Excerpt

Only One Regret

by Ali Katz

The berth was colder than usual. Shutting himself in the tiny room, Daniel kicked off his shoes and removed his belt, then reached for a blanket.

Icy fingers ran the length of his spine.

His reaction was instantaneous. He jerked from the touch, dived for the door. A hand grabbed him by the collar, hauled him off his feet. His face met the bulkhead.

"No!" The shout lodged in his throat.

A hard body leaned into him with easy intimacy. A very solid erection burrowed into the crack of his ass through the denim.

"Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck." The curses squeezed past the steel grip of fear binding his throat. His panicked gaze bounced wildly within its limited range, searching for anything to make the solid body pressing against him real. Finally, he had to close his eyes against the unseen, shrinking from whatever came next.

Wintry lips slid over his jaw-gentle lips, just the breath of a kiss. An arm slid between Daniel and the wall, across his abdomen to clutch his hip.

The move was all too familiar. He threw his arms out, shoving against the bulkhead, trying to escape before the ghost completed the embrace, but it easily restrained his flailing limbs, holding him fast with an unyielding hug across the chest.

Daniel felt himself lifted away from the bulkhead. He hung suspended, feet barely touching the floor, subdued by an invisible master while gentle, cold kisses caressed his face, neck and shoulder. As though answering a hypnotist's command, his body remembered and submitted.