Protector of the Realm (27 page)

“Rae! I need…I need you…”

Rae knew what Kellen needed and pushed two fingers inside. She felt the tight muscles contract and flattened her tongue against Kellen, giving the swollen clitoris her full attention. She wanted desperately to give her all the pleasure possible. Her own sex ached, moisture pooling between her legs as she kept up her movement, but nothing else mattered except Kellen’s satisfaction.

“Oh!” Kellen’s legs went rigid, her back arching as her inner muscles clenched Rae’s fingers in a tight grip. They flexed for what seemed an eternity before Kellen’s legs finally gave in, sending her sliding down the wall.

Catching her, Rae held her lover close. “There…I’ve got you.”

Kellen breathed hard and clung to Rae for several minutes. Rocking her, Rae pressed her lips repeatedly onto damp temples and murmured inaudible words of comfort as she waited for Kellen to recover from her orgasm.

*

Slowly, Kellen opened her eyes, looking up at Rae from where she rested her shoulder. Warm eyes gazed back down at her, and a tender smile parted Rae’s kiss-swollen lips.

“You still alive, darling?”

Kellen flinched at the term of endearment. It was the first time Rae had called her this, and she wasn’t sure how to reciprocate. Still trembling inside, she wanted to hide her face, feeling utterly vulnerable.

“Yes, I’m fine.” As she returned the smile, she tried to joke. “More than fine.”

Rae’s smile broadened. “Really? Well, I’m glad. Perhaps we should get out of the shower before we grow gills?” Standing up, Rae helped Kellen to her feet. “I didn’t aggravate the bruises, did I?” Rae traced the blue-black marks on Kellen’s upper body.

“No.” Kellen looked down at her, not sure how to phrase what she wanted to say. Before she could formulate the words, Rae turned off the water, took her by the hand, and led her out of the shower stall. “Let’s skip the auto-drying sequence and just use towels.” She grabbed two bath towels from the heated towel rack and wrapped one around Kellen before she unfolded the other one for herself.

Kellen secured the towel around her body and then reached out for the one in Rae’s hands. She placed it around Rae’s shoulders, and before Rae had a chance to object, she used her superior physical strength to lift her up, one arm around her back, one under her knees.

“Kellen!”

Walking into the bedroom, Kellen stopped next to the bed. The covers were turned down, and she placed Rae on the sheets, feeling the cool fabric against her hands. The towel fell back, revealing Rae’s pale, slightly freckled skin. To Kellen’s surprise, Rae blushed, moving her hand as if to tug at the towel.

“No,” Kellen murmured, letting her own towel fall to the floor. “You won’t need to cover yourself up. I’ll keep you warm. Trust me.”

Suddenly not nervous or uncertain at all, Kellen lay down next to Rae, leaning her head against her hand. “You’re beautiful,” she whispered. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“Liar,” Rae said huskily. A faint smile played at the corners of her mouth.

“The truth,” Kellen insisted, taking Rae’s hand and kissing her way from the fingertips up to the pale shoulder. Amazed at how soft the tough and commanding woman felt, she pressed her mouth against the hollow area beneath her collarbone. Rae moaned, raising her hands to Kellen’s hair and caressing the damp strands. Encouraged, Kellen let her tongue trace the fragile bone, licking a blazing trail across to its twin.

“Oh…” Rae moved restlessly on the bed. “You’re like fire against me…”

“I am?” Kellen used her tongue again, painting a wet trail between Rae’s breasts.

Her breath a prisoner in her chest at the promise of emotions in her wife’s voice, Kellen kissed her way down to Rae’s breasts. Because they were smaller than her own, she feared they would be more sensitive, but the nipples were just as rigid, just as eager to be touched. Closing her lips over the nearest one, she was startled when the hands in her hair pressed her closer.

“Oh, God, yes.” Rae arched.

Kellen reveled in the feeling of her wife’s fingers caressing her, tugging at her. Taking her cues from Rae, Kellen sucked hard at the nipple, grazing it with her teeth, keeping up the rough caress until Rae offered up her other breast, urging her to claim it. Kellen caught the nipple between her teeth, almost afraid she might hurt her. She held back, but the demanding hands in her hair urged her on.

“Please, Kellen, don’t stop. I need this…you…so much.” Rae’s voice was hoarse with desire. “I’ve looked at you, wanted you…but I never thought it would feel like this.” When her nipples were crimson, she shuddered and shied away from the caresses. “Too sensitive now, Kellen,” she whispered. “Kiss me…”

Kellen moved up and kissed her deeply. Rae in turn wrapped her arms around Kellen’s neck, returned the kisses, trembled against her.

“Kellen,” she murmured against her full lips. “You set me on fire…do you realize that?”

“Yes.” Kellen was on fire too. Her previous orgasm had not been enough.

Looking down at the disheveled woman, she knew there would be another, but she was determined to drive Rae toward the monumental bliss first. She nudged Rae’s legs apart and settled between them, rubbing her own sex against Rae’s. “Oh! Yes…Yes.” Rae closed her eyes and wrapped her legs around Kellen’s waist.

Kellen reached down and pressed her fingers between Rae’s folds. Feeling the copious moisture, she spread it over the rigid clitoris protruding between them. She looked down at Rae and caught an expression she interpreted as pleasure mixed with pain on her face. “You’re so wet,” she whispered. “You want me.”

“Desperately,” came the husky reply. “I want you in so many ways. I need you to make me yours, to help me come. Please.”

Kellen leaned farther down, her aching nipples touching Rae’s, and put her lips against her lover’s ear. “You want me inside you. My mouth on you…”

“Yes…”

“Devouring you…”

“Yes.”

“Exploring every part of you…”

“Kellen! Yes!”

Sitting on her heels, Kellen found Rae’s entrance, pressing first one, then two fingers inside. She felt Rae draw her knees up and hold on to them, and watched in awe how she opened herself to Kellen’s exploration. Recognizing this as a display of trust and desire, Kellen gained full access and used her other hand to spread the moisture farther down. Rae went rigid as Kellen briefly touched her lower orifice.

“No!”

“You asked me to go inside.” Kellen’s voice was soft. “Allow me to fill you completely.”

“No, no…not there…I mean, not…yet…” Rae trembled, her jaws clenched. “Oh, Kellen…”

Starting to move her hand, Kellen curled the fingers already inside Rae, finding an area that sent jolts through the shivering body beneath hers when she massaged it. Her other hand massaged the area below, but did not enter.

“You can’t…oh, God…you…” Completely incoherent, Rae threw an arm over her eyes, sobbing as Kellen did not relent but stayed on the path, heading for the rendezvous with ecstasy.

Kellen didn’t allow herself to think why it was so important to reciprocate; she simply knew it was. Working Rae’s body as if honoring a secret vow to bring her the ultimate pleasure, she realized her efforts drilled new holes of arousal within her own body.

Rae’s skin was flushed, and Kellen wondered if she was fighting to reach her orgasm or struggling against it for fear of letting go. She wanted nothing but to help her wife reach the precious gift of pleasure that Rae had just given her. Examining Rae’s sex, so trustingly displayed before her, she identified the engorged clitoris, grateful for the similarity in human and Gantharian physiology.

She leaned down and took the swollen bud between her teeth. Rae froze as Kellen flicked her tongue over it. Kellen held it with gentle strength, not about to let go, while her fingers kept up their thrusting motion and her left hand insistently pressed harder against Rae’s other opening.

“Kellen…” Rae’s voice was barely audible. “Yes, please…take me. All of me.”

Kellen took the clitoris in her mouth and pressed her tongue to it. Entering Rae totally with tender fingers, she used both hands to fill her. She knew she took a chance by pushing beyond the last boundary, and she heard Rae give a brief cry before muffling her voice against the pillows. Kellen moved her fingers back and forth, not too slowly, but not so fast that Rae wouldn’t feel every one of them as Kellen stretched her.

The orgasm wracked Rae’s body with a clearly visible force. Kellen could feel how hard it hit and rode the wave of pleasure with Rae. To her amazement she felt the same waves roll and crash inside herself. Urging her on, she did not let go until Rae went limp and clutched at her. “Oh, let me hold you…”

Kellen removed her hands carefully and reached for a hand-sanitizer before she moved up to take Rae into her arms. She rocked her as Rae sobbed against her neck. She wondered if her lover had ever let go like this, if she had ever before let her command mask down long enough to surrender so thoroughly. Kellen pressed her lips onto Rae’s short hair.

“I’m sorry.” Rae wiped her eyes on the bedsheet.

“Don’t be. I don’t mind your tears, since they’re from pleasure, not pain. You’re safe with me.” Kellen kissed the damp eyelashes. “I have a confession to make. You were so beautiful when you climaxed, and I in turn couldn’t believe how you allowed me to…” Kellen’s voice turned into a whisper, and she felt her cheeks warm. “What I’m trying to say is…you pleasured me again.”

“I did? I mean, just now?”

“Yes.” Feeling the cold air from the ventilation gush over them, Kellen tugged at the covers and slid them up over their damp bodies. “Just now.”

Rae placed soft kisses on Kellen’s shoulder, wrapping her arm around her wife’s neck. “I’m glad. You made such wonderful love to me. Thank you.”

Kellen wondered if her responsiveness surprised Rae as much as it did her. She traced the outline of her lover’s lips before leaning in to kiss them. “You’re welcome.”

So many years of abstinence, with only her own two hands for sexual satisfaction, Kellen had been sure she’d never feel the warmth of another body next to her own.
Amazing, how I was able to read her reactions. Even more astonishing how she let me conquer her body. She surrendered to me--and took my breath away one more time.
The implications of these unusual actions and emotions made Kellen recoil instinctively, a reaction that gave her a pang of sorrow.

For a moment she distracted herself with the mundane, cleaning her hands a little more. Ordering lights out.

The darkness hid them then, and Kellen waited for her eyes to adjust. Stars cast a pale light, illuminating the red in Rae’s hair. Kellen struggled to speak, her throat suddenly thick with sentiment. “Earlier,” she managed, “you called me ‘darling.’”

Rae pressed her face closer. “I did, didn’t I?”

“It’s a Premoni
term of endearment.”

“And now you’re asking, did I mean it?”

Kellen kept her voice calm. “Did you?”

Rae nuzzled the skin on Kellen’s neck. Kissing just below her ear, she sighed, the small gush of air making Kellen shiver. “Oh, yes, I did.”

A warm glow erupted in the pit of Kellen’s stomach, and she forced annoying tears back as she raised her hand to push Rae’s tousled hair from her blue-gray eyes. “I’m pleased.” The words were inadequate, but they seemed enough for Rae, who scooted closer, kissing Kellen’s shoulder.

Not saying anything more, they allowed fatigue and satisfaction to lull them to sleep, arms and legs wrapped around each other.

Admiral Jacelon was too old to pull all-nighters, but he couldn't let go of the puzzle he’d been assembling for hours. Determined to prove what he’d begun to suspect, he refocused his attention on the documents he had received from SCI, Supreme Constellations Intelligence. The pieces were finally falling into place, and he felt certain he was correct.

Very little in the records of the O’Saral family documented their history after the occupation of Gantharat began. Onotharat had long claimed the smaller planet, but the Gantharians, backed by the royal family, had resisted fiercely.

When the better-armed Onotharian forces invaded the peaceful planet twenty-four lunar years ago, one of their main targets was the O’Saral family. They killed all younger members of the legendary royal family, and the rest perished in the years that followed.

Tereya O’Saral had been the oldest daughter of King Tyo-Vendel O’Saral Royale. Destined to rule Gantharat one day, the young girl received the best education possible. Her father’s decision to send her to an off-planet school with her entourage had no doubt saved her life.

Ewan kept scrolling through the documents, trying to discover why and how Tereya ended up being Kellen’s “sister.”

*

“I decided to keep the school open today, with increased security.” Rae looked at the faces along the conference table. “The children need to know we’re operational and that they’re safe. Terence de Brost is aware of the situation, and he’s put together a special schedule today to help them work out yesterday’s events.”

“Excellent,” Admiral Jacelon said. “I have information too. I spent most of the morning talking with Councilman Thorosac. It took some doing, but I managed to convince him we’re quite capable of handling the matter. Our security detail has incarcerated practically all of the Onotharian officers by placing them on
Onotharian 1.
That way they can’t get to their weapons before our crew members disable them.” He rubbed his eyes, stroking his face in a familiar gesture, which Rae interpreted as frustration. “I was surprised at how bloodthirsty the good Councilman was. Normally, Thorosac is the leader of the more liberal wing of the Council, but this time…let’s just say, he wants revenge.”