by Candace Sams
“Don’t look at it that way,” she tearfully begged. “We’ve still got a little time.”
“Only a little,” he agreed as he tried to memorize every nuance of her features.
Suddenly, duty didn’t matter. They’d been riding the wings of chance. Plans had changed on a whim and he was no longer putting duty before desire. They’d be killed no matter what lies were told.
He quickly lowered his head, pressed his lips to hers, and greedily accepted her tongue in his mouth.
Their contact was slow, deliberate, and full of passion. He felt his body respond with energy he’d never known. Weariness fled and he felt renewed.
These last hours together were precious and he meant to take every recollection into the next life. He no longer even feared for Lyra’s safety. Aigean and her people would see his Earthling painlessly dead before the Condorians could touch her. That scenario had never been verbalized by anyone, but he knew that was exactly what would happen.
The entire crew of the Venus would follow them into the afterlife. Aigean would know how to make it happen.
Even as thoughts of death flailed through his brain, he kept kissing Lyra. Her softness pushed the ugliness of war away. In her arms, there was no battle for supremacy. No regret or pain. Fear fled. And he understood one truth nothing could ever destroy.
He loved her.
In the short time they’d known each other, she’d become everything.
With that deep acknowledgement, peace pervaded every cell in his body. Nothing and no one could take that solace away. And when circumstances separated them in this life, he’d seek her in the next. There was no other woman he’d ever loved so passionately. The clarity of these emotions was simple. It was right. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
He eventually, breathlessly broke their contact and ran the palm of his hands over her shimmering hair. He desperately gazed down into eyes that glittered with light from a thousand stars. There was nothing they needed to say.
She took his hand, backed away, and turned. He followed.
She led him toward the shower stall, and he knew they’d share this time in love. Not a pretense but the real thing.
Fears for the future and regrets of not having one faded. They lived in the here-and-now. They were mates. D’uhr and his ugly, obsessive passions couldn’t change reality.
After undressing and caressing each other, Lyra activated the water in the stall and smoothed luxuriant cleanser all over her palms. As they stood near the falling water — just close enough to feel the spray and enjoy sensations caused by the mist — she took her time soaping every part of his body, including his burgeoning cock. He circled his hips, loving the wonderful feel of her fingertips on his most sensitive flesh. Then she stood on her toes to plant a sweet kiss in the center of his chest, protectiveness filled him. He slid his hands down her back and to the top of her butt. The softness of her skin was like a summer breeze back home. He dearly wished she could see the seasons on Craetoria, but knew it would never happen.
He hated the Condorians more with every pulse of his heart. They’d started this war. They’d killed billions. Now she would be among that number and her lovely body would never know a quiet resting place. No one would be able to mourn her. He parted his lips to speak, but she covered them with her fingers. Then she slowly shook her head.
He took that hand in his and kissed the back of it. “If I gave you one final command, would you obey?”
“This isn’t something I’m gonna like or you wouldn’t be asking.”
He took a deep breath and expelled it slowly before continuing. “If you have one infinitesimal chance of getting off this vessel, I want you to take it. I want you to get back to the oasis, take the laser I left there, and try to locate an allied unit.”
“There’s no one left alive. That battle is over and I’m not leaving you.”
“You could use your helmet transmitter to send a distress call — ”
“Which the Condorians would likely intercept,” she quickly countered. “Minus confusing battle transmissions, it’d be like sending up a flare. Besides, our fleet can’t afford to rescue one loan fighter.”
“So you’ll disobey?”
She nuzzled her cheek against his armband. “I won’t leave you, so shut up.”
He sadly smiled. “Under other circumstances I’d have you in irons.”
“I prefer leather, but iron will do.”
The nonsensical response in this situation was so like her. He felt her bravery infuse him with energy. He slowly walked her backward, into the direct spray of their steamy shower. His gaze never wavered from hers.
His senses fixated on her and nothing else. He began to imagine.
In his mind now, there were no bulkheads surrounding them. He imagined they were in some forest on his home world. A place of their own where no one could ever bother them again.
Lyra planted small kisses on his chest and swirled her tongue over his left nipple before saying, “You wouldn’t ask me to go if I was a man.”
“You’re not just an allied soldier. You’re my mate. When I banded you everything in me said it was right,” he whispered. “My instinct tells me to protect you. Do you understand, Lyra?” He planted kisses along her cheek and down her neck. She pressed her breasts against his body in response.
“Show me what being a Craetorians mate means … while there’s still time,” she pleaded. “For just a few minutes I want to be yours. I want to have you.”
He pulled her into his embrace. “Then you accept?”
“Yes. I love you, Sol. God help me … I do! And that’s never going to change.”
“Then know this … my love for you is unending, Lyra Markham. Whatever deity put us here will forever find favor in my heart. We were never strangers. We were two souls meant to find each other.”
She lowered her head and began to softly sob.
“Don’t cry, my love.” He held her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Find me in the next life. I will likely die first so you must search in the ethereal world. Don’t give up on me. Promise me this!”
• • •
“I promise. I’ll look for you.”
She parted her lips and immediately felt his tongue spar with hers. Heat rose in her body the way coronas rise from suns. Any suspicions concerning his real agenda on the Venus were shoved aside in favor of this magnificent wave of passion. She needed him now, in ways she couldn’t articulate.
Even the mist from the shower stall — as balmy and inviting as it was — couldn’t mimic the warmth and security of his muscular body. His sweet breath made her skin tingle. She spread her hands over his massive biceps and felt the golden metal of his armband. It was warm and glowed beneath the water, just like his skin and long, golden mane.
When had she fallen so helplessly in love with him?
Soldar had embedded himself deeply within her heart. It’d come so easily. She’d accepted him so readily, almost as if she’d been looking for him forever. As he’d said, they were two souls meant to be together. She believed they would see each other again. And in that belief, her sorrow turned to happiness. His kiss went on and on and she cherished the sweetness of it.
When he finally broke that contact and slid his lips across her shoulder, she whispered his name over and over. The sound of it seemed to empower him.
His rotated his hips against her body. His erection pressed into the flesh of her midriff.
“This is for us,” he murmured.
“I’ll find you,” she repeated over and over.
The promise he extracted must be entrenched in her brain. It was the last order he’d ever give, the last command she’d gratefully fulfill.
They were at the end a mission and in the darkest part of a war they’
d surely lose. Time wasn’t on their side. Fate was taking them from shared intimacies and toward death. She treasured every single caress his strong, gentle hands delivered. But he must remember her touch as well.
She slid her palms down his wet arms, to his wrists. With a gentle tug, she lured him to his knees and began to soap his body with the fragrant body wash likely to have been brought aboard from looted allied worlds.
Part of her heart asked forgiveness for the use of the product. If lives were lost in the taking of it, perhaps those souls would understand if she used it to cleanse her lover’s skin. At least one brave allied fighter aboard the Venus might have use of the luxury long enough to avenge lives lost during Condorian raids.
She tilted his Sol’s head forward and began to wash his thick, golden mane. The mass of long hair streamed over his chest and shoulders like sunlight. Even in the dim illumination of the shower, she gloried in the light color of it. Touching it made her happy, as did massaging the scalp and the shoulders of the big man kneeling before her. She allowed herself the luxury of running the strands through her fingers and gently rinsing them. Even if they lived just a little longer, this was the last time such intimacy could be shared without a lecherous audience gawking at their every move. When his intense, silvery gaze was no longer boring into hers she finally let the tears come in earnest. The misty water on her face hid them. She withheld sobs so he wouldn’t concern himself as he had before.
He had to believe she could go on without him. He had to think she’d tell D’uhr whatever their barbaric captor wanted to hear, if only to get one more message off, or to get close enough to put a knife from the galley into his thick, ugly neck.
She lifted her face to the water so the tears could wash away. But there was one thing the recirculated and purified water could never do — it could never cleanse the bitterness from her heart.
She’d found a man to rival all others. A strong man who was brave and who’d give anything to mitigate the suffering of others. Magnificent in stature, glorious to behold, and with the heart of a lion, Soldar was everything she’d been looking for. And she’d found him among the rubble of human tragedy. She’d located him in the last possible place, at a time when she should have died.
Her fingers and palms moved over his body, memorizing every curve and scar. She washed away all traces of any Condorian presence. It took everything she had to shove away images of Soldar being touched by D’uhr. But he’d done what he had to get information. He’d gone willingly and that was a measure of devotion those of allied worlds should understand. If his actions gave some a little more time to live, then he deemed his mission worthy. So she would have to accept his belief in this assignment and come to terms with the consequences.
To make him believe she was good with his choices, she offered him the only tangible thing that was hers to give.
“I want to feel you inside me,” she told him. “Love me, Sol. Please?”
He immediately stood, put his arms around her waist, and lifted her up. He held her close as his kiss deepened and their tongues met.
She took a deep breath after he ended the kiss. And with strength only a man of his build could muster, he lifted her higher and gently pressed her back against the shower wall. The feral cry coming from her throat seemed foreign. He plunged into her body with all the ardor of a doomed man. She accepted his shaft with all the passion she could.
His penis was deep, deep inside her. He found a way to thrust deeper. The flange on the top of his penis teased her clitoris in an unending dance of pleasure. It seemed right to lift her legs and wrap them around his strong body. She craved him the way the enemy desired drugs. He was an addiction she’d never get over, even if she’d been given the rest of her life to live.
Her fingertips dug into his shoulders. The heat from his glowing balls warmed the skin between her legs. His bull-like testes swung between her thighs and struck her body over and over. The feel of them was intoxicating. The thud made by their bodies thrusting was a wonderful sound. The only sound she loved more was his voice whispering her name and encouraging her.
“You’re mine. Never forget that. Never!” he commanded.
A rush of pressure circled at the back of her vagina and swelled forward. She knew he sensed it. His flange began to circle her clit faster and faster. That extra organ seemed out of control and alternately poked and pulled at her labia. His huge body began to shake and he buried his face into her wet hair. Her orgasm was the strongest she’d ever experienced. She gripped his muscle and then curled her fingers into fists as the climax spread ever outward.
“Take it all, baby. Take it,” he coached as he lifted her higher in the air. “Take my head deep in you. Feel it drive into your body.”
When her second orgasm burst on top of the first one, she actually bit into his shoulder.
“I love you,” he murmured over and over. Then he cried out as his seed shot forth. His penis throbbed and his flange pounded against the soft flesh of her nether lips. He shuddered and gripped her body in a massive hug as he thrust up and into her. Sol’s body convulsed as his seed came in wave after wave. Unlike any human male, he had more of it to give her. His stamina was magnificent. And she would have so loved to have had this experience as a normal couple, and not as two soldiers about to die.
He panted and dragged air into his lungs. Eventually, he seemed to drift back to her. It was over, but he still held her and it almost broke her heart to feel the way he trembled.
Finally, he lifted her up and off his penis and gently lowered her until her feet touched the floor.
“Y-your eyes are still glowing,” she said as she cupped his cheeks between her hands.
“That’s the power you have over me.”
He slid one palm into the small over her back and drew her forward until her breasts pressed against his torso. His hug was warm, safe, and strong. He held her as though she might break, and his caresses were gentle and comforting.
The last thing she wanted to do was remind him of D’uhr. But he intended to sleep in some other part of their quarters in the event the brute broke in on them. The extra few moments of life they might gain with that subterfuge wasn’t worth it. She nuzzled her cheek against his chest.
“I don’t care if D’uhr comes in and finds us together. Let him rage,” Lyra told him. “You’re mine. I don’t care about him anymore.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” he responded. “Aside from being together, the jealous look on his face would be worth death.”
When the heat from the shower began to dissipate, she shivered.
“Let’s get you dry and in bed,” he suggested. “It’s got to be past dawn.”
He kissed her once again then turned on the auto-blowers to gently dry their skin and hair. At least they could stand there for enough time to keep from getting into bed wringing wet.
Soon, he led her from the shower and they walked over discarded clothing to one of the sumptuous, burgundy-colored pillow beds.
Soldar stretched out on the bed first then opened his arms to accept her into his embrace.
The feel of his body was so right. She craved him on levels that couldn’t be expressed. His ability to chase away fear was a gift.
Whatever had happened in D’uhr’s quarters, he was either over it or had pushed it so far away as to make it inconsequential.
She rested within his embrace and felt him smooth her hair back with one hand. For some odd reason, his command for her to escape the Venus floated to the top of her thoughts.
If one of them could live on for a while, it must be Soldar. There was nothing back on Earth for her. She’d only fought as hard as she had so someone else might not have to die. Someone with a family.
He had a home and a family. One of them was lying on the other side of this massive pleasure ship. Guilt about keeping the fact fr
om him silenced her as much as anything else. But she believed Cordis’ insistent prophecy.
Sol would tear the ship apart to find his brother. She recalled the sorrow-filled gaze he’d displayed when he’d spoken of a sibling he thought was dead.
Soldar turned his head and pulled her closer. “Lyra, I want you to listen to me.”
“Please, no talk about wars or missions. Not now, Sol.”
He kissed her temple and pulled her closer. “What I want to say isn’t about the here-and-now. It has to do with a place far away. Will you hear me before we sleep? It will be a memory of better places. I promise.”
She gracefully moved on top of him, gazed down into his eyes, and planted a brief kiss on his full, luscious lips. “What places?”
“I want to tell you of a world so beautiful that the very sight of it will capture your heart.”
She smiled and felt his arms close around her. They were safe and warm for the moment. The war and everything to do with it was temporarily shut out. She’d keep it at bay for as long as she could lie with this man and hear the deep sound of his beloved voice.
Just for these last few hours.
Chapter 10
Soldar closed his eyes as he spoke.
He described the world of Craetoria, the gardens with colorful flowers, forests with trees so tall they dwarfed buildings, and creatures that dwelled in meadows, on mountainsides, and near brooks. All of these would be destroyed when the Condorians overran his home. But he didn’t dwell on their demise, just on their existence and how magnificent they were.
He spoke of dragons that actually lived in caves. These were the magnificent beasts his family had chosen for their crests some centuries ago. This was how their image had come to be melded onto their armbands.
He spoke of his father, mother, and sisters, but declined to mention his beloved brother. Words concerning his sibling wouldn’t come. It was so much easier to imagine Cordis still alive.
His father had charged him with one duty where his brother was concerned. He and Cordis had been much younger when the order was issued. But he’d never forgotten it.
