Greenshift (9 page)

When his teeth teased at her
nipple, she almost lost it. If he kept this up, he wouldn’t need to go any
further to bring her to climax. She groaned as his teeth were replaced with the
tight grip of his lips.

“David, do you know how this
feels?”

Then she remembered the zigzag. With
light fingers she moved down his belly until she brushed against the hard scar.
She traced it to his open waistband and kept going, anxious to see where her
hand would end up.

He kissed a line up her neck and
whispered in her ear, “Still interested in that scar?”

“Uh huh,” she mumbled,
knowing full well his scar wasn’t her biggest interest.

When she ran into the waistband
of his shorts, she stopped, a little nervous to go any further, but her
curiosity and desire won out. She slid her hand inside, keeping a finger along
the scar until she found its end just above his thigh. But that was only a
detour. She skated her fingertips across him in exploration until her hand
brushed against his hardness.

“Maybe you should take your
pants off,” she said, gliding her fingers along his shaft.

“You first.” He tugged
at the nightie piled around her waist.

He kept kissing her neck as they
wiggled out of their clothes, tossing garments to the floor and across the
room.

Unrestricted by clothing, David’s
body was intimidating. Everything about him was so big. Granted, she was
shorter than average and had a petite frame like her mother and half-sisters,
but she had never felt smaller in her entire life than lying next to David.

“Such a sweet, little
body,” he said. One of his big hands cupped her breast while the other one
gently pushed her thigh aside to spread her legs. She hadn’t realized she’d had
them squeezed closed. He kept his hand there for a while, brushing the inside
of her thigh with the back of his hand and his fingertips. She felt the
wetness already trickling out of her as her folds started to open. And he
hadn’t even touched her there yet.

When he slid his hand between her
legs, a little whimper of anticipation escaped her lips. With the first brush
of his fingers against her clit, the whimper became a moan. Sensation shot
through her body as two of his big fingers made delicate circles, teasing her
open further. As he increased the pressure and speed of his massage, she closed
her eyes with the delight of it.

She ran her hands down his back to
the top of his backside where she squeezed his toned flesh as her body built to
climax. How many times had she wanted to touch him, to have him touch her just
like this? Part of her couldn’t believe it was actually happening. As if to
convince her of reality, her orgasm hit, rocking her body until she was
squeezing David’s hand between her legs as each wave swelled and crashed.

She was still writhing with
pleasure when he withdrew his hand and shifted position. But, when she felt his
hardness press at her opening, she froze. Almost reflexively, she pulled her
knee up to put distance between their bodies.

“Everything okay?” he
asked.

“Sorry. Some of this is just
a little new for me.” She slid her knee from between them, but couldn’t
force the stiffness from her body. Or the sudden bout of shivers.

“What are you saying,
Mari?” David sounded tentative, as though he already knew the answer.

“I haven’t…exactly done this
before, but I want to,” she said quickly, tightening her grip on his neck
to emphasize her enthusiasm. “Please don’t be mad. You could show me what
to do.” Her emotions were getting the better of her as disappointment and
embarrassment flooded through her. That’s when the tears blurred her vision.
She felt foolish admitting her inexperience to a man like David. Well, maybe to
any man, but especially David.

“Mari, honey.” David
brushed away the tears on her cheek with his thumb. “I’m not angry with
you.” He kissed her forehead then both of her closed eyes. “I’m just surprised.”
He stroked her hair and spoke in a soothing tone. “It means we should take
this all a little slower.”

“I’m tired of taking it
slow, David. You were the first guy I wanted to do this with. And now I’ve
ruined it.”

“You haven’t ruined
anything.” He kissed her slowly and with such tenderness she knew he meant
what he said.

“Slow can be fun,” he murmured.

His mouth trailed down her neck.
She’d always seen couples do this on the Media and sometimes in public spaces
at Shiraz and outside the high end shops of Latulip. It had looked blissful to
her. When David went from kissing to gently sucking at the sensitive skin below
her ear, she decided bliss couldn’t come close to describing the sensation.

“Slow is definitely fun,”
she whispered.

He ran a finger between the
hollow of her breasts and down to her belly. She sucked in her abdomen as he
traced circles around her belly button and continued lazy swirls until his hand
slid between her legs again. His fingers stroked lightly over her still
sensitive clit, teasing her back to a state of arousal, but then he stopped and
lifted her chin so she could look directly into his eyes. “If anything
doesn’t feel right to you at any time, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”

“Yes,” she could barely
get the word out.

Spreading her folds, he touched
her opening with his middle finger. Still looking at her, as though watching
her reaction to his every touch so closely, he pushed his finger inside her.

“Did that hurt?”

“No.” It actually
pinched a little, but maybe because she was still a bit tense.

He slowly pulled his finger back
out, creating a sensation that was much more pleasant, like she had expected. She
felt the pressure of two fingers just below her clit this time, exciting her.

“What about this?” he
asked, carefully sliding both fingers into her heat.

“It’s a little tight,”
she said, “but it feels good.”

As he continued to work his
fingers inside her, he kissed her softly on the lips then on her throat then in
the valley between her small breasts. His lips reached her belly button and she
sucked in her breath and clenched against his penetrating fingers. How he
thought this would slow things down for her mystified Mari. His trail of kisses
only managed to inspire urgency within her and made her skin hot under his
mouth. But not as hot as the blood which swelled into her clit when his last
kiss landed there.

“David.” She dug her
fingers into his shoulders and said his name over and over as his lips and
tongue moved against her, accentuating the push of his fingers. Before she realized
it, she moved her hips in time with him. The rising pressure of another climax
built within her.

To her shock, David pulled his
hand away from her completely.

“What….” She felt
abandoned.

He moved his body over hers and
whispered, “Do you trust me?”

“More than anyone,” she
whispered back.

That instant when he first
entered her brought on a wave of unexpected emotion. She felt tears roll down
the side of her face into her hair, but she was smiling because she had waited
for this moment for so long.

She pressed her back into the
soft cotton mattress at first, hesitant to give him full access. He stopped,
letting her get used to the feel of him. She relaxed as he kissed her and
caressed her arms, her neck, her face with a light touch. Sliding her hands
down his back, she did her own exploring, ending at his rounded backside. She
moved her hips toward him and pressed her hands against his bottom to let him
know she was ready for more of him.

He pushed in a little further,
but let her set the pace for the joining of their two bodies. As her hips urged
him deeper inside her, she kissed him harder, finding his tongue with hers. He
took over the rhythm of their coupling and filled her in every way—her body,
her mind, her heart. Not in her wildest fantasies could she have imagined this
sensation, this overpowering feeling of connectedness. As David moved within
her, she was closer to him than she had ever been to anyone in her entire life.
This was what it meant to be part of a couple.

She would remember this moment
for the rest of her life. That David Anlow, the retired fleet captain who had
become a fast and dear friend, taught her more than just piloting a ship, he
taught her about the beauty to be found in this unity.

As if to seal the memory, she
kissed him with as much passion as she contained. The building pressure between
her legs returned and brought her thoughts to more base pleasures, making her
awed that David and his body could evoke this kind of reaction from her. She
broke away from the kiss when the sweet spasms of release rolled over her.
Without thinking, without caring, she cried out in a fit of ecstasy.

A low growl rumbled through
David’s chest that she as much felt as heard. Within seconds his body joined
hers in climax.

A strange and wonderful feeling
of empowerment flooded her system as he came. She understood now. Coupling
evened the playing field between partners, between castes, between ages. David
had shown her this new truth when his body responded to her. She could give
him
as much pleasure as he gave her. She giggled with the delight of discovery.

Mari also knew another truth—she
wanted David as her prime, but not just her first amour, her
only
amour.

Last night was unexpected
.

David had never been someone’s
first, had never wanted the responsibility. After coupling with Mari, he
couldn’t imagine the experience being any more satisfying…and emotional. Not
just for her. Sharing her first coupling made him regard her with awe and
respect, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, it made him want to make
their new relationship a little more permanent. Suddenly he didn’t care if his
hormones were telling him to settle down—so was his heart. It was his head that
kept getting in the way. If his decision to retire early was what brought that
settling down idea front and center, it meant he shouldn’t even be considering
it until he’d had enough time away from the fleet to clear his head.

His contentment upon waking faded
a little as he worried that what he felt for Mari was simply an emotional
fallacy. Not that he believed his feelings for Mari were false, he just didn’t
trust them to make any life decisions for him after Lyra. The fact that he was
already contemplating taking his prime based on how he felt in the afterglow
of a night of coiting with a teenager practically screamed for him to put as
much distance between Mari and him as humanly possible.

She was already acting as though
their tryst had sealed some sort of deal. When she spoke of it, he hadn’t
discouraged her, though. Instead, he let her indulge them both with her
fantasies. Even now, with his rational mind reprimanding him, David still
wondered how it might feel to wake up next to her each morning, her tousled
blonde locks hiding her face and her thin arm thrown possessively over his
bulky chest. Just like now.

He slept over very few nights
with women, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave Mari alone after her
first time. At least that’s the lie he told himself when he agreed to stay last
night. Was that also the reason he kept her curled next to him, never taking a
hand off her the entire time?

She gave him a new purpose. Mari
was the first person he had met who didn’t worry about his rank, about his
influential family, about what he could do for her—well, she did like what he
could do for her. He smiled because the feeling of being wanted by a woman just
because he was a man was new to him, despite, or maybe because of, the hundreds
of trysts he’d had over his years in the fleet. His own family joked about him
being somewhat of a whore, but what they didn’t realize was that, in the
beginning at least, he was just looking for a companion.

After too many disappointments at
a young age, he gave up on the more meaningful part of sex and pursued just the
physical side.

Until Lyra
.
Lovely
Lyra.
He’d never called her that to her face because she would have thought
the endearment too sentimental.

He admitted he steered their
relationship in a direction she hadn’t wanted—she was a career military woman,
ten years younger than him. A family life didn’t register in her plans any time
soon. Sometimes, in reflective moments like this, David feared he pushed her
into mutiny. She made their stifling relationship part of her warped reasoning
for trying to take over his ship. Maybe that’s why the fleet washed away the
incident…and promoted her. Better than dealing with a possible harassment suit,
though he’d never overstepped his boundaries. It wasn’t in him to break the
rules, even for Lyra. He’d probably never know the truth of what happened with
her upward mobility within fleet ranks. That was fine with him. In fact, David hoped
he’d never see Lyra again.

Mari lifted her head and blinked
sleepy eyes through the hair tumbling over her face. “Good. You’re still
here,” she said.

Her sweet voice and genuine
delight in seeing him, instantly banished cold thoughts of Lyra. Even at
nineteen, Mari was ten times the woman Lyra would ever be.

He pressed his lips against her
tousled hair. “I don’t think I could have gone anywhere if I wanted to.”
He looked pointedly at her arm and leg flopped over him.

She smiled and rolled off him,
pulling the sheet with her. Her shyness transferred to David and he kicked his
feet over the other side of the bed and grabbed his shorts and pants.

“You don’t have to go,”
she said as she made her way into the bathroom.

“I need to check with the
dockmaster this morning, let him know we’ll be staying a little longer.”

Mari poked her head out of the
bathroom and said, “That’s right. I forgot about that meeting with Dale
today.”