Jaraels Lioness

by Ja-Rael's Lioness [MF] (lit)

  First and foremost was the fact that Ja-rael seemed to have made up his mind that, regardless of his desire to have a family, the risks of trying to have one with Elise were not something he was willing to accept. And Elise knew by this time how stubborn Ja-rael could be once he made up his mind.

  He’d concluded almost the moment they’d arrived on Meeri that a mating between them was not possible and nothing she’d done in the months since had budged him one iota. If anything truly set him apart from his human counterpart, Elise thought it was that one grim determination even to avoid sexual intimacy with her. Of course she knew the reason he wouldn’t was because he feared impregnating her, but she was fairly certain there wasn’t a human male in the universe that would be able to remain stubbornly abstinent when they had a willing, even eager, female right under their nose--even if they didn’t especially want that particular female. And she was fairly certain that wasn’t the case with Ja-rael. He might not love her. He might not even desire her as he had to begin with when he’d been laboring under the impression that she was his kind, but he still wanted her.

  She felt it. As hard as he worked to keep his libido in check, she was so finely attuned to his pheromones that even a little slip that allowed a minute amount of pheromones to be released in his bloodstream was enough to send a wave of responding need through her--even if she happened to be in another room with a barricaded door between them.

  She continued to barricade the door, not because she thought there was any danger at all of him trying to come in, but because she knew it annoyed the hell out of him. That changed when she finally arrived at the realization that, far from being overjoyed at her news, Ja-rael was much more likely to be horrified and/or furious that she’d deliberately done the one thing he feared most--risked a pregnancy when neither of them knew what the outcome might be.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Ja-rael’s resolve didn’t sustain him nearly as long as Elise had expected, and begun to hope, it would. Just about the time she realized with alarm that she was running out of time for breaking the news to him gently, his resolve crumbled like so much dust.

  He’d begun to arrive home earlier and earlier and Elise had only narrowly managed to retreat to her room and barricade the door on several occasions. That fact seemed to goad him, for he began to prowl the hallway, pacing back and forth past her door.

  Then, the one thing Elise hadn’t counted on happened. She had to pee. She tried to ignore it, but the growth of her womb had begun pressing down on her bladder and she found she had to go--or at least felt like she had to go--more and more frequently. When Ja-rael finally ceased to pace back and forth in front of her door, she moved to the chest and eased it away from the door as quietly as possible, flinching when the thing protested.

  Pausing, she listened for several moments and finally opened the door quietly and tiptoed to the facilities. When she emerged, Ja-rael was standing in the hallway outside, one shoulder propped against the wall, his arms crossed. She jumped guiltily, her eyes widening in surprise.

  Desire hit her with such force it squeezed the air from her lungs. One moment she was gaping at him, the next she was enveloped in a haze of passion that swept every thought from her mind and left only need. Their passage from the hallway to the bedroom became a struggle to disentangle themselves from their clothing without yielding the need to touch, to caress each other. They fell into the bed half clothed, trapped by the clothing that had tangled around them and become frustrating bindings. Elise, who wore nothing more than a robe for sleeping, had her elbows bound to her waist and couldn’t seem to wiggle free. She ceased trying when Ja-rael tossed the hem of her robe over her face and buried his face in her mound. For several moments the sensation was so exquisite she thought she would faint. A tiny climax erupted through her almost the moment she felt the faint roughness of his tongue glide over her clit. She shuddered, bucked against him and began to thrash frantically as the spasms increased in intensity instead of dissipating. Uttering a growl, he planted his hands on her arms and held her down, licking and sucking and teasing her clit until her body convulsed in a harder spasm of release and she began to beg him to stop before she died of lack of oxygen, for she could not seem to drag in enough air.

  He lifted his head finally, sat up on his knees. Reaching for her, he dragged her toward him, lifting her onto his lap and thrusting into her at almost the same moment. She gasped, caught his shoulders to balance herself as he held her hips, delving deeper and deeper inside her in a series of short thrusts until he his cock was so deep inside of her she felt the head of his cock against her womb. He set the rhythm then, lifting her hips and then pushing down again until he filled her before he lifted her again with agonizing slowness.

  Dizzily, Elise followed his silent command, feeling her body sheathe his hard flesh until her heart was pounding with excitement and then the slow, wondrous caress of his flesh along hers as he retreated. The tension grew in her again. Her body, rising toward another release, rapidly reached the peak. She began to move faster, bear down on him harder as she teetered on the brink. When it broke, the spasms were so hard she found it almost impossible to maintain the rhythm she’d set. Abruptly, Ja-rael tipped her onto her back and took control, thrusting into her with a savage possession that made her body peak twice, convulse with nearly unbearable rapture. She was still gasping weakly with her release when he began to shudder and quake with his own culmination. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him tightly to her, relishing the tremors of pleasure she felt go through him.

  When at last they lay beside one another, panting in repletion, she snuggled close, resisting the temptation to confess her love for him by showing it instead with her caresses.

  She was drifting toward sleep when Ja-rael pulled away from her at last. His hand came to rest on her rounded belly for several moments.

  “Leez, what have you done?”

  Elise was suddenly wide awake. Try as she might, her mind instantly leapt to the hand resting on her belly and from there to her perfidy and guilt flooded her cheeks with color. “What do you mean?” she asked evasively.

  He frowned with a mixture of dawning anger and uneasiness. Sitting up, he fit his hand more firmly over her belly. Elise sat up as well, thrusting his hand off. He stared at her tight lipped for several moments and finally pushed her back against the bed, daring her with a hard look to defy him.

  Elise lapsed into fuming silence, not because she was afraid to defy him but because she had realized that there was no point at all in trying to keep the secret any longer. Her belly was already noticeably swollen. At the rate she was going she couldn’t have kept it from him more than a few weeks anyway.

  When he saw she had no intention of further struggle, he placed both hands on her belly and gently pressed his fingers into her flesh just above her pubic bone. Feeling around with his other hand, the found the upper edge of her womb and measured it.

  He sat back on his heels abruptly, his face leached of color. “You’re breeding.”

  Elise considered pretending surprise. She realized fairly quickly, though, that she wasn’t likely to convince him. “I’d wondered…,” she said vaguely.

  His eyes narrowed. “You did not wonder. You knew. And you knew because you planned this! Why? Why would you do such a thing? Take such a terrible risk?”

  Elise eyed him petulantly. She sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him that it was because she loved him so desperately she couldn’t think of anything else to try to hold onto him--not when he was glaring at her so accusingly.

  “Because I didn’t want to go back to that horribly miserable place and you were determined to take me!” she snapped.

  He looked at her like he’d never seen her before. Elise felt a horrible sinking sensation in her chest as he withdrew from her, moved away, and finally sat on the edge of the bed, his back to her.

  Belatedly, Elise realized she had said the wrong thing. She should have swallowed her pride and tol
d him it was because she loved him, even if he was angry. She should have told him it was because she loved him so much that she couldn’t bear to think of depriving him of the children he wanted so badly. What she had said was probably the worst thing she could possibly have thought of to say because it made it sound as if her motives had been totally selfish, that she was so focused on her comfort that nothing else really mattered to her.

  After several uncomfortable moments, she sat up and leaned toward him to caress his back. “I love you,” she said tentatively.

  He pulled away from her and stood up. “You gave no thought at all to the innocent whose life and health you were risking?”

  Elise gaped at him at the accusation, too stunned for several moments even to think of a response. “I didn’t!” she protested. “It wasn’t like that at all! I know we’re different, but I figured it would either take or it wouldn’t. You see it’s growing just fine.”

  “I do not see anything but that you have a mixed breed in your belly. You do not know it is fine. I do not know. And because you kept this from me you are too far along now to do anything about it even if the cub is--not right.”

  Elise felt her chin wobble, but resolutely dismissed his horrible suggestion that the child might be abnormal. “I’m not that far along. I haven’t even known it myself but a few weeks.”

  “You are in your second trimester.”

  Elise’s jaw dropped in stunned surprise. “I can’t be! I didn’t disengage the birth control more than two months ago, in the first place. In the second, that was the first time you’d touched me in months!”

  Ja-rael stared at her, stunned.

  Uneasiness began to grow in Elise at the expressions she saw chase each other across his face as he mentally calculated. “What’s wrong?”

  Ja-rael looked away from her. Finally, he merely shook his head. “I don’t know that anything is. Tomorrow--when I am not so angry--I will check you.”

  Elise settled back when he’d left. Her emotions were in turmoil, however, and she didn’t know which was uppermost, fear or grief. Ja-rael hadn’t even responded when she’d told him she loved him, most likely because he hadn’t believed her. Of all the stupid things she could’ve done, that probably ranked highest. The fear that he’d been withholding something from her refused to rest either and she slept little.

  Ja-rael woke her the following morning by appearing at her bedside with his bag. Without a word, he began examining her. Elise was too depressed and too weary to protest and merely did whatever he asked. Finally, frowning thoughtfully, he returned his instruments to his bag.

  “Well?” Elise asked uneasily when he said nothing.

  He forced a faint smile that she supposed was to reassure her. Somehow, it didn’t, perhaps because he didn’t look as if he’d gotten any more sleep than she had--and he looked worried.

  “You seem healthy.”

  Elise eyed him irritably. “I know I’m healthy. What about the baby?”

  His smile wavered. “I’ll have to study the data I’ve collected.”

  * * * *

  Elise had suspected, of course, that Ja-rael was making excuses to be gone most of the time, but it wasn’t until he discovered she was pregnant that she became certain she’d been right. He was still gone a great deal of the time, but he managed to make it home at least once in the course of each day and usually more than once. Elise might have been gratified by the attention except that he looked more haggard with worry every time he checked her. No matter how hard he tried to hide it from her, she knew he was worried sick, that he couldn’t sleep, could hardly eat, and it scared the pure hell out of her.

  Equally scary was the fact that the baby seemed to be growing at an unnerving rate. She had never born a child before, but she had certainly seen it done and she couldn’t recall that anyone else had ballooned as she was. Whenever she asked him about the baby, though, he would only say that it seemed strong and healthy. When she asked him if it didn’t seem to him that it was growing awfully fast, he would just give her a sickly smile and tell her it looked like it might be a big baby.

  Elise had begun to wonder if it was a baby at all. Just about the time she became convinced that she had a horrible tumor growing inside of her instead of a beautiful baby, however, she felt the first flutters of movement. Ja-rael looked marginally relieved at the announcement, but only a little.

  One day, when she was by her calculations about half way through her term and already so big she was having trouble reaching her feet, he came home early and announced that he was going to take her to see a friend of his in Tylina, the capitol city of the Meeri nation. Elise had mixed feelings about it. She was uncomfortable most of the time. As thrilling as the idea of a trip was, she didn’t particularly relish taking a long trip in Ja-rael’s glider.

  He soothed her fears, telling her that Clautz was going to give them a lift to the shuttle, which they would be taking to Tylina.

  Elise wasn’t entirely certain of what he meant, but decided it must be some sort of transit system. She discovered she’d been correct. Even better, Clautz was far better at landing than Ja-rael and his vehicle much more comfortable.

  She supposed she had realized that Modun, where they lived, couldn’t possibly be the only city the Meeri boasted, but she was still surprised as the shuttle settled in a string of towns from small hamlets to cities nearly as large as Modun to disgorge passengers and take on more. Despite their early departure, it was nearing dusk when they finally saw the lights of the city of Tylina.

  Elise had spent most of the trip with her nose stuck to the viewing panel, drinking in the sights and sounds of a world vital with life. Homesickness swept over her with the memories it evoked of Earth, but it was more a gentle sadness than a great sorrow. Earth was gone, but Meeri--Meeri was like coming home again. It was green, and beautiful, and bustling with the labors of those who worked to support the civilization that supported them--just as Earth had once been.

  Gasping at the sheer enormity of the city they were approaching, Elise finally turned wide, excited eyes toward Ja-rael. “It’s huge!” she whispered in awe.

  He smiled faintly. “It is--which is why I prefer to live in Modun. This is where I trained as a healer.”

  Elise’s brows rose questioningly. “And this friend you’ve come to see--he studied with you?”

  Ja-rael’s smile wavered. “Tania was my teacher.” He took her hand. “I want him to look at you. He knows more than any other. If –anything is amiss, he will be able to tell us.”

  Elise felt her pleasure vanish. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t suspected he had a particular reason for wanting to go. She’d even thought it was possible that she was the reason, but she’d hoped that wasn’t it at all. She’d hoped that it was simply business that took Ja-rael to Tylina and he hadn’t wanted to leave her behind.

  She should have known better, she thought glumly, girding herself for yet another unpleasant examination.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Tania came as a complete surprise. He looked scarcely older than Ja-rael, although Elise was obliged to admit that it was a little difficult to determine Ja-rael’s age as far as that went. Regardless, since he was Ja-rael’s teacher, she reasoned, he must be a good bit older than he looked.

  Beyond that, he was the first boisterously out-going Meeri she’d met. The moment they entered his office, he surged forward with an exuberant step, grinning widely. “Ja-rael! I have not seen you in ages! And this must be Leez, your mate you were telling me about?”

  Elise flinched as he patted her swollen belly affectionately, but he’d withdrawn his hand before she even realized his intention.

  “And this little fellow looks to be coming along nicely.”

  Elise glanced up at Ja-rael at that and he forced a smile. “Yes. But I will feel better once you have examined her. We are anxious.”

  “As two new parents would be,” Tania agreed, ushering the two of them from the reception area and into ano
ther room that turned out to be an office rather than the examining room Elise was dreading. When they were seated, Tania settled behind the desk and beamed at the two of them. “How may I help?”

  Ja-rael frowned. “Did you not get the message I sent you?”

  Tania scratched his head thoughtfully a moment. “Yes! Indeed, I did. And your concern is…?”

  Ja-rael looked nonplused. He cleared his throat, glanced at Elise uncomfortably and finally spoke. “She is not--Meeri.”

  Tania nodded.

  Ja-rael finally sat forward. “We are different.”

  Tania chuckled. “Indeed! She is a tribute to her race--a lovely creature. You are a lucky man, Ja-rael, to have such a beautiful female to bear you companionship and bear your children.”

  Ja-rael flushed. “I know this and I am deeply grateful. However, I am concerned that there could be complications.”

  Tania shook his head dismissively. “I understand why you would be concerned, but she is the picture of health--at least, she appears to be to me. I have never seen the like of her before, but she appears strong and healthy. The babe is growing quite nicely.”

  Again, Ja-rael shifted uneasily. “But, sir, she is only halfway through her term.”

  Tania’s brows rose. He studied the mound of Elise’s belly for several moments and finally got to his feet. “We’ll just have a look, shall we?”

  The moment Elise had been dreading had arrived. She was sent to remove her clothing while Ja-rael spoke with Tania. When she emerged from the dressing room a few minutes later, clutching a sheet to herself, the two of them were still deep in conversation. She shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, studying the examination room. It looked remarkably like those she was familiar with, but she supposed it only stood to reason it would. They were both humanoid races.

  Finally Ja-rael noticed her presence. Breaking off his conversation with Tania, he strode toward her and helped her onto the examination table.