by Jaid Black
* * * * *
The hallucinogens had long since worn off, but it had taken two days of constant sex before she’d felt completely calm and normal again. The deep impalements Jek gave her had worked for no more than an hour at a time when she’d feel desperate and crazed again, needing to be relieved.
But now it was over.
Brynda stared out of the porthole as the cruiser lurched upward, waving goodbye to Lieutenant Zaab and General Zaqari. Odd as it sounded considering what had happened to her in the jungle, she was going to miss Dementia. And the Dementians.
“I’ve a feeling we’ll see them again,” Jek murmured in the way of comfort as he too waved goodbye.
She smiled. “I hope so,” she said softly, watching as the gorilla hunters disappeared into the jungle. She glanced up at Jek. “If it wasn’t for Zaab’s near challenge I’d still be waiting to make love to you.”
He chuckled as he planted a kiss atop her hair. “Mayhap,” he said. “But I doubt it.”
Chapter 15
Jek frowned, his brow furrowed. “For a certainty I cannot understand why you are sulking.” He grunted as he threw a hand toward her, watching from the gel-rock he lounged upon as she combed out her hair in their bedchamber bathing pool. “Leastways, ‘tis o’er. You are healed. You have cheated death.” His look was perplexed. “Why the sadness?”
Brynda sighed as she set down the comb. “You don’t get it? You really don’t get it?”
“Nay,” he said as if speaking to a dimwit, “I do not.”
She waded toward him in the lulling water. When she reached the gel-rock she propped her elbows onto it and plopped her chin down onto her hands. “Me neither,” she admitted.
Jek snorted. “Ah, at least ‘tis good sense you are making, nee’ka.” He bent his neck and kissed the tip of her nose.
She smiled. “I guess it was just so…so…”
“So what, Bryn?”
“So…anticlimactic.” She sighed. “I’ve been fighting this disease for years and years. I was so sick, in fact, that I would have died within a few months had you not shown up and whisked me away.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “I see what you mean.”
She groaned. “I know I’m being ridiculous! I mean, the point is I’m alive and well and scheduled to live for oodles and oodles of years, but…”
“…but,” Jek finished for her, “you mayhap wanted a bit more of a dramatic healing than Ari waving a hand at you and announcing ‘twas done.”
“Exactly!” Brynda’s lips pinched together in a frown. “Damn, I’m a moron.”
He chuckled, bending his neck to kiss the tip of her nose again. “But ‘tis my moron you are, Lady Q’ana Ri.”
She playfully slapped his chest, grinning up at him. “Gee thanks.”
He held her hand against his chest, then growled when he felt her other hand wrap around his erection. “’Tis gel-fire you play with, vixen.”
She chuckled as their lips met, smiling as they performed a little tongue duel. She ground her hand against his swollen cock, loving it when he hissed in response. “Please,” she teased, “split me asunder anon, big boy.”
Jek grinned as he raised his head. He wiggled his eyebrows. “’Tis wicked big, aye?”
She rolled her eyes. “What an ego.” She grinned. “But yeah, it is.”
His smile faded as his expression grew serious. “You know something, Bryn?”
“Hm?” She smiled.
“I think you were healed,” he admitted, “before ever you had an audience with Ari.”
Her brow wrinkled. “I don’t understand…”
“Aye you do,” he murmured.
She thought about that for a moment. “Because I let myself believe?”
Jek nodded. “The mind is quite a powerful ally. Leastways, you have seen what I can do with mine.”
She inclined her head, conceding the point. “I think you may be right,” she said on a smile.
“’Twas either that or…” Jek grinned, the teasing light back in his eye as he grabbed his manhood by the base. “Or ‘twas this wicked big cock.”
Brynda laughed, realizing as she did that he was trying to keep her mood light. The past no longer mattered. Old battles no longer mattered. Only the present and the future were of importance now. “By the way, what happened to all those hatchlings you promised me?”
Jek plucked her out of the water, causing her to yelp, then set her astride him that her legs straddled his hips. “I’ve the feeling you will get with my pani this very moon-rising, my hearts.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Best grab the recorder, Bryn. I’ve a feeling ‘tis a holo-cam moment.”
She chuckled as she enveloped his cock inside of her, then grinned when the slow undulation of her hips made him growl.
And later, when the belly flutters began, she would learn that he had been correct.
It had been a holo-cam moment.
Epilogue
Chained to a narrow raised bed, Vandor commanded himself to move not a muscle whilst the fiery-headed High Princess walked slowly towards him, her expression defeated. He had felt her distress on each occasion that she had disobeyed his mental summons, and verily, it had taken its toll.
She looked tired. Tired and weak and defeated.
“What do you want of me?” she brokenly whispered.
Weak—far too weak. He should have forced his will upon her days ago, weeks ago.
She stood before him naked, not having bothered to don the customary dress of her people, for verily she must have known he would only remove it anyway.
When one of his chained hands rose up and his thumb began to massage her erect nipple, she shuddered breathily, no longer trying to shield herself from him for she had to have realized by now ‘twould do her no good.
His jade-green gaze found her glowing blue one. One side of his mouth kicked up, displaying his fangs. “Everything,” he purred.
* * * * *
Yar’at tried to keep his attention on what was being said unto him by the High King Jor Q’an Tal. He had trekked into Sand City to the Palace of the Dunes this moon-rising to report his third dimension mission under High Lord Jek Q’an Ri unto Tryston’s ruler. And yet, try as he might to focus on the High King, ‘twas to the beautiful fiery-headed wench standing quietly behind him that he found his gaze continually straying toward.
He could tell from Jor’s stance that the High King was fiercely protective of his elder sister, for he kept her securely a foot behind him, shielding her from the need to speak with others.
Yar’at had heard whispers of Zora Q’ana Tal’s beauty and he could see for himself that they were true. But he had also heard cruel jests spoken of her name because she was so different from other wenches. ‘Twas said she wasn’t given to flirting with the warriors and from what he’d heard amongst rumormongers ‘twas also said she rarely even spoke to any of them save the males of her lineage.
And yet he found her shy gaze constantly straying to meet his…
Yar’at forcibly clamped down on the emotions he felt, telling himself he was delusional if ever he thought the eldest daughter of the Emperor Himself would have a care for his affection. ‘Twas ridiculous in the extreme to even hope, let alone to test her.
And so with heavy hearts he prepared to leave the Palace of the Dunes after his verbal report was complete. When the High King finished handing out his instructions, Yar’at’s gaze strayed one last time to clash with Zora’s. He inclined his head respectfully to her, garnering him a wide-eyed expression and a sincere smile that did more to his hearts than he wished it did.
Yar’at turned on his boot heel and walked briskly from the dining hall lest he do something foolish that would cause others to make more jest of him—such as test the eldest hatchling of the Emperor for the ability to mate with him.
He would that it could be true.
But he was slow of the tongue, he reminded himself.
And if ever the High Princess had heard the
rumormongers speak of him, she would also believe him to be slow of the mind.
* * * * *
“The beginning,” Dari sighed, her head arched back on the seat’s vesha-pad. She absently watched as the legendary planet Khan-Gor loomed closer and closer in the encroaching horizon. “’Tis hard to decide just where and when it all started.”
A vesha hide wrapped around her, Kari laid her head on the padding of the pilot seat and smiled. “How old were you when you were sent to live with Gio on Arak?” she murmured.
Dari glanced over to her. “Fourteen.”
Kari nodded. She was silent for a moment and then, “and how old were you when you fell in love with him?”
Dari’s eyes widened. She smiled softly as she looked away, staring out into the night. “Fourteen and a day,” she whispered. “Fourteen and a day.”
* * * * *
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Next in the Trek Mi Q’an Series:
Lusty Lori:
Trek Mi Q’an Book 5 & ½
From the anthology
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Jaid Black, Kate Douglas, Shelby Morgen, & MaryJanice Davidson