And then there was only one cock. Hard, long, so deep inside her. Braden pulled her against him, his hips moving rapidly. He kissed her, their mouths all over each other’s, strong hands stroking her body.
Elisa kissed him again and again, sweat slick on their bodies, Braden driving harder into her. She felt the joyous pressure of the butt plug sliding back into her—thank you, Justin—then the hum of the vibration.
The little movement, jiggling her in her backside while Braden opened her so wide, sent her over the top.
“I love it,” she shouted. “I love it, Braden. I love you!”
She slammed down against him, rocking with the wondrous feeling of both him and the vibrator, her words spiraling into incoherence.
Braden arched his body to push up into her, hard, his seed barreling out of him as his shout rang to the ceiling.
They went on together, both peaking, Elisa coming apart, Braden holding her and keeping her safe. Justin’s warm weight pressed against Elisa’s back, his hands and voice soothing.
Together, her Shareem brought her down from her heights, into a warm and comforting place that Elisa never, ever wanted to leave.
But when she woke, after the mind-numbing sleep she fell into on top of Braden, both were gone. They’d cleaned up and taken everything with them, leaving no sign that they’d ever been there.
Chapter Eighteen
“What are you doing in here?” Braden demanded a day later, staring into the open doorway of his second bedroom. “Where’s Justin?”
Elisa turned around with a calm smile as though she were doing nothing unusual.
Braden had just spent hours buried in ale, trying to convince himself that leaving Elisa was the right thing to do. He comes home, and here she is, going through the built-in drawers of Justin’s room. Putting things in, not taking them out.
“Elisa, what the hell?”
“I’m moving in,” Elisa said. “Justin’s found another place. This is such a small apartment I thought I’d store my things in here, regardless of where I sleep.”
Regardless, Braden thought, somewhere behind the buzzing in his brain. Those sexy words again.
“You have a house in the Serestine Quarter,” he said. “It’s modest for the hill, but it’s a hell of a lot nicer than this one.”
Elisa shrugged. “I’ll use it for vacation. Or rent it to others in the Way of the Sky. Or donate it to the order. I haven’t yet decided.”
Braden braced one hand on the wall and tried to remember he was a Dom. “This is my apartment, sweetheart. I decide who stays.”
“It’s not yours, actually. You rent it from the government on sufferance. They can turn you out anytime they want. That is, they could have, but not any longer. Not now that I’ve purchased it.”
The danger of Braden falling increased. “You purchased it?”
“Much of this block, actually. Your apartment is one of a dozen in this complex. I decided I’d use this one as mine. You don’t have to pay rent if you don’t want to. That will save you a few coins.”
Braden gave up and sagged against the doorframe. “Who said I wanted you to buy my apartment block and give me free rent?”
Her smile didn’t fade. “It really has nothing to do with you, Braden. I’ll need a place close to the Pas City library, and your place is just around the corner. I requested a transfer, you see. The library down here is small and pathetically equipped, but I intend to turn that around. I’d much rather help people who truly need to learn than indulge highborn women who want to look themselves up in the society archives.”
Braden’s tongue lay heavily in his mouth. It had been harder than hell to leave her sleeping at her house two nights ago. He’d wanted to snuggle with her until morning—getting rid of Justin first—but he’d made himself go.
His purpose in going up to her house had been to teach her that Shareem were difficult to take. Once would be enough. She’d have her fill and want no more.
And now she’d plunged herself into the heart of all the dangers that came with the Shareem.
“No,” he said. “I can’t explain why it’s too dangerous for you to stay here. You just have to trust me. And get out.”
“Do you mean the fact that you and other Shareem are trying to get off planet?” she floored him by saying. “To start a new life elsewhere?”
Braden was across the room in two strides, his hand over her mouth. “Who the hell has been talking to you? And why are you saying it so loudly?”
Elisa pulled at his hand until he lowered it again. “Don’t worry—I had every listening device removed from this block as soon as it became mine. Not that most of them worked anyway.”
“Shit.”
“And no one told me about your plans. I deduced them.”
“Deduced…”
She gave him a pitying look. “Really, Braden. A Shareem comes to my library, gains access to a restricted computer and charms me into authorizing it with my own print. He looks up a ton of transport data, erases the time stamps and sends me a singing sphere as thanks. A wildly inappropriate gift for simple help at a library. It’s as though he feels guilty about something.”
“No, I can just get singing spheres cheap.”
“Don’t interrupt.” She lifted her hand, so graceful, even when she was pissed off. “Next you give me the best few weeks of my life then, just when we’re starting to like each other—no, not like. I’m not afraid to say it. When we start to fall in love, you tell me you must leave me for my own good. Put all that with your secretive gatherings in Judith’s bar and I start to draw conclusions.”
“Hell.”
Elisa’s smile blossomed. “I might be naïve about sexuality and the like, but not about people. It’s amazing what you can learn about people when you work in a library. You’ve been planning to escape Bor Narga, haven’t you, and you didn’t want me to know, in case repercussions came my way. Am I right? I know I am, so don’t bother to deny it.”
“Stop.” Braden rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Just stop, Elisa. You’re talking so fast you’re giving me a headache.”
“Sorry.” Elisa touched his forehead, rubbed her thumb there. “I babble when I get excited.”
“Sweetheart, you can’t know this. You’re right that I don’t want you to suffer the backlash. The less you know, the better. Moving in with me is a stupid thing to do.” He stepped away from her. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ll just move out.”
“Braden, I came here because I want to be with you. I don’t care about repercussions. I can even help you. I have resources, I know people.”
Damn, she was so fucking sweet, he was going to die. She wanted to help, just like Katarina, just like Brianne, just like Talan. Elisa wanted to be one of them, to live and die with them.
But the problem was, she might just die.
“You gave up the order,” he said. “You’re not protected by your celibate status anymore.”
Elisa stepped close to him, kissed him briefly on the lips and turned away to resume unpacking.
“You don’t understand the celibate orders then. Once you’re a part of them, you are highly respected, even if you choose to leave. People don’t want to mess with you in case you still have powerful friends in your Way, which I do. These friends love me, understand me and don’t blame me for what I’ve done. Did you know, for instance, that the holy lady of the Way of the Sky, Lady t’Lenka, is related to the ruling family? She’s Brianne d’Aroth’s grandmother’s aunt. An aunt who likes to have her wishes carried out without question. The latest restrictions on Shareem have been lifted, by the way. As of this morning.”
“Whoa. Wait. The lady who runs your celibate order is Brianne’s great-great aunt?”
Elisa nodded. “That’s right.”
“Hell. That will melt Aiden and Ky’s butter.”
“I didn’t know, actually, until yesterday. Lady t’Lenka has so divorced herself from her old life that she never talks about it. But she told
me when I approached her about the restrictions and asked what I could do about them. She talked to Brianne’s grandmother, as a favor to me.”
“Elisa.” Braden resisted the urge to seize her, to yell at her, to shake her, to push her onto the bed and fall on top of her. “You got the restrictions lifted so Shareem could conspire together easier?”
She gave him a thoughtful look. “Yes. Well, that and the restrictions are so unfair.”
“Elisa, what am I going to do with you?”
“You’re going to let me help you, that’s what.”
Braden made a noise of exasperation. “Damn it, I don’t want you helping. I don’t want you to have any part of this. Don’t you understand that if we’re caught—if any patroller has the slightest suspicion about what we’re doing—we’ll be terminated? And you’ll be arrested right along with us.”
Elisa had her back to him, lifting the singing sphere from a crate. She set it on a small table and stepped back to admire it.
“I won’t get caught,” she said, sounding certain of herself. “Neither will you. You’re very careful—all you Shareem are so careful, in spite of pretending to be the most careless bunch of sex-crazed males ever created. And once we get off planet, I have enough money that you and I can go where we wish, live as we wish. I do like your apartment, Braden, but I think we’d need something a little larger eventually. Especially if we decide to have a family.”
Holy fucking crap on a crutch.
“We were bred to be sterile, remember? They give us all those damn shots to make sure we stay that way.”
Elisa shook her head. “But if you don’t take the contraceptive shots for a time, maybe your ability to have children will return. Katarina and I have been talking about this, and she’s researching it.” She touched the singing sphere and its music vibrated through the room. “After all, Justin had a child, didn’t he?”
Braden stopped, all feeling leaving his body. “Elisa, how the hell…did you know that?”
She shrugged. “It only makes sense. Justin was freed on Sirius III. I know his lover there passed away, but still, why in the world would he leave a place where he was happy, loved and free—to come back here? He can’t ever leave Bor Narga again, and he’s now under the same restrictions and regulations as the rest of the Shareem. Justin chose captivity. No one does that unless they have a very good reason, and that reason usually involves another person.”
Braden folded his arms across his chest, as though holding himself together. “Go on.”
“It made me ponder. If Justin came back for a lady he’d loved, wouldn’t he have found a way to get her to Sirius to be with him? If the lady didn’t love Justin back, he’d hardly have come back here after twenty-five years to find her again. I thought maybe the lady in question was married to someone else, but even then, why would he come to Bor Narga—wouldn’t it be easier for them to meet in secret off planet somewhere? That left a child. One he conceived before he left, one who maybe doesn’t know anything about him. After twenty-five years, that child would be a grown-up person, easier to find, easier to approach. A son or a daughter who probably doesn’t even know they have anything to do with Shareem.”
She finished, smiling, looking proud of her conclusions.
“You are too damn smart,” Braden said. “Too damn smart for your own good.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Braden let out a breath. “I hope to the gods none of the patrollers are that smart.”
“They’re not,” Elisa said. “They see Shareem as mindless beings, the fools. In their opinion, Justin came back here because he couldn’t think of anything else to do once his lady on Sirius passed away. They don’t think males can think for themselves, especially not Shareem.” She paused. “I’m right, aren’t I? About the child?”
“Yes. It’s a daughter.”
“Poor Justin. His secret is safe with me, believe me.”
“I know it is.” Braden went to her, hot, panicked and hurting all together. “I know you won’t tell anyone, sweetheart. You’ve been good to me since the day I saw you behind that desk. All innocent and pretty and…librarian-ish.”
“I was fascinated by you,” Elisa said. “You were my first Shareem.”
And by all the gods, Braden swore he’d be her only one.
Braden touched her face, looking into green-flecked brown eyes brimming with sincerity. What the hell had he done to deserve this wonderful woman? This beauty who’d charged down from her high-priced house on the hill to take care of him?
“Elisa, I’m so fucking in love with you, it scares the hell out of me.”
Her eyes warmed. “Why should it scare you?”
“Because we can’t be in love.”
“Why not? I don’t believe the lie that Shareem don’t have emotions.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean because it’s too dangerous.” Braden rested his forehead against hers. “If something happened to you, I’d die.”
“Then we’ll be very, very careful.” She kissed his lips, her mouth soft. “I love you, Braden. I’m staying with you, and I’ll help you, and I’ll get you free. I promise.”
“I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. Not until Justin figures things out. I get why he wants to stay, and I’m staying with him.”
“Of course you are. We’ll help Justin too. I don’t think that pilot—Mitch is his name?—will mind the excuse to keep visiting Judith.”
“You know about that too, do you?”
Elisa shrugged. “I’m a librarian. Knowledge is my business.”
Braden pulled her close, his hands sliding around her waist. “What do I do, Elisa? I love you so much. It’s killing me to not be with you.”
“Then be with me.”
Such a simple solution. Risk everything, acknowledge love, be together every day. Braden craved it with his whole being.
“All right.” He kissed her lips, the corners of her mouth. “You win, damn you. Stay, and we’ll fall together.”
Saying it, surrendering to the love, relaxed something inside Braden that had been tight for years. He felt floating, free. Lightheaded, even.
He gave a name to the feeling, one he’d never had in his long and totally screwed-up life.
Happiness.
He kissed Elisa, his love, his lifemate. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him down into the kiss. Her lips were hot, wet, her wicked little tongue delving into his mouth and tasting him back.
That kiss led into a second, equally passionate one. Braden scooped Elisa against him, liking that she’d worn a thin tunic. Her nipples were hard behind it, pressing points into the fabric.
Elisa rubbed her hips against him, smiling into the kiss when she felt his rock-stiff hard-on. “Next time you go for your inoculations, will you tell Katarina to take out the sterility drugs?”
Braden’s heart beat faster. “You want to risk that?”
“I want a family. With you. We’ll find a way.”
Braden wanted it too. He completely understood why Justin had voluntarily come back here to rules and regulations just for a glimpse of his daughter. That pull, that love, was amazing.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.” He cupped her waist and slanted her a sudden and wicked smile. “And now, love, what is this about you buying my apartment building without my permission?”
“It was a gift. For you.”
“Don’t disarm me with those sweet eyes. I was thinking along the lines of a little discipline.”
The spark in Elisa’s eyes made Braden’s heart leap. She was too special; liked to play his games and knew exactly when Braden needed to play them.
“Maybe I’ve been a bit naughty,” she said, smile sly.
“I’m glad to hear it. But I don’t think I’ll give you a punishment here.”
She looked surprised. “No?”
“No. Do you still have the key codes to your Serestine Quarter library?”
�
�Yes.” The spark again. “Why?”
Braden leaned to her and lightly kissed her lips, grinning. “It’s a surprise.”
* * * * *
In less than an hour, Elisa found herself leaning over her reference desk in the closed library, Braden swiftly stripping off her clothes.
The library was dark except for the little light below her desk that sent illumination upward. The atrium was like a silent, waiting jungle, the trickling of the fountain loud in the stillness.
She’d worked at this desk for two years, and never had it been this much fun. She looked over her familiar console and keypad, the drawer that stuck a little, the now-dark frame where she’d displayed her holopics.
Familiar and yet strange in the dark, with her naked. With a man looming behind her in the darkness, his growling voice telling her to spread herself across the desk.
Elisa laid down on it, stretching her arms above her head, tingling with pleasure when Braden clicked cuffs around her wrists. He’d pulled off his tunic and stood next to the desk, hard and dark.
The tip of his cock touched her lips. “Suck me.”
Yes. Elisa opened her mouth and welcomed him in, loving the now-familiar taste of his cock in her mouth. She licked the tip, moved her tongue on the underside and sucked the way he liked it.
Braden let her for a while, rocking his hips, hand on her back, softly telling her how beautiful she was. He withdrew before she finished, backing out of the way of her outstretched hands.
“Not yet,” he said. “I want to come with you.”
“But I like it when you come in my mouth,” she said.
Braden made a sound like a growl. “Hell, don’t tell me that.”
He reached into his pack and pulled out the thin strap. Elisa squirmed in excitement.
She screamed when the first lash landed on her buttocks, her laughter ringing up through the atrium. The leather hissed through the air—swish, slap. Swish, slap.
Then Braden’s lips, kissing away the fire, his tongue probing down between her buttocks.
Elisa moved against the desk, knowing now how to pleasure herself on the surface below while Braden worked her ass.
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