Kaitlyn O'Connor (31 page)

Why?

141

Everything inside of her was screaming that she
‟
d had a taste of passion that rivaled the Hirachis when they were in the grip of their spawning fever—except he
‟
d been controlling it—barely, but still far more aware of what he was doing than they had been.

He wanted her, but he didn
‟
t want to desire her and he
‟
d warned her off—stay away from the fire if you don
‟
t want to get burned.

“Wow,” she murmured, torn between intrigue and sheer terror. She
‟
d never inspired
that
kind of passion in anybody before. She frowned, thinking about it, and decided she was pretty sure she hadn
‟
t ever inspired anything even
close
to that explosively volatile.

The desire she sensed in Kael and Dakaar and Balen was hot, exciting, and it set her on fire, but she
‟
d never felt as if she would unleash something dark and dangerous if she responded—not even when they
‟
d been in the grips of the spawning fever. They
‟
d been completely single minded and grimly determined to accomplish their goal but she hadn
‟
t felt as if it might…consume them and her with it.

She swallowed convulsively, feeling heat rise in her and realized abruptly that it had when he
‟
d kissed her, explosively, and that that had been part of the fear—the realization that she was way out of her league and had no idea how to control it.

That was it, she decided finally, vaguely disappointed, but certain she was right. He must be in his own spawning mode and for whatever reason, probably because of the extremely limited possibilities, he
‟
d targeted her. She just needed to steer clear of him until he found a new target or the need passed.

She felt far less afraid when she
‟
d figured it out and less hurt by his violent rejection of her offer of friendship. He
‟
d just been warning her off, she decided, because he knew he had little control.

The sensible thing to do was to heed the warning and not do anything that might overset his tenuous control.

She discovered that was easier said than done. It had seemed that they were a very large group when they
‟
d been trying to ration food to stay alive on the ship. Once they landed and set out to remedy the food shortage situation, the work load immediately turned that perspective on its head. There weren
‟
t nearly enough of them or nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish everything they wanted and needed to do.

There was some discussion over whether or not they should try to depod some of the captives on the ship to help, but none of them were certain they could do so without danger to the person inside. Karen and Loren both testified to the fact that the new releases were going to be traumatized and weak from their ordeal and more of a burden until and unless they recovered than a help and more people didn
‟
t just mean more help. It also meant more people to provide for. Since they were currently in no more danger—in fact far less—than they
‟
d been before they were stuck in the pods as far as any of them could see, they finally decided to leave them until their situation improved enough to actually help them when they released them.

Despite every effort to ignore the implications, Loren couldn
‟
t resist trying to gauge the reaction of the only two unattached, and critically horny, men in their group. Adrin had ignored Shara
‟
s timid invitation. Jalen was almost as touchy as both Adrin and Daeman, for that matter, and clearly not appeased about getting pity sex from Karen.

It was ironic that they seemed far more territorial like the men she was familiar with than the Hirachi were and looked less like them. She thought, though, that it was a combination of that 142

grim determination to „own
‟
whatever woman they stuck their dick in and a blow to their pride to accept pity sex that made them determined to shun any efforts to soothe those needs.

For all that, none of the three seemed any more inclined to release the „pod people
‟
than the Hirachi were. She would
‟
ve thought, since it seemed a good many of them were women that they would
‟
ve objected strenuously. They needed
some
where to put their dicks besides their hands!

Then again, they
were
men and „manly
‟
men at that, she thought dryly. No doubt, to them, women were a burden even when they were obliging enough to spread their legs on command—or too weak to keep them crossed.

Even her own father—and she
‟
d always thought of him as a good man—seemed to have that male attitude toward her and her mother, that they were actually pretty much useless and in the way—besides costing money for support! She
‟
d always felt a bone deep resentment about that attitude. Her and her mother pulled their own weight. It wasn
‟
t her mother
‟
s fault that her income was so much lower. It was the society they lived in that still paid wages according to whether one was swinging a dick or not.

As good as her income was when she
‟
d worked for the government, the men they
‟
d hired had been hired for more and they hadn
‟
t even done as well in school as she had.

It was all just pure speculation, of course, and might be total bigotry on her part, but she
‟
d certainly had plenty of reasons to believe sexual inequality was pretty much universal.

She was still acutely aware that the Deisen didn
‟
t even have sexual release to ease the general misery of their existence—not that both Karen and Shara weren
‟
t just as aware of it. The difference was that they
‟
d offered to ease their suffering and when the Deisen spurned the offer, they didn
‟
t seem to have any further qualms about it. She almost felt as if they went out of their way to rub their noses in it, although she was willing to give them the benefit of doubt. They were both happy with their men and enjoyed flirting playfully with them. Maybe it wasn
‟
t a deliberate slap to the Deisen for spurning them but rather a case of simply ignoring them?

Regardless, she was too aware of them to feel comfortable expressing her affection for Kael, Dakaar, and Balen in front of them. She didn
‟
t think she would have been comfortable anyway.

There were some things, to her mind, that should be private and that included everything of an intimate nature. That being the case, she refrained from doing or saying anything too suggestive around the others, especially when they were in a close group where it might be more noticeable.

She felt perfectly within her rights, though, to share a special smile or look, hold hands, or share an occasional light embrace.

Even that much made her feel vaguely uncomfortable, though, when she turned away and discovered that one or another of the Deisen, and sometimes all three, were watching her.

She thought, at first, that she was being hypersensitive about the whole thing after her encounter with Daeman, but, try though she might, she couldn
‟
t catch them staring a hole through Karen or Shara. It made her uneasy enough that she went out of her way to stay as far from all of them as she could, Daeman in particular, and as close to the Hirachi as she could when they were in camp.

They spent the majority of their time either out hunting, however, or in the sea. They hadn
‟
t been camping but a handful of days when the Hirachi had found their way to the ocean and they
‟
d worn a path to it very quickly. They always brought back the harvest of the sea when they returned, and she knew that was because it was the food most familiar to them. She also knew, though, that the sea called to them in a way that she was never going to understand. Maybe it 143

was worse for them because they
‟
d been kept from it so long, but she didn
‟
t think that was ever really going to change.

144

They
‟
d been camping a week, determined by new world time, which was thankfully gauged the same way as the time she
‟
d understood before—by the planet
‟
s rotation and sunrise and sunset—when Loren decided her time could best be spent focusing on what she knew. They had an abundance of food thanks to the efforts of the hunters and even a very nice variety because the Hirachi not only brought seafood back from the sea, but also edible plants.
She
missed the foods she was familiar with, though, and so did Karen. They all needed protein, but that wasn
‟
t a balanced diet and she, Karen, and Shara were pregnant, which made it all the more important to get what they needed to have healthy babies.

She
‟
d found a portable scanner that she was certain would help her determine the nutritional elements in the plants that surrounded them in such abundance. All she needed to do to make use of it was to „teach
‟
it English so that she could actually read the damned thing. It took her most of two days to figure out how to integrate it with the ship
‟
s computer. Once she had, she settled to teaching the computer English so that it could reprogram the scanner. Fortunately, the computer already had some English in its data banks because of the trade agreement between the lizard-man and her government. He
‟
d also done a fairly in-depth survey on the planet Earth itself, no doubt to analyze what might be valuable as trade goods.

Unfortunately, he
‟
d been far more interested in the minerals and ores than anything else, but there was a fair amount of data on the plant life, which at least gave her a place to start. She started by having the computer summon images, naming those she recognized and having the computer relay the breakdown of its components to the scanner. Since she was also worried about them accidentally poisoning themselves, she also indicated everything she knew to be poisonous or toxic to humans and had the computer input that, as well.

It was tedious and time consuming, but she knew it would be invaluable to them in the long term if she succeeded. Karen and Shara wandered in and out from time to time, stood watching and listening for a while, and then left again to look for something more entertaining to occupy their time.

After a few days, she
‟
d grown so accustomed to their habit of wandering in and out and staring at the screen that she tuned them out. It wasn
‟
t until she decided to take a break and get up to stretch that she discovered Daeman had come to stand behind her to watch—not Karen or Shara.

Startled when she got up and encountered him, she stared at him for a long moment and flicked an uneasy glance toward the door to the lift at the far end of the control room. It looked as if it was miles away and her uneasiness had increased to all out fear by the time she met Daeman
‟
s gaze again.

His expression twisted. “No be afraid, Lau-ren. No hurt. Swear.”

Loren
‟
s throat had gone paper dry. “I
‟
m not,” she lied shakily, flicking another frantic look around in the hope that Karen and Shara might be somewhere in the control room.

145

There was frustration in his eyes when she met his gaze again. “Try to stay away. No good.

No help. No make…pain go away.”

Loren
‟
s frozen mind went wild with speculation at that. She blinked at him while her mind tried to tabulate an answer, licking her lips uneasily when it failed to produce anything at all helpful. “You should talk to Karen—or even Shara about that,” she babbled nervously. “They offered to…uh…help Jalen and Adrin out with…uh…their problem.”

His expression twisted with both pain and anger. “No want. Want Lau-ren only.”

He was
seriously
in need of releasing some of that male aggression, Loren thought nervously. “Ok then!” she said shakily, reaching blindly for the buttons along the front her blouse and trying to unfasten them with fingers that felt numb and completely uncooperative.

“We can do that.”

He pulled her hand away.

“You want to skip that part?” No foreplay, she thought, performing an internal wet test. She was bone dry from nerves. This was going to be uncomfortable.

He settled a hand heavily along the back of her neck and drew her close. To her surprise he merely pressed his forehead to hers. “Sorry make afraid, Lau-ren. So sorry,” he said raggedly.

She heard him swallow. “I no take…no hurt. Kiss. If you no want me to touch den, I no touch.”

Dragging in a shaky breath, Loren tipped her face up, offering her lips. She
‟
d expected a punishing kiss much like before. Instead, he very carefully fit his lips to hers and sucked at them coaxingly. The panic receded. A tentative warmth invaded her. When it seemed he would withdraw, she offered more, following the retreat of his mouth. His opened his mouth over hers then, tested the seam where her lips met and then delved inside the moist cavern when she parted her lips for him. His tongue rubbed along hers in intimate caress. She absorbed the taste of him and everything inside of her unfurled, awakened, instantly reacting to the pleasure.

He withdrew, lifting his lips from hers and easing away to study her face. Evidently, he saw what he was looking for. He tilted his head and covered her mouth again. This time he made no attempt to hold his desire in check, however. It began as a bold possession and progressed swiftly to a conquest of her senses. She was so drunk and weak when he withdrew the second time that it was all she could do to keep her knees locked and stay on her feet.

He steadied her and reached for the buttons of her blouse, holding her gaze as he undressed her. When he had, he yanked at the ties of his loincloth and released it.

The movement instantly snagged her gaze and she looked down at him, her gaze riveting on the thick shaft jutting toward her. The size and thickness was both daunting and arousing, but the nubs all over it unnerved her.

He caught her waist and lifted her to sit on the console behind her, pushing her thighs wide with his hips as he moved closer, breaking her intent stare by removing his cock from her view.

She could feel it against her cleft, though, could feel the hard little nubs along his shaft rubbing the tender skin and generating waves of pleasurable anticipation.

He nudged her face up with his thumb and sought her lips again, kissing her with a fierce hunger that robbed her of any thread of sanity. Thoroughly intoxicated by the heat searing her and fogging her mind, she couldn
‟
t command herself to do more than clutch him tightly to keep from falling as he lifted his mouth from hers and gnawed a trail down her throat to her breasts.

There was no longer a lack of moisture within her channel.By the third kiss, she felt like she was dripping wet, could feel her moisture coating his flesh as his movements brushed his cock 146

along her cleft. By the time he
‟
d thoroughly explored her breasts, she was so desperate for penetration that she thought she might slide off her precarious perch.

He pulled her closer as he straightened again, settling one arm around her shoulders and one hand on her buttocks to pull her to him and then reaching between them to align his cock with her opening. Sensation exploded within her channel the moment he breached it and shot her toward climax. She gasped, arching against him and allowing her head to fall back weakly. He curled around her, sucking at her throat as he fought his way past the muscles convulsing in climax and sheathed himself deeply.

She felt wiped out from the force of the climax before he even began to move rhythmically inside of her and yet within moments she was climbing toward another. Panting for breath, she clutched at his shoulders, digging her fingers into his flesh frantically as she soared upward on another high. She hit her second climax the moment she felt the jerk of his cock inside of her, boosted higher by the heated bath of his semen against her womb, and then went into melt down.

She was too weak even to think of protesting when he scooped her up, turned, and strode toward the lift. It flickered through her mind that she had no idea where he was taking her and that neither of them were wearing a stitch of clothing, but it was all she could do to try to cling to him. He found a bed. The scent on the sheets matched his and told her fogged mind where she was—in a general way.

He sprawled against her, rubbing his body along hers, exploring her as hungrily with his mouth and hands as if he hadn
‟
t come only a matter of moments before and carried her through two shattering culminations. He summoned the heat inside
her
as if she wasn
‟
t still weak from the first two.

That time when he brought her to a second climax in a row, she hit her limit and crashed.

She was vaguely aware of him curling around her as she drifted toward the peaceful bliss that was the ultimate reward for release and then she lost even that much awareness.

She didn
‟
t know whether to be relieved or not to discover when she woke that Daeman had left her. The dilemma of being stark naked in his bed was enough to wipe every other thought from her mind, however—that and the reflection that Daeman had left her clothing littered around the control console.

Bounding from the bed, she glanced around a little wildly for something to cover up with and saw that the only thing available was Daeman
‟
s bedclothes. She was tempted to take them anyway, but she realized almost immediately that she would be carrying away „evidence
‟
and discarded the idea, buoyed by the realization that she would either have to bring them back or he would come for them. Easing the door of his quarters open, she glanced both ways along the corridor. Seeing it was clear, she darted from his room and sprinted down the hall to her own.

Her legs felt like cooked spaghetti by the time she was inside, and the urge to sit down and recover a few moments was strong. She ignored the weakness, scrambling to find something to put on. There weren
‟
t a lot of choices since she
‟
d divided her belongings and she hadn
‟
t had enough room in the suitcase to start with to pack much. Grabbing a long, loose t-shirt she used for a nightgown, she jerked that over her head and dashed out of her room to the lift, waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

Luck was with her—she hoped. No one was in the control room and it didn
‟
t look as if anyone had discovered her clothes. She
‟
d already slipped into her panties before she realized she hadn
‟
t bathed or even mopped off. She could smell Daeman
‟
s scent all over her and she smelled like sex besides!

147

After a brief hesitation, she finished dressing and abandoned the control room again to bathe. She ran out of luck when she reached the facilities. Balen, still damp from his own shower, was coming out. He grabbed her before she could escape and dragged her up against his length, nuzzling his face against her hair and dragging in a deep breath.

She cringed inwardly and sent him a guilty/wary look when he eased away from her to study her face. She could see anger flicker in his eyes, but he merely lifted a hand and lightly caressed her cheek. “Take bath wid me?”

He
‟
d already taken a shower. That much was clear, but she wasn
‟
t about to say no when she thought it was an olive branch. There was no doubt in her mind, unfortunately, that she wreaked of sex and Daeman. If she could smell it on herself, he certainly could.

She didn
‟
t tumble to the fact that Balen was bent on scrubbing Daeman
‟
s scent off and replacing it with his own until he waltzed her against one wall and then lifted her up and braced her between his body and the wall. Dismay flickered through her. She hadn
‟
t recovered from having sex with Daeman. She was still as weak as water and she
‟
d come so many times she
‟
d lost count. She didn
‟
t think she had it in her to generate enough warmth for Balen to make his possession easier, let alone to come.

He was dead set on making her come, however. He kissed and caressed her until she was shaking all over before he even attempted penetration. By the time he
‟
d managed to mount her on his cock she
‟
d already come once and was skyrocketing toward a second climax.

Thankfully, that seemed to satisfy him. She was pretty sure he wouldn
‟
t have been nearly as satisfied if he
‟
d had any clue of how many times Daeman had succeeded in making her come, but she sure as
fuck
wasn
‟
t going to tell him!