The Englor Affair (30 page)

Payton stood, already on his way to the basement and Dunston’s control room.

“What is it?”

“A plan for a weapon to be mounted onto a battleship. It says property of the Englor Marine Corps, but it wasn’t stored here by the colonel. It was stored here by the queen.”

The schematics.
Payton took off running.

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Simon stepped into the palace, feeling like he’d been on his feet for forty-eight hours straight. He’d met with General Davidson most of the afternoon. Then met up with Roc and Wycliffe at Gentleman Jackson’s for a brief workout and to go over what he learned at the meeting. He’d thought about going to Aldred’s to tell him about the meeting with Davidson as well, but he was too tired.

The sudden changes that had occurred in his life over the past two days had finally hit him. It felt as though he was drowning. There was so much to do and every bit of it seemed urgent. He’d hoped pummeling Wycliffe in the boxing ring would help reduce the frantic feeling racing through him, but it hadn’t. Instead he now had a headache from introducing his face to Wycliffe’s fist and his brain was still in what seemed to be permanent overdrive. Even now he had a list of things he needed to do, but he was tired and hungry. Maybe after he ate and took a nap he’d regroup and call a meeting to brief Aldred, Oxley and Hawthorne on what he’d learned from the general, which sadly wasn’t much.

“Good evening, Colonel. I’ve been instructed to inform you that Payton is waiting on you in your suites and you are to join him right away,” Dunston announced in an overly cheery voice.

“Tell him I’m on my up now, Dunston. Has he—?”
Wait. Dunston?
Simon stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked around. Yes, he was in the palace. He frowned.

“Where’s Baxter?” Not that Simon particularly cared, it was only a matter of time before he pulled the plug on Baxter himself.

Dunston made a nasally sound.

Was that a snort?
Simon shook his head and climbed the stairs. He wouldn’t put anything past Dunston.

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“Baxter no longer works here.”

“Oh.” Simon grinned, wondering how long it took his tolerant spouse to get a gut full of Baxter’s superior attitude. “Has Payton eaten dinner?”

“No, Colonel.”

Damn, he hoped Payton hadn’t been waiting on him. Guilt pushed at him. He should have called Payton during the day and told him when he was coming home. This marriage stuff was going to take some getting used to. “Can you have the cook make us something and have it sent up?”

“Right away, Colonel.”

By the time Simon reached the second floor, he was wondering if he should have Payton include elevators into his redecorating. Simon hadn’t even put his uniform back on, just thrown his greatcoat on over his sweatpants and T-shirt and hauled his arse out to his lift, complete with armed guards. What a pain in the arse armed guards were.

Necessary, but a pain. Simon wasn’t used to people accompanying him everywhere he went. He wasn’t letting up on the guards though. He was fairly certain he could handle himself, but if he were going to insist Payton be guarded twenty-four hours a day, he was going to have to be fair. It was only a matter of time before Pay started balking about being under constant surveillance. By having guards himself, Simon would have more leverage for the argument to come.

He opened the bedroom door and found Payton sitting in the middle of the bed in just his loose white shirt and gray trousers with a personal computer sitting between his outspread legs and the ever-present black leather-bound journal lying beside him. He was slouched over, typing away on a holographic keyboard. A slow smile spread across Simon’s lips and his cock twitched to life. Galaxy, Payton was good for what ailed him.

Wrapped up in what he was doing, Payton never even looked up as the door clicked shut behind Simon.

Leaning against the closed door, Simon watched unnoticed and let the rest of his tension fall away. His mind stopped whirling on everything he had to do and focused on the man before him. Would he ever stop getting that fluttering little happy feeling down www.samhainpublishing.com 209

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deep when he saw Pay? He should have just come home after the meeting and aborted the attempt to unwind at Jackson’s.

Payton’s toes wiggled as his fingers raced over the holographic keys projected onto the bedspread. His bottom lip was let go, replaced by a grin, then he sat up straight, studying the display. “I found the schematics.”

Simon started, not realizing Payton knew he was there.

Turning his head, Payton leaned back on his elbows and blew a lock of ebony hair off his forehead. “Don’t you want to know what they’re for?” Pay frowned, his brow scrunching a little. “Why do you have a black eye?”

As if Payton noticing it made it wake up, Simon’s eye began to ache again, throbbing over his headache. He touched it and shrugged. “I was helping Wycliffe with his right hoo— Did you say you found the schematics?” Hurrying forward, Simon shrugged his coat off.

Payton laughed. It was a bubbly, joyous sound and it went right to Simon’s cock.

Payton nodded, looking rather pleased with himself. “I wondered when that would sink in. Here, look.” He turned his screen toward Simon. “Your mother stored it in Baxter’s memory and Dunston found it this afternoon. She didn’t trade it according to what Dunston found.”

Climbing onto the bed, Simon picked up the ten by twelve inch folding screen, making the holographic keyboard display vanish. There on the screen was a diagram of a cannon. Above it were the words
Cabochon Cannon
. At the bottom of the page it had EMCRD,
Englor Marine Corps Research and Development
. It appeared to be a weapon for a space destroyer. The Marines had only a handful of ships. With the IN defending their planet there had been no need to produce them. It was something they’d have to rectify—they needed their own fleet of ships. He toed his athletic shoes off, but continued to read.

“It’s a directed-energy weapon made to fit onto a Destroyer.”

What?
“You mean like a particle beam?” That wasn’t possible. The IN had experimented with particle beams several years ago, but the technology just wasn’t there.

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They hadn’t been able to get the weapon into a usable size. Simon’s head whipped around to Payton, who was still smiling.

Payton nodded. “I’m no weapons expert, but it looks real enough to me. It uses a cabochon-cut gemstone to direct the beam. From what I’ve read, only a specific stone native to Englor works.”

Simon sat there with his heart in his throat. This was huge. If the gemstone were native to Englor, then no one else had the technology unless they had that stone. “What gemstone?”

“An Englorian Yellow Sapphire.”

The Englorian Sapphire was a dark yellow color, nearly the exact color of Payton’s eyes. “They’re rare.” Which was good, the harder it was to make, the better. If the IN, hell if anyone got a hold of this, it could mean… Galaxy his head hurt, he didn’t even want to think about what it meant. Ships, maybe even whole planets, exploding into a zillion pieces with one shot from the weapon. It was a horrific thought. Simon felt like someone reached into his chest, grabbed his heart and squeezed. He looked back at the screen. “Are you sure my mother was unable to pass this along to anyone?”

“According to what Dunston found, yes. She hid them in Baxter after obtaining them. She apparently realized what she had and was having second thoughts.” Payton ran his fingers over the corner of Simon’s eye. “Does that hurt?”

“A little.” He turned to Payton and handed him the screen. “This would explain why the IN wants the Englor Marines.”

“I would say so, yes.” Payton took the screen and turned it off. “What did the general say?”

“That it was someone in the IN pushing for them to be absorbed, not the Marines.

Which, in light of this new discovery, I have a better understanding why.” He needed to meet with General Davidson again as well as General Beauchamp who was in charge of Research and Development. He had to inform—

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was an unconscious act, meant to moisten his lips, but it had Simon’s cock twitching into a full-blown erection.

Growling, he held out his hand. “Come here.” Everything else could wait. Whether it was just his normal lust for Pay or the realization that if the weapon ever got into the wrong hands it could mean the end of the universe as they knew it, he didn’t know, but he needed Payton.

Blinking and scrunching his forehead, Payton took his hand and crawled across the bed on his knees. The confused look did nothing to douse Si’s arousal. Instead it reminded Simon of his innocence. “Wh—?”

Simon grabbed a handful of thick black hair, knowing how turned on Payton got when his hair was pulled, and slammed his mouth down over Payton’s. Galaxy, this man made him need.

A low throaty growling noise escaped Payton and he opened right up, meeting Simon’s tongue with ardor. He was either getting the hang of kissing, or perhaps he was so aroused he didn’t feel the awkwardness.

Smiling against Pay’s lips, Simon pulled back. He stared down into dazed yellow eyes the color of Englorian sapphire. “I want you to lick my arse.” He stood and shucked his clothes, not even paying attention to where they landed. When he stood in only his jockstrap, he looked back at his consort.

Payton’s eyes widened in shock, then glazed over with lust. He moaned long and low. It sounded desperate and went right to Simon’s cock. Damn, he loved how vocal Payton was. Payton didn’t even try to hide his reactions. It was incredibly sexy, not to mention good for the ego.

Grabbing Payton’s hair again, Simon kissed him. After letting go, he turned around until his legs touched the edge of the mattress. Looking over his shoulder, he watched Payton whimper and drop to his hands and knees on the bed.

Payton was tentative at first, pressing his lips softly to each of Simon’s cheeks.

Slowly, he got his knees under him, and his hands found their way to Simon’s arse, squeezing. His tongue snaked out, swiping up the crease over and over. Spreading 212

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Simon’s cheeks apart finally, he swirled his tongue around Simon’s hole. Groaning, Simon bent over further. This was what he needed. He didn’t want to think about the million things he had to do, or the reason why the IN wanted a weapon of mass destruction. He wanted to lose himself in Payton, if only for awhile.

Continuing to lick at Simon’s hole, Payton made sexy grunting sounds. Galaxy, the man was amazing. Innocent to the core, yet such a hedonist he couldn’t help himself from plunging right in.

“More.” Fuck, he was driving Simon mad. It was obvious he’d never done this, and was still a little timid, but that turned Simon on more. He’d never cared for virginal partners, but there was something about knowing Payton had never done this with anyone else that brought out his possessive streak. Payton was his and only his. The niggling doubts he’d been having all day about Payton not wanting to marry him vanished.

Payton’s tongue pushed into his hole just a bit, making Simon’s cock jerk and his thighs tense. A drop of sweat dripped down his nose and onto the hardwood floor. “Fuck, Pay. Do it again. Fuck me with your tongue. Get me good and wet because your cock is going in there next.”

There was a sharp intake of breath, then the words seemed to spark a fire in Payton.

His moans grew more needy and his hands tightened almost painfully on Simon’s arse.

He dove in like a man possessed, fucking Simon with his tongue, while wet smacking sounds filled the air along with Payton’s vulgar groans and grunts.

The rimming lasted only a few seconds before Payton’s mouth disappeared and latched on to Simon’s balls through the jockstrap. He sucked the material. His mouth pulled on Simon’s balls, slurping the sweat off the thin, yellowed cotton.

Bloody hell!
Simon’s prick began to leak, his balls drawing tighter. Who would have thought such an innocent would be so fucking oral…and naughty?

When Simon stood up and turned around, Payton’s bottom lip actually pouted out.

Perspiration ran down his face, soaking the inky black hair at the temples.

Simon grinned, pulled the jock off and held it up. “You like this? You like this sweaty jock?”

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“Yes.”

“Lay down.” Dropping the jock on the bed, Simon threw his leg over Payton and straddled him. He stayed on his knees above Payton, just admiring for a moment while Payton got settled. “Get your trousers off.”

Hurrying to comply, Payton unsnapped the placket of his gray trousers and shimmied them off, all the while staring up at Simon. Gripping the edges of Payton’s partially opened shirt, Simon ripped, exposing his chest before backing up to help Pay pull his pants free of his feet.

Payton’s prick was hard and leaking. The semen stood out clearly on the black trail of hair under his navel. Payton was so slim and sleek. His collarbones and hipbones were very prominent. Lying down like he was, his ribs even stuck out a little. Simon growled, barely keeping from flipping him over and pounding his arse into the bed. He ran a hand down Payton’s stomach. “Such a fine man.”
Mine.

Payton snorted.

Well that would never do. Payton obviously underestimated his own appeal. “I happen to like your body.”

Payton opened his mouth, to argue Simon supposed. Only Simon didn’t give him the chance. He picked up his jock and stuffed it in Payton’s mouth.

Eyes wide, Payton whimpered. His prick flexed. Oh yeah, he liked that. Simon’s own cock throbbed as he grabbed Payton’s cock and positioned it at his hole.