Authors: Bernadette Gardner
would one day rule.
She took one faltering step forward, but the cries of the
lovers stopped her. They'd reached climax, together. Ari
watched, horrified, as Caleb pushed Zara down into the
alor
and stretched his sweat-soaked body over hers. She lay
beneath him, completely at his mercy, panting from her own
satisfaction. He soothed her by stroking her damp hair and
ran an appreciative hand along her trembling thigh.
"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"
"No. No. That was intense. I was scared at first, but I
know you would never hurt me."
Dr. Abbott rolled over to face Caleb and took his face in
her hands. Arilani retreated into the shadows just far enough
to remain out of sight of the human woman's less acute night
vision.
"Everything is different now. We shouldn't have done this,
but I'm not sorry, and I don't want you to be either," Caleb
said, his voice low and achingly intimate.
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A painful twinge between her breasts made Ari catch her
breath. She didn't love Caleb Faulkner, but she'd wanted him.
He was handsome and intelligent, a perfect specimen of
human male who would have become a strong, capable mate
for her and a perfect father to her child. Together they could
have changed Icarus, but the tone he used when speaking to
the woman he'd just bedded, told her the day Ari longed for
when they could step into the roles now held by Jidar and
Namara would never come. She could not abide this. All her
work on the breeding project amounted to nothing simply
because Dr. Abbott had been the first to find Caleb after his
joining. Had it been Arilani, it would be her now, lying
beneath him, sated and fertile, filled with his seed.
Her soft exhalation never reached the ears of the lovers.
They were too wrapped up in themselves to be aware of her
pain.
This could not continue. She could not lose her chance to
have a child of her own, a mate of her own, and save her
people in the process.
Her mind whirled with possibilities, and finally an idea
formed. She waited silently for what seemed like an
interminable period until Caleb and Zara's intimate
conversation ceased and their breathing became steady and
regular. Then she crept forward, prepared to put her plan into
action.
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Caleb glided to a soft landing at the edge of the island
platform and strolled into the aerie, his arms full of fruit he'd
found growing in an abandoned garden on another island. He
whistled as he entered the dwelling and placed the fruit in an
alor
net he'd found.
This morning he felt lighter than air. For the first time
since his diagnosis and since he'd begun his deception, the
weight of the secret he'd carried seemed manageable.
Zara had taken his burden from him. Despite all the lies
he'd told her, she'd forgiven him and accepted that whatever
time he had left, they would spend together.
He'd never been happier, and neither had his symbion
who'd been so busy preening with satisfaction, it had nearly
flown them into a rock.
"Caleb? You're finally back. I thought you'd forgotten
about me." She appeared next to him, her hair falling in
gentle ringlets around her shoulders, her skin aglow in the
morning light. His angel.
"I could never forget about you." He smiled and handed
her a small, green fruit. "Breakfast."
"Oh, good. I'm starving." She snatched the fruit from him
and bit into the soft flesh. Pale juice ran down her chin, and
Caleb swooped in and licked the sweet liquid off her skin,
then clamped his lips over hers in a claiming kiss.
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She laughed into his mouth and tried to mumble
something while their tongues battled around the honey-
sweet pulp of the fruit. "Geg yoo oon."
"What?" He managed a single word before diving in for
another deep kiss that tasted of fresh air and simmering
desire.
She pushed him away gently but with mischief in her eyes.
"I said, that was my bite. Get your own."
"My own bite? Okay." He grabbed her and sank his teeth
into her succulent shoulder. The salt of her skin complimented
the fruit juice, creating an unforgettable flavor.
His cock stirred once again, and his symbion woke, eager
to continue its relentless quest to impregnate a female. "We
can eat later," he said, pulling the half-eaten fruit from Zara's
hand. "I want to try something."
"What? Wait ... ah—"
He scooped her up and carried her to the bed, ready to
pull off her shorts and shirt. He realized as she tried only half-
heartedly to squirm away from him that she was only wearing
her shirt.
"Where are your shorts?" he mumbled as he pulled her
wriggling body beneath his. "Never mind. I don't care."
"Well ... umph ... I do." She pretended to fight him,
pushing ineffectively at his chest while eagerly spreading her
legs. "I can't ... ah ... find them anywhere."
Caleb cut off her complaint with a kiss. She still tasted of
fruit, and he liked that. He wanted more. "I prefer you this
way," he said, pushing her shirt up to expose her stomach
and the plump undersides of her breasts.
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"Maybe you can run around naked, now that you're half
Icarian, but I'll ruffle a few feathers at the royal aerie if I
show up with my unmentionables hanging out."
Caleb scowled. "Quiet, woman. I'll deal with your wardrobe
problem later, right now, I intend to eat you."
"Whaff-ah!" Zara shrieked as Caleb held the fruit over her
stomach and squeezed. Juice splattered on her skin, filling
her navel and running in rivulets down to the soft, golden hair
of her mound.
Gooseflesh rose in the path of the cold liquid, and Zara
shivered. Ecstasy clouded her eyes before he dove at her and
began his meal by licking his way from her sternum to her
belly button, taking cautious nips along the way. He drank
from the tiny, sexy indentation, slurping loudly while she
laughed.
He threw the now empty rind of the fruit aside and let a
few drops of juice drip from his fingers onto her plump pussy
lips.
She moaned and closed her eyes. Determined to enjoy
every last drop of her, he parted her folds with his sticky
fingers and rubbed the juice on the already glistening flesh of
her clit.
She gasped as the mildly acidic juice puckered her
intimate skin. Her clit, now rosy and erect, quivered,
demanding to be tasted. Caleb obeyed, sucking the hot nub
into his mouth.
Zara keened. Her fingers clawed the
alor
down, and she
lifted her hips, thrusting her fruit-sweetened sex farther into
his mouth.
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"The Icarians do this," he confessed between lapping at
her clit and thrusting the tip of his tongue into her opening.
"I've been dying to try it on you."
"W-why..." She panted and tensed her muscles as he
delved wickedly into her depths. "Why didn't you?"
"Would you have said yes?" He didn't wait for an answer,
but pushed his tongue deeply into her, tasting her arousal
mixed with the succulent tang of the juice. God, this was
perfect, more amazing than he ever could have imagined.
"Yes ... yes!"
"More?" He laughed and parted her pussy lips farther. He
reached within her, searching with two fingers and delving for
the spot deep inside that he knew would set off her orgasm.
"Yes more ... and yes, I would have said ye-yesss!"
She came then, her body convulsing with tremors of
pleasure. She stiffened, eyes closed, sweetly biting her lower
lip while her cream gushed over his fingers and her sheath
spasmed hard and fast.
He licked her again, taking a moment to savor her unique
taste, to tease her clit with his tongue until she shuddered in
the throes of a second orgasm.
If only he'd dared to break the rules sooner, but propriety
had kept him from acting on his desires. He'd regret that
inaction for the rest of his life, as long as he had left, but this,
now, he would never regret.
Before the last tremors of her climax faded, Caleb lifted
himself off of Zara and resettled between her thighs. His
erection slipped inside her ready entrance, filling her even as
her pussy contracted once more around the intrusion. She
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shivered and clung to him tightly while he took her, giving
free reign to his symbion to claim her over and over again.
"Oh, I wish we didn't have to go back," she whispered as
she kissed him. "I don't want this to end."
"Don't say that. It would be too easy to never go back.
This is a big planet. We could hide forever."
"I know. I know." Zara wrapped her arms around him and
stared into his eyes. "I don't know if I can handle losing you
again."
"You won't. Not yet. We'll be together every minute we
can. I promise you."
"I love you, Caleb." The words slipped from her lips so
quickly, so quietly, he wasn't sure he heard them. She
seemed as surprised by the revelation as he was, but the look
on her face told him it was not the intimacy of the moment
talking. She meant it.
He would have responded, wanted to, but his symbion
hadn't finished with her. He gathered her to him and let the
alien take them both to the heights of a shared orgasm. Her
body bucked as he spilled his seed within her and when he
finished, he smoothed the hair from her face and kissed her
with everything he had.
"I love you too, Zara. I think I always have, I won't let
anyone keep us apart."
"I found these on the rocks at the base of this island, here
to the northwest." Arilani pointed to a miniscule dot on the
map Dr. Danson had displayed on the research station's
conference table. Next to her, on a chair, lay Dr. Abbott's
shorts, wet and torn.
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The speck she indicated, among hundreds of similar specks
that made up a long-abandoned island chain, lay at the far
perimeter of Jidar's extensive search pattern. Its location
attested to the fact that Arilani had flown farther than any of
her tribe mates while looking for the missing scientists.
"I searched the aerie on that island and several to the west
of it, but found nothing. I'm afraid I was too tired to see
clearly and I might have missed something."
Jidar put his hand on her shoulder. "You were wise to
come back and get help. I'll send everyone who can still fly
out to canvas that area."
Danson picked up the sodden piece of Zara's clothing.
"These look like they were ripped off her body." His grim
announcement left no question that he believed Zara had
been injured and most likely by Caleb. "Did you see blood
anywhere?"
Ari bowed her head in mock shame. "I'm sorry. I didn't
look very closely. The clothing lay practically in the water.
Blood could have washed away, since the tides are very
strong at the bases of the islands."
"Are you saying Caleb killed her?" one of the researchers
asked. A murmur of astonishment circled through those
assembled once again in the cramped conference room.
Jidar held up a hand. "Dr. Faulkner is a gentle soul. I
cannot believe he would harm anyone."
"But what about the symbion? If it's in pain, would it
attack?" Another impertinent question piqued Ari's growing
annoyance. She stepped forward to respond. This time the
emotion in her voice was genuine.
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"The symbions are not violent creatures. They are highly
intelligent and even unjoined they can communicate in a
rudimentary way. I agree with my liege that Dr. Faulkner is
not a direct danger to Dr. Abbott, nor is his symbion, but if he
is acting irrationally, as Dr. Abbott indicated when she called
for help from his bungalow, she may be frightened. She could
have been injured while trying to escape from him or as a
result of Dr. Faulkner's growing fatigue. We have no way of
knowing if he has slept or eaten since he left this island and if
he hasn't, he may not be capable of carrying Dr. Abbott
safely. My fear is that he dropped her accidentally. If she
drowned, we may never find her body."
Another wave of shocked speculation rose from Arilani's
captive audience. She'd planted the seeds of her deception,
and now she had only to stand back and watch them grow.
She wished she could have stained Zara's discarded clothing
with blood, but after swiping the shorts from the floor of the