, Trafalgar-glorifying sea battle action!  Historical fiction, obviously:)  This is the first story I ever wrote for public consumption and I've had it up in three parts on Literotica for years, but I'm going to edit them more nicely together and get the grammar mistakes out before offering it up to you in ebook form.  Hopefully this will be out before the end of the month, it's my first time putting something like this together.

Other stuff I have coming up...more Paradise (soon, swear, my computer works!  It's ALIIIIIVE!!!), I'm working up a serial story concept that may be offered in the new year, a Winter Fae story in an anthology coming out in December, and a free story in an SMP anthology with a legal theme before the year is out.  Plus my mind is never, ever silent, so there are lots of things that could happen in the near future. 

And lastly, some personal cool shit: while my man and I still aren't moved into our house (I'm sort of thinking it may never happen at this point, but whatever, my cousin's couch is formed around the shape of me at this point) I'm going to go to a writing conference this next weekend.  Three days of writing seminars, huzzah, plus a query review and a pitch session.  Which is awesome!  Hopefully I'll come out of it better prepared to do the thing I'm trying to make into my career.  How freakishly adult of me.

Happy Sunday, guys.