She had tried to protest but the alien instructor had stepped in and assured her that it was perfectly normal for her partner to “massage” her breasts with his mouth. Feeling helpless, she had allowed Stavros to bend her over his arm, the better to reach her nipples. He had sucked first one and then the other into his mouth, teasing them with his tongue and nipping gently to make her moan and writhe.
And all the time Charlie could feel his fangs bracketing her tender peaks. Oh my God, he’s going to bite me—he’s going to bite me! her dreaming self thought but though there was a little fear in the thought, there was actually much more anticipation. The idea of opening herself for his body and fangs made her incredibly hot to the point where she had moaned in protest and disappointment when he finally released her without so much as a single nip.
Then it was time to remove the bottom part of their clothing. Stavros went first and she blushed to see how big he was—long and thick and throbbing, his cock stood up against his flat belly, almost as if it was beckoning to her.
“Now it’s my turn to make you naked,” he growled in her ear.
Charlie would have been nervous but somehow she knew that this would be all right because she had on panties that wouldn’t come off so he could only remove her outer slacks. When he did, her panties stayed on as she had expected. But in the irritating way of dreams, they began act strangely. They shrank smaller and smaller until they were cutting into her hips and giving her pain.
“Ouch!” her dreaming self exclaimed. “I don’t understand this—the package didn’t say these were shrinking panties when I bought them.”
“Don’t worry,” dream Stavros murmured. “I can make it stop.”
He had dropped to his knees in front of her and ripped the panties off with his fangs. Then he looked up at her.
“Let’s see how hot and wet your pussy is.” His deep voice was thick with lust. Before she could protest two long, thick fingers slipped inside her and thrust hard and deep, making her moan…making her melt.
“Oh God!” Charlie gasped as he continued to fingerfuck her. “Oh please, Stavros!”
“Does it feel good? When I touch you this way? When I put my fingers deep inside your hot pussy?” the dream Stavros demanded, his eyes burning.
“Yes,” she moaned in the dream. “Oh God, yes.”
“Then you’ll like my tongue there even better.”
Even in her sleep, Charlie had suddenly felt nervous. She had never felt very comfortable with this act and even in a dream that uncertainty carried over.
“I don’t know…” she began.
But the instructor was telling her she must open to her partner—it was an important part of the class. And anyway, Charlie couldn’t have stopped the big Kindred even if she had wanted to— he was already nuzzling between her thighs, his breath hot against her bare pussy.
Even in the dream, Charlie knew she ought to push him away. Instead, she found herself burying her hands in his hair and pulling him forward. Stavros lifted her leg over his broad shoulder and buried his face between her legs, kissing and licking and sucking her tender pussy until Charlie moaned and pressed against him, trying to give him greater access to her inner cunt.
Oh God, I shouldn’t…shouldn’t let him do this, she thought in the dream. And then, just as she was about to come, he pulled back and bared his fangs.
“Oh, please…” dream Charlie moaned. “Please…please do it. Please bite me.”
With a hungry, lustful growl he struck, his long, sharp fangs piercing her flesh. Her back arched and as the orgasm ripped through her, she knew she never wanted this to end…
Charlie shook herself, trying to get rid of the disturbing images. She had always had very realistic dreams, including some horrible nightmares as a kid that made her wake up screaming. But this dream…it had been almost like she was actually there experiencing it in real life. It had been so real, in fact, that when she first woke, she had reached down between her thighs, searching for Stavros. He wasn’t there, of course, and when she woke up more completely, she was ashamed to admit how disappointed she was to find it was all a dream. Which was ridiculous, of course. There was no way she wanted to do such things with him in real life, she told herself uneasily.
After the strange nighttime encounter with her dream partner, Charlie had spent the rest of the night soul searching. Along with seeing a familiar face from her past in the Council room, the dream had been a wake-up call and she’d had to admit that she had allowed herself to get entirely too comfortable with Stavros. No matter that they were on the same side, at least for now, he was still a Kindred and Kindred were the enemy. She couldn’t afford to forget that. She needed to be a whole hell of a lot more professional and a lot less lovey-dovey with her new partner if she was going to get through this without compromising herself any further.
“That was really brave,” Mei-Li said. “To volunteer like that.”
Charlie smiled at her. Despite her feeling about the Kindred themselves, she liked their wives. Besides Kat and Becca and Mei-Li there were a pair of sisters called Sophia and Olivia and their cousin Lauren who all seemed genuine and sweet. Not only were they nice, Lauren had also brought a massive tray of cupcakes along with her. Charlie was nibbling a delicious strawberry one, certain it would go straight to her hips and ass. But it tasted so good, she just couldn’t put it down.
“It’s not brave to prefer doing something to sitting around waiting to have your planet ruined and your emotions stripped away,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Still, we really appreciate it, doll,” Kat said, smiling at her as she rocked little Shad. Most of the other babies were napping in one of the bedrooms but as Kat explained, the silver-eyed baby almost never slept. “We heard there was no one else who could go and you stepped up,” she said.
“She didn’t just step up—she barged into the Council room and told them she was going,” the girl named Sophia said. She smiled at Charlie. “Commander Sylvan is my husband and he told me all about it.”
“There you go.” Her sister, Liv, nodded. “That takes courage in my book.”
“Yeah, well…” Charlie sighed. “It’s also the kind of thing that got me a reputation as a ‘ball-busting bitch’ back home in Asheville—at least with the guys down at the PD. But sometimes it’s the only way to get what you want.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about being called anything like that—at least not around the Kindred,” Sophia said thoughtfully. “I know Sylvan really admired your bravery. He said it took a lot of nerve to do what you did.”
Charlie raised one eyebrow incredulously.
“You’re telling me there’s a whole race of beings who are mostly male and they’re not the least little bit chauvinistic?”
“Not much,” Becca said. “They might see you as physically weak because compared to them, you are. I mean, they’re all so big and muscular, you know? But you don’t have to worry about them assuming that you’re mentally incompetent just because you have girly parts.”
“Amen to that,” Kat said dryly. “A brain and a vagina are not mutually exclusive.”
“And the Kindred know that,” Liv said.
“It helps that they worship a goddess—the Mother of All Life,” Sophia remarked, selecting a salted caramel cupcake. “Females are sacred to them—they see us as people to be revered and protected.”
“And respected,” Liv said firmly.
“Hmm.” Charlie took another nibble of her cupcake. She was beginning to get a whole new picture of the Kindred and it was in direct contrast with everything she’d believed for years. “You know, Stavros did say something like that to me when I was cuffing him up. About how females were sacred to them.”
“Cuffing him, huh? Kinky.” Kat grinned at her.
Charlie felt her cheeks getting hot again.
“It wasn’t like that. I was apprehending him—he was my prisoner.”
“And then he got loose and you were his
prisoner, right?” Lauren raised an eyebrow at her. “And Kat said something about Stavros dragging you up here because you were on your period?”
“He’s a Sin Eater—he feels everyone’s pain,” Becca explained. “So when he felt Charlotte’s cramps, he thought she was dying.”
“You can call me Charlie—everybody does,” Charlie said. “And I do get really bad cramps from time to time but if Stavros is used to feeling everyone’s pain, wouldn’t you think he would have realized what was going on with me?”
“Maybe not,” Kat said thoughtfully. “There are hardly any female Kindred and they almost never get around the males—they all go into the priesthood or priestesshood or whatever you call it. You can see a few in the Sacred Grove at the center of the Mother Ship but mostly they keep to themselves.” She sighed. “That reminds me of the last time we sent someone off on an undercover mission.”
“What?” Charlie frowned. “Is this something you guys do all the time?”
“Oh no, not at all,” Sophie said, laughing. “Kat’s just talking about our friend Lissa—she was a priestess, you know. Or she started as one. Now she’s married to Saber and living with him on his planet. But the two of them had to go undercover to Yonnie Six.”
“And let me tell you,” Kat said, “You do not want to go there.”
“It’s a completely female dominated planet and all the males there are personal sex slaves,” Liv explained. “Poor Lissa—who was about as shy and sweet as any wallflower you’d ever want to meet—had to pretend to be this horrible tyrant bitch-mistress and Saber, her guy, had to go as her slave.”
“Wow,” Charlie said doubtfully. “How did they pull that off?”
“They didn’t. Their cover got blown in the end and it nearly ruined their relationship,” Kat said honestly. “Which is probably why it’s a good thing you and Stavros don’t have a relationship to ruin…or do you?” She raised an eyebrow at Charlie.
“Of course not!” she denied hastily. “I just volunteered to help save Earth. I would have done the same no matter who was going as my partner.”
“Of course you would.” Mei-Li smiled at her and bit into a dark chocolate cupcake.
“Anyway, just be glad you’re only going to a marriage retreat kind of thing and not posing as a Mistress,” Kat remarked. “Just think, all you have to do is pretend you’re an unhappy couple. Since you started out taking each other prisoner, it should be easy as pie.”
“My sister went to a thing like that with her husband down on Earth,” Becca said thoughtfully. “She said it really amounted to a lot of hand holding and shoulder rubs and looking into each other’s eyes. Saying what you liked about the other person…that kind of thing.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Charlie said cautiously. She thought she could manage to hold Stavros’s hand and pretend to be a neglected wife easily enough. She’d just channel her own mom who had always complained her daddy was married to his work at the PD and never made time for her.
“All that aside, it really is a good thing you don’t have a relationship with Stavros,” Becca said quietly, breaking into her thoughts.
“Why?” Charlie asked, frowning as she finished her cupcake and licked her fingers. She wanted another but she made herself stop. With all that rich, butter cream frosting they were probably about a thousand calories apiece.
The other girl shrugged her slim shoulders.
“He’s a Sin Eater and from what I understand, well…it’s better not to get into a relationship with them. That’s all.”
Charlie frowned, feeling like Becca knew more than she was telling. But before she could grill the other girl for information, there was a knock at the front door of the suite.
“Come in,” Kat called and the door slid silently open to reveal Stavros standing there dressed in black leather trousers and a plain black t-shirt.
“Greetings,” he said, nodding at all of them as he stepped inside. “I am here for Charlotte.” He looked at her. “Our ship is prepared and all is in readiness.”
“Oh, is it time already?” Charlie hopped up, brushing crumbs from her lap.
He nodded. “Commander Lock has secured our passes to J’lorgon’s Mind and enrolled us in various classes close to the center of the resort. We have only to go there and present ourselves as an unhappy couple in need of counseling.”
“What about clothes, though?” Charlie looked down at herself. She was still wearing her black yoga pants but Becca had loaned her a nice, long sleeved green blouse that made her feel a little more professional than the pink t-shirt she’d been wearing when Stavros brought her aboard. Still, she doubted her outfit was appropriate attire for a high-class, expensive luxury resort that catered to the rich and disaffected couples of the galaxy.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, doll,” Kat said easily. “Apparently clothes are included.”
“What kind of clothes, though?” Charlie couldn’t help thinking of the one vice sting she’d been involved in when she was still a new officer with the Asheville PD. She’d had to go undercover as a prostitute wearing skin-tight, lime-green hot pants and a neon-pink halter top. Her too-large ass and more than ample hips had been on display in the ridiculous outfit, not to mention a lot more cleavage than she normally liked to show. She had done it because the job required it but since she was used to keeping her assets mostly covered, it had been extremely uncomfortable.
Kat frowned. “I believe you’re going to be wearing ‘the robes of the novice’ at least to start with.”
“Robes of the what?” Charlie asked, frowning.
“The novice—like a religious novice. See, it’s kind of like a monastery and you two are going to be pilgrims seeking spiritual guidance for your failing relationship. So you get to wear very humble and simple clothes—at least to start with.”
Charlie felt a rush of relief. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“It’ll be fine, doll,” Kat assured her. “Now come give me a hug for luck and go save the world.”
* * * * *
Charlotte hugged the red-haired Kat, being careful of silver-eyed baby she held. She then embraced all the other females in turn as Stavros waited silently by the door. Kat offered him a cupcake but he declined.
“No thank you, I have no taste for sweets.”
“Suit yourself, honey.” She smiled in a friendly way and pressed Charlotte to take one of the small confections with her. Charlotte, however had declined also.
“Thanks but if I eat another one I’ll never get rid of it. Anything with carbs just goes straight to my hips and butt and stays there, no matter how many spin classes I take.”
“Well I think Lock said there are some exercise classes offered at J’lorgon’s Mind,” Kat said thoughtfully. “But I doubt you’ll find a spin class. I guess you’d better pass on the cupcake.”
Charlotte laughed, a soft, feminine sound that Stav found immensely appealing.
“You’re right. Or they won’t be able to find a novice robe to fit me once I get there.”
At last she said her final goodbyes and walked out the door with Stavros. He was glad to have her to himself. Though he revered females as all Kindred did, a large gathering of them made him somewhat nervous. Besides, he liked having time alone with Charlotte. But he felt he had to say something to her.
“You didn’t need to turn down that second confection, you know,” he remarked as they strolled along the corridor to the docking bay. “Your full hips and behind are perfect for your body type.”
“Hey,” she snapped, looking irritated. “We said at the start of this we wouldn’t talk about each others’ bodies. So my hips and ass are off the table as far as you’re concerned.”
Stavros was a bit taken aback, though he supposed he shouldn’t be. For some reason she seemed to be very sensitive where these particular areas of her body were concerned. He had no idea why—they were deliciously ripe, making him wonder what those full hips and luscious ass would feel like
filling his hands. But he knew better to speak that particular thought aloud.
“Forgive me,” he said neutrally. “If I overstepped the boundaries between us, I apologize. I just wanted to give you a male’s perspective and let you know I am certain you will look lovely in whatever clothing you are required to wear.”
Charlie shot him another irritated glance. “How I look shouldn’t be your concern—I’m your partner in this mission and that’s all. I’ll expect you to treat me the same way you would another man.”
Stavros nodded. Of course I will give you the respect I would any colleague, male or female.”
“Thank you. That’s all I ask.” Charlie crossed her arms over her chest.
“But…” Stavros raised one finger. “Please remember that we are going to be posing as a couple. So I will have to treat you as such.”
“An estranged couple,” she emphasized. “A couple on the brink of divorce—that’s how we’re going to play this.”
“Divorce?” Stav frowned. “Is that where a human male and female agree to dissolve their partnership and leave each other forever?”
“Exactly.” She nodded decisively. “Why—don’t Kindred have divorce?”
“We do not,” Stav said. “Once a male forms a soul-bond with a female, they are together forever. It is a lifelong commitment.”
“Ugh…” Charlotte shivered as though he had said something repugnant.
“What?” He looked at her curiously. “Such an idea bothers you?”
“Frankly, yes. I’ve seen too many unhappy marriages to believe in happily ever after, thank you very much. Some of the domestic calls we used to go out on when I was in uniform—people shouting and screaming and waking the neighbors, beating each other up over the littlest things. Once we had to go out when some lady had whacked her DH over the head with a cast iron skillet because he ate the last Slim Jim.” She shook her head. “Just a mess.”
Stav looked at her, fascinated.
“She hit who over the head with what because he ate what?”
“Her dear hubby—DH for short.”
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