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But that was what Garin needed to believe him, to believe his own cautious hope. Sazahk bracketed him in, pushing him back against the bar, and the hard edge digging into Garin’s back drove home the heady realization that this was real.
This was happening.
All their dancing around each other in the Dead Zone, all their longing looks and careful touches, all the hope and attachment and adoration Garin had fought and lost to. It was all?—
A sharp rap on the bar jarred up Garin’s spine. “Whoa there, you two. We got rooms upstairs for that.”
Sazahk stepped back quickly, breaking them apart. Garin stayed bent backwards over the bar, staring up at him and marveling at how wrecked he looked after a single kiss. He didn’t dare consider how he himself looked.
“Um, I don’t…uh…” Garin straightened and pulled his suit jacket back into place, his cheeks burning. The bartender raised an amused eyebrow at him and Garin glanced at Sazahk. “I don’t think that we want…do we?”
A part of Garin definitely wanted. A part of him concentrated a bit below the waist thought a room upstairs sounded like a great idea.
Sazahk looked past Garin’s shoulder to the bartender. “I’m sure the facilities in your establishment are very nice?—”
The bartender snorted. “They’re really not.”
“But I’ve recently come into possession of a location that I think would be more appropriate.” Sazahk bit his lip and focused back on Garin. “And that I would like to take you to.”
That piqued Garin’s interest enough to interrupt his raging libido. “A location?”
Sazahk smiled and held out his hand. “Will you come with me so that I may show it to you properly?”
Garin lay his palm on Sazahk’s and laced their fingers together, numb with shock. They were holding hands now, too? But as Sazahk tugged him toward the door, he realized what he’d forgotten with a jolt.
“Shit, I—” he turned back to the bartender, reaching into his pocket.
But the bartender waved him off. “Don’t worry. You paid your tab in entertainment value.”
Garin flushed and suddenly felt all the eyes on his and Sazahk’s linked hands. He supposed they had made quite a spectacle.
The shot glasses of the qesh in the corner sat empty as the qeshian soldiers openly stared at them. The klah’eel arm wrestling tournament had paused. Only the humans didn’t blatantly watch them, instead dithering around the pool table, and very clearly not watching them if anyone were to check.
Sazahk’s fingers started to slip from his grasp. “Are you embarrassed?”
“No.” Garin tightened his grip before Sazahk broke their connection. He grinned at him despite the blush he felt staining his ears. “But I am eager to get out of here.” He swept his gaze up and down Sazahk’s lean body and let his grin widen for obvious reasons.
Sazahk beamed back, a level of expressiveness on his face that Garin had never seen. It was gorgeous and Garin had put it there. “I share your enthusiasm.” Sazahk pulled Garin out of the bar and into the street. “It’s not far, and I think you’ll like some of the amenities it has to offer.”
Garin raised an eyebrow. “I’m not exactly high maintenance.” Or at least he’d never thought of himself as high maintenance.
“No,” Sazahk agreed as they passed groups of soldiers giving them odd looks. “But in our time together, I believe I’ve detected certain preferences that I would be better equipped to satisfy with the tools available at this location.”
“What does that even mean?” Garin laughed. “Come on, you have to give me something.”
“According to what rules?” Sazahk didn’t untangle their fingers as he tugged him along the streets despite the strange looks they got. “I admit I am unaware of the general guidelines governing trysts of a spontaneous nature or of any nature whatsoever, and particularly those undertaken with someone for whom I have a deep and abiding attachment.”
“Sazahk, you silver-tongued son of a bitch.” Garin ducked into a dark alley and pulled Sazahk in with him. He pushed the taller man up against the wall and cupped his sharp jaw. “Fuck, no one’s ever made me feel as incredible as you do.”
“Despite our brief time together, I flatter myself to think I’ve devoted an unusually large amount of energy toward deciphering you.” Sazahk pressed their foreheads together. “But the fact that no one else has is still beyond my comprehension.”
“Sazahk.” Garin took a deep breath, the now familiar scent of the qesh in his arms swirling around him and into his being, warming him from the inside out. “I love you, too.”
Sazahk’s lips quirked. “I had begun to suspect that the evidence indicated as much.”
Garin breathed a laugh across those gorgeous lips. “Of course you had.” Unable to stop himself and not having a reason to, he kissed them once, twice, softly. “I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“Admittedly, the sector doesn’t contain many individuals similar to me.” Sazahk’s temple bloomed with the tiniest bit of gray. “For better or for worse.”
