Welcome to Syrus Ch. 02

Four men and a woman. They mine the Ascyx, I cook them dinner and share their beds. That's the deal if I agree to it. They have one week to persuade me and I have one week to think about it.

"Do I have your word that I will not be harmed while I'm here?"

I haven't expected anything other than a collective yes but I'm still not satisfied.

"And nobody touches me?" This one I direct at Erel. He nods.

"Unless you agree to it," Ham adds and a small smile is dancing at the corner of his mouth.

Aden places an arm on his shoulder as if to stop him from saying more.

"Ham, why don't you take June to the guest room so she can... dress. June, maybe once you've freshened up you would join us for a meal?"

This is not an order, it's a genuine question and I do feel hungry. Also, I can already see that it would be incredibly difficult for me to say no to this man and his gentle voice.

"I'd like that, yes."

"Very well," Aden says. "Lunch will be ready in an hour. We shall discuss the details of the agreement then."

Ham picks up my suitcase and heads past the fireplace towards a long corridor. He turns once to make sure I follow him and gives me a mischievous wink. As I walk behind him I take in the house for the first time. There are sliding doors opening to the left and right as we walk. Glass and oiled wood just like in the room before. There are no overhead lights only two illuminated strips on the floor which guide our way forward. It creates an eery feeling as if I am entering someplace scared and hidden. Colourful mandalas decorate the walls and when I look closer I see that they are arranged together from numerous tiny stones.

We stop at the last door, the one furthest from the main room. He slides the panel and places my suitcase close to the wall inside. Then he ushers me in. The room consists almost entirely of a large bed with a blue and yellow cover and an abundance of pillows. Four standing lamps like tall mushrooms decorate each corner. Daylight is flooding the space from a round window on the ceiling. There is a spacious looking wardrobe to the left of the bed, one sliding door a mirror while the other is of the same sleek wood which seems to dominate the rest of the house. On the wall opposite the wardrobe, there is another door, probably to the bathroom.

Ham gestures to a panel on the wall.

"You can adjust the blinds here," he says and points at a few circles on the touchscreen. "This is closed", he explains and the room goes completely dark for a moment before the lamps turn on. "And open," he goes on and with each explanation moves his finger to a different sized circle."You can also have twilight," as he says that the corner lamps turn off again and a few stray rays of sunshine stream into the room. One illuminates his face and gives his eyelashes a golden shimmer. He has the longest eyelashes I have ever seen on a man or a woman of that matter, and I stare at him a moment longer than I should. He sees me and in an effort to distract him I blurt out "No voice control?"

He smirks.

"We are old-fashioned," he says in a low whisper which turns my insides to mush.

I blink and turn around pretending to be evaluating the room. I almost jump when he speaks again.

"You will notice that we are old-fashioned in other ways too."

He is standing so close that I can feel his breath tickling my ear. A shiver rolls down my back. I turn around to face him and as I do so he moves forward. On instinct I take a step back, then another and suddenly I find myself pressed against the wall. Damn this small room! Ham has closed the space between us and is standing mere inches away from me. His eyes have little golden speckles in them and seem to devour me as he looks down at my lips. I run my tongue across them and only realise my mistake when Ham takes in a sharp breath and a muscle on his jaw twitches as if trying to hold him in place. He leans in and my heart starts hammering in my chest.

"Old-fashioned," I say in an attempt to break the tension, "you mean, abducting-a-woman-in-the-middle-of-the-night old-fashioned?" Yes, this is good, remind him that you are not here voluntarily. He only comes closer, so close now that if I took a deeper breath I think my nipples will brush against his chest. Oh God, I want to take a deeper breath!

"Maybe, yes," Ham says, his voice heavy with desire. "But tell me June, what is so wrong about you being here? Surely in all those months in Hyde, while you were whipping the major's daughters noses, you thought of taking a lover? Of finding someone special to share your bed and your passion? Didn't you?"

As he speaks his head inches down towards me, his eyes locked on my lips. I can feel the warmth coming from his body. I swallow.

"You promised you won't touch me," I say and I can barely recognise my trembling voice.

He looks up at me and shakes his head if to get rid of the spell of the moment. Then he takes a step back and it costs me every bit of self-control not to reach out and pull him back to me.

"I didn't touch you," he says but his tone tells me he has been close, he has almost broken the promise they gave me. He clears his voice and looks around searching for something. "There," he says pointing at the door opposite the wardrobe. "The bathroom is over there if you want to take a shower. The water is warm this time of the day."

"A real shower!?" He nods, and I storm past him and push the glass door to the side.

The bathroom is as big as the bedroom and not only has a proper shower but also what looks like a whirlpool on one side. I almost shout in delight and I hear Ham laughing behind me.

If this sounds like an overreaction you should know that water on Syrus, while not exactly rare, is not easy to come by. The only rivers are under the surface and getting to them is a long and expensive process. In Hyde most houses have a chamber called a "cleanser", a claustrophobic body capsule where an air current blows away the dust and dirt from your skin. It's perfectly hygienic but it always left me itchy and irritated and the cream you are supposed to use afterwards to rehydrate creates an unpleasant feeling of stickiness like a fresh new layer of sweat. Ever since I set foot on Syrus I have never felt properly clean.

The sheet I am still wrapped in falls to the floor before I even realise and a second later I'm standing under the round shower head grinning like a five-year-old on Christmas day. I find the handle for the water, turn it and...scream as a stream of ice-cold water pours over my head in one violent gush! My body jerks back on instinct and I collide with a wall of muscle.

Ham wraps his arms around me, a smile still on his face.

"Sorry, you were too fast, I couldn't warn you," he says. "You have to adjust it here," and he shows me a small panel on the wall just like the one for the blinds in the room. "This is the strength of the stream, I'll put it on medium, that should be fine." He plays around with the circle onscreen while I shiver in his embrace. He is warm, he smells so good, and the way the muscles on his arm show against his skin while he adjusts the water mesmerises me.

"June?"

"Hm?" Did I miss something?

"How hot do you like the water?"

Hot? Yes, so hot, I like it hot. Thankfully, I catch myself before I blurt these words like some kind of deranged fool.

"Ahm, also medium? I mean I don't know your settings and all..."

The water starts in front of me, a gentle, rain-like shower and Ham directs my hand towards it.

"Here, try it," he says, "it's not too hot, right?"

I shake my head and I step under the shower again. It feels like heaven. The water wraps around me like a cocoon of warmth and purity. I close my eyes and trace its flow over my face, in my hair, down my shoulders and arms. I reach around my breasts and over my bellybutton where small rivulets collect for a moment, only to continue their flow down between my tights. When my fingers brush over my sex I can't help a low moan escape from my lips.

To claim that I have lost myself in the feeling of real water on my skin and have completely forgotten about the man standing just a breath away from my naked body would be lying. Some twisted little part of me has, in fact, urged me to stage this show just for him. The saner and modest part of me, on the other hand, is shocked when a finger traces the side of my breast. My eye snap open just in time to see Ham shed the last piece of his clothing and let it pool on the tiled floor. His finger is replaced by the bulk of him, my nipples crushed against his chest as his hands close around my waist.

In a heartbeat, his lips are on mine, hard and demanding. 'What happened with the "no touching" promise?', I could argue but suddenly I don't want to. There is a warm, solid body pressed against mine and I know I'm lost now, there is no going back. Somewhere just below my belly, I feel the steel of his hard-on on my skin and an involuntary moan escapes my throat. Ham has been waiting for that, his tongue enters my mouth and I am already extending my own to meet him before I think to resist. It is a good kiss, so good in fact that I don't notice how his hands slide down from my waist to caress my bottom, enjoying the roundness of it, or how they slowly grow bolder, squeezing and massaging the soft flesh. A shudder passes down my spine when Ham's suddenly spreads my cheeks wide. One finger brushes over my rosebud, while the other ventures further down to dip in the wet pool between my legs. I moan into his mouth. This is all the reassurance he has needed. He keeps one hand on my butt, his finger teasing my backdoor, while his other hand moves between our bodies. He cups my mound and presses slightly in with the flat of his palm, then draws a slow, lazy circle over my heated flesh. His lips travel down my neck and nip at the skin there making me shiver.

On their own accord, my arms are around his neck and my hips have started to move, slow seductive circles to match the pressure of Ham's hand. With my mouth now free to let out all the sounds and ragged breaths it feels like, I'm sure he knows just how good he makes me feel. Ham easies the pressure of his palm a little, but before I can protest his finger is probing at my opening, demanding entry. He bites the soft flesh above my collarbone and I start to shake. It is suddenly too much, the warm water caressing my skin, his body crushing mine, his hands taking possession of my most private places.

"God, I want you!" Did he whisper this or was it me?

I don't have time to wonder because his finger plunges inside me and my breath catches. He moves slowly, tentatively. His head dips lower and he brushes over my nipple with his tongue, making my head spin.

"Ham, please!"

He understands what I'm begging for and another finger enters my hot centre. I feel the pressure building in my core. He is no longer slow and gentle, his fingers move inside me with urgency and this thumb rubs at my clit sending electrical jolts down my spine. I'm moaning his name and begging for release, my hips flying forward to meet his movements. Just as I think that I can't take anymore his lips close around my nipple and he sucks me in.

My world explodes. The pleasure spreads from my centre to my fingertips like molten lava. I'm faintly aware of someone screaming but I don't care. My body is a single string of bliss. My knees buckle and Ham's arms close around me to support me. He plants soft kisses on my cheeks, on my forehead, waits for me to come down from the high.

When I finally look up he is staring at me with a wolfish grin across his face.

"I was not supposed to do this," he says but there is no regret in his voice. Before I can gather enough of my wits to answer him he plants another soft kiss on my lips. "Hurry up, you don't want to be late for dinner."