Garden of Serenity (16 page)

As the sun slid toward the tree line, the crowd thinned. Jahara was weary from the extreme peaks and valleys of emotions she had climbed and tumbled through in such a short time. The amount of healing energy she’d expended added to her fatigue.

Unable to find Brenimyn, she walked to the beach alone. No longer concerned with her nakedness, she stripped away the breeches, damp with her sweat. She’d seen enough people bear their bodies in public, to realize it affected no one.

She dove into the water, the cool liquid surrounded her in a peaceful bliss. Stroking with hands and legs, she swam gracefully through the lake, feeling the seductive brush of vegetation on her belly. She surfaced only long enough to fill her lungs before submerging herself again in the quiet solitude offered by the water. With strong kicks and sweeping arcs of her arms, she swam toward the waterfall, letting the wash of the water ease her troubled thoughts. So much had been revealed to her this day and it would take time to process it all.

Climbing the rocks, Jahara settled her back with the water cascading from above, pounding on the knots in her shoulder muscles. The sun sparkled through the mist, creating dancing rainbows at the base of the falls. The lush vegetation surrounding the lake was damp with its moisture. Jahara thought she would like to stay in that spot until everything was finished. Whatever was coming seemed too overwhelming to contemplate and she let herself drift into a serene meditative state.

“Is there enough room for two up there?”

Jumping to her feet, Jahara took a defensive stance.

“Whoa. The war hasn’t begun yet.” Brenimyn climbed nimbly up the rocks to her. “We still have time for love before the battle begins.” She recognized the look of desire clouding his eyes.

She backed up until the rocks hindered her progress. “And what if I don’t choose to mate with you, breeder?” Cocking an eyebrow, she knew he heard the humor riding on the challenge.

Brenimyn flung his head and water flew from his hair. He looked like a stallion choosing his breeding mare. “Then you can choose another.” He took another step toward her, his arousal obvious. “But I don’t think you will.”

“Brenimyn, always so cocksure of yourself.” They were the last words Jahara could string together before his mouth captured hers. The familiar taste of him exploded on her tongue and heat surged through her veins. The hunger sparking in his eye told her this would be no gentle coupling. Fine with her, she wasn’t looking for sweet and sensual.

He ripped free of her mouth, his breath coming in hard pants. “I can’t get enough of you, woman.” Running his hands up her torso, Brenimyn gathered her arms and held them over her head, pinning them at the wrist with his palm. She didn’t fight him. Not when his gaze ravaged her body and a feral growl vibrated deep in his throat.

Their joining was a thunderous mix of desperate need and desire, punctuated by tender caresses and passionate words of love. As the rocks bit into her back, his savage moans of bliss vibrated off the walls and they soared on the ecstasy together.

They stayed joined for a long time after, their hearts beating wildly in time with their heavy breaths of satisfaction, both of them blissfully unaware that others were watching.

* * * *

She’d been coming to the field for months. She’d listened to the propaganda, wondering how anyone could believe such nonsense. The world belonged to woman. Men were only here to serve. Mikalyn’s partner would deliver her second child soon and they would be free to live their lives as the Creator of this earth intended—two females together.

Gabriella had been correct when she’d thought Brenimyn, the male representative to the Governmental Body, was stirring up trouble among the breeders. Today had only solidified the director’s suspicions. Now, he had a woman at his side. His talk of battles and new world orders seemed nothing more than pipe dreams. There was no way two people could change the natural order of things.

And why would any woman want to
?

She watched the couple in the waterfall mating. Unlike most women, the healer actually seemed to be enjoying the way the breeder touched her. Gagging at the thought, Mikalyn swallowed the bile that filled her throat. Copulation was such a messy ritual. Gabriella was right. There had to be better ways of procreating.

Blending in with the dissipating crowd, Mikalyn Sabella smiled at the thought of all she would report to Gabriella tonight.

Great changes were about to take place, and she was going to be on the leading edge of the discovery.

Chapter Eleven

Camille stood with her ear to the door, hearing only silence. With one last check over her shoulder to be sure the young girl in the double bed she’d just left, still slept soundly, she slowly turned the knob and slipped into the empty hall.

She’d been right about the food at dinner. It had been drugged. Camille tasted the sweet herb in her first bite. Her gift with plants was one of the reasons she’d been invited to work in the dining commons.

No one else seemed to notice the drinks had been laced with it as well. Fortunately, her roommate had had an adverse reaction to the herb and vomited all over the table. In the ensuing rush by Dr. Bresilee’s staff to clean the mess, Camille had scooped the food on her plate into a napkin and dumped her drink in a potted plant near the window.

Now her stomach grumbled in protest. All she needed was a quick bite from the kitchen and she too would sleep through the night without the aid of drugs.

This was her third visit to Dr. Bresilee’s home in as many months. Though the accommodations were opulent and the food a gourmet selection she wasn’t offered at the breeders’ grocery—she hated it here.

At nineteen, Camille had never traveled far from her family’s home. She may lack the life experience many of her breeding sisters possessed, but even she understood the things that happened in this mansion weren’t part of the government’s procreation decree.

Besides, when she was here, she wasn’t with Nathaniel and that was the part she detested the most. The man was sweet. A gentle and considerate breeder. He did things to her body no woman could ever do. Not that she’d had much experience in the sex department before arriving at the Garden three months ago.

She’d been pleased when Dr. Bresilee had confirmed that she wasn’t pregnant. It meant another month living and mating with Nathaniel. The fact that the director had touched her so intimately in front of the honorable Dr. Khateri had been rather humiliating, but many of the things Dr. Bresilee did embarrassed the young women she took under her wing to train.

Camille made her way cautiously down the long hallway of bedrooms, her bare feet sinking deep into the lush carpet. She listened for noise from the other four bedrooms on this floor, each sleeping two young women. Nothing, save for a soft snore, emanated from the rooms. She imagined they were all snoozing blissfully content in a dreamless fog of drug-induced sleep.

She should be focused on not getting caught wandering the mansion after lights-out, but her mind drifted back to Nathaniel and his invitation to the lake. He’d contacted her yesterday by vid-com, begging her to sneak out of the mansion today and meet him at the lake. Many of her breeding sisters had spoken of the romantic spot outside the Garden proper, with its waterfall and lush jungle vista, but she’d never had the opportunity to visit. Unfortunately, every female breeder understood the invitation to stay here at the mansion wasn’t really a request and Camille hadn’t even bothered to ask Dr. Bresilee to let her leave.

Despite the Garden’s temperature controls, the shadowed hallway felt cold. Camille should have chanced breaking the rules and thrown a tunic over her naked body. She shot a look back down the hall, contemplating returning to the room, but the insistent rumble from her stomach forced her forward. She’d never been one to skip meals.

Peering over the staircase, Camille checked to make sure no chaperones roamed the halls. She tiptoed down the stairs, taking in the breathtaking expanse of Dr. Bresilee’s foyer, the vaulted ceiling and crystal chandelier dominating the entryway. The wooden antique clock that had just chimed out the midnight hour in lovely resonating tones sat majestically in the corner.

As Medical Director and leader of the Governmental Body of the Garden of Serenity, Dr. Bresilee had the only mansion on the premises. Some of the lower members of the Garden’s government had private dwellings, though none were as ostentatious as this. Camille’s entire breeding complex, with its four apartments and communal swimming pool, could fit in this house.

She looked to her left, noting the two separate wings. The pool, entertainment room, and library ran straight to the back of the house. Dr. Bresilee’s private wing angled off in another direction. The girls were permitted there only by invitation.

Shuddering, Camille thought of her last visit to the mansion. Dr. Bresilee had invited her to sleep in her private wing. She’d been told it was the highest honor bestowed on a guest at Bresilee’s home and she’d accepted willingly. But the experience had been anything but pleasant. She’d experienced only humiliation in the activities Gabriella, as she was called in her private quarters, expected of Camille and another young woman.

Camille had bitten back a gasp of shock when Gabriella had stripped before them. The skin of her torso was rippled and twisted, the coloring on her arms and legs resembling a road map of blue veins and bruised lines.

“This is what fire does to the skin,” Gabriella had said, shamelessly modeling for them. “I had an accident when I was just about your age. The healers did their best, but no one could repair my body.” She slid her hands down her belly and back up again, teasing the small mounds of her breasts. “But the fire did not damage my heart. I desire love and companionship just like everyone else.”

She walked toward them and laid a hand on their astounded faces. “Tonight you will learn how to love completely and without reservation any woman, even one who is not beautiful on the outside. For you see, girls,” her gaze roamed the length of their naked bodies, “beauty comes from within.”

Camille had arrived at the Garden, like so many women, a virgin in every sense of the word. She’d never been with anyone before. Nathaniel had been her first and only lover. He made her body taut like the string of an instrument, slowly, painstakingly playing it and bringing forth sweet music that vibrated through her body in a release of incredibly sensual ecstasy. Male and female bodies were so obviously made to complement and pleasure one another and she loved every moment she spent with Nathaniel. She wasn’t sure why so many women believed otherwise. Perhaps her inexperience made her young and foolish—but body mechanics would suggest otherwise.

In any case, what Gabriella had asked of Camille and the other girl had seemed unnatural. Gabriella had taken them into her bed and under the guise of instruction, had shown them both how to kiss and touch every part of her. Camille had been too frightened by the power Gabriella held at the Garden to refuse the woman, but the whole thing had sickened her.

Later, Gabriella had stimulated herself while explaining to the girls how to touch one another. Camille had pretended to enjoy the experience, but it had been a torturous night enduring the intimate touches and Gabriella’s lurid gaze. Though she knew many women enjoyed it, even preferred it, Camille had been completely turned off by a woman’s hands on her.

It had been a long night.

And here she was again, trying to fly under Gabriella’s radar, hoping to finish her week here without receiving another personal invitation. Two nights ago, she’d joined two other breeding sisters in Gabriella’s private bedroom. Camille had writhed and moved and managed to avoid intimate contact with the women without arousing suspicion. She needed only to get through another night or two before Gabriella allowed her to return to her breeding residence. Since pregnancy was the goal of the Garden, even the Medical Director couldn’t keep a woman from her male breeder for indefinite amounts of time.

And she missed the warmth of Nathaniel’s strong arms around her.

The blue light of the ever-present full moon slanted through the windows, casting long shadows across the wood floor. Camille turned right at the foot of the stairs and crept past the sitting room where the girls played board games and dreamed about their futures. The shelves lining the walls were filled with artifacts of the ancients. Books, statues and aged artwork decorated the space, but were only for the eyes. The ancient artifacts were secured behind pieces of glass, keeping hands and dust from ruining Dr. Bresilee’s extensive collection.

The library in the other wing held thousands, if not tens-of-thousands of titles that could be accessed through the multiple video screens. And a studio in the back of the house was available for artistic pursuits.

Camille peered into the dining room, the sour smell of sickness still hanging in the air. The dining table had been extended and was already set with twenty-four place settings, twice as many as had been at dinner. Camille hoped, with the additional people for the morning meal, that she’d be asked to serve. She much preferred the role of servant to guest.

An unexpected sound behind her, nearly jumped her out of her skin. She swallowed her startled gasp as she ducked into a small alcove of the dining room. The distinct sound of a lift moved behind the paneling across the hall. The noise grew louder as it dropped past the first floor, fading as it glided to a lower level.

She hadn’t known there was an elevator—let alone a basement—in the mansion.

The unmistakable tone of Dr. Bresilee’s clipped voice wafted down the hall, rising in volume with each click of her shoes.

“What Mikalyn told me today is disturbing. She was at the lake again. I should’ve had the water stopped on that wretched river months ago. There’s just the little problem of irrigation for the crops.” Her voice sounded as if it came out through clenched teeth. “I knew Brenimyn was trouble, but I hadn’t expected Jahara to join his cause. I’ll have Mikalyn keep an eye on her at the clinic. Maybe having her working with the men at the well-check all these weeks wasn’t the best idea. I knew something was amiss when she arrived here.”