she asked, her blond pinned-up curls bouncing when she rested her head in her hand.
“One hour,” Tauran said.
“Man or woman?”
Tauran glanced around. The girl in the window had turned to face him. When she noticed him looking, she hitched one leg up on a chair. On any other day, she might have caught his interest. Tauran’s gaze shifted to the young man beside Ma Rosa. He was delicate, considerably more so than Kalai. Shorter, too. He wasn’t Sharoani, but his hair was black and his skin sun-kissed, and maybe, if Tauran really squinted, he could pretend. “Him?” he asked, angling his chin. The young man smiled.
Ma Rosa nodded once and waved the boy forward.
The man reached for Tauran’s hand, sliding up against him. “I’m flattered,” he said, softly.
“That’ll be eight for me, fifteen for him,” Ma Rosa said.
Tauran reached into his pocket and counted out the coins. He deposited eight large scales in Ma Rosa’s palm, and twenty for the boy.
“This way,” the young man said, lacing their fingers together as he tugged Tauran along.
“Have fun,” Ma Rosa called behind them.
He led Tauran down a narrow corridor lined with closed doors, chose a door and stepped inside.
“What’s your name?” Tauran asked.
The rooms in the Red Rose were all identical, with a wide bed, a side table, a low bench, a chair and a wash basin. Tauran chose the bench and bent to loosen his boot laces.
“Icren,” the young man said, letting the handful of coins trickle into a colorful leather pouch. He placed it back into a drawer in the side table and returned to Tauran. He didn’t ask for Tauran’s name. None of them ever did. Icren might not even be the young man’s real name. In the past, Tauran wouldn’t have cared one bit if it was or not.
Icren gracefully kneeled before him and worked on the laces of Tauran’s left boot.
“Easy,” Tauran said, when Icren tugged.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
Icren placed the boots neatly aside and rose when Tauran did. When he raised his hands to the buttons on Tauran’s shirt, it struck Tauran how much this boy wasn’t Kalai. He thought about it when Icren leaned in to trail kisses along his bare chest. When Tauran stepped out of his trousers and led Icren to the bed. He thought about it when he flicked the hand towel aside and spread Icren’s legs easily apart, and again when he slid into Icren’s slender body and wrapped his arms around him.
* * *
After, Tauran stretched on the bed, tired and content.
Icren rose easily, as if their time together had been no workout at all, and returned to Tauran with a wet cloth from the basin. Tauran opened his eyes to the sight of Icren sitting cross-legged beside him, wiping him clean with careful attention. Through the lens of post-pleasure, Icren really was pretty. He had elegant hands. Like Kalai. Something about that thought made Tauran shift under the ruffled blankets.
“We got more time,” Icren said, in a charming small-town dialect, leaning back on one hand and regarding Tauran with his head cocked sideways. “For another round, if you want.”
Tauran shook his head. He had to give it to him. Tauran hadn’t gone easy, releasing all that built-up energy inside him, but Icren hardly looked fazed. Tauran supposed that was his job. “No. Just... lie with me?” he asked, and the request made him flush, which was ridiculous, considering he’d just been as deep as he could inside the young man’s body. It wasn’t something he would have asked for the last time he’d been here.
“Sure.” Icren stretched out alongside him so their bodies touched from foot to shoulder.
Tauran slotted a hand under Icren’s waist and closed his eyes. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” After a pause, Icren said, “Is he handsome?”
Tauran opened his eyes and looked at him. “Huh?”
“Kalai,” Icren said. “You said his name.”
“Oh.” Skies damn it. Tauran’s face heated, and he gazed away, pretending to be distracted by the sound of giggling girls passing by in the corridor outside. Might as well be honest. “Uh... yes. Very.”
“More handsome than me?” Icren said, in a teasing tone.
“More handsome than me,” Tauran admitted.
“You are very handsome,” Icren said. He shifted, so he could lay on his belly, halfway on top of Tauran. He trailed a hand across Tauran’s chest. “I always hope someone like you’s gonna walk in. Far more fun than the old ones.” He grinned. “Means I’m actually gonna enjoy myself. Oh, I could fall in love with a