Solar Flare

Heat Stroke: Solar Flare Elizabeth Jewell All rights reserved.

Copyright ©2008 Elizabeth Jewell

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ISBN: 978-1-60521-029-2

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Heat Stroke: Solar Flare Elizabeth Jewell It’s the one place in the universe where a vampire can bask in full sunlight without danger of death -- a red star, deep in open space. Kristof’s newly purchased ship will take vampires there, to experience the novelty of constant day. But he himself is afraid to take that last step into the light. Until Tomas arrives to show him just how arousing the sun can be.

Heat Stroke: Solar Flare Sunlight. Even knowing what he knew, Kristof found it nearly impossible to look directly into sunlight as it poured through the portside window, much less put his hand into the red-gold stream. This is why you’re here, he chastised himself. You paid for this. You own this. Take it. Yet still he stood just behind the bulkhead, in the shadow. Watching. “It’s beautiful.” The voice caught Kristof by surprise. It was a rare thing for him to be caught offguard, which led him to believe the speaker was another vampire. A glance toward the other man -- as nonchalant as possible, given he’d just been startled out of his wits -confirmed the suspicion. He was tall and slim, with black hair and pale skin. Too pale. The move to spaceship life made it easier for vampires to avoid the sun, and often the daysleep, as well, but it hadn’t made them any harder to pick out among the humans, and in the tightly-knit spacer communities it was more difficult for them to hide. No matter, though, really, because in those places where they’d found homes, they were more accepted than they’d ever been Earthside. Out here you were judged by the work you did, not by what you ate. “Hello,” Kristof ventured. He shifted his posture against the bulkhead, trying to make himself appear less tense. No, he wasn’t tense. He was frightened. And nobody else needed to know that. “Hey,” said the other man with a smile. The curve of his long mouth seemed to hold back inappropriate amusement. “It won’t immolate you.” Kristof bristled, then made himself relax. The other man presented no threat -Kristof was over seven hundred years old, and he trusted his instincts when it came to

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reading the intentions of other vampires. This one was interested in him, but not planning to kill him. “I know,” he said, keeping his voice light. “Old habits die hard.” The other man nodded. “I know what you mean. And some of us have older habits than others.” He took a step toward Kristof and held out a long, pale hand. “I’m Tomas.” Kristof took the offered hand. “Kristof.” “I know,” Tomas said as he released the brief handshake. “You own this ship.” “I do.” “And you haven’t been into the light yet?” Kristof shook his head. “This is my first trip out with her.” “You didn’t test before you bought?” “I didn’t.” He gave a rueful chuckle. “Perhaps unwise, given the cost of the investment, but I was ready to take the plunge.” “But you’re not ready to walk away from that bulkhead?” The tone was teasing, and the smile returned, folded over carefully restrained laughter. Somehow Kristof found Tomas’s amusement less offensive the more he looked at the other man. There was a certain sleek beauty about him -- a wiry body, slim but wellturned wrists, finely honed cheekbones. His eyes were a shade somewhere between gray and blue. “Walk with me,” Kristof said. He’d meant it as a request; it came out closer to a challenge. A dare. Tomas quirked an eyebrow, his smile widening to a grin of delight. “Of course I will.” He reached his hand out again. Kristof took it. The connection was no longer a handshake but a clasp, a tangling of fingers. Tomas’s smile softened again. “Are you ready?” Kristof wanted to say yes, of course he was, but he wasn’t. He opened his mouth, closed it again. “Give me a moment,” he finally said. “Of course.” Tomas’s voice was gentle. He waited, standing quietly, his hand firmly clasping Kristof’s.

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The light came in the wide window fully now, as the ship had turned completely toward the sun. It was past the time he should have signaled the pilots to make the announcement that they’d arrived. They’d stay here for a time, though, with the ship angled just so, long enough for all the paying passengers to take their time basking in the particular light. The star had been discovered several years ago, by accident, when a long-range ship captained by a vampire -- one of the first space-faring vamps, in fact -- had come out of hyperspace for an emergency and found themselves face-to-face with it. Expecting to be immolated by the encounter, the vampires on board had been surprised to discover the light from the star did them no damage at all. In addition, due to the nature of the light, it didn’t trigger the daysleep. They could bask in it as long as they wanted without succumbing to coma or catching on fire. They’d spoken of it at length to anyone who’d listen when they’d returned, but it had taken nearly a decade to find it again. The original ship had been off-course, its instruments returning inaccurate data as to its location. The star was isolated, without habitable planets, so no other ships happened by it until a dedicated vampire crew had traced the data from the original flight and, after years of work, calculation, and hit-ormiss piloting, found it. Kristof remembered when he’d first heard about the star. The prospect of facing pure sunlight without injury had lured him as surely as it had lured a hundred other vampires. So he’d bought this ship, and hired pilots, and advertised for passengers, and now here he was, afraid to step out into the light he’d come so far to experience. Tomas’s hand tightened on his again. “Are you ready?” Kristof swallowed. “I think… Yes, I think I am.” They stepped forward. After the second step, when the light was only inches away, laying its golden outline on the floor, Tomas let go of his hand and wrapped his arm around Kristof’s waist instead, pulling him into a half-embrace. “One more step,” he said, and it seemed to Kristof he was reassuring himself as much as he was reassuring Kristof.

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They took the step. The light was pure and warm and red, slanting in through the wide, unfiltered, unobstructed window that made up nearly a third of that side of the spaceship. The sensation of it pouring over Kristof’s skin was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Even when he was alive -- and he could barely remember that time, tucked away in a far-distant recess of his centuries-old mind -- it hadn’t felt like this. It fell over him like water, warming his skin, his flesh. He felt as alive as he’d ever felt, as vital as he did after a long, leisurely feed. “God…” he murmured, and Tomas smiled. “Wonderful, isn’t it?” the other vampire said, his voice still quiet. His hand reached for Kristof’s and folded around it, fingers threading through Kristof’s grasp. Though surprised, Kristof didn’t pull his hand away. It felt good -- surrounded by humans as he often was, he rarely touched anyone with any sort of intimacy. Tomas’s fingers were long and slim, his grip sure. “Do you know what makes it even better?” Kristof turned his head, letting the light cover the side of his face, and looked into Tomas’s eyes. And he knew the answer without asking, without even thinking. He nodded. “Yes.”

It was more than an answer to the question. It was acquiescence to what he knew Tomas would ask next. And Tomas seemed to know it. His hand shifted, drawing Kristof closer. “Where?” he asked. Kristof only smiled and led the way, not letting go of Tomas’s hand. His rooms weren’t far from the wide window, and he had a window of his own, also positioned to receive the full, streaming wash of light. Whoever had designed the captain’s quarters had placed the built-in bunk immediately under the window. Kristof had suffered some vague fits of anxiety about its being there, the anxiety heightening as they’d come closer and closer to the star. Now, it seemed, was the moment of truth. He pressed his thumb to the identilock without disengaging his hand from Tomas’s. The door slid back with a barely audible “swoosh.” Suddenly unaccountably

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nervous, Kristof crossed the threshold, drawing Tomas after him. The other vampire’s low chuckle surprised him. “What?” Kristof asked. “You bought this ship, you own all of it, you bring us all out to the sun, and yet you’re afraid of the light.” Kristof said nothing, afraid to acknowledge Tomas’s rightness aloud. It didn’t matter -- it was obvious Tomas knew he was right. And it didn’t matter, because Tomas only smiled and took over Kristof’s lead, drawing him toward the bed. “Don’t be afraid of it.” Tomas lowered himself to the bed, pulling Kristof to stand between his open knees. “It’s wonderful. Let it touch you.” It was already touching him, reaching red-gold fingers through the wide window to caress his skin. It cupped his face like a hand, warmed the sleek material of his silk shirt. Then Tomas touched him, slim fingers opening the ebony buttons, drawing the black silk away from Kristof’s chest. The sun touched him there, as well, and more of him, as Tomas began to slowly undress him. He barely touched Kristof as he eased him out of his clothes. Fingertips brushed Kristof’s skin, light, barely discernible contact. Buttons undone, sleeves slid away, zippers lowered, until Kristof lay spread out and naked in the bright light. The heat was almost unbearable, but at the same time it was the most wonderful thing Kristof had ever experienced. Every millimeter of his skin wanted to flinch away from it and lean into it at the same time. He could combust, he thought, not just from the light and the heat, but from the conflicting desires coursing through his body. At the same time, Tomas’s hands were all over him, stroking down his skin as if massaging the sunlight into it. Pressing the heat and the light deeper, using his fingers to work it into every molecule. Kristof was naked in the light, and it poured over him like water, finding every pore, every crevice. He felt his cock harden and sway, bobbing toward the light. Then a new sensation, cool in the growing warmth, as Tomas’s lips closed over his thickening erection, and drew it deep into his mouth. His tongue stroked the still-

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increasing length, and Kristof felt his glans touch the other vampire’s soft palate. He moaned. “Good, isn’t it?” Tomas drew back just long enough to murmur the words, then traced the underside of Kristof’s cock with his tongue. “So good…” Kristof let his body bow back against the bed, his chest pushing toward the sunlight pouring in through the window, his hips pushing toward Tomas’s greedy mouth. “Yes…” he managed, though it was all he could do to form words. He reached toward Tomas, combing fingers into his hair, then angling down to grab his shirt collar. “You have too many clothes on.” “I know.” He let Kristof’s cock slide completely out of his mouth, and Kristof immediately regretted that he’d spoken at all. He wanted the other vampire’s mouth back on him, now. But Tomas was leaning toward him, and Kristof’s fingers found the buttons on his shirt, pulled them open. His hands stroked down the other vampire’s lean torso. Pale and cool, marked with faint lines of tattoos, so faded Kristof couldn’t make out the patterns. He traced one that curved above Tomas’s left nipple, then pulled him close, teeth fastening on the nub. Tomas made a sharp, hissing sound and started to pull back, then pushed forward instead, steadying himself with his hands against Kristof’s shoulders. Kristof clutched his back, laving the tight, hard nipple, listening to Tomas’s guttural moans. Tomas’s hips pulsed against him, and, almost without thinking, Kristof reached between his legs and cupped his balls, pressed his thumb against the base of his hard, straining cock. For a moment, it seemed the tables had turned, as Tomas broke and shuddered under Kristof’s teeth and hands. Then Tomas’s back arched and he pushed Kristof down onto his back on the bed, full into the stream of red-gold light. Kristof squeezed his eyes shut tight, flinched against the pain he instinctively knew would come from the full exposure to the sun. But there was no pain, no fire, only the glorious heat.

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“It’s worth it, isn’t it?” Tomas’s voice was as warm and fluid as the light. He pinned Kristof to the bed, holding him down, and licked the length of his neck. “Worth every cent you paid for this ship.” “Yes,” Kristof murmured. He lifted his legs and wrapped them around Tomas’s waist. “Every cent.” Tomas scraped his teeth along the line of Kristof’s jugular -- where blood would pulse if his heart still functioned. His heart hadn’t beaten for centuries, but the combination of light and heat and Tomas’s teeth and tongue on his neck made Kristof think it might lurch back to life and start again that steady rhythm. He pulled Tomas closer with his legs, down into the cradle of his body. Their hard cocks slid against each other. Bare skin against bare skin, and there was too much friction. Then Tomas reached down and slicked his own shaft with precome, and the too-rough contact became an easy, blissful glide. Tomas shifted, stroking his slickened cock against Kristof’s, into the crease of his groin, against his thighs and belly. Kristof tipped and pulsed his own hips to match the rhythm, feeling the heat of lust rising in him to match the heat pooling on his skin. Tomas held him tight to the bed, sliding against him now with his chest and stomach, not just the hard length of his cock. Kristof writhed back, matching the gliding, quickening rhythm. Tomas’s hands slid down his arms to his wrists, his hands, and their fingers wove together. And Tomas kissed him. It was the last thing Kristof had expected. He startled at first, tugging at the hands that held him down, but Tomas shifted his weight and only held him more thoroughly immobile. Tomas’s tongue stroked Kristof’s lips, pressed insistently past them until Kristof finally let him in. The kiss was deep and slow and focused, and set Kristof more off-kilter even than the sunlight pouring over his naked skin. He hadn’t had sex in a long time; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been kissed. Not like this. Not as if life and soul and heart depended on it -- and he was unsure either of them had any of those things,

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vampires that they were. But once he’d opened his mouth to it, he never wanted it to stop. He wanted to be here forever, pinned under Tomas’s lean body in the bright heat of the mysterious sun. Tomas kissed him, deep and slow, until Kristof wasn’t sure how much time had passed -- wasn’t entirely sure of his own name. He couldn’t move, couldn’t bring himself to struggle against the hands holding his wrists immobile against the mattress. Then Tomas let go, one hand sliding between them. Even then, Kristof didn’t move. Didn’t want to move as long fingers wrapped around both their hard, ready shafts, and Tomas resumed the easy rhythm. They were both slick and sticky now with precome, and after the last rise toward completion, it took only a few strokes before Kristof once again teetered on the edge. And when Tomas drew back, breaking the kiss, and stroked his tongue along the side of Kristof’s neck, it was over. He couldn’t hold back a low, grating sound as the orgasm tore through him, making him buck under Tomas and strap his arms around the other man’s body, locking them close. Inseparably close. His own seed spurted cool and wet between them. One hand clasped Tomas’s buttock, hard and tight, and Tomas jerked within his taut embrace. His teeth pressed into the side of Kristof’s neck and Kristof felt Tomas’s cock pulse against his belly. They were both shivering and silent for a long moment, drenched in heat and light and satiation. Tomas kissed him again, softer this time, and without thinking, Kristof reached up and stroked Tomas’s hair. It all felt strangely important, more intimate than he’d been in longer than he could remember. Tomas shifted a little against him, then drew back. He grabbed the end of the sheet and cleaned the sticky mess of come off his stomach, then from Kristof’s. Kristof watched, wondering why the simple gesture felt almost like another sex act. Then Tomas settled back into his arms, and they lay quiet. “It’s always like this, you know,” Tomas said after a moment. “Always this bright, this warm. Always this shade of red. It stays this way forever.”

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Kristof nodded. He knew that, although until now it hadn’t meant a great deal to him. “It’s beautiful,” he murmured, “but after a while I would begin to crave the dark.” Tomas chuckled. “Exactly.” He reached up to touch Kristof’s lips with the tips of his fingers, then lowered his hand and closed his eyes. After a time, Kristof closed his, as well, letting the red heat pound against his eyelids as he drifted quietly to sleep in his lover’s arms.

Elizabeth Jewell Elizabeth Jewell is the author of a growing collection of paranormal and contemporary erotic novels and novellas. She’s been writing since before she could read, and has given in to the fact that she’s completely addicted to the process of composing fiction -- especially hot, steamy, paranormal fiction. Elizabeth lives in Colorado with her kids and a hyperactive ferret named Spike. You can visit her website at http://elizabethjewell.kabeka.com and read her blog at http://elizabethjewell.blogspot.com.