Ten years ago, Nerian Bader escaped his home planet in search of a life in the stars. He lost the love of his life in the process. Now, a distress call has brought him back into that quadrant of space, but the last name he expects to hear in it is his dead lover’s. Suddenly, he has a second chance to save Tam, and he’ll do whatever it takes to do so.
Though Fellowman Tam Deiga doesn’t agree with his government’s separatist policies, he is trapped on Tathis unless he gets outside help. Though he’s shocked Nerian is the one answering his call, his first priority is to warn Nerian’s bosses about the encroaching Tathisian threat. He still loves Nerian, though. With danger looming from both regimes, can they find a way to forgive their past and share their future?
He took a deep breath. His hands were shaking. Even though he’d spent the entire swim down thinking about Tam, he still couldn’t really believe he was about to see him again. Balling his hand into a fist, he rapped out the basic code they had agreed upon for a signal. He didn’t exhale until the door slid open.
It wasn’t Tam. The woman who barred the entryway nearly filled it. Voluptuous and statuesque, she wore the familiar uniform of a first aide, though it was modernized from what he had known as a child. The pale blue fabric shimmered against her ruddy skin, darker than most Tathisians he remembered, and poker-straight black hair matched her glittering eyes.
Her full mouth was unsmiling. In fact, she didn’t have any lines whatsoever in her face. Nerian wondered if she’d ever smiled in her life.
“Where’s Tam?” he said without waiting for introductions or confirmation.
Her mouth tightened further. “You’re from the Extrados?”
He did his best not to roll his eyes. “Would I have bothered asking questions first if I was part of the patrol?” He tried to move past her, only to be blocked. “Having this conversation in the hall is a little dangerous, don’t you think? Let me in. We don’t have a lot of time.”
Her irritation was a tangible push against his brain. They both jerked at the same moment they realized it. Compatible theta waves. Of course. He just hadn’t had anybody in his head since Tam. He’d never had anybody in his head except Tam. It made him want to clamp his hands over his ears, though he realized that was a purely childish reaction and would do absolutely no good at all.
Slanie glanced up and down the hall before stepping back. Nerian slipped in beside her, suppressing the shiver that ran through him at the physical contact. He had to blink more than once when she shut the door behind him. The closet was darker than the Dip. Normally, he wouldn’t mind, not with as many hours as he spent in the bowels of ships, but he had a reason to want to see now.
Another soft push came to his thoughts. This wasn’t the belligerent invasion of Slanie’s mood. This was heat from a roaring fire, wafting into a cooler room. He knew this presence. Welcomed it. His head turned unerringly in its direction, and the world stood still.
He sat on the floor against the wall farthest from the door. Long legs, longer than Nerian’s, bent in front of the muscular body, and the powerful arms that used to refuse to let him out of their bed were folded atop Tam’s knees. The dark head rested on his arms, hiding his face. The shoulders were broader than he remembered. The curve of his head was the same, though. And the fingers with the dark hair curling into his shirtsleeve. And the heat pulsing into Nerian’s body.
“Tam?”
The man didn’t move.
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