Authors: Cyndi Friberg
“Drink,” he urged.
“What is it?”
Ever suspicious. Tal smiled. “It is called blish. I drank first to assure you it’s not harmful.” She drank, her expression turning distant as she worked to identify the taste. “It’s nice. Sort of citrusy and spicy. Is it alcoholic?”
“It has properties similar to alcohol.”
She glanced away, both hands wrapped around the goblet. “You don’t have to get me drunk. I’ve wanted to jump your bones for days.”
He hoped that meant what he thought it did. “Why haven’t you?” He repeated the question Dro Tar interrupted hours before.
“I wasn’t sure how… I’ve never had to…”
He took the goblet from her hands and set it aside.
She stayed between his thighs but made no move to touch him. Despite her words, Tal had to know she wanted him—really wanted him. The last woman to share his bed paid for the choice with her life.
“Are you thinking about Flur?” she asked.
Her perceptiveness surprised him. Had lowering the shield released other latent abilities? “Yes. She died because she was my lover.”
“She died because an evil man chose to experiment with the extent of his power. Besides, Joon already wants me dead, so I have nothing to lose.”
“That’s not much to commend a relationship.”
“Do you want a relationship?” Her voice sounded hushed, tentative. “Or is this just about sex?”
“Any male on Ontariese who is fortunate enough to have a woman tends to become totally devoted to her. I know you declared our social alliance because you were pressured by Trey to do so, but I have wanted to be with you since you allowed me to touch you back on Earth.”
Charlotte smiled. This was ridiculous. One of them had to make the first move. “How do Ontarians prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases?”
“Sexually transmitted diseases are very rare. Any healer can easily eradicate the microorganisms.”
“And pregnancies?”
“With our current crisis, pregnancies are encouraged not prevented.”
Charlotte went cold. She tried to step back. His hands caught her hips, stopping her retreat. “I don’t want a baby right now. If abstinence is the only form of contraception on Ontariese, then—”
“I didn’t say that. I can control each strand of my hair, Charlotte. Do you think preventing conception is beyond my power?”
“
Will
you?” she persisted. “Will you make sure I don’t get pregnant?”
“For now.”
“Not good enough.”
“I give my solemn vow that I will not get you pregnant.”
Still she hesitated. What choice did she have but to trust him? He had done everything in his power to protect her, even if she didn’t always agree with his means. Tal wouldn’t intentionally hurt her.
She framed his face with her hands and looked directly into his eyes. “Then make love to me.” His hands grasped her bare bottom, dragging her against him. Their mouths met in the middle, clinging, parting, consuming.
Charlotte’s body ignited like dry tinder. She crawled onto his lap, straddling his hips while he pulled the tunic off over her head. When or how he had banished his clothing, she didn’t know or care, but her thighs moved against his lean hips and her breasts and belly rubbed his torso skin to skin.
She delved into his mouth with her tongue, savoring the traces of blish and Tal’s unique flavor.
He smelled like cinnamon and tasted like spiced apple cider. She could get used to this.
Wrapping her arms around his back, she explored his hard muscles and smooth skin. She didn’t want to think about Victor, didn’t want anything to distract her from the wonder of discovery, but the comparisons came unbidden. Making love with Victor had been gentle, orderly. Tal made her wild.
Tal pulled back and demanded, “Open your eyes.” Apparently she’d been broadcasting again. She opened her eyes.
“I will not tolerate a ghost in my bed. I want to share my body with you, but if the memory of Victor is still too strong—”
“It isn’t.” She took off the disk-shaped necklace and placed it on the table beside the bed. “I want this.
I want you.” She pulled his hand to her breast, escalating the intimacy and allowing him to feel the frantic pounding of her heart.
His hair slid across her skin, tickling her, caressing her. He bent to taste her nipple and Charlotte arched her back. His sex jerked against her feminine mound.
Charlotte grasped his shoulders and spread her thighs, pressing herself more intimately against his erection.
He suckled her firmly, moving from one breast to the other and back again. His palms supported her back, allowing her to relax in her arched position and feel the heated throb of his body against hers.
One of his arms suddenly circled her hips and he turned, laying her back across the bed. Her legs still straddled his hips but he slid down along her body, kneeling on the floor. Charlotte reached for him, wanting him inside her, needing him to fill the aching void.
His hair caressed her torso, teasing her nipples. She arched and whimpered, knowing what he intended to do. Victor had occasionally used his mouth to give her pleasure but he preferred conventional sex.
Charlotte cried out as Tal’s fingers thrust up into her throbbing core.
“Say my name,” he commanded.
The unexpected penetration pushed her over the edge. She cried out his name while her body tightened around his fingers.
“Say my name,” he whispered as he parted her gently and found the nerve center of her body with the tip of his tongue.
“Tal,” she said softly.
His fingers remained inside her and each flick of his tongue made her body pulse and burn. Tension gathered low in her belly, tightening in time to the rhythm of his tongue.
“Tal, please.” She tossed her head, her legs shaking.
“Say my name.”
“Tal,” she cried.
He pulled his fingers back, nearly out of her, and circled her over and over. His lips closed around her swollen nub at the same instant he thrust back in and Charlotte screamed. Pleasure exploded within her, coursing through her, electrifying her nerves and contracting her muscles.
Tal felt her body drench his fingers and grinned against her softness. Giving a woman pleasure was nearly as thrilling as finding release. He stroked her one last time with his tongue and slowly withdrew his fingers, loving the way her core clung as if to prevent his departure.
“Maybe I won’t join my body with yours,” he whispered. “Maybe I’ll touch you and taste you over and over until you must have me inside you or die.” Her throaty laugh rippled through his entire body.
She rose up on her elbows, her breasts quivering with each ragged breath. “Is that supposed to frighten me? It’s not much of a threat.”
He arched his brow and offered her a wicked smile. “Would this be more of a threat?” He mystically stimulated her nipple, creating the sensation of greedy lips and a wet tongue.
Her eyes flew wide and she gasped. “How did you do that?”
He repeated the mental caress, sinking one teasing finger between her silken folds. She clamped her thighs together and shook her head.
“Don’t do that.”
Fear flickered to life within her gaze and Tal fought back his need to dominate. “I would never hurt you.” Pulling her to her knees on the bed, he kissed her brow and pressed her warm body against his. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
He held her tenderly and she relaxed into his embrace. Slowly as his smoky gaze caressed her face, he lowered her to the bed and nudged her legs apart.
She touched his face and closed her eyes.
“No. Watch me. Watch me coming into you. Know who takes you. Know who fills you.”
She rose a little and looked down along their bodies. Tal held himself off her so they could watch as his shaft sank slowly into her core. They groaned in unison. Tal felt her heat caress him, ripple around him, and could no longer suppress the need to move.
She arched up to meet each of his downward thrusts.
He drove harder, deeper, dragging her hips off the bed. He didn’t want to hurt her but it had been so long. Hooking her legs over his arms, he spread her thighs wide, filling her completely. He shoved back his building climax. It was too soon. This felt too good!
Charlotte cried out and her body grasped his, hurling him toward the stars. Colors burst behind his eyes and his body shook with the force of his release.
Tal rolled to his side, holding her tightly, pulling her leg up around his waist to stay inside her. She trembled with little aftershocks of pleasure and he smiled.
“Will you promise me something?” she whispered.
Her voice broke and Tal noticed a tear escape the corner of her eye. “What is it? Why are you crying?” A ragged sob shook her and Tal cupped her cheek, brushing away her tears with the pad of his thumb. “I can’t go through it again,” she cried. “You have to promise not to leave me. I couldn’t bear it if you died.”
Pulling her into his arms, Tal sat and cradled her gently against his chest. “Relax, my love, all is well.” Her hand tangled painfully in his hair. “I know it’s irrational but part of me really means it. I don’t want to be here without you and there’s nothing left for me on Earth. What am I supposed to do if something happens to you? I just… I can’t…”
“Charlotte,” he said, gently disentangling her fingers from his hair. He waited until she opened her eyes. “There is a way to see that we are never parted, if that is truly what you wish. It is called The
Sah Keeta
Narri
. The soul bonding.”
“How is it done?” she asked softly, her cheek nuzzling his chest, her hand moving hungrily across his skin.
He caught her wrist, pressing her palm over his heart. Her curiosity triggered a bone-deep ache, but she didn’t understand what she was doing to him.
Every Mystic longed for the completeness, the unity of soul and spirit, found only with The
Sah Keeta
Narri
.
But the Great Conflict had made such bondings almost unheard of. If only devotion rather than fear drove her longing. If only… He forced away the useless sentiment.
“It utilizes a simple chant that draws our life forces together and makes them one. I’ll teach you the chant, but once completed, it can never be undone. It’s not to be entered into without much consideration. We’ll not do this tonight.”
She released her breath in a shuddering sigh. “’Til death do us part’? You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t expect to be this emotional.”
He kissed her brow and tilted her head until their gazes met. “There’s no need for your apology. You lost someone you loved very much. It’s natural to be afraid.”
Finally she smiled. “If we did this ritual, would I live forever?”
“I never claimed to be immortal,” he protested with a laugh.
“But I would live as long as you live?”
“Maybe I won’t teach you the chant.” He rolled her beneath him. “You seem overly interested in this aspect of the joining.”
Her mouth soothed him with a slow, tender kiss.
“When and if we perform this ritual, it will be because I want to spend the rest of my life with you and only you.”
“Your exercises are increasing your focus. I’m amazed at how quickly you’re progressing.” Tal motioned Charlotte toward the benches lining the training hall.
They’d just finished their morning routine and she’d only landed on the floor once. She stretched her back and shifted her uniform top. Fashion was definitely not a priority on Ontariese, at least not with the Mystics. She wouldn’t know about the rest of the planet. They hadn’t allowed her beyond the Mystic shield even once in the five weeks since she arrived.
“Yeah, well, exercising on the metaphysical plane is about as much fun as aerobics,” she said.
Tal tilted his head to one side, caressing her face with is his gaze. “You’re doing very well. I’m proud of you.”
She laughed and pushed her damp hair off her forehead. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments. When can I visit Dro Tar?”
“Dro Tar departed for Bilarri yesterday.” Charlotte walked to the edge of the training floor and picked up her squeezable tube of water. “Where or what is Bilarri and why did she go there?”
“Bilarri is a planet about six days’ journey by conventional starship. It’s the only inhabited planet in our neighboring solar system.”
Tal was about to say more when Vee spoke from the archway at the other end of the training hall. “Let us away to the exercise yard, Shar Lott. It is my wish to continue thy training.”
Charlotte fell into step beside Tal. She had corrected Vee’s pronunciation of her name numerous times but he continued to separate the syllables.
“What’s on Bilarri?”
“The Symposium,” Vee said, his tone clipped and final.
She decided not to push it. She knew the Symposium was some sort of governing board, but Vee obviously had his reasons for not expounding.
They emerged into the purple twilight. For two hours as dusk faded into night, both moons were visible in the Ontarian sky. Charlotte glanced up at the alien horizon and felt a pang within her chest.
Would she ever see Earth again, gaze at a bright blue sky and inhale the fresh, clean scent of pine trees?
“It is possible for thee to return to Earth, Shar Lott,” Vee said without breaking his stride.
“Interdimensional travel is not common but it is possible.”
Perhaps she hadn’t mastered this broadcasting business after all.
“Tal explained how it works, but everyone on Earth thinks I’m dead. It might be a little awkward if I just showed up one day.”
Vee inclined his head. “If it were thy wish, ye could return to Earth centuries into the future. Would it amuse thee to glimpse the progress of thy world?”
“Let me accustom myself to this world before I contemplate others,” she suggested.
Stepping up to the wide stone railing, Charlotte looked out over the exercise yard. Mystics, in robes similar to Vee’s, supervised a group of boys as they engaged in various activities. The purpose of some of the routines was obvious while she could only guess at others.
A softly scented breeze wafted across her face. She inhaled the sweet fragrance and glanced at the neat flowerbeds lining the gallery. Everything here was orderly and peaceful. Had the rest of the planet really been ravaged by civil war?