Stardancer (Tellaran Series) (9 page)

Kinara blinked away her tears before he could see them. 

Dinner was waiting when they returned to the main chamber. Kinara’s stomach growled when the tantalizing smell reached her. Platters of food dishes filled the table.

Kinara’s hands brushed the robe self-consciously. “Shouldn’t we get dressed?”

Aidar gave a short laugh. “It is our binding time.”

She wet her lips, every ugly rumor she’d heard about that particular Az-kye custom returning to haunt her.

He gave her a hot smile and handed her a plate. “We will eat first,
Cy’atta
. For strength.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. 

His brow creased. “You are unwell?”

“No, I’m—I’m fine. I’m just . . . “ She took a deep breath.
I made this bargain. I’ll see it through.
“I’m fine.” 

“You are hungry,” he determined. “Choose for us,
Cy’atta
.”

Kinara looked over the unfamiliar dishes and offered him the plate. “I don’t know what you’d like. Maybe you should choose for yourself this time.”

“It is your place to choose. Surely those who raised you taught you manners.”

Can’t he make this just a little easier?
“They must have skipped the part about serving barbarians.”

“You do not. You serve your mate,” he said mildly, and turning his back went and sat on one of the low couches.

He stretched comfortably before the holo-fire. 

“Have it your way,” Kinara muttered under her breath.

She grabbed the first serving utensil and deposited a huge green glop on the plate. She added a scoop of some red leafy root floating in grease on top of the green stuff and worked her way down the table. When she was sure that a less appetizing, more colorful mess had never been created she went to stand before Aidar and, smiling sweetly, offered it to him.

He looked over the plate. He nodded approvingly. 

“You have chosen well.” He held up a two-pronged fork. “And now we will eat it.”

Kinara blinked. “But this is your plate.”

“No,” he said, drawing her down to sit beside him. “This is our plate. And now we serve each other.” 

He speared some of the mess onto the fork and held it out to her.

She swallowed hard at the sight of the multicolored Az-kye cuisine then opened her mouth.

Kinara couldn’t have said how she managed to get the food down but she certainly enjoyed feeding Aidar his share.

He carefully poured amber colored wine from a delicate crystal bottle into a cup for them to share. He brushed a kiss over her mouth then took a swallow and offered it to her. 

She drank deeply, hoping it would settle her nerves. She licked the sweetness from her lips. It was good, very strong, and felt warm on her tongue. Aidar pressed it on her, insisting they finish all of it. Kinara drank what she could, her head already humming from it. He drained the last of it from the cup then kissed her again and she could taste the heady sweetness of it on his tongue as he deepened the kiss.

When he broke away, his smile was shy.

He drew her down to the couch. His arms went around her and she sighed, feeling her shoulders relax as she settled against him. She watched the simulated flames dance for a time. 

“It’s so strange,” she murmured.

He kissed her hair. “What is?”

“To want a fire on a warship.”

“Is it?” He ran his fingers through her hair. “I have often wondered how the Tellarans can fight if they do not bring reminders of home with them.”

Stars, his eyes are gorgeous.

Kinara shook herself. “Why would you bring home with you?” she asked. At the reproachful look in his eyes she amended, “Why would
we
?”

His fingers lightly brushed her neck. “A warrior will always fight harder for his home. For his clan.”

He continued to stroke her, his fingers running over the skin of her throat, and his touch raised gooseflesh of pleasure on her arms. 

She frowned, trying to pick up the thread of their conversation again. “So, the Az-kye bring things to remind them of home?” 

He nodded. 

“What things? Families? Mates?”

“Sometimes,” he said, letting his fingers slide down to caress her shoulder. 

His eyes reflected the flames, his hair pure gold in its light and she found herself lightly touching the line of his jaw.  

His full mouth curved. She traced his lower lip. 

“You know,” she said. “You smell absolutely amazing.”

He kissed her fingertips and she started.  

“I, um . . .” She blinked several times. “Oh, yeah. Isn’t—isn’t that dangerous, to take your family?”

“A warrior cannot bear to be far from his bound mate for long.” His arms went around her waist, pulling her closer, and a flicker of surprise echoed in her mind at how natural it felt. “But this is my last journey,
Cy’atta
. You will be safe at home.”

“I didn’t mean . . .” But she wasn’t sure what she meant. The thought had drifted away.

Aidar’s mouth was against her neck, open and nuzzling, his hand sliding under her robe, gently cupping her breast. A rush of heat rapidly spread through her middle, extending all the way to the tips of her fingers.

“I’m hot,” she complained, shaking her head to clear it.

There was fluttering beside where she stood. She frowned.

Oh, right, the bed curtains. 

She started to wonder how she could have missed getting to the other side of the room when she felt his fingers loosen the tie of her robe. A draft of cool air touched her as the material fell from her shoulders. 

Funny that it didn’t bother her at all to be bare in front of him now.

She felt a moment of confusion.

Wait, it
should
bother her to be naked like this, shouldn’t it? 

His gaze ran over her. He looked younger, not at all fierce or foreign now. She smiled easily at him, feeling perfectly warm despite the cold air and her bare skin.

“
Cy’atta
.” Aidar’s dark eyes were wide and soft. His fingers touched the corners of her mouth, down the sides of her throat to her shoulders. Lightly his thumbs skimmed her nipples.  His touch brought a tingle through her thighs and buttocks that became a shuddering tightness of pure pleasure in her center.

“Oh, wow,” Kinara murmured. “How’d you do that?”

He smiled. His hands clasped her waist and as if she weighed nothing at all he lifted her onto the bed.

His robe fell away and she looked at him, hard and ready, with frank interest.

“You really
are
big,” she said.

He laughed. His body covered hers and her breath drew in at the exquisite shock of skin against skin. He was solid muscle, his body fever-hot under her fingers.

His mouth touched hers and it was like that moist heat jumped right to her sex. She wound her fingers through his hair to pull him closer as he deepened the kiss. His mouth left hers and Kinara felt a flash of dismay but then his lips were against her neck, moving lower.

“Oh!” she cried as his mouth found the hardened peak of her breast and the moist feel of it sent sparks of pleasure echoing through her.

“
Cy’atta
,” he whispered again, his palm now against the outside of her hip.

“You’re shaking,” she murmured, feeling the fine quiver through his body. She liked it, feeling him trembling with want like that. 

His dark eyes were unfocused, his body poised over hers.

She ran her hands down his body, feeling the hot skin, the strength of him. He was burning up. 

Aidar blinked rapidly and he shook his head a little as if trying to clear it. “Like a fire.  So beautiful.” He looked down the length of her body. “I want to look on you. Open your legs.”

“Okay.” With a complete lack of self-consciousness, she did. 

He knelt between her legs. His hands, roughened with callouses and hot, rested against the inside of her thighs and spread her wider. 

His focus was right at her center.

Just the sight of him there, looking at her with wide, dark eyes, his breath coming quicker and growing still more taut, made her insides feel tighter. 

And then he touched her.

“
Gods!
” Kinara’s eyes shut as his fingers caressed her center, gently stoking the most sensitive part of her.

  She arched toward him as his fingers moved rhythmically. She shut her eyes as waves of pleasure hit her, her head falling back. Her mouth parted at the sensation as he slid a finger inside her, then two as he continued to stroke her.

She lifted her hips, moving against him, just at the edge of release. She cried out when he abruptly withdrew his fingers, leaving her aching.

“No, wait,” she whimpered. “Oh, why’d you
stop
?”

He clasped her hip and moved so he was between her thighs, his fevered skin slippery against hers. His hardness felt hot, poised at her center.

His hair was tousled, the gold seemed brighter, the cheekbones of his square-jawed face were high, his mouth full.

He’s so beautiful.

“Please.” Her hands went to his hips, pressing him into her. “Please.”

He entered her, sinking in slowly. His lips parted in a groan, his face suffused with pleasure as he buried himself inside her. Kinara held still, stunned by the feel of him hot inside her as he filled her.

Their gazes locked and his eyes went wide. Aidar stayed like that, his body trembling.

“Gods, don’t stop,” Kinara begged, moving against him.

He made a strangled sound and withdrew slowly only to push back fully into her. Her lips parted in amazement at the sensation. On every stroke he hit the most sensitive part of her, and the pleasure of it, the ache inside demanding release, grew as he rocked against her. He looked down, watching himself move inside her, and she felt him grow harder still. 

Kinara clung to him, every stroke bringing her almost unbearably close to release. He gripped her hip to pull her against him, his head bent as he moved faster, his fingers threading through her hair. 

“Mine,” he panted.  “Mine.”

She cried out, her insides pulsing around him as she climaxed. Taut and trembling now he buried himself deep and fast. He cried out hoarsely and she felt him spend within her.

He collapsed on her, shaking, his mouth moist and open against her neck. “Mine,” he mumbled.

Kinara wrapped her arms around him and held him close. She pressed her face against his burning cheek, feeling him trembling against her, and closed her eyes.

Mine.

Kinara winced against the pounding in her head. She cracked her eyes open to find herself tangled and naked in the Az-kye’s arms. She stared at him, his cheeks showing blond stubble, his face slack with sleep.

What the hell—?

She remembered sitting by the holo-fire with him, him saying something about warriors fighting hardest for their homes and then . . .

She groaned as a jumble of memories rushed back. They must have been at each other all night. Gods, she couldn’t even
count
how many times—or ways— they’d . . .

Starblasted Az-kye wine packs a bigger punch than Utavian desert spirits!
How the hell much did I drink?
 

Her mouth parted as some of those memories crystallized into remembering just
begging
him to—

The dark eyes that opened to look at her, blinked.

“Get your filthy Az-kye hands
off me!
”

He jerked back, his eyes wide and shocked. She pushed away hard and scrambled to her feet. 

“Oh, man!” A wave of vertigo hit her as she soon as she stood. She grabbed at the bedpost and grimaced as pain shot behind her eyes.

“
Cy’atta
?” She felt him beside her, urging her to sit on the bed, his hand cradling the back of her head. “You are ill?”

Festering hung over more like!
“Gods,” she moaned, her hands over her eyes. “My head is killing me.”

He brushed his hand once more over her hair. “Stay here.”

Kinara sat there, pressing her hands against her pounding temples as he moved around the room, chiefly because her head hurt so much she couldn’t do anything else.

His fingers went under her chin to tilt her face up and she saw two things that jolted her. He was still completely, unabashedly bare and he was trying to hold a cup to her mouth.

“Oh, gods, please,” she pleaded, trying to turn her face away. “No more wine.”

“No more wine,” he assured. “This is only janja juice. Drink.”

She shook her head a little and instantly regretted it. “I don’t want any.”

“
Cy’atta
.” His fingers were gentle but firm, urging her face up. “I would have you drink now.”

He held the cup to her lips. She covered his hand with her own to at least keep the drinking to a speed she was sure she could handle. At first taste the juice was delicious, icy cold with a fruity flavor like nothing she’d ever had before. She hadn’t realized how parched she was and she drank half the cup greedily before he drew it back.

“Hey,” she protested, trying to catch the cup.

“I will give you more in a moment,” he promised. He put the cup down and took up a plate then held something to her mouth. “Eat now.”

She drew back, trying to see it. It was a bite-sized piece of bread. 
That
she figured she could manage. She opened her mouth and he fed her. He watched her eat then tore off another piece and held it to her mouth.

“I’m not hungry,” she objected.

He gave her a steady look. Resigned, she let him feed her again. When she’d eaten about half of the bread disk he gave her the cup back, apparently trusting her enough now to hold it herself. She finished it and he brought her more.

“You must take juice and water as you can,” he said, downing his own cup. “It is more than a day since you had anything to drink.”

She froze with the cup halfway to her mouth.
More than a
day
? Just how many times did we
—

He gently brushed the hair away from her face. “How do you feel?”

She was acutely aware of his bare body next to hers, his wonderful smell, the warmth radiating off him, the shape and curve of his muscles, the faint golden tone of his skin. She remembered flashes of what they’d done—him warm against her back, feeling him hot and hard inside her, his tongue taking her to release, his fingers threaded through her hair and the thrilling taste of him as she brought him, taut and groaning, to his pleasure . . .

I feel
everything
. Embarrassed, happy, shy, nervous, pretty
—

“Fine,” she mumbled, taking a quick swallow of juice.

“Do you hurt?” he asked softly. “Do you hurt . . . inside?”

Her face went hot.
Okay, now I wouldn’t mind some more wine.

She shifted on the bed. “No.”

“I am your mate now,” he reminded, his face troubled. “If you hurt, you must tell me so. I will summon a healer.”

Oh, no fucking way, even if I
did
hurt there.
“I’m okay.” She yanked the blankets up to cover herself a little more. “Really.”

He was silent for a long time and then he asked quietly, “Why did you tell me you had other men?”

Kinara blinked. “I didn’t.”

He gave a reproving look. “You said you had ‘plenty.’”

“I said, I’d
seen
plenty,” she corrected.

“Have you?”

Kinara looked away. “No.”

“You were unopened.”

She wet her lips. Hadn’t she pleased him? From what she remembered he sure acted like she had. “Yes.”

He was silent for several moments, his fingers tracing the curve of her shoulder. “I did not know,” he murmured and dropped his hand.  He closed his eyes briefly. “I regret it.”

She glanced up at him and tucked her hair behind her ear. “You’re sorry that you were my first?”

“I am honored . . . overwhelmed . . . to have been your first,
Cy’atta
.” His dark eyes were raw. “But I did not understand your fear.  I never thought—” He shook his head. “I would have given you time to become accustomed to me, my mate.” He gave her a rueful smile and touched her hair. “I would have taken a season to entice you to bed.”

She gave a half shrug. “It’s okay. It’s done now, anyway.”

“Did I hurt you?” he asked tightly.

“No.” He looked really upset about this. “I mean, stars, you’d
think
after all we  . . . but no, you didn’t.” She gave him an embarrassed smile.  “In fact, it might be the only part that
is
okay. The rest of me feels like I just finished an octathalon.”

His brow creased. “Oct—
tah-
a-lon?”

She waved her hand. “An athletic event. A really grueling one.” He was still frowning. “I mean, my muscles are sore.”

Comprehension lit his eyes and he gave a short laugh. “As are mine.”

She blinked. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might have found it strenuous too. “Is it . . .” She could feel the blush spreading across her chest and up her neck. “Do you always, you know . . . join—like that?”

He looked shocked but interested too. “Do Tellarans not have sex that way?”

“No, they—yes, that’s how it’s done.”
I’ve heard.
Her face was burning. “I just mean . . . so many times?”

A mixture of startlement, disbelief, and amusement flickered across his face.

“No,” he said after a moment. “Only the first joining is so. Our other joinings will be more  . . . paced.”

She let her breath out. “Good.”
I don’t think even the goddess of love herself could keep
that
up. 

His face suddenly lit up with a smile and her eyes narrowed. “I’m glad one of us finds this funny.”

“Not funny,” he said, grinning, and his dark eyes shone. “But truly I find this—
you
—so pleasing to me that I cannot even speak to it.”

She ducked her head and drank more of the juice.

“Your head, is it better now?”

“Yes,” she said, surprised. “Actually the headache is gone.”

He gave a nod. “We must attend your sore muscles then.”

“Uh, what did you have in mind?”

In response, he took her hand and led her back to the bathing chamber. One glance at the pool of hot water and she had to agree it was a starblasted excellent idea. She put the cup down and straightening, caught her reflection.

With a gasp, her hand went to her wild, matted hair. “Gods, I look like I just tumbled out of a Sertarian wind storm.”

He laughed and picked up a wide-toothed comb. He held it out of her reach when she went to take it and drew her down to sit in front of him on one of the benches.

“I can do it,” she protested, flushing.

“I wish to,” he said, turning her. “Allow me this.” 

Gently, working section by section, he freed her hair from its tangles. He used such care that he never once pulled her hair. 

He continued to comb her hair after it was smooth and sitting there with him, his fingers running through her hair, actually felt really . . .
nice
.

“I would you let it grow even longer,
Cy’atta
,” he said. “And wear it loose at every opportunity.”

“Okay,” she mumbled. She usually wound up with it twisted up in a messy hair tie but loose would probably be just as easy.

He pressed a kiss to her temple and put down the comb. He drew her into the water and she sighed as the heat of it enveloped her. He washed her hair, and she closed her eyes gratefully as he massaged her sore muscles with strong fingers.

She nipped her lip then turned to look at him. He gave her a questioning look.

“Come on,” she said, having trouble meeting his eye as she motioned for him to face the other way. “Your turn.”

He gave her a quick, surprised smile. She doubted very much that her muscle rubdown was half as effective as his had been but he pressed close with all the unselfconscious abandon of a sercat leaning into a petting.

Later he took up combing and drying her hair. She wondered if he was doing all this as a lead up to another joining but his touches didn’t seem meant to arouse.

I guess even Az-kye have a limit to their stamina. 

Still, he often stopped to kiss her hair or touch her cheek, to nuzzle or embrace her. He seemed to delight in just the look of her and was not in the least shy about his caresses or his admiration.

He was reluctant to leave her too. He shaved and dressed in warrior black again but wouldn’t go until he saw her settled on one of the couches, the blue robe around her, a blanket tucked over her lap and a cup of steaming tea in her hand.

“I would I did not have to leave you,” he said, hovering.

Kinara beat back the impulse to ask him not to. “It’s okay.”

He gave her a faint smile and brushed a kiss to her mouth. “I will hurry in my tasks.” He leaned his forehead to hers. “I would I did not have to go.”

“Yeah,” Kinara murmured. Her hand started to reach up to pull him down beside her and she jerked it back.

He’ll be back in few hours, for gods’ sake. Why is it so hard to let him leave?

“Stay you here in our quarters,” he warned, his dark eyes serious. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I will return as soon as I am able.”

She wet her lips and gave a nod.

He traced the curve of her cheek then with a final longing look he left.