He looked down at her and shook his head. “How is it that you have never been snapped up by one of your admirers?”
Del laughed and patted his hand. “The breeding portion of the contract has already been fulfilled, so unless they just want me with no guarantee of an heir, they are out of luck.”
“You have born a child?” He frowned.
She chuckled. “No, but my DNA is rippling through my daughter on Yeffin. My friend Hara asked me to be mother to her child. The Yeffin use a contributor to breed and implant their genes within the egg. Loriana is four now. I went in, they took my egg and in no time, Hara was pregnant.”
“So, you are a mother?” He was amazed and amused.
“Father really. I don’t know what else to call the genetic donor who does not live with the offspring. Loriana calls me Tien Del or aunty Del.” Lethargy was washing over her. The wine combined with the taste of Kurat remained on her tongue. Her words grew halting.
“Sleep well, lady. Tomorrow, we learn the details of your fate.”
She smiled brightly. “Good night, Kurat. Goodnight, Rothu.”
He pressed a quick kiss to her lips and left her side, closing her door firmly.
Chapter Four
“What are you doing with her?”
Kurat turned to see a young male bristling with hostility. “Who might you be?”
“Companion Baiss. Who are you?”
Kurat bowed and introduced himself. “High Prefect Kurat of Na-Lanvin.”
“What are you doing with Delyth? She is to be mine.” He puffed out his chest and flexed his biceps.
Kurat analyzed him. He was fit enough, young enough but far too intense for Delyth. It was no wonder that she had chosen him as the better option. “She will not be yours. She does not wish to be yours. You unsettle her.”
He slowly advanced on the young man, and Kovohn rose to the fore. When Baiss attacked, he simply stopped the fists with his own hands and held the younger male while he fought to free himself. “She does not want you. She does not want me either, but she is not being given a choice. It must be one or the other, and it will be me.”
The patter of feet announced the arrival of security officers. Baiss was on his knees now, and Kurat simply held him, no pressure, just the weight of the god of war pressing on his mind.
When the guards came forward, they asked, “What has transpired here?”
Kurat smiled. “A fight over a woman.”
He released Baiss, and the guards hauled him to his feet.
The guards nodded to Kurat. “Please come and make a report, sir.”
Kurat smiled. “Of course. This has been quite an evening, best to finish it properly.”
He spent the next hour talking to security, and when he returned to his chambers, his smile refused to be dimmed. He had not been in the smallest of rows since the gods had changed him, nor had he had a woman in his arms who was not sure of what he was. Delyth had reacted to him alone until Rothu joined them.
He leaned back on the bed designed for larger-framed species, and he smiled at the ceiling. Kurat wished he had had a chance to taste her slick honey. The scent alone had hardened his cocks, and as he stared at the patterns painted and carved above him, the steady throb kept a pulse of pleasure running through his body. For the first time in two decades, he felt alive, and it was a feeling that he wanted to continue.
All he needed was the bright joy of an honest woman, and fortunately, he had already signed his part of the contract.
* * * *
A hangover was not the most pleasant way to wake up, but when Del realized that the pounding in her head had more to do with the door and less with her skull, she got to her feet and staggered to open it.
“Harcor. Hello.” She rubbed her face and smiled brightly.
“Delyth Raygen, may I come in?”
Del quickly looked down and confirmed that she was still wearing her clothing from the previous night. “Certainly.”
She opened the door and crossed the room to the dispenser. She keyed up some tea, and when she turned, Kurat was standing next to Harcor and Kisha.
“Miss, I am here to inform you that all contracts have been signed, and you are now authorized to begin your mission on Na-Lanvin. The duration is unspecific. You will leave as soon as Kisha can pack for you.” Harcor flashed a brief, insincere smile. “Congratulations on your lucrative assignment.”
He left, and she was holding onto her cup of tea with shock rippling through her. Kisha came forward. “I will pack for you, miss. Take a shower, and I will lay some clothing out for your travels.”
Kurat settled on her bed, scooting against the headboard and folding his hands behind his head.
“What are you doing, Kurat?”
“You are now under contract to me, so I will make sure that nothing untoward happens until we are safely on Na-Lanvin. That means that you and I will be spending a lot of time together. It may as well start now.”
She blinked at him, her mind blank. Kisha pulled the pins from her hair and ushered her into the lav, starting the shower and peeling Del out of her eveningwear.
“What happened to my shoes?”
Kisha chuckled. “I have no idea, miss. Shall I bring your change of clothing in here?”
Del sighed with relief. “Yes, please. Something pleasantly covering. Nothing peeking out anywhere.”
Kisha laughed and left her alone.
The shower brightened her mind and woke her completely. She washed quickly and thoroughly, brushing her hair into a long curtain before winding it together in a braid. A quick snap of a clasp and she was waiting for Kisha. Her assistant appeared with a sheepish smile. “He picked it out. He tore my selection in two.”
Del sighed in resignation. The trousers and tunic were of the softest silk, so it did match her first requirement, that of being concealing, but touching it would be akin to touching her skin, it was no barrier to contact.
Knee-high boots on her feet prepared her for the metal grates of a star ship, and a wide sash gave her tunic shape. She gave Kisha a hug. “Thank you for all your help. Am I packed?”
“You are. Thank you as well, miss. You are far from the staid and uptight women I normally attend. It is an example that I wish to follow in my own life.” Kisha grinned. “You have to get out there sometime. He will come in here if you don’t, and I really don’t think there is room.”
Del nodded. “Right.” She straightened her shoulders and left the lav.
Kurat took in her clothing and nodded. “It will do for now. Are you ready?”
She crossed her arms. “No.”
“But you will come anyway?” He arched a brow.
“Yes.”
He grinned. “Good. I will take your bags. Our shuttle is waiting.”
She nodded. “Certainly. Can I stop and say farewell to Wissla?”
“Of course. Shall we go?”
He opened her door and held it open. With a sigh of regret, she left her student room at the Companion Centre to go and say goodbye to her best friend.
The shuttle was huge. It was not the standard four-man affair that she was used to. Two crewmen took her bags and preceded them with long strides. Kurat took her arm and showed her to the quarters that she was going to be sharing with him.
It was a bedroom eight times larger than her quarters at the Companion Centre, which was a good thing, because the bed was four times larger than her own.
“If you would like to get settled for launch, we can head to the passenger seats.”
She nodded, still mute.
He held out his hand, palm up, and she put her hand in his. He led her back into the hall and down to an area with plush seats large enough to accommodate Kurat’s huge frame.
Once they were seated and strapped in, Kurat gave the signal to the command deck, and the engines started to throb under them.
“So, Na-Lanvin are usually shorter than you are.” It was an obvious observation, but it started the conversational ball rolling.
“Yes. As I mentioned, the gods make changes to their hosts. I am considerably taller than the average Na-Lanvin.”
“It must make it hard to find shoes that fit.”
He looked at her in astonishment and cracked up as the ship shuddered. “My clothing is custom made. Na-Lanvin is a wealthy world, and the home of the gods reflects it.”
“What do you think the gods actually were?” She tightened her hands on the arms of her chair as they began to gain altitude.
“There are theories, but the gods themselves aren’t saying. Personally, I have an idea that they are shattered pieces of one personality, the heart and soul of Na-Lanvin.”
“Oh, like a planetary presence looking for an avatar?” She closed her eyes as the shuttle cleared the atmosphere.
“You do not like shuttle travel?”
She shuddered. “Not particularly. Entering and leaving an atmosphere always causes me a little upset.”
He took her hand in his and ran his thumb along her palm. The light caress distracted her.
Startled, she looked into his features, but his eyes were focussed on her hand. The rhythmic rubbing caused a reaction inside her. She shifted her feet on the floor to ease the light throbbing between her thighs.
Del dragged in a shaking breath, and as she fought her way out of the haze that her body was content to wallow in, she noted that they had cleared the atmosphere and were on their way through the darkness.
“That was clever.”
“Oh, this old trick?” He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss on the inner pulse. “I am glad it worked.”
She tried to tug her wrist loose, but he kept it, slowly laving his tongue over her pulse point over and over. The wet heat of his tongue combined with the light scraping kept her pulse hammering in more than her chest.
Her sex felt swollen, her clit ached and her nipples pressed against the thin fabric of her tunic.
A member of the flight crew came back to speak to Kurat. “High Prefect, we are on the way to rendezvous with the Yaru. We will be in flight for the next fourteen hours.”
“Thank you, Crewman Daffio.” Kurat released his harness with his free hand, and then, he reluctantly returned Del’s wrist to her.
She unbuckled her harness and got to her feet with her knees wobbling. “May I go exploring?”
Kurat stood and looked down at her. “I already was but fine. Would you care to see the observation area?”
She nodded. “Yes, please. Or somewhere with a lot of people?”
He sighed. “You will have to be alone with me sometime.”
Del agreed. “I will but not now.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Because I haven’t had breakfast yet. I am hungry.”
Kurat wrapped his arms around her and smiled, “I will endeavour to satisfy your appetite.”
She closed her eyes and leaned against his chest. A groan came out from her own frustration. “Fine. Tease all you like but get me something to eat. There is no goddess in here right now, just a hungry Terran.”
“All right. Let’s find something to put in that mouth of yours.” His amused tone made her want to punch him, but nothing she could do would have an effect.
She kept her lips shut and followed him to the galley where lunch was indeed on offer. It was just the sort of mundane thing that she needed to turn her interior engines down. By the time she finished her meal, her belly was full and her skin was no longer hypersensitive. Kurat would just have to try again.
Chapter Five
Kurat was at her side while she watched the stars slip past, and he was with her when she decided that she needed a nap. The moment that she mentioned it, they were on their way to their quarters before she could say yikes.
With their door locked, Kurat decided to be helpful. He took her sash off then her tunic. He knelt in front of her, his mouth even with her breasts. He buried himself in her flesh and began a serious effort to lick every inch of her creamy flesh.
Del ran her fingers through his hair and held onto the dark locks as he latched onto one breast and began to suckle one and then the other, holding both in his hands.
Her breath left her in a heated rush, and she gasped as she pulled oxygen in. Kurat’s nose rubbed against her skin, and his exhalations warmed her already-heated flesh.
The steady tugging caused a rush of wetness lower down, and she clamped her thighs together in an effort to ease the throbbing heat.
He released one breast and tugged at the waistband of her trousers. They slipped down to rest on top of her boots, leaving her naked to the knees.
Kurat looked up into her eyes as he suckled violently then blew streams of cool air across her reddened skin before returning her nipple to the furnace of his mouth.
Without warning, his mouth released her, and he lifted her to the edge of the bed. Her boots and trousers were discarded, and to her shock, he spread her thighs and leaned in to taste her without further teasing.
The rasp of his tongue on the folds of her sex made her moan as the heat of his mouth soothed and aroused her at the same time. He closed his lips over her clit, and the rough surface of his tongue took her to the edge of release but didn’t let her go over.
She looked down to see her thighs splayed and his dark head between them. As if he felt her looking, he shifted his head so that his gaze met her own. Keeping the link between them, he leaned in and thrust his tongue into her, licking and scraping at the inner walls of her channel, lapping up all the honey that she had been producing at his every touch.
With his gaze locked to hers, his tongue slid into her, and then, it began to undulate deeper and deeper. His gaze turned from leaf green to dark pine as the sensation in her filled her to fullness and beyond. Whatever Rothu was, his tongue was amazing.
The undulations scraped along the front wall of her sex, and with every shivering slide, she got closer to coming. He must have seen it in her face, because the inner stroking grew faster and faster.
Her climax hit her in waves, long, slow waves that tried to grip him tight and hold him inside her. Del arched her back and reached for Kurat, but he was already gone.
She watched him pull his clothing away, piece by piece, until he was as naked as she was. To her shock, he simply arranged them on the bed with their heads on the pillows, and he curled against her, naked and aroused with two cocks jutting and weeping for attention.