Page 43 of Measure of the Stars

Alain tentatively lay a hand on Wes’ shoulder.“We may be bound by our demon, but we remember what it is to be one person, alone with our thoughts.It’s why we care for Peter, even though he is our charge and not our child.It’s why we care for you.We have conferred, and we agree that we like you, Wes.You are unsettled by us, but you put that aside to treat us like people.We don’t want to see you hurt.”

“Thank you, Alain,” Wes said.“Oculus.”

Alain smiled.“You’re welcome,” they said, and Wes felt as though he could hear other voices in those words, an echo of the colony in Alain’s mind.

He returned to Delauney, who was washing up after his shave.He turned to smile at Wes, but his expression faded when he saw Wes’ face.

“What’s the matter?”he asked.

“Someone knows what I did to Lennox,” Wes said.He handed the paper to Delauney.Delauney opened it, grimaced, and tossed it onto the desk as though it burned him.

“We need to address this somehow,” he said.“Do you have any idea of who might have written this?”

“No, but I don’t think I can,” Wes said.He sat on the bed, watching Delauney pace restlessly across the room.“There are too many sailors who used to work on Lennox’s crew.He could have paid any of them to keep an eye on me.And they’re just trying to rattle me right now.It could be that he simply wants me nervous enough to try something.If I confront him the next time I’m in Staria, he can use that as a reason to drag me before the council.”

“I won’t have you antagonized on my own ship,” Delauney said.He rose to take Wes’ face in his hands.“We’ll root them out and put a stop to it.You’ll tell me if you see anything?”Wes hesitated, and a furrow formed in Delauney’s brow.“Wes.”

“Yes,” Wes said, kissing him softly.“I’ll tell you.”

No messages arrived for the remainder of their stay at Madog’s Throne.To distract himself, Wes worked on whittling down the number of times he’d promised to make Delauney come.He pushed Delauney into alleys and sucked him off in the shadowy corner of a public eating house, where Delauney made such a racket that a serving girl came over to check on him.He even commandeered a private rowboat to theManatee, where he took over the oars while rubbing his boot along the length of Delauney’s cock through his trousers.

“You know that sound travels over the water,” Wes said as Delauney whimpered and gasped, half trying to rut against his boot.Delauney responded by crawling across the boat to take Wes’ cock in his mouth, bringing him to a shuddering release in full view of the docks.

They were barely discreet when they returned to the ship.Thankfully, Alain was too busy wrangling Ned and Peter’s children to notice Wes sneaking off with Delauney in the middle of the day, and Ned seemed to think that they were just engaging with experiments.Which they were, even if some of those experiments involved ruining the bedsheets for the fourth time that week.

They went through three drafts of Delauney’s application before Wes felt satisfied enough to hand it off to Peter.They celebrated by sharing a pipe packed with a rare weed Delauney had bought off a man in Katoikos.They sat near the prow, watching moonlight glimmer off the dark sea.

“Is there anything you’ll miss about this?”Wes asked.“When you’re off being an astronomer in Gerakia, I mean.”

“I might miss the quiet,” Delauney said, taking the pipe.“It’s always so loud at home.I can’t imagine a university full of people is much quieter.My brother has a fund set aside solely for my parents’ balls, did you know that?He had to give them an allowance to prevent them from spending everything on dancing bears.”

“But you’re richer than the Imperator of Katoikos,” Wes said.He felt lighter, his head swimming as though he were slipping into subspace.“What are a few balls?”

Delauney gave Wes a dry look.“I wasn’t being facetious about the bears.Leo—that’s my older brother, you’d like him, very practical—he actually lost his temper when he saw them, which never happens.He was right to lose it, though.No one should trap a poor bear and force it to dance.”

Wes felt no small measure of empathy for those bears.He’d been treated the same by his parents as a boy, dressed up in expensive clothes and paraded around in the hopes of luring a noble suitor.

“What will you miss?”Delauney asked, passing Wes the pipe.“When you’re in Gerakia, studying the stars.”

“I won’t be in Gerakia,” Wes said.He nudged Delauney’s shoulder with his own and let out a breath of smoke into the night air.“I’ll be puttering around Staria, I suppose, avoiding my family.”

“Or you can avoid them in Gerakia,” Delauney said.“With me.”He took the pipe.“I can’t say thatIdid all those things in that letter, because I didn’t.Wedid.We’re going to the Aviary as a research team, Wes.”

Wes blinked at Delauney.“Nobles use assistants for their research all the time.”

“You aren’t an assistant,” Delauney said.“And I’m not using you.You’re brilliant, and lovely, and I’m not treating you like you’re invisible.You’re a part of this.”

“But...”

“Tell me you don’t want it,” Delauney said.

Wes felt adrift.He thought of studying with Delauney in Gerakia—properly studying, without pretending to be Delauney’s valet or slipping under the gaze of uninterested nobles.He could learn everything his tutors never bothered to teach him before he’d been dragged to sea.He could be with Delauney without his noble title looming between them.In Gerakia, they would be equals.

“I want it,” Wes said.

Delauney slid a hand up Wes’ thigh.“Tell me your qualifications, then.”

Wes’ lips parted in shock as Delauney’s smile went teasing and wicked.“You can’t use my own tactics against me.”