He held absolutely still, barely breathing, although he wanted to seat himself deep inside her body for their mutual pleasure. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”
Carialle shook her head. “I’m no untried maid, but it has been a long time since I held a man and never one such as you.”
Marcus found he hated the idea of any other man experiencing this closeness with her, but he couldn’t change the past, for either of them. No man but me going forward. On the undeniably possessive thought, his hips pumped automatically and she cried out, clutching him tight as he plunged deeper into her. Her inner muscles clenched around him and she threw her head back, moaning low sounds of pleasure challenging his control. Carialle did something with her hips that applied insanely erotic pressure on his shaft, lodged deep in her most secret places. Holding her so close he was afraid she wouldn’t be able to breathe, he pumped harder and felt himself release, the pleasure so intense he nearly blacked out. A moment later she matched him, screaming his name into the forest silence as she climaxed, and then leaned into him, sweaty, limp and sated.
He nuzzled her neck, relishing the unexpectedly tender feelings rising in his heart. “That was amazing but over too fast. There are so many more things I want to do with you when I’ve recovered a bit. We need to get to bed, where we can enjoy each other properly.”
Carialle ran her hands over his chest, touching his nipples, tracing the muscles of his abdomen as her hand drifted to where they were still joined. “Do you not like the bed I’ve prepared, my warrior?”
Marcus didn’t understand her meaning until he took notice of his surrounding while calculating how he’d carry her to the cabin. While he’d been distracted, emerald green moss had grown in a lush carpet encircling the rock where they’d been sitting. Holding her, he rose to his feet and stepped away, going a few feet into the moss, surprised at how soft and thick the surface was. Surely there were stones and tree roots underneath but he found none of those poking through. Carefully he laid her on the woodland mattress, after checking one-handed to ensure there’d be nothing to hurt her there.
She lay staring up at him with those luminous green-and-golden eyes, fingers of one hand lightly resting against his chest. “So my efforts please you after all?”
“After the last few days, I shouldn’t be surprised by anything you do,” he said. “You’re a constant amazement.”
“You did tell me we were alone here,” she reached up to pull him on top of her for a passionate kiss.
After a moment, he rolled onto his side, facing her, using one hand to fondle the tempting breast before lowering his head and taking the still pebbled nipple into his mouth. Carialle arched under him, murmuring her approval of his attentions and slid her own hand down his body to caress his balls and the highly sensitive area behind them. After a few moments, he switched his attention to her other side, trying to ignore the skillful way her hands were encouraging his cock to stand at attention for the next round.
“Please,” she said, “I want you inside.”
“I can’t deny you anything, angel.” He positioned himself between her thighs and guided himself into her softly cushioned channel again, the sensations heightened this second time by the sensual memory of their incredible first encounter. She locked her ankles, holding him tightly in place as his hips pumped and he thrust with all his power.
He captured her hands, holding them above her head, cushioned by moss, as she moved together with him in perfect harmony. He kissed his way up the graceful arch of her neck, capturing her lips for a deep kiss leaving them both breathless until the moment his climax triggered hers and there was only the intensity of their mutual passion.
CHAPTER SIX
Carialle lay under her warrior, her body warm and satisfied, tingling with the aftereffects of their lovemaking. She held him as tightly as she could, craving the connection and the shared emotion. He rolled off her and onto his side, but kept his hand on her hip, not breaking the contact. She’d drawn on the energy of nature to enhance their passion, and fed back the beauty of the moment to the world surrounding them, as she’d never done with any other man, and the exultation and pleasure had been mind blowing. For him too, she hoped. She was glad he’d accepted her offer of a moss-soft bed, under the trees, for their first real coupling.
As if reading her mind, Marcus looped her hair behind her ear, leaned over to brush a kiss on her lips and said, “That was the best experience of my life.”
Carialle shivered as a breeze touched her. “I think I’d be willing to adjourn to the bed now though.”
Marcus laughed. “Yeah, kinda drafty out here, although I didn’t notice before. Pillows are good too.”
He helped her to her feet and gathered up their clothing. He handed her the lacy bra with an awkwardly endearing bow and said, “Now I know you enjoy sexy lingerie, I’ll be buying you more.”
Her cheeks grew warm as she blushed uncontrollably. “We can discuss my underwear later.”
“Anything you want.” Marcus swept her into his arms and carried her effortlessly up the hillside to the cabin.
Devotion to Carialle’s pleasure was his theme the rest of the afternoon as well, exerting himself to find out what aroused her and shattered her self-control the most. Carialle knew herself to be less experienced than her warrior, but she rapidly came to a few discoveries of her own as to what it took to bring Marcus to the edge and hold him there, before they went crashing over in unison, to their mutual delight.
Taking a break for a leisurely meal they cooked together in the small kitchen and consuming the simple food in bed, sharing one plate, feeding each other, laughing at each other’s jokes, snuggling beneath the covers, secure in the isolated cabin, Carialle felt as if her life had literally turned upside down. No longer a lonely, hopeless prisoner, she experienced a giddy happiness at finding this sturdy warrior to stand at her side, be her friend.
The last time they made love, Marcus holding her close as she wrapped herself around him, bodies moving in perfect unison, she sought to enhance the moment even further, peeking at the colors in his aura, sure she’d find the bright red of true love.
Shock nearly paralyzed her for a moment and she forgot to breathe. The red strands were there but subdued, held in abeyance by the blue flame, as if he was fighting the emotion even as he bedded her. Her own aura would show the orange of pain and the muddy browns of confusion now, and instinctively she pulled back with her powers.
“Hey, you’re thinking way too hard,” he said, nipping at her shoulder and then kissing her neck as he toyed with one nipple, rolling it between his fingers. “If you’re too tired—”
“Not at all,” she said, disengaging and moving to where she could take his steel hard cock into her mouth, pleasuring him with her tongue and hands to avoid having to converse while she was uncertain. There was definitely love there in his heart for her, but just as undeniably, he wasn’t entering into the bond wholeheartedly and the hesitance made her sad. I’ll fight for his heart...
He knew he’d done or said something wrong but he had no idea what. Carialle withdrew emotionally from him in an undefinable fashion during the final moments of their lovemaking. She drifted off to sleep and he tucked her in before pulling on his pants and heading into the main cabin to check whether his grandfather’s coms room was operable.
When she’d slept enough and rejoined him in the kitchen hours later, she was her usual cheerful self outwardly, but he sensed a reserve in her manner.
“I’m making dinner,” he said, immediately feeling like an idiot because it was obvious what he was doing as he flipped the meat he was grilling. Being tongue tied in her presence hadn’t been a challenge before, but the knowledge something was out of kilter between them made him awkward.
“I think the smell is what woke me up, so delicious.” She took a seat at the table and played with his grandfather’s pipe. “How was your afternoon?”
“Happy to report I made progress.” He brought two
plates to the table and made a second trip for her mug of tea. Dropping a kiss on her cheek as he presented the drink to her, he studied her face for a moment, realizing her smile wasn’t quite as happy as usual. Not his imagination—there was a problem.
“You’re staring,” she said, filling her spoon with savory stew. “Oh, this is so delicious.”
Dissatisfied but unsure how to ask a question, or even what the question would consist of, he sat across from her and dug into his own meal. “I threw together a bit of everything in the stasis stores. Gramps was prepared for a siege, or wintering over maybe, so I had good ingredients to work from. Nothing ever goes bad in stasis.”
She waved her hand at the rustic cabin. “How can you be making progress on finding us allies? I love it here but there does appear to be a lack of what I’ve come to recognize in the Sectors as modern communications.”
Rising, he held out his hand, “I’ll show you.”
She set her spoon on the saucer and joined him. He guided her to the center of the room, knelt and moved the carpet, revealing an antigrav platform. As soon as they’d stepped into the plate, he tapped his toe on a small black spot on the edge, nearly invisible, and the platform sank into the floor. She clung to him as they descended inside a shiny antigrav tube and the platform stopped in a brilliantly lit corridor below ground.
“I don’t dislike antigrav as much as I hate cryosleep,” she said, “But it’s not my favorite way to travel.”
“Hang onto me and you’ll enjoy it, I promise.” He knew he was grinning. “In fact, sex in antigrav has its own interesting aspects—”
“I think we’ve arrived,” she said, stepping away.
Her reaction wasn’t quite what he’d expected, given her earlier enthusiasm in the bedroom. Before he could ask a question, she strolled to the first door. “What did you bring me here to show me?”
Relieved to have a topic to talk about other than emotions and relationships, which weren’t his strength, Marcus escorted her down the hall, which ran under the cabin, naming the doors as he proceeded. “Weapons room, storage room, communications room.” He ushered her into the latter and made a grand gesture at the bank of coms units on the far wall. A single chair sat in front of the controls. “The tech is old now of course but it was top of the line in Gramps’ day, and I’ve been out in the interstellar chatter, searching for certain old friends who can help me.”
Carialle advanced into the room, trailing her hand along the elaborate display. “You did warn me he was intense.”
“Yeah, we Special Forces guys have a tendency to compensate in other ways when we retire. We’re used to having the best intel, weapons and coms and we don’t take well to being cut off once we leave active duty. He didn’t spend his pension or his credits on anything else, my grandmother being long gone, so this cabin and outfitting it properly was his hobby. And acquiring his armament, cached in the weapons room. I can show you the armory later.”
“I probably won’t appreciate the no-doubt deadly contents enough to please you, but I’ll be glad we have them if the Combine unexpectedly catches up to us.” She sat in the chair, spinning in it like a carefree kid. “So what did you learn? Who have you talked to?”
“I lurked for the first few hours, had the cabin’s AI do a bit of general investigating for me, then I hacked into a few places. The AI is outdated too but learns fast and Gramps programmed it to be as stubborn and dogged as he was. This scheme of Trang’s and the doc heading up the veterans’ bureau here on the planet is ugly and much bigger than you and I thought. I found out she has ten of those clinics, scattered between the capital city and elsewhere.”
Eyes wide, Carialle said, “You’re not serious? How many people has she murdered in those places, I wonder?”
“Hard to tell. A big percentage of her business is legit, an actual medical urgent care and rehab practice. So maybe not as many as you and I are afraid of. But it tells me again how lucky I was to end up in the one where you worked.” He squeezed her shoulder.
Blushing, she blinked. “Have you found any old friends who can help?”
“I figured I needed to get the lay of the land first, especially since I’m not sure how I ended up on Felicia Seven, and who was involved in faking the paperwork to send me to Trang’s place. Gotta be sure who I can trust before approaching anyone directly. I’ll work on it more tonight.”
“Peters told me someone was asking questions about you,” she said, with the air of a person suddenly remembering a critical point. “I’m sorry—I completely forgot in all the stress of the rescue. The inquiries were the trigger for Trang’s decision to speed up your injection doses.”
“While that’s helpful to know, even if you’d told me before I detoxed, it probably wouldn’t have sunk in so don’t be too hard on yourself.”
Carialle sighed as she ate her breakfast the next morning. Last night had been awkward, the two of them lying in the big bed spooned together. There was a silence between them that hadn’t existed before, as if there was so much to say but neither wanted to risk asking the wrong question. She wanted so much more from him than the physical aspect of his body pleasuring hers, wonderful though the lovemaking had been. Why would he fight the deeper feelings? Maybe a tough soldier didn’t know how to let himself be in love. What did she know of warriors, after all? Only legends, and those invariably spoke of the warrior and the priestess as a couple, lacking any details of how the relationship developed. She watched him moving in the kitchen, cooking his own breakfast now, whistling a tune slightly off key.
He brought his plate and mug of steaming coffee to the table and sat, but made no move to eat, finally exhaling and reaching across the table to take her hand. “Carialle.”
Startled, unable to read the meaning behind his serious tone of voice, she looked him full in the face. “What’s the matter?”
“Yeah, my question exactly. I was going to give this problem time, see if I could figure out the answer myself but I gotta hit this head on. Life is too short for guessing games.”
“You’re confusing me.”
“I’m confusing you? That’s a good one.” A muscle twitched in his clenched jaw. She’d never seen his demeanor so serious. “Yesterday morning, in the woods and in the cabin, we were good together, astoundingly in sync. I never had such an intense level of connection with a woman before and the sex was mind blowing because we were so emotionally involved. There’s a bond between us after what we shared together the night before—don’t deny that. Then all of the sudden it was like you withdrew and I’m going insane trying to figure out what I did or said to upset you, or hurt you. Whatever it is, I will fix it, I will make up for it, I will swear on my life not to do it again, but you gotta tell me where I went wrong. I’m not psychic, angel. I refuse to lose you because I can’t read your mind. I’m falling in love with you, damn it.” Marcus swallowed hard and glanced away for a moment before he turned his gaze back to her face. “I never said those words to a woman before, not ever.”
She realized she had to explain, she’d been wrong not to ask him questions when she first observed the mix of emotions stirring in his soul. Trust lay between them. She had to rely on the bond forged in the fire of rukauntir. “Your colors, your aura scared and saddened me.”
His hand tightened on hers. “My what?”
“You know I told you I see people’s souls, for lack of a better word, and I know what they’re feeling. The gift of Thuun is empathy.”
“Empathy on hyperdrive,” he said. “What’s that got to do with us?”
“I took a look at your aura, when we were in bed yesterday and I saw the beautiful red tendrils of true love—”
He nodded. “Damn straight, glad you could read me. So where’s the problem?”
“You—you were resisting the emotion. You didn’t want to feel love for me.” Tears trickled down her cheeks and she brushed them away impatiently. “And the realization broke my heart. Because I love you.” She studied his face
. His eyes were narrowed, and his forehead was furrowed. The set of his shoulders was tense as he rose from his chair and came to her side of the table. He drew her to her feet and stood close, holding her in his arms. She laid her head on his chest and took comfort from the steady beat of his heart.
“Don’t read my goddamn aura right now,” he said, rubbing her back in slow circles, his lips close to her ear. “Listen to my words. When we were making love, I was going crazy with concern and desire for you, with the urge to protect you and keep you safe forever.” He raised one hand as she opened her mouth to speak. “Hear me out. We have a saying in the Sectors, ‘if you love something, set it free. If it returns it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.’ I believe we’re meant to be but you’ve been a prisoner for the last four years. Even after you escaped, you were living life on the run, looking over your shoulder every second. I told myself maybe I needed to give you space, to have time to find out what freedom would be like, to find your way, to see if I’m really a man you could love, or if this—this passion between us was a result of all the adrenaline and the circumstances and because I was helping you escape. I didn’t want my love to be a prison you fell into because of gratitude, okay? So I worried maybe I should go slower on the relationship and because the idea hurt like fucking hell, yeah I was probably all roiled up in my damn colors but it doesn’t mean I don’t love you.” His voice rose. “I’d lay down my life for you, right now, and all I want is your happiness. I didn’t want to rush you into a commitment you might regret later.”
Stunned by his intensity and the undeniable truth ringing in his voice, Carialle was silent.
“I probably never said so many words at one time to any woman in my entire life. So if you’re going to rip my heart out, because the damn colors were wrong, go ahead. I don’t do auras, I do words, maybe not well but I gave you all I have.”
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