Hot Zone

by Cindy Dees

  “I wasn’t even thinking about children!” she exclaimed.

  “Then what’s wrong with us sharing sex? If we both enjoy it and it makes us feel good, why not indulge?”

  She paused, as if debating inwardly. She seemed convinced it was wrong but wasn’t having any luck coming up with a good reason why.

  He didn’t feel at all inclined to help her out. In fact, wickedly, he nudged her in the other direction. “Are you sore from last night? There are many other forms of pleasure in which we can partake. I would be happy to show you a few of them.”

  Her eyes went dark as her pupils widened sharply. Violet sparks flew of her, and the musk of her desire filled his nostrils.

  He shrugged, feigning a casualness he did not feel. “We’re all alone. It’s going to be a cold night, and at a minimum, we ought to share blankets and body heat.”

  She scowled at him. “I’m not so gullible that I’ll crawl into the sack with you, all innocence, and let you seduce me.”

  That surprised him. Centaurian females either were that gullible, or they joyfully crawled into his bed, pretending to innocence, but knowing full well he planned to mount them. It was a common ploy among females to worm their way into a prestigious harem, in fact.

  He frowned at Tessa. “What do you want to do, then? Freeze?”

  She sighed, and with that shocking honesty of hers, replied, “You are right. It is going to be cold tonight. But I don’t trust myself with you. If you kiss me and start doing some of those things you did to me last time—”

  Her breath hitched at the memory, and he smiled knowingly.

  “You and I both know what would happen.”

  It was incredibly difficult to sit here and do nothing, when every fiber of his being was shouting at him to go to her. To kiss her and stroke her to climax and lose himself in her. He clenched his fists, concentrating ferociously on the pain of his fingernails digging into his palms.

  “Will you promise to behave yourself?” she asked abruptly.

  He blinked, startled.

  “We really ought to sleep together,” she explained. “I’m already shivering and it’s going to get a lot colder than this. But there can’t be any hanky-panky between us.”

  He’d never heard the term hanky-panky, but what it meant was self-evident. “Are you trying to kill me?” he muttered.

  She laughed ruefully. “No. I’m trying to do the right thing.”

  “Right in your world,” he grumbled. “Emphatically not right in mine.”

  She studied him quizzically.

  “What?” he retorted a bit irritably. He couldn’t help it. She was resisting his charms far too well, and it made him cranky. There wasn’t a Centaurian woman alive who wouldn’t be crawling all over him already, what with these sexual vibes flying thick and fast between them.

  “It is a little presumptuous of me to assume that we have to do things my way, isn’t it?”

  Yet again she’d managed to surprise him. He mumbled, “It is not the way of my culture to rape women. If you are not willing to lie with me, I will not force you. Since your culture seems to be the one with the prudish attitude toward sex, I suppose yours will have to prevail.”

  He watched in silence as she kicked dirt over the fire and then, in the darkness, drew her bedroll over beside his.

  “Thank you for being such a gentleman about this,” she murmured, as she stretched out cautiously beside him.

  He didn’t feel much like a gentleman. He felt like a damned fool. This woman was a fire in his blood…and his consort…and he couldn’t have her. He was worse than a fool. He was insane to have agreed to this arrangement.

  “It’s strange that you should accuse me of being prudish about sex,” she commented from the shadows.

  He about jumped out of his skin. She could stop talking about sex, now. He was already so aroused he was in physical pain.

  She continued, blithely unaware of her effect on him. “Back home, I’ve been known to argue passionately against some of the more conservative opinions held in my country about sexuality. Other parts of the world are much more laid-back about it all and seem to have healthier societies because of it.”

  “Laid-back?” The visual image he formed all but made him growl in frustration.

  “It means relaxed. Free of stress or tension.”

  Exactly like they would be if they made love tonight—

  Stop that, he ordered himself. He’d given her his word.

  They lay there side by side in silence for a long time. They were both as stiff as boards. If she was one-tenth as uncomfortable as him, she was utterly miserable. And the longer they remained, the thicker and more overpowering her scent became in his nostrils.

  Finally, she broke the silence, whispering, “Are you awake?”

  He grunted. “You’re kidding, right? I won’t sleep all night. Not when I’m this randy.”

  She sighed. “I’m sorry. This really is ridiculous, isn’t it?”

  “How so?” he said cautiously.

  “We’re both adults. I’m assuming we’re all alone out here—”

  He accessed her aura quickly and cast his mind out. “There’s no one within at least three of your miles.”

  She propped herself up on his chest, a pale, unearthly figure in the light of the new moon just rising behind them. She flung one sleek leg across his thighs, and every part of him jolted to full attention.

  “What the heck,” she muttered in a tone akin to disgust.

  “I beg your pardon?” he asked cautiously.

  She laughed. “How about this phrase? In for a penny, in for a pound.”

  That one he got the gist of. Hope leaped in his chest, but he held himself perfectly still beneath her.

  “You may have promised not to make love to me, Rustam, but I never promised not to make love to you.”

  He gaped up at her, stunned. Relief flooded him that she was going to end his torture. But more than that, the idea of her making love to him galvanized his mind. He’d never conceived of such a thing before. Such a thing would never happen on Centauri Prime. It had to be forbidden here, too…taboo…but apparently not. The idea of her pleasuring him—ye gods…

  And then all thought fled as her soft, warm hands closed around his rigid flesh, and her mouth…oh, stars, her mouth…

  He reached for her, but she pushed his hands back down to the ground. “Oh, no, big guy. Tonight it’s my turn. You keep your hands right there. Just lie there and don’t move anything. Promise?”

  Too stunned by what she was doing to think straight, he muttered, “All right. Fine. I promise.”

  She slid down his body deliciously, and he all but spilled his seed right there. Her lips and tongue and teeth wove magic around him unlike anything he’d ever felt before. The sensations were beyond intense, verging on painful at times, so achingly wet and soft and seductive at others that, despite his promise, his entire body arched up off the ground, desperately seeking more and yet more of what she was doing to him.

  Just when he thought he couldn’t take another second of it, she would drift away from his male parts, stroking her fingernails across his belly, kneading and massaging his body from head to foot. She even sucked on his toes, which all but sent him over the edge.

  And then she would move back to his throbbing, rock-hard shaft and start her ministrations all over again, until he was stretched so taut upon a torture rack of pleasure that he thought he might explode into a million pieces.

  “End this,” he finally ground out from between clenched teeth. “For the love of man and horse, release me from this torture.”

  The vixen laughed. “Not yet,” she purred. And then, using both hands and mouth, she drove him nearly to the point of unconsciousness.

  “No more,” he gasped. “You’re killing me. I shall die if you do not let me spill myself now.”

  She rose up over him, smiling triumphantly. “I do believe the man begged. And for his troubles, he’s earned his rew
ard.”

  He watched in abject relief as she threw her leg over his hips and positioned herself above him. “Say please,” she murmured.

  A groan tore from his throat. “Please, woman. Release me from my promise.”

  “I release you.”

  He reached up, grabbed her hips and yanked her down on top of him. Thankfully, she was mostly ready for him, wet and relaxed. She gasped, and, gritting his teeth, he forced himself to give her a moment to adapt to his size. Then she did the unexpected.

  She started to ride him. Fast, then slow. Hard then gentle. Rocking easily, and driving mercilessly. He thought she’d plundered the depths of his being and wrung the last drop of pleasure out of him, but apparently, there was more.

  Showers of light began to spin around them, faster and faster, higher and higher, forming a towering vortex with them at its center. And then it exploded, casting them up and out of their bodies, into the darkest night of space, far beyond any place he’d ever been before, past the margins of the entire galaxy, far out into the vast expanses of the universe.

  A moment of utter stillness came over them.

  Just the two of them were in this place, two halves of a perfect whole, together, complete. There was no past, no future, just this moment and them. They could go anywhere; do anything. Her mind, as much a part of his as his was hers, mirrored his thoughts.

  What shall we do? Where shall we go?

  Anywhere. Everywhere.

  A shared flash of humor faded away, leaving only a peaceful intimacy between them. And then, eventually, a sigh.

  Back to our bodies now? Another shared sigh at the necessity of existing as separate entities in separate bodies part of the time….

  Rustam slammed back into himself with a jolt that knocked the wind out of him. He lay on hard ground, with tiny stones digging into his back. Tessa sprawled on top of him, only semiconscious, whether from an excess of pleasure or from the shock of returning to her body after that massive jump, or both, he didn’t know.

  He gasped, sucking air into his lungs convulsively as he began to breathe again.

  What. In the hell. Had that been?

  Never had returning to his body after star travel been a choice. It was the natural end of a jump. Out of body into energy form, then almost instantly back into physical form.

  The first time they’d made love, he’d recognized the out-of-body instant as it happened, had reflexively limited the length of the jump to something safe, and had just as quickly dragged himself and Tessa back again. After all, every star navigator knew how dangerous it was to spend more than an instant in-between.

  But tonight, with her in control of the vortex, they’d broken free of the limits of time and space entirely. She hadn’t contained the jump, nor had she taken them back to body right away. According to every bit of training he’d ever had, the two of them should have just died.

  How had she done that? What did this extraordinary human woman know about star-jumping that he and his kind did not?

  Sixteen

  Tessa sprawled on top of Rustam, his heart pounding like a jackhammer in her ear.

  Wow.

  That had possibly been more incredible than last time. That suspended chunk of time, where nothing existed but the two of them, had felt so right. She’d never wanted to come back from that place. Already, she wanted to go back as soon as they could possibly get there.

  It was humbling to have a man like him give himself completely over to her. He didn’t strike her as the type to allow himself to be vulnerable often. And yet he’d opened up his very soul to her, given her an intensely private and personal piece of himself tonight. He’d said please to her, for goodness sake. That had to be hard for him.

  In return, she had let go of all her inhibitions and fears, diving headfirst into that whirling indigo maelstrom they created between them. And it had been…transcendent.

  She wasn’t sure there actually were words for what they’d shared. It was almost as if they’d become part of one another.

  He murmured something in a tongue she didn’t recognize, but she didn’t have to. From his tone of voice, the meaning was obvious.

  She smiled lazily, too sated herself to do much more than that. The poor boy had just gotten a thorough initiation into Earth-style lovemaking, and it appeared to have blown his mind. He seemed completely poleaxed by the idea of the woman taking the lead and giving pleasure to the man.

  “Great spiraling Milky Way,” he finally breathed.

  She murmured against his perspiration-slick skin, “I take it you liked that?”

  “I am your slave, woman. I shall serve you to the end of time if you but do that to me again.”

  She laughed outright. “I’m glad to have done my part to broaden your romantic horizons.” Although she hoped she hadn’t ruined his enjoyment of his harem forever.

  Tessa was quickly coming to the conclusion that no Earth man was ever going to match up to him in her lifetime. Maybe he would take the concept of letting the woman have her way in bed back to his females and share it with them. Who knew? Maybe she’d started a revolution that would sweep his society and revolutionize the role of alien females.

  A pang of jealousy shot through her. This was a man she would want all to herself if she were to have a long-term relationship with him. She wouldn’t do well in a harem. She couldn’t see herself sharing him nicely with other women.

  She frowned. How could his people, with their rigid, layered view of society, be the same enlightened Pleiadean race that had planted the pieces of the Karanovo stamp on Earth, and who’d nudged mankind—human females in particular—for millennia toward developing into a race capable of star travel?

  Was he Centaurian, after all? But how could he be? They hated humans, by all accounts, and particularly hated human females. The man who’d just surrendered himself entirely to her was no hater of human women.

  He dragged her blanket over both of them and locked an arm at the small of her back to hold her in place when she would have rolled off of him.

  “Am I too heavy? Should I move?” she murmured.

  “Stay right where you are. I wouldn’t have you anywhere else.”

  “Mmm. I like the sound of that.”

  “What am I going to do with you?” he muttered.

  “I think we’ve established at least one thing you like to do with me.”

  He laughed. “We’ve established several things I like to do with you.”

  Rapidly becoming drowsy, she murmured, “Don’t worry about it tonight. Sleep now. There’ll be time enough tomorrow to ponder the question.”

  Except tomorrow turned into a long, hot day of dodging Greek soldiers streaming north. Once the Persians fought their bloody way past Thermopylae, the Greeks would fight a guerilla-style delaying action, pestering Xerxes’s army all the way to Athens.

  Oh, the city would eventually be sacked and burned to the ground, but the constant harassment would buy the citizens of Athens enough time to evacuate, taking with them their culture and their great stores of knowledge.

  Unfortunately, the Karanovo fragment, which had been steadily moving south along the coast, had stopped overnight, somewhere in the vicinity of Chalcis. Chalcis sat at the narrowing of the gulf about halfway down the Greek peninsula.

  Tessa had discovered by accident, once when Rustam was holding her hand and searching for soldiers nearby, that if she reached out with her mind to search for the medallion piece at the same time, she got a strong, clear reading on it.

  Frustratingly, though, she continued not to be able to pick it up on her own.

  They stopped early that night. Rustam parked her and the horses in a shallow cave—which he’d thoroughly checked and declared free of snakes before they entered—and then left to scout the area. She’d argued that she ought to go with him so they could combine their powers, but he would hear none of it.

  Sometimes there was just no reasoning with him; he set his jaw in that stubborn manner,
and there was no budging him. She’d eventually thrown up her hands and retreated to the cave to chew on stale biscuits and stringy jerky of God-knew-what form of animal protein.

  After her initial irritation wore off, the worry set in. Not only was she afraid that something bad might happen to him, but it felt horribly wrong to be apart from him like this. As if a vital part of her was missing.

  Tessa missed the vibrant energy of his presence, the tingle of excitement that skittered across her skin whenever she looked at him, the mental challenge of verbally sparring with him. Her world was a drab and colorless place without him in it.

  Desperate not to be quite so desperate, she resorted to giving both of the horses a good, long grooming. Brushing Polaris soothed her a little. Remnants of Rustam’s aura clung to his horse, and she gathered the bits of energy greedily, hoarding them and savoring the feeling. Eventually, the horses glistened, even in the near darkness. And still there was no sign of Rustam.

  “Polaris, what am I going to do? I’m sorely afraid that I’ve fallen for your master. And that’s going to throw a giant monkey wrench into everything.”

  The big horse rested his chin heavily on her shoulder until she reached up and scratched the base of his ear, where he liked it.

  “You’re just as sure of yourself as he is, aren’t you?” she murmured.

  The stallion nipped at her fingers, and she jerked her hand back, laughing quietly. “Behave yourself. You and your master both need a good woman to keep you in line.”

  Polaris tossed his head at that. If she thought there was a chance he understood her, she would accuse the animal of being indignant at her suggestion.

  Restless, she wandered around the cave until she finally flopped down on her bedroll in frustration. She buried her face in the wool folds, greedily inhaling the faint scent of Rustam’s body. He smelled of sweet grass and sunshine and leather and honest sweat. Good grief. She was smelling him now? She really was desperate.