I sat straight up. “What? How can that be?”
“I do not know if Finn ever told you. His line—everyone always wondered about his origins. Selmay grew up with the E'mani. Finn's clan interacted with them more than any of the others. She fell in love with an E'mani. Until this time, no one knew who, and soon after the war began, she disappeared.”
“He told me some. So that is her. Hrm, Different than I would have imagined.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe her?”
Marin nodded and shed his jacket. “Yes, she looks exactly like I have heard. It is just unexpected. I do not have any more details for you though. We will have to wait until morning. Now it is time to rest.”
The flex of his muscles distracted me, and I stared for a second.
Marin noticed; of course he did. He smiled and slowed when he started to undo the buttons of his shirt, the bastard. Well, two could play that game.
Chapter Four
I stood up and walked to the water basin to wipe off, shedding my clothes along the way, leaving on only a light t-shirt. I dunked my towel in the cool water and arched my head back, letting the cool rag swipe down my face and neck, out across my sore arms over and over. The roughness of the cloth added a texture to my bathing that made me feel cleaner, fresher, but not more awake. The cleaner I got, the more I wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep for the next six hours. But I had other plans.
I turned to see Marin watching me bathe, just as I expected. A small grin met my gaze. “I love watching you wash. Want me to get your back?”
“Yes.”
He straightened at my answer, clearly not expecting it. He fumbled as he took the towel from my hand. I lifted my shirt up and over my body, presenting him with my naked back. He stepped up behind me close. No mirrors here to see him, but his breath warmed my neck as he stood there, causing goosebumps to spread down my arms. Close but not close enough to touch yet. He reached out a hand and soaked the cloth in water before wiping it down my back.
The cold liquid eased my sore skin and caused me to moan. He wiped each inch of my back several times before starting on my shoulders and arms. The water turned dark by the end, but I just didn't care as Marin had pressed closer until he was plastered against my back.
His hands were on my waist. I waited. He took one hand off and glided it up my belly toward my breast. The cool liquid caused my nipples to peak.
Marin took that as his cue to talk. “I love you, Elizabeth.”
I was too relaxed by the bath to be wary. “I love you too.”
“Mate with me again. I want the bond back.”
I stiffened. “We don't even know if we can form the bond again.”
“We had the bond already without the ceremony. I want the bands back so everyone knows you are mine.”
“Marin.”
“Elizabeth.”
“The world doesn't work that way.”
“The bands are needed to make the bond in others. Not in us. For us they are like the rings you told me about in your world.”
“Magic is what keeps them on.”
“You will not even let me try.”
“I lost mine.”
“I will have another made.”
“Marin.”
“Elizabeth, please?” His hands cupped my face. “I need this. I need to know we are strong in our commitment to each other. I admit it. I responded badly when you left. But I am always yours. Let me do this.”
I grasped his forearms. “After. Once the E'mani are done. We will have another big ceremony and celebrate. I can't right now. I can't celebrate us while looking for Finn. I feel responsible for what happened to him. Can you understand that? Can you wait for me to be okay with this?”
Marin rested his forehead on mine. “I just need to know it will happen. Ever since I almost lost you, I am plagued with this idea that one day I will turn around and you will be gone.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you ever again. I didn't want to come here without you in the first place, if you recall.”
He nodded and closed his eyes. “I am sorry I took it so poorly.”
“I am sorry that I had to go.”
“It is behind us now.”
“Yes, and look at what is in front of us—or you.” I opened my arms and stood back, exposed, freed, and open.
Marin opened his eyes, and I got to see the fierce glint that I so loved. This man was a warrior, mad through and through. He would fight and kill for what was his. And I was his.
A sly smile spread across his face as he leaned back and let his eyes drift down my body. “I do seem to have a feast before me.”
I rolled my eyes and lifted my hands around his shoulders. “Come to bed.”
“I need to wash too.”
“Want me to get your back?”
“No.” Huh. I blinked up at him. “I want you to wash my front.”
The smile that spread across my face made my cheeks ache. “I can do that.”
Marin ran his hand down the side of my face, that one touch letting me know how much he loved me, along with the look in his eyes. Those fierce, intelligent eyes with those little specks of color. The slit unnoticed anymore. The features still sharp but just as dear.
I ran my hands through his hair, letting my fingers sift through his waves. “I love you.”
His pupils contracted. He took in a deep breath. “The bath can wait.” He walked me backward one step at a time toward the bed.
The edge of the cot caught me at the back of my knees, and I landed on my elbows.
Marin grinned at me and ran his hand down his chest and untucked his shirt. “I love seeing you laid out like that before me.”
I considered playing hard to get, but I was as hungry for him as he was for me, more needy than tired anymore. I wriggled backward on the bed. Naked, eager.
He crawled on top of me, already hard. His lips grazed mine and my mouth opened.
The kiss was perfect. He tasted like Marin, male, mine. That hint of cherry that he chewed lingered in his mouth. I craved it almost as much as I craved him.
I moaned and pressed closer, wedging my leg between his. His hands grasped my ass as he nipped his way down my neck. My nipples pebbled as his breath neared, and he laved attention to the tips.
He lifted his head for a quick kiss. “I love you,” he murmured then continued his journey south.
Oh my.
Soon I felt his breath warming other areas and nearly screamed, squeezing my legs together when he nipped at my inner thigh. “Marin.”
He laughed and nipped again. “Open up.”
“What are you doing?”
“What do you think?”
His breath whispered along my crease, seeking entrance, and then I felt his tongue and a suck and, oh my god. My head bowed back and I saw stars. “Marin.”
But he didn’t stop. Taste after taste, lick after lick until I couldn’t hold back the moans and my reciprocal motion towards his mouth. Until the world burst with stars, better than anything I’d ever seen, more perfect. It felt like nothing I'd ever known.
“Mine.”
“Yours.”
He rose over my body with a huge grin on his face. “Did you like that, my love?”
I grabbed hold of his hair, slammed my mouth over his, then pulled back. “I more than liked it. I loved it. But I don't want your mouth. I want the rest of you. Well, at least one part of you.” I let my fingers drift over his throbbing penis to bring home my point.
Marin couldn't help his light thrust into my hand as it stroked up his shaft. “I do not think that will be hard to arrange.”
I giggled. “Hopefully, it is hard.”
“You want it to be more difficult?”
“I meant I want your penis hard.”
“Ahh. That part is never a problem.”
I grinned and settled back onto the bed as Marin pressed his chest against mine. His cock throbbed against my inner thigh. One hand
braced my head, the other slipped my leg around his waist. His hand skimmed down my thigh. “I can never get enough of you.”
“I am waiting to get more of you right now.”
Marin grinned and pressed his forehead against mine. Our gazes met, lips sliding along each other’s as the tip of his shaft teased my folds.
I attempted to squeeze him closer. Marin braced himself above me.
The tease.
“Marin.”
“Elizabeth.”
His mouth came down on mine, deeper this time. His tongue stroked along the seam of my teeth until I opened to him. His teeth nipped my lower lip when we came up for air. “Lands, do I love you.”
Tears glistened in his eyes. I held a hand to his face. “Why the tears?”
“I do not want to lose you.”
“You won't. We'll figure this out.”
His hand framed my face as he shifted onto his elbows. His body spread my legs further apart.
Kiss after kiss, stroke after stroke, until I writhed under him, mindless.
“Please, Marin.”
His smile lit up the room. “There it is. You know how much I like it when you beg.”
I growled and pulled his hair back. In response, he shifted and slammed his hips into mine, causing the tip of his shaft to enter me.
We groaned in unison. He pulled my knees up more securely and began to move inside me.
Our bodies became one, moving in unison toward the same goal. To become one with each other, our hearts, minds, and bodies. Separate but whole. He was the only one who’d ever made me feel this way. Another motion dragged a groan out of me.
“Oh yes.”
For some reason that made me giggle. Marin, my soul mate, so proper. No dirty talk for him.
Marin stopped and kissed me, staring into my eyes. “Why are you laughing now?”
“I am happy. I love you.”
He kissed me and resumed his movement. “I love you too.”
When we came it was to sparks and stars and indescribable love.
Chapter Five
An impression remained on the pillow where Marin's head had rested but no Marin. I tumbled out of bed and threw on my clothes. Leather of course, the nubby leather fetish gear the E'mani tended to favor. I strapped my knife to my hip.
My goal today was to find out more about Selmay. The rest of the Remains, prior captives of Xade and his experiments who survived, might know something. Especially Dela, the all-around emo Fost boy with fierce black eyes and a soul to match. He was a computer genius and knew the E'mani technology like the back of his hand.
I darted out the door, grabbed some fruit to nibble on during the walk, and trekked to the lab.
I'd found the Remains a few months ago. Locked in the tubes the E'mani liked to keep their experiments in, where I used to reside. They'd been close to dying. I saved them. In return, they saved me. I missed my world, my people, and well, now I had some—people anyway.
All the E'mani buildings tended to resemble each other, all made of the same stone. A building near identical to the one Marin and I had found yesterday loomed before me, the red lights almost captivating me. I ignored the color and walked in the door.
A large opalescent desk stood in the middle of the room before a hallway off to the left. Our resident computer genius manned the front desk, fingers flying. It took him a second or two to notice my entrance. His black hair hung in front of his face, obscuring his sharp eyes. It was a wonder he could type.
With a flourish, he finished whatever he was working on and greeted me. “Hello.”
“Hi. Can you do something for me?”
His brown eyes narrowed. “What is it?”
So suspicious. “I need you to pull up all the information on someone named Selmay.”
“Xade's wife?”
“You know her?”
“I know of her, we all do. He loved her. When she died, it devastated him. His tortures became much harsher after that.”
“How come I’ve never heard of her?”
“You did.”
Damn, the drugs did a number on me. “I hate that I don't remember more.”
“You will eventually, you always did.”
“Well, I need to learn more about her, anyway.”
“Why?”
“She's here.”
“What?” Dela stood up, he was so surprised. “How?”
“I'm not sure and I don't know if I trust her.”
He sat down with a plop. “She hated him almost as much as we did.”
“How do you know that?”
“She was his favorite before you. He had to fix her.”
“So, she was sick.”
Dela shrugged his shoulders. “I do not know. Here, I will send the information into another room for you to review.”
Erin walked up the hallway toward us. She wore a tailored tunic and leggings. Even wearing the traditional Fost male clothing, she still appeared as delicate as a doll with her pale blonde hair and round face and mismatched eyes. One had been removed by Xade in his tortures. “What information did you need to review?”
“About Selmay.”
“Xade's wife?”
It appeared everyone knew who she was but me. “That’s the one.”
Erin shrugged and curled up on Dela's lap. Dela smiled as if the sun came up and shone down on him directly. His arm curled along her back. The look they exchanged made me blush.
Apparently, Marin and I were like that at times. How embarrassing. I could smell the hormones from here.
“Dela.”
He grunted and ran his hand down her face. She giggled and kissed his palm. “Answer her D, then we can go for a walk.”
“Fine. Selmay, room one. Go. As for you…” Dela grabbed Erin and stood up with her in his arms, making her squeal. “Let's walk.”
It hurt to watch their lovey-dovey, so I ran to my assigned room. I still hated moving around here. Sometimes I had flashbacks and woke up curled in a corner, crying, remembering.
“Hello, Elizabeth. Time to take some tests.” Xade's eyes crinkled at the corners as he held up a scalpel.
I stumbled into the wall. No, no memories now. Focus. Selmay.
The room was the same as the one from the vision, all of them were. Blank translucent walls with depressed areas for the tubes and a center desk that rose from the floor as I entered.
A single swipe of my hand over the cool surface of the desk caused the screen to pop up, and a 3D video began playing.
* * *
A young Selmay, scarless and nearly sweet-appearing with her curly red hair cut short in a pixie, grinned over at Xade.
His arm rested along her waist. “Do you trust me, my love?”
Her eyes practically caressed his face. It was difficult to watch, knowing what he was. “Always.”
He smiled and stomped a foot. A surgical table rose from the floor, and Selmay leapt onto it.
I put my hand onto the surface, halting the image.
She loved him. I could tell. That glow that Erin and Dela had was reflected in her eyes as she looked at Xade. Could she really be a spy sent to infiltrate us?
“Watch the rest of it.”
Selmay's harsh voice split the air. I startled and turned. Having seen her before Xade's tortures, how she looked now stunned. No longer innocent, no longer soft.
“What?
“Watch it. Watch what he did to me. I cooperated at the beginning. I thought he loved me. I was wrong.”
My hand hovered over the desk.
“Watch!” she bellowed and slapped her own fist onto the surface.
The image resumed, Selmay's trusting face imposed over her new image.
Xade grasped a scalpel and placed it above her abdomen then cut. Selmay screamed and sat upright. “Wait.”
Xade backhanded her and she lay flat on the table. The next swipe of his blade woke her up screaming. Again and again.
* * *
It appeared that
even if he loved you, he cared for the sound of your screams more. Anesthesia is for wussies.
Selmay's hands curled over her abdomen while we watched together as he tortured her. Cut after cut. By the end, she begged him to stop, waking with every swipe. He refused.
In the next image Selmay appeared worse for the wear. She'd lost weight, her skin had paled, and the cute pixie haircut hung lank around her face.
Xade walked into the room, pulling her behind him. “It is time, my love.”
“It hurts.”
“That is the only way we are going to get answers.”
“Please Xade, I love you, but I cannot take any more. My body already hurts too much.” Her shoulders drooped and her gaze fell.
Xade kissed the top of her head. “We will figure this out, my love. It is the disease.”
“It is not just the disease, my love. These studies you do on me, they…” She swallowed. “They hurt.”
“Without pain, there is no progress. We will kill this disease, and then we will be perfect.”
“You are already perfect to me, Xade.”
“Yes, my love, and soon you will be too. Get on the table.”
Selmay's jaw jutted out, but she got on the table. This time he tied her down. The screams resumed.
The blood drained from my face. I couldn’t watch anymore. This was just too awful. I lowered my hand to turn it off.
Selmay's hand gripped mine. “No, all of it. You know what it was like. I want you to know exactly why you can trust me. I will kill Xade. I will do whatever is needed to make sure he and all his friends are wiped from this planet as if they never existed. There is nothing that will stop me. Time itself cannot stop me.”
I curled my fingers into a fist and watched.
The next image didn't show them walking into the room together.
Selmay sat in a corner, her body crisscrossed with scars in all stages of healing.
When Xade entered the door, she dropped her gaze and stared at the ground in front of her.
Xade paced toward her slowly. “No happy greeting, my love?”
Selmay ignored him and pressed her face against the wall. “You left me.”
“You needed the tube to heal.”
Distant Memory: She remembered everything (Solum Series Book 3) Page 3