by Brey Willows
“It won’t stand up to this kind of wind. We need to find somewhere the wind is buffered, and then it will hold!” Jessa grabbed on to a branch to steady herself.
Asol turned and led the way, and she kept darting out to touch trees, but Jessa couldn’t see what she was doing through the tears streaming down her face.
And then suddenly the screaming wind dampened to a high whistle, and Jessa nearly fell over from not having to push against it to stay standing anymore. She wiped the water from her eyes and looked around. It was a shallow cave entrance in a tall cliff surrounded by high, wide trees. That was all they needed.
Jessa dropped her bag and pulled the domicile unit from it. She’d forgotten she even had it, as they hadn’t needed it since before Thalla, which felt like it had been years, not days, ago. She punched in the code and stepped back so it could unfold.
“Damn. I heard about these, but I’ve never seen one.” Asol looked confounded as it whirred and clicked and air pumped into the frame. Once it was up, she jumped forward and pushed open the door.
Jessa and Kylin smiled at each other and picked up the bags. They followed Asol inside and Jessa put her bag down beside one of the sleeping pods. Kylin set her bag down just inside the door and put Asol’s beside the other pod. Trust Kylin to be the one to offer to sleep on the floor. Sadly, there wouldn’t be any offering to share, as the pods were only made to fit one body each.
“Hairy prowler balls,” Asol said, running her hand over the pods and walls. “Wouldn’t it be something to have this kind of tech on Indemnion?”
Kylin nodded but didn’t say anything. She took off her wet shirt and draped it over the end of a pod. When she caught Jessa staring she grinned and winked.
Two could play at that game. Jessa took off the top she’d borrowed from Asol, which left her in only her compression tank, which she’d pulled from her uniform to give her some support. She wasn’t big breasted, but big enough to feel self-conscious without something tight around her. She’d always loved the way the uniform hugged her and felt like a suit of armor from the dark ages. Though theirs appeared to be more bulky.
The yellow rings in Kylin’s eyes darkened the way they had when she’d first seen Jessa in the slave outfit, and she felt her nipples tighten under Kylin’s gaze.
Asol cleared her throat. “I’ll sleep in the cave. That way if you burn down this lovely contraption with your unbridled lust, I won’t be in it.”
Kylin laughed, the spell broken, kicked off her boots, and threw a wet sock at Asol, who batted it away. “I think you’re safe, prowler monkey.”
Jessa could breathe again, and she dug through her bag to find warm, dry clothes. Surprised, she pulled out the soft white outfit Sherta had let her borrow in Thalla. She looked up at Kylin.
“She wanted you to have something to remind you of them. I didn’t mention it on the ship, because it’s not really the kind of thing you wear when you’re trying to avoid capture. I slipped it into your bag before we left Volare.” She grinned. “And you looked adorable in Asol’s clothes.”
Adorable wasn’t exactly the description she was looking for, but it managed to dampen her desire. “That was incredibly kind of her. I think the material is safe in here, and we can dry our clothes while we wait for the storm to pass.”
Kylin, too, took out the outfit she’d worn in Thalla, and Asol changed into another set of comfortable looking dock clothes. Jessa took all the wet items and opened the drying unit. She tucked them in, set it going, and turned around to find them both watching her. “What?”
Kylin shook her head and Asol laughed. “You’re so used to these things you don’t realize what life is without them. We don’t have drying units here.”
Jessa flushed. The reminders of the way she’d lived as opposed to the way the people here lived were constant, and increasingly unwelcome. She didn’t want to be an outsider. She didn’t want to be seen as…as…prosperous. Or whatever the right word was. For the first time in her life, she wanted to be like the very grounded, very real people around her. It was disturbing, and she had no idea what to do with it. So she ignored it and turned to the bags. “If we have any food, I can heat it in the food receptacle. It’s not as nice as cooking it regularly, but I can’t imagine we’d get a fire going in this wind.”
Thankfully, they let the issue drop. Asol dug in one of the bags and handed her a heavy leather pouch. “We had to leave most of the stuff in the boat, but I managed to grab one bag. I can go back for water later.” She looked around the unit. “If I have to?”
“The unit has an aquafier. If there’s water in the atmosphere, it will take it in, cleanse it, and make it drinkable. It comes out there.” She pointed to a small rubber tap on the far wall, over a small, functional sink. It was hardly opulence, but she knew just thinking that was what made Kylin say their worlds were too different.
She turned on the aquafier and the others chose food. The air was tense, and she missed the easy camaraderie they’d been sharing. The wind whistled across the cave opening, the sound of trees cracking and rain slashing against the cliff echoing outside the unit, muffled but still audible. They ate in silence, and Jessa wondered what the other two were thinking. She didn’t ask, of course. She had some boundaries left.
“I’ll take the floor,” Kylin said. “You’ve got to experience what it’s like to sleep on a cloud.” She spread a blanket on the floor and used her bag as a pillow.
“No arguments here.” Asol hoisted herself onto the bed and lay back, but when the capsule began to close over her, she sat up and banged her head on the cover. It stopped automatically. “It closes you in?” Her eyes were wide, her breathing fast.
Jessa got out of her own capsule and put her hand on Asol’s shoulder. “It does, but that’s just to keep out noise. It regulates your air so you’re breathing well. It’s particularly good for beings who need different levels of gases.”
Asol slowly lay back, though she still looked suspicious.
“It doesn’t lock. All you have to do is say open and it will. Or just push it, and it will swing up automatically. You’re not locked in. Just protected.”
She kept her eyes on Asol’s as the cover closed over her. “Try it. Tell it to open.”
Asol’s voice was higher pitched than usual when she said, “Open.” When it did, she seemed to breathe easier.
“Okay?” Jessa smiled but knew deep down that Asol’s fear of being closed in came from a place far less comfortable than a sleeping pod.
“Okay.”
She returned to her pod and returned Kylin’s gentle smile before lying down herself. She didn’t know whether it was the salty air, the fright from the storm, or the exhausting emotions running through her that she didn’t know what to do with, but she was utterly spent. Still, even after she’d closed her eyes and hit the button to turn out the dome light, sleeping without Kylin by her side felt strange and lonely.
* * *
Jessa woke disoriented and breathing hard. Running. She’d been running from someone, something. And she knew if she could just reach the end of the road, get to that house, she’d be safe. She squinted against the dark and saw that the small exit light had been triggered by the door. Kylin’s dark silhouette wasn’t there. Jessa pushed up the cover, slipped on her boots, and dragged the blanket off the bed to wrap it around her. She slipped from the unit and found Kylin sitting outside the cave on a fallen tree.
“Everything okay?” she asked softly, not wanting to startle her.
Kylin turned toward her, and the look in her eyes made her catch her breath. Kylin stood, dropping the blanket she’d wrapped around her, and moved to Jessa. Slowly, so very slowly, she slid the blanket from Jessa’s shoulders and then leaned down to kiss the exposed flesh between her neck and shoulder.
“I want you.” Kylin’s voice was husky. “I shouldn’t, and cosmos be dammed, you should walk away.” She kissed her way up Jessa’s neck. “But lying there thinking about you, about the wa
y you feel in my arms, how sexy you are…” She tugged Jessa’s hair back to expose her throat. “I need to feel you under me, and when you go, I’ll have that memory to keep me going.”
Jessa moaned and pushed her body against Kylin’s, and it was all the response Kylin needed.
She pulled Jessa to the log she’d been sitting on, quickly spread the blanket over it, and pulled Jessa down beside her. The kiss made Jessa think she’d never been kissed before, never by someone who wanted her with a ferocity she could taste, that she could feel burning her skin, that made her ache for more.
Kylin’s hands were warm, rough, and gentle, even as they tugged Jessa’s white robe off.
Lying there, naked to the sky, Jessa trembled under Kylin’s intensity. She stroked Jessa’s skin from her shoulder to her calf, making her shiver in the cool night air.
“You’re so painfully beautiful. It makes me want to take you, possess you.” She lowered her head and took one of Jessa’s nipples in her mouth, sucking on it while she pinched and pulled at the other.
Jessa arched, cried out. She pushed her breasts to Kylin, wanting to be possessed the way Kylin wanted to possess her. She wanted to be taken by someone who couldn’t get enough. Whatever the emotional fallout, she wouldn’t ask her to stop. It would be worth it.
Kylin switched nipples, and Jessa felt herself grow wetter. She pressed her throbbing clit to Kylin’s leg and cried out when Kylin pushed back. “Please. God, Kylin, please. I need you.”
Kylin’s hand left her breast and moved down her stomach until she reached between her legs and cupped her firmly, making Jessa buck. “Tell me you want me, Jess.” She bit at Jessa’s neck, at her shoulder. “Tell me you want me inside you, to take you.”
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. All she could do was feel. The hard length of Kylin’s solid body against hers, the way Kylin’s hand held her, cupped her, made her want to beg. The way the air felt against her skin, the way the soft blanket kept her from the hard log beneath her. Like Kylin. Soft, hard. Perfect.
“Please.” She gasped when Kylin sucked on her nipple again. “Please take me. Please make me yours.”
Kylin’s intake of breath was quickly covered by Jessa’s cry of pleasure as Kylin pushed her fingers into her, filling her. She took her deep and hard, twisting her fingers just right, her thumb stroking Jessa’s clit until she was at the brink, only to pull away as she took her deep and hard again. She kissed her with fury, her tongue plunging into Jessa’s mouth, claiming her as she finally let her fall over the edge, her orgasm crashing through her like the waves pounding the shore of the island.
And then, before Jessa could begin thinking about what it meant, about how it would affect them, Kylin took her again. Still deep, but slower. Kylin pressed her forehead to Jessa’s as she kept the steady rhythm that made Jessa want to beg her not to stop, to take her this way forever. Her hand was wrapped in Jessa’s hair, and her mouth trailed sweet, hot kisses over Jessa’s skin, always returning to her mouth. She murmured how beautiful Jessa was, how she’d needed to feel her here, under her. Be inside her.
She pushed deeper. “Come for me, Jess,” she whispered. She pressed the heel of her palm against Jessa’s clit.
Jessa dug her fingers into Kylin’s back as her body pushed into the orgasm that was no less powerful than the last. She bit down on Kylin’s shoulder, and the way she groaned made Jessa push against the fingers inside her, and they started all over again.
When she reached between them and slipped her own fingers over Kylin’s clit, she moaned at the wetness she found. Kylin pressed down, trapping her hand between their bodies and ground against Jessa’s fingers until she came with a gasping cry, her head thrown back, the shadows of the moving trees sliding over her face, making her look ethereal, ghostly. Stunning.
She collapsed on top of Jessa and wrapped her arms around her. Slowly she became aware of the discomfort of the hard tree beneath her, made more so by Kylin’s weight on top of her. “Can we move to the ground?” she murmured.
Kylin gingerly moved off her and grabbed the blanket Jessa had come out in. She laid it on the grass and held out her hand.
Jessa, extremely aware of her nakedness when Kylin was still dressed, moved quickly to the blanket. Kylin took the one from the log and covered her with it, then crawled under it and lay down beside her. She rested on one elbow and stroked Jessa’s stomach. “You okay?”
Jessa shook her head. “Okay isn’t the word.” She pressed her face into Kylin’s caress. “Euphoric, perhaps.”
Kylin grinned. “Me too.”
“Can I ask what changed your mind?” Jessa turned onto her side and pillowed her head on her arm. In the darkness she couldn’t fully see Kylin’s expression, but she had a feeling it was okay to ask.
“Like I said, I was lying there thinking about you. It’s crazy, but it’s become hard to sleep without you by my side. And then I started thinking about your body, and the way you look at me like you could eat me alive.” She laughed when Jessa giggled. “And then I thought about how you see life here, and how chaotic it seems to you.”
Jessa started to protest, to explain, but Kylin stopped her.
“I can see why you’d see it that way. There’s a lot of truth to it. And my life is unstable and out of control, but that’s really nothing new. And then I thought of how long it might be until you’re able to get a transport from the Heathers, and how it would be stupid to waste any second I have with you thinking about how much it will hurt when you go, when I could be enjoying the sounds you make when I’m inside you.” She kissed Jessa’s palm, lightly scraping her teeth over it and making Jessa shiver. “And it’s honest. We both know what’s going on, and because of that, I can handle it.”
Jessa closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of Kylin’s caress on her naked skin, and she thought about her words. “May I ask something else? Something you don’t have to answer?”
Kylin’s hand stopped moving. “My father always said never ask a question you’re not certain you want the answer to. Because once you have an answer you have to deal with it. Whatever it is, are you sure you want to know?”
That was an interesting question, and it made her wonder just how much there still was about Kylin she didn’t know. “Where I’m from, direct answers are part of day-to-day life. Emotions aren’t part of things. So, yes, I’d like to know.” When she felt Kylin begin to pull away, she grabbed her hand. “Not because I’m not being emotional. But because I want to know all I can about you.”
Kylin sighed and shifted so she could lie back and pull Jessa to her. Jessa laid her head on Kylin’s chest. “Go ahead.”
“You’ve mentioned someone who hurt you. And when I mentioned where I was from, I thought you might leave me behind. Will you tell me about it?”
Kylin was silent for so long Jessa wondered if she had fallen asleep. When she was about to raise her head to check, Kylin gently pressed her head back down.
“It wasn’t long after I got back from Volare. My father had been gone, scrounging, for as long as I’d been away, so he didn’t even know I was gone. Being with Fina had taught me that I could love, and she’d softened me a little. I started fixing things, helping people rebuild houses, stuff like that. I became a go-to person when people needed things done. One day someone knocked on the door, and that was when I met her. A beautiful woman from Orwellian had just come to Quasi. She was there doing research for some educational thing, and she’d heard I was one of the few people in Quasi who had traveled some of the world. We got to talking and spending a lot of time together.”
Jessa could hear the pain in Kylin’s voice, the memories like ghosts rising with the dawn.
“We became lovers, and I thought she really loved me. We made plans, and we were even going to buy a place out in the Fesi District. She didn’t seem to mind that I often came home dirty and tired. She was usually wrapped up in her writing, but when I had time off, we would go out to the Grasslands or to the
sea.”
She went silent again, and Jessa snuggled closer to her, glad when Kylin pulled her close.
“And then one day a transport arrived at the Heathers. It’s always big news, and she wanted to go see it, so I arranged for a flyer to take us to the Heathers. It cost a chunk of my savings, but it was worth it if it made her happy. She brought her books and things, but she often did when we went anywhere, so I didn’t think anything of it. When we got there, it was crowded and crazy, the way it always was. When she saw how nice the Heathers is compared to Quasi, I think she felt…I don’t know. Betrayed, maybe? Like she’d gotten the prowler crap end of the stick.”
“But surely she arrived at the Heathers, right?” Jessa asked. “If she came here in the usual way?”
“That’s what I thought. But it turned out she’d come in at night and some unscrupulous guide waiting at the docking station said he’d take her to the main city. She never saw it in the light of day.”
Orwellians weren’t known for their forgiving natures. The ones Jessa had come across were usually distant and always looking toward the future.
“Anyway, we met a group of people who were vacationing at the Heathers, and one of them knew her from some educational place. They started talking, and they invited her to their place at the Heathers.” Kylin’s laugh lacked any humor. “When I started to walk with them, it was like I was something to scrape off their shoes. They explained that it was an exclusive place, and people like me weren’t allowed in.”
Jessa raised her head and looked at Kylin in horror. “That’s horrendous. And she let them talk to you that way?”
Kylin brushed hair away from Jessa’s eyes. “Not only that, she went with them, and then the following week she comm’d me to say she was leaving, because the woman from Othrys was the kind of woman she should be with. Apparently, the woman from Othrys had explained that she needed someone intellectually stimulating, someone who could answer her every question and give her the future she deserved. She believed it, and I never saw her again. The transport left the following week.”