by Jocelyn Modo
“We are recently bonded in body. Our feelings are intense. New. No one can blame us for acting on them, Azure.”
“Your brothers—”
“Are idiots.” He smiled over her shoulder. “No offense, Wharm.”
Blushing like crazy, she met Wharm’s gaze.
“None taken,” Wharm said, studying Azure. “But don’t lump me with Kana. No, I don’t have an intimate. And I have no idea what it feels like to be you. But I do know how lucky my brother is. How much I wish I could take his place. How stupid he was to resist the bond, even for a moment. Vitca or no.”
She turned on Lone. “Is that why you rejected me at first? Because I’m Vitca?”
Wharm interjected. “Because of Bracid.”
“Shut up, Wharm.”
Wharm raised his eyebrows. “Azure is your intimate. You need to tell her the truth. Let her know your past so she can understand who you are. Don’t let Bracid come between the two of you.”
Lone swore at his brother, cursing the unseen gods, first in Nashete then in Vitca, so obscenely Azure gasped in shock and dismay.
Wharm held up his hands, palms out. “Just saying.” He turned and sauntered off through the crowd in the direction of a large Vitca buffet.
When he was out of hearing range, she turned to Lone and asked, “Who is Bracid?”
Lone brushed his fingers through his thick, black hair, a muscle in his jaw twitching.
When he didn’t answer, her imagination took over. She saw him in her mind’s eye having sex with someone else, a Nashete female whom he loved and would always love. Oh gods, his heart belonged to another. That’s why their spirit bond initiated before their heart bond. He couldn’t heart bond with her. He loved another.
“Who is she?” she asked again, a tremble in her voice.
“Not who you think.” Lone rubbed his eyes, his shoulders slumped. “Bracid was our mother. A Vitca female bonded body, heart and soul to our Nashete father. Still she left us, left him, when the alliance marriage contract expired after five years.”
Azure had heard about the initiative to create Nashete-Vitca alliances in hopes of finding peace between the two races through marriage. She even knew the initiative had failed. But she’d had no idea that failing meant fully bonded intimates had abandoned their children, broken their bonds because of racist beliefs so well imbedded in their psyches that even a family they created could not open their hearts.
“Gods, I’m sorry, Lone.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m not her, you know.”
He said nothing.
“Why do you think I’m so freaked out about the spirit bond starting already?” She reached up and pulled his face down so that his eyes finally met hers. “I’m worried about bonding fully to you before we really know each other, because once our trinity-of-beings are joined, I will never, ever break our bonds. Lone, I would never abandon you or our children like your mother did. I would never leave you a half soul to live a half life. I don’t give a damn that you’re dual blood. I actually kind of like that about you.”
He crushed his mouth to hers, kissing her, uncaring that they were in public, or that they were probably drawing a crowd of Nashete and Vitca who were equally appalled at the rude display the Vitca female and dual blood male were putting on for all the universe to see.
And this time Azure didn’t care either. Let them look. Let them watch. Let them think her a whore or a lowborn. The only opinions that mattered to her were her own and Lone’s.
He broke the kiss, a smile playing his lips. “I think you’re a goddess sent to me from the blessed stars to brighten my life with your loving kindness.”
She glanced around at the disapproving Nashete and Vitca faces and busted out laughing until she snorted. She slapped a hand over her mouth as she blushed.
Laughing, Lone tucked her under his arm and guided her to a nearby Vitca buffet. He plucked a plate off the table and began piling on food. “You need to eat. I can feel your lightheadedness.”
“Uhm-hmm.” She felt safe, tucked into him like she was, as if she belonged there, had always belonged right there. But did she really? “Lone, will you tell me about yourself, your life?”
“Of course,” he said as they loaded their plates with food. He told her about his childhood, the love he had for his family, the heartbreak that changed him forever when his mother abandoned them, the recent murder of his father whom he and his brothers had come to the peace talks to honor.
Lone guided her to an empty table, placed the plate of food on the table and offered her a chair. She sat and he sat next to her.
“Eat,” he said.
“Talk,” she said.
“More?” He leaned back in his chair with a laugh. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”
She glanced at him then back at her plate. “What are your expectations of our bond?”
“I don’t want anything you aren’t willing to give, Azure.” He snatched a piece of fish and held it in front of her mouth until she parted her lips. He popped the piece into her mouth and as she chewed he continued. “You mentioned offspring earlier. I’d love to be the father of your children. As few or as many as you desire.”
She smiled. “Being an only child, I’ve always want a big family with lots of children running around, making noise and messes and laughter.”
He returned her smile. “Good. Then that’s settled. We’ll have lots of little ones underfoot.”
“But I don’t want them right away.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye to see his reaction. He didn’t look upset. “I’m just an adult myself. I want…”
“To be free,” he finished for her.
“Yes,” she whispered, worried.
He selected a piece of sweet bread and offered it to her. She bit off a piece—delicious.
“Just because you’re bonded to me doesn’t mean imprisonment. I would give you the universe wrapped in a pretty bow, Azure. You want to visit the embryonic stars in the Serpens System or the nude beaches of planet Clampin or take a cruise through the Helix nebula, we’ll go. And if I can’t go with you, you’ll go with guards to protect you in my place.”
Azure stared at him, fully aware that her jaw was ajar, that she was gaping at him, but unable to do anything about it. He was offering her family and freedom. Safe reality and her wildest dream. He was offering her everything she had ever wanted. Wrapped up in a pretty bow.
With a terrible ache, her heart opened, offered the beginnings of a bond.
Lone went still, his breath the only sign of life. Then he turned slowly to face her, his eyes the dark obsidian of night, wide and clear and wholly shocked.
“You offer me your heart?” His words were hoarse, a wild whisper.
“Yes,” she hissed through the psychic pain and bodily pleasure that spilled through her, sweeping away the last of her resistance and fear. “My heart is yours. If you want it.”
He groaned. His eyes closed.
A piercing pain lanced her heart. She whimpered, wrapped her fingers around the seat of the chair and white-knuckled it as the first tender strands of her heart met and married the taut strands of Lone’s heart.
She’d thought that once the first seal was in place, the pain would dissipate, but it only grew more intense. Then with a sudden jolt, she was flying through the air, being stripped bare, wrapped around the warm, hard body belonging to her intimate.
Her eyes flew open. She was in a hotel room bed. With Lone, who planted kisses over her face and ran his hand over back, her ass, up her stomach, circling her breasts to rest over her heart.
“Using our body bond will make the joining of our hearts easier,” he said against her mouth.
It was an entreaty, she realized. He was asking for her okay, making sure that she wanted this, him. She couldn’t want anything more.
“Yes,” she said. “Please.”
Lone couldn’t breathe for his need of her. But he held himself in check unti
l she said yes. Then he wrapped his arms around his intimate and rolled onto his back, bringing her with him so that she draped his body.
He opened wide their body bond, allowing him to feel her every sensation, allowing her to experience everything he felt, doubling their pleasure, multiplying the intensity of their lovemaking. In theory. He could only hope that what he’d read was true.
Since she had given him the gift of the beginnings of her heart, he wanted to give her the gift of his body. She would lead in this session of lovemaking—at least so long as he could hold himself in check.
She was already driving him crazy, laying kisses down on his chest, over his heart, his pecs, then up to his neck and ears. When she met his mouth, she nipped his lower lip, surprising him with her playfulness in the midst of the drama and trauma of their bonding hearts.
He met her kiss for kiss, touch for touch, sigh for sigh.
And when she guided his cock to her hot little pussy, he held himself still, allowing her to slowly take him into her body, inch by deliberate inch. He balled up the expensive bedding and gritted his teeth, refusing to take over. No matter how much he wanted to clutch her hips and thrust up into her.
Yes, he liked to be the one in charge in the bedroom. Hell, he preferred to be in charge in every aspect of his life. But he’d be damned by the unseen gods for eternity before he took freedom of choice from his intimate who so desperately needed to feel safe and in control. He understood her need, knew from their bonding that she had spent her life in a cage like a domesticated animal, like a beast of burden, doing what she was told when she was told by those who had no thought to her feelings.
The heart bond grew stronger as Azure rolled her hips, riding him, her hands planted on his chest, her eyes closed and lips parted.
She was beyond beautiful. And he knew now why his father, whom Lone had always loved but resented, had risked and lost everything to bond with his intimate. Lone’s whole being—body, heart and spirit—demanded he open himself up to become completely vulnerable to this Vitca female. To deny their bond would be like denying himself food and water.
He shuttered his eyes as she leaned down to take his lips in a deep kiss. His hands released the bedding to cup her face without his conscious thought or permission. Lone had to touch her, had to bury his fingers in her silky blue hair, had to roll her under him…but he didn’t pin her down, didn’t take full control. He shared it with her, matching the rhythm she set, following her lead, showing her without words that he meant it when he said that they would be equals in their relationship.
Her body trembled, tightened, and his body responded in kind, his muscles bunching, his pace quickening. She arched off the bed, her small but beautiful breasts an offering to him.
With his first lick of her little nipple, she shouted his name. He gave her a gentle nip and she came undone, thrashing wildly beneath him, wrapping her legs around his hips to thrust up again as she milked him.
Lone came with her name on his lips, her taste on his tongue, her gasping breath on his neck.
As the tremors dissipated, he gathered her to him and rolled them both so that her light weight collapsed on him instead of his heavy weight smothering her.
Time passed at the pace of their beating hearts, quickly slowing until the moment became timeless. Lone couldn’t think of anywhere else he would rather be—ever.
But eventually, Azure stirred, her head lifting, her citrine gaze meeting his. A smile played on her well-kissed lips, which she parted to say, “I accept you as my intimate, the male with whom I wish to bond. As you are in my body, you are also in my heart and spirit.”
Chapter Five
Azure felt Lone go ridgid beneath her. He became stone still as she spoke the words that would formalize their bond…if he repeated them back to her. But he remained speechless.
Her heart beat to the primitive rhythm of fear.
She should have waited for him to initiate the formal bond between them. It was, after all, customarily the male’s place to do so. He was not the submissive type and he’d been so generous, allowing her to take the lead in their lovemaking…there was only so much an assertive male like Lone could take. Had she crossed the line?
“No,” Lone said, reaching up to brush the hair out of her eyes. “I’m truly ecstatic that you initiated the formal bond. You just…shocked the hell out of me.”
He pulled her down for a world-changing kiss and grew hard inside her once more. She groaned at the amazing feeling of him getting bigger within her.
Breaking the kiss, he thrust against her and she reveled at the power of his body as he repeated the bonding words. Her body loved him in perfect synchronicity, their first bond strong and almost surreal in its perfection.
He clutched her ass and drove up into her, filling her until her pleasure spilled over. She came. Hard. With a loud yell that surely would have reached throughout the space station if not for the soundproof walls.
Lone shouted her name, pumping his seed into her, locking his gaze with hers, allowing her to see his vulnerability, his growing love for her, his mounting possessiveness as their bond grew by leaps and bounds.
When, at last, their breathing had normalized and their hearts held a steady rhythm, Lone reached for a case that was on the bedside.
Azure propped herself up on her elbows to watch him open the small, flat box, knowing through their bond that this was important.
Inside were various types of intelligent chips, all illegal to possess unless licensed by either the Nashete or Vitca governments. What the hell?
“Lone, what are you doing with those?” It was traditional for bonded intimates to have locator chips imbedded in their hands but the procedure was performed by an elected official at a city hall.
“I work with the union movement,” he said distractedly, shuffling through the tiny illegal chips. “We use these to help persecuted people escape from either territory to find safety in the union.”
Azure’s heart thumped hard in her breast. When Wharm had said he worked with Trius, she hadn’t thought past his words to make the connection that Lone most likely worked in the union movement as well. Here she had been beating herself up for sidelining her mission when all along she had been bonding with a male who could help her rescue her cousin and keep them both safe in the top secret location of the union movement.
He drew out a chip, balancing it on the tip of his pointer finger, and then pressed it into the same-sized indentation on the box’s lid. The box turned white, ready for instructions.
“Transport of female to me,” he said.
Within seconds the chip box beeped twice and turned black once more.
Lone withdrew a chip planter about the same size as his pinky fingernail and loaded the chip.
Meeting Azure’s gaze, he said, “Once implanted, you’ll have the ability to transport to me no matter where you are.”
She frowned. “That technology is still supposed to be theoretical.”
“The Nashete government has been using transport chips for almost a year now. Though don’t ask them to admit it to the Vitca. They have no interest in sharing this latest technological breakthrough.”
“Why are you sharing it with me?”
He took her hand. “It’s my bonding gift to you. I swear I will always be there to care for and protect you. Will you accept my gift?”
Knowing that Nashete males were supposed to be even more possessive with their intimates than Vitca males, she hesitated to answer. But he’d programmed the chip for her to return to him by her will, not his. If anyone was giving up a piece of freedom, it was Lone. She’d be able to find him wherever he was whenever she wanted. There would be no place he could go where she couldn’t reach him.
“Yes.” She’d barely spoken the word before he planted the chip beneath her skin on the back of her hand.
The sharp sting of implantation brought tears to her eyes.
He kissed her hand and mouth, pouring his passion into
their lovemaking, taking it slow this time.
The sweet smell of Vitca flooded the room.
Someone yanked Azure out of bed.
Lone let loose a battle cry that sounded like murder.
Azure struggled against ten of her family’s guards, wishing this were a bad dream.
“Whore.” Azure’s father, Hower, slapped her.
She tasted blood.
“Release her,” Lone demanded in a hard, low voice that sent chills down her spine.
Hower sneered as his guards surrounded him. “I’ll deal with you soon enough, dual blood.”
“You’ll deal with me now.” Lone stood, uncaring of his nakedness, his black eyes fixed on her father. “Release my intimate.”
Hower jerked as if he’d been slapped. Blood filled his face, turning his skin reddish-purple. His nostrils flared, and Azure watched while he scented the truth of Lone’s words, fury making a mask of his face when he registered the fact that his daughter was bonding with a dual blood.
“You bitch!” He grabbed her neck and, holding her at arm’s length, squeezed, choking her.
She fought back, clawing his arm while Lone tore through the guards like a soldier through civilians. Still, he was overwhelmed by numbers. She watched him get swallowed up by men as intent on killing him as her father was on killing her. Oxygen supply cut off, her muscles quickly weakened. She wavered on her feet, cursing her weakness, wishing she could somehow save Lone if not herself. She didn’t want him to die because of her.
Through their body bond she could feel her intimate give and take blow after blow as he struggled so hard to make it to her side. No one had ever fought for her before. That Lone did so now seemed damned near miraculous.
Spots swam before her eyes. Her vision grew dark.
She had failed herself. She had failed her cousin. She had failed her intimate. Her last thought before she lost consciousness was, “I’m sorry.”
Lone watched in horror as Azure fell boneless to the floor, her words echoing in his head. No way was he allowing her father to take her away from him.