by Elana Brooks
He laughed. “Did that originate in your head or mine, I wonder? Because I pictured the same thing, and tried to keep you from seeing it.”
Her eyes sparkled as they met his, then slid down to watch him as he pulled off his jeans. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“I don’t suppose it matters. Obviously our subconscious minds already knew what we wanted, even if it took the rest of us a while longer to figure it out.” He held out his hands to her. She took them and let him draw her against his body.
The touch of her bare skin all along his legs and torso sent desire surging even higher. He pressed his erect penis against the softness of her belly. She caressed it through the thin fabric of his boxers without any shyness at all.
He moaned, then let out a little sound of protest as she pulled away. “Sorry,” she said. “Another inconvenience of doing this physically. You sure you don’t want to go astral?”
“I’m sure,” he said, as she opened the drawer of her bedside table and produced a box of condoms.
She broke the seal on the cardboard and pulled out a foil packet. “I figured I’d better be prepared, after we decided we were going to go ahead. Just in case we ended up going physical after all. Or liked it so much we moved on to this next.”
“Thank god,” he said. “I’d hate to have to get dressed and run out to the drug store right now.”
She giggled. “Rabbi Sensei would scold you for taking the Lord’s name in vain.”
“I’m sure he would.” He smiled at her. “Good thing he’s not here to hear me.”
They both sobered for a moment, remembering.
Adrian’s touch was tender as he reached out to stroke Beverly’s cheek. “He wouldn’t have told us to celebrate if he didn’t mean it. They both rejoice with us.”
“Yes.” She rubbed her face against his chest, smearing her tears across his skin. Then she returned her attention to the condom packet, tearing it open with businesslike efficiency.
Suddenly shy, she looked away. “I guess I ought to make a doctor’s appointment. Get tested, get on the Pill. Since this is going to be a long-term thing.”
“Me too.” It would be nice not to have to bother with condoms eventually, but right now he didn’t care. It was just one more reminder of the reality of this moment. He nuzzled her neck until she flinched away with a laugh. “Long-term, exclusive, and extremely mutually satisfying.”
She let him bear her down onto the bed, giggling as he kept going after the ticklish spot he’d discovered. But there was still reserve in her voice and eyes, though she tried to make her words sound like a joke. “I guess a soul bond pretty much eliminates the possibility of cheating. I can see why people are careful to only make them after they’re sure they can trust each other.”
Maybe if they hadn’t been so telepathically attuned, he might have misunderstood her words as expressing doubt in his trustworthiness. But that wasn’t what he was picking up from her mind.
He stopped and looked down into her eyes. “If we didn’t have a soul bond already, I would make one with you. Right here, right now.”
“Oh.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and met his, holding nothing back, her soul shining open and vulnerable in their depths. Adrian felt like he was gazing into infinity. “So would I.”
The unbearable intensity lasted only a moment before she blinked and her eyes were once again just eyes. Adrian bent to kiss her, and they explored each other’s mouths and sent their hands roaming over each other’s bodies. But it was still there, underneath, resonating through everything they did, giving profound significance to each touch, each look, each word, each sensation.
They took turns removing each other’s underwear. Beverly pushed him to his back and kissed her way down his body. When she reached his penis she ran her tongue along its length, then took him deep within her mouth. Pleasure rocketed through his body. He let it flow to her through the soul bond, and it reflected back to him until he had to damp to keep it from soaring to levels too great for their minds to endure.
After an endless glorious time she released him and crawled back up to collapse beside him. “Oh, my god,” she said. “We’re going to have to keep a lid on that. I am not blacking out and missing a moment of this.”
He tapped his lips with her fingers and tutted. “Now you’re the one offending Rabbi Sensei.”
“I’ll apologize next time I see him.” She made a delightfully slow and erotic business of rolling the condom on, then pulled him on top of her and twined her legs around his.
It was obvious she was ready, and his need was so urgent he was about to burst, but a shadow of memory twisted around his heart, and he had to pause.
He brushed his fingers against her lips to silence her protest. “Beverly, I think I understand what happened, but I need to be absolutely sure. When Sarthex had me on the bridge, torturing me, right before you burst in and attacked him—he never had you trapped in a containment field, right? That was just an illusion he showed me, to try and trick me into believing he could hurt you for real.”
Her brow furrowed. “That's right. He never trapped me. I waited just outside the bridge, watching, until you were about to tell him everything and I had to act.” Her eyes widened. “That’s what he was showing you?”
“Yeah.” He heaved a deep sigh, as tension he hadn’t known he was holding released from his shoulders and neck. “He pegged you pretty well—his version of you charging in was a lot like it really happened, except of course he showed you getting overpowered and captured. I was completely fooled. He pretended to show you some truly awful visions. Of course, he’d shown them to me first, so I’d know exactly what you were seeing. He claimed to have altered the containment field to cut off transmission through the soul bond. I poured everything I had into trying to break through it, but I couldn’t make you pass out and stop you from seeing…” He swallowed.
She kneaded his shoulders with firm, deep strokes. “So that’s why it was so hard to block you. I wanted to let it though, but didn’t dare risk blacking out with no one to guard me while I was unconscious.”
“Good,” he said with conviction.
“You were in so much pain. What did you think he was showing me?”
Adrian couldn’t bear to meet her eyes. He studied the graceful hollow of her collarbone at the base of her throat. “You really don’t want to know.”
“I probably don’t.” She was silent for a moment. “But tell me anyway.”
He shouldn’t burden her with the knowledge, but it was such a relief to be able to tell someone. And it was probably better not to try to keep it secret from her, and have to always guard against letting it slip out. “All right. He was showing you an illusion of being… assaulted.” He gulped. “Gang raped, actually.”
“Oh.” She blinked, but her gaze remained steady. He couldn’t tell how she was reacting.
Better get it all in the open. “Including, right at the end—by, um, me. That’s why I had to stop him.”
His face was hot. He lowered his forehead to rest on her chest. He couldn’t have killed the mood more effectively if he’d tried. He still needed to be inside her, though, with a deep desperation that had nothing to do with seeking an orgasm.
In a conversational tone Beverly said, “Who’s going to kill Sarthex? You or me?”
He gave a mirthless chuckle. “Whoever gets to him first.”
“It’s a deal.”
He lifted his head to study her face. “But you didn’t see any of that, or feel it?”
“Nothing. I never would have guessed if you hadn’t told me.”
All the breath went out of him in a great sigh. “Thank God.”
A corner of her mouth twitched up. “Rabbi Sensei would scold you.”
“Not this time,” he said. “That was a real prayer.”
He could let go of the shadow, now. It truly had been no more than a vivid nightmare. Beverly was and always had been safe from experienci
ng that horror.
Beverly wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you. For trying to save me.” She was quiet for a moment. “But promise me something?”
“What?”
“If Sarthex ever captures me for real, and tortures me to try to force you to do something—don’t. Right now I’m telling you, I’d rather suffer anything—even that, even whatever worse he can come up with—than let him win.”
“God, Beverly, I can’t—” He shook his head at her raised finger. “All right, that one counts. Quit distracting me. I can’t promise that.”
She looked searchingly at him for a while, then sighed. “All right. What about you? If he’s torturing you to make me betray the Covenant, do you want me to give in to him?”
“Of course not.”
“It’s the same thing.” She glared at him, her mouth set.
He wanted to deny that, but he couldn’t. “Fine. Whatever.” He dipped his head to lick first one nipple, then the other. “Why are we talking about this, anyway? When you’re beautiful and naked, and I’m—almost naked, and we have this big comfortable bed all to ourselves and no commitments until tomorrow morning?
She chuckled, as he’d intended. “Fine.” She gasped as he moved a hand between her thighs, but refused to be deterred. “Just remember, if it ever comes up. You know what I want.”
“Mm-hmm.” He slid his body down hers until his mouth joined his fingers. “What else do you want? This?”
“That’s good,” she said, breathless.
“What about this?” he murmured, and teased her clitoris with his tongue while he slid his fingers in to massage the upper wall of her vagina. Sylvia had taught him that, and women had always appreciated it. He offered his skill now to Beverly as a gift, for their shared joy. The soul bond resonated with her pleasure.
“You know I do. God, that’s amazing.”
A quick tsk-tsk set her laughing, before he went back to concentrating on his work and she went back to wordless expressions of enjoyment.
He didn’t take her all the way to orgasm this time, but left her trembling on the brink to move up and finally, gloriously, slide into her warm, wet depths. They moved together in a gradually accelerating rhythm, sensation flowing back and forth across the soul bond until neither were sure where one ended and the other began.
Mindful of her warning, he tried to dampen the reverberations, but they swelled stronger and stronger until his control crumbled like a bursting dam. He abandoned the effort and threw himself into the surging wave, wordlessly exhorting Beverly to join him. They’d ride its crest to spectacular heights before it drowned them.
She responded with reckless, fearless joy. Together they soared, and to their delight found their united souls strong enough to experience unimaginable extremes of pleasure without breaking. Higher and deeper and farther they traveled, bodies and minds and spirits, through realms of beauty and wonder, music and color, exultation and jubilation and bliss, until they burst into an infinite eternity of glory together.
Adrian returned to normal consciousness gradually, with a rich and languorous sense of contentment. Beverly was under him, their bodies still joined, his head pillowed on her breast, her legs wrapped around his. He would have worried that he was crushing her, except he felt her enjoyment of his firm weight pressing her into the mattress in her wide open mind. He let himself luxuriate in the soft support of her curves, knowing she experienced it along with him.
She hummed, a long, relaxed, satisfied sound. It reverberated in his bones. “That was… that was…”
“I know.” He lifted his head to kiss her. “Beyond words.”
“Yes.” She stroked his cheek. “I guess we don’t have to worry about damping, after all.”
“I guess not.” Their memories of their shared experience shone between them, the same marveling wonder in both their minds.
Her eyes met his, open and unafraid, holding nothing back. They gazed into each other’s souls for an eternal instant before she closed her eyes with a deep sigh. He rested his head on her chest, and they lay like that for a long time.
Eventually, reluctantly, he rolled off. She made a little squeak of protest. He stroked her cheek, then went to clean up, bringing her a washcloth so she wouldn’t have to get out of bed.
“Thanks.” She grinned at him and wrinkled her nose. “Bodies are messy.”
“We can always go astral next time. If you prefer it that way.”
“I don’t know. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.” She let her eyes slide down his body. “Once each isn’t really enough to decide which I like better.”
He stretched out beside her. She rolled over and pressed her back against his chest; he curled around her. “I guess we’ll just have to keep trying both ways until we make up our minds.”
“I guess so.” Her laughter vibrated through her body into his. “We’ll need lots of data. It could take years.”
“It could. I think I’m going to enjoy this research.” He nuzzled the back of her neck.
She was silent for a minute. “I already know I love that this isn’t ever going to feel like it was just a dream.”
“Me, too.” He rested his forehead on her shoulder. “This is as real as it gets.”
“Mmm.” Her voice was so quiet he wasn’t sure if she was talking to him, or only herself. “Keiko was right. Even a day, even an hour, of love like this is worth whatever it costs.”
He tightened his arms around her. “Yes. But I’m greedy. I want a lot more of you than that.”
She twisted around to face him, her eyes fiery. “I want way more of you than that. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the fucking Seraphim or anything else keep me from getting it. Sarthex better keep the hell away from you from now on, or I’ll make him wish he had.”
Adrian kissed her scowling mouth. “That’s settled, then. When you decide you want something, you make it happen. Earth has nothing to worry about.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He stretched. “What time is it? Do you think we can get a little more research in before we have to do something about supper?”
“Supper can wait. We’ll have to go out. I didn’t have time to go shopping after I got back from Colorado, and I cleared things out pretty thoroughly before I left.” She swallowed and looked away. “I, um… need to take a minute before it gets too late to look something up and make a few calls. I—kind of need to find a counselor who deals with eating disorders and make an appointment.”
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a long hug. “You take care of that while I’m getting a shower. It’s been days. I know the guardians gave me sponge baths, but I’m surprised you could stand to get near me.”
She grimaced. “Only because I’m just as bad. Maybe when I’m finished I’ll join you.”
“I’d like that.” He ran a finger across her shoulder and down her arm.
She smiled crookedly at him but refused to be distracted from her purpose. She took a deep breath, jutted out her jaw, and climbed from the bed, pulling on her panties and shirt as she headed for her computer.
Chapter 38
Beverly gripped Adrian’s hand hard as they rode up the elevator to the top floor of HBQ headquarters. She’d been so nervous about being late to the meeting, she’d hauled him out of bed while it was still dark. Even though between making love and talking, neither of them had gotten very much sleep.
The elevator doors opened. In front of them, the bank of windows revealed a spectacular view of sunrise over the city. Billows of clouds in the eastern sky blazed a million shades of scarlet and rose and crimson, the black rectangles of skyscrapers silhouetted against the colors.
Beverly gasped and hurried forward to gaze out in wonder. Adrian came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing lightly. She reached up, caught his fingers, and squeezed. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Gorgeous,” he agreed.
&nb
sp; She watched as the colors gradually shifted, some clouds brightening to white, others blooming into new hues. A burning sliver of sun edged over the horizon. “Isn’t there a poem about red skies? Something about delight…”
“‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,’” Adrian quoted. “‘Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.’”
“Oh.” Beverly deflated. “Warning? I guess that means those are storm clouds?”
“Looks like they could be. We’ll probably get rain later today.”
She shivered and pressed back into his warm, comforting solidity. “A storm on the horizon.”
His arms tightened around her. “We’re warned and ready for it.”
“Yes. We are.” She shoved away the fear, summoning back the determination that had welled up in her yesterday. She was strong, and brave, and fiercely motivated to triumph. Adrian was at her side, the rest of the Covenant behind them. They had allies in the heart of the enemy camp. Sarthex and the rest of the Seraphim didn’t stand a chance.
As the sun lifted into the sky and the colors faded, the elevator doors opened to admit a cluster of people. Beverly didn’t look as they passed behind her toward the conference room, conversing softly. There were only five strangers she had to meet, after all. And they were all united in the same cause. She had no reason to be afraid.
She wasn’t afraid, but she was nervous. She kept gazing out the window until Rabbi Sensei’s voice came quietly from behind her. “Beverly? Time to get started.”
“Okay.” She reluctantly turned around.
Adrian gave her a final hug and let go. “See you in a little while.”
“See you.” He was going to spend an hour in the gym working out before reporting to the Eight to give a detailed account of everything that had happened on his mission.
Until then, she’d have to face them alone. Despite the gold medallion tucked safely in her pocket, she felt like an impostor. Would they accept her, when her actions had been at least partially responsible for Keiko’s capture? When, despite what everyone told her, despite what she’d experienced of her own power, an insecure corner of her heart kept insisting that she had nothing of value to offer them?