Gideon just stared at me with an open mouth, unblinking, frozen in place. Then, finally, “What? You can’t get hard until we’re fucking married? Or near DEATH?!”

I laughed. “It’s a lot, I know.” I said sympathetically as his gaze followed me while I sat up, “Do like your room? Do you need me to order anything for you?” I asked lightly as I looked around with a pleasant smile, satisfied I had successfully given him oral sex.

All those books and quickie-charts really paid off! Sometimes they said that in class grades didn’t always apply to real life application, but clearly, this was not the case! I snapped my fingers and patted my thighs, pleased with myself as I looked to his bathroom and the camilla shaped soap bar there. “You know,” I said, pointing to the soap, “You can always tell the difference between a cameilla flower and a camilla flower because the camilla flower is-”

“You can’t just switch to talking about my fucking room and flowers after unloading that – what the fuck, man?” I turned my head with a frown to see his look of shock twisting into one of horror. “Getting off was literally the only thing that kept me alive this long in the colony. I’d kill myself if I couldn’t jerk off everyday.” Gideon said, looking shocked. “Like, twice a day, even. But not at all?!”

I swallowed thickly, a sinking feeling growing in my gut. “I- well,” I cleaned my throat, “It’s -” I struggled to recover from that, my mind suddenly chewing on the idea of suicide. “How are you feeling? You were quite sick at the restaurant.” I said then, trying to force my mind back on track. I stood, going over to where my pants were I had placed my wallet on the table by the door, taking out the emergency patches there in the zipper pocket, peeling open the envelope before placing the clear patch on my upper arm. I went to go to the trashcan in the bathroom to toss the trash in there, grabbing the mouthwash on the sink to gargle some.

“What’s that?” Gideon asked as I came back into the room, eyeing where the patch was.

“It’s medicine, helps keep me on track.” I said with a smile. I didn’t feel it working yet, but I found pretending that I was okay usually helped hurry things along.

Fake it until you make it, as the old saying went.

I stared at Gideon’s naked limp dick.

Suddenly it wasn’t just a part of the body like it had been before.

It was a power, sexual part of the body, something I could touch to make Gideon feel good, my key to showing him how much I wanted and appreciated him in the most primal ways.

“Huh.” Gideon flopped down against his pillows, my eyes snapping up from his groin to look to his face and see his pretty flush was gone. I frowned. “Well, for a guy who can’t get off himself, you sure know how to get others off.” He said with a sharp smile, sliding lower in his bed to open his legs wide, loosely cupping himself. “How’d that happen, Laurie dear?”

I laughed. “Books, videos...sex is an excellent way for couples to figure out if they are compatible.” Though that was more for type C or B novus. When you were Type A and had almost no choice with compatibility, you just took whatever you were given. “Uh-” I laughed a little and forced the frown off my face as I sat on the bottom of the bed, watching him as he dragged his gaze over my naked torso to stare openly at my pant clad groin. “What would you like to do in the city while your here? There’s a lot to see-”

“I really just want to fuck, mostly,” He said with a little nod of his head, meeting my gaze again. “I’m not that complicated.” He said easily, eyeing the fresh scars on my ribs.

“There’s lots of spots gears specifically toward sexual compatibility, if you’d like to visit those.” I said as I sat on his bed.

“Whut?” Gideon said, his eyebrows raising. “Like...like what?” He said with a playful grin, looking excited.

“Like…” I slowly laid back to lean on my elbows, Gideon shifting to crawl over and lay down next to me, sticking his feet on his pillows before crossing his legs at the ankles as we both looked down at each other. “There’s a hotel that has rooms geared toward specific kinks and desires...and any sexual toy or accessory you could want would be there in your own private vending machine.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you book me there instead of this place!?” He laughed, “Let’s go check that place out!” I grinned and nodded, sitting up. He pushed me back down with a hand on my chest and I let him, rolling onto my side to face him and his bright, excited gaze. “But we can do that tomorrow. Tell me more about you, Mr. Dentist.” He laughed.

“Ask me anything. I’m an open book.”

He reached over and stroked the back of his fingers against the deep scaring on my upper arms. “You got lots of scars. Tell me about that.”

“Mm, I got these when I was having an episode...those happen when a unmated novus being to reach later stages of deterioration.”

“So you guys really die if you don’t get a mate, huh? I thought people were just fucking with me.” He said with a dry little laugh.

“No, it’s true,” I said softly, watching as he seemed to search my body for any scars, touching each one briefly before moving on. “Some don’t have to find a mate until they are in their thirties, but others like myself have to find one way sooner or else they die.”

“Like your heart explodes?”

“No, it’s-it’s usually self inflicted.” His gaze jumped to mine, “It’s a severe deterioration of the mind, happens over a period of time. For some it’s very slow. For me, it started when I was twelve.”

He blinked at that, frowning. “What’s it like?” He asked quietly.

“Um,” I thought on that, sighing quietly, “It’s like...at first it’s like I get really, really excited and I can’t calm down. Like...being extremely emboldened. You get a sudden inflated ego, like you are completely sure that whatever you think is right is right. Thoughts like that can be short lasting, or get worse over time, really depends on the novus. Some develop God complexes. Others inferiority complexes. It really depends.”

“How did it manifest with you?”

“I get intense feelings of guilt.” I said quietly with a little smile.

His frown deepened. “Guilt over what?”

“Over really silly things, mostly. Like…” I frowned, running a hand over my hair. “Like I didn’t help out my parents enough that day, or I didn’t work hard enough to get a better grade, or...I was embarrassing my family with some small behavior. Just really intense negative thoughts that might not even have any basis in reality. Usually I can come back from them, talk myself out of it using logic, but the older I get, the worse they are, and the harder it is to recover.” I touched the patch on my arm, “Medicine helps a little, but it’s like apply a small stitch to a massive break in a bone, sometimes. It’ll just get worse…” I reached out and tucked a pin straight strand of hair that hung in his face behind his ear. “Unless I secure a mate.”

“I heard novus can like...go crazy and tear people apart and shit. Could you do that?” He asked, sounding more excited than worried.

I chuckled. “Poor impulse control is a big aspect of being a novus, yes, and for some people, that will make them especially violent. Others gamble, or smoke, or spend money. My poor impulse control usually comes out in…” I struggled for a beat, “In knowing certain things, but choosing to ignore them. They call it critical obliviousness.” I swallowed hard, a knot developing in my throat. “Like I know for a fact that I can’t go out in the sunlight, but sometimes I’m...highly motivated to want to go out for a walk without protection.”

Gideon nodded slowly, a look of awe on his face. “And what happens if you go out into the sunlight? Do you really, like, instantly die?”

“Well,” I sighed, “That’s complicated – so – I don’t burst into flames or anything like that,” I laughed a little, Gideon grinning as he shifted, curling so he could lay his ear against my heart, a hand rubbing where there were scars on my ribs. “It’s an allergic reaction, like people that are deathly allergic to bees, and will die after one sting.” I said gently, reaching down to stroke the back of his head. “In the peacekeepers, part of graduation is exposing a part of your body to sunlight. Usually a hand. My brother’s mate had to do it, and she described it as the worst pain she had ever been in, far worse than childbirth, far worse than any bone break, and Mabel had...had some nasty breaks. She said the limb that had been hit with sunlight hurt for almost two weeks after that at the same intensity – she had to stay at the dorms the entire time she recovered because she couldn’t stop screaming and didn’t want her kids to see her.”

“But she survived?”

“Oh, yes. They have medication for emergency use if you administer it immediately, but if a novus, for instance…” My mind stalled as my tongue struggled to form what I wanted to say – “Walked naked outside in the sunlight,” I forced out, coughing a little when Gideon peered up with a curious look, “Then there wouldn’t be any saving them – a-and if a novus was exposed to sunlight for to long, say...two minutes, then they’d die as well. No medication could help them.”

“Damn.” Gideon said after a moment of silence passed between us.

There was a high pitched beeping and Gideon sat up, twisting to look down at my watch. “What’s that?”

“Sunrise alert.” I said, showing him the screen on my wrist watch. “We have about an hour until I can’t be out without covering.” I said with a wave, hoping he would lay back down against my chest so I could feel his naked skin against mine.

He grinned wide. “Does that mean you’d be trapped in here with me?” He said as he slowly lowered to hover his face over mine.

God, he smelt so good.

I almost couldn’t stand it.

“What would happen if you were in here close to sunrise?”

I smiled and lifted my head a little to meet him in a kiss, slow and sweet. “You want to see how I can make this room safe for novus?” I said after I pulled back, Gideon licking his lips.

He let out a surprised laughter. “How?”

I grinned and scooted out from under him, standing to go over to the panel by the door. Gideon quickly scrambled off the bed to come over to watch as I tapped through the menu, forcing a sunrise mode early as he held his hands to his cheek with wide eyes.

There was a chirp before protective covers started to slid down over the windows. Gideon ran over to them, fully sprinting. I stifled my laughter as I watched, Gideon loudly shouting in amazement and glancing back to see if I saw what was happening.

“There are windows called ‘smart windows’ that will tint to help block out some sunlight, but those only work for Type C novus. Plus, there are...incredibly easy to shatter, so they aren’t used unless it’s in places they know they won’t – ah – be struck.”

I watched as he reached out to place his hands on the glass, looking back at me with an open mouth. “This is so fucking weird!”

Suddenly an image of the outside appeared on the glass and Gideon screamed, jumping back. I laughed, reaching into the bathroom to get him a bathrobe to put on him while he shouted about how crazy the outside world was, then demanding to know how this worked.

“So-” I laughed as Gideon suddenly put his hands on the glass, pressing his face against it. “So that’s a projection of whats on the other side of the covering. It’s a little bit more faint than the real thing, but it-”

“It’s amazing.” Gideon said as he held his hands to his face. “What the fuck is this magic?”

I hesitated before I wrapped my arms around him, resting my chin on his shoulder. “There’s a lot I’d love to show you-”

“Does this come in ALL the houses?” He suddenly burst out, placing both hands on the glass again.

“Most that have protective coverings, yes. A lot of vehicles in Asia actually don’t have glass on them and instead just have a projected image on the inside of what you would see if you did have glass. Glass is cheaper, though, so that’s what most people use.”

“Jesus Christ, this is crazy- tell me more.”

And I did.

We ordered food and laid in bed while I pulled up videos to watch on the hotel screen, showing Gideon some of the basic things that made it so society was able to function when a solid half of the population couldn’t be touched by sunlight. I showed him videos of the underground, the subways, the underwater rail services like the one in Greater Lakes, but also the major one that went between North America and Europe in the north as well as southern Asia and Australia.

He asked me what kind of crazy sex novus had and I showed him some videos, after which we fooled around some, talking briefly about what I was and wasn’t capable of doing. He had been hesitant to mess around, saying he didn’t want to get me hard if I couldn’t cum, but I assured him that the emergency patch I was wearing killed any ability to get hard, and then I encouraged him to tell me what he wanted to try.

And Gideon was pretty much up for anything.

Which was alright, because I was willing to try all sorts of things.

Mostly though, we just explored each other’s bodies until Gideon got wound up and I played with him until he came – sometimes with my mouth, sometimes with my hand, but he was always clinging to me, groping me, legs or arms or both wrapped around me.

And God, it was the most magnificent thing. I don’t think I would ever be able to get into a bed and not wish I had Gideon’s limbs gripping me like he was afraid of falling off the face of the earth.

When he was well and truly exhausted, I started to get ready to leave to give him time to think, but he very firmly insisted I stay with him, wrapping his arms around my waist and refusing to let go.

And against my better judgment, I did because I couldn’t say no when he held me like that, his chin on my stomach as he stared up at me with wide eyes.

I just…

Wasn’t ready to stop experiencing him.

His smell, his taste – the sound of his fluttering heart beat when I laughed, the way hiss body moved so easily and fluidly, like a piece of artwork.

God, it was all so perfect, and I didn’t want it to stop.

Which was stupid.

I knew it was stupid to lay and bond with someone that I had only met hours ago, someone that could very well change their mind about wanting to be with me and find someone more interesting…

But I couldn’t resist him, not when he begged for me to stay with him.

So I called my brother to check in, sent a message to Willow so he knew that the date was going well, and then I climbed into bed with Gideon to sleep and prayed very hard I wouldn’t regret it.

And then I slept in a way I hadn’t slept in years.