Free The Star Man by Jan Irving

couldn’t see either of them. As if they were invisible to his eyes.
    “Huh.” The man moved so close to Matthew that he could have touched him. Heart pounding, Matthew couldn’t believe it, surrounded by more white and silver feathers than a gay Vegas showboy, but the guard only gave another cursory glance before walking out, closing and locking the door behind him.
    Matthew’s head fell back in relief. “Oh shit.”
    Dove smiled down at him, dark eyes serene. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, Matthew-friend. I’ll always keep you safe.”

Chapter Fourteen
     
    Matthew yanked Dove into an alcove under the stairs on the way out of campus. “Not much ambience.” Pain gripped his chest, making it hard to breathe, to think. “I need a moment.”
    “Matthew?” Dove raised a hand and a white flame leaped from it, illuminating the space.
    Matthew swallowed thickly, looking away from concern, from the clear read Dove was taking. “Wow, you can make fire and everything.”
    Dove waited.
    Subdued, “This is it. You’re leaving.”
    “Yes, I’m sorry.” Matthew didn’t resist when Dove leaned his forehead against his. “Oh Matthew.”
    Matthew’s eyes were moist. He backhanded them, embarrassed. “This can’t last. I know it. Someone like you with a guy like me? It’s like one of those fantasies I had as a kid, wishing I lived in another time, traveling to the stars. Stupid shit like that. Come on, we need to get you home.”
     
    *  *  *
    “I don’t want to fuck you, Matthew,” Dove told him as they walked past the holiday tree on campus again, which looked a little sadder today, much like Matthew felt.
    “Oh.”
    “No, I mean,” Dove moved closer to the motionless Matthew, “I want to share myself with you, help your aura heal before I go away, but I’d like… to make love with you, if you will allow it. Maybe if I do, you’ll be able to trust someone, not be so alone you are bleeding inside.”
    Matthew shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel this way again, angel. But I get what you’re saying. I don’t want your first time to be in my crappy apartment. I wish I could do something special.”
    “I have somewhere I’d like to take you. Will you trust me?”
    Matthew took the hand that Dove held out. “I used to like surprises, you know, when I was a kid? Used to want to explore new places but after what happened, I never trusted. You’re like a draft under my door, can’t seem to find a way to keep you out, right from the beginning.”
    Dove glowed, clothes melting away, transformed from a mock-janitor to his silver and white-feathered self again.
    “Hottest showboy in Vegas!” Matthew noted with affection. This time when Dove embraced him and the earth fell away, Matthew wasn’t as afraid; now he felt anticipation… and freedom.
    But it would be their last flight together, he knew.
     
    *  *  *
    Dove’s wings stretched out as they glided past the last of the city lights and out into the cold desert night. Matthew finally felt brave enough to watch the patches of trees and odd house run past his dangling feet. “Where are we going?”
    “Black Mountain Conservatory.”
    “Oh.”
    “I saw it on a map in the professor’s office, and I memorized the location.”
    “Right.” Matthew shook his head in wonder. “I guess you can do that.”
    “I have a surprise for you.” Dove was smiling secretly. “Since you like surprises again.”
     
    *  *  *
    As they headed into the higher elevation, snowflakes and a cold wind swirled past, buffeting them as Dove’s wings worked to bring them into the mountains. Matthew looked down and saw deep canyons and virgin snow below them. Sometimes they flew so low that he could have reached out and brushed the snow from the tops of trees with his fingers.
    His throat was tight because this was the most fantastical night of his life. This kind of adventure was something from the hazy daydreams of the child he’d been until