by Linda Mooney
“Hunter? Can we talk now?” Star ventured.
“I thought we were already doing that.”
“All right. Can I ask you a very personal question, then?”
“You can ask me anything, Terrin. You know that.”
“What will happen to us if we go the entire year and don’t make a baby?”
“Then the HandFast is cancelled between us,” he told her.
“That’s not what I was asking,” she protested weakly. Almost fearfully.
“Then ask me directly.”
“Are we … I mean, will you…”
Hunter stopped, bringing her to a halt as well. Silently he watched as she tried to find the courage to ask him, her face averted from his. “Go on,” he urged gently.
Star lowered her face. A quick, deep breath, and she said, “Fire asked me this morning if what we felt was the permanent thing.”
A pause.
“What did you tell her?” he asked. Instinctively his power focused on her.
“I told her … I said it was for me.”
“Why can’t you ask me outright what you’re dying to ask?” Hunter inquired tenderly.
“Because I’m frightened of you,” she admitted in a tiny voice.
“How do I frighten you?”
“You have this tremendous power over me. I’ve given you my body. And now my heart. Many, many people have tried to control me. Command me. Own me. But no one has ever taught me to love them. Or allowed me to love them back. Not until you.”
She pressed her cheek to his chest and closed her eyes, sighing with contentment. Hunter brought his arms around her, feeling her relaxing against him. She was afraid, but not fearful. The difference confused him. “Talk to me, my heart. Ask me. What’s the worst I could tell you?”
“No,” she whispered, more breath than sound.
“No, you won’t ask? Or is ‘no’ the worst I could tell you?”
“Later, Udo. Give me time to work up the courage. Please.”
“Take all the time you need, Terrin. I’ll still be here.”
His confession was the right thing to say, and Hunter realized she’d been seeking a future, or at least the promise of a future. Some kind of future. Any kind of future, as long as it was with him. He felt her tug on his shirt, and he looked down at her. She lifted her face to him, wanting his kiss. Unfortunately, the small cluster of people who had entered the gardens were moving closer. And even though he and Star were not in uniform, their faces were too well known.
Grabbing her hand, he hurried down the pathway in the opposite direction, away from the group. It was almost by chance that they stopped just a few yards away from the little hideaway Star loved to escape to. Exchanging glances, they silently dipped beneath the sheltering leaves, until they were safely inside.
“You know, you could have popped us out of here,” Star smiled.
“What, and miss the thrill of the hunt?” he teased back.
They found the tiny bench she’d put there, and sat down side-by-side. Inside the dense growth, no sound entered from outside, making Hunter wonder how much sound would permeate to the outside walkway.
“Hunter.”
He turned to find her face inches away. Her lips were moist. Beckoning. She still waited for his kiss. This time he obliged.
Her tongue was tentative. Exploring his mouth and tongue with inexperience, but eager to learn. Gently he sucked on it, feeling her respond, feeling her heat rising inside her. A low moan began in her chest, like a fluttering vibration, and a deliciously evil thought came to him.
“Terrin?” He pulled away from her mouth and waited for her to look at him. “Ever imagine what it would be like to make love with your clothes on?”
A delicate eyebrow went up. “On?” Immediately thereafter, both brows went down. “You’re teasing me, right?”
“I would never tease about making love to you.”
She reared back slightly to look into his face. “You’re serious? Why would we want to make love with our—Oh! Here?”
To answer her, he captured her mouth with his and pulled her into his lap. Star remained pliant and willing. Curious to find out how such a thing was possible, especially in a semi-public place such as the botanical gardens. Knowing without any doubt that he would never risk her being humiliated in front of strangers.
His hands found her breasts, easing underneath the midriff top and tenderly kneading them. Her breath hitched, and she gasped twice when he laid her backward across his lap. His burning mouth lowered over her nipple, scorching her skin through the thin material, and rousing her with an intensity she never believed possible. The blouse became wet, and draped over the taut peak, outlining and revealing its dark red beauty. Hunter took it back into his mouth, suckling both cloth and nipple as his hand continued to caress and massage the firm globe. Another firm tug between his lips, and then he closed his teeth over the ultrasensitive tip. Star nearly climaxed.
“Udo! Mercy!” Her entire body was shaking as she reached up for him. Already little beads of perspiration freckled her skin. Her cheeks were a bright pink.
“Now for the other one,” he murmured, adjusting her across his lap and reaching for her other breast. Star closed her eyes and tried to prepare herself, without success.
It seemed that every movement of his tongue and mouth on her nipple sent slivers of magnetic fire directly to her womanly core, forcing her body to create its own moistness to counteract the burning want growing stronger and more demanding between her legs. It had only been an hour since they’d made love in the cleansing stall, yet her body felt as empty and bereft as if it had been a hundred hours.
“Udo, what are you doing to me?” she moaned so softly, he almost didn’t hear her. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. He didn’t need to answer her. He just needed to keep doing what he was doing to her. Keep doing it over and over, and never stopping.
Suddenly, Hunter raised his head from her breasts and lowered her slowly back onto the bench. Moving out from under her, he reached up and unfastened the front closures on her pants.
“I thought you said we were keeping our clothes on,” she somehow managed to remind him. Her voice was thick with lust. Her body felt heavy, ripe, and ready for the release she knew he eventually would bring to her.
“Patience, my beloved,” his equally thick voice responded softly. “The best is yet to come.”
He tugged on her pants until they cleared her hips and buttocks, but they remained draped around her thighs. When he lowered his head over her tangle of short, silky curls, Star had to grasp the edges of the bench to keep from shooting skyward. Her body arched as his tongue invaded her most private possession, and she felt his hands clamp down on her legs to help hold her down, spreading her thighs apart.
Hunter ravished her, dipping deep with his tongue as Star fought to keep her sanity. His mouth scorched her. Branded her. Once he found her throbbing nub, he pulled it between his lips, and rockets exploded in her blood. When she believed she could no longer take the torture he was dealing out to her, he raised his face to stare at her flushed one. Both of them were breathing in short, heaving gasps.
“Don’t be afraid of what I’m going to do to you,” he begged her. “I will never hurt you, my only love.”
Before she could respond, Hunter pulled her off the bench, turned her around, and placed her kneeling on the ground, bending her over with her back to him. Star laid her hot cheek against the stone bench’s cushion as she heard him dealing with his own clothing. A moment of silence, then his hands were adjusting her, parting her ass cheeks until her pants restricted further movement. Lifting her buttocks a bit higher, Star felt him move closer. And then she felt him sliding hot and thick into her. He speared her, nearly slicing her in two.
Her back stiffened, her head flew upward, and her fingers gripped the bench with whitened knuckles. She bit her lower lip so hard, she tasted blood. “Udo!”
“Am I hurting you?” his loving voice c
ame from behind her ear. He was leaning over her, bracing himself on the bench as well.
She shook her head. “No … but … dearest heavens, Udo … oh, great stars!”
He withdrew, then plunged back into her, reached further into her innermost core than he ever had. Planets danced inside her head, and a great vortex of power opened up to swallow her whole.
Hunter made fervent love to her, pounding into her, and taking her repeatedly to peaks she had never experienced before. Star shuddered at the onslaught, then begged for more. At some point she knew he had released the bench to grasp her hips. Now they were rocking with a force she couldn’t imagine. Her heart threatened to explode, and still he continued to piston into her from behind, faster and deeper with each thrust. When it seemed the universe couldn’t contain any more of the unimaginable sweetness he was pounding into her, a storm of immense magnitude swept down and consumed her just as it also consumed him. It welled up and overflowed with their blistering release, leaving them breathless and gasping, their muscles like so much formless water.
Star collapsed over the bench. Hunter covered her, also reaching for air, and their bodies shook with the strength of their aftermath.
Riptides of their orgasms continued to swirl inside them, keeping their blood at the boiling point. Sweat dripped onto the bench seat and ground around them. It would take so little to ignite their hunger again.
After a while, Star managed to whisper, “And you expect me to just get up and walk out of here as if nothing has happened?” It was all she could do not to close her eyes and succumb to the delicious call to sleep. But the feel of his semi-hard penis tugging between her thighs was too delicious to let go.
Chuckling, Hunter managed to rise up on his knees, also pulling Star up on hers, and draped her limp form against his chest. As one hand trailed down to the wet juncture between her legs, his other hand braced her across her chest, his fingers idly stroking one covered breast. His mouth found the curve of her neck and shoulder, and he nuzzled the damp skin above the collar of her top. “Give me a moment. I have something to show you.”
She giggled, reaching to clutch his arms. “More?”
Taking another ragged breath, he told her, “Watch.”
When he had taken them to her quarters yesterday, after their encounter with the Chairman of the Committee, Star had been semiconscious, and mostly unaware of their returning, except for knowing that he had transported them there together. This time, she would have a front-row view of what he had been seeing every day of his life since he’d first discovered his ability when he was five years old.
They left the protection of the little alcove as Hunter took them back to her bedroom. Star watched in wonderment as the world disappeared into a tiny tunnel of gray. Within seconds, she saw her room looming closer and closer, until she could almost reach out and touch the objects inside. Yet the air remained misty and surreal, the room painted in faded shades of black, white, and varying grays. She turned her head slightly in his direction as she wrapped her own arms over his that were holding her underneath her breasts. Their pants remained draped around their knees. The cheeks of her bare buttocks nestled his enlarging erection, and the thought that they might be making love again so soon after this last time sent prickly fingers of delight surging through her blood.
“We’re still in that void you told me about,” she whispered. She felt him nod against her hair. She could also hear his breathing becoming rougher, rumbling in his chest. Holding her like this was taking its toll on his sanity, and she smiled with delight. “If you were here, and I was there, and you spoke, would I hear you?”
“Yes. But when we were in space, since sound doesn’t carry in a vacuum—”
“We needed the headsets,” she finished for him.
“Hold on. I’m going to drop us on the bed,” Hunter warned a split-second before the grayness disappeared. They tumbled onto covers that had suddenly come to vibrant, colorful life, eliciting a shriek of laughter from Star.
Immediately Hunter was bending over her and staring down into her face, into her eyes, with undisguised love and growing passion. “Any regrets, my Terrin?”
“For what?”
“For anything. For the HandFast. For this. For…”
“You know what your problem is, Udo Vosstien?” she asked as she reached for him, searching for his mouth. “You’re too damn serious.”
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Chapter 22
Strike
They were kicking off the rest of their clothing, on the verge of enjoying a second bout of vigorous lovemaking, this time face-to-face, when the emergency claxon started blaring its loud, bone-rattling honk. Hunter and Star froze for a second as their bodies re-centered themselves and their minds shifted into Guardian mode.
Without a word they jumped off the bed and rushed to change into their uniforms. When Hunter reached into her closet and pulled out his familiar dark brown costume, Star paused for a moment to stare at him open-mouthed, having expected him to pop out to get dressed in his own chambers.
“Why do you think I was late to breakfast this morning?” he said softly and grinned.
Of course, he was ready before her. The body suit took a extra couple of seconds to smooth down. Giving her a quick kiss, Hunter told her he’d see her over at Command and dematerialized. Less than a dozen heartbeats later, Star was flying out the door.
“Transport Three!” Provoker yelled up at her, detouring everyone over to the bay.
As soon as she touched down, the claxons went silent, and the ensuing lack of noise rang just as loudly in their ears. Star ducked into Three with Sender and Seeker on her heels. They were all there except for Deceiver and Commander. Hunter was already at the helm, with Time Merchant in the other seat.
She was about to take an empty seat next to Morning Fire when Animator stopped her. “Hunter said he wants you up front, behind him,” she informed Star.
Star glanced forward to see Hunter’s eyes watching her from the reflection in the viewscreen. Nodding, she relinquished her seat to the brown-eyed blonde, and went up to take the chair directly behind the pilot. The new arrangement was not lost on anyone, as Animator always sat in the second forward seat. After so many missions, and after working many years together, everyone had fallen into a comfortable, unspoken seating arrangement when it came to traveling in the Transports. The change was noticed by everyone.
“Heavens help us, what is that thing?” Disaster called out with amusement when Deceiver and Commander finally arrived. As the Guardian leader slammed and locked the hull doors, and Hunter began to lift them off the cradle, Commander secured the blocky contraption he and Deceiver had dragged into the back of the craft.
“That’s our magnetic disrupter,” Deceiver answered them. “It’s the Ombitra again, gang. And this time there’re casualties. Hunter! Did those coordinates come in?”
“Fed in and digested. Hold on to your armrests, everyone. We have to hit hyper light as soon as we leave the upper atmosphere,” he warned them.
They waited until the ship was in clear space, and had shifted to follow the flow of particle light, before Deceiver gave them the bad news. “They took out a MultiGem airliner with three hundred passengers and crew. They’re massed outside the Melini quadrant, close to Barnadi and Barandi Prime.”
“That’s less than a parsec away from the main interstellar lanes,” Condemner noticed. “Are they heading in that direction?”
“The distress call didn’t say. Sorry to spoil the day off, folks, but duty always comes first. Star, looks like you’re going to get to test that little theory of yours.”
All eyes turned to catch her reaction. “Don’t worry. It will be a pleasure.” She smiled cockily. In the viewscreen, she could see Hunter’s small smile as he chuckled lightly.
The remark sounded exactly like the old StarLight, and they immediately felt less anxious. If she was at full power, and if her previous discovery held true, there mig
ht finally be a chance at defeating an enemy they had never been able to defend themselves against.
Transport Three slid through space at full speed, gliding over two gaseous nebulas so smoothly, they were over and behind them before anyone realized they’d passed by. Hunter’s skill at the helm impressed even Condemner, the veteran pilot of the group.
“Did you ever think about joining the Corps, like your father?” he queried as they rounded an uninhabited star system.
“It crossed my mind,” Hunter admitted.
“What made you decide to become a Guardian, if you had a chance to be part of the Corps?” Bruiser asked from his seat behind the co-pilot. “You’re too damn good. You would have made a name for yourself.”
“A lot of things affected my decision, but making a name for myself wasn’t what I was seeking.”
Provoker let out a loud laugh. “You may not have been seeking it, but it bit you on the ass anyway.”
Star saw Hunter shoot the man an unreadable look, but it was gone as quickly as he’d given it. Looking out the viewscreen, she was uncomfortably aware of the fact that she and Hunter had been at the point of merging into another soul-melting session of lovemaking before they had been interrupted. Now that she’d had the chance to settle and collect herself, her body was remembering that fact for her. The momentary delay while getting into the uniform and boarding Three had been just that—a momentary delay. Now that she was still and had time to reflect, all she could think about was the hot hardness of his body, the wonders his mouth had been performing on her, and how close she had been again to that perfect pinnacle.
Leaning back in her seat, Star crossed her legs, but the rasp of her uniform between her thighs only heightened the sensation. She still bore his scent and his possession of her from their time in the gardens. There had been no time to clean up when the claxons had sounded.
A small shiver went through her, centered in her abdomen, then exploded into a thousand miniature fires. Star gritted her teeth to keep from moaning aloud. Oh, damn. Look at what’s happening to me.