He’d snatched her clear of the water as if she’d been no more than a child, she thought, struggling to grasp it.
Shaking her amazement off when she saw his attention was on the two men in the water, shivering, both at the cool air wafting over her wet skin and in reaction, Cassie turned to follow his gaze and saw the other skinny dippers were emerging from the water like half drowned rats, assisted by their keepers.
“What’s going on?” Cassie whispered through chattering teeth, both mesmerized and horrified at the battle. They dove, disappeared beneath the water, and then shot upwards fifteen or twenty feet into the air, arched, and dove again. Almost like a ballet, each movement was so beautifully executed, so amazing, she felt a thrill of awe ripple through her every time they flung themselves into the air and yet there seemed no doubt at all that their intent was deadly. The angry, flashing red of their tails and fins as they thrashed beneath the water, spoke of fury as surely as the expressions on their faces.
It was completely incomprehensible. She’d rarely even seen any of the Atlanteans exchange a harsh word. They were exquisitely polite and courteous, not only to each other, but to everyone.
The councilor dragged his gaze from the two men and looked down at Cassie thoughtfully. Finally, he glanced around and moved to retrieve one of the discarded robes, handing it to her.
Cassie took it gratefully and pulled it on. She felt warmer instantly, but the shivering didn’t stop.
“A challenge,” the councilor answered finally. “Ordinarily, it is only for show for the female they are trying to impress, but
they
are in deadly earnest. Do not doubt that.
They might well kill one another.”
Cassie’s eyes widened in horror. “Somebody needs to stop it!”
The councilor looked down at her in amusement. “Only you can stop it, Lady Cassia. They are warring over you.”
Cassie jerked her gaze from the two men, staring at him in disbelief. “How?”
“Wait until you have caught the gaze of the man you have chosen, and then turn away.”
Cassie swallowed with an effort, turning to look at the men. “What if it’s neither?” she asked a little hoarsely.
“Then turn your face from both.”
She looked up at the councilor helplessly. She didn’t want to choose. She was leaving. Raen … She didn’t understand why he’d challenged Claudius. Every time she 185
thought she’d begun to understand what was going on, she discovered she was still all at sea.
She wanted to cover her eyes with her hands, to turn away. She couldn’t. She felt as if she was rooted to the spot. Without making any conscious decision at all, without even an awareness that she was staring, she watched, and her gaze collided with Raen’s.
Her heart leapt into her throat and tried to choke her the moment she realized what she’d done.
Whirling abruptly, she fled.
She was dimly aware of staring faces, realized that the fight, or maybe their childish romping in the water before, had drawn the notice of everyone. She didn’t look at them. A sense of panic had engulfed her the moment she realized what she’d done.
All she could think about was fleeing the scene. She couldn’t even think of where to go.
She didn’t know how to find her way back to Raen’s quarters even if it had been a viable possibility, and she certainly couldn’t flee
from
him and
to
his quarters!
Turning away from the building abruptly, she fled down the narrow, darkened street at the heart of the town, certain she could find the portal Raen had always brought her through when he’d taken her outside. Once she’d left the lighted area of the party, though, she was completely disoriented. The glow from the energy lighting the clouds in the distance became the only source of light. The Andromeda blocked out the light from the stars and moon—if there even was a moon.
It was more blind luck than design that brought her to the portal where Raen had brought her through before when he’d taken her to walk. Her eyes had adjusted to the gloom, but Atlantis had been undergoing a steady change since it had surfaced. Nothing looked familiar. She wasn’t certain it would have if not for the scant light she had to guide her.
She was panting for breath as she burst through the doors and jogged down the corridor with no clear destination in mind, but she wasn’t winded from the exertion so much as the adrenaline pumping through her. A vague plan to hide swarmed in her mind, instinct, not generated by real thought.
She’d nearly reached the first bisecting corridor when she heard the slapping of bare, jogging feet behind her against the floor above the pounding of her heart in her ears.
She knew instantly that it was Raen, even though she’d been trying to convince herself that he wouldn’t follow her or that he hadn’t seen which way she’d run. The sound sent a fresh jolt of adrenaline through her, and she launched herself into a run again, darting down the bisecting corridor, as mindless with panic as she’d been before.
Consternation filled her as she reached another corridor, the abrupt realization that she’d never come this way before, had no idea where she was or where she was going.
He was closer though, too close, and she darted away again.
He almost caught her as she darted around the corner. Uttering a sharp gasp, she slipped from his tenuous grasp. He was upon her, however, his stride far longer than hers. Within a few steps, he caught her, dragging her to a halt. Their momentum and brief scuffle for dominance sent them careening into the wall in gentle collision as he swung her to meet him face to face. Sucking in a harsh gasp, she grasped his upper arms, digging her fingers into his flesh to hold him at bay.
Words tumbled through her mind and clogged in her throat as she stared up at him in wide eyed dismay. His expression was hard, unnerving. His pale blue eyes held a 186
predatory gleam she’d never seen before. It flickered through her mind that the battle lust still gripped him, but it was more than that—the lust of the chase upon him, she saw, feeling uncertainty slither through her mind as he shifted his hold on her and she felt his hand settle on the base of her skull, his fingers threading through her hair. “Raen?” she gasped uneasily as it descended upon her abruptly that she didn’t really know this man at all—this stranger—this alien being who’d delved her—mind, body, and soul—and shielded himself from her, steadfastly refusing to allow her more than a glimpse into his mind and heart.
Instead of answering, he drew her upward to meet the descent of his mouth.
A thrill that was part alarm and part exultation went through her as his mouth closed over hers in fevered demand, his tongue thrusting between her parted lips and raking along hers in a scalding conquest that brought every sense instantly to screaming attention and focused them on him—the overpowering mass and hardness of his body and straining muscles as he caged hers against the wall; the warmth and silkiness of his skin everywhere it touched hers; the taste, scent, and texture of his mouth and tongue on hers, inside of her; and beneath that the ferocity of his hunger that coaxed—no, commanded an equal response from her body that it instantly recognized and reacted to.
She had to make him stop, she thought as his taste burst upon her tongue and sent an explosion of mind drugging want through her. This wasn’t going to work she told herself as she sucked in a harsh breath laden with his heated breath and felt it invade her lungs with his intoxicating scent and then thread its way through her blood in a scalding tide. It couldn’t, she reminded herself as his essence poured through every part of her, making every nerve ending sing with anticipation.
But she couldn’t summon the reasons why it couldn’t or wouldn’t work.
Everything inside of her was screaming that it could, that she wanted him, and she didn’t care about anything else.
Surrendering abruptly to the call of passion, she ceased every effort to hold herself away from him physically or mentally and clung instead. Looping her arms around his shoulders to pull herself more tightly to him, she kissed him back with feverish need, reveled in the demand and possessiveness inherent in his touch as he held her head for his kiss and explored her body with his free hand.
He’d either lost all awareness of where they were or he didn’t care. Or perhaps it was a part of his primal need to stake his claim, but it became clear to her that he meant to at that very moment, had no intention of stopping with no more than a heated kiss. He shoved her robe upwards to her waist and explored her body briefly with his hand and then abruptly caught her buttocks in his hands and hoisted her upwards, bracing her between the wall and his body.
Briefly, her senses expanded, scanned for intruders around them and then she dismissed the possibility without a qualm, lifting her legs to wrap them around his waist and open her body to him. She didn’t care, she realized with a touch of surprise. All that mattered in that moment was feeling his total possession, feeling his thick flesh enfolded within hers.
She gasped into his mouth as she felt his fingers exploring the slick folds of her sex, felt him insert one finger in her channel to test his welcome. The head of his cock replaced his finger only a moment later, pushing into her with steady, determined 187
pressure until her flesh began to yield to his possession. She made a sound of gladness in her throat as her moisture coated him and he slid deeper, spearing her firmly on his shaft.
Tearing his mouth from hers, he shifted her higher along the wall, bracing her for better leverage, conquering the depth of her in a series of hard thrusts that left her gasping, panting to catch her breath.
Groaning as if she was dying, she dropped her head to his shoulder and pressed her face against his throat as he stroked the walls of her sex with wild, desperate, heaving thrusts that felt so keenly exquisite it lifted a prickling rash along her skin all over, sent shivers of delight through her. Her throat tightened. Delicious tension invaded her with each thrust of his cock along her channel as it set off a new wave of pleasure. It grew, expanded rapidly until she felt her body quivering on the edge of release and then exploding with it. She sucked a patch of skin along his neck into her mouth to muffle her cries as she climaxed. He groaned, thrusting into her more frantically still as he came and his cock jerked with the spasms, pumping his hot seed inside of her.
They leaned together in the aftermath, gasping for breath.
“Why?” he gasped hoarsely. “You chose me as your lover. Why would you let him touch you? Why would offer yourself to him?”
With an effort, Cassie lifted her head from his shoulder to meet his tormented gaze. She hadn’t, not consciously. She swallowed against a sudden tightness in her throat. “You said you didn’t want me.”
He squeezed his eyes tightly shut. “Gods!”
Easing his flesh from hers, he allowed her to slip down until her feet touched the floor. Her knees wobbled, threatened to buckle, but he scooped her into his arms before she could test their ability to hold her. Too weak to protest even if she was of a mind to, which she wasn’t, she looped her arms around him and dropped her head to his shoulder as he strode rapidly down the corridor.
188
They arrived so quickly at his quarters that Cassie knew immediately that he’d either been driving her toward his ‘lair’ all along, or she’d instinctively headed in that direction. She didn’t know or care which. Nothing seemed to matter anymore beyond the fact that they had no more time to squabble over petty differences between them.
They had hours, maybe a handful of days to share themselves with one another, to give and take whatever pleasure they could.
She didn’t want to think about the inevitability of it, or what life would be like afterwards.
She realized as he settled her on her feet and tugged her robe off that he hadn’t bothered to don his own. He’d undoubtedly broken off the battle, leapt from the water, and given chase almost the instant she’d turned to flee. Massive bruises darkened his ribs and belly from the force of the blows Claudius had dealt him with the powerful, swinging blows of his lower body, harder than any kick.
She traced them lightly with her fingertips and even so he winced, sucked in a harsh breath. Disconcerted, she jerked her hands back, flicking a distressed look at his face. He brushed aside the worry that leapt to her mind, though, dragging her close for a heated kiss and then releasing her only long enough to guide her to the bed and fall into it with her.
There was no hesitancy in his touch as there had been before, no flicker of doubts.
He caressed her either with the surety of newfound knowledge of how and where to touch her body to give her the most pleasure, or simply a certainty that he would find it if he caressed her everywhere, or perhaps only in mindless pursuit of his own pleasure. She didn’t know which, but it didn’t matter. His diligence left no erogenous zone untapped, none wanting for attention. He kissed and stroked and nipped at her flesh until she was writhing feverishly beneath him, clutching at him and begging in mindless demand for relief, panting and gasping until she thought she would pass out from the lack of oxygen making its way into her blood stream.
He braced himself above her with his locked arms when he’d entered her, watching her face as he pumped his hips to glide his cock slowly back and forth along her channel. She lifted her hips to counter each thrust in wordless encouragement, gazing up at him through half closed lids, as enthralled by the desire contorting his handsome face into a tortured mask of pained pleasure as she was by the feel of him inside of her. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed when she reached the point where she felt the need to contain the escalating pleasure, to hold on to it, but it seemed that the moment she closed her eyes, she lost control completely. “Raen,” she gasped on a note of urgency.
He shuddered at her hoarse plea, as if it had raked along his nerve endings.
Dropping closer, he held still for a moment, kissing her deeply and then abruptly snatched his mouth from hers and began to pound into her in fierce, driving need to reach his peak, driving her before him. A keen, almost animalistic cry forced its way from her as the building tension inside of her shattered into a million exquisite shards when her 189
body erupted in rapture. Digging her fingers into his flesh, she rode the shockwaves of pleasure, uttering one gasping cry after another as they assaulted her until the ecstasy peaked and began its downward spiral toward oblivion.
She didn’t even attempt to break her fall. She was too weak in the aftermath to want to try. Utter contentment filled her, a dim awareness and pleasure that he’d come within moments of her, uttering hoarse groans and choked grunts as his body convulsed with release. Sighing blissfully when he merely rolled onto his side with her without disengaging his body from hers, she snuggled gratefully against him and gave up the light of consciousness without protest.
He was gone when she woke, but she was far too content to dwell on it for any length of time. She drowsed lazily, smiling to herself as it flickered through her mind to wonder if they’d had an audience the night before when they’d coupled with such wild abandon in the corridor. No doubt the monitors had caught them even if no one had stumbled upon them, she thought with amusement.
Fuck it, she thought! It wasn’t likely the Atlanteans could think less of the
‘primitives’ among them. No doubt they’d already been thoroughly shocked and disgusted by their childish, undisciplined, and undignified behavior at the party.
As much as she liked and respected their dignity, courtesy, and iron self-control, as strongly as it compelled her to struggle to emulate them to gain their approval, their disapproval of her humanity seemed to pull at the contrary side of her natural. It pricked at her pride, goading her into flaunting her primitive streak as a way of thumbing her nose at their disapproval—which was probably what had inspired the others to behave so wildly the night before. As carefully as she’d always exerted her own self-control, she felt stifled by the fear of a loss of control in a way she’d never felt before. There were times when she’d felt like getting in their cool faces and screaming. “No, we’re not perfect! And we’re
damned
proud of it!”
There was no doubt at all that careful modulation of fear, anger, sorrow, happiness, and passion would make the world turn more smoothly, but the need to break free of restraint, occasionally, was a psyche screaming for the need to unburden itself.
They
might never feel that need because they were different from mankind, but
she
felt it.
Everyone she knew felt it. It wasn’t
wrong
if it was part of who and what they were. It was just different.
Mankind had done horrible things in their past, she knew, continued to do terrible things that shamed her. She’d done things she was ashamed of. But they’d done just as many, or more, things she was proud of, accomplished much, continued to strive for betterment. She wasn’t ashamed of who and what she was, despite their many failings, and she wasn’t going to let
them
make her be ashamed.
She felt a mixture of amusement and irritation when Chandra came in with her breakfast. The girl was far more subdued than usual and kept flicking wide eyed glances at her as if she’d suddenly discovered herself in the cage with a wild, unpredictable animal. “I don’t bite,” she said in an amused voice.
Chandra smiled uneasily, but reddened. “I heard Sentinel Raen ap Aquinox
challenged
,” she said in an awed whisper.
Cassie couldn’t prevent a blush. Shifting uncomfortably, she focused on her food.
She was
not
going to discuss it with anyone, and certainly not a kid!
“And then, Claudius ap Simsark issued a
counter
challenge!”
190
Cassie cleared her throat. “Yes, well, I think it might have been the
fermentè
talking,” she said briskly.
Chandra’s face puckered in a puzzled frown as she thought that over. “No one seems to think so. Sentinel Raen ap Aquinox had not had any, for he had only just arrived, and Sentinel Claudius ap Simsark would not have drank much, for he was on duty,” she finally said thoughtfully. “In any case, it is always served on special occasions and has never seemed to contribute to this sort of behavior before. They are saying that there has not been such a display for two generations—at least. No one can even
recall
the last time. A few times, there have been males who seemed to be on the
verge
of challenge and display, which has stirred a great deal of excitement in everyone, but in the end it was resolved amicably enough and came to nothing.
“Everyone is saying that the wild behavior of the natives is contagious and
that
is the root of it—that it was clear from the start that it was not merely for show and that they struck each other with intent to harm.”
Cassie gave the girl a disgusted look. “Why am I not surprised that even here everyone looks for someone else to blame? If it happened before, even if it
was
a long time ago, then it can’t be blamed on us, can it?”
“You,” Chandra corrected. “They are saying you teased your lovers, favoring one above the other and
that
is why they challenged.”
Cassie glared at her indignantly. “I did no such …,” she broke off, abruptly recalling that she was talking to a very young girl who had no business hearing the details.
The nosy little bitch!
“Well! It’s a free society, and I suppose they’re entitled to their opinions … even if it
is
a damned lie!”
The incident with Chandra left Cassie thoroughly irritated and put a severe damper on the residual pleasure she’d felt upon wakening. Instead of slowly dissipating throughout the day, however, the anxieties Chandra managed to introduce with her artless curiosity slowly ate away at her confidence that Raen had dismissed whatever doubts and reservations he’d had before.
Maybe he’d had time to rethink the situation and regretted it? Maybe he’d had time to remind himself, now that the heat of the moment had passed, that she’d betrayed his trust?
When he came in at last, late, as he had since he’d been given the task of identifying the dead and missing, she sat up in bed and stared at him with a mixture of hope and doubt. He didn’t seem to notice. The moment he entered the room, he dragged his robe off and discarded it, striding directly to the bed and falling upon her as if he was starved with need, despite the times they’d expended themselves upon each other the night before. The relief she felt seemed to amplify her reaction to his kisses and his touch, sending her spiraling out of control within moments. Or maybe it was that she felt almost a sense of desperation in the way he touched her?
In any case, it was no leisurely awakening of the senses to bring them all to maximum focus and feed their impressions to the core of her passions. He wedged his hips between her thighs and began striving to penetrate her body almost at once as if he could not sheathe himself inside of her fast enough. The restless, hungry movement of his mouth on hers, the almost bruising force of his hands as they kneaded her flesh, sent a 191
lava flow through her blood, soaked her passage with the creamy juices of desire and her flesh yielded to his ruthless quest with little more than a token protest of his girth.
The ride was as wild, perhaps wilder, than the night before. He seemed focused on some inner turmoil as he pummeled into her with a desperation that had them both drenched with the moisture of their labors, struggling for breath.
He came first, but the jerking spasms of his release triggered hers. Her entire body arched at the magnitude of the eruption, stilling the breath in her lungs and the beat of a heart for a split second, easing, and then freezing again as the next wave hit her until she was sobbing for breath, her heart slamming so hard against her chest it felt like it might burst.
Slipping his arms tightly around her the moment his body and hers ceased to shudder and quake with release, he rolled onto his back, carrying her with him. Sated, she lay plastered limply against his length. For a time, he lay as limply beneath her.
After a while he seemed to gather himself, however. Looping one arm around her, he smoothed her hair with his other hand and then stroked her back in a soothing motion that completed her descent into unconsciousness.
He roused her later with far more purposeful caresses. She groaned a complaint at being awakened but soon forgot her objections as he carried her upwards to the heavenly plane of shattering ecstasy again. As they lay together in the aftermath, he held her tightly against him. “We are summoned to stand before the council tomorrow--today,” he said after a time, his voice harsh. “I will not be here to escort you, for I have something I must do, but know that I will be there to stand beside you.”
Dread descended over Cassie in a cold tide, but she was exhausted beyond the ability to retain consciousness even if the threat of death had been hanging over her.
After lying wakeful within his arms for a time, she drifted to sleep again.