I’m sorry, little girl. I’ll try to control it.
His energy flow abated a little, and she nodded, drawing a long breath that was shaky with need. His eyes never left hers as she next concentrated on the muscular neck, using the cloth with one hand and running her fingers through his hair with the other hand, combing the sweat-soaked strands off his face. She then cooled his chest, smoothing the cloth over the hard pectoral muscles on either side of the lustrous, cream-colored pendant. His skin was so hot it felt fevered, and she could feel his heart beating, strong and fast, almost in tandem with hers. She held the pendant with her free hand, absorbing its heat, and with the cloth, followed the narrow trail of dark hair downward to the waistband of his trousers.
Letting the cloth slip from her grasp, Dina ran her hand lower still, until she could feel the hard evidence of his physical desire for her. She felt that desire increase with his sharp intake of breath and the rise and fall of his chest, and in her mind she felt the echo of his emotional need for her, just as powerful and turbulent. His energy poured over her again, like a thousand wicks trimmed low, waiting to burst into flame. It was controlled, just barely.
Her own control fragmenting, she hesitated, her face against the hot flesh of his chest. His heartbeat, amplified by the link, thundered in her ears, the sharp scent of mint filled her nostrils, and her mind failed her, unable to hold the torrent of emotions flooding it. She was drowning, and she started to gasp for air, as if the flames around her had consumed all the oxygen in the kap. Her floundering mind caught his name and held on.
Rayn . . . Rayn . . . I’ll burn.
I just may burn along with you, little girl. I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you.
He shifted position, and drew her away from him. Unlink your mind from mine, or both of us will go up in smoke.
She hesitated, reluctant to let go of the promise of magic she had yearned for and waited for.
Gods, Dina, I want this as much as you do, but if we continue with the link you’ll self-destruct. Trust me, please. There’ll be another time.
She nodded and slowly unwound her mind from his. She still felt his passion, as well as her own, but at a lower, more manageable intensity.
He gave her a moment, then gently brought his arms up between them, pushing her away just enough to undo the front of her cooling vest. She dropped her arms, and he slipped the vest off her shoulders. Running his hands down her side to her waistband, he jerked the hem of her T-shirt out of her trousers, and, with one fluid move, pulled the shirt up and over her head, revealing a snug, no-nonsense desert bra.
Rayn reached for a fresh cleansing cloth, and with it, caressed her face, her neck, her shoulders, and her arms, lingering at the hollow at the base of her throat and the soft underside of her upper arms. She felt the cool dampness of the cloth acutely, even without the link, and shivers of cold and pleasure skittered across her skin wherever he touched her.
When he drew the cloth over her breasts, still covered by one thin layer of cloth, she thought she would jump out of her skin. She shuddered at the cool touch and arched her back to demand more of the sweet punishment.
But the cloth was just to prime her, not punish her, and already he was painting her flat belly with swirling wet strokes, raising designs of goosebumps in its wake. She squirmed, and he deftly undid her desert trousers, just as handily easing them down off her legs. She gave a kick and launched the trousers to the floor.
He stroked her long legs down to her ankles, then slowly dragged the cloth in lazy circles upward again until he reached her thighs. She parted her legs and, when he touched the soft skin of her inner thighs, she trembled again with prickles that shot up and down her spine and a meltdown that started pooling in her center. When his bare hand moved higher and cupped her between her legs, her body jerked, not in fear or revulsion, but in sweet agony as the meltdown accelerated.
Rayn . . . The word was a plea, brimming with the need she felt in every part of her body.
I know.
He tossed the cloth aside and, raising his right hand to her face, smoothed the damp strands aside. His fingertips grazed the side of her face, tracing a line from her temple, across her cheek, and along her jaw to her chin. She closed her eyes. Her skin prickled with sensation wherever he made contact. You make me feel so alive.
That’s a start, but I’m going to take you far beyond alive.
He copied her movements of a moment before, and with his index finger planted next to the corner of her mouth, he moved his thumb and rubbed it lightly over her lips. Her lips drew slowly apart, and he leaned forward and took her mouth as she had claimed his.
His lips were neither teasing nor gentle, as when he had kissed her in the past, but drew on her as a thirsty soul in the desert pulls on a flask of water. She moaned, and even without the mind link, all she was aware of was his mouth—hot, hard, and insistent, tugging at her, tasting her, tantalizing her. She buried her hands in his hair, and falling back to the mat, wrapped her legs around his hips.
He released her mouth and pulled the bra up and over her breasts and head. When Rayn stripped her of her clothes, it was as if she awakened from hypersleep, as if the clothes had been the chrysalis of a sleep pod, sloughed off after many years. She blinked and experienced a freedom and clarity that thrilled her. In the low light of the cavern her vision had never been more clear. She had no doubts, no questions, no fear. Her body and mind were one. Her prison walls had tumbled, and even as her physical need drummed through her body, the realization hit her like a crystal bright sky after a storm.
Rayn was above her, his long hair hanging forward, the golden eyes gleaming, and the pendant twirled slowly in space just above her. She watched it catch the light as it moved, the mother stone glowing, the star stone winking.
I love him, she thought, the star who traveled so far across the galaxy to burn for me.
Only because you set me on fire, little girl. The torch is all you.
Though the link was broken, her mind still stretched out to encompass his every thought and draw them as deep into her heart as she could, tucking them like a precious trove into a hidden, guarded niche. As her mind reached out to his, her body thrummed. A freedom, yes, but not a release, not yet.
Gods, Dina, you’re more beautiful than I imagined, and believe me, I have a good imagination.
Dina smiled, her eyes half-closed in anticipation. She reached up, slid her hands around his neck, and pulled him down to her. She felt first the warm stone as the chain and pendant pooled in the well between her breasts, then his hot mouth and even hotter tongue.
He cupped her breast from underneath, pushing it gently toward his mouth, and his lips and tongue cherished the soft flesh surrounding the pink peaks. The sensitive skin of her breasts magnified the sensations rendered by the different textures of Rayn’s face. His soft lips kissing the inside of her breasts, his rough, wet tongue scoring circles of fire around her aureoles, and his scratchy two-day growth of beard rubbing the tender skin to even greater sensitivity all drove her higher toward the mountaintop she aspired to.
She arched into him, but while he played every curve and swell, still he was careful to avoid the demanding hard buds. Her fingers dug into the ridged muscles of his neck and shoulders, and she writhed beneath him, but still he denied her. Instead, he slid one hand down over her flat stomach to her one remaining piece of clothing, her desert shorts. He moved his hand lightly over the soft material until his hand was between her legs once again. He began to stroke her, gently at first, then with more pressure, until she responded by pushing hard against his hand, begging for more.
Rayn, please . . . Her hands tugged at him, pulling his head down to her as her mind pleaded with him to end her torture.
He slid his hand inside the shorts, and at the same time, touched the tip of his tongue to one nipple. She threw
her head back and bit her lip to keep from crying out. He repeated the touch, holding the contact longer this time, then wagged his tongue back and forth over the peak, hardening it even more. She arched again as much as she could, her breasts, full and thrusting, demanding still more. He touched his lips to the nipple, then kissed it, then combined tongue and lips to tease it. She thought she would scream.
When he finally took the nipple deep into his mouth, her body shuddered, then relaxed. As he suckled her, his fingers probed deeper and deeper, caressing the honeyed folds, teasing her hard bud of desire. The meltdown continued, robbing her of air, robbing her of her senses, leaving only naked desire.
She began pulling fiercely at his trousers, trying to undo them. Releasing her for a moment, Rayn accommodated her, first pulling her shorts off, then divesting himself quickly of his own trousers and shorts. He stretched the length of his body alongside hers. Wrapped together, their hands and mouths explored each other, not slowly this time, but with urgency. Sweat sheened his body, and his hair was plastered in wet strands to his face. She pushed it back, and her own curtained both their faces. He buried his fingers in her hair, and his touch made her feel more treasured than if his hands had discovered a chest full of gold coins.
The clarity of just moments before was gone, shattered by their need, and the individual sensations spun and blurred together with ever increasing speed. When he began stroking her again, probing her folds until his fingers were inside her, she cried his name aloud, over and over.
Shhh, T’anga’cha, the waiting is over.
He quickly straddled her, positioned himself, lifted her hips, and drove into her. She bowed against him. Nothing Daar had done to her had even remotely been like this. She had thought she had loved Daar, but that had been nothing like this. As Rayn began a slow rhythm of powerful thrusts, each deeper than the one before, she knew with a certainty that he was touching her in places Daar had never reached. But it was so much more than that. Now she kept no secrets, no longer pretended to be someone she wasn’t. This was a true union of more than just body. This was the power of the suns and moons and stars, the vastness of space, the heat of the desert. It was the joy of music, the peace of the rain, the quest for light.
It was her mind mirrored in his, and his in hers, so that she no longer knew if the emotions she felt were her own or Rayn’s. And it didn’t matter. They were as one, link or no link, bond or no bond.
Their joined bodies were perfect complements to each other. His hardness to her softness, his power to her resiliency, his hunger to her bounty. But there was no darkness. The only complement to the light was a soul that sought his way by turning to the brightest flame he could find . . . a lightning storm named Dina.
At long last, he plunged into her one last time, the hardest and deepest thrust of all, and she held his body as closely and fiercely as she held his thoughts in her heart. He moaned against her, and shuddered with his release.
As the blanket of night descended on the Kathedra Valley, there was no darkness at all.
Twenty-One
Soul of the Night
THEY SLEPT FOR a while, blankets and the heat of their bodies warming them, but soon the deep chill of night penetrated the depths of the kap. Rayn woke Dina with a soft, lingering kiss. The shivers that gamboled down her body this time, however, were due as much to the cold night air as to the sweetness of his touch.
He quickly rose, lit a lantern, and returned to Dina with two warm night outfits. He tossed one to her. “Here. Put this on. We’re going outside.”
“Are you crazy? We’ll freeze.”
Rayn laughed. “You forget. I’m a master at desert survival, day or night. You won’t freeze. I promise.”
“Krek,” she said, smiling, quickly pulling on the soft thermal pants and jacket. She watched as Rayn did the same, then nodded his head toward a heat blanket that he had pulled out of storage.
“Take that and follow me.”
“Don’t we need a lantern?”
His only response was a soft laugh.
Rayn picked up a couple cushions and a second blanket and headed out of the cavern. There was no need for a lantern to pick their way across the desert floor. Foraii and Egnis were just rising, and their beams flooded the small valley with a soft, luminous glow.
The desert floor glinted like marcasite, and the shadowed tors sat crouched, attending to their eternal sentinel duty. Rayn chose an even spot on the desert floor and dropped the cushions. He nodded to Dina to put the blanket down, and he arranged the comfortable bedding.
“I want you to experience the desert at night. It’s something you’ll never forget.”
“As if I would ever forget this night,” said Dina, smiling.
Rayn motioned for Dina to get under the blanket then joined her, adding his heat to that of the cover. She sat cradled between his legs, her back against his chest, his arms wrapped around her. He rubbed his cheek against her hair.
“Magnificent, isn’t it?” he whispered into the strands. When she shivered he tightened his hold even more.
Dina leaned back against him and raised her eyes. The celestial show was indeed magnificent. Millions of glittering stars were mounted like jewels to the black velvet backdrop. Like millions of exodites, she thought, flashing all the colors of the rainbow. Some stars were bright and white, some pulsed with a red glow, some gleamed with a bluish hue, and some were the pale yellow of agherz. She tried to pick out specific stars. “Can you see Deorcas Tron?”
“Of course. But don’t you mean ‘Dark Star?’” he countered.
“No. I don’t think I’ll ever call it that again.”
He buried his lips in her hair and kissed her above her ear, then pulled an arm out from under the blanket and pointed to his right. “There. The large, bright yellow star just above that diamond shaped asterism. See it?”
She nodded. “It’s not so dark, is it?”
She felt the smile in his voice as he answered. “No,” he whispered, “not so dark. Sister stars, you know, yours and mine. A double star, bound for all eternity, but no one on Glacia ever wants to acknowledge any relationship.”
“Someday they will, Rayn. Someday.”
They sat like that for a long time, not speaking. Dina drank in the magic of the night, warm in Rayn’s arms, feeling a peace she had never in her life known. If only this night could last forever, she thought.
It will. Up here. It will last forever, no matter what happens in the future. Remember that.
She shivered again, as if she had just seen that future.
HE MADE LOVE to her as Foraii and Egnis descended toward their daytime lair, slipping behind the watchful tors.
Her soft kisses on his eyelids were like the birth of agherz depositing cool pearls of dew on the naked rocks, and the power of his emotional response to her simple gesture nearly overwhelmed him. He took her mouth with his and felt her shudder, and though it was not quite the shudder of acquiescence that signals surrender to his power, a wave of sexual gratification surged through him nevertheless. It was a trait bred deep into the dens, the sexual pleasure that domination brought, and Rayn couldn’t have changed it, dismissed it, or ignored it if he had tried. But as he held her he also felt her longing for him, her yearning to reach the end of the tunnel of loneliness she had been trapped in so long, and suddenly the importance of her desires washed everything else away. He pressed his mouth against the soft curtain of her hair, silvered by the beacons of the night.
Link with me, Dina. I want you to experience this. He felt her thoughts and emotions embrace his, and this time Dina was able to maintain the mind link without burning. As his mouth and hands worshiped her, he felt her perception of all she used to know shatter. He stayed with her, and together their minds journeyed to a dimension where two souls truly became one.
Dina had neve
r experienced anything like it, yet she felt no fear. He was with her, and she knew he wouldn’t let her come to harm. There was no Voice, not even in her mind, yet she knew what he wanted her to do, and she obeyed him without question. She released rational thought, released her traditional five senses, and reached out for feelings and sensations she had never before experienced. Her perception was heightened, yet she lost track of time and space. She knew not if they made love for minutes or hours, if moonlight or sunlight bathed them. She felt weightless, floating, her tunnel vision so narrow all she knew was the heat, strength, and passion that cocooned them as they spun faster and faster. She saw nothing except a dome of black sky behind her eyelids, against which burst blooms of colors so vivid she had no names for them, and heard nothing save a roaring in her ears, as if an ocean surrounded her, suspending her, blocking all else out.
At long last, his body still merged with hers, the spinning slowed and the roaring subsided, and she felt buoyed on a calm sea, drifting. Thought returned, and her first was wonder at which work of art had truly been more magnificently wrought by the gods, all the stars in the heavens, or the giving soul and body of one man.
They lay in each others arms and watched the creation of day. The faintest stars dimmed first as the black sky paled to midnight blue. Gradually all but the brightest white and yellow stars in the western sky were extinguished, and the eastern horizon slowly infused light and color into the dark, giving it warmth and life. The blue paled to the clarity of the finest Exodan glass, and washes of transparent yellow and red flowed from the unseen palette of the gods, tinting the horizon with blended shades of lemon, peach, and orange.
“Do you know that the miners celebrate the dawn? It’s the hope that agherz promises with the birth of each new day,” whispered Dina.
“Ummm. How did you hear of that ancient tradition?”
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