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Anyone could make an error. Thrawn's error was agreeing to the low-energy sizzle-cuffs that circled his wrists now. Nuso's error was assuming that none of Thrawn's human crew would come to his rescue.
Pellaeon's error was that he didn't knock.
"Stars, sir," he grumbled. He buried his face in his forearms and pointed his blaster carefully at the ceiling. "We thought you'd been kidnapped!"
"I was," said Thrawn mildly from the bed. Nuso Esva shifted, his cock rubbing against Thrawn's in a decidedly unsexy way, now that they had company. "You can see I'm cuffed."
"I can't see anything," said Pellaeon, eyes tightly closed. "And I'm not going to."
Nuso, whose antennae had drooped at the intrusion, now perked up again. "You're leaving?" he asked brightly.
Pellaeon seemed to sense a trap. Reluctantly he opened one eye and took in Nuso's graceful iridescent hands, one on Thrawn's shoulder and the other at Thrawn's bare throat, where an elegant little dagger was poking into the underside of Thrawn's jaw just hard enough to draw a bead of blood.
"Ach, sir," said Pellaeon wearily.
"I do apologize," said Thrawn. He twisted his wrists inside the sizzle-cuffs and tried to angle his hips away from Nuso's probing cock — not out of lack of interest, but out of politeness. Pellaeon was so red in the face he looked ready to drop. "I overestimated my ability to get out of these once they were locked," Thrawn said.
"You're telling me you agreed to the sizzle-cuffs, sir?" asked Pellaeon, aghast.
"Of course he agreed to the sizzle-cuffs," Nuso snapped. He scratched at Thrawn's throat with the knife blade, and Thrawn's cock thickened in response. "Have you tried sizzle-cuffs? They're divine. That little tickle of electricity..."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Pellaeon asked.
Black glittering eyes pinned Pellaeon to the door. A hard smile curved Nuso's lips. "Who are you?"
"Don't be jealous," Thrawn murmured, jerking his chin away from the dagger. "It's unbecoming." Then, loud enough for Pellaeon to hear him, he said, "Captain, this is Nuso Esva, my mortal enemy and perhaps the greatest tactical mind in opposition to order and peace."
"And I have a nice ass," Nuso added.
Pellaeon shook his head. He lowered his blaster and trained it right on Nuso. "Alright," he said brusquely. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I need you to step off the Grand Admiral and put your hands against the wall."
Nuso hummed a laugh. He squeezed Thrawn's cock before sliding off him, his fingers trailing gently over the sensitive skin of Thrawn's balls, every light touch eliciting a shiver. By the time Nuso placed his hands on the wall, Pellaeon had turned an astonishing shade of crimson.
"The cuffs, Captain," said Thrawn casually.
Pellaeon stepped sideways toward the luxe, heart-shaped bed Nuso had rented just for this occasion. His foot bumped against a bucket of melting ice, rattling the half-empty bottle of champagne inside. He undid the sizzle-cuffs while resolutely refusing to glance down at Thrawn's naked body, or the scratch marks on his chest, or the love bites on his throat. While Thrawn rubbed at his raw wrists and searched for his underwear, Pellaeon snapped the sizzle-cuffs to Nuso Esva instead.
"Kneel," he said, holding his blaster to the back of Nuso's head.
"Oh, don't kill him," said Thrawn in the same tone he'd once used to request that Pellaeon stop feeding the ysalamiri meat pellets from the galley (it made them gassy).
"You'd like the honor, sir?" Pellaeon asked.
Thrawn fished beneath the bed and found his drawers. "Naturally," he said. "But not here. In a field of battle, someday, as I myself would hope to be killed. To kill him here, cuffed and nude, would be..."
Nuso looked over his shoulder and waggled his eyebrows at Thrawn. Thrawn's voice faltered, became a little husky, a little raspy.
"...erotic," he finished. Then he cleared his throat. "But unsatisfying."
He pulled his underwear up and snapped the waistband against his hips. Pellaeon held the blaster tight to Nuso's head, his finger itching to touch the trigger, and then squeezed his eyes closed, took a deep breath that sunk down to the pit of his stomach, and forced himself to pull the blaster away.
"I didn't expect anyone to rescue you," said Nuso casually as Thrawn gathered his uniform.
"Clearly," Thrawn said. He folded his tunic over his arm and approached Nuso -- perhaps to rough him up a little, Pellaeon hoped (desperately hoped). But instead Thrawn leaned down a little, his skin a dark and tantalizing blue against the fluctuating purple of Nuso's body. His palm cupped Nuso's cheek; his lips brushed Nuso's skull, right between his antennae. "I'll kill you next time," he said affectionately.
"Not if I kill you first," said Nuso with a smile.
