Between Darkness and Light (56 page)

He pushed the thought away and moved to the bathing room door as Zayshul opened it. “He's gone,” he said, turning back to the lounge and walking over to pick up his robe again.

“Kusac, wait,” she said, catching hold of his arm. “We're alone here now . . .”

I still don't want this,
he thought, briefly closing his eyes as her scent began to reach his nostrils. With a sense of inevitability, he left his robe where it was and turned to face her.

“You won't be missed?” he asked.

“They don't watch me like they used to, before you saved Kezule's life.”

“I know what your scent does to me, but how does mine affect you?” he asked abruptly, needing to know.

She reached out and laid her hand against his chest, gently running it across the muscles almost hidden by the slightly longer pelt that grew there.

“You don't realize how beautiful you appear to us, do you? We've nothing on our world that resembles you at all,” she murmured, her eyes glinting in the light from the ceiling. “You give off the combination of your scent and mine laced together,” she said. “That's what your scent is now. It's in your pelt, on your hair—my body absorbs it when we touch.”

His body shivered in response to her touch and embarrassed, she lowered her hand and her gaze. “I taste it when you kiss me.”

Taking a deep breath, he moved closer and took her by the arm. Better to get it over with, he thought as the now familiar light-headedness hit him and he felt his pulse starting to rise.

“We might as well be civilized about this,” he said, drawing her toward the door to his bedroom. “Vartra knows, I haven't been so far.”

“It's all right,” she said. “I understand.”

 

Turning out the lounge light behind him, he adjusted the bedroom's lighting to low. She handed him the toweling robe, which he threw toward a chest at the other side of the room. When he turned back, she was already beginning to unfasten her coveralls.

“Let me,” he said, pulling her into his arms and lowering his head to lick her cheek. Her scent wasn't affecting him as quickly this time, and he needed the release from responsibility that touching and licking her body would give him.

“Kusac,” she said. When he continued to lick her, she took hold of his head and pulled him away so he had to look at her.

He gave a small rumble of annoyance. “What?” Already his eyes were losing focus and he could hear the blood beginning to pound in his head. Automatically his hands flexed on her shoulders, claws pricking through her clothing. He stopped with an effort. “What is it?”

“Please, don't punish either of us. We're both victims. Stop fighting the scent marker.”

“I'm not,” he said.

“You're fighting it with anger, I can feel it. Let go this time, don't try to stay in control,” she said.

He growled, low and deep. “You ask a lot.”

“I know. I'm asking you to trust me,” she said, stroking his cheek. “Let the marker work the way it's supposed to work.”

He turned his head, licking the inside of her wrist, over the pulse spot. “Just let go. Don't stop the drug,” he repeated.

She nodded, releasing him.

“Yes,” he said, reaching for her mouth with his. He kept his eyes open as he caught at her bottom lip gently with his teeth. Her tongue flicked out, its forked tip touching him. He released her quickly. Too soon for that, he shouldn't have watched. He shuddered, shutting his eyes.

He felt her mouth close on his neck, then her tongue was forcing his pelt aside till the forked tips touched the flesh beneath. Gently her teeth began to nip him as she roamed across his throat.

With an effort, he opened his eyes again, focusing on continuing to unfasten her coverall, but his hands were unsteady now as the urgency to have her increased. His fingers touched hers as she helped him and moments later, he was sliding her clothing off.

He pulled her into an embrace, kissing her again, making sure to close his eyes this time. When her tongue touched his lips, hesitantly, he let her enter his mouth for the first time. Her tongue felt strange, and she tasted different, sweeter than before. He trapped her briefly against the roof of his mouth so he could taste her fully. Remembering what she'd said, he surrendered himself to the sensations as fire coursed through him, igniting all his senses. He grasped her hand, pressing it against his belly, then down over the smoothness of his groin.

“Hold me here,” he whispered as his body began to spasm in pleasure. He rested his head on her shoulder, moaning gently, his breathing becoming more rapid.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing.” The word was drawn out, almost a gasp. “Just wait.” He clutched her close as suddenly, his genitals descended into her waiting hand. His breath came out in an almost explosive gasp as he lifted his head.

“So that's . . .”

“Gently,” he hissed, wincing slightly as her fingers began to explore. Her touch became lighter, more sure, and he began to purr. “You've no idea how good it feels when that happens,” he murmured, licking her neck with long sweeps of his tongue while his hands began to stroke their way down her back and hips.

Beneath his hands, he could feel her skin flushing with heat, and her scent changing as she became more aroused. When her hand encircled him and she began to slide it up his length, he had to stop her.

“No more,” he said, grasping her hand and removing it. Backing off, he drew her with him until they tumbled onto his bed. When he reached for her, she caught his hands in hers and sat up.

“Not tonight,” she said, moving till she knelt astride his thighs. “Tonight you're mine.”

Letting one hand go, she began pushing her fingers through his pelt until she reached his collarbone, then she circled the base of his neck, just under his torc, pressing her claws against his flesh.

A sudden chill of fear rushed through him but when he reached for her hand, it was gone and she was leaning over him, her tongue and teeth flicking and nipping at his ear. Her scent surrounded him now, driving thoughts of anything but the sensations she was generating from his mind. She moved lower, working her way under his jaw then along his shoulder.

He reached for her head, cupping the back of it, encouraging her as his breath began to come in shorter and shorter gasps.

Her nips, which had been gentle, became sometimes sharp and almost painful. It made him tense and he grasped her by the waist, trying to free his other hand but he found she'd pinned it effectively to the bed.

“Trust me,” she said, lifting her head as her fingers and claws raked their way carefully down his side and hip, making him shudder with pleasure. She moved lower, her teeth finding one nipple while her hand, on its way up his chest, found the other.

He moaned gently, wondering how she knew they were so sensitive.

“I can read,” she said, her tone amused. “I know they must be sensitive because your females use them to suckle their young.”

She was resting on the tip of his erection now, pressing it against his belly; her moist warmth against him almost unbearable. He could almost feel the marker being absorbed by his naked skin.

Arching his hips up, he tried to enter her, gasping and collapsing back on the bed when she nipped him hard.

“Not yet,” she whispered. “I'll tell you when.”

“Enough teasing,” he said, his voice ragged. “I want you now.” He tried to break her grip on his hand but she laced her fingers between his, holding him down even more firmly.

She slid lower, the sensation so intense he felt himself beginning to swell again as waves of pleasure and tension rippled through his whole body, making him shudder violently.

“What are you doing?” he gasped as her hand again raked its way down his side and across his hip.

“Showing you how the marker enhances pleasure for males,” she said, sliding lower still before sitting up. Her claws now began to slowly circle his belly, moving to the sides of his groin then across his thighs.

He closed his eyes, relaxing under her gentle touch. Then he felt the flick of her tongue on his erection. Images of her many tiny sharp teeth came instantly to his mind and, eyes flying open, he tried to sit up.

“Not that,” he said, reaching with his free hand to stop her.

He found himself instantly pushed back, her hand pressed against his diaphragm to keep him there. He tried again to rise but the pressure she was exerting made it too painful.

“Vartra's bones!” he hissed, watching and feeling her teeth gently take hold of him. He shut his eyes, unable to watch. “Be careful!”

She teased him, taking him almost to the point of orgasm before stopping. Every breath he took now was heavy with their combined pheromone-laden scents. That, coupled with what she'd been doing to him, had driven him to an almost feral state of desire.

His hand was freed as she matched her body to his and lifted her face up to him. He grasped her head, kissing her furiously, tasting himself as well as her on her lips.

“Now,” she murmured, pushing herself down till he was almost inside her.

Lifting her up, he arched his hips to meet her, pulling her down onto him, burying himself deep within her with a low, drawn out moan. He stayed like that for a moment, feeling his whole body throbbing with desire, then he pulled her down against his chest and tumbled them over so he was poised above her.

Shuddering, he began to withdraw from her, thrusting back deep inside her at the last moment, making her cry out in pleasure, a cry she quickly muffled by sinking her teeth into his shoulder.

A rhythm established, wave after wave of pleasure, exactly matching hers, coursed through him until he thought he could take no more. Their bodies climaxed together, holding them tight in a pulsating, swirling sea of sensations. At the height of it, he felt her mind explode inside his, flooding him with erotic imagery of his body penetrating hers; against his neck, the torc vibrated a frantic, painful warning. Shaking his head in real distress, with his final thrust, he pushed her mind aside. Spent, he collapsed against her, slamming up all his mental barriers as he tried to calm his ragged breathing and make sure his mind was still his own.

He felt her moving beneath him, and relieved he hadn't knocked her out with his mind, he shifted his position slightly to make sure his weight wasn't on her.

It was several minutes before he realized she was playing with his hair. His limbs felt heavy and lethargic, but even despite the shock of the mental contact, he was more relaxed than he remembered being for many months.

“That's how the scent marker is used,” she said.

“It's effective,” he murmured. “And intense.”

“Better?”

“Better,” he agreed, reaching out to touch her cheek gently. “I can see why those of you who could scent mark became dominant. Definitely a desirable trait as far as males are concerned.”

“At least you weren't angry this time,” she said.

Carefully, he withdrew from her and moved over, wincing as he flexed his bitten shoulder. “You were far too skillful to allow me to think of anything but what you were doing,” he said. “It was unexpected.”

“I was trying to remove the marker the other two times,” she said, sitting up. “I can't use it and try to switch it off at the same time. We had the comfort and the security for me to do that tonight, Kusac, we won't always have. I thought you should know the more pleasant side of it at least once.”

“I'm not complaining,” he said hurriedly, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

“We're going to have to meet like this every few days,” she said. “The pool's useful, if we can't manage anywhere else.”

“I don't like situations like that day in the office,” he said with a low rumble. “I've a suggestion. Can we hide in plain sight?”

“Excuse me?”

“Take the pressure off by meeting socially with some of your friends? The other females like to touch me, so amongst them, you'd be unremarkable. I've begun to socialize with Zhalmo.”

“I see what you're saying,” she nodded. “We could try. Just remember, Zhalmo is interested in you.” She bit back what she was going to say next.

“What?”

She looked away from him. “You are, of course, free to sleep with Zhalmo or any of the other females if you wish. I have no right to ask you not to.”

“I think I'll pass on that,” he said, flattered. “Life's complicated enough.”

“I should shower and leave,” she said awkwardly, getting off the bed. “I'll leave the water on for you. Having one long shower will cause less suspicion from the room on the other side of you than having it on twice.”

“There're towels in the closet in there,” he said.

She stopped to pick up her coveralls and underwear.

He lay back on the bed, waiting for her to finish, grateful that she seemed not to have noticed their minds meeting briefly. He tried to figure out how he felt about her now. Nothing much had changed, except he knew she'd been used as much as he had. In a way, it was a relief not to have to hate her, knowing that she'd saved his life at least twice. He'd never really felt comfortable with blaming her, if he was being honest.

He woke with a jerk to her shaking his foot.

“You were asleep,” she said, a slight smile on her face.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing his eyes as he got up. “Look, I need to apologize for treating you the way I did the other day . . .”

“It's forgotten,” she interrupted, turning toward the door. “I would have felt the same had it been me.”