Protected

by Evangeline Anderson

  And this time, I was afraid they were too strong to ignore.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Grav

  Leah was strangely quiet on the ride back to the hopper and I wondered what she was thinking.

  “You okay?” I finally asked.

  “Fine. Just…fine.” She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs. Suddenly, I felt a jolt of what I can only describe as pure, sexual need rush through me. My shaft hardened in my trousers, becoming instantly and painfully erect.

  What in the Frozen Hells? I shifted myself, trying to ease the sudden ache. Gods, where was this coming from? Why was I suddenly feeling so needy?

  Leah had been watching me from the corner of her eye.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, giving my own question back to me. “You seem…kind of tense.”

  “Just glad that part of the mission is over,” I said, shifting again. Gods, the throbbing in my shaft wouldn’t quit! It reminded me a little of the pain I’d felt when Leah skinned her knees. Speaking of which, I needed to treat those when we got back to the hopper.

  “Yeah, I’m glad it’s over too.” Leah’s voice was strained and distracted. “Um…are we close to the ship?”

  “We’re there right…now.” I maneuvered the shuttle so that it docked neatly with the hopper.

  “Great!” She was jumping out of her seat almost before the hatch swung open.

  “Leah?” I asked, just as she was about to jump down and run away. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Fine, really.” She gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just…really need to use the, uh, the fresher—you know?”

  “Sure.” I watched her go, feeling troubled.

  The sensation of deep sexual need was still with me—an urgent force that made me feel like I was going to climb right out of my skin. Was it an effect of the damn truth-drink the Reverend Mother had given us? I’d been feeling strange ever since I drank the weird stuff and Haenah had called it “Liquid Passion” or something like that. But she’d also said it only affected mated pairs and Leah and I were most definitely not mated. So what in the Frozen Hells of Anor was going on?

  I didn’t know but as I climbed out of the shuttle and headed for the control area of the ship to set a new course, I decided it might be worth it to take a moment and look up the truth-drink of the Acolytes of Naamah and see what I could find out.

  Leah

  I was so incredibly horny I didn’t know what to do with myself. Seriously, can you die of hornyness? Because I was sure I was about to.

  “God…oh God, oh God,” I muttered as I finally got into my room and the door whooshed shut behind me.

  I sat on the edge of the bunk, pulled up the gray acolyte robes, and yanked down the black lacy panties I still had from the naughty school girl outfit. They were drenched with my juices and my pussy was puffy and swollen with need, my clit peeking out from between my lower lips like a throbbing pink pearl begging desperately for attention.

  Had I thought I was in need before? Had I imagined that the backlog of sexual tension was making it hard to act normal? Well this level of sexual need made it hard to breathe.

  I literally felt like I had to come or die.

  I knew I hadn’t been able to touch myself in the time since Grav had sexually awaked me, because feeling my hand against my most sensitive areas was simply too intense. But now I had to try again—I had to. I was so sensitive I felt like I was on a hair trigger—as though the lightest touch would make me react.

  It made me react all right.

  The moment my fingertips just barely brushed my sensitive pussy, I had to clamp down on a scream. It felt like I had burned myself—like someone had held a lit match to my throbbing clit.

  Sorry for that awful mental image but it was really that painful. And yet the incessant sexual need pulsing through me made me so damn desperate I tried again…and again…and again.

  Each time it was agony and yet I was compelled to keep trying. My body was demanding a release that I couldn’t give it. It needed to reach that peak—the peak I’d felt was getting close the last time Grav had healed me.

  As though my thoughts of him had called him, I heard a knock on the door and a deep voice said, “Leah? We need to talk.”

  Oh my God! I was lying on the cot with my robes hiked up, my panties down to my ankles and tears in my eyes from pain and frustration.

  “Don’t come in!” I gasped, jumping off the cot and yanking my panties back up while I tried to adjust my robe. “Not yet—give me a minute. Or uh, maybe come back later. This really isn’t a good time for me.”

  “I’ll wait until you’re ready,” he said and there was in implacable note in his low voice that let me know he was serious. He would wait outside the door all night until I finally opened to him. It was no use, I was going to have to deal with him now since I seriously doubted I would be in any better shape in the future. Not unless I could take care of my “problem” and so far I hadn’t even come close to finding a solution.

  Smoothing my robes and blotting my eyes on my sleeve, I took a deep breath and opened the door.

  Grav

  “Yes?” Leah looked out at me, frowning fiercely. I could tell she’d tried to pull herself together and look calm but her red eyes and tousled hair told a different story.

  But it wasn’t just the way she looked—it was in her scent. The unmistakable fragrance of sex drifted up to my nose making me nearly groan with desire. Gods, she smelled so fucking good. So ripe—like a female who needs to be bred. Which was crazy because that was a Braxian thing. As far as I knew, the females of Earth didn’t go through a breeding cycle the way the females of my home planet did.

  I couldn’t deny my senses though—my nose never lies to me. Just because it didn’t make sense didn’t mean it wasn’t happening—Leah was in serious pain.

  I knew because I could feel it.

  Whether it was because of the truth-drink we’d been forced to take or for some other reason, the little Earth female’s body was in overdrive and it was clear she was hurting for a release.

  But I could tell by the look in her eyes—half defiant, half embarrassed—that she wouldn’t admit it easily. I would have to ease her into the conversation and from there maybe we could figure out what to do to help her.

  Of course, I knew what the information I’d found on the Interstellar Net said to do—but I wasn’t going there—no way in all the Frozen Hells. After all, half the information I’d found on the truth-drink was probably inaccurate. Almost every site I’d looked at told me it only worked as an aphrodisiac between mates. With everyone else, it was just supposed to heighten perceptions and sensations and make it easier to tell if someone was lying.

  Speaking of lying…

  “Darlin’,” I said to Leah as she stood there staring up at me defiantly. “Are you really all right?”

  “Fine. I’m fine.” She shifted from foot to foot and winced. I did too—I could feel the pain that had knifed through her most sensitive areas with her movement. And it didn’t take the tingle at the base of my spine or the change in her scent to let me know she was lying to me—lying because she was embarrassed and ashamed and afraid.

  I tried another tactic.

  “I just came by because I need to have a look at your knees,” I said, telling a lie of my own. Or at least, a half-truth. It was true I did need to tend her scraped knees but they sure as hell weren’t her most urgent problem right now and I knew it.

  “What? You mean you want to heal me?” I saw several emotions—hope, hurt, shame—all flash through her big brown eyes.

  “Uh…” I cleared my throat. I hadn’t thought about that possibility. But if it got me into her room and got her talking a little then maybe it was a good idea.

  Yeah, right, whispered a sardonic little voice in my head. Getting on your knees before her to lick her sweet, curvy body is a real fuckin’ good idea—if you want to los
e control.

  I’ll be fine, I told myself. I would never hurt her. I just want to help her—to heal her. This time I’ll keep it strictly hands-off, no matter what.

  But Leah was frowning and shaking her head.

  “I don’t think so. I…I think it’s a bad idea.”

  “But I need to do something about those injuries to your knees,” I insisted, prepared to be firm.

  “What about you?” she challenged. “You got burned by acid and scorched by the warden’s spear—I felt it.”

  “Yeah, well…” I looked down at my arms. They were speckled with little pink dots where the acid from the lake had eaten tiny pits in my skin. Also, there was a long, black scorch mark along the outside of my right forearm.

  “See—you’re in much worse shape than me,” Leah said.

  “I’ll heal on my own,” I said, frowning. “Braxians heal fast.”

  “So do Earthlings.” Leah crossed her arms stubbornly. “I’ll be fine.”

  “No you won’t, darlin’.” I sighed, deciding to give up all pretense and just come out with it. “Leah, you know healing your knees isn’t the only reason I’m here.”

  She nibbled her lush bottom lip nervously.

  “I…I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do, darlin’,” I said softly. “We can feel each other’s pain—remember? And you’re in here having severe pain and need—I can tell because it’s affecting me too.”

  “It…it is?” She looked up at me from under her full, dark lashes and my heart began to beat harder though I tried like hell to control it.

  “Yeah,” I said flatly. “It fuckin’ well is. We have to talk about it.”

  Abruptly Leah seemed to give up.

  “All right.” She stepped back and gestured for me to enter the room. “Come in. Let’s talk.”

  Leah

  I had no idea what I was going to say—or what Grav would say, for that matter. I only knew I couldn’t hide what was going on any longer—as shameful and painful as it was, it was affecting him too.

  I went back and sat on the cot, wincing as my thighs pressed against my sensitive sex. God, I was in so much pain and need right now—it was almost more than I could stand!

  But I didn’t know how I could stand to admit it either. As I said earlier, I was raised Southern Baptist and sex was not talked about much in my house.

  Which meant it was nearly impossible for me to talk about it now.

  Grav came over to me but instead of sitting on the cot beside me, he sat on the floor in front of me. He put a big, warm hand on my calf and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  “What…what are you going to do?” I asked, hating the breathless, needy sound in my voice.

  “Just heal you, darlin’.” His deep voice was mild. “Your knees, I mean.”

  “I thought…thought you wanted to talk,” I whispered.

  “Later for that.” His long fingers encircled my ankle easily. “For now, let’s take care of what we can.”

  “All…all right,” I agreed.

  I tried to relax as he raised the hem of the gray robe over my knees and examined the scrapes I’d gotten from falling on the rough flagstones of the temple floor. I supposed I should feel relieved that he was willing to heal me first and put off talking about the real problem, but I couldn’t feel anything but tense and scared and incredibly uncomfortable.

  Grav seemed to sense my mood.

  “Relax, darlin’,” he murmured, looking up at me. “I’m not gonna bite, you know.”

  “I know,” I whispered and then he leaned forward and I felt his warm, wet tongue connect with the torn skin of my right knee.

  Pleasure flashed through me, immediate and intense. My body went into overdrive as I felt the need take me—my pussy throbbing, my nipples painfully tight.

  Oh God…OhGodohGodohGod! I didn’t know how much of this I could take. As he started on the second knee, my hips tried to buck and my thighs wanted desperately to spread, to welcome him in. Grimly, I kept control, forcing myself to stay frozen in place. But his mouth on me felt so good, so right. I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning as his warm tongue moved over my flesh.

  I bit so hard I tasted blood.

  “Hey,” Grav growled.

  I looked down and saw that he was rubbing his own lip and frowning. Clearly he had felt the small pain I’d inflicted on myself.

  “I…I’m sorry,” I gasped. “It’s just…just intense. I know it shouldn’t be. It’s just my knees. I don’t know why—”

  “But it’s not just your knees, is it, darlin’?” He looked at me sternly and I knew I couldn’t lie.

  “No,” I whispered miserably. “No, it’s…it’s something else. I…I’m in pain.”

  “There.” He nodded between my thighs and it wasn’t a question.

  “Yes.” I hung my head in shame. “I…I don’t know why. It’s been…been building ever since the last time you, uh, healed me. And then the truth-drink…”

  “Made it a hell of a lot worse, didn’t it?” He rumbled. “I’m sorry, darlin’—I didn’t know you were in so much pain.”

  “I wasn’t,” I protested. “I mean, I had discomfort but it wasn’t until we drank the Spaghetti-Os stuff that I started to really have actual pain.”

  He sighed. “That’s because Haenah was right—it’s a fuckin’ aphrodisiac. But only when taken by mated pairs and we’re—”

  “Not mated,” I finished for him. “Not, what did you call it before? Bonded.”

  “Right, but apparently it’s affecting you anyway—just like all the sites I called up said it would.”

  “Sites? You mean like on the Internet?”

  He frowned. “Not sure what that is. I was looking on the Interstellar Net—it’s a network of information. You can find just about anything you need about anything in the galaxy if you look in the right place.”

  “Right.” I nodded. So it was like the Internet—only a galactic version of it. Great. “So…what did the sites say?” I asked.

  Grav frowned and I got the sense he didn’t want to tell me.

  “Please,” I whispered. “Please, Grav—I need to know.”

  “All right.” He sighed. “I guess you do—but you’re not gonna like it. Almost every site I looked at said the female will bear the brunt of the truth-drink’s effects. And in order for her to, uh, get over it she has to have a sexual release.” He looked me in the eyes. “She has to come, darlin’.”

  I felt like I might start crying again.

  “Grav,” I said. “I…I’ve been trying. But I can’t. I’m too sensitive, uh, down there. I feel like I’m going crazy I need…need a release so badly. But I can’t get one. What am I going to do?”

  He sighed again. “Well, that’s the problem, darlin’—you can’t do anything.”

  “Then I’m going to die,” I said and burst into tears.

  I know that sounds dramatic and crazy but at that moment, it was how I felt. My body was on fire with need—aching desperately for a release. And yet I was unable to give myself one. I was so keyed up—right on the edge. My heart was pounding and my body was throbbing and there was nothing I could do to calm it down, no matter how hard I tried.

  It was kind of like having a sexual panic attack.

  “Hey…hey, now…” Grav rumbled. He got up and I felt him sit beside me on the cot, which creaked and settled under his muscular weight. He put an arm around me and I turned toward him, burying my face in his broad chest. He’d taken off the gray acolyte robe and was only wearing a pair of his tight black leather trousers so my wet cheeks were met with bare skin. Warm and hard, the wall of his chest felt comforting and his rich, spicy, masculine odor invaded my senses, making me want to press harder against him, to never leave the circle of his arms.

  Grav stroked my hair comfortingly and after a moment I realized he was talking.

  “You’re not gonna die, Leah,” he
murmured, holding me close. “I’m not gonna let you. Everything is going to be all right—you’ll see.”

  “How?” I looked up at him with wet eyes. “How is it going to be all right? You said there’s nothing we can do.”

  “No, I said there’s nothing you can do,” he corrected me. “But there is something that can be done.”

  “What?” I thought I could guess by the uncomfortable look in his eyes. “It’s you, isn’t it? You have to help me.”

  “The female’s mate…” He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m not your mate but I think maybe that’s how your body recognizes me, for whatever reason. Anyway, the female’s mate has to help her. Almost every site says the female who drinks the truth-drink won’t be able to touch herself—it’s a direct result of the drink. Makes the female’s body reject her own touch as toxic. But if her mate touches her, well…”

  “So you have to…to touch me?” I didn’t know whether to feel hopeful, hot, or ashamed at the idea. I seemed to be filled with a combination of all three emotions.

  Grav shifted uncomfortably.

  “Look, I don’t want you to think I’m takin’ advantage. Maybe you should come read it for yourself.”

  “I believe you,” I said, and I did. He was an honorable guy—I knew that by now. And I knew he wouldn’t make something like this up. Besides, my body was already telling me what he was saying was the absolute truth. There was no tingle at the base of my spine. In fact, the only tingling was in my breasts and between my legs.

  God, how I needed him!

  “Do you have to…do you need to…” I cleared my throat, trying to think how to phrase it. “What do you have to do?”

  “Just make you come,” Grav said simply. “That’s all.” He tilted my chin up so our eyes met and studied my face. “Can you let me do that for you, darlin’? Can you spread your legs for me and let me make you come?”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “I mean, I…I can let you try. I…I’ve never, uh, experienced that before. So I don’t…I’m not really sure if I can.”