by Megan Hart
Now it was his turn to stare, long and hard. She didn't flinch, though his glare had been known to make brave men falter.
"We've been through a lot together," she said at last. "But I meant it when I said I loved you. I thought you meant it, too. If you didn't..."
"I did mean it," Del said when she didn't say more. "Ah, shit, Lin. I've never been in a relationship before. I'm sorry."
"Well, I have," she said. "And you should be sorry."
He grinned reluctantly. "You don't give any slack, do you?"
She didn't smile back at him. Her face remained stoic, her body stiff. She bit at her lip and turned her face like she was struggling to keep herself from speaking.
Shame filled him. He knew her story, her history, what her husband had done to her. It was no wonder she refused to let him bully her, which was, he admitted, what he was trying to do.
Del crossed the space between them, only a few steps, although it seemed as long as a light year. He pulled her into his arms, not caring she was stiff and unyielding in his embrace. He held her and buried his face in her hair, and gave her the strength and warmth of his body because he didn't know what else to do.
Chapter 12
He held her, and Linna let him do it, even though she wasn't quite willing to soften toward him yet. It felt good to be in his arms, her cheek against his broad chest. The shirt Erystus had given him was smooth, silky and sleeveless. Completely impractical for the jungle, but Linna liked the way it hugged every muscle and ripple.
At last she slipped her arms around his waist and returned his hug. They stayed that way for a little while longer. They breathed in the same rhythm. Inhale, exhale. His heart beat its steady pattern beneath her cheek and she slipped a hand up to press her palm there.
"Why don't you have any tattoos on your chest and biceps?" she asked. Talking about his markings seemed to be neutral ground.
He squeezed her tighter before stepping back to let her go. "I left before I needed to get them."
There was a whole lot more to Xanderra than she'd ever have thought. "Tell me about it?"
She'd purposely phrased it as a request, not a demand, which seemed to freak him out a little less. Del smiled, ran a hand over his head in a gesture she'd come to know very well, and shrugged. She couldn't read his expression, which, in the firelight, looked to be a mix of sheepishness and pride.
"Xanderran society is set up differently than it is in Newcity. We have a Ruling Council, like you do, but it's called the Melekim Gadol. The Great Kings."
"Only men."
He nodded. "Technically, yes, but since each man is also bound to his behshera, there are women who have a great deal of influence on it as well."
Linna sat next to the fire and curled her arms around her knees. Del's way of speaking had changed since they'd landed here. His accent had thickened. His words had become...she didn't think more elegant. Perhaps more eloquent.
"And what does this Council...these melekim, do?"
"They maintain cells, vexxa, in each region of Xanderra's four main communities. All are located in an area that covers approximately one half of the planet. Xanderra's twice the size of Earth."
She hadn't realized it was so large. "And what about the other half?"
He looked around. "Jungle. And ocean. Mostly uninhabitable, long term, though there are small, renegade communities who live in the jungle."
She held out her hand and he sat down beside her. "And what do these Melekim Gadol have to do with your ink?"
Del put his hand to his chest "The markings on my arms and shoulders are signs of my life. My family, passing my adulthood test, the skills I gained and the battles I won or lost. If I'd found my behshera or a behsherat, her name or his would have also been inked."
"Where?"
He pointed to a bare spot on the inside of his left wrist. "There."
She touched it and felt his pulse leaping under her fingers. "Will my name go there?"
Del put his hand over hers, then kissed it. "Yes."
That made her smile. "Are you trying to avoid answering my question about the Melekim Gadol?"
He laughed. "Maybe. It's complicated."
"So I'm guessing." Linna leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. "I always knew there was more to you than you admitted."
"If I had stayed on Xanderra, I'd have taken my place in the Council. I would have received the inkings on my chest and back that showed my rank in the melekim."
"Which would have been what?" she prodded gently, sensing he was unwilling to say.
"If all went well, I'd have followed my father's path and become the Amanrabah. The Great Father."
Linna sat straight up and looked at him. "You'd have been in charge of the entire Council?"
He shrugged. "My father expected me to follow him. I didn't want to. So I left."
"That must've disappointed your father," Linna said. "I didn't have a father. I was conceived in an artificial womb with donated ovum and sperm. My parents were Matti and Devola Fortense, both androgynes."
Del goggled at her and Linna laughed. "I think they were both genetically female, but had chosen to live without distinguishing gender characteristics. It was a big movement about thirty years ago. Equality for the sexes. I think my parents were surprised and disappointed when I turned out to be unabashedly feminine. So I know what it feels like to disappoint my parents, Del."
He squeezed her fingers. "My father wasn't disappointed. He had my brother to count on instead of me."
"You have a brother." She shook her head. "And he took your place? I'm sure that doesn't mean your parents weren't sad you left."
"You don't understand Xanderran culture, Linna. When I didn't take a behshera, when I decided not to follow my father's path...they weren't just angry with me. They were glad to see me go."
She wasn't going to argue with him, especially since she really didn't know anything about his world. "And your brother took what should have been your place. What's going to happen now that you're back?"
Del looked around, out to the darkness past the firelight. "This is what happened."
"I don't understand."
Del sighed. "My brother must have ascended to the melekim. He'd have been notified we were coming in. He made the pod crash in the jungle."
"He was trying to kill you?" Linna had thought she'd heard it all, but this news shocked her. "Why?"
"To keep his place. If I take back my place on the Council, he'll be demoted, or lose it altogether. He'll have to fight me for his place, at any rate, and he must've been afraid he'd lose. If I die in the jungle, he doesn't have to worry about it."
"And if you don't?"
"Then he'll have to face me on the challenge field. If I make it back to Yarushalim, I'll have proven my worth to challenge him. He'll have to do it."
"That's insane!"
Del laughed, and though she was glad to hear he was able to look at the situation with humor, Linna didn't understand how he could.
"Why do you think I left?"
"And you have to do this?"
Del shrugged again. "I don't have to do anything. But I'm sure I will."
"You'll fight your brother for a place on a Council you didn't want to be on in the first place?" she cried, stunned. "You'll take a chance on getting killed to take something away from someone who wants it more than you do?"
Del laughed again, a low, sultry chuckle that sent a rush of heat through her even in her outrage at the situation. "Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because I'm Xanderran," Del said like that should explain it all. "And because that little bastard tried to kill me."
"It's those four balls." She shook her head in resignation. "This whole planet must be one huge cloud of testosterone."
Del laughed again, deeper this time, and her belly clenched at the sound. He tilted his head, dark eyes gleaming, and his slow, hot smile made her smile in return.
"Do you have any more questions?" he asked
her. "Or do you want to use your mouth for something other than talking?"
She tried hard to remember that she'd been mad at him, but couldn't seem to do it. "I think I could be persuaded. If you think it's safe."
He glanced around the small clearing. "I'll protect you."
Linna lifted an eyebrow at him. "Or maybe I'll protect you."
"Either way is good with me, pretty lady," said Del, sounding just the way he always had.
Passion flared inside her as easily as the sparks had lit the fire burning next to them. His kiss was just as hot. She opened her mouth to him, and he took her onto his lap, her legs wrapped around his waist, while he thrust his tongue inside her lips.
"Hmmm," Linna murmured with a rocking motion of her hips against his very prominent erection. "What have we here? More native wildlife?"
Del laughed and squeezed her ass to grind her harder against him. "You want to find out?"
She slid a hand down between them to grab him through the loose trousers Erystus had given him. "I don't know. Does it bite?"
He growled and nipped at her throat. "No. But I do."
The ground was soft and fragrant under her when he lay her down on it. Linna forced herself not to think about the real wildlife that could be inhabiting the leaves and flowers crushed under them. Newcity was a pretty sterile place with no beasts or critters roaming the streets. She was pretty damn sure Xanderra wasn't the same.
When Del's mouth found the tender spot at the base of her throat, all thoughts of bugs and other things vanished. All she wanted to think about, all she could think about, was his tongue tracing delicate patterns on her skin. This jumpsuit from Erystus, unlike her Newcity one, fastened with a complicated series of snaps instead of the stickseam.
Del undid the first snap, then kissed the exposed spot. The next two came undone under his skilled fingers and he kissed those spots, too. Linna arched her back to press herself against him, but he teased her, undoing only one or two snaps at a time and licking and nibbling the exposed skin thoroughly before moving to the next.
By the time he'd folded back her jumpsuit over her breasts, she was moaning. When he took one nipple into his mouth, she groaned. And when he cupped both her breasts in his huge hands and brought them together to flick his tongue rapidly back and forth over both her nipples, she cried his name.
"I love the way you taste." Del paused in his attention to her breasts and made time to kiss her mouth again. "All salty and sweaty and musky."
Linna's eyes, already half-closed in glorious ecstasy, flew open. "Oh, God-of-Choice!"
Del laughed, his body shaking against hers. "It's true."
Linna took a deep breath. "Del, that's not a compliment."
"It's meant to be." He bent and licked her from the tops of her breasts, up to her throat, and finished at her mouth. "You taste like I always imagined a woman would taste like."
"It hasn't exactly been easy to take a shower the past few days," she grumbled self-consciously.
His next kiss chased away her insecurity. "I told you, I love it. You're on Xanderra now, Linna. Not in Newcity. It's okay to sweat here."
Now it was her turn to laugh. Linna reached down to cup his buttocks and push his erection against her center. "Maybe I should give you a taste, too."
Del moved his hips and sent sparks of pleasure radiating through her. "Maybe you should."
She exerted a little extra strength and rolled him over until she could straddle him. "Where should I start?"
Del stretched out his hands behind his head. A carpet of dark-colored flowers crowned him. The scent wafting up from the crushed petals made Linna think of a viddy story she'd seen a long time ago, an oldworld tale of knights and dragons...
"Dragons!" She sat up. "Del, didn't you say--"
"Shhh." He grinned. "They're not silent stalkers. We'd hear them if they were coming."
Linna looked around, nervous again. "What about other...things?"
"I told you I'd protect you."
She crossed her arms stubbornly. "Del, I know you're used to this jungle stuff, but I'm not."
He lifted his head to reach for her hips and moved her slowly against the bulge of his dick. "If you want to stop, we can."
Her clit gave a tiny jump when he pulled her against his hardness. She looked at the fire, still burning high and impossibly bright. She looked around the clearing, though this close to the light she was unable to dilate her pupils enough to see in the darkness.
"We haven't seen any animals so far," she conceded.
"Haven't seen any, no."
The way he said it made her heart pound, and not with lust. She looked around again. "You're not helping."
"Sorry."
He didn't sound sorry, not one bit, and Linna pushed on his chest. "Do you want to fuck me or not?"
Del sat up and kissed her mouth. "Actually, Linna, I do not want to fuck you."
"You don't?"
"No." He kissed her slowly and thoroughly while she melted in his arms. "I want to make love to you. Right here, in the middle of the jungle, with who knows what watching us. I want to strip you out of that ugly jumpsuit, lay you down and spread open your thighs, and then I want to lick you until you come."
She shivered. He'd punctuated every sentence with a soft kiss. Now his tongue slid between her lips to stroke hers. His hands roamed along her back, down to her buttocks, then rested on her hips and continued to rock her center against him.
"And when you've stopped pulsing under my tongue, I'm going to slide up inside you, and I'm going to fill you up, and I'm going to wait until you can't stop yourself from lifting your hips to urge me on, and then I'm going to slide in and out of your slick, hot tunnel until you come again."
Her throat was dry, but she managed a husky whisper. "Sounds good to me."
He nipped her chin. "Open yourself up to me, Linna."
She did, spreading her thighs while he pushed his hand between their bodies and used his thumb to press on her clit. She hissed at the sensation. He stroked her lightly, then a little harder, before rolling her onto her back.
He didn't tease her with the snaps this time. He undid the rest of them with swift determination and stripped the material off her.
Linna, pinned in the heat of his stare, couldn't even move to help him undress. Her thighs fell open, her pussy exposed to him, and she tilted her hips a little, involuntarily, when he licked his lips.
Del didn't need her help with getting his clothes off. He stripped himself bare with the same grace he did everything, then settled back between her thighs, his hands resting on the soft skin of her upper thighs.
He gave her no time to prepare, no time to anticipate. He licked her clit in one, smooth stroke that made her entire body shudder. He circled the erect button with his tongue, then slid deeper to kiss and lick her folds. His fingertip pressed gently onto her clitoris, but didn't move. That pressure, coupled with his tongue stroking and licking her below, sent pulses of pleasure through her.
Linna put a hand on his head. Every sensation had become heightened in her arousal. The stubble of his growing hair scratched her palm and sent shivers through her. Del put his hands on her hips to keep her still when she wriggled, and his laughter puffed against her flesh.
Del unerringly found the right spots to lick and stroke, the right amount of pressure to use that sent her whirling into an oblivion of desire. He used hands and mouth, teeth, lips, tongue and fingers, the force of his breath as he inhaled and exhaled...all worked together to urge her higher and higher. She was flying. Weightless. The scent and sounds of the jungle surrounded her, but faded in and out, so she was aware of where she was, but unable to focus on anything but the way her body sang beneath Del's skilled caresses.
It's because he loves me, she thought, caught up in pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. Her body reached for satisfaction, but was denied as Del moved away from her.
A series of small climaxes rippled through her and left her mindl
ess, grasping, surging toward that final release. She made a wordless protest when she lost the warmth of his mouth on her heated skin, but gave an even louder cry of appreciation when he moved back to kiss her again.
Del slid a finger inside her, a preview of what he'd earlier promised. It wasn't as good as his cock would be, but it was good enough to make another brief, intense burst of pleasure shoot through her.
She came, and hard on the heels of that orgasm came another, fiercer than the one before it. The intensity of it left her gasping for breath. Her muscles tensed, arms and legs stiff as her climax rocketed through her.
He licked again, softer. This time a slow, languorous climax rippled through her. Relaxed her. Her body went limp, sated, and she put her hand on his head to stop him from moving.
"Del," she murmured, not wanting or needing an answer. His name tasted good.
He rested his head on her belly for a few moments while her breathing slowed. She became aware again of the night sounds, the hoots and cries that had sounded so foreign, but were already becoming familiar. The scent of the flowers filled her nose again and she became aware again of the crushed foliage on her bare skin.
Del moved up, over her body and put his forehead to hers. Linna wiggled under his weight, urging him to settle more firmly between her legs.
Del put his face into the crook of her shoulder, motionless for a moment, maybe waiting for her to urge him on, maybe just waiting. Linna didn't know. She was content to let him take the lead, in this, at least.
"Subordinate."
He laughed and she realized she'd spoken out loud.
"That's the way it usually works here."
Linna sighed and put her hands on his bare back. Her fingers traced light patterns on his skin. "We'll see."
He laughed again, and though she'd thought herself completely satisfied, the motion of his body against her sent another surge of desire building.
It only took a small shift of his hips for him to enter her. Del kept his face buried in her neck, his breath hot and making her hotter. True to his promise, he didn't move. He stretched her deliciously, and at first Linna was content to lie beneath him, connected, hearing him breath and feeling his heart beat in time with hers.
