Strata's Fear

Chapter 4

"Anubis?" Rowan ventured as he opened the door.

"I'm here," came the silky reply, "on your bed."

Rowan swallowed the lump in his throat. "Oh, okay."

He carefully stepped into the darkened room and shut the door behind him. Do I really want to do this? Am I ready for this?

"I hope you don't mind, but I've already disrobed. You might want to do the same on your way."

Rowan grinned and locked the door. Oh yeah, I'm ready all right.

The archer quickly crossed the room, fumbling with his clothing along the way. The boxers went first. He held the condom wrappers in his teeth as he finished pushing down his shorts using only leg movements and feet, and he pulled his T-shirt over his head, tugging sharply at it to get it over his thick skull. He hopped on one foot and then the other as he yanked off his socks, his fully engorged sex bobbing up and down.

He rushed to the bed, stopping abruptly.

The vision before him was exquisite.

Before, he'd always hated the streetlight that shone in his window. It kept him up most of the time and also blocked his vision of the stars. That's why he'd put the small plastic glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling. Sage had protested vehemently at first, but now both of them were rearranging the stars according to the seasons and loving the small pale glow they emanated. This time, however, his eyes weren't on the stars above, but on another celestial body that had taken up a stationary orbit on his bed.

Anubis lay on the bed, his blanket of red hair spilling over the edges of Rowan's twin bed. The street light threw a golden, ephemeral glow over the warlord's finely chiseled body. Rowan clamped his mouth shut. Anubis was staring at the stars.

The fear slowly crept back into the archer's veins. But this time it was coupled with excitement.

He knew this was a warlord - former warlord, he had to remind himself - but his hormones told him to completely ignore that fact and jump the guy's bones.

But he couldn't ignore his fear. How many times had he been at the receiving end of Anubis' kusari-gama? How many times had he heard the words: Quake with fear? And that's what it felt like he was doing now. He certainly didn't feel like a Ronin Warrior. He briefly toyed with the idea of calling upon the power of Strata, but where would that get him? Still nervous but this time in armor. He took a deep breath to help calm his nerves.

"Rowan? Are you all right?"

"Wha…? Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm okay." Rowan tried to gracefully plop himself on the bed. He mentally chided himself for leaving the room such a mess. He knew he should have listened to Sage and cleaned up. But he never seemed to have time. And he liked it messy. Most of the time. Right now, he wished that there were fewer clothes on the floor that he could trip over as he tumbled onto the redhead's chest.

"Whoa there!" Anubis' arms wrapped around him and kept him from sliding off the bed. "Are you okay?"

"Shit. I am so sorry. I should have cleaned up some stuff today. I-"

"It's okay, Rowan. Look, if you're too nervous about this, maybe we should-"

"No!" He held on to the warlord's arms. "I'm okay. It's just that, I've never…"

"You've never had sex?"

"No. I mean, yes, I've had sex, but not with somebody that I didn't really know. You know?"

Anubis chuckled. Rowan shuddered. That laugh made him want to purr.

"But you know me, Strata. We've had ample time to get to know each other better…" Warm hands slid down to grasp his ass, and he gasped. "Now, where were we?"