by Lace, Lisa
Jakk turned red.
“I was just doing my job, Dar.”
“I know. And I want Gerlon to know it. If there’s anyone who deserves to have everything they want, it’s you, Jakk.”
He nodded.
“It was mostly Elara, though,” he said.
I gave him a look.
“And if that wasn’t the most amazing piece of piloting work I’ve ever seen, The Three can take me to their big balcony in the sky,” I said, spreading my arms and turning my face to the ceiling.
“It wasn’t that great,” he said. But he was smiling a little.
“Maintaining your position while nearly being pulled into a black hole? That’s pretty great. But okay. We’ll say it was mostly Elara. She’s pretty smart for a human,” I said, then looked around to make sure Kenna or any of the other humans weren’t around to hear me. He laughed. The Susohnnan like to joke amongst themselves about their mental superiority. I hadn’t quite kicked the habit, yet.
“She’s pretty smart for a Susohnnan, Dar,” Jakk said, seriously. “She’s so smart, in fact, that she scares me a little. You should see some of the other stuff she’s figured out. The wormhole and the squid are just the icing on the cake.”
I eyed him. I hadn’t known his wife very well, but I knew that she had been prettier than she was anything else.
“You seem quite impressed with her,” I said.
“She’s one of the most valuable crew members I’ve got.”
“And she’s pretty.”
Jakk’s head whipped around.
“So? She can be pretty and smart.”
“Just saying.”
“I hadn’t really noticed,” Jakk said staring out the view screen at the stars. “She’s quiet, just working on her equations most of the time.”
“Kenna thinks she’s lonesome, being the only human on a starship full of Susohnnan.”
He looked surprised.
“Lonely? Nah, she’s a tough one. She holds herself apart from us. Like she’s better than us. She doesn’t want company.”
I looked at Jakk like he was nuts.
“Jakk, I thought you were smarter than that. What descendant of The Great Race doesn’t want company? There’s no one who truly wants to be alone. Come on. How would you feel if you were the only Susohnnan on a ship full of humans, with their weird references to God and strange food.”
He frowned.
“You never thought of it from that perspective before, did you? Maybe you should try to include her in whatever social things are happening on the ship. She might feel like an outsider and that’s why she seems aloof. She’s got her pride, she’s not going to invite herself to a party, right?”
“No, she seems very independent.”
“There you go. Mark my words. There’s more to Elara Aritza than you can imagine.”
Jakk looked at me pensively, considering my words. “You think we’ve been excluding her?”
“Have you been including her?”
“No.”
“There you go,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “But now that you know, you can correct your mistake.”
He nodded, still thinking about Elara.
“I’ve got to go find Kenna, Jakk. It’s good to see you again,” I said forgetting about our plan to get drunk in my haste to get back to my female.
He smiled wryly.
“Yeah, go give your sheeranla a kiss for me.”
“I’ll give her one for me,” I said, pausing in the doorway. “Go find your own sheeranla.”
He shook his head.
“I’m happy for you, Dar, but I’m not sure there’s any such thing for me. Once bitten, twice shy.”
“Just because you don’t believe in gravity, does that mean that you can walk off a building without dying?” I said. “You have a sheeranla, Jakk. You just have to find her.”
I turned and walked out of the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
*
Where was my sheeranla? I had unfinished business with Kenna and I wasn’t going to wait any longer. I popped into the library, but she wasn’t there anymore. The cafeteria was empty by this time of night.
She must have gone back to her quarters.
When I got to her door, I realized that my retina was not keyed to her lock anymore. My shoulders slumped. By now, she was probably sleeping anyway. I would have to wait until morning.
Never mind that I missed her already. Never mind that we had lost time to make up for. Never mind that my body was humming, just wanting to hold her close and never let her go.
I felt a pang of loneliness and sadness that she would lock me out, but I chided myself for being a fool.
I crossed the hall and scanned my retina in. As the door slid open, I walked through. It slid shut and I locked it out of habit. I went straight into my bedroom and pulled off my shirt. I looked at my chest in the mirror. Still well-defined. My six-pack was looking good. Any more slacking off, though, and I would start to go to fat.
I changed into a pair of loose fitting pajama pants. With the head on Susohn, our custom is to sleep naked all year around. But Kenna had given me a pair of pajamas, and I put them on to comfort myself. They made me feel like she was with me. I left my shirt off because the ship was quite stuffy.
Feeling dejected, I shuffled over to my bed and threw myself down face first. I gave a big sigh and resigned myself to a restless night. But it had been such an eventful day that in spite of my heavy heart, I fell instantly asleep, dreaming of holding Kenna in my arms.
KENNA
Once Elara and Jakk left the library, I took my book and headed back to my room. I was exhausted. Reading calmed me but also left me feeling very sleepy. I sat on the couch and tried to stay awake. Dar had said he would come by after he talked with Jakk and I wanted to be ready.
I wanted to hold on to him and never let him go. I was afraid to go to sleep because I was worried that when I woke up, he would be gone again.
I changed into my pajamas and sat on the couch. My mind was filled with a million thoughts about everything that had happened. I still felt wound up but my eyes started drooping. My head jarred and I sat up with a start. Had I been sleeping? I let my head rest on the arm of the couch. Dar would wake me when he knocked.
It felt like only a few minutes had passed, but I opened my eyes and saw that the lights in my quarters had dimmed. Shit. What time was it? I glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly three in the morning. Why hadn’t Dar knocked? Maybe he had and I hadn’t answered. Damn.
My heart longed to touch him. I needed to be near him. I crept out of my room and down the hall. When I got to his door and found it locked, I thanked The Three, God, and Dar’s mother — whoever had been responsible for making sure his lock was keyed to my retina. Dar’s mother said that I might need access to his room if anything happened because of his memory loss, bless her heart.
I scanned my retina and tiptoed into his quarters, closing and locking the door behind me. I looked around. The room was dim. He was in the bedroom, sleeping, I hoped. The door was open and I crept in.
I stopped and watched him for a moment. He was lying on his stomach wearing his pajama bottoms. Only half his legs were covered by the blankets. I smiled. The pajama bottoms were a concession to me, I knew. He didn’t like wearing them.
They didn’t wear anything at night on Susohn. Everyone slept naked because of the heat. It had seemed scandalous when Dar had first explained the custom to me…even more than when I first saw their clothes with most of the pieces missing from them.
I wondered if he had hoped to sleep with me tonight and that was why he was wearing the pajamas. My heart fluttered. I loved this guy so much. I couldn’t wait any longer. I pulled off my shirt, leaving my top bare, but kept my bottoms on like him. I wanted to be skin to skin. I wasn’t thinking about sex. Not much, anyway.
I slipped in next to him and drew the covers up over both of us. Then I snuggled in and inhaled deeply.
He smelled delicious, somehow always managing to emit the scent of the desert and the fresh smell of the oasis at the same time.
Then I pressed my body into his. He was hot. And all those muscles were hard. I sighed and relaxed into him. This was what had been missing all the time his memory was gone. I needed to be next to him and touch him. Without that, I didn’t feel grounded.
He turned on his side in his sleep and draped his arm over my torso, pulling me tight against him. I drew in a deep breath and let it out, closing my eyes. Now that I was here with him, I could finally rest.
DAR
I was dreaming about Kenna.
She was in my bed next to me and pressing her soft body up to mine. Her arms were around me and she was rubbing her hips against me.
She pulled me close and kissed me deeply. Wait, this felt real. I opened my eyes to the blackness of my room. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel a hot, soft, moaning body next to mine. I would know that body anywhere. Even when I was without my mind, I still felt like myself when I was in her arms. I pulled back.
“Kenna? What are you doing here? How did you get in?” I said, feeling both happy and surprised. I hadn’t expected to see her until morning.
She was panting a little.
“I would think it would be obvious what I’m doing here,” she said, cupping the bulge that was quickly growing in my pants. “Your mother thought I should have my retina keyed to your lock, the sweet lady.”
I didn’t laugh.
“By The Three, woman, where were you tonight?” I felt my heart break a little and I was ashamed to tell her but I couldn’t seem to hold back. “I thought you didn’t want me.”
I dropped my head, feeling foolish and sorry for myself.
“Oh, babe,” she said, pulling me closer and holding me. “I fell asleep. I thought you’d wake me up. I wanted you. You don’t know what it’s been like, Dar.”
Her voice broke and it was my turn to hold her close.
“I missed you so much.” She went on. “But it was so weird because you were here physically, but it wasn’t you.”
I sighed.
“My sweet sheeranla,” I said, smoothing her hair. “It’s been a terrible time. Let’s forget about it for awhile. I’m dying to remind myself what it’s like to make love to you.”
Like that, my heart was thumping in my chest and my blood was racing.
“I want to be as close to you as I can get,” I whispered in her ear and she shivered. “Until we are so lost in each other that we can’t tell where the one of us leaves off and the other begins.”
Her hips bucked against me.
“Yes,” she breathed and I knew that if I touched her she would be wet and slippery. But I had her entire body to explore before I got to that. A true Susohnnan male always made sure his sheeranla came first — at least once, sometimes more — before he got anywhere near her secret parts with his manhood.
And I was nothing if not a true Susohnnan male now.
I ran my hand gently along her face.
“You know what I wondered when I kissed you back on Earth?”
“What?” she said on a sigh, as I continued to trace down her neck — realizing when I got to her shoulder that she wasn’t wearing any shirt. I drew my breath in sharply. She came prepared, my Kenna. Distracted by the smooth skin of her arm as I ran my fingertips lightly down to the palm of her hand and traced a circle there, I forgot what I was talking about.
“Well, what did you think?” she said and I heard laughter in her voice. She knew that I was losing blood from my brain because it was flowing elsewhere.
“I wondered what it had been like to make love to you. I thought we must have burned up the sheets.”
“Really?” she said.
“Mm, hm,” I said, my hand flowing back up her arm and down her torso, barely brushing the round curve of her full breast. Oh lord, I had missed this.
I needed her desperately, but I focused on her pleasure. She was all that mattered right now. When I got to her hips and wanted to run my palm over her scar, I was frustrated to find her pajama pants still covering her.
“Too many clothes,” I said, scooting down, pulling her pants and panties off and tossing them across the room.
She rolled onto her back. Now those plump, juicy mounds were too much temptation. I brushed my hand lightly against one nipple just to hear her gasp. Then I licked the other one and blew on it. Her breathing was coming in fits and starts as her arousal increased.
Finally, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I needed to taste her sweet flesh and I sucked a nipple into my mouth. She moaned and arched her back. She was perfection. She tasted like a female should and I moved over to the other side. She pushed her chest up towards me, urging me to take her deep. And I did, suckling her and nipping her hard bud until she wriggled beneath me needing more.
“Kenna,” I said in my language. “You’re perfect. You’re so perfect. I love your breasts, your ass, your hot wet sheath. I can’t wait to bury myself deep inside you and make you come so hard you scream.”
“Oh, that’s sexy. What are you saying?” she said breathlessly. “You’re reciting the alphabet, aren’t you?”
I chuckled but I didn’t answer, unable to translate at the moment with my lips around her nipple.
I slid my hand down the skin of one of her creamy thighs, lightly brushing the triangle of curls between her legs.
So perfect. A triangle. As if The Three had designed females in their likeness to honor these bearers of life. And I wondered briefly if Kenna would bear a child someday in the future. I knew that triangle had pointed the way to bliss more times than I could count, but none more than Kenna’s did, right at this moment.
“Dar,” she said my name like a prayer. “Dar, please.”
I loved when she begged like that, almost incoherent with need. She was not sure what she needed, but sure that I could give it to her.
I never felt more like a male than when she begged me to make love to her. I plunged my finger into her. She was more wet than I had ever felt her before — and slippery. She was like silk and I couldn’t get enough of rubbing up and down her soft petals. I needed to put something else in there. Something she would enjoy even more than my fingers.
“Dar!” She sounded wild but I had at least one orgasm in store for her before I joined our bodies as one.
KENNA
He was driving me mad. After all the weeks of being pent up with wanting him, I needed him to take me hard, fast, and soon. But no, he was going slow. He was being thorough.
And he was going to drive me insane.
“Dar,” I said again more urgently.
He didn’t answer me, only slid down my body until he lay between my legs.
“Relax, Kenna.”
I swallowed hard and let my legs fall outward. He reached his hands underneath me and cupped one of my round buttocks in each hand.
“Perfect,” he said again.
Then his head dipped down and I felt his tongue barely touch my clit. It was enough to send shock waves through my entire body and make my hips arch up towards him. He chuckled, knowing his power.
He licked up my entire slit, making me shiver and moan. He knew how to pleasure me. Soon I felt waves of heat rolling over me and a sheen of sweat appeared all over my body.
“Hot,” I murmured. “So hot.”
He popped his head up for a moment to look at me, as I lay with my legs spread exposed and open to him — my body an instrument that he was an expert at playing.
“You’ll be hotter soon, sheeranla.”
I loved it when he called me that.
His tongue slid right into my tight depths and he thrust it in and out while his hand flicked my clit. A moment later, I couldn’t hold back anymore and I came — fisting my hands in his hair and moaning his name.
“Again,” he said, as he moved up and kissed my scar.
“Do you want me, Kenna?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.
” And I still did, even though my first orgasm was still shaking my body. He positioned himself so that his cock was pressing at my entrance. My body was still spasming and convulsing, the waves of bliss hitting me over and over.
He didn’t wait for me to finish and pressed his way inside me. We both groaned at the sensations. It had been so very long. He filled me up completely and I lay there as my body shook, enjoying the feeling of having him so close.
Soon he was thrusting into me and I felt the heat start to build again. Abruptly he pulled out and flipped me on to my stomach. He pulled my hips up so I was kneeling and I felt him line up to my tender flesh and sink deep inside again.
“Yes,” I groaned.
His hand came around and played with my hard little nub that was still sensitive from the first orgasm. But in a minute, the passion grew and the feeling of him pounding into me from behind along with his hand stimulating my clit was too much and I came again.
As soon as he felt me go, he pulled out and rolled me on to my back again, thrusting back in and barely skipping a beat. The walls of my sex squeezed and contracted around him as my climax ripped through me.
He bent his head and sucked on one of my breasts. I moaned, unable to believe that my body was still able to respond after two orgasms. What had he told me once?
My body was capable of far more than I knew, if I would just let go.
He was pounding into me, looking for his own release but the angle he was hitting as he drove into me again and again was stimulating all the right places. Every slam of his pelvis into mine electrified my clit over and over.
I let go of all rational thought. I let go of what was possible for my body. I let go of everything and just trusted Dar. Because I loved him. I loved him so much my heart ached. I loved him so much.
As we gazed into each other’s eyes, my third orgasm exploded inside me, the most powerful of them all, by The Three.
I screamed and it seemed like I couldn’t stop coming. My body shuddered and the ecstasy rolled over me. Dar stiffened and pressed his hips hard against me as I writhed in pleasure under him. Then he completely collapsed.
My breath was coming short, he was so heavy, but I loved the feeling of his weight on me.