Fari nodded.
At that, Georgia leaned in, stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, slow and long. The feel of his warm lips, his rough, exploring tongue—what would she do without these things? He smelled like man. Salt, leather, sweat—all man. And his shoulder muscles thrilled her each time they flexed beneath her palms.
By the time the kiss ended, Fari’s cock was a rock stiff against her belly, and his eyes were closed.
“I love you,” she murmured, brushing her lips across his stubbled cheeks. “When you get back, I want to marry you, by whatever custom you choose.”
“You are serious?” Fari’s eyes snapped open.
Georgia nodded. “I would never joke about something so important.”
Fari pulled her closer, joining their bodies in full embrace. Georgia lost herself in his smell, the feel of his hard body beneath his tunic and breeches. Arda’s fragrant, sensual air caressed her just as her lover’s hands, and for a moment, Georgia felt overwhelmed by her new reality. This planet, her psi-powers, her new family, her new home. She had never felt so involved, such a live and integral part of…of everything.
She belonged on Arda, and she belonged in Fari’s loving arms.
“I love you with my whole heart, my whole mind, shanna.” His baritone whisper in her ear gave Georgia sweet chills. “But now, I want you to go. I need to know you have reached Camford safely.”
Georgia slipped her hand into his breeches and grabbed his rigid cock. “A few more minutes, sha.”
Fari’s every muscle seemed to vibrate when Georgia used the Ardani term for soul’s mate. Passion flared in his eyes, and Georgia knew remnants of the mating fervor had captured him once more.
Her pussy ached for him, and her own thoughts turned dizzy as she tugged his shirt up so their pa marks could touch.
Maybe the mating fervor had snuck up on her, too.
Georgia kept one hand on Fari’s cock, threw her free arm around his neck, and gave him a lip-crushing kiss. His tongue drove into her mouth, finding hers even as their pa crackled and blended. She squeezed the hot, hard flesh in her hand, and Fari groaned. Letting go her psi-barriers, Georgia felt the raging wilderness of her lover’s mind. She also sensed Krysta’s presence, and Elise’s, and another—no doubt Ki. So distant, but no less engaged.
They were worried.
Intrigued.
And excited.
Hurry, Elise urged. We don’t have much time, and this could be the only time.
With a shock, Georgia processed her meaning. The battle was brewing. Anything could happen. This might be the one time the Tul’Mar’s newly constructed family could join sexually. Fear, thrill, distress, and an overwhelming urgency gripped Georgia’s being.
She had a mental image of Elise pinching her own nipples, stroking her own clit. In her mind’s eye, Krysta was doing the same, using one of the control levers in her speeder as a makeshift dildo. Even Ki, phantom image though he was, had his big prick out, pumping it slowly.
The sensation of watching, of being watched, pushed Georgia to a level of frenzy she had never known.
Fari lifted her like a doll and laid her back against the edge of the observation nest. He bent over her and claimed a nipple in his teeth, nibbling, sucking, biting all at once. Georgia moaned and wrapped her legs around his hips.
Yessss… Elise’s pleasure whispered through Georgia’s sex-sated brain. Elise was lying in a big bed, stroking her clit fast and hard.
Krysta fucked herself with the speeder’s control lever, moving up and down, eyes closed. Her moans floated through the psi-link like ripples on a pond.
Ki’s grunts seemed like exclamation points, and Georgia thought she could hear his hand sliding up and down his prick with increasing speed.
She gripped Fari’s shoulders hard and pressed her hot pussy against his cock. Only the fabric of his breeches separated her from paradise. “Fuck me,” she begged. “I need you inside me.”
Fari hunched against her, teasing, first kissing her lips and then her nipples.
Georgia’s groans were joined by three others through the link. The combined pleasure, excitement, anticipation—it was enough to make Georgia’s mind an expanding balloon.
And then Fari stepped back and turned her around, so that she gripped and bent over the smooth, pa-coated edge of the observation nest. Her breasts dangled, brushing the cool metal as she heard the rustle of Fari dropping his pants behind her.
The tip of his cock teased her slick pussy from behind, nudging until she spread her legs. Shocks ran through Georgia, from her toes to the ends of her pebbled nipples. Her own pleasure, and Elise’s, and Krysta’s, as they enjoyed small orgasms, building for bigger and bigger climaxes. Ki was holding back, increasing the tension more and more.
Georgia’s fingers curled on the rounded edge of the nest. It seemed like all of Arda stretched before her. Lake and field and forest. Her pussy throbbed, waiting for penetration. She felt like she would scream if Fari didn’t enter deep and hard, right that second.
He teased her with another nudge.
Georgia did scream. She spread her legs wider, feeling pa-coated wood hum against her belly and breasts. Fari gripped her hips and slipped the tip of his cock into her pulsing opening.
More moans of frustration and pleasure echoed in Georgia’s mind.
“That’s it, damn it.” She groaned and thrust herself backward, taking more of his length. “Fuck me before I get my swords and kill you!”
Fari pushed her forward, back against the edge of the nest, and with a blistering yell, he thrust deep. So, so deep. Heat blazed through Georgia as she screamed again. Fari’s weight pinned her against the nest wall. He held her there for a long moment, moving his cock inside her, grinding his balls against her wet outer lips. His pa sizzled along the top of her ass.
“Shanna,” Fari murmured. “I could hold you here forever.”
Georgia couldn’t speak. The walls of her pussy contracted, squeezing tight against his shaft as he slowly, ever so slowly slid back, then slipped deep again.
Elise had another orgasm. Krysta was pounding herself on the smooth metal and rubber of her speeder control. Ki’s hand moved at a furious pace, beating his prick with no mercy.
Once more, Georgia’s thoughts swirled into near-madness. Fari’s mind went with her. He braced his hands on either side of her, holding her fast against the nest wall, and drove his cock into her pussy with fierce abandon.
“Oh, God. Yes. Please, fuck me like that.” Georgia held on tight to the edge, feeling her body rock into the soft cushion of pa on the wood. Her legs were splayed wide, and only Fari’s rock-solid arms kept her from pitching out of the nest each time he slammed into her.
A creaking and groaning rose around them, and somewhere in the dim recesses of Georgia’s rational thoughts, she processed that the ship was moving. Lurching. Starting to drift over the burned docks at the river’s edge.
And yet every nerve in her body was on fire. If she could have sucked Fari into the center of her body, she would have. “Do it. Yeah.” She wiggled her ass as he plumbed her deeper, harder, faster.
Georgia had never been fucked like this, even on the island. Fari’s cock felt like sun-forged steel, turning her pussy to a molten pool of want. Of need.
His breath whistled in frayed huffs.
Georgia gasped with each thrust. He filled her up. He jammed her to capacity, all the while scrubbing his pa on her ass, pressing her pa into Lorelei’s coated boards. Orgasm built in her groin like slow-lit gunpowder, scorching a path through her belly, up into her chest, to her nipples, her shoulders, her fingers.
Elise came with a body-rocking psi-scream, and Ki shot his load at the same moment. Seconds later, Krysta’s mental shouts of pleasure filled the link.
And then, yelling, watching the ground move below as the ship sailed over the fields of Camford, Georgia came harder than she’d ever come in her life. Her senses reeled. Her brain turned off and on like a flickerin
g neon bulb. Her pussy gripped Fari’s cock like jaws, and he bellowed as he blew his seed deep into her channel.
Tears of release flooded Georgia’s cheeks as she moved her ass against Fari’s tight groin, getting all she could of her lover before he had to let her go.
The castle loomed before Lorelei, the stone and mortar fortress a sobering reminder of reality. The defense of home and hearth. The danger in orbit above them.
A few staff ran to and fro below the sleek frigate. Some looked up to see Georgia, now standing, still impaled on Fari’s cock.
She didn’t care.
Let them look and wish they could fuck something so good, so perfect.
Fari nuzzled her neck, and bit by bit, the psi-link that had joined them with Ki, Elise, and Krysta melted away.
I must go, shanna.
I know. Georgia’s tears turned hot and bitter. Promise me you’ll come back.
Fari hesitated, then hugged her tight, his strong arms crisscrossing her belly. The heat of his breath warmed her ear, and he whispered, “I promise.”
Chapter 16
Georgia barely remembered climbing down Lorelei’s riggings and being helped to the ground by castle staff not already in castle defense positions. Someone gave her a tunic and breeches, and she pulled them on numbly.
The silver frigate holding the love of her life took on a few spare hands, then floated, ghost-like, back over the fields and out of sight.
Fari didn’t even lean out of the observation nest to wave goodbye.
Maybe that was bad luck on Arda, or something.
Georgia bit her lip.
No bad luck. No ill omens. No. Nothing but good energy. Positive energy.
The Outlander ships had yet to move out of orbit formation, but as grief cleared Georgia’s mind, she sensed danger drifting high overhead, like ominous thunderclouds. Fari’s thoughts were closed to her now, as were Ki’s, and Krysta’s. They would be concentrating on anticipation, offensives, and counteroffensives. And if Georgia understood what she had been told, Ki and the Fleet were still hours away. Too far for real assistance if the bandits attacked.
It would be up to the Home Guard—and Fari on the Lorelei.
As Georgia made her way into the nearly-deserted castle, she wondered why the Outlanders didn’t strike. If they moved now, they had a chance to decimate Arda’s basic defenses.
And yet they just hung there.
Taunting? Daring?
Waiting…but for what?
Where are you? Elise’s distressed psi-cry penetrated Georgia’s nervous musings.
Georgia tensed immediately. Fatigue left her in a rush, replaced by an urgent need to hurry to her cousin. Something was wrong. Elise’s thoughts felt like a knife digging into bare flesh.
The maze of Camford’s halls didn’t faze Georgia. Elise’s mental sobs drew her down halls and stairways like a giant magnet. Deeper and deeper into the castle. To its center. To its heart.
Long pa-drenched halls stretched before her, darker and darker silver as she went. The thickening stone and higher pa content reminded Georgia of a bomb shelter—and that made some weird sort of sense.
Of course Camford’s depths would be fortified. It was a castle, a fort, right? The extra pa probably made it harder for stray psi-signals to get in or out—yet strengthened psi abilities if you knew how to channel the energy.
Strategic command center. Nerve center. All sorts of silly military jargon cluttered Georgia’s thoughts.
Hey! Georgia! Are you hurrying? Please be hurrying.
Coming. She took a sharp left, and immediately knew she had reached her destination as she entered a rounded chamber with four doors at points she figured for due north, south, east, and west.
Elise’s calls emanated from the south, and Georgia hurried to the door. It wasn’t locked.
“Help me,” her cousin moaned as Georgia rushed inside—and nearly freaked out completely.
Someone had moved her paintings in here and hung them on the walls. All of them, finished and unfinished. Someone had realized the importance—that losing the paintings would feel like a loss of life to Georgia.
Fari? Elise? Or maybe Krysta. It does have a Krysta touch to it.
A bluish, unnatural light bathed the small, rounded and windowless room. A few torches flickered from silver brackets on the rock walls, and tapestries hung like curtains on the stone between Georgia’s pictures. In a corner, she saw swords—Elise’s, and hers. Both ruby blades. Someone must have brought them, presumably in case they were needed. Furnishings were sparse—a desk, a chair, and one big four-poster bed. Where Elise lay dressed in a tunic and shorts, legs spread, hands on her enormous belly.
Obviously in labor.
“Oh…my…God.” Georgia rubbed her throat as if forcing the words to come. “Where are the priests? Does this place have a midwife?”
“Akad—“ Elise began, then let loose with a long, frantic moan.
Georgia’s mind filled in the rest. “He’s gone with the rear Guard to meet the Fleet. Damn it. And the rest of the priests are flying with the front and main guard. And you—you weren’t supposed to have sex! Shit!”
Elise wailed, and Georgia ran to the bed, climbed on, and held her cousin’s head in her lap. She had no idea what to do, but she couldn’t stand to see Elise in such pain.
Boil water. Get clean towels. They do that on old T.V. shows, right? Georgia stroked Elise’s hair. “Shit! Shit! Shit! When did this start?”
Elise panted for a few seconds, then managed to squeak, “Right after I—uh—we—came.”
“Why did you do that? You knew better!”
“Because I was afraid we wouldn’t—“
“Shut up. Don’t say anything negative. Shit.” Georgia started panting with Elise, in spite of her best effort not to.
“Aaaaaaah, damn, I have to push!” Elise squirmed against Georgia and shoved against the top of her belly.
“Wait! Don’t!” Georgia got up and turned in circles trying to think. Wait. Don’t. Like that’ll stop everything. I’m such a dumbass. Okay, no water here to boil, and I’m not leaving her. What else have I seen on T.V.? Come on, come on. I’ve read every damn edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.
Elise groaned and pushed on her belly again.
Holding her breath to suffocate the freak-out, Georgia chose a course of action. Lightning-fast, she climbed back on the bed, grabbed the pillows Elise wasn’t using, and crammed them under Elise’s backside. Then she slid Elise’s shorts off and gently spread her legs.
Everything looked oddly wide and expanded.
Another spasm gripped Elise, and this time she screamed.
“It’s okay. Push, I guess. I—oh, shit.” Georgia’s heart fluttered as she saw what appeared to be a dark thatch of hair in thin silver coating pushing its way out of Elise.
It is hair. It’s a head! The baby’s crowning!
“Ilya!” Elise yelled her daughter’s name and pushed, just as Georgia managed to slip her hands under the baby’s emerging neck.
“She’s coming.” Georgia’s voice cracked. Her throat felt as dry summer dirt. “Push some more! I think.”
Elise pushed.
Ilya seemed stuck in place. Her teeny face was still and puckered inside her silver veil, and her color went from blood to beet to almost purple.
“Gaaaaaahhh!” Elise wriggled on the pillows and bore down on her belly.
Panicked, Georgia reached inside Elise as best she could, feeling Ilya’s little shoulders. An inch at a time, she turned the baby just a bit, just enough for one shoulder to pop free.
Elise let out a huge breath.
Georgia felt like she was going to faint. For a second she just sat there, supporting Ilya, not sure what came next—until Elise answered all questions.
With a stone-cracking screech, Elise sat up, shoving so hard on her belly Georgia wondered if she’d push the flesh right off.
Seconds later, Ilya literally slipped into Georgia’s hands.<
br />
“There’s a baby. In my hands. I mean—you did it!” Giddy relief seized Georgia. “She’s here! Ilya’s here!”
And then Georgia’s mind registered three more things.
Elise had passed out, and she was bleeding badly.
Ilya was still inside a silver sac, as still and silent as an unhatched chick.
And there was a unnaturally huge man standing in the room, right next to the bed, staring at all three of them.
* * * * *
Fari Tul’Mar stood on the aft deck of Lorelei, under light tree cover near the ruined building yards. In the back of his mind, he felt a stir. Fear, from Georgia. Distress, from Elise. And something else, something different—all muffled by the defense-endowed thick pa around the war room. But the Sailkeeper knew he had to shut out the distractions.
If his shanna faced real danger, she would get the message through to him. Of that, he felt certain. He had only to think of the way she nearly blew a hole in his brain when she was angry in the observation nest—yes. Georgia was more than capable of sending an emergency psi-call through the heavy pa. She would probably blast down the mental barriers of the entire Fleet if she did, too.
Brother. Ki’s command tone overrode all other thought. Our sensors indicate—
The Outlander ships are moving! Krysta’s psi-shout finished the Sailmaster’s sentence.
Hold position, Fari instructed his sister. Time, Ki. How long until you reach us?
Two stellar hours. One and a half if fortune favors.
May the universe hear our plea. Fari gripped the hilt of his barbed sword. His nostrils flared as his eyes searched the sky.
Watching.
Waiting.
Home Guard at the ready? Came Krysta’s authoritative call to arms.
Aye, Captain! answered hundreds of star sailors on dozens of Home Guard speeders.
Keep it simple. Keep it clean. Krysta’s battle-lust spattered her thoughts like drops of blood. Close the net. For Arda! Close the net!
Chapter 17
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