I shook my head, “It still won’t work. I’ll give up everything I
have here, I’ll be left with nothing if we should ever fall out.
I still can’t do it.”
Kontar nibbled on my ear. I was acutely aware of his musky,
male cat odor, mixed with the smell of cigar on his pelt. “You
still misunderstand. You’ll be working for a joint Ailourian-
Earth consortium and your company has agreed as part of the trade
deal to take you back if you ever want to return to Earth.
You’ll have to come back frequently in any event to properly
oversee the expanding trade between our people. I regret that,
but I knew you’d never consent to be a kept boy.”
Kontar’s tongue flicking down my throat cut off my joyful assent.
The following week was hectic, as I had to arrange for a caretak-
er for my house and wind up my other affairs in that time. There
was an expensive formal dinner to celebrate the agreement the
night before we left. I caught a glimpse of the figure I cut in
my tight-fitting dinner jacket in one of the mirrors as I circu-
lated around the ballroom exchanging pleasantries with the
guests. All the leading big-monied families were there, the
governor, along with the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. I
had to bite my tongue when talking to some of them who had pre-
sided over a six-year wave of arrests of gays in adult bookstores
and parks, and who had done nothing about police brutality
against gays.