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Chapter 1 Relative Position
Lysander
hadn’t realized how much he missed by not
sticking with his lovers during Grey’s
recuperation. He knew that Grey didn't complain
much about the pain of his broken arm, but also
that Grey hated being still for so many weeks.
Grey was petted and waited on instead of flying
down a lonely road on the very skimmer bike that
had brought him low.
Lysander
sympathized, but nothing more could be done to
hurry the healing along. He had intended to help
all along, but he’d been... away. Into his own
world, doing whatever the hell he wanted with
his music. It worked on him like an addiction.
His own body became a secondary concern to
making the music be good and right. He rode his
dragon for weeks on end, like any other kind of
junkie he’d ever known. Before, there had never
been anyone around who could be hurt by it.
He’d
stumbled off to bed one night and heard Grey in
pain. It took fifteen full minutes of cajoling
and kisses before Grey would allow himself to be
medicated. Lysander was leaving Grey's bedroom
when he tripped over Jenner lying on the floor
nearby. Well, he was an old hand at cleaning up
after wild parties and Jenner was no challenge.
Lysander
Edvard was certainly old enough to know all
about love. Though he lived in Eab Nanoorn, the
single most licentious and open society in the
People's Commonwealth Union, he had maintained a
solitary life. That circumstance hadn't been by
choice. Certainly he was glad to love so strong
and handsome a young man as Duke Jenner Garu.
Jenner played at fierce independence and casual
carelessness, but even in sleep he clung to any
attention his lovers offered.
Lysander
tried to smooth down the riotous mass of honey
blond curls, but it just wasn't meant to be.
Stone green eyes barely opened when he leaned in
to steal a kiss. Even so exhausted, Jenner gave
back any kind of affection his lover offered.
Lysander lingered over the flavor, prolonging
their tender embrace until he was certain Jenner
had given in to sleep once more.
He went
to his own suite, brushed his teeth and smiled
at himself in the mirror. So forty-mumble had
happened to him before love had. So what? His
lovers were half his age and appreciated his
accomplishments. They gave him whole new reasons
to scream at the top of his lungs. Some of it
was even to do with music, though Lysander had
never before been so ready to chuck his guitar
and hang on to the love he had found.
There
wasn't so much as a strand of silver in
Lysander's auburn hair. He'd never allowed his
body to go soft. The only problem was that he
sometimes wandered out of this world and
expected it to be relatively unchanged when the
music got done with him. He forced the smug grin
down and reminded himself about the dangers of
taking love for granted like this. There was no
kind of creation in the real world that could
truly wipe away simple neglect.
Lysander
went back and asked Grey if he wanted anything.
What Grey asked for was a song. He cuddled up to
his lover on the bed and gave him a lot more
than that. He found all the tense places in
Grey’s body and eased them. Grey moaned
appreciatively under the attention, even going
so far as to let Lysander take his shirts off to
continue. They worked around all the
bone-knitters and hellish jiggers that were
going full-tilt round the clock, putting Grey's
arm right again.
“So did
you ever get your dragon to lie down and die?”
Grey wondered.
“Oh,
no,” Lysander chuckled. “It's too old to do such
a thing. I'm only doing cover tunes down there.
It'll sell well, but it doesn't take much of my
attention.”
“Well...
but,” Grey hesitated. “Jenner said it was
probably important. We didn't want to bother
you. It's so fucking boring in here, and you've
got your work...”
“I have
you,” Lysander stopped him, and took another
kiss. “I'll get cranky with my producer. Nobody
will be surprised at all, and you can have me to
entertain you for as long as you want.”
“I
haven't heard a maindol played in almost
a year,” Grey shyly mentioned. “Do you have
anything like that here in the Commonwealth? I
know you could play one, if I could get hands on
it for you.”
Lysander
smiled at that youthful confidence. He woke his
label rep and got very pissy indeed with her.
She didn’t dare contradict him at that time of
night, especially when he was clearly having
trouble with his private life. His personal
problems were legendary in the recording
industry. Nobody knew what there were
exactly, but there were plenty of good ideas. No
one had yet floated a theory that it had
something to do with him having gone stag to his
prom. Essentially, everyone thought he was just
one incredibly talented nut job.
Continued in
First Section
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