by Bevan Greer
And if he was smart, he’d stick to what mattered in the now. Like getting the ship fixed on Rovi and figuring out what to do with Naria. So much about her didn’t make sense, like why he was so in tune with her, so attracted to her. And that sense that something about her story didn’t ring true. “You’re not from Seven, eh? My guess is neither is she,” Koneru had said.
If not from Seven, then where did Naria come from? And more importantly, what had she been doing on Dark World?
***
Naria sat in Jace’s study and poured through his texts about the Motherworlds, reading them like a thirsting woman downing water.
These books gave an entirely different perspective on life in the System than the one she’d learned. Though the research collected on Dark World had been impressive, these texts looked to be hundreds of cycles old. And they came from different planets, offering varied interpretations of history and culture.
On Dark World, Naria had learned of the Ragil Horde and the Cazeth leading the path to true chaos throughout the System. From what she’d been told, the Horde were both heroes and unfortunate sacrifices. They’d tried but failed to conquer the System a millennium past.
In the book Naria currently perused, a supposed battle had occurred only this last cycle between the Horde and planet Bylar, now planet Fenby. Entranced, Naria devoured the passages describing how the Horde was an evil bent on death and destruction.
Closing the book after some time, Naria adjusted her thinking. To an offworlder the Horde was evil. They sought to control everyone and everything. Absolute control—a trait revered on Dark World but frowned upon in the rest of the System.
Naria knew if she was going to fit in outside of her world, she would have to start thinking and acting like an offworlder, a citizen of Seven.
She took another volume off the shelves of Jace’s vast library and began reading, intent on learning what the System thought of Seven, and the information matched what she’d learned from her studies on Fer.
Seven was named such for its seven cycles of darkness followed by its seven cycles of light. So close to Dark World and Pith, the planet served as a kind of barrier protecting the System from its darkest planet. Though Dark Worlders did not venture from their world, they knew much about the System from Seven’s dark cycles.
When the planet entered its dark phase, specially chosen members of Dark World entered the planet’s atmosphere to learn of the world around them. The leaders of her planet had no real care to conquer the rest of the System but were curious about what lived outside of Dark World.
Fortunately Seven possessed a vast store of knowledge about the Nearworlds, if not the Motherworlds. So while Naria knew a lot about the small planets around her, the Motherworlds remained a mystery waiting to be explored.
Kind of like Jace. A mystery she wanted to explore. Oh! Stop thinking about him.
How had he managed to stir her interest in so short a time? At home, creatures that lived and breathed carnality tried repeatedly to lure Naria into their world, but to no avail. Handsome and exotic, the incubi on the Arnth moon had tempted her a time or two, but not to this extent.
Jace had only to look at her a certain way and Naria grew breathless. Perhaps he possessed a raw talent akin to the incubi. That would certainly explain her attraction to him.
But he didn’t seem demonic at all. His eyes certainly proclaimed him different from the small group of aliens she’d seen. Even in pictures she’d never witnessed a man or woman with dark black eyes that could shimmer like a prism in the right light. Of course, she had yet to actually step on a planet outside Dark World, so who knew what she might find when they landed on Rovi.
Koneru had mentioned that her eyes closely resembled Jace’s. Naria had been told time and time again that she looked like her mother. Perhaps her mother and Jace had originated from the same world.
On Dark World, she’d been too occupied staying alive and out of trouble to dwell on her mother. Oh, she felt a burning curiosity every now and again, but she’d been too intent on trying to fit in to learn about her offworld mother.
Now that she’d left the planet, she would have time to learn about her mother, maybe even learn of her ancestors not of Dark World. The thought tugged at her yearning to belong. She would investigate her mother’s origins, but only after she learned to adapt to being an offworlders. After all, how hard could it be?
Her words haunted her the following day. She sat in the galley trying to make herself as small as possible under the stares of Koneru, Jace, Nesham and Castor, who had healed enough to join them for a meal.
Koneru gaped. “What, by Rovi, are you wearing?”
Naria stared down at herself, confused. After studying planet Seven’s social culture in Jace’s library the previous eve, she’d decided to dress the part. Jace had offered her some clothing she’d cut to appropriate dimensions for her size. And she’d been working on adjusting to the light of his ship, so as not to wear a makeshift eye mask anymore.
“I think it looks just fine,” Castor said with a husky laugh. His coloring looked worlds better than it had earlier, though he seemed weaker than he ought to be for a man of his size.
“Naria,” Jace growled. “This is not a pleasure ship. It’s a working vessel. Go put something else on.”
“But I wear this on Seven?” she said more as a question than a statement.
“If that’s the case, the next time I visit the planet I’ll make sure to hit the libraries first.” Castor laughed and Koneru joined him. Even Nesham offered a tentative grin, the first hint of positive expression Naria had seen on the man.
Glaring at his crew, Jace took Naria by the elbow and dragged her from the galley. With impatient strides, he stalked down the corridor and into his room.
He turned to face her and planted his hands on his hips while his gaze wandered hotly over her frame.
Naria didn’t understand all the fuss. She looked down at herself. The thin material of his modified shirt covered her shoulders and scooped down to settle over the top of her breasts, then cut down the middle in one thin strip until it grew into a slim triangle of material to cover her woman parts. She’d made sure to cut out the entire back, ending at just above her buttocks, where it wrapped around to join the short hem at her front.
“Seven is a hot planet, Jace.” According to the books she’d recently read, many women on the planet dressed thus, for pleasure, it had explained, and comfort.
“Well, this isn’t Seven. You should have more sense than to flaunt your body in front of four woman-hungry men,” he said in a cold voice. His voice sounded cool. His eyes were anything but. “What was wrong with what you were wearing when we found you?”
“It was dirty.”
He blew out a breath, his gaze lingering on her exposed navel and the pale expanse of flesh just above her breasts.“I’ve got a spare set of clothes Dare used to keep on the ship,” he muttered, his voice thick. “Wait here.” He opened a cabinet in the wall to reveal a wealth of storage she hadn’t found earlier. He rummaged through several layers of clothing and pulled out a set of dun-colored trousers and a soft green shirt.
“She’s a bit smaller than you but similar in build. Wear these.”
Naria took the garments, tensing when their hands touched. She felt his pleasure, which magnified hers.
“Are you doing this intentionally?” he asked.
She felt a hint of his discomfort and wondered at its cause. Could her Dark World talent only now be manifesting itself? How was she hurting him?
“Hel. Come here.” He pulled her up against him, and she felt something hard pressing against her thigh. She gasped as understanding dawned and stared into inky black eyes.
Before she could speak, he took command of her mouth with a ravenous kiss that unleashed a rampant hunger. His lips stole her breath while his tongue plundered and continued to take. Sensations as she’d never felt coursed through her body, making her squirm against his already hard fra
me.
He cupped her behind and ground against her front, rubbing against her. Naria groaned and sucked his tongue, causing a moan of need to pour from her captor’s mouth.
His hands moved everywhere, up her bare back, around to her stomach, and up to cup her breasts. When his fingers pinched the hardening flesh of her nipples, Naria lost her breath in a gasp and tilted her head back to give him more access to her body.
“You like that, don’t you?” he asked, his voice gritty.
Naria nodded, in a daze, as Jace lowered his mouth to nuzzle her through her thin clothing. When his mouth brushed her nipple, her body turned to liquid heat. Warmth pooled between her thighs, and she knew without a doubt Jace meant to mate with her.
Before, the thought of mating with anyone from her world had repelled her. Now her body demanded satisfaction. With Jace.
“You want this,” he stated. “With me.”
“Yes.”
She’d barely gotten the word out when he ripped her shirt clean off. He didn’t give her a chance to think before he took her nipple between his lips and sucked. Then he teethed her flesh, and she cried out at the pleasure of it.
He toyed with her before moving to her other breast, giving it the same attention. Naria could only clutch at his shoulders as his fingers slid down her stomach, circling in gentle strokes over her belly. She felt crazed, on fire, excited and nervous all at once. And then he paused just above the triangle of curls between her thighs.
She was beyond thought when he found and penetrated her slick folds.
He swallowed another cry and plunged his tongue in and out of her mouth in a wicked rhythm. She followed his movements, her body knowing what to do, even if she’d never before experienced such bliss. The foreign sensation of something inside her like that… So decadent and fulfilling—because it was Jace. Because he felt right.
He pulled his mouth away and whispered against her cheek, “Yes, Naria, it feels so good. Too good.” He shifted, and she felt that hard, insistent part of him against her thigh. “I want you, but I won’t be a slave to passion,” he insisted in a low rumble. “Not to anyone or anything.”
Expecting him to pull away, she was surprised when he kissed her again and moved his finger inside her. She had no idea how to feel, what to think, and could only listen to her body’s needs. Then he touched that sensitive bit between her legs, and she instinctively clamped around his hand.
“Stars,” he moaned and deepened the kiss, rubbing her faster and faster.
And Naria lost all control.
She clutched him to her, her eyes closed as ecstasy unlike anything she’d ever felt exploded within her. The sheer joy was everything bright and good, and so different from anything she knew. It made her tremble and gave her a strange sense of freedom.
But what about Jace? “Jace? You—”
“Shh. Easy, Naria.” A few soft curses, then he slowly extricated himself from her and put a measure of distance between them.
When he stood, she saw his unappeased arousal. “Jace?”
“Change into those clothes.” He pointed to the clothes she’d forgotten about on the bed. Then he left the room.
Naria did as he ordered, sated yet confused about what exactly had occurred between them. She’d experienced desire and passion for the first time. Jace had too. She was pretty sure. From her studies, she knew there was usually more to it, but perhaps offworlders procreated in other ways? At the thought, she froze. Had he given her a child? There was no way he could know they might be biologically compatible, thus he had to want the sex for pleasure’s sake. But he’d left looking unsatisfied.
Even she knew males had to find release to enjoy such physical exertions. Right? Or did he release in some other way?
He hadn’t left looking as pleased as she felt. With a shrug, she changed into the garments he’d left, surprisingly content at their comfort. The trousers reached her mid lower leg and the blouse clung to her bosom, but they fit well enough.
Jace returned to find her fully clothed. He also appeared much calmer, his trousers no longer bearing testimony to an aroused male. “You’re good, Naria. I’ll grant you that. Have no doubt that when the timing is right, I’ll take you the way you want me to. Until then, I advise you to keep your assets hidden behind normal clothes. Dress appropriately and keep a reign on that hunger, or so help me I’ll dump you on Rovi so fast your head will spin. And trust me when I say you don’t want to tangle with horny miners.”
Naria blinked. “Horny miners?” She had no idea what he meant. In one breath he’d said she was good, in another, he acted as though he distrusted her. “Do you doubt what transpired between us?” Hurt he might think she used wiles on him, she started to grow angry about the situation. “I am no incubus.” He’d been the one arousing her!
“An incubus? What in the five hels are you talking about?”
“You’re the one who enflamed my body. And now you’re angry with me. But I refuse to take the blame for something I did not do.”
Jace looked like he wanted to respond. Instead he clamped his mouth shut, paused, then said, “We’ll talk about this later. But let there be no confusion about this—leave my men alone. You’ll deal with me, and me only.”
“Oh, you—”
He left her steaming in his room, locked in with no place to go. A pitiful reminder he was in charge, especially after his amorous display.
Control was more than important to Jace. It was his key to survival, to regaining his place among his people. For over a decade he’d been honing his abilities to carefully structure his mind, allowing no distraction. Despite loving Dare as a sister, and sharing himself intimately with a few lovers here and there, Jace kept something of himself apart. But in just one amazing, sexual spell with Naria, he’d come undone.
The most infuriating, arousing, unsatisfying sexual experience in his life with a woman he’d guarantee had never before had an orgasm. What was wrong with him?
He’d been so consumed with Naria that he’d lost control of his mental shields for the first time since he’d left Mystique. When she’d reached her climax, her mental waves of pleasure had nearly triggered his own. Had she looked into his mind, she could have taken whatever she wanted, he’d been that far gone into her.
It had to be Naria’s fault. He’d withstood a demon lord, Meklens, the Cazeth. Two secnoids in her presence and he’d lost his objectivity, wanting nothing more than to know her better.
Unfortunately, though she seemed to be a hapless victim of Lord Demise, she was also proving to be the possible destruction of all he’d worked for since the loss of his people. Stubbornly refusing to give in to her influence, Jace knew he’d only be able to conquer his distraction by getting to the heart of the problem. Namely, by figuring out Naria’s mysteries. Maybe in so doing, he would regain not only his stalwart control, but a new ability to withstand the darkness that even now he felt creeping into his soul.
-7-
Mikhel’s hair looked limp and lifeless, and Jace wondered what the poor Fenturi had been forced to endure. For years Mikhel had lived on the fringe of Bylaran society, fighting for his people, doing his best to survive their slaughter led by a cruel king. He’d given his entire life to rebuilding his race and had finally started to live for himself, working aboard the SpaceStalker away from the pain of prejudice.
Only to land on Dark World and face even crueler torture.
Mikhel groaned, and the blanket fell off of his body. Bitemarks and gouges covered his entire body. The poor man looked like a piece of raw meat. And the Light only knew what else had been done to him.
Careful not to touch his wounds, Jace gently covered Mikhel in the blanket and left the room. He checked in on Nesham in the control room and spent the afternoon with him and Koneru plotting a new course and figuring where to go. After Rovi, then what? Time passed, and he had to order Nesham to take a break, since the stubborn Fenturi needed less sleep than the rest of them. If not working, Nesham took
no pleasure in living.
Castor popped in before also being ordered to leave, which made Jace realize Naria had been alone all day with nothing to do. He felt a measure of remorse. Just because he’d lost his mind from a few kisses didn’t mean she was a fault. Not exactly—unless she really was the enemy under the guise of a misfortuned female.
He shot Koneru an order to see to Naria, then returned to the ship, deliberately ignoring thoughts of Naria.
More time passed, and Jace manage to get everyone to take a break while he commanded the ship. A blessed hour of peace and quiet before Nesham returned.
He checked the monitors. “Holding steady, Jace.”
“Good.”
A pause, then Nesham said, “Mikhel continues to suffer.”
“I know. Dark World is about pain and torture, one that never seems to cease.” Jace sighed. “But at least we’re free of that place. I’m still not sure how you got us out, because that ghostly spirit isn’t ringing true, but”— he said to forestall Nesham’s interruption, “I’m too tired to question it right now. I’ll be in the galley if you need me.”
“I won’t need you. I have everything under control here.”
Jace believed him. Self-contained and grieving Nesham might be, but he’d never put the crew in jeopardy if he couldn’t handle things.
In the galley, Jace saw with Koneru and Castor and grabbed himself a plate of food. They spoke about life on Fenby, now that the Bylarans and Fenturi had managed huge leaps into integrating their cultures. Dark World remained an unspoken topic, though they felt free to rip into the Meklens. Time passed in welcome camaraderie, healing unseen wounds, before Castor rose unsteadily to his feet.
“Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to get cleaned up and sleep like there’s no tomorrow.” Castor walked slowly, clutching his side, and ambled out the door.
“That wound has healed.” Koneru stared after him thoughtfully. “Yet perhaps the pain of Dark World lingers deeper than skin.”