Her eyes softened.
“You certainly did. But…am I right in thinking that it pained you also, to leave me?”
“Leaving you was more painful than any wound I have ever suffered in battle,” James said earnestly. “It was an agony so great, I feared for some time that I might be going mad. Being without you was terrible because I love you, sweetheart. Gods, I love you so much.”
“Oh, James…” She held out her arms to him. “I forgive you,” she whispered. “And please, I’m so hot…” She began to sway and then her eyes rolled up in her head.
It was a good thing he was close because he was able to catch her as she fell. James looked at her anxiously. Her skin felt like a furnace—he had heard humans say to each other, “You’re burning up!” when one of them had a fever. But Ka’rissa was only moments from literally going up in flames.
Though he wanted to get her away from Regalia Five immediately, James knew he had to do something to cool her down now or they would never make it to the Mother Ship in time.
He laid her soft, curvy body in the cool grass and began chilling his own body as quickly as he could. As soon as both hands were ice cold, he started caressing her face and neck and chest, trying his best to ease the Heat that was rising inside her due to her Fire Blood, but she didn’t seem to be cooling down. If he didn’t do something quickly, she was going to combust!
As a last-ditch effort, James stripped off his uniform shirt and wrapped himself around her, making his body into a living cooling blanket.
Colder…colder! he thought urgently, using his Z’ngu DNA to the fullest extent, chilling his whole body down to freezing temperatures. Never had he pushed himself so far. When he exhaled, he could see his breath coming out in a cloud and frost was forming on his skin. Wherever he touched the Princess, steam rose as their two extreme body temperatures collided.
At last, he felt her cooling. Her breathing became less labored and steam stopped rising where their bodies touched. Her eyes flickered up and she looked up at him uncertainly.
“James?” she whispered. “So thirsty…so hot…”
“I know, sweetheart.” He rose and gathered her into his arms, noticing as he did, that she seemed to have something bulky and metal strapped around her hips that added a considerable amount of weight to her curvy form. “I’m going to take you back to the Mother Ship now,” he told her. “I have some chilled water in the shuttle.”
“Yes…please.” She nestled in his arms and closed her eyes again. “Always so lovely and cool,” she whispered, pressing her hot cheek to his cold chest. “Oh James, it is as though you were made for me.”
Maybe I was, James thought. He couldn’t help remembering the glowing green eyes of the priestess and the way the Goddess had spoken to him through her.
Since it was clear that the deity really did exist, could it be that she had a plan for his life all along? Had she guided the Tolleg scientist who had mixed his DNA, making certain that he added just enough Z’ngu to the mix to allow James to chill his body to meet the needs of the overheated Princess when they met, many years later?
He had no time to contemplate such matters now, James told himself. Right now, he had to get Ka’rissa back to the Mother Ship and do something to cool her down further. What he had achieved just now was only a temporary measure—clearly her Heat Cycle was out of control and needed to be reined in.
For now, he would tend the female he loved and just be thankful that he had gotten to her in time.
55
Rissa woke as someone was laying her down on a soft, giving surface.
A bed, she thought drowsily. Someone is putting me to bed. But who?
“Ka’rissa? Sweetheart?” a deep, rumbling voice murmured in her ear. A familiar voice—a beloved voice.
“James?” She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Am…am I dreaming? I thought I was in the palace gardens, hiding in the bushes.”
“You were.” His voice sounded grim. “You very nearly overheated. I had to cool you down before I could bring you back to the Mother Ship.”
“Oh yes—I am sorry I got so hot,” Rissa apologized faintly. “It is only that…that I have not been able to help myself since you and I were parted.”
“Would that have something to do with this strange metal belt I see beneath your gown?” James was frowning as his metallic blue eyes flickered over the Chastity Device, cinched tight around her hips.
Rissa blushed and nodded.
“I am afraid so. It is made in such a way that I cannot…” She cleared her throat. “Cannot reach myself. And so I was unable to do anything to keep my Heat Cycle from getting out of control,” she explained.
His frown deepened.
“We need to get it off of you. Is it electrified, like the wire was?”
Rissa shook her head.
“I am afraid not. It is locked and the only remote that unlocks it is gone. The Duke threw it in the fire—it is utterly destroyed.”
“The Duke?” James looked surprised. “Do you mean Duke Grabbington? What was he doing at the palace—I thought he was in disgrace after our duel? And how did he get the only remote that unlocks your belt?”
Rapidly, Rissa told him the whole story and her awful discovery that Lord Shammington was actually Duke Grabbington in disguise.
“And then he said he would be happy when I burned to death because then he could be crowned King and rule the planet on his own, as he saw fit,” she finished at last. “And…and I very much fear, he will get his wish. For there is no way to take this horrid device off without the remote, which has been burned up and melted in the fire.”
She shed hot tears that turned to steam on her cheeks at the hopelessness of the situation. She never should have asked for help from the Kindred. Surely she was nothing but a fire hazard here aboard their lovely ship. And she didn’t wish to put James in danger either.
“You had better stand back from me,” she told him now, trying to hold back a sob. “I should never have called and asked for asylum. There is nothing you can do to help me and sooner or later I am certain to combust, just as my dear Mama did before me.”
His eyes hardened.
“You’re not going to die, sweetheart—I swear it.”
“But what can you do?” Rissa nodded down at the metal belt around her waist. “This device is made of solid plasti-steel. It is completely unbreakable.”
“Maybe by regular humanoid hands,” James said grimly. He flexed his enhanced arm and hand and smiled at her. “But I am no regular humanoid.”
A tiny sliver of hope pierced Rissa’s heart.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Do…do you really think you can get it off me?”
“I do.” He nodded firmly. “You’ll have to hold very still—I don’t want to cut you—the metal is going to be extremely sharp when I tear it.”
Her eyes widened.
“You’re going to tear it off?”
He frowned. “I’ll probably have to heat it up some first.” He gave Rissa an anxious look. “I don’t want to burn you.”
She shook her head.
“You cannot. My Fire Blood makes me impervious to outside heat. Go ahead, James—do what you have to in order to get it off me. Please.”
Her heartfelt plea definitely affected him. Stroking her cheek, he looked into her eyes earnestly.
“Of course I will, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Just trust me and lie as still as you can. All right?”
Rissa nodded.
“I trust you, James. She whispered. “Go ahead and do it.”
He nodded swiftly and got to work.
56
James thought he had never been so glad of his enhancements. First, he used his ocular scope to thoroughly scan the metal device around her waist and find the weakest and thinnest parts, which happened to be right at her hip bones. The scope was also capable of emitting a highly collimated heat ray, which he used to work on the weak parts, heating them to make them more malleabl
e.
Despite Ka’rissa’s promise that outside heat couldn’t hurt her, he was concerned about the temperature the metal was reaching. But to his relief, she didn’t voice a word of protest or look in the least uncomfortable as he worked.
When he had heated one side enough, James used his enhanced right hand to pull the metal belt apart, peeling it in two with an effort that required all his strength.
“Oh, you are doing it! It’s working!” Ka’rissa’s voice was high and hopeful.
“Just…hang on…sweetheart,” James told her, his voice tight with effort. “Going to get…the other half…open next. And then we’ll finally get this damn thing…off of you.”
He went to work on the other side, first heating it, then peeling it apart as well. Finally, he was able to pry the damn thing open enough to pull it completely off the Princess. But when he tossed the heavy metal belt away with a clang, James saw with dismay that his job wasn’t done quite yet.
“What in the Seven Hells is this?” he muttered, putting out a finger to stroke the smaller, triangular piece of metal between the Princess’s legs.
Ka’rissa gave a little cry of pain and shifted her hips as though his light touch had hurt her much more than the heated metal had before he took it off.
“What is it, sweetheart?” James looked at her anxiously. “Is this some other kind of Chastity Device, hidden inside the first?”
She nodded and he could see the tears welling in her eyes.
“It is called the…the shield and the…the plug,” she whispered. “And oh, James…it hurts so much.”
Emotions rushed over him almost too quickly to catalog them all. Anger at whoever had done this to her, fear for her safety, sorrow for her pain, and a deep need to help, heal, and protect her. For a moment, James felt almost overwhelmed by the emotional flood. Then he took a deep breath and told himself to focus.
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” he promised Ka’rissa. Cupping her cheek, he looked into her eyes, which were swimming with tears. “Everything is going to be all right. I got the other device off you, I’ll get this one off, too.”
“But you do not just have to get it off me, James,” she whispered. “You…you will have to get it out of me too. And it’s so deep in me—so big and hard and sharp…”
James felt his heart fist in his chest.
“I’ll be as gentle as I can,” he promised hoarsely. “Just try to relax and trust me, sweetheart.”
She nodded.
“I trust you,” she whispered. “Please help me, James.”
“Of course I will.” He stroked her cheek again, loving how soft her skin was, almost completely undone by the pain filling her beautiful eyes. “Just hold on,” he murmured. Then he turned his attention to the rest of the device.
The shield was a flat, triangular piece which fit over her mound and the soft, outer lips of her pussy. When he peeled it back, away from her flesh, James was horrified to see that it had pointed metal nubs studding its inner surface. They had rubbed Ka’rissa almost raw, causing her creamy, light brown skin to go an angry red.
But there was worse to come—much worse. As soon as he pulled the shield away, James saw the plug. It was a thick, metal phallus, shaped more like a weapon than an instrument of pleasure. About an inch of it protruded from her soft pink entrance but the rest of the thick shaft had been rammed up inside her. Worse, it was clear that the part inside her channel was much thicker than the small part that was protruding.
“James, please,” she whispered, shifting her hips. “Please…pull it out of me. Can you?”
“I think I can,” James said doubtfully. “But I am afraid it might hurt you to remove it.”
“Just get it out,” Ka’rissa pleaded. “Please—I just want the awful thing out of me!”
“All right.” James took a firm grip on the short metal handle. “I want you to take a deep breath and then blow it out when I tell you to. At the same time, I want you to try and let your body go limp. Don’t tense up—that will only make it harder. Just try to relax. Do you understand?”
Ka’rissa nodded.
“Yes. I’ll do my best.”
“You’ll be fine,” James assured her, hoping he was telling the truth. “All right, are you ready? Good, then take a deep breath…and blow it all out.”
As she exhaled he gripped the metal phallus she had called “the plug” firmly and pulled the thick, cruel thing out of her.
Ka’rissa cried out as it finally slipped from her channel and tears leaked from her eyes again. Tears that steamed when they touched her hot cheeks, James saw with concern. Clearly her heightened emotions were causing her Heat to rise again.
“It’s all right, now sweetheart. It’s all over now,” he murmured, stroking her cheek. “You were so brave—I am so very proud of you!”
He took a moment to examine the thing he had removed from her. It was shaped rather like a spear with four ridged, blunt blades and it bulged out in the middle, becoming so broad at its widest point that he wondered how in the world it had been put into her soft, virginal pussy in the first place.
“It feels so good to have it out of me,” she whispered to him. “But, oh James—I am so sore.”
“Of course you are, sweetheart.” Gently, he spread her thighs and examined the bruised and reddened area between her legs. She looked like someone had beaten her inside and out—what she needed was healing.
Should he take her to the Med Center? But at the thought of someone else examining her, touching her, a wave of possessiveness swept over him. No Med Center then—but how could he help her?
As the question entered his mind, his body acted on it at once. As he had once before, he felt fangs growing in his mouth as his Blood Kindred DNA came to the forefront. And then, for the first time, he tasted the slightly sweet flavor of Essence.
Essence was the pale blue liquid exuded from a Blood Kindred’s fangs which allowed him to heal his mate. The moment James tasted it, he knew what he had to do.
It was something he had been longing to do from the first moment he had met her.
57
Rissa couldn’t believe how much she still hurt, even though James had pulled the awful plug out of her. She ached inside—a deep, grinding ache that made her feel battered and bruised and so tender she could barely stand to move. Yet, move she must—her hips twitched restlessly as she sought to ease the ache.
“Hold still, sweetheart.” James was still kneeling over her as she lay in the middle of the big bed with her filmy white peignoir pulled up to her waist. He put his big, cool hands gently on her hips, as though to keep her from moving. “I’m going to help you feel better,” he told her.
“You are?” Rissa felt her eyes widen. “How, James? Do you have some kind of Kindred medicine?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. Though, probably not the kind you think.”
He took a breath and looked into her eyes. “Ka’rissa, I’m going to heal you with my mouth. My mouth and my tongue.”
She shook her head.
“I…do not understand.”
Briefly, he explained about his Blood Kindred DNA and how that kind of Kindred produced healing compounds with his mouth and fangs.
“So…you’ll lick me?” Rissa whispered. She nibbled her lower lip. Somehow, despite everything they had been through and done together, this act still felt forbidden. Also, did he really want to do this? It was certainly something that Lady Mildew—and probably most of the Court—would consider a “dirty” act.
James seemed to see the questions and doubts in her eyes, because he leaned over and stroked her cheek gently.
“Ask,” he murmured. “Whatever you’re wondering, go ahead and ask me, sweetheart.”
The gentle way he talked to her—so natural and human and not robotic at all now—gave Rissa the courage to do as he said.
“James,” she whispered. “I appreciate you wanting to heal me. But, well…are you sure you want to…to lick me there?”<
br />
“Princess,” he growled softly. “If you know anything about Kindred, you’ll know I have wanted to lick your sweet pussy almost from the first moment I met you. It’s not just that we desire to taste our mates—it’s a biological need.” He stroked her cheek. “Though of course, right now, what I need most is to heal you. Please, Ka’rissa—let me do it. Let me heal your soft little pussy.”
Rissa felt herself melting under those soft, gentle words and the tender look in his eyes.
“All right, James,” she whispered, spreading her thighs a little. “If…if you really want to and you think it would help, I trust you. Do what you need to.”
They were almost the same words she’d used earlier, when she’d given him permission to tear the awful Chastity Device off her. And just as he had before, James went to work at once.
He was shirtless, wearing only his tight black trousers as he lay between her legs. Rissa had a vague memory of him tearing the shirt off and laying down beside her in the cool green grass of the palace gardens what seemed like a hundred years ago. But the main point was that his muscular arms were deliciously cool as he wrapped them around her heated thighs and pressed his mouth to her pussy mound.
She felt a cooling sensation as his tongue lapped over the heated flesh of her mound again and again. To her surprise, it really did work—wherever his tongue touched her, the awful ache seemed to fade. Rissa moaned softly in appreciation.
“Oh yes, James—that does feel better!” she told him, reaching down to stroke his thick, dark hair. “It doesn’t hurt at all anymore, where the shield dug into me.”
He looked up briefly, his eyes blazing.
“Then I’m going to heal you lower…deeper. Is that all right with you, Princess?”
She nodded, a bit shyly.
“Should…should I do anything?”
“Just keep your legs spread for me,” James directed. “And keep stroking my hair,” he added, his voice dropping to a hoarse growl. “I like the feel of your hands on me while I heal you…while I taste you.”
Burning for Love Page 27