Free Dragon Traders by JB McDonald Page A

glanced at the eggs. Katsu claimed there were all sorts of medical uses for them.
    This got a response, though still short. "Mostly at home. Picked up more methods elsewhere in my travels."
    "And you've been traveling long?" Katsu had only been with the group for a little over eight months, and he looked to be in his mid-thirties. No one knew much about him.
    Not even Ashe, and they'd been sharing a bed for the last two weeks.
    But Katsu only grunted again. "You're curious this morning."
    Ashe grinned, pasting over the itchy, frustrated feeling he'd had lately. Getting Katsu to talk was like catching fairies -- nice in theory, almost impossible in reality. It didn't make much sense; everyone Ashe knew wanted to share their life stories with people they liked. Heck, people shared their life stories with him all the time. "Just want to get to know you better."
    Katsu's eyebrows rose, black against his golden skin. "I think you know me pretty well." He set aside his tin mug, then moved Ashe's out of the way as well.
    Ashe paused in his cutting.
    "You're going to go bald," Katsu murmured, shifting closer, "if you keep hacking at your hair like that."
    Ashe's mouth dried up. Hot damn, but even without the life stories it had been an eventful few weeks in Katsu's bed. The camp medic got much more privacy than anyone else did, and he was remarkably creative. "Never know," Ashe quipped thoughtlessly. "Maybe you'd like me bald."
    That earned a short chuckle. "Nope." Katsu reached out, taking Ashe's long, light-brown hair in one hand. Several braids slipped through his fingers, coming to rest once more with the quiet click of beads against the coins and feathers Ashe had also braided in. Enough hair remained in Katsu's broad palm, though. Enough to tug on and draw Ashe close. "I like your hair."
    A pleased flush went through Ashe, no matter how sternly he told himself that he was too old to get so excited over a simple compliment. Still, it wasn't like Katsu gave many of them. "You do?"
    "Mmm." Katsu kissed him, tongue sliding into Ashe's mouth possessively, as if he knew exactly what he wanted and exactly how to get it.
    Actually, he did. Ashe groaned as Katsu kept pulling, drawing his hair slowly to one side so he had to go with it, gently and inevitably down to the blankets. Katsu was a warm weight above him, compact and solid like humans often were.
    Katsu's strange, five-fingered hands pushed under Ashe's shirt, caressing smooth skin that was far paler than Katsu's. Ashe arched up, pushing into the callused hands. Old calluses, he knew from examining them. Sword calluses, though Ashe had never seen Katsu handle a blade -- except the kind meant to heal.
    Katsu's hands brushed upward, bunching cloth and taking it along until Ashe's torso was bare. They had to break the kiss to get his shirt up and off, and Katsu left it tangled around his hands before returning to suck on Ashe's nipples.
    Ashe squirmed. Katsu might have started out a little unsure, wondering where the boundaries lay in having sex with an elf of the Keela empire --or perhaps it was simply having sex with another male, though somehow Ashe didn't think so -- but he'd definitely figured it out pretty quickly, much to Ashe's benefit. Katsu licked his way down Ashe's chest, a touch of his tongue there, a swipe here, the brush of lips. The tie to Ashe's trousers only gave Katsu a moment's pause; he was pretty adept at undoing them.
    Ashe's arms were getting more tangled by the moment; the laces up the front of his shirt had come undone, wrapping around his fingers and stalling his ability to figure out what went where. "You did this on purpose," he gasped, thrusting upward when he felt warm breath on the base of his cock. "Didn't you?"
    Katsu chuckled agreement, pulling Ashe's trousers down his thighs and no farther before moving to bend Ashe's knees to his chest, then ducking behind and between his legs.
    Ashe stopped worrying about the shirt. He had much, much better