we head down the hall. I can't resist putting my other hand on his arm, touching the enormous bicep that bulges against his ridiculous uniform. The man is absolutely a mouthwatering snack, and I can't stop thinking about the times I saw him naked. I really should have paid more attention to what I was looking at. I remember broad shoulders and narrow hips that led down to a fascinatingly tight butt. I remember a flicking tail and strong thighs.
I absolutely do not remember if I saw his cock, and that makes me sad. It has to be as magnificently built as the rest of him, right? Surely fate wouldn't be so cruel as to make him this mouthwatering and then give him a sad little sausage.
Not that I intend to do anything with him, but it's not a sin to look.
"You got quiet," Adiron says, nudging me. "What are you thinking about?"
Oooh. I come up with an answer on the fly. "Just wondering about you. You have a sister that got married, but you and your brothers, none of you are married? Is that not a thing in your culture?"
Adiron makes a sound of assent in his throat. "Mathiras is devoted to life on a ship. Kaspar doesn't like to be tied down. And we come from a family with an old name, which means there are a lot of expectations. Unfortunately, we've all more or less shamed the family by going into a life of piracy. My sister Vanora—my real sister—is still on Homeworld. She mated well, increasing the family fortune and name. The rest of us aren't mentioned in polite circles." He shrugs. "It's fine."
"You mentioned why Mathiras and Kaspar never settled down, but I noticed you avoided yourself," I point out.
"I almost mated a female," he says after a moment, his expression thoughtful. "It was right after the war. I'd just started spending time on the ship with my brothers, and I met an exciting mesakkah female on a station. Her name was Shaalyn and she was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen—bold and alluring and very, very sexual."
"You don't have to keep sharing," I tell him. For some reason, I don't want to hear more about the “sexual” Shaalyn. "I was just being nosy."
"It's all right." Adiron thinks for a moment and then goes on. "I was obsessed with Shaalyn for months. I'm sure some of it was because I'd just gotten out of the military and that was its own kind of hell. I was looking for something or someone to latch onto, and she was beautiful and loving and everything I thought I wanted. I was madly in love with her. I think she's the only female I've ever fallen in love with before now, of course."
"Of course." I decide not to stew on that. Everyone has a past.
"Turns out that Shaalyn's sweetness was an act," Adiron says. "She robbed me and my brothers and nearly got us killed. Took our ship, too. That was my fault. I gave her a system-access pass one night so she could sneak on board." He sighs heavily. "Mathiras was so keffing mad at me, too. We had to pay a large ransom for the Little Sister and I just felt stupid. Really stupid."
And hurt, I imagine. I squeeze his arm. Poor Adiron. "And after that, you stopped trusting people?" I ask quietly.
He looks over at me and grins. "No, of course not. One bad seed doesn't ruin the entire orchard."
What a remarkably positive outlook. It's one I can't share, not after being enslaved, abused, and abandoned. "Says a man who's never had anything truly bad happen to him," I reply, a hint of acidity in my tone. Adiron's a happy type because he's from a wealthy family and the worst thing that's ever happened to him was that he was hoodwinked by a woman. We should all be so lucky.
"Mmm." He looks over at me. "I was in the war for three years. Front lines, because I was a third son. I lost everyone in my first regiment. Got reassigned. I had friends die in my arms while I tried to stop the bleeding. My best friend went home in pieces, a broken shell of himself. He's living alone on an abandoned base on an asteroid right now because he can't function around people." He thinks for a moment. "Well, he's no longer alone, but whatever. And when Shaalyn robbed us, she stabbed me three