Revik wasn’t dead.
He’d never really left.
21
ACQUAINTING
I LAUGHED ALOUD when he yanked on my ankle, even when his tug pulled me under the surface. Getting a mouthful of salty water, I splashed him hard when he came up for air.
I saw him blink then cough even as he grinned, his pale eyes narrowing.
I was already pushing off the wall of the pool, trying to get away, when he lunged after me. He caught my ankle again when I tried to dive deeper, then I was laughing underwater, trying to twist away from his hold before I surfaced.
I managed to get away long enough to swim along the bottom of the pool, but when I followed the wall, coming up for air, he was waiting for me.
Within seconds, he had me pinned against the side. He pressed against me, holding the lip of the pool with his hands on either side of my face.
He kissed me for a long moment, pressing into me again when I curled an arm around his neck. Winding my legs around him, I slid my hand inside his bathing suit and he jumped, pausing long enough to look at me, smiling faintly before he glanced over his shoulder.
“Here?” he said, soft. He glanced again at where Garensche and Wreg stood on the other side of the pool, putting down towels as they talked. “There are people watching, wife...”
“They’re not looking. No one can see.”
“They’re about to jump into the pool.”
“They won’t notice,” I said, kissing his throat.
“They’ll notice if I start slamming you against the side of the pool and groaning...”
When I laughed aloud at this, he kissed me again, lowering one hand from the edge of the pool to hold my fingers against him. His mind was in mine then, sending me what he wanted, getting more explicit when I gasped against his mouth. He broke off the kiss, breathing harder when I continued to massage him.
“Well?” he said, leaning his face against mine.
“Well, what?”
“Think you could hold your breath that long?” he murmured, smiling faintly.
I laughed, slinging my arms around his neck.
“I think your pals might notice that, too...”
“Maybe you’re right.”
When I met his gaze, I caught him looking at me, that sadness in his eyes again. It was gone almost as soon as I saw it, replaced by another faint smile, but I clung to him tighter. He must have felt something, because he shook his head, his voice a murmur.
“No serious talk.” He kissed my mouth. “Please, Allie...not today.”
Before I could respond, he grabbed me around the waist, and began dragging me with him across the pool, swimming hard with his legs and his free arm.
I laughed, struggling against his hold. I shrieked when he reached the shallows and began to walk, picking me up and slinging me over his shoulder.
“You started it...” he reminded me.
“Put me down!”
“Really?” he said. He halted in mid-step, looking up at me.
I looked down at him, pausing in my struggle against his hands long enough to think. “No,” I said. “I guess not.”
His smile returned. He glanced at Wreg and Garensche.
“Sauna’s ours for awhile,” he said.
Wreg laughed. Garensche rolled his eyes in mock irritation, hands on his massive waist.
“Hose it down afterwards,” he said, “...I beg you...”
Revik walked up the stone steps, still holding me around the waist and legs. Yanking open the wooden door to the sauna they’d built into the rock wall, he carried me inside, then slammed the door shut behind us.
He laid me on the cedar plank bench, then used a wooden ladle to pour water on the rocks in the fire pit in the corner...which was an honest to gods fire pit, not an organic, or even an electrical one. It was already hot in there, but once he’d poured the water the air was dense, too...and dimly lit, with only the gold runner lights on.
“They’ll hear us,” I whispered.
“No, they won’t.” He looked at the door. “Thick walls.”
He proceeded to kiss me, pulling me onto his lap. He had his fingers inside me as he read me, sliding them deeper and with more precision until I was biting my lip not to cry out, clutching his neck. He was getting better at pulling on my light, too, even in just a few days, coaxing it out in a sensual pull until I was arched against his hand, my light and weight melted against his. After a few minutes, I was sweating, and not only from the clouded air.
“Stop,” I managed. “Stop...I’m going to come...”
“That’s the idea, love...”
“Stop...” I insisted, pushing his hand away.
He tried to maneuver me over him, but I stopped him from that, too.
“You’re doing everything but what you said you wanted,” I reminded him.
I felt his pain spike as he remembered. His eyes were glowing when he kissed me harder, then I slid down out of his lap, so that I was kneeling between his legs. I felt his pain worsen again as he looked at me, even before I yanked down his swimming trunks.
“You’re such a sucker for this,” I teased him.
He smiled at me; I saw it in the dark, below his faintly glowing eyes.
“Use the telekinesis, Allie...”
I just laughed, shaking my head.
Kissing his stomach, I caressed him gently, pushing his legs apart until he fell silent. When I felt his muscles start to relax, I took him in my mouth...pulling on him with my light until his back arched. I felt his whole body melt. A few minutes later, he let out a groan, and I felt his light respond, winding deeper into mine...deep enough to make me nervous...until I stopped, panting, fighting to control my own aleimi.
But I could tell he was still holding back. He had been since that first night.
Watching his face, I slid my light deeper into his, but cautiously, trying to remember what he’d done to me in Delhi. It took me a moment of experimenting with his light before I found it. Then I saw his expression change...his eyes closed, his face contorting in pain as he clutched at my hair. Fighting to breathe, he let out another low groan, staring at my face once his eyes were open. Then I put my mouth on him again.
“Gods...” He cried out, and I gripped his thigh, sending to him to be quiet. “I can’t...gods, baby...gods...Allie...do that again...”
I decided I didn’t care about the noise either. Replicating what I’d done to him before, I brought him to the edge, then rolled him back...and did it again. And again.
I lost track of how many times I got him to ask me, half drunk on his desire, losing most of my awareness again when he wound his light even deeper into mine. I still felt it in him though. A wall remained there, and he didn’t let me past it. I stopped him again.
He spoke up before I could.
“Alyson.” His eyes were glowing for real now. He tried to pull me up to him, but I resisted his hands. He was fighting me with his light then, but I pushed him back, telling him no. I felt him give in, but his pain flared at me, growing almost desperate.
“Alyson,” he said, his voice thick. “Alyson, gods...I’m going to fuck you with my light if you don’t let me...”
I gripped his thighs, smiling a little. He’d sounded like the boy just then. It didn’t bother me anymore though.
“Go ahead,” I said.
I used my light to calm him down, then kissed him again, taking him deeper until he was begging me, gripping my back. I was starting to calm him down, to slow him down...when I felt the wall in him start to give. He fought it, but I pulled on him harder, until I felt him understand, and then he knew what I was doing. I was about to stop, to just ask him, when it felt like someone else slid into me from behind.
Gripping his legs, I jumped violently, turning my head.
No one was there.
When I looked up at Revik, his face was taut with concentration.
“Let me,” he murmured. “Please...I won’t hurt you...”
/> When I continued to look at him, he caressed my face.
“I’ll give you what you want, Allie...I promise...just give me this first...”
I stared up at him. “Are you negotiating, husband?”
“Yes.” He nodded, and his pain ribboned out at me. “Yes.”
I hesitated, watching his face. The idea of letting him use his telekinesis on me made me more than a little nervous. I could tell he was distracting me from the other...maybe even pushing at my boundaries, trying to see what he could get away with. I also knew he might still be angry, whether he would admit it to me or not.
But I didn’t really believe he’d hurt me, no matter how angry he was.
“I won’t hurt you.” He caressed my face, his body melting against mine again. “I won’t hurt you, Allie,” he murmured. “Please...please, let me...please...”
After another bare pause, I nodded.
Tentatively, I slid my mouth back over him...and again I felt him inside me from behind. My spine arched involuntarily. I gripped his legs, still half-afraid, but he held me tighter.
“Allie” he said, his voice a gasp. “Please. Please trust me. I won’t hurt you, Allie...”
I forced myself to relax. He did it again, slower that time. I found myself moving with him the next time...by the next, I’d stopped fighting him almost entirely. My mouth was still on him, and when I let go, sliding my arms around his legs, I felt him building in seconds.
By then, his distraction was working. I couldn’t focus enough to slow him down...I heard him crying out my name, knew he was getting close when his back arched as he held himself back, trying to keep from hurting me with that other part of his physical organ.
He pulled my mouth off him when he couldn’t anymore, and I watched the harder end extend from the softer part of him, curving at the tip. I curled my tongue around it and he let out a weak cry, ejaculating almost the instant I had. He came for a long time, his eyes half-closed, his hands trembling as he caressed my hair and face.
As I felt it ebbing, I watched that part of him retract.
Then he focused back on me.
In minutes I could barely move.
He built into it gradually...almost carefully. I’d more than half-expected him to get back at me for teasing him, but he didn’t do that, either. It felt so much like him, I forgot it was his light and not his body as he experimented with going harder...then deeper. He didn’t push it too far, though, letting me relax without stopping me...or even slowing me down...until I had my arms wrapped around his legs and I was gasping, my head in his lap, my back arched.
When I got too close, he did stop me.
He pulled me up into his lap, his hands urgent...rolling with me to the bench before I even knew what he wanted.
Then he held me down, his hand on my shoulder as he entered me, hard, fully extended again. I found myself gripping his arms, crying out when he did it again. He rested his full weight on me as he angled deeper, then arched into me again. He did it until I was saying his name, my legs wrapped around his, wound so far into his light I lost all sense of where I was.
I felt him let go of the wall he’d been holding between us, somewhere in that.
Pain flooded my light. Again, his grief expanded over me, a denser vulnerability...and a wash of anger and hurt that made me cry out louder. I felt the desperation in it, a want to break me open...and I opened my light, trying to help him until he lost control, holding me still as he slammed into me harder, groaning from deep in his chest.
I came until I nearly blacked out, dimly aware that somewhere, I felt him do the same.
It took longer that time, after we finished, for me to be able to see straight again. When my vision finally cleared I found myself still clutching his hair and back in a death grip, my legs coiled around his. I could barely breathe...I lay there, panting in the thick air, and felt like I’d lost about five pounds in sweat.
When I looked up at him, he smiled.
He’d been watching me as I came back. His hair stuck to his neck; his eyes were glassed almost opaque...but I could see him there again. I saw the Revik I knew, felt him in his light all around me. He caressed my cheek with his fingers as I calmed down, until I saw a look in his eyes that made my chest hurt, a look I hadn’t seen in them in a long time.
“Is that what you wanted?” he said.
I nodded, gripping his hair tighter. Pain still flickered around my light. I fought to control it, feeling him start to retreat again. Watching that presence whisper away, disappearing back behind the other masks, brought up an irrational fear in me...nearly enough to make me blurt out everything to him. But I forced that back, too.
He’d been open to me again, for those few minutes at least.
I wondered how long it would take him to really let go.
He slid off me, sitting back. Taking a long breath, he leaned his back and then his head against the sauna wall, closing his eyes.
“Alyson...you’re going to kill me...”
I crawled into his lap, kissing his mouth.
“Is this gratitude?” he smiled.
I laughed. “Yes.”
“You want a bigger cock than mine?” he said.
Laughing again, I rolled my eyes. I slid deeper into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. “No. What about you?” I said. “Did I do all right? As good as the pros do it, you degenerate...? Or do I still need work on my technique?”
His eyes grew faintly pained.
Before I could regret what I’d said, he gripped my hair, kissing me harder, letting his light grow serious again as he sent to me how much he’d liked it. Groaning a little, he let his pain flare more as he remembered...along with explicit details about how he intended to return the favor later, back in the room. He was still more open than he had been, and I had to fight with my light again to keep it from winding back into his.
“Really?” I said, breaking off the kiss as I glimpsed one of his thoughts. “Why? You’re already stronger than me.”
“I want my hands free,” he murmured. “It’s an aesthetic, Allie...”
“An aesthetic.” I smiled. “I see. So tying me to your bed...it’s not about you being a control freak. It’s about you expressing yourself as an artist.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Definitely.”
He kissed me again, putting light in his tongue, then stood, pulling me to my feet.
“I’m going to pass out if we stay in here,” he said. “I almost did as it was...”
“You might want your suit,” I said, pointing.
Glancing down as if remembering, he shrugged, smiling. “Doesn’t matter. They’ve all seen seer cocks before. And white man-asses...”
I bit my lip, but kept the smile on my face.
“What about me?” I said innocently, lifting my bikini top. “They’ve all seen seer breasts before too, right? And other seer female parts, I’d wager. I mean what is Wreg, a couple hundred years old at least...?”
He grabbed me around the waist when I reached for the cedar door handle.
“You go out there like that, and you’ll cause a riot,” he said, kissing my throat. His hands tightened, pulling me against him. “Be good, wife. Don’t scare me.”
I smiled, but caught the seriousness in his voice. Opening my light, I reassured him with a lingering pulse of warmth, caressing his face. I let him feel my seriousness too, the twinge of jealousy that made me say it in the first place. Feeling him relax slightly, I caressed his arms, long enough that his hands tightened again.
Then I smiled, kissing his chest.
“Fine.” Letting go of him, I retied my top, sighing in fake resignation. “...Party pooper.”
When we stumbled out of the sauna, expelling steam, and at least wearing what we’d gone in with, Wreg and Garensche burst into loud laughs, whistling. I looked around as they did, saw that about a dozen other infiltrators had joined them by the pool, either sitting on the edge or lounging in the water.
&
nbsp; “Very subtle,” Garensche yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. “I think I counted your wife’s orgasms, Nenz...”
Wreg laughed louder, smacking Garensche’s shoulder.
“Leave the man’s wife’s orgasms alone...” he chided.
Blushing, and faintly mortified, I glanced at Revik, who smiled a little tensely as well, kissing my cheek. His arms slung around me then, and I felt another whisper of possessiveness there as he held me against him.
I could tell it bothered me more, though. He’d been raised seer, more or less, and they were definitely more exhibitionist than how I’d been raised by my human mom and dad in San Francisco. I think I’d convinced myself Wreg and Garensche would have left by then, not stuck around when we started making noise. I’d forgotten they were seers, not humans.
And anyway, these people didn’t know me. Their only association with me now would be me yelling out Revik’s name from behind a closed sauna door.
As I looked around, all of them seemed to be smiling though. I read the Barrier space around me and realized they were all more than a little pleased that Revik’s black mood had broken...as had his long, (in their minds anyway), period of celibacy.
I was still thinking about this, glancing around at the faces turned up to his when it occurred to me again, how they all saw him. The eyes watching us reflected an open affection for him in some cases, a kind of worshipful admiration in others...in others, a near reverence.
Before this could turn into a possessive paranoia attack in me, he grabbed me around the waist, and I let out a shriek as he jumped us both into the pool.
Surfacing minutes later, after wrestling with him for a few beats underwater, I laughed, sputtering for air as I aimed a splash at his head.
Before I could get him, he swam away from me.
It took me only a second longer to realize that that time, he wanted me to chase him.
“NO.” HE SHOOK his head, arms folded. “Try again, Allie...”
Blinking to clear my eyes from where I sat cross-legged on the patterned rug, I glanced up at him.
Allie's War Season Two Page 35