“Do you?”
“Mmm,” Elise murmured, stroking her hands down his belly and trying to dig beneath his loincloth.
He held her and stepped away, just out of her reach, studying her for several moments as if trying to make up his mind about something. “You will be my lioness?”
“Yes. Anything. Right now.”
Ja-rael looked at the bunk, then glanced down at her again, struggling with the urge to move toward it and give in to the desire she was feeding in him. “You will be my mate?”
“Yes! Right now!” Elise gasped. “The bed, the floor--Ja-rael! Please. I need you.”
“My ship?”
That question penetrated the heated fog of her brain. “Ship? Ok. The ship. But first here.”
“No.”
It took Elise several moments for that word to translate in her brain. She looked at him beseechingly. “But--I need it,” she said plaintively.
He looked torn for several moments. Finally, he pulled her tightly against him, enfolding her in his arms. Elise stiffened at the unexpected gesture, but then relaxed against him as she felt his heat and scent permeate her body, weaving itself along every nerve ending, soothing the need and at the same time feeding the fire.
“I desire you, my beautiful Leez … so much I am almost ill with it, but I need more. I need a companion. I want my own cubs.” He hesitated for many moments. “… and I do not think you can give that to me. We are much the same, but very different also, maybe too different.”
His sense of despair invaded the heated glow that enveloped her and Elise stroked his back soothingly. “But--this is good. This is very good,” she pointed out.
He pulled away to look down at her. When he did, Elise went up on her tiptoes and nuzzled his neck, stroking her cheek along his jaw, seeking his lips. She couldn’t quite reach them and, to her consternation, he didn’t immediately close the distance that separated them. She placed nibbling kisses along his jaw and chin and then offered her lips to him once more.
He hesitated so long, she thought he would not take her offering at all. As if he couldn’t quite prevent himself from doing so, he moved closer, finally brushing his lips lightly along hers. Sighing with pleasure, Elise molded her lips against his hard mouth.
He opened his mouth over hers then, thrusting his tongue past her unresisting lips and plunging ruthlessly inside the warm, sensitive cavern of her mouth. Elise moaned, feeling her body quake in a minute release that made darkness swarm through her mind as his tongue made love to hers, stroking along it, entwining with hers. Weakness swept through her and then desire stronger than before. She dug her fingers into the hard flesh of his muscular back, pressing more tightly against him as the heat surged through her in dizzying waves. When she found that that wasn’t enough, she slipped her hands down along his back and dug her fingers into his buttocks, rocking against him rhythmically.
He tore his mouth from hers, gasping hoarsely, staring down at her with an expression Elise found impossible to decipher, shook his head slowly as he gasped for breath. “I am as bound to you as you are to me. There will not be another for me,” he said harshly, his voice raw, hoarse.
He caught her jaw in the palm of his hand, squeezing until she lifted her heavy eyelids and looked directly at him. “You will be my mate?”
Elise nodded.
“Say it!”
“Yes! Let’s do it now.”
His lips tightened. “At the ship.”
Elise blinked. He was back to that again? “But first here.”
He shook his head. Pushing her away, he grasped her hand and led her out the door and down the corridor. It took every ounce of concentration she could muster just to manage putting one foot in front of the other or Elise would have protested loudly and very vocally. She hardly knew how or even when they left the habitat, had no idea at all of whether they passed anyone along the way, only became aware after some moments that it was too dark to see. When she stumbled for the third time, Ja-rael stopped and pulled her against him. Kissing her briefly, he swung her into his arms and set off at a jolting lope that made it impossible for Elise to manage much more than to cling to him. She nuzzled her face along his neck anyway, relishing his scent.
His ears fascinated her, she remembered, and when she realized she couldn’t coax him into kissing her again, she wove a path in that direction with her lips. He almost dropped her, letting out a sound that was part growl of desperation, part groan of despair,
when she explored the sensitive cavity with her tongue.
“Cease!” he growled. “Or I will disgrace myself by spilling my seed now and have nothing for you.”
Momentarily subdued by that threat, Elise went back to nuzzling his neck and stroking her hands over every part of him that she could reach. The soft down that covered his head fascinated her and she contented herself for some time with exploring the feel of it and the shape of his skull. It seemed to take far too long to reach the ship, however, and impatience drove her to explore his ear again. “Let’s stop here … just for a few minutes,” she whispered into his ear. “I ache for you. Just touch me, kiss me.”
He slowed, nuzzling his face against hers. Coming to a stop, he covered her mouth, kissing her all too briefly before he pulled away with a groan. “Temptress,” he muttered. “I won’t be able to stop.”
“We can fuck all night if you like,” she murmured hopefully.
She heard him grinding his teeth together. Before she could think of anything to do to stack the odds in her favor, however, he switched from a jog to a run. The jostling made it impossible for her to do anything besides hang on at first. It occurred to her after several minutes that he was amazingly strong--inhumanly strong. His muscular physique had implied that he was, of course, but he’d been carrying her for--she had no idea, only that it seemed to be a very long time.
Moreover, he moved through the darkness as if it were broad daylight, more surefooted than she was even in the light of day.
Those thoughts brought the differences between their two species home to her as nothing else. No man could do what he was doing. She stiffened, trying to pierce the dark and get her bearings, wondering just how far they were from the habitat.
Had he simply walked out of the habitat with her without anyone offering any challenge at all?
Try though she might, she couldn’t recall seeing anyone. Perhaps they’d all still been in the dining hall? Many of them, no doubt, wondering what had come over them to cause them to behave so strangely unlike themselves.
She knew what had caused it, however.
“Where are you taking me?” she finally asked, trying not to sound hostile.
Ja-rael stopped abruptly. Catching a fistful of her hair, he tipped her head back and kissed her aggressively, his mouth forcing her lips to part. Elise tried to resist the lure, but the moment he thrust his tongue into her mouth, her will turned to mist. She felt as if she were falling down the throat of an inferno. Fire erupted along her nerve endings, exploded deep in her core.
When she went limp with desire, he pulled away and began to move once more.
Disappointment filled her. She needed to feel more than the heated thrust of his tongue. She needed to feel his huge cock forcing its way along her channel, stroking her, filling her whole world.
The sound of his feet landing on a metallic surface filtered into her heated mind. She would have fallen when he set her on her feet except that he kept an arm around her as he worked the system to retract the gangplank and close the hatch. A mechanical whir filled her ears and then dizziness swept over her as he swung her into his arms again and moved down the corridor.
Her stomach went momentarily weightless as he leaned to drop her gently onto the mattress of his bed. Coolness filtered through the thin fabric that covered her back, and then heat along her breasts, belly and thighs as his body settled over hers with a delightful heaviness. He kissed her. Covering her mouth hungrily, he explored the sensitive inner flesh
of her mouth with a thoroughness that made every breath a struggle, his hands moving over her with restless possessiveness all the while, tugging at the robe until he’d stripped it away, pulling at his own clothing until he’d discarded that, as well. Then nothing lay between them and she could feel the smooth roughness of his skin rubbing against hers in delightful abrasion. She could feel the heat and hardness of his cock digging into her belly. She rocked her hips, nudging her mound against his erection. The pressure only made her ache worse, however, and she struggled to spread her thighs so that she could feel him nestled into her cleft.
He had her legs pinned beneath his, making it impossible for her to move more than a few inches. Lifting his lips from hers, he shifted so that he could look down at her. Feeling his gaze, she lifted her eyelids with a tremendous effort and gazed up at him with reproach.
“You know you are mine. Your body calls to me, responds to my need for you,” he murmured harshly.
“Mmm,” she moaned. “Yes. I need you inside of me.”
“I can not break this bond that chains me to you even if it was my wish, and I can’t find the strength in me to wish it.”
Elise licked her lips, not at all certain what he was talking about beyond his own desire. Lifting her hand, she stroked his chest and belly, seeking blindly for his cock and coming up empty. She couldn’t reach it. He held her when she would have shifted lower to gasp his turgid flesh. “You don’t want to,” she reminded him. “You want to …,” she hesitated, deciding to use the word he seemed to prefer. “…mate with me.”
His eyes slid half closed. He studied her broodingly for several moments and finally leaned down and blazed a trail of fire along her flesh with his lips and tongue, moving along her throat to her collar bone and then down between her breasts. He hesitated in the valley and then nibbled a path up the slope to the peak of one breast. Her nipple tightened almost painfully at his approach, her pulse beating out a pounding ache.
The pleasure was so intense when the heat of his mouth closed around the tight, aching bud, that she cried out, arching her back upward. He released her at once, lifting his head to look at her in surprise and consternation. She dug her fingers into his arm, urging him wordlessly to touch her again. After a moment, he caught the nipple between his lips, sucked experimentally. Groaning, Elise clasped him to her, mindlessly stroking the back of his head as her body scaled the heights to culmination in a dizzying rush.
The tension broke, dragging a cry from her as her body convulsed with it. She hadn’t even fallen completely from the heights when he moved to her other breast and suckled it as he had the first.
Heat surged inside of her again, tension coiling in every muscle. Elise moved beneath him, unable to remain still, stroking his body feverishly. Apparently encouraged by her reaction, or driven by his own needs, he began a restless quest to explore every inch of her body with his mouth and tongue, moving down over her belly to her navel, then up again to the other breast. Teasing that sensitive bud until she was moaning incessantly, he wove a path downward, past her navel and nuzzled his face against her mound.
Elise gasped, clutching at him, but offered no resistance as he caught her legs beneath her knees and spread her thighs. His cheek grazed her inner thigh as he leaned toward her, sending a shiver of anticipation through her, making her heart clutch painfully. The warmth of his breath whispered across the curls that covered her mound, making her belly clench in expectation. When she felt the heat and slight abrasiveness of his tongue parting her nether lips and gliding curiously along her cleft, she gasped, gripping the covers beneath her as she arched upward to meet the pleasure his touch promised. His lips nipped at the tiny, exquisitely sensitive bud of her clit and then he opened his mouth over it and her heart almost seemed to stop as she felt the heat and pull of his mouth.
“Oh! Ja-rael,” she murmured on an ecstatic groan. “That feels so good.”
She realized in the next moment that she’d spoken in her own tongue, not Torrine, but he seemed to need no interpretation. Settling more firmly between her thighs, he lavished his attentions upon her until she screamed with release, bucking against him as her body convulsed in almost painful spasms of rapture. When her cries had died to hoarse whimpers, he lifted his head at last, shifted upward, nibbling heated kisses along her body as he advanced.
His kisses brought her body to attention once more. By the time he’d settled to teasing her breasts again, her mind was a drugged morass of passion, the fever upon her, coiling tighter and tighter. She reached for him when he rose above her at last, spreading her thighs wider. She shifted to meet him as she felt the questing head of his cock slipping along her cleft, gathering the moisture that collected there to ease his possession.
She held herself still, held her breath at his first thrusting incursions along her passage, lifting in counter to his thrusts until his cock had possessed her fully, so deeply she felt him almost as a part of herself, but delightfully separate, as well.
As he sought the rhythm he needed to find his own pleasure, she felt her passions rising once more toward yet another crisis, more slowly this time, more intensely with the feel of her body wrapped around the length of his cock. She squeezed her eyes tightly, holding the sensation to herself, imagining she could feel the heated flesh of his cock throughout the length of her channel. Her pleasure shot upwards as she focused upon the sensations his turgid flesh produced as it stroked her.
Through the palms she stroked along his big body, she felt a quaking begin inside him as he neared his crisis. Her body responded, shooting upward higher, toward the brink, hovering at the edge. His cock jerked as he reached his peak and she felt his hot seed begin to spill into her channel. The convulsions of his rapture pushed her over the precipice into explosive ecstasy that was so intense that when she descended, she fell into absolute darkness.
Chapter Ten
Ja-rael rested as much of his weight on his arms and thighs as he could, struggling to catch his breath. It took a tremendous effort even to support himself that much, for he felt completely drained, but he was afraid his weight would crush Leez if he didn’t. When he could breathe more freely, he leaned down to stroke his face along hers, scarcely conscious of the love words he murmured to her in his own tongue. She stirred, halfheartedly returning his caresses before she drifted away.
Sighing with a mixture of resignation and relief, Ja-rael gathered her to him and rolled onto his side, propping on one arm to study her sleeping face while he waited for his body to relax enough that he could separate himself from her. It had long been the custom of his people to use the time after mating to express their appreciation of and affection for their mate. It was a time of closeness without passion to enjoy being united, being as one. He could scarcely quibble, he supposed, when he’d done his utmost to thoroughly exhaust her--and it was a relief at least not to have her snipping at him for something he could not help--but he still could not prevent the sense of being used and dismissed from clouding his pleasure.
Doubts crowded close and he couldn’t help but wonder if there had been anything rational about his decision to keep Leez anyway--in spite of the nearly insurmountable odds he now saw against their ever finding peace between them. He found, however, that the longer he studied her sleeping face, the more certain he was that he could not have made any other decision.
She was going to be furious when she realized what he’d done.
Doubt shook him again at that thought, but this time he dismissed it. Moving away from her as his body finally returned to normal, he dressed quickly and quietly, then stepped from the cabin and secured the door, bending the latch and barricading it to make certain she could not escape again.
He went down into the hold then, studying the creatures he’d pinned his future upon--the mate price. Lioness or not, she was worth every one and more. Finally, he decided only to take half, however, realizing he had not planned as well as he’d originally thought. He would need to provide for her and
make her comfortable and he didn’t want to have to wait until he traded again to do so. He would leave half for her family and a note explaining that he would bring more on his next trip. The other half he would take with him to insure Leez’s comfort and well being.
He couldn’t recall seeing a pen for animals, so he gathered up rope and, after a good deal of aggravation, managed to secure the creatures he meant to take to her family and disembarked with them. It was still dark when he arrived at the habitat. After looking around for a likely spot to leave the livestock, he finally tied them along a length of post, brought them water and then, after he’d secured the note he’d written within sight of the main entrance, headed back to the ship.
He’d lingered longer than he’d intended to on Torrine and he was anxious to get home.
* * * *
Awareness came to Elise slowly. She didn’t particularly welcome it. She felt so wonderfully relaxed and satisfied all she really wanted to do was to curl up and drift deeply asleep once more.
She’d almost dropped off the edge when something began to tease at the back of her mind, some vague sense of wrongness.
The mattress beneath her was wrong.
The darkness surrounding her was wrong.
And the scent that lingered in the sheets wasn’t her own--not altogether.
Struggling upright, she tried to focus her eyes.
The cabin looked like the inside of a cave and still she knew it wasn’t her cabin. She always had some light, even if it was no more than the glow of a clock or night light because she frequently woke at night and it unnerved and disoriented her to find herself in pitch black darkness.
It was possible the lights had gone out, but she didn’t think that was it at all. The cabin simply didn’t ‘feel’ right.
Finally, she was roused enough she decided to investigate. Feeling around for the edge of the bed, she climbed out and, waving her hands in front of her, staggered a little drunkenly toward the faint glow that indicated a porthole. It was almost as dark outside as it was in the cabin. Undoubtedly the moon, which was so tiny it shed very little light anyway, had set.
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