“My, my—for a couple so truly in love that they were promoted to the Circle of Oneness, you certainly seem reluctant to touch each other intimately.” The Joined One raised all four eyebrows again, skeptically. “May we ask why?”
“I have just told you why.” Stavros could hear the frustration creeping into his voice though he tried to hold it back. Somehow he had to argue their way out of this. He couldn’t let the damned Joined Ones force them into an act Charlotte would hate him for the rest of her life. If only he could get them to give himself and Charlotte a little more time—time to escape, hopefully—
“We’ll do it.”
“What?” Stav rounded on her, sure he was hearing things. “What did you say?”
“I said, we’ll do it.” Charlotte glared at him fiercely.
“But—”
“What’s the big deal, honey?” she asked, obviously speaking for the Joined One’s benefit. “I mean, I know we weren’t getting along when we first got here but since that first night after our Sensual Touching class, we’ve been all over each other. It’s the reason Nar’sa and Ta’no promoted us so quickly.”
“But…” Stavros was at a loss. Was she actually suggesting they do this? “But the Temple of Regrets,” he said at last. “The things you witnessed…”
“Are all old pains,” Charlotte said firmly. “They hurt a lot but the grief isn’t fresh. It’s not like any of it happened yesterday—it just felt like that in that damn temple. So…we should be good to go.”
“Charlotte, I don’t know about this.”
“Well, I do.” Her brown eyes flashed stubbornly. “Besides, we’re going to have privacy to, you know, figure it out.”
The Joined One leaned forward on its throne-like chair.
“Do not think that just because you will have privacy you can fake or falsify your joining. Only an act of true physical and emotional intimacy will spilt the Pillar of the Heart.”
“Meaning…” Stavros raised his eyebrows.
“Meaning you must penetrate your mate and leave your seed within her.” A mocking smile played around both faces now. “Deep within her.”
Beside him, Stavros heard Charlotte swallow nervously. But she still held up her chin and refused to back down.
“That’s fine as long as we know you aren’t watching,” she said steadily. “Like I said, I’m not about to put on a show.”
“Very well then.” The Joined One nodded its bulky, conjoined head and the male face spoke. “We shall give you a certain amount of time—one solar hour should be sufficient. When we return if the outer shell is split, we shall know you were telling the truth about your identities and purposes here.”
“And if it’s not?” Stavros asked.
“Then we shall call the Dark Kindred Commander and tell him you are his for the asking.” The female face smiled sweetly. “Happy joining, my dears. May your union be pleasurable and lasting.”
* * * * *
“Why did you do that?” Stavros demanded the moment the room was cleared and emptied of everything except a large thick blue mattress made of the thera-mat that covered the classroom floors. The Hossan guards had placed it right beside the vast cylinder as though getting it closer would help in their impossible task of splitting its golden surface open to expose the Heart. Charlie could see her reflection in it and the eyes staring back at her were scared and uncertain. She did her best to get herself under control and put on a brave face.
“Why did I do what—get that damned Joined One off our backs?” she snapped. “You don’t have to sound so accusatory, Stavros. Next time a simple ‘thank you’ would be nice.”
“You haven’t really gotten them off our backs and you know it,” he said grimly. “And you’ve agreed to do something you don’t want to do—and volunteered me to do it as well.”
“You’re saying you don’t want to have sex with me?” Charlie tried to say the words in a casual, offhand way but inside she felt like dying from embarrassment. She’d been so sure of the way he felt about her she hadn’t even stopped to wonder if Stavros would object to them being intimate. It had just seemed like the easiest way out of their dilemma—the only way out—and so she had taken it.
“No, I don’t want to have sex with you,” he said roughly and she felt her stomach turn over. “Just as I don’t want to fuck you.”
“Okay, I get it—you don’t want to do the deed.” Inside she was shrinking with mortification. “Sorry I volunteered you for such a horrible task.”
“You don’t understand me.” Stavros reached for her, taking both her hands in his. “I don’t want to do any of those things—I want to make love with you. To you.” He sighed. “What I’m trying to say is that if we do this, I want it to mean something. But it can’t. Because of your past and how you feel about me and my people.”
“I…” Charlie didn’t know what to say. “Stav, I don’t really see that we have much choice,” she said at last. “I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have said anything. I was just looking for the easy way out.”
“The easy way out?” He looked at her incredulously. “You think taking you sexually without bonding you to me will be easy?”
At the word “bonding” Charlie felt an electrical surge run through her from the tips of her breasts to the tingling spot between her legs. She pressed her thighs together and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to ignore it.
“Look, nobody said anything about that,” she said, wishing her voice wouldn’t come out sounding so high and breathy. “I just figured we could, you know, keep it impersonal. Like we did when you, um, touched me.”
He laughed harshly, a bitter, unhappy sound.
“Impersonal. Businesslike. Professional. I’m so fucking sick of being professional with you.”
“You don’t have to say it like that,” Charlie snapped, losing patience. “In fact, you don’t have to say anything at all. Just do it so we can get the damned pillar open and see if there’s any way to get the Heart.”
“Just do it? Like this?” The big Kindred was suddenly behind her. He pushed her to her hands and knees on the mattress and flipped up the hem of her robe, exposing her bare ass. “Is this what you want, Charlotte?” he snarled, forcing her legs apart. “Just a quick fuck to reach your objective?”
“I…” Charlie’s heart was pounding and her mouth was as dry as cotton. But after all the weeping and wailing she’d done in the Temple of Regrets, she wasn’t going to show any more weakness. She was tired of feeling helpless and upset. This wasn’t how she’d imagined sex with Stavros—when she’d allowed herself to picture it at all—but it was, as he said, just a means to an end. So if this was the way he wanted it…
“Well?” he demanded and she felt his big hands on her bare hips, bracing her open. She knew he was in position to enter her, knew that the broad head of his cock must be poised right at the entrance of her pussy.
“Fine,” she said in a voice that only trembled a little. She turned her head to the side and met his eyes in the burnished reflective surface of the Pillar of the Heart. He was standing right behind where she was positioned at the end of the mattress and his eyes were burning with emotion. “If that’s how you want it, then go for it,” she said steadily. “I…I can take anything you can dish out. Anything.”
She expected him to take her at her word and shove himself to the hilt inside her. In fact, she was trying to be mentally and physically braced for it. So she was surprised when instead, he sank to the mattress beside her.
“Charlotte,” he murmured and her name was like a prayer on his lips. Like a litany of regret and ruined hope. “Oh, Charlotte…”
He lay on the mattress and pulled her down beside him. Before she knew it, Charlie was cuddled against him with his broad chest pressed to her back.
“Stavros?” she whispered uncertainly as he wound long, muscular arms around her and held her close. They were facing the golden surface of the Pillar and she could see sadness moving in his e
yes as he tucked the top of her head under his chin.
“I cannot use you that way,” he said and gave a deep sigh. “I cannot bring myself to hurt or rape you.”
“It wouldn’t be rape,” Charlie protested weakly. “I told you to do it.”
“But not because you want to—because we have to. That is not how I hoped our first time together would be.”
“We would’ve had to anyway,” she pointed out. “I’m pretty sure this is the final exam for everybody who comes here. I think that’s what Ssstha and Hsssthnk were talking about when they said they were going to have their ‘oneness’ or whatever.”
“So you think the last test is—”
“Making love here, in front of the Pillar of the Heart. Seeing if you can get it to open. To split,” she finished for him. “Yes.”
“Splitting the Pillar,” he said meditatively.
Charlie surprised herself by giggling.
“Sorry. That just sounds like a really dirty euphemism for something else.”
“It does.” The ghost of a smile traced his sensuous mouth and then vanished. “No matter what it sounds like, if we do not accomplish it within the hour, we will be handed over to the enemy.”
Charlie shivered. “I don’t want that, Stavros. I don’t want that weird guy with the metal teeth and the split personality to get us! We have to do this if only so we can get out of here in one piece.”
“Agreed,” he said heavily. “Although we do not really have to make love to ‘split the Pillar.’”
“We don’t? What do you mean?”
“According to the Joined One, the main requirement is for me to leave my seed in your pussy,” Stavros murmured. “If you prefer to keep things on a less intimate basis, I can simply wait to penetrate you until I am ready to…”
“To come?” Charlie whispered breathlessly. “Um, yes, I guess that would be a good way to do it.”
“It would,” he agreed. “Since we are not doing it for love or bonding, we should try to keep it professional.”
“I suppose,” Charlie said softly. There was a lump in her throat and her eyes stung for a moment but she didn’t know why. “And…” she hesitated but it had to be said. “And that means no biting, right?”
“No biting,” he agreed. “I don’t think I could stop myself from bonding you to me if I bit you first. And it would be dangerous to have both my essence in your bloodstream and my seed in your pussy at the same time. We might form a permanent bond by accident.”
“But when you bit me the other night and injected your essence…do you think I still have some in my bloodstream?”
He shook his head. “Trace amounts only. I don’t think it will be enough to form a bond.”
“Well…all right.” Charlie shivered. She had been telling herself for so long that she didn’t want anything to do the Kindred, that the idea of bonding with one—even Stav—turned her off. But did it? Did it really? For the first time she allowed herself to wonder what it might be like…to open herself to him completely…to have both his fangs and his cock in her at the same time…
Stop it, she scolded herself. You shouldn’t think like that—remember Missy! But somehow the thought didn’t hold the same guilt it had. It was almost as though re-living the awful event had given her a new perspective on it. Not that she—
“Very well,” Stavros murmured, pulling her out of her guilty thoughts. “Will you allow me to prepare you first? You are very tight and I am…not small. I would not wish to take you unless you are ready to receive me.”
“Oh…right. Of course. I, um, guess so.” Charlie found herself unaccountably shy and she couldn’t meet his eyes in the shiny golden surface beside them. “How, um…how did you want to prepare?”
“I want to taste you again,” he growled softly. “I want to be between your thighs, lapping up your juices and tasting your honey right from the source, just once more.”
“Oh, well…” Charlie felt like half the blood in her body was rushing to her face and the other half was rushing to the sensitive spot between her legs. “I guess that’s okay. If you…really want to.”
“More than anything,” he assured her.
“But what about preparing you?” she asked. “I mean, if you’re not going to put it in until you’re, uh, ready to go? Or come…or whatever?” She could feel her cheeks getting hotter and hotter.
“Trust me, Charlotte,” he growled. “Tasting you will more than get me ready to come. I love the taste and scent of your soft, sweet little pussy. Licking you there makes me hotter than anything besides biting you.”
At the thought of him biting her, a shiver of pure desire ran down her spine. God, if only he could…but no. That was out of the question. She had to get back on track.
“Okay…how do you, uh, want me?” Charlie dared to raise her gaze to his and saw that his indigo eyes were half-lidded with lust.
“Get back on your hands and knees,” he rumbled. “I like the way you look like that. I want to taste you from behind.”
“You…you do?” Charlie wished she didn’t sound so breathless but she couldn’t help it. Though this act had once been one to fear and avoid, it now made her heart beat faster and her breath come short.
“You know I do. Come…” He was already helping her up.
Charlie let the big Kindred take off her long white robe. Once she was completely naked, she got up on her hands and knees. Though she tried not to look at her reflection in the golden pillar, she couldn’t help seeing how her breasts hung down like ripe fruit, her tight nipples jutting from their tips like berries.
“Gods, you’ve lovely.” Stavros’s deep voice was hoarse with desire and longing. Already Charlie could see the outline of his erection beneath the thin white sleep trousers he wore.
She gave a nervous little laugh.
“You’re not half bad yourself.”
His long hair was loose around his broad, bare shoulders and the black, iridescent lines of his mark seemed to shimmer in the reflection on the golden pillar.
“I am glad you find me pleasing,” he rumbled. He was getting her positioned, right on the edge of the mattress and now he sank to his knees behind her so that his mouth was level with her spread thighs. “Because the Goddess knows I find you so,” he finished, gazing between her legs in open admiration.
Knowing that he was looking at her pussy made Charlie feel nervous and hot. Out of instinct, she started to close her thighs but Stav held them gently open.
“No, Charlotte—let me look at you. Let me remember you since I am never destined to do this again.”
“I…” She didn’t know what to say to that. The idea that they would go their separate ways after this had occurred to her—of course it had. But it had never made her feel so sad before. “Stav…” she murmured.
But just then he leaned forward and pressed a soft, gentle kiss between her thighs.
Charlie jumped and shivered when she felt his mouth connect with her outer pussy lips. God, that felt amazing and he had just given her one kiss. Already she was getting wet and hot between her legs and she wondered if he could tell it.
Her question was answered by a low, approving rumble from deep in his chest.
“Look at that—your sweet little pussy is already getting wet, my numala,” he murmured, spreading her outer lips with his thumbs. “Gods, I love how it easy it is to make your honey flow.”
Charlie bit her lip as she felt fresh wetness come from her spread pussy. Stavros leaned forward and lapped it up eagerly, bathing her slick inner folds with his hot tongue.
“Oh, God,” she moaned and couldn’t help pressing back against him, trying to get more of the incredible sensation of his mouth on her open cunt.
“That’s right, falinda,” he growled softly. “Come to me, press your pussy to my mouth. Open yourself for me and let me taste your juices flowing.”
Charlie did as he ordered, spreading her thighs wider and tilting her pelvis, trying to give him easie
r access to her slippery inner folds. Stavros wrapped his arms around her thighs and split her wide, pressing forward to lap and suck her spread pussy and sending sparks of bright-hot pleasure through every nerve in her body.
Charlie couldn’t help turning her head to watch in the mirrored surface of the pillar as the big Kindred Tasted her. He had a hungry look on his face as he thrust forward, first circling her throbbing clit with his tongue and then plunging it deep in her pussy to fill her as much as he could while he tasted her juices right from the source.
Oh God, soon that’s going to be his cock, Charlie couldn’t help thinking. He’s actually going to put it inside me…going to fill me up and come in me!
The forbidden thought seemed to act like a catalyst to her ever growing pleasure. With a little gasp, she felt the orgasm which had been building from the moment Stavros first dropped to his knees behind her suddenly pounce like a waiting tiger.
“Ahh!” she wailed, her back arching and her toes curling while her hands fisted in the mattress. “Oh, God, Stavros…Please!”
He kept licking her, lapping away her juices until her throbbing pussy was completely cleaned. Then he was beside her on the mattress again, holding her in his arms.
“Gods, I love to hear you call my name like that,” he growled, pulling her close for a kiss.
His fangs were long and sharp and she could feel them pressing dangerously close as his mouth descended on hers. Charlie didn’t give a damn. She welcomed him recklessly, opening her mouth for his seeking tongue, reveling in the delicious taste of her own secret flavor on his lips.
Their mouths clashed for a moment, pressing hot and hard, and then they drew apart, both panting for breath.
“Charlotte…” He cupped her cheek and looked at her, his eyes blazing with hunger. “I need to be in you now, need to fill you with my seed. Do you feel ready to receive me?”
“I…yes.” She nodded, feeling flushed and hot all over her body. “God, yes, Stav. Please…do it.”
“I want to but…” he frowned and drew back a little. “I think we should be careful.”
“Careful how?” Charlie wanted to know. “I mean, you already got me, uh, ready.” More than ready, to tell the truth. She was throbbing and empty between her legs. She had never been more ready to be filled in her life.
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