Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

RYST

Nayth Carmidee was sitting—no, lounging— on the sofa of my rental. Knees wide, right arm slung over the back of the furniture, slouched in his seat. Just relaxing. Completely covered up. Except for the top four buttons of his coat. I couldn't even see his chest hair. Did Nayth have chest hair? Wait— why was I thinking about chest hair when that beautiful man was on my sofa looking relaxed and waiting to see what I wanted?

He was waiting for me when I came out of the bathroom, teeth brushed and refreshed. He waited on the sofa; waited for me to approach him. Giving me time. Letting me decide. Patience. And affection. And love. I couldn't sense all of him, just patience. And love. And affection. He would give me everything I wanted, but patiently, and when I chose it.

That was sexy, and sweet. My Ahtah was a sweetheart! He was gentle! Everything about him said relaxation, sitting there like that. But all I felt was sex, sex, SEX! My eyes narrowed at him, and I honed in on him, leering at him. Stalking him. Like a predator who'd scented prey. Sliding towards him like a gazelle.

His eyes darkened. His body tightened. Just a bit. It would tighten more. It would tighten for me. Inside me. All mine. Forever.

I straddled him, and pushed myself against him. Danced my fingers around the back of his neck. Kissed him. Kissed him deeply. "Mmmmm," I sighed into his mouth.

"Mmmm," he agreed. I worked my fingers over the buttons of his coat. Damn coat. All those buttons. Why so many buttons? I hated buttons. I pulled at them and growled into his mouth. He laughed against my teeth. I felt humor rising out of him. And patience. He was being patient. Why? Why wasn't he ripping my clothes off like I wanted?

"Do you need help, love? With the buttons?" he asked.

"Yeeugnh!" I screeched like a harpy. "What is with these Sturm coats? You stupid Sturms and your chastity coats! Why! Why do you cover up your men and hide them behind buttons? To protect them from horny women? What is wrong with your fashion?!" I tore at the buttons.

He laughed, and started working on the buttons from the top. I unbuttoned from the bottom, working my way up his torso. Finally, stars above, the buttons were done, and I pushed the jacket from his shoulders.

"EEEEnnnh," I wailed. "More clothes, Nayth? Why more clothes?" He laughed, and there was a joke I was missing. I was missing something about his clothing and culture and layers of clothing.

I didn't fucking care about culture. I wanted skin. Skin to lick and to push my naked breasts— my breasts weren't naked! Why did I have clothes on?

I kissed him hard. I jerked off his dusty turquoise tank top. There was something about the tank top I was missing. I felt him laughing to himself that I didn't understand. He was patient. Lustful, but patient.

Why was this man so patient? Is that what this culture was about? Cover up your men in layers of stiff clothing and turn them into docile, patient, calm lovers?

I reached for his pants, trying to unzip them. He tensed. It was getting harder for him to be patient. I felt his breath stuttering. I jerked at his trousers. I hated trousers. Trousers should not exist! Burn all the trousers! What was WRONG with these trousers?

"Uuunnng!" I growled in frustration, pulling at the waistband. "What is wrong with your trousers?!" I demanded.

He laughed against my mouth, "They have buttons too."

"Chastity TROUSERS! This is the stupidest sphere I've ever been to! What is wrong with you people?! I'm so sick of celibacy, I'm turning as purple as my shirt. Take off the damn trousers, Nayth Carmidee!"

He laughed and complied. I could feel him starting to burn.

"Will you please take my clothes off?" I demanded.

"I've been trying for five minutes to figure out how to get this purple celibacy shirt off," he replied, running his fingers all over it.

"Zipper, left side" I murmured against his lips. The top came off. Finally, my breasts on his skin! I straddled him, and he ran his hands all over my pants, searching. "Zipper, left side," I murmured again. I felt relief pour off him. He was being patient, but he was hungry too.

My pants came off. Oh, thank the stars! He pushed me back, and slid on top of me. My legs wrapped around him. Finally he was in my arms and naked and— "Condoms?" I asked. He already had one in his hand, and I grabbed it from him and slid it over him.

"Sorry, I'm not patient," I said, pushing against him. He laughed against my mouth as he kissed me, deeply, long and slow. He was still holding back. I could feel it. He was waiting, wanting to make sure I was ready. "Unng!" I growled at him, pulling him. He took his time. I wouldn't let him. I grabbed his cock, and slid it into me. He held himself still, so I moved. He moaned against my neck, and I felt his resolve break.

It had been too long. Too long for both of us.

Finally.

Finally.

Finally! Our bodies sang.

"What is it about the clothes, Nayth? I know I'm missing something. Does your culture value chastity? Did I just despoil the Sturm Minister of Hospitality?" We had moved to the bed, and my check was against his bare chest. I was wearing his tank top, and he was in undershorts. At least those didn't have buttons.

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"There's nothing chaste about it. It's a game of seduction." His chest rumbled with amusement.

"Seduction?" Well, it had worked on me, hadn't it. Desire this man? Let that desire get stoked into a blaze whilst you unbutton him.

"Mmm hmm," he agreed, languid and content, and enjoying telling me. As if it was a relief to get to be this way with me, his Methela. "Your lover sees you, partially unbuttoned, and knows it's a signal: 'I'm interested, if you are.'"

There was more. It was about the tank top. I could sense that, but I couldn't tell what.

"And the tank top?" I asked.

"It's about the color, Ryst," he whispered tenderly into my hair. And there was something wistful in his voice, gentle like a kiss.

"The color? Your lover guesses what the color is signaling?"

I could feel him smiling against my hair. "The color is what I was thinking of when I got dressed," he whispered softly, wishing me to know something, to see something.

"Dusty turquoise? It's important to you? Is there a tradition about colors like martial arts levels?" I thought of my Tindin beads and the colors associated with each level. I raised my head and looked into his eyes. He gazed into my eyes, intently, focused and peering at my eyes.

I couldn't hear his thoughts, but he wished for me to know something. I could feel my eyes darting back and forth across his eyes, left eye, right eye. He looked pointedly at my eyes. Pointedly at my eyes. My eyes.

"My eyes?" His face broadened into a smile. I smiled back. "You got dressed thinking of my eyes?" I asked, with wonder.

He kissed me. Again and again and again. I wasn't gentle. He wasn't patient.

"What was that at dinner, Ryst? When you kept shuttering yourself off? You never said," Nayth asked while his lips worked their way down my neck and shoulder.

"Oh, I kept picking up your stray thoughts and had to make sure I didn't merge my mind completely with yours. If my emotions got too invested in you, then I kept feeling myself being pulled to you. And I didn't know who you really were, so I had to be extra careful. But you know what?"

Something had just dawned on me, and I wasn't sure I liked it. "That stopped happening once you knew who I was."

"Stray thoughts?"

"Yes, you were laughing to yourself about how many times we were going to bow to each other."

"You saw that? How, Ryst?"

"I don't know what it is, Nayth. It's just me now. This is how I am, and it started in the coma. But it's not happening right now. Something changed. I think it's you. I'm not shuttered at all! It's you. And I think I'm finally, finally seeing something that started 4 years ago— I think the other person has a choice in the matter. If you don't want me to know something, I don't know it. I think. I'm not certain of that, but it's a theory I've been working on."

"And for some reason, once you knew I was your Methela, then you stopped leaking thoughts out. Arrhh! I still don't fully know how this works! I mean, I thought for sure that we'd be having sex, and we'd be merged— like in the dreams and the visions. Like there was that time you were crouched on the floor laughing." At that, he started to laugh fully and deeply.

"And you thought it was so funny. Well, maybe we weren't fully merged then because I didn't feel everything, but I did know how hard to you were laughing and how turned on you were. What the heck were you doing anyway?"

He laughed really hard and shook his head. "I was trying techniques from a funny book so I could reach you. I'll tell you about it later, but explain this about the shutters. You can turn it on and off? What is it?"

"It's an ongoing exploration to try and figure it out. But finally, I was able to use it to find the real you. I mean, that really happened with the candle building and—"

"Oh, that was real. I was in a meeting, on stream, but I knew you were there. That's the only time it's ever been that strong, though. Hmm. I see what you mean about picking up thoughts. But I only get that from you, or," he paused with his head cocked.

"What happened to us before, before we met last night, that isn't happening, is it? Hmmm. So, it's happened with other people?"

"Oh yeah. At first it was horrible. I was terrified I was loosing my mind after I got out of the hospital. And I slowly got better after getting to Shurwinn. Denten was my Tindin teacher before we became adopted family, and he wanted to see the full range of my Talent, to let it all out when we were sparring. So, I merged with him. I could sense everything he was going to do before he did it. The only other people I've been that merged with are you and Peydran— wait! Peydran! Ren! We've got to tell them, Nayth!"

I looked down and saw I was wearing only Nayth's tank, and I didn't care. My best friends needed to know.

Play "Yo Te Quiero Siempre" by Pink Martini.

NAYTH

Ryst put her pad into a hover in front of us. She didn't care that she was only clad in my tank, so I pulled her back against my chest and wrapped my arms around her middle, hugging her to me.

"Ren is Peydran's boyfriend." Boyfriend? That was new information. "They just got together, but they met ages ago in Uni. Actually, I don't even know their story yet because —"

Two mens' faces appeared on the screen. I didn't know what time it was in Shurwinn, but apparently Ryst and I weren't the only ones naked in bed for this conference. We should've been on Floria for this chat, not Sturm.

The man I didn't recognize— a beautiful, bearded man, actually— looked me up and down and said, "Nice to see you in the flesh, Minister Carmidee."

A flirt, oh goody! "Greetings, fair stranger from distant lands. Who might you be? I'm afraid my recon didn't include handsome lovers in Madrano's bed." Madrano was kissing his way up the man's neck. Obviously, the Shurwinn were just as comfortable with public displays as the Florians. Or maybe that was just the dynamic between Ryst and her friends?

I rested my chin on Ryst's shoulder. She leaned into me.

"Nayth, this is Ren Crieve," Ryst said in a near whisper, with awe. "Ren is how I found you. He sang me into a trance that sent me out of my body, across the galaxy, and straight to you."

I sat up, and peered at that beautiful man. Emotion more intense than anything I'd ever felt for a man welled up. I could feel the emotion in my eyes as I looked at the faces before me. My eyes roaming back and forth between Peydran and Ren, I asked, "You said something about friends, right? I wasn't sure. Were they there? Tell me what happened!"

It was Peydran who answered. "Ren decided he'd had enough of Ryst being alone and started humming a drumbeat."

Ren started humming, and the instant he began, I felt it stirring something inside of me. "The two of us went up the hill to Ryst's house. It's about a five minute walk. They met for just a second, and he started chanting 'MEHTH-eh-la. MEHTH-eh-la. MEHTH-eh-la.'"

Ren chanted softly through the video. I felt tingly and odd, like I was going to pass out or like I was two glasses in. Floaty.

"Then Ryst just sort of collapsed on him. She started saying things: 'younger than me, but very accomplished, great wealth, two worlds, a skyscraper that isn't an office, a building that might look like a candle, the story of Earthens leaving Milky Way Galaxy.' It was the building, the non-candle building that did it. We, finally, for the first time in four years— finally! We had real, solid clues." Peydran looked with wonder at Ren, and I was certain I had the same look in my eyes.

"Ren, Peydran. Guys. Brothers. I can never repay you. Anything. Anything in 9 Galaxies. Anything. Everything— it is yours. I owe you more than my life. More than several lifetimes. I had everything, but I had nothing without my Methela. Thank you. Thank you," I said. It came from my heart and my soul, but it would never be enough.

"We don't want anything, Nayth," Ren said. Then he chuckled a little, "Well, I'd love a cuddle party once we're all together."

All four of us laughed then. Ren was irresistible. "I'll cuddle you all day and all night, if that's what you want, Ren," I promised him. Madrano— no, Peydran— kissed his cheek, and the screen went dark.