by Mary Winter
“We’ll start tomorrow,” she said as if she were just coming to that decision. “Tomak, I’d like you to get a good foundation in meditation before the withdrawal gets too bad. Zaiden, tomorrow it will be just me and Tomak, but then I’d like for you to sit in on the sessions. If you know how the meditation works, then you can help him through the worst of it.” And I need at least a day to compose myself before I see both of you naked together.
Deliberately, she’d left that part of her practice out of the description she’d provided Zaiden. Being behind these closed doors meant the media never reported on what happened here. They barely knew who came and went, and even then, some of their reports were false. That was a good thing, because the last thing she needed was the media getting wind of Tomak’s presence here. The sooner she got him treated and through the withdrawal symptoms, the sooner she could go back to her normal life. And that would be a good thing.
Chapter Two
Tomak hated feeling off-balance, which was kind of funny considering that TriZ was played with minimal gravity. After dinner with Ioanne last night, he’d noticed tension in his lover. Zaiden hadn’t said anything, and this morning he’d rushed off to take care of business, leaving Tomak to his first meditative session. Tomak resigned himself to meditating. His agent had told him to get off the Styng because the officials were finally cracking down on illicit drug use. He didn’t need that kind of an artificial advantage anyway, so long as no one else doped up, but Tomak knew that wouldn’t be the case. There would always be athletes seeking an edge over their competition. He should know; he’d been one.
He stood in the large meditative room and stared at the pile of pillows like they were going to bite him. Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms over his chest. A moment later, Ioanne emerged from the beaded curtain. She wore a short, silk robe that barely reached her knees. When she sat down it was going to… hell, he didn’t care. He wouldn’t mind the view.
She reached for the tie on her robe.
“Hey, you don’t have to do that.” He straightened, and he felt his eyebrows disappear into his hairline.
She stopped, one slender hand curled around the thin tie of her robe. “I always meditate naked.”
Her no-nonsense words shocked him. Nudity didn’t bother him, or at least he hadn’t thought so until now. The locker room, nights of sweaty sex with groupies, even the occasional photography shoot required him to be naked, and he didn’t care. Somehow, with her, he sensed things would be different. “Well, I’m not meditating naked.”
“You must. It’s part of the practice. We must free ourselves of all physical trappings of anything that might hold us back. Only then can we give ourselves over to the mystical forces in the universe and find solace in their strength.” She pulled the tie open and took off the robe, folding it before laying it on the floor near the wall. Her economical movements revealed her lithe, muscled body. Her small, high breasts looked like he could cover one with his palm. Her bare mound enticed him -- he’d always liked smooth women -- and he wondered what she’d look like slick with desire.
She tossed a pillow onto the floor in front of her, taking a seat on a large, emerald green pillow. She crossed her legs, providing him with an intimate view of her nude body, and rested the backs of her hands on her knees.
“You can’t meditate standing up.”
“I can’t meditate naked, either.” He straightened, resisting the urge to grab the robe and cover her. Less than five minutes in her presence, and she had him twitchier than he was on drug testing days.
“Yes, you can. It’s awkward at first, but you’ll get used to it.” Her gaze dropped to the crotch of his pants. “If you’re worried about your body’s physical responses, don’t be. They’re natural.”
His hard on was the least of his worries. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to lower his arms. Deke said he had to do this. He had to do something to get clean of the Styng. There were worse things he could do than meditate naked with a beautiful woman.
He reached for the hem of his shirt, surprised when Ioanne’s eyes widened. He tugged it over his head and dropped the garment to the floor. Her eyes roamed hungrily over his naked torso. He wondered if she looked at all her clients that way. Power shifted. On the court he made it his business to know the flow of the game, to sense when his opponents might be weakening and he could take the upper hand. He toed off his boots.
“You’re sure we do this completely naked?” He let his hands drop to the waistband of his pants, gratified when her attention followed them.
She swallowed hard. “Yeah.” Her voice lost the confident edge it’d had only moments ago.
He grinned and removed his pants, making a show of it, then folding them and placing them on his shirt. From the side, he knew he presented quite the picture -- sculpted body, his cock thick and hard. Acting as if this were just another day, a stroll across the locker room to shower, he went to the pillow she offered.
He didn’t sit. Not when standing here put his cock just above her head, and he could imagine her rising onto her knees, wrapping those tiny, slender fingers around his shaft and guiding it to her mouth. In tune with his thoughts, his dick twitched.
“You don’t have to worry,” Ioanne said in a steadier voice, “I have everything professionally cleaned. If you will sit we can begin meditation.”
He nodded and eased down onto the plush pillow. Crossing his legs, he mirrored her pose. This close, he noticed the pulse fluttering at the base of her throat, the way her breasts rose and fell with her jerky breaths. If meditation was supposed to relax Ioanne, it sure wasn’t doing a good job.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Take a deep breath.” Her eyelids fluttered closed, though whether it was a part of the meditation or just so she wouldn’t have to look at him, he didn’t know. “Imagine it filling you, filling your body with air and light. Imagine that it goes down your spine, into the pillow, into the very axis of this space station. Hold it for a moment. Then exhale, sending all your stress, all your worries with it.” Back on the familiar ground of her theories, her voice grew stronger.
He did as she said, though he had a hard time just thinking about his breath. Over and over again she had him breathe until he thought he’d scream. He exhaled in a rush and shook his head. “This isn’t going to work. I can’t do this naked.” He stood and went for his clothing.
“I wouldn’t think that you’d give up so easily. It takes a while to master any new skill that you need to learn. You didn’t learn TriZ overnight. Why should meditation be any different?”
Damn, her softly spoken questions got to him. She had a point. “It’s being naked. I can’t try to meditate in the nude.” He balled his hands into fists at his sides, though he didn’t try to reach for his clothing. He wouldn’t let her call him a quitter. “Why can’t I wear shorts?”
“If you think I’m distracted by your nudity, I’m not. If you’re distracted by mine, then that’s your problem. Sit down,” Ioanne ordered.
For a waif of a woman, she sure could be bossy. Zaiden hadn’t told him that. Surely he knew. They’d lived together while growing up. Tomak still didn’t know the full details of that arrangement, and a part of him didn’t quite want to know, either. “Look I… It’s just… Hell.” Tomak sank to the pillow with a growl.
Ioanne struggled not to smile, and the fact that she might be finding humor in the situation only irked him even more. “I have dealt with politicians and others who work in sensitive jobs. I assure you that no one will know what happens here. You could meditate clothed, but the mere fact that you are wearing clothes means that you’re hiding something. The reason why my meditation works is because you don’t hide, not from yourself, and not from me. When we don’t hide, we can examine all aspects of our lives and decide what we want to change and how we’re going to go about doing that. Now, please, let’s close our eyes and begin again.”
She settled back into that matronly teaching ro
le which she’d assumed. If he thought of her like that, and not as a nubile woman, maybe he could keep his body under control. His cock hardened. Nope, that wasn’t going to work. He tried clasping his hands in his lap in an attempt to hide.
Ioanne cleared her throat. Her pointed glance hurt worse than a rap with a ruler from one of his teachers.
He mirrored her position with his hands. He breathed deeply, hoping she could see that he was trying. He closed his eyes. Didn’t help, either, because with each deep inhalation he smelled a light floral scent that had to come from her. He thought about Zaiden, what his lover might be doing. He bet Zaiden would be able to do this. Focusing on mundane things helped his arousal to fade.
Another deep breath, and he fidgeted on the pillow. The soft fabric molded to him. Somehow, he sat wrong and made a minor adjustment. Then, his elbows brushed against his ribs with each breath. He moved his arms slightly. Chin to his chest. No, chin raised up high.
“If you keep moving like that you’re never going to meditate. Open your eyes,” Ioanne said. She reached across the space separating them and took his hands. “Look at me,” she ordered.
He did. Instantly, his cock responded. She wasn’t beautiful, not in the conventional sense, but the position made her breasts sway slightly toward him, as if they enticed him with her hard nipples. He swallowed and dragged his attention back to her face.
“You’re uncomfortable with your body’s response to my nudity, aren’t you?”
He nodded. He’d seen naked women before, even fucked a few of them, and yet none had affected him like this. The soft sounds of her breathing, the rise of her chest, her bare pussy with her clit peeking at him, everything about her possessed him.
“It’s okay. Arousal is a normal part of your body’s functions. Eventually my nudity won’t bother you. Zaiden told me we don’t have much time. We have to begin now before the withdrawal symptoms kick in. I need you to put everything out of your mind.”
“Meditation alone won’t help me kick Styng,” Tomak snapped back. Damn it, this woman treated him like he didn’t know anything. Sure, he’d come to her for training, but she wasn’t cutting him any slack. Instead, she expected him to dive in headfirst like he’d been doing this all his life.
“I know.”
Her soft admission startled him. “You do? Then what do you think will help me kick it?”
“Meditation will help you clear your mind and focus. Hopefully once the cravings hit you can use meditation to keep your mind calm and get through them. I have also had clients use meditation with a strict exercise regimen as well, though I’ll admit none of them were coming off of Styng.” She stared at him, a good hard look that had him believing she could see into his soul. “Either way, first you have to learn how to meditate.”
“What about you? Did nudity bother you at first? Does my nudity bother you?” Deliberately, he pressed the backs of his hands to the tops of his thighs, allowing her to get a full view of his erection.
She concentrated on it, and he swore he saw a flash of desire cross her gaze before she shuttered her expressions from him. “I ceased to feel any sexual desire a long time ago, Tomak. My studies keep me focused and grounded. That is all I need.”
“Really? You don’t feel any desire at all? Not for me or any other man? Maybe a woman?” Looking at her, noticing her pebbled nipples and the dew glistening on her labia, he refused to believe she didn’t feel anything.
“No. Not at all. Now, take a deep breath. Close your eyes if it will help you. I want you to breathe with me.”
Oh, he wanted to do something completely different with her, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she wanted it, too. A good TriZ player knew when to force an issue and when to retreat. For now, he was falling back, letting the other players do the work. Then, he’d dive in and score.
* * *
Ioanne battled the urge to curse, to throw things, anything to wipe that smug look off of Tomak’s face. He’d come to her for training to get over his Styng addiction. He didn’t need to be throwing her carefully constructed plans out of their orbit. She wished she could blame it on his sculpted body and his too-confident attitude. The problem was, she’d helped many celebrities, several of them just as sexy as Tomak.
Sitting across from him, she had quite the view of his muscled chest, his strong arms, and his legs, perfectly sculpted from his sport. His cock rose from a nest of burnished gold curls, semi-erect and waiting. One touch, one puff of her breath over it, and she had no doubt he’d be at full mast and ready to go.
That was what bothered her. His mere presence pulled her nipples into tight beads and made her clit throb with every breath. Moisture gathered along her core and the carefully wound bonds of celibacy she’d placed upon herself started to unravel.
No! These men couldn’t do this to her. Tomak and Zaiden had no idea what had happened to her after Zaiden had left. He couldn’t fathom how far into her mother’s drunken, whorish ways she’d fallen. And, stars help her, she’d liked it! She had enjoyed not experiencing reality, of drowning in taste and sensation, only looking for when her next ride, her next fuck, would be. She’d even worked in the blowjob stalls for a time, blitzed completely out of her mind, one cock after another shoved into her mouth and down her throat. She’d taken them, fingers working between her legs as she got herself, and her clients, off.
She refused to go back to that kind of lifestyle. And Tomak tempted her to decadence. Zaiden, too, though she’d be damned before she gave in to her attraction to him. She’d wanted him, lusted after him, loved him, and he’d left. Said he was heading off to college -- schooling that he could have gotten here on the station -- and left. The next thing she knew, his face was plastered in the news feeds next to Tomak’s, and it was insinuated that the two were lovers. Apparently, he hadn’t wanted her sexually at all.
She pressed her lips together, feeling her breathing speed up from her circling thoughts. Taking slow, deep breaths, she struggled to regain her meditative trance. Across from her, Tomak seemed to be doing better. Good. He’d need that structure when his body started to rebel against the lowered levels of Styng in its system.
Zaiden hadn’t told her much about Tomak’s condition. Depending on the amounts of the drug he took, he could have a few days or as much as ten days before the symptoms hit him hard. He’d get through them. They always did. Her techniques would make it a lot more bearable.
“Can you hear me?”
Tomak nodded.
“Good. I want you to picture somewhere where you’ve always felt comfortable. This is your safe place. No one can hurt you here. Nothing can harm you. Make it real to you, so real you could touch it, smell the air, and taste food. Are you there?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice sounding as if it were very far away.
“Good. Stay here for a while.” She imagined her own place, a lush garden she’d once visited as a child with her mother. The hanging plants created little rooms where she could hide. Once her mother got drunk and Ioanne had stayed there an entire night, just her and the plants. Little birds nestled in the trees, and even now, inside the space station, she could hear the birds twitter. “Do you think you can return?”
“I can.” His affirmation strengthened her resolve to help him. Probably like most everything he did, Tomak seemed like a natural.
“Good, come back now. When you’re ready, open your eyes.” She gradually increased her awareness, feeling the soft nap of the pillow beneath her, the air from the vents moving over her bare skin. The sensations brought her back into her body, with its latent arousal pulsing deep inside. She squeezed her eyes closed and released a breath, hoping Tomak would think it was part of her regular ritual. When she opened her eyes, Tomak looked back at her.
“That was nice. I go into the zone when I play, and it’s something like what we just did, but far more intense.” He stood.
She looked away, not wanting to stare at his naked cock hovering within touching distance in front of h
er face. She stood in a single, effortless movement. “Why don’t we take a break? When we come back, I’ll show you some more skills you can use.” She crossed the space between them and laid her hand on his arm. “It won’t be easy, but we can make this work. You won’t be disappointed.”
“No, I won’t be.” He stepped forward once, twice, until her back was against the wall. Bracing his hand next to her head, Tomak leaned in.
Ioanne’s eyelids fluttered closed. She drew a deep breath, filling her lungs with his scent, a woodsy cologne that reminded her of her safe place and things she could do in a secluded alcove. Her breath caught in her lungs. Heat radiated from him.
He was going to kiss her.
Her toes curled just thinking about his firm lips against hers. She yearned for it, swaying a bit toward him as if to taste a forbidden fruit.
Tomak brushed his lips across hers. A gentle touch, the merest hint of a kiss, and then he came back for more. His free hand slid into her short hair, using it to pull her in closer, and she sighed at the contact. He stroked her lower lip with his tongue.
Her body awakened. Each breath rasped her nipples against his chest. Her fingers trailed over his arm to the nape of his neck, clinging to him as if he were her lifeline. And in this, he was. Heat centered low in her core, a flame that had been building since Tomak had walked into her meditation room. It licked along her veins, made her clit throb and her limbs heavy. She gasped at the sheer sensation. Tomak slid his tongue into her mouth, a tentative touch that had her yearning for more.
Dear stars, this was why she’d turned to such things after Zaiden had left her. The bliss traveling the length of her body grounded her in the moment. Right now, that was all she cared about -- the way his tongue stroked hers, the way his fingers tightened, one hand sliding the length of her spine to cup her buttocks and lift her into him. His erection pressed against her stomach. She whimpered and rocked her hips against him.