Outcast (30 page)

Bringing him fruit, she fed him one succulent bite after another. His cock was so hard he could scarcely think of eating, but she made him swallow every bit of it. Then she had released his clothing and sucked him. He could still feel it; her lips warm and soft on his hot meat, her orgasms seeming to almost interrupt her enjoyment of him. That was the first time she'd used her hands on him, too. She'd teased him, telling him that his hands were too dirty to touch her, but that hadn't stopped her from touching him! He'd been so wet and slick, and she'd laced her fingers together and made a tunnel of her hands to stroke him while she licked his balls. Lynx would have been starved for a month if he'd ever even suggested that a slave woman do what Bonnie was doing voluntarily, letting him spew his snard all over her — on her face, on her breasts, in her mouth...

As he watched her sucking him, he knew it wouldn't be enough, even after he'd come for her.

Rubbing his cock on her face that was now slick with his snard, he felt the need to mate boiling up inside him again. Her desire had not abated, nor had his. Ignoring her feeble protests about his dirty hands, he pushed her down and stripped the clothing from her succulent body and buried his shaft in her soft, wet heat, thrusting hard and deep until he came once more. With a satisfied purr, he withdrew and licked her until she was helpless with ecstasy. Then, just to prove he still could, he did it all over again.

Even with his sexual prowess back to its former level, it was odd that a man who had spent so much time in the company of women could have been so sexually naive; he knew everything a man could do to a woman, but what a woman could do to a man? He was on uncharted territory there, and he knew it, and though he'd heard other men boast of their exploits and what their women had done for them, Bonnie was doing something amazing every day.

At that moment, he almost wished he was capable of pleasuring himself — something he'd never considered before. Just the thought of what she'd done should have sent blood flooding his groin, stiffening his shaft and making it drip with anticipation. Lynx loved the feel of Bonnie's hands on his cock, her tongue swirling on the head, devouring him... Promising himself to find Bonnie and mate with her just as soon as the chores were done, he tossed more feed to the enocks.

Lynx was startled out of his reverie by Bonnie's approach, but this time, she didn't smell of desire, she smelled of fear.

"Oh, God! You haven't got her either!" Bonnie exclaimed. "I can't find Ulla! She can barely crawl!

How could she possibly have gotten out of the house?"

Lynx felt fear slice through him like a knife. Though he hadn't picked up the scent lately, he'd known Sylor had been nearby. Would he have taken his child? Was that his intent?

"She was playing on the floor when I left the house," Lynx said, trying to keep his voice even. "If she had gone outdoors, she would have fallen down the steps.

You would have seen her, or heard her cries. She must still be in the house, hiding perhaps."

Bonnie shook her head. "Kids her age don't do that, do they? I've never had a baby before, so I don't really know for sure, but — "

"We will find her," Lynx said firmly. "She cannot hide from me."

"Well, that sounds pretty darn cocky," Bonnie declared, momentarily diverted. "I know your eyes are pretty good, but — "

"I will find her," Lynx said again.

"If you say that enough times, I might actually believe it," Bonnie muttered. "Come on!"

Dashing across the yard and up the steps, Lynx burst through the door, his keen cat's eyes searching the kitchen. She was there somewhere, she had to be! Calling out her name he stopped and waited, listening intently. There was nowhere to hide except under the table, and she wasn't there. Moving to the next room where she'd been playing before, he saw her toys lying by the sofa, but no sign of the child.

"I don't see her, do you?" Bonnie said nervously. "I can't imagine how she could have gotten past me! She was right there just a few minutes ago!" She paused as the idea that Sylor might be involved occurred to her. "If Sylor's come back and taken her — I'll... I don't know what I'll do.

Well, yes, I c/oknow; I'll sic Drummond on him and he'll track him down. How could I have been so stupid? I should have done it months ago! That's what I get for being so forgiving."

"You forgave him for leaving you?" If she'd forgiven him, she just might take him back...

"Well, not really, but I could have gotten his butt deported if I'd only known..." Bonnie stomped her foot in frustration.

Lynx sniffed the air and put up a hand to silence her. "Sylor has not been here," he said. "Listen."

Bonnie's heart was pounding too loudly for her to hear anything beyond the rush of blood in her ears, but she listened anyway. "I don't hear anything," she said after a few moments.

"I can hear her breathing," Lynx said. "She's here somewhere. Normally, I could locate her by scent alone, but she lives here, and her scent is already strong."

"You can hear her breathing?" Bonnie exclaimed. "Are all of your senses that good?"

"Better than yours, perhaps," he said. "Otherwise you would have found her before this."

"Well, then, where is she?"

"There," Lynx replied, pointing to the floor by the sofa. "Can you see that the fabric looks odd?"

Bonnie stared at the couch, and as she did, part of the pattern seemed to move and she heard Shaulla giggle. "I don't believe it!" she exclaimed.

"She is able to blend in with her surroundings," Lynx said quietly. "Do you see her now?"

Bonnie could see two points of light that seemed to move. "I see her eyes — at least, I think that's what I see," Bonnie replied. "What is she? Some kind of chameleon?"

Though he'd never heard the word chameleon before, Lynx took her meaning immediately. "There were animals on my planet that could almost disappear," he said. "We had to hunt them by scent alone."

"Like a chameleon," Bonnie whispered, still amazed at what her daughter seemed to be doing.

Shaulla giggled again and slowly began to reappear. "Why, you little stinker!" Bonnie exclaimed, scooping Ulla up from the floor. "You had me scared to death!" Shaulla couldn't talk yet, but she seemed to understand a good joke anyway and laughed merrily. "I never knew Vessonians could do that!" Bonnie exclaimed and shuddered as the implications of this ability struck her. "Do you think she can do this at will?"

Lynx shrugged. "Perhaps Vladen would be able to tell us."

"No, he won't," Bonnie said grimly, "because the next time I see him, he's dead meat! He never told me anything of the sort, and neither did Sylor — although Sylor might not be able to do it himself.

Vladen told me the Terran-Vessonian cross sometimes produces a child with a weak heart — maybe this is another variation. When you start mixing species together, anything can happen — Tisana came by her powers that way, you know — it might be something like that."

Lynx shook his head. "No. I believe Sylor has this ability as well," he said. "I have been aware of his scent recently, but have seen no one."

"Is that how you knew he hadn't been in here? No, wait — you couldn't possibly know what he smells like!"

"Have I not been sleeping on his pillow?"

"I never thought of that," Bonnie said slowly. "And yes, you have." She searched her memories of Sylor, trying to recall anything... "You know, when we first started hunting enocks, Sylor got hurt pretty bad trying to catch one by himself. I'll bet he made himself invisible, and the enock fought back, whether he could see him or not. It was later on that he came up with the net and speeder method." Thinking further, she added, "I'll bet he could have slipped into the pen and gotten eggs without my help, too."

"Possibly," Lynx conceded, "But we could see Shaulla when she moved."

"Sylor may be better at it than she is — or at least, better at holding still when he needs to." Bonnie felt her skin begin to crawl. "He could be anywhere, Lynx, and we'd never even know it!"

"I would be able to hear him and pick up his scent," Lynx assured her. "But only if he was close by."

Bonnie shivered. "I've got to tell Drummond about this! They need to catch Sylor — if they're not already looking for him. Drummond always said I should have filed a formal complaint; this is what comes of not using my head."

"Would Drummond have done it himself?"

"Maybe," Bonnie admitted. "He's always been one to look out for me, but he never said anything about that — he wanted me to file the complaint, which I didn't do — not even when I changed the deed."

"You can have this changed?" Lynx asked. "I would not have thought..."

"It's a relic from the old mining laws on Earth," Bonnie explained. "Though God knows why they chose that one! After six months, you can consider a claim on a homestead abandoned, and someone else can take it over. Of course, if you abandon your claim, you usually wind up getting deported."

"I am aware of the deportation policy," Lynx said dryly. "It is why I came to work for you."

Bonnie grinned. "Yeah, I figured as much. Did you realize that Drummond got you here under false pretenses?" "No," Lynx said cautiously. "He told you this was the only job, didn't he?" Lynx nodded.

"I'm sure there were other possibilities — just not any in the mines. It was another of his ways of looking out for me."

"I was very angry," Lynx admitted.

"Yes, you were!" Bonnie declared. "And you didn't bother to hide it. If I hadn't needed you so badly — and if you hadn't saved my life and then built that enock pen — I might have had you deported myself! Or at least have you sent off to work for someone else."

"I am very glad you did not," Lynx said.

Bonnie laughed softly. "So am I. But I did ask Drummond if there were any other jobs available for you. I was so... well, it's hard to describe just how I felt, but I didn't think I could take it anymore."

Lynx looked at her curiously. "But you needed me," he said. "Would you have done that?"

"I'm not sure," Bonnie admitted, "but you seemed so unhappy here, I thought you would rather work for anyone but me, and I — " Her voice faltered, and she looked away from him, tears filling her eyes.

Lynx took her in his arms and lightly kissed her. "I would not have gone," he said quietly. "It was a torment for me to be here with you, but I couldn't leave."

"Torment?" Bonnie echoed. "Yes, that's pretty much how I felt; loving you when you would hardly talk to me and not being able to escape."

Lynx's arms tightened around her. "I am very sorry," he murmured. "But you understand now, don't you?"

Bonnie shook her head. "No," she said. "I understand why you thought it was necessary, but it wasn't that way for me at all! I love you, Lynx. I knew you were once a very skilled lover — and you've proven that — but that isn't everything. When Ulla was born, I got a taste of what it could be like with you... it was very hard to go back to the way things were before."

"But," he said gently, "I could not stay away."

"I thought Ulla was the one you couldn't keep away from," Bonnie said ruefully, though it pained her to admit it. "You seemed so much more interested in being with her than with me."

"She was not my only reason for staying," Lynx assured her; though he had always felt an attachment to the children he delivered. He had searched in vain for his own image in each child's face, still wanting to believe they were his own, even after realizing they were not.

Looking down at her daughter there in her arms, Bonnie said quietly, "But I still envied her. She had all the love from you that I wanted so badly."

"You no longer need to envy her," Lynx said. "Perhaps you never did."

It wasn't a declaration of his love, but it was close. Bonnie smiled. "Now I can just envy her ability to disappear! We've got to figure out a way to find her when she does that — you know, tie a bell on her or something — though we probably should be more concerned about Sylor if you've smelled him around here."

Lynx nodded and then looked at Bonnie uncertainly. "Do you know why he would return?" Lynx thought he knew the reason, but was reluctant to say it aloud.

"Probably looking for something else to steal," Bonnie said with a snort of disgust.

"You wouldn't — " Lynx broke off there, uncertain of how to phrase the question.

"Wouldn't what?"

"Take him back."

"Take him back?" Bonnie exclaimed. "Are you out of your mind? Why would I give you up for him? Come on now, Lynx. There's no comparison — never was, and there certainly isn't now!

Please, don't keep throwing that in my face!"

His expression became neutral to the point of sullenness. "I did not intend to anger you." Lynx appeared uncomfortable, but added, as though it explained everything, "but you did have his child."

Bonnie gaped at him. "Any Joe Schmo can father a child, Lynx! There are plenty of times when it doesn't mean a damn thing."

Lynx blinked hard. Not mean anything? How could that be when it meant everything to Lynx? "I cannot understand that."

"Well, neither can I sometimes," Bonnie said with a shrug, "but some men just fuck their way through life and leave children behind wherever they go."

It was true of other men, perhaps — Lynx knew this from experience — but the thought of having a child of his growing up somewhere without him horrified Lynx. And not only his own child, but now Ulla. He would kill rather than let anyone take her from him. He loved her — and her mother — to distraction. No, Sylor would not get them back. Not without a fight.

J ack had been worrying over what to do about the situation between Bonnie and Lynx ever since her last visit, but as she sat in the cockpit adjusting the course for the approach to Terra Minor, it was gnawing at her like a starving dog on a bone. Jack liked Bonnie, and it bugged the hell out of her that Lynx had turned out to be such a stick in the mud. What the devil were they going to do with him?

She glanced at Tisana, who sat nearby feeding her daughter while her two fair-haired boys, Alrik and Aidan, lay at her feet playing with the dog. Jack didn't think she would have liked having babies pull on her ears if she'd been a dog, but Max seemed to view this activity with a fatherly tolerance, though perhaps this was due to Tisana's intervention. Aside from her ability to communicate with animals, Jack knew that Tisana was capable of many remarkable things, and she had been trying to convince Tisana to make a potion for Lynx ever since learning of Bonnie's plight. Tisana had always staunchly refused, but since they were about to land, Jack thought she'd give it one more try.