by Zaires, Anna
Finally, Korum and Mia were left alone.
Getting up, her lover smiled at her warmly. “You did great – I could tell that Saret was impressed. I’m very proud of you.”
Mia gave him a big smile and got up also, his words filling her with a happy glow. “Thank you. And thanks again for making this possible.”
“Of course,” Korum said, pulling her closer to him and burying his hand in her hair. Holding her pressed against his body and her face tilted up toward him, he said softly, “Now tell me again that you love me.”
Staring up at him, Mia froze, her euphoria fading and a terrible sense of vulnerability taking its place. He wasn’t planning to ignore what happened last night.
She moistened her lips. “Korum, I . . .” She tried to lower her gaze, to look away, but it was impossible with the way he was holding her.
“Tell me, Mia.” His eyes were turning a deeper shade of gold. “I want to hear you say it again.”
She desperately wanted to deny him, to tell him that she’d been out of her mind last night, but the words simply wouldn’t form on her tongue.
Because she did love him, so much that it hurt, so much that she could barely think past the powerful emotions filling her chest. At some point in the last few weeks, he’d gone from being an aloof and dangerous stranger to someone she couldn’t imagine her life without. And as much as she hated her loss of freedom, she also loved the numerous little kindnesses he showed her on a daily basis, the way he made her feel so alive . . .
He was right: she had been merely content with her life before she met him. She’d had a comfortable, mostly happy existence. But she hadn’t truly lived.
“Tell me, my darling,” he urged softly, his hand slipping out of her hair to gently cup her cheek. “Tell me . . .”
“I do. I love you,” she whispered, staring up at him, wondering what he would say now, whether he would somehow use her admission against her.
But he just smiled and leaned down to kiss her, his beautiful lips touching hers so tenderly that she felt her heart squeezing in her chest. “Does it make you happy, being able to have an internship here?” he murmured, lifting his head and regarding her with a warm glow in his golden eyes.
Mia nodded. “Of course,” she said quietly. “You know it does.”
“Good. I want you to be happy here,” he said softly, stepping back and releasing her from his embrace. And then, taking her hand, he led her out of their private room and into the hallway.
* * *
They arrived at the house a couple of minutes later.
During the short ride, Mia kept her gaze trained on the transparent floor, though she could hardly see the scenery below with her mind occupied by the evening’s events. In some strange way, it was almost liberating to open herself up to Korum like this, to tell him how she really felt. Now she didn’t have to constantly be on her guard, worried that he would guess that she’d fallen in love with him. She didn’t have to fear that he would mock her for being a silly young girl and confusing sex with emotions.
No, he hadn’t mocked her at all. Contrary to her expectations, he seemed to welcome the emotional aspect; in fact, he’d practically forced her to admit she loved him. He hadn’t reciprocated with his own words of love, but then she hadn’t really expected him to. He’d said in the past that he cared for her, and she believed him. But love? Could someone like Korum truly fall in love with a human? Arman seemed to love Maria, but their relationship was so different from what Mia had with her cheren.
No, she didn’t know if Korum could ever love her, and she didn’t want to drive herself insane wondering – not right now, not when she felt so happy and was so eagerly looking forward to starting her internship tomorrow.
They exited the aircraft, and Korum swiftly disassembled it, activating the nanomachines with a small gesture. Mia watched him, her heart feeling like it would burst from her chest, unable to contain the feelings within. Every movement of his tall, muscular body was imbued with barely leashed strength, his Krinar hunter heritage evident in the predatory grace with which he held himself. He was so far from someone she could’ve ever imagined herself with – and so wrong for her in many ways – yet he was the only man who had ever made her feel this way.
After the ship was gone, turned back into its individual atoms, Korum lifted her into his arms and carried her into the house, heading straight for the bedroom. Mia clung to him, desperately craving physical contact, wanting the incredible pleasure only he could give her.
They entered the bedroom, and he gently placed her on the bed. Lying there, Mia watched as he removed his shirt, revealing his powerfully built chest and muscular stomach. His shorts were next, and then he was fully naked, his large penis already hard and his balls swinging heavily between his legs. His body was the epitome of masculine beauty, Mia thought hazily, her own body reacting to the sight with almost instant arousal.
Before she had a chance to fully admire him, he climbed on top of her and pulled up her dress, exposing her nether regions to his burning gaze. Without any preliminaries, he spread her legs and paused for a few seconds, seemingly fascinated by her genitals.
Her entire body flushing, Mia tried to close her legs, feeling far too exposed like that, but he wouldn’t let her, not until he’d had a chance to look his fill. Finally, raising his head, Korum murmured, “You have the prettiest little pussy I’ve ever seen. Did I ever tell you that?”
Mia shook her head, flushing even hotter.
“You do,” he said softly. “All delicate pink folds and tiny clit – like the prettiest little flower.” And before Mia could say anything, he bent his head toward the object of his admiration, carefully separating the said folds with his fingers, his tongue unerringly finding the sensitive area around her clitoris.
Startled by the sudden lash of pleasure, Mia cried out and arched against his mouth, her entire body tensing from a sensation so intense that it was almost intolerable. Her hands somehow found their way into his hair, tightening there, trying to force him into a harder rhythm that would give her immediate release. But Korum refused to be rushed, and his tongue continued its maddeningly light strokes around her nub, keeping her hovering right on the edge. And just when Mia thought she would go out of her mind, he finally pressed the flat side of his tongue against her clit, moving it back and forth with just enough force for her to reach her peak with a loud scream, her whole body quaking from the strength of her climax.
Panting and weak, she lay there as he watched her vagina pulsating from the orgasm, his interest apparently still not fully satisfied. Once she had recovered a bit, he started to climb on top of her again, but Mia whispered, “Wait.”
To her surprise, he listened, pausing for a second.
Still trembling slightly in the aftermath of what she’d just experienced, she sat up and gave Korum a challenging smile, her left hand reaching out to stroke his balls. “Turnabout is fair play,” she said softly. “Why don’t you lie down now?”
His eyes turned a deeper shade of gold, and Mia could feel his balls tightening within her hand. It excited him, she realized, when she took the initiative like that.
“How about I stand?” he suggested instead, and Mia nodded, liking the idea even more. Getting on her knees on the tall bed, she reached out and ran her hands down his chest, reveling in the feel of hard muscle covered by soft skin. His flesh was hot and firm to the touch, and she could almost believe he was a statue of some Greek or Roman god come to life.
Her right hand traveled lower, down the taut muscles of his stomach and followed the faint trail of hair down to his sex. Wrapping her fingers around his shaft, Mia felt his penis growing even harder in her grasp. She stroked it gently, enjoying the velvety texture of his skin there, and he groaned, closing his eyes, the expression on his face almost bordering on pain.
Encouraged, Mia pressed her lips against his chest and kissed her way down his body, slowly kneeling until her mouth was hovering just above his
penis. His breath caught in anticipation, and Mia smiled and licked him, her tongue flicking lightly over the sensitive tip. He hissed, his hips thrusting at her. His hands buried themselves on her hair, bringing her face closer to his sex, until Mia had no choice but to open her mouth and let him in.
At the feel of her lips closing around his cock, he shuddered, and she could taste the faint saltiness of pre-cum. Her loins tightened as a tremor of arousal ran through her.
His pleasure turned her on, Mia realized, reveling in the effect she had on him. She rarely got a chance to do this, to take him in her mouth and make him come, because he was always so focused on driving her crazy, making her scream with ecstasy in his arms.
Cupping his balls with her left hand, she wrapped the right one lower around the base of his shaft and began a slow rhythmic movement, taking him deeper into her mouth every time. She couldn’t accept his full length, of course, but he didn’t seem to care, his fingers tightening in her hair almost to the point of pain.
Then she could feel him swelling up even further, getting impossibly long and thick, and a warm, salty liquid spurted into her mouth as he came with a harsh cry, his head thrown back in ecstasy.
After a minute, Korum’s fingers slowly unclenched in her hair as he withdrew his softening shaft from her mouth. Looking down at her, he smiled. “That was amazing,” he told her and Mia stared up at him, slowly licking her lips and tasting the remnants of his seed there. She didn’t know why she found it so exciting, giving him pleasure, but she did. She was fully aroused again, as though the powerful orgasm she’d just had was days in the past, instead of just minutes.
Climbing onto the bed, he brought her toward him and pulled her dress off over her head. At the sight of her naked body, his sex stirred again, and Mia’s stomach clenched with anticipation as he drew her toward him, covering her mouth with his in an all-consuming kiss.
And then he took her, possessing her with his body even as he now owned her heart and soul.
Chapter 13
Over the next ten days, Mia fell into a routine. Her days were almost entirely consumed with her apprenticeship at Saret’s lab, while Korum occupied her evenings and – quite frequently – nights.
Interning at the lab proved to be a grueling and mentally exhausting job, yet Mia learned more in a few days there than she had during her entire three years of college. Saret made no allowances for her ignorance or for the fact that, as a human, she was slower at certain tasks than his other assistants. On the very first day, he paired her up with Adam and assigned them three projects, the most interesting of which was to figure out how to improve the process of knowledge transfer for Krinar children. Knowledge transfer, Mia had learned, was the way in which Ks educated their young – essentially imprinting the necessary information on their maturing brains, thus eliminating the need for rote learning of such basics as reading, writing, math, and history.
After giving her a whirlwind tour of the highly advanced technology used in the lab, Saret told Adam to explain to Mia the research they’d done thus far and to show her the necessary recordings and readings. By the time Mia left the lab on her first day, it had already been ten in the evening, and she had been completely exhausted. Korum had been furious with Saret, but her new boss proved surprisingly inflexible: Mia was either working as hard as the other apprentices, or he had no room for her in his lab. After a major argument between the two Ks, which included several thinly veiled threats from Korum, Saret had reluctantly agreed that Mia would go home at seven on most nights – except when they were running critical simulations. On those days, she would have to stay until midnight, same as the rest of the lab crew. Mia had protested that she didn’t mind, that she loved to learn and would stay as late as necessary, but Korum refused to hear it. “You’re human, and you’re my charl. I’m not letting you wear yourself out like this,” he told her flatly.
And her routine was thus set.
In an effort to keep up with the tremendous amount of information coming her way on a daily basis, Mia placed a number of work-related recordings on the paper-thin tablet Korum had given her earlier. The tablet turned out to be waterproof, and Mia multitasked by watching some videos during her showers. Korum had been less than pleased when he’d found out, muttering that she was even more obsessed with this internship than she’d been with her schoolwork, but he didn’t stand in her way. In fact, he even set up a comfortable place for her in his office, where she could study next to him in the evenings while he worked on his designs.
Adam proved to be indispensable as a lab partner, and Mia quickly realized that Saret had done her a huge favor by putting them together on the projects. The young K – he was only twenty-eight, she’d learned – was razor-sharp and extremely comfortable working with a human. As a teenager, he had apparently already made a fortune in the stock market and set up his adopted human family with a sizable trust fund, ensuring that they would always have a comfortable life. He also held a number of microchip patents that Intel and Apple were bidding for and was hoping to do an apprenticeship with Korum’s company in a few years. To her surprise, she learned that he actually had a human girlfriend (he refused to call her his charl). When Mia tried to pry further, sensing a fascinating story, he refused to divulge any other details. He did promise to have Mia meet her one day, and she had to be content with that.
In the first few days, Mia felt so overwhelmed that she wanted to cry, her brain hurting from the sheer amount of learning that she was trying to accomplish each day. To help her, Adam suggested that they try imprinting her with some of the necessary information, just like they would a Krinar child. Mia initially resisted the idea, but after struggling with basic data collection using some of the more complex lab equipment, she grudgingly agreed. Saret had been delighted to have a live subject to experiment on, even if she didn’t qualify as either a child or a Krinar, and requested Korum’s permission to try the new imprinting procedure on Mia. After grilling both Saret and Adam about the process’s safety and potential side effects, her cheren gave his consent, telling Mia that he hoped it would help her with the difficulty of the initial adjustment period. As a result, Mia spent the majority of the weekend inside the imprinting chamber, her brain rapidly absorbing all the information that Saret had deemed to be useful to his assistant.
By the time Mia left the chamber on Sunday evening, she felt dizzy and nauseated, but she knew enough neurobiology to qualify for an honorary doctorate in the subject. She could also potentially perform brain surgery, particularly on a Krinar subject – although she didn’t think she’d enjoy the physical aspects of that specific task. At the same time, she had – at least theoretically – mastered all the equipment in Saret’s lab and now felt infinitely more comfortable with Krinar technology overall.
After the imprinting, a whole new world opened up to Mia, and her second week in Saret’s lab was significantly less stressful than the first. Instead of feeling like a bumbling idiot all the time, she actually knew how to do all of the simple – and many of the more advanced – tasks that Saret required from his assistants. The three other apprentices in the lab – who had initially looked amused at her presence there – began to treat her as more of an equal, letting her share some of their tools and equipment. They were still reserved around her, as if uncertain about a human in their midst, but Mia didn’t let it bother her. There had been plenty of Krinar applicants for her position, and she was only there because of Korum. It was understandable that the other apprentices thought she didn’t really deserve this opportunity. Mia was determined to prove them wrong.
Now that she had a solid foundation with the imprinting, she became much faster at learning and was even able to offer some suggestions to Adam about potential improvements in the imprinting process. He had already thought of most of them, of course, but he nonetheless told Saret about Mia’s progress, and her boss said that she appeared to have a natural aptitude for his field – words of praise she would’ve never expected
to hear from a Krinar.
She loved working at the lab so much that she wondered why the previous assistant had left.
“I’m not sure,” Adam told her. “Saur just up and left one day. He told Saret he was quitting, and the next day he was gone. He was always a little strange, kind of a loner – none of us knew him that well. But he was really smart. He did a lot of work with mind manipulation, which is the most complex part of what we do. Nobody has seen him since he left. I don’t think he’s in Lenkarda anymore.”
On the home front, her relationship with Korum had undergone a significant change. After her first, rather unwilling confession of love, she felt like she had nothing left to hide, and the words now came quickly and easily to her tongue. Korum seemed to revel in the new situation, frequently demanding that she tell him how much she loved him, and there was a constant warm glow in his eyes when he looked at her. At times, she thought that he had to love her back, at least a little bit, but she didn’t want to ask for fear of spoiling the fragile truce that now seemed to reign between them. Instead, for the first time in her life, she chose to live in the moment and not dwell on the past or worry about the future.
Korum’s own days were occupied with the trial and all the associated politics, and he would often tell her about it over dinner. The Council had commissioned an investigation into the supposed memory loss of the Keiths, and various mind experts – including Saret – had to testify as to the validity of these findings. It was beginning to seem that the memory loss was indeed real, and the final verdict was put off until the Council could find out what exactly had happened and who was behind these strange events. Korum still suspected that Loris was the culprit, but he didn’t have enough evidence to sway the rest of the Council. As a result, the Keiths enjoyed a temporary reprieve while the investigation was ongoing.