Amelia licked her lips. She did want that, to be released from what her heart said was wrong. “Desperately.”
Rajhir nodded to Breft. The Nobek’s tension eased and the dominating attitude returned. Breft said, “Tell me then. Say the words. Say, ‘I need you to take me.’”
More sobs as dread tightened its grip on her chest. However, Amelia was now determined to fight past it. She had to be granted her freedom and that seemed to mean being possessed by this alien. “I need you to take me now,” she managed through the torrent of tears.
“I surrender my body to you.”
“I surrender my body to you.” Begging, as difficult as it felt, was bringing eagerness to the fore. She groaned. “Breft, please…”
“You may do with me as you wish.”
“Oh God … please … you may do with me as you wish … Breft…”
His grin widened. “That’s my girl. You did it. I am very proud of your bravery,” he said. He slid easily into her.
The approval was a warm balm on Amelia’s nerves. The feeling of Breft filling her was even better. Her sobs trailed into gasps of pleasure.
The Nobek rode her hard and fast, bringing her right up to the brink. Then his pace slowed, making her wait a little longer. Amelia wailed her disappointment, and he laughed.
“Is this the same little Amelia who was afraid a moment ago? Are you now so bold as to demand pleasure?”
“Yes!”
“That is good, but I’m not ready to allow it yet.”
He pounded against her once more, letting her close in on climax again before denying her just as brutally. Breft held her down as she fought to make him bring her to satisfaction, teasing her.
“What do you want, my sweet?” he asked, moving so slow that it nearly made Amelia crazy. He’d found that hot spot inside, rubbing insistently on it while grinding hard to torment her clit with promised ecstasy.
She didn’t hesitate for a second, didn’t think twice about repercussions. Amelia screamed, “Bastard! Do it or let me go!”
“Now that is much better. Much, much better.”
His hips slapped meatily against her, bringing her arousal up and up and up until at last she seized with crescendo. They both shrieked with intensity of release moments later.
As their breathing slowed, Rajhir and Flencik joined them. The men held and caressed Amelia. Exhausted by their quick but thorough lovemaking, she allowed their touches without resistance, determinedly holding browbeaten repression at bay for as long as she could.
Flencik laughed, a deep, wonderful sound. “No much time for find climax. All ready for the pleasure.”
Breft grinned at him. “It was all I could think of this morning. I am glad our lovely Earther friend needed little foreplay.”
Rajhir asked Amelia, “The pleasure excuses us for no being present when you wake? We visited as soon as possible.”
She blinked. “Actually, I wasn’t expecting you at all.”
The Dramok’s heavy brow furrowed. “I messaged we would visit soon. You receive no the message?”
Amelia thought of telling him how on Earth saying and doing were two different things. She decided he’d probably not understand. Instead she spoke with chagrin. “I got it. You’re very truthful.”
The clan exchanged nervous looks. Flencik spoke first. “You are with us angry?”
Amelia shook her head. “I’m just trying to think of a way to make you understand that on Earth, men can’t take what they want from women the way you do. If they act like that and get caught, they get in a lot of trouble. My culture considers this very wrong.”
Rajhir’s eyes narrowed. “We give you pleasure. Even though fear of Earth rules make you cry at first, you are satisfied now. There is no wrong in that.”
“It’s not just about pleasure. It’s also about respect.”
Breft answered that one. “It is a sign of respect to give you pleasure. Besides, the pleasure I gave you took your fears away.”
Amelia struggled to find a way to make them understand. The Kalquorians were frustrating in their inability to comprehend why they shouldn’t just swoop in and start having sex with her. Still, she was beginning to understand that by their cultural norms, they meant well.
She tried one last time. “On Earth it’s a greater sign of respect to first ask a woman if she’d like to receive pleasure. After the man has married her, of course.”
“Ask?” Rajhir looked mystified. He glanced at his clanmates, but they seemed every bit as confused. He turned to Amelia again and spoke carefully as if explaining to a child. “On Kalquor we know women deserve sexual pleasure, as much to give as the clan can. It is wrong to require her the asking.”
“Unless we make a game of it as you and I did,” Breft added, a mischievous glint in his eye. “I am sorry it made you frightened at first, but the playing turned out well, yes?”
Rajhir grinned. “Games are good. We will play more.” He glanced at Flencik to include him in the teasing threat, and his smile dropped off. “What is wrong?”
Amelia looked at the frowning Imdiko who stared at her.
“Stand, Amelia,” he said, waving the other two back. He helped her to her feet. She stood before him, painfully aware of her nakedness again. However, Flencik’s eyes rested on neither her breasts nor sex. He studied her neck and shoulders. Rajhir and Breft looked from her to their clanmate and back again.
“What?” Rajhir demanded.
Flencik ignored him. Instead, he asked Amelia, “Why this shoulder is higher than the other? You are all out of line.”
“I have severe nerve damage to my shoulders, arms, and hands. That arm’s the worst,” she answered.
The Imdiko walked behind her. He lifted her curtain of hair from her back and rubbed the bunched shoulder. His large hand felt warm on the stiff flesh.
“There was an accident, and I suffered a lot of soft tissue damage in my neck and shoulders. My doctors told me the muscles spasmed in an effort to protect the damaged nerves, then atrophied in that position,” Amelia told him. “Now they cause even more harm to the nerves.”
“There is pain? It is bad?”
Her answer was hesitant. “It’s not too bad right now. Sometimes it’s worse.” Her eyes strayed to her work in progress. “That will probably be my last painting.”
Rajhir and Breft stepped to her easel while Flencik’s gentle fingers continued to probe the knotted muscles. Amelia watched them examine her work.
Breft surprised her by saying in a reverential tone, “For such talent to be lost would be tragic.”
She started to thank him when Flencik responded. “No loss for to paint. I can cure this.”
She looked up at him. “The doctors say it’s inoperable.”
He shrugged. “Earth, they have no the correct skills. No good medicine for injury such to this. Easy on Kalquor I can cure this injury.”
Hope sparked, but Amelia hid her excitement. “How would you cure me?”
Flencik opened his mouth to speak then closed it again with a frown. He looked at Breft and spoke in the guttural Kalquorian tongue.
Breft listened and nodded. He turned to Amelia. “He would regenerate cells. Grow new ones and rebuild the nerves.”
Her hope grew. Nearly choking from desperate want, Amelia asked the Imdiko, “Are you sure you could do it?”
Flencik’s expression showed absolute confidence. “I have cured on Kalquor the same injury. Mostly the injury to our Nobeks, but I have cured too other species. You come to Kalquor. I will make you will still paint.”
The Imdiko’s nonchalance over her career ending injury stunned Amelia. He acted as if the devastating nerve damage was no worse than a paper cut.
Could he really fix the damage? Would Earth even allow me to go to Kalquor for treatment?
A buzzing noise startled her. The sound came from Rajhir’s clothes piled on the floor. With an apologetic smile he rummaged through the fabric and pulled out a small, silver box. He s
poke briefly in Kalquorian and the buzzing ceased. The other two began to pull on their clothes.
“We must go,” Rajhir said, also dressing. “I am in new talks for trades with Saucin Israla. Breft and Flencik in their areas of work meet with Plasians. You are no to be angry we must leave you again?”
Amelia yanked on her own clothes. “Not at all. I really need to paint.” An idea occurred to her. “In fact, I need a lot of time alone to paint. I require absolute silence to concentrate.”
He seemed to accept that. “You come to us when you to are no painting. We lodge in Sector Sarras.”
They headed towards the door, but Flencik stopped to pat Amelia’s back. “Come for medicine for the bad pain grows. On Plasius, I can no cure here, but I can help you pain less.”
“Thank you,” she said. The three smiled at her. Each kissed her goodbye as they left, and she let them without a moment’s resistance.
Amelia didn’t paint that day after all. She had too much to think about.
* * * *
As the balmy Plasian night descended, the Kalquorian clan returned to their quarters. They gathered on the curved lounger, enjoying the warmth and musky aroma of burning scentwood.
Rajhir accepted a glass of dlas from Flencik. Day’s end gave him a sense of relief. Despite the meeting with Israla yielding productive results, his mind kept wandering back to Amelia. Had there ever been a more gorgeous creature? His thoughts lingered over her, cataloguing her many attributes. That long fiery hair. Her smooth, creamy skin. He ached thinking of her full breasts and rounded buttocks. He mused over how her skin flushed pink when she became aroused.
Mostly he thought of how gentle and sweet her demeanor was. Amelia was not only beautiful on the outside, but possessed a lovely personality as well. That she looked at Rajhir with fear more often than not sat badly with him. Earlier that day when she’d cried over Breft’s playfulness, it was as if his own heart would break. She made Rajhir want to gather her in his arms and shield her from all ugliness.
Rajhir knew Earth’s government held its citizens in a fear-based grip, even where healthy sexual expression was concerned. Especially where sex was concerned. His friend Dramok Ospar, Kalquor’s ambassador to the Galactic Council, had warned him of how inflexible the Earthers were about such matters. However, Amelia’s terrors were so seemingly ingrained and automatic that Rajhir wondered if the men in her past had treated her ill. There were rumors of women on that planet being little more than chattels. It was an idea that made no sense to Rajhir.
Every Kalquorian knew women were the lifebringers. They carried men into being. Anyone with sense knew such sacrifice was to be venerated and that women should be protected and cherished to the best of a man’s abilities.
Apparently, Breft’s mind dwelt on Amelia as well. He broke into Rajhir’s thoughts, saying, “Her excuse that she needs to be alone to paint is probably untrue. I think she is trying to postpone further contact with us. Must we really stay away?”
Rajhir sipped his dlas and sighed as the tension in his muscles unknotted. “Patience, my Nobek. Flencik is sure she’ll come to us on her own soon.”
Breft’s eager gaze turned to the Imdiko. “How soon?”
Flencik drank his own dlas without concern. “The damage to her arms and hands is severe. Her work aggravates the condition. The more she paints, the worse the pain becomes.”
Rajhir nodded his agreement. “She’s racing to finish that last work before she can’t paint any longer.”
“I spoke to the doctor she’s been seeing since she got here. He can’t relieve the pain when it becomes unbearable, which is every few days. She’ll come to me next time it flares up, and I will help her.” Flencik drained his glass.
Breft smiled. “That will be the perfect time to run your tests. You’ll be able to sedate her, and she’ll never experience a moment of fright.”
All three men looked towards a closed copper-colored door which hid Flencik’s examining room. The Imdiko’s air of confidence grew. “Everything’s prepared. If she’s not compatible, she’ll never know I did anything to her.” His tone went hopeful. “Still, our physiology is so similar to the Earthers that I think there’s a very good chance we can reproduce with her.”
Rajhir finished his drink in a single swallow. “If you’re right, we could soon have a Matara.”
Flencik’s smile spread over his handsome face. “You like her that much too? I’d hoped so. I want to cure her pain, including the emotional trauma she has endured.” His smile faded. “I hated to see her cry. I know it’s my natural instinct to want to care for those who have been hurt, but she really touches me, Rajhir. If we can’t have her and make her life better, I’ll never get over it.”
Breft nodded his agreement. “I have never wanted to protect anyone so badly. Promise me if she’s compatible that she will be ours, my Dramok. Let me keep her safe from all who would harm her.”
Rajhir was relieved to know his clanmates were already as devoted to the little Earther as he was. Flencik’s automatic adoration was not really a surprise. The Imdiko loved easily and almost desperately, having experienced so little of it himself in his early years.
Breft’s affections were not nearly as easily gained as his erotic ardor. Rajhir had been afraid he’d have to convince his Nobek anew. He’d half expected that the youngest member of his clan would ask to simply take Amelia back to Kalquor and let another clan have her. After all, they could attract one of the few women of their own kind if they truly wanted to. They had the rank to do so.
Amelia Ryan, I don’t know what magic it is you possess, but you have charmed us all in such a short amount of time. You’d better be compatible, because I truly feel it is your body alone among females that I want to warm my bed for the rest of my days.
To his clanmates, Rajhir said, “She does need to be taken from the situation on Earth that has made her desperately afraid of her natural needs. I had no idea life there for the women was so horrific.”
Flencik eyed him with an expression of both hope and worry. “Will you really clan her rather than one of our own, Rajhir? I didn’t think the idea of an Earther Matara held much interest for you.”
“That was before I met Amelia.” Rajhir shook his head at the suddenness of his fascination for the alien beauty. “I’m not ready to claim love for her so early on, but I have the need to try. Given what I’ve seen, I believe love would happen. Not one moment escapes that she isn’t in my thoughts.”
“It can’t be any harder to learn to live with her than it was with me,” Breft laughed.
Rajhir had to add his chuckles to his Nobek’s. “We did have some rough times early on, didn’t we?” He looked at both clanmates. “If the tests will allow it, we will make Amelia our Matara as fast as possible.”
Breft’s delighted grin was that of a predator closing in on his prey. “Whether she wants to be or not. For the good of Kalquor and for her own protection.”
Amelia’s bout of crying had finally convinced Flencik that her abduction might be a necessary evil, if only to give her a refuge from all that she feared from Earth. He raised his glass, making his oath. “By the Mother of All, let it be done.”
Chapter 4
Amelia sobbed as she huddled on her lounger.
Two days had slipped by since the clan’s visit. During that time creative inspiration reached a fever pitch, and she painted almost nonstop.
She knew the consequences of prolonged work to her injured hands. Still, inspiration’s siren song rendered her incapable of stopping. Her life depended on artistic creation just as it depended on her heart beating. Only three two-hour naps interrupted the grip of her obsessive painting.
What fatigue couldn’t stop, excruciating pain did. The night before, what felt like a lightning bolt shot from her right shoulder down to her fingertips. The agony shocked her out of the hypnotic trance of painting. Her brush fell from her hand as it hooked into a claw. Paint splattered the floor. In pain’s electri
c haze, she barely noticed.
As it almost always did, Amelia’s left arm joined the clamor in sympathy with the right. Her tortured limbs held merciful sleep at bay all night. Amelia sat on the lounger, her arms folded in her lap as if cradling a baby. She had to keep them supported; she couldn’t stand the weight of her own arms straining the damaged nerves. She cried, she wailed, she cursed the universe as her world shrunk to one of unceasing torment.
Dawn was an hour old, and still she moaned her agony to the walls. Lances of pain stabbed her from shoulders to hands. She knew her Plasian doctor’s inability to offer relief. Just as on Earth, waiting out the pain until the damaged nerves recovered from overuse was her only option.
Or did she have another choice? Flencik said he couldn’t cure her on Plasius, but he could relieve the pain. Amelia tried to remember his exact words, but the combination of pain and exhaustion kept her memory from achieving clarity. All she was sure of was his invitation to visit should she have problems.
Did she dare to go to him now? Her excuse that she needed privacy to paint had worked like a charm. She’d heard nothing from the Kalquorians in the last two days. Would they take it as an invitation to resume relations if she showed up on their doorstep?
Flencik is a doctor, Amelia reasoned. When he saw how she suffered, indulging in a sexual romp would be the last thing on his mind. Even calculating Breft couldn’t be so callous.
The promise of help beckoned, negating her distrust of the Kalquorians. The pain ratcheted up another notch, bringing her to her feet.
Amelia went to the vid and signaled for a shuttle to pick her up immediately.
* * * *
Amelia knocked on the clan’s door and cried out as the innocent action sent fresh waves of pain through her hand and arm. She hoped the Kalquorians answered; knocking again was impossible.
The door opened, and Flencik’s bulk filled the entrance. He blinked to see Amelia standing on his doorstep and then grinned with delight.
“Hello, Amelia.”
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