Her hands left his face and sank into his hair. She’d forgotten to breathe but she didn’t care, didn’t need it as she needed his mouth. He kissed her with a longing that told her he had wanted it from the moment he’d seen her, kissed her as intensely as if he could have only that from her and would never touch her again once it ended, and she responded with the same desperate need.
Yet it ended too soon and left her breathless, leaning against him for support. His heart thudded, like the hard pulse of his erection pressed into her belly. Just feeling that made her shiver, and his arm tightened around her waist as if he could never have let her go.
Then his mouth moved over her cheekbone—no, her scar. She knew very well that even the bones of her face couldn’t be felt through it, and she certainly couldn’t feel anything outside it. Except the flesh beneath the ruin tingled, not the phantom ache she occasionally felt but a soft prickling like the fine hairs on her arms reacting to a breath of breeze. She shivered again.
He made a low soothing sound, deeper in his throat than a purr, and kissed her ear, nuzzling it before the tip of his tongue flicked in. She whimpered, her hips pushing against his involuntarily, and his mouth moved to her throat. His teeth grazed the sensitive skin before he sucked, and over the rush of the tide in her ears she heard herself moan.
Her knees trembled so much she didn’t know if she could have remained on them for much longer. She let herself drop instead, into the moss that seemed to both embrace her and rebound beneath her—it was shockingly cool against her heated skin—and since she hadn’t released her grip, Jason came with her. He must have broken his fall with his hands, because he didn’t land on her. Only came to rest atop her, his body covering hers, warm and solid, his chest against her breasts. The hair on his thighs rubbed the smooth skin on the inside of her legs, and her arms went up around him.
“Ah, Lera.”
As long as she lived, she would never forget the sound of his voice in passion. It was raw and deep, so different from his usual calm courtesy, and it sent rough tremors through her when he groaned her name. That time when his mouth came down on hers, it was hard and demanding, and she took his tongue into her mouth so she could suck lightly on it.
He broke the kiss, lifting his head enough for her to feel warm breath against her skin. “Lera, what do you want me to do?”
She wasn’t sure she had heard correctly. What did she want him to do? Wasn’t it obvious? Oh, please don’t let him be a virgin.
“Tell me a bedtime story,” she said.
“All right. Once upon a time, there was a little bear who lived in the woods—”
“Unity!” She could have smacked him. “Make love to me, what else?”
“Without sheaths?”
“Oh, so you do know what those are?” she said, trying to rally her wits enough to answer his first question. She had forgotten about sheaths. Those were as unimportant as the rest of the world.
When he answered, she had the distinct impression of an undertone of laughter in his voice, as if there was something very funny going on. “I made inquiries.”
“Well, now you’ll make do.” Thinking about that had cooled her off a little, but she couldn’t help feeling pleased he’d remembered what she wanted. She had never been just a pretty body to him, she realized.
Taking her time, she cupped his face in her palm again, holding his jaw steady so she could trace her thumb along his lower lip in the dark. “I like your mouth.”
“Would you like it here?” He lifted his hips and slid a hand between them, covering the soft nest of hair between her thighs. She jerked against him. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
He moved lower, his body sliding over hers. She bit back a moan, only to release it as his tongue found a nipple. His stubble-roughened skin grazed her breast, but his mouth felt even better in comparison, hot and wet, sucking slowly on her. The heavy tug of need went down deep past the pit of her belly, throbbing between her thighs.
She groaned, and he slid down lower. Her legs had been parted for him, but he spread them wider with one hand. The other still cupped her, but now he rubbed the heel of his palm in slow circles against her.
She heard her own breathing, fast and raw, as she gripped clumps of moss on either side of her. He took his hand away and put his mouth where it had been.
His tongue flicked the small swollen bud hidden beneath the damp curls, lashing it. She cried out, her head arching back, but he never stopped, only licked her in a hard, deliberate rhythm and slid two fingers deep inside her before he sucked gently on the tight little bud.
Her body arched, rigid, clenching unbearably tight around his fingers. For a moment that would never end, he held her poised on an edge, and then her release took her over it. Pleasure thudded through her, only to be followed by the next wrenching spasm, again and again, and her cry echoed from the walls of the cave around them.
When it was finally over she slumped back to the moss, panting, her skin filmed in sweat. Her racing heartbeat began to slow. Jason eased his fingers out of her, kissed her softly one last time and moved to lie down beside her.
“—and they lived happily ever after,” he said quietly. “Sleep well, Lera.”
He’d thought that would get a response and it did. Lera’s breath stopped so abruptly he thought she’d fainted, which might have been quite flattering to him—he’d never pleasured a woman into complete oblivion before.
Then she pushed hard at his shoulder. Since he didn’t see that coming and was lying on his side, propped on an elbow, he fell over. Before he could recover, she swung a leg over his waist.
Jason went still. He was so hard he ached. More than anything else he wanted to roll her off, onto her back, and wrap those long legs around his hips while he entered her. And to hell with the consequences, the danger outside, the fact that even if they survived, he would never see her after she went back to Denalay. He’d have her for one night, and it would have to be enough, although it could never be enough with Lera.
But it had to be her choice, as he remembered her saying to him once.
“We’re not done.” Her voice still shook a little, but she sounded in complete control of herself. She slid a hand up his chest, stopped when she found a nipple and circled it with her thumb. Then a heavy mass of soft, tangled hair tumbled over his chest as she bent her head to suck lightly on his nipple.
A hard shudder of need went through him at the feel of her mouth. He put his hands on her shoulders, enough to push her gently back.
“What just happened—” He swallowed, remembering the wild sounds she’d made. “It’s enough for me.”
He realized a moment later that telling her not to do something was all the incentive she needed to go ahead and do it. “Oh.” Her voice was cool, speculative, full of challenge. “Really.”
Her weight shifted and her fingers touched his knee. He tensed, setting his teeth as she drew her nails slowly up the inside of his leg. No, he wasn’t going to react, not even when her fingers wrapped around him.
“Want me to stop?”
Jason’s throat was too tight to speak. His cock was tighter.
“Or do you want me to do this?” she said, and her hair spilled thick and tickling across his thighs, giving him a second’s warning before he felt her mouth. Except nothing could have prepared him for that. For the wet heat and her tongue playing on him, turning desire to a raging demand. He heard himself groaning, his hands lost in her hair, just as he wanted to lose himself in her mouth, in her flesh, in her.
She released him, but not for long. He felt her hand where her mouth had been, and she straddled him, her knees gripping his hips. Slowly she positioned herself and sank down to take him, inch by inch, inside her.
He remembered tasting that hot, sweet wetness. What was new was the tight flesh that yielded to the first thrust and enclosed all of him as she
lowered herself. His hands went to her hips in a grip so rigid it must have hurt her, but she gave no sign of that. Only rose and impaled herself, hard and deep, meeting his thrust with her body. They moved together, and he ground his teeth, closing his eyes though that didn’t make any difference, fighting to hold back as she rode him faster, her breath coming in sobbing gasps.
The sound crested as she cried out wordlessly. Her body tightened further around him, spasms that went through them both as if they shared the same flesh, and he let go. Heat poured from him, deep and wrenching, an exquisite pain like nothing he had ever known and a pleasure so intense he couldn’t even cry out. She fell forward, tried to brace herself with shaking palms against his chest and gave way, collapsing on him.
Jason came back to himself slowly and held her, savoring the feel of her. He wished they had more than one night together. Making love, lying together exchanging the occasional relaxed caress, talking to her. Falling asleep with her in his arms, waking up knowing she would be there. Oh, he was lost all right, in a way that had nothing to do with being marooned. Thankfully she couldn’t see his face.
He would have liked to look at her, though, even if she was already in his mind’s eye as clear as a cameo. That was the only bad thing about the velvet darkness; he longed to see that vivid hair as he plunged his hands into it. He wanted to watch the grey eyes grow hazy with the aftermath of her pleasure. He wanted to see her breasts, full as ripe peaches but far sweeter.
And he was growing hard again just remembering that. He slid his hands down over her supple back, holding her to him long enough to roll them both over without ever leaving her. He felt how wet she was inside, wet with her wanting and his pleasure, and he began to move, slowly now that the edge was taken off his hunger for her.
Though she touched him as if she wasn’t quite satisfied yet, dragging her fingers down to the hollow of his spine, exploring with an eagerness that delighted him. He found her mouth in the darkness and kissed her until she trembled, her arms tightening around his back. His teeth found the join of her neck and shoulder, and she jerked against him before he softly sucked the love bite he’d given her. Her legs rose to hold his hips as he drew closer and closer to the edge.
“Jason,” she whispered, and that was all it took. Just the sound of his name, something he’d never heard from her before, and he was lost. He thrust hard, sank into her, felt the shock of her own climax start to pulse through her, and shuddered as release took him again and he drowned deep in her.
The rain had never stopped. The storm had only moved into the cave, into them, and the wind roared in his ears as it whipped all the world to a frenzy. Then came the tide, pounding through him, unstoppable, and when at last he could breathe again, it left him lying on the shore.
He managed to retain just enough awareness to move off her, so she didn’t have to bear his weight, and to draw her close against him. Then he slept.
Lera stirred when she felt someone move. She always woke as a soldier did, all at once and alert, except she’d slept too deeply and too well the night before. By the time she started up, shaking off her grogginess, Jason had gone. She ran her hand over the moss beside her, feeling the warm indentation his body had left.
He was back almost at once, though, and water sloshed as he came closer. It was still so early there was hardly any light outside, and none in the cave, but she recognized his footsteps and his scent. “No food,” he said, “but at least we can drink before we leave.”
He’d filled her hat with water, and she sipped from it. Back to practicalities. “Are our clothes dry?”
“Not completely.”
That wasn’t surprising, given the humidity of the cave. She struggled into a half-damp shirt and trousers, and once she had her boots on, they went out. The sky was starting to turn a lighter shade of blue in the east, towards Denalay, and the clouds were edged with gold like the pages of an old book. She would have enjoyed the sunrise if not for the knowledge of where they were, not to mention the fact she had never been so draggled in her life. Stopping outside the cave, she gathered her hair at the nape of her neck to tie it back.
“Lera?” Jason said. The ledge on which they stood was too narrow to allow them to walk abreast, so he was just ahead of her.
“Yes?” She wasn’t fastidious about her appearance—it was impossible to have so much as neatly pared nails on a warship—but she’d always tried to keep her hair clean and smoothly brushed. Now it was a mass of knots and tangles, though she felt ridiculous to spare a moment’s concern on it at such a time.
“You were wonderful,” Jason said.
Her head came up, and she knew her face was completely unguarded in that moment. Though she didn’t know what to do about it, or how to reply. She realized her arms had frozen in position, her elbows flanking her face, and lowered them hastily.
“I just wanted you to know that.” Jason’s slight smile grew warmer, and a teasing light danced in his eyes. “Benevolent Ones, I don’t believe it. You’re blushing.”
Lera wished she had something cold to put on her cheek. “Great. Now all my skin is the same color.”
All the tenderness and amusement left his face as if it had been wiped clean, and she wished she could bite back the words. Damn it, why had she said that? But she knew very well why; she hated any attention called to her face. A month after she’d been burned, she had forced herself to look in a mirror for the first time. Then she had stared into the glass for what felt like hours on end, to prepare herself for what other people saw and would see for the rest of her life.
Finally she had made herself smile. She knew at once such an expression, on her, would be lopsided, because the scar tissue would never permit the right side of her mouth to stretch. She’d come to enjoy life again, and to find some measure of security and acceptance on the ship she’d lost, but she rarely smiled, she never cried—because tears slipped sideways along the scar—and she never blushed either.
Until then. She stared at her boots, swallowed and tried to slip her hands into her coat pockets because she didn’t know what else to do with them. Naturally, there was no coat. She couldn’t hide anything, even her hands.
So she looked up into Jason’s steady gaze. “I guess I shouldn’t have said that.”
“You can say anything you like to me.”
A strange feeling blossomed in her chest. She didn’t know what it was, only that it was small as a single spark and yet it flowed through her, loosening the last of the knots. She felt oddly lighter, though maybe that was because the heavy weight of her sodden coat was no longer across her shoulders.
“Keep walking,” she said. “I’ll tell you what happened.”
Jason shot her a sharp look from behind features held carefully neutral, but he turned without a word. Lera was relieved. It would have been near-impossible to talk if he’d been staring at her and asking questions, but she should have known he would understand what she needed.
“Cyndea.” She said a name she hadn’t spoken aloud in sixteen years. It sounded strange, like something in another language, but she made herself continue. “Cyndea was my parents’ closest friend. If anything had happened to them, they would have wanted her to take care of me. She wasn’t related to us, but she was like an aunt who’s fun and who treats you like a grownup and whom you want to be like once you’re older.”
Pebbles fell and spun away as Jason scrambled down the last few feet of the hills and landed easily on more moss. Lera followed, thinking she would never be able to look at moss the same way again.
“Some people believe strange things about the Unity,” she said as they reached the trees. “There’s one story that a star fell and landed far in the north. Its power withered the hills all around, but a group of villagers were brave enough to go into those hills to see what had happened. Because of their courage, that star—the Unity—made them the first members of its Co
uncil of Eyes and Voices, and they brought it into the heart of Denalay where it could watch over the land.”
“Meteors do fall occasionally.” Jason sounded skeptical. “Though I doubt they’re intelligent, let alone out to bless people.”
“Well, Cyndea believed that. But she also thought it wasn’t fair of the Council to keep all the Unity’s power to themselves. So she traveled into the Blasted Hills.”
“Did she come back?”
Lera nodded. “She told us they weren’t ruined any more. Most of the land was beautiful and fertile.”
“It was probably a volcanic eruption. The minerals in the lava are good for the ground.”
“Well, whatever it was, that might have ended well, but Cyndea said she’d found mysterious words in a valley there.”
“Words?” He frowned. “What were they written on?”
“A great stone, and they were in another language. But as she fasted and prayed before the stone, she understood whoever had sent the Unity from the sky had carved the words for whoever found the Unity on Eden.”
A thick mat of decaying greenery and fresh leaves felled by the rain crunched and squelched underfoot as they kept walking, and the smell reminded her a little of the Sea of Weeds. The trees were growing farther apart, though, and she knew they would be out of cover soon.
“Cyndea believed she would come to understand those words with time, and if we went back with her, we’d all benefit from knowing what they said. Maybe we’d finally learn the truth about the Unity.” She looked at Jason. “What do you think of that?”
“I think she must have fasted a little too long. But I suppose your parents believed her.”
Not for the first time, Lera wished she knew why. She supposed it must have been a combination of Cyndea’s charisma and their long friendship, which was why she herself was cautious with her trust. Except with Jason. Though that was partly because when he made an outlandish claim, he had a good reason for it, and partly because she knew he would never have hurt her.
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