Heart Legacy

by Robin D. Owens

  Delicately, she stepped toward him, this virile man who gave her the freedom of his body, who stirred her own.

  She set her hands on the hard curves of his biceps and discovered a fine tension imbued his entire body. Was that sexual arousal, too? She didn’t know. So much to learn, and how lucky she was that a gorgeous man such as this would be her teacher! Enjoying the sensation of supple skin over developed muscle, she trailed her fingers down to his hands, and his fingers locked on hers.

  “Lori,” he said. “Lo-ri-dan-a.” He weighted each syllable of her name with thick emotion she didn’t quite understand.

  But with that connection, that clasp of fingers intertwined with fingers, for an instant, she felt less the clamoring of her body for sex, and more of the link between them.

  His overwhelming need, also ignited the fire of her own until she breathed—panted—with him. Her whole world turned red with lust, with greed for mating. All her instincts flamed and she found herself fighting for control, too, just so she would not throw herself at him.

  Bite him.

  The thrill turned a little savage and she welcomed the gleeful, wild feeling. Something like this was what her stridebeasts must feel when they mated.

  “Lori, I’m begging you.”

  She put her hands on his shoulders and ordered, “Clothes off!” The seams opened and they fell away from him, even his boots, so they must have been made of quality cloth along with excellent Flair. As well put together as any of the Yew Family tailors and seamstresses could do. Though the spell wouldn’t have worked if Draeg hadn’t wanted it to.

  One glance at his nude body and Lori could sure tell he wanted to be undressed and having sex with her.

  She hadn’t thought that his penis would be quite that large, or thick, or, ah, rigid. She retreated a step.

  “Lori?”

  Glancing up, she saw his lashes open, his eyes that brilliant blue again. She took another step back at the intensity of his gaze, his total focus on her.

  “Lori?” he asked once more, holding out a hand, one that trembled.

  “I just want to see all of you,” she whispered. “All the hard muscles and lines that aren’t . . . aren’t like mine.”

  And all those muscles became harder before her eyes; arms and thighs looked as if perspiration gilded them as well as his chest. “No, Draeg, you are not beautiful,” she mumbled, staring at the part of him that would forge into her body, her own sex dampening and her thighs clenching. Yes, her body prepared herself for him, her breasts swelling as did her tissues below. “You are magnificent.”

  His other hand joined the first in supplication. “Lori.” His jaw clenched, and then he closed his eyes again, and when he spoke he whispered, “Touch me.”

  “Your, um, your penis?” she asked doubtfully, though her core heated and the blood throbbed to a hard beat through her veins; her skin seemed sensitive to the very motes of air in the stable.

  A crack of laughter ripped from him. “My cock, Lori.”

  “Oh.” She supposed an earthy man like him would prefer a word like that. She sidled back to his thrusting . . . cock and curled her fingers around it. He shuddered; his hands lifted higher, then dropped with a smack to her own shoulders and the shoulder tabs of her shirt.

  “Lord and Lady. So good. So very, very good.” His voice sounded deeper and more guttural than she’d heard from him before. Once again her breathing became unsteady, then matched his.

  Shuddering, he put his own hand around hers that curved around his penis-cock. The contrast of ultrasoft skin under the palm of her hand and his callused fingers enveloping the back of her hand, two textures of the same man, sent lightning down her nerves. She intended to take this man who had aspects she hadn’t discovered into her body.

  Have him change, with her, her life from isolated girl to a true woman with a lover. For a few instants she quailed at the thought, and then Draeg pulled her hand away from his sex and swung her up into his arms.

  Roaring filled her, her ears, her mind, and she realized it came from the link between them, from Draeg.

  Twenty-one

  A moment later she was in the sun-bright bedroom of the apartment over the stables, plunked on her feet. Draeg had teleported them. He tapped her shoulder, growling, “Clothes off!” And Lori stood naked before him, all the freckles on her body so very pronounced, brown spots on milk-pale skin.

  Another grunt and he lifted her and tossed her onto the bedsponge and she felt the softness of well-worn fabric beneath her. The next second she had hard male atop her and his erect penis between her thighs, pressing at the entrance of her body.

  She gasped and he jerked against her; the blue eyes that had been blurry focused in on her. He grimaced, and she understood that it was supposed to be a smile.

  “Sorry, little control. Lori, you unman me.”

  “That is obviously not true,” she said, surprised she could say anything at all in this intimate situation.

  His laugh sounded gruff. “In my circles, a man is measured by his control. How he controls his body, his emotions, his circumstances.”

  Her body was becoming rapidly accustomed to having a man’s skin against her own, his hair rubbing against her, especially how her nipples felt so good and her dampening core really ready for him, for a man, for a male. For penetration. She shivered herself and said, “You are managing this situation very well.”

  “You think so?” His whisper was raw.

  “Yes.”

  “I think,” he panted, “I can go a little slower.” He lifted up and the head of his cock moved into her. Then he stopped. She felt stretched and yet the great need intensified.

  He looked at her breasts. “Pretty, Lori. Such pale pink nipples. Pretty color.”

  “Thank you.” Now that he’d gotten her tucked under him where she couldn’t escape unless she wanted to teleport them both somewhere naked, he seemed slightly easier. He probably did feel more in control. But looking at him with her own narrowed gaze, she thought he used some meditation techniques, measured breathing, a small distancing of the mind from the body.

  And she thought she knew how to break those—break that control of his. After all, she’d worked with animals most of her life, had observed her stridebeasts, even helped them with mating—the pairs she’d chosen. If they were anything right now, she and Draeg, they were male and female, mating.

  So she herself drew in a long, smooth breath, considered his cock with regard to the depths of her body she wanted him in . . . Augmenting her physical strength with Flair, she lifted her hips, aimed herself at him, and slid onto him, savoring the shock in his eyes and how his gaze went foggy again.

  “Neither of us holds back,” she said. “We’re both in this together.”

  He blinked and she thought she saw a touch of sadness and something else, but then he nodded shortly and said, “Slow or quick?”

  “Slow.”

  “You got it.”

  A chuckle bubbled from her throat. “I’ve got you.” She tightened her arms around him.

  Then he surged fully into her, more stretching, more compression of her inner flesh, and such utterly delicious sensations that all thought evaporated and she let her body arch and writhe and move for maximum pleasure.

  Stroke after stroke, they rose and fell together and her moans and whimpers matched his groans and a curse or two and his cock plunged into her sheath, and great and fabulous tension coiled, wound tight throughout her, almost, almost, and there!

  Deep and shocking, the transcendent pleasure of orgasm struck her, shattered her, spinning fragments of her away into the world and space.

  “Lori! Mine!” Draeg yelled, and grabbed her tight. He shuddered and his seed spurted inside her.

  Even coalescing from her explosive, glorious experience, she’d heard the word, didn’t want to confront him with it, though it alarmed her a little, didn’t want to deal with any sort of conversation about . . . claiming. Just a male’s possessiveness
of a female with whom he’d had sex, she assured herself.

  He collapsed on her and she had to use some of her Flair to inflate her lungs under the weight of him so she could breathe.

  Large tenderness filled her, as much as the man, for the man. She couldn’t imagine how her first experience with sex could have been better. So gorgeous, the man and the event! Cherish this particular man.

  Lady bless her, Draeg smelled good. Sweat and the essence of himself, a male animal. Just as Lori herself was a female animal, though she’d never felt so much so until this moment. The Family and, of course, the Residence, didn’t place much value on physicality.

  “Thank you,” she murmured.

  Draeg grunted; as she smiled and began to laugh, he rolled with her until she lay atop him, a feat since the bedsponge was meant for one person. And now that she thought of it, her bedsponge was the same size. Neither would let them sleep comfortably together on it.

  Did she want to sleep with Draeg? As opposed to simply have sex with him?

  A resounding yes sounded within her, from her heart or her gut she didn’t know, but the instinctive feeling informed her mind that she very much wanted more than sex from Draeg. And he was leaning on his elbow, scanning her face with that intense gaze of his. He touched her lips. “What are you smiling about?”

  “I like you.”

  His chest sank with a little whoosh and he smiled back at her. “I like you, too.”

  Should she reveal where her thoughts trailed in and out with regard to that? Why not? Continue on as she’d always been, open with him. Reaching up, she stroked his face, noting the change of sensation from his cheek above his beard to the roughness of sprouting hair. “I was thinking how wonderful this has been.”

  He winced and trapped her hand. “I tried, but I didn’t do so well. I definitely lost control several times during the process.”

  “Only after I lost control, which doesn’t matter. Does it? At least during sex?”

  “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “And you didn’t,” she said, though she was becoming aware of some aches and strains and a certain rawness here and there. “You gave me . . . shared with me, a glorious experience.” She grinned, her mouth curving more than it had, perhaps, ever.

  “That’s good, then.”

  She bobbed her head. “Very good.” She continued her line of thought. “It would have not been a good or acceptable experience with anyone else but you.”

  He looked surprised and grinned himself. “Ha!”

  “Like having sex with anyone the Family would have approved as a lover for me”—now her mouth pulled down—“say, anyone Zus or Vi might consider appealing.”

  She was yanked against him, her legs tangling with his, her breasts squashed against the slab of his chest, his arm like iron behind her. “No,” he said. “Nobody else but me.” He paused a few seconds. “For now.”

  His skin yet smelled good—her lover’s scent—but her nose and her whole face was mushed against him. She wiggled a little and his grip loosened enough for her to angle her head and meet his eyes and say completely seriously, “No, no one else for me except you for now.”

  He inclined his head. “I haven’t had any more than occasional lovers for a long, long time. About three years.”

  She supposed that sounded like a long, long time to him, but it had taken her years to find a lover, while she knew the twins had been sexually active for some time. Or had it taken her so long? The moment she’d seen Draeg—

  He pulled away, his arm, his body, putting wide centimeters between them. “I know you haven’t had any choice of men,” he said roughly, his face drawn into a scowl.

  “I chose you.”

  He shifted as if uncomfortable. “How many men of your own age did you even see before me?”

  “The Family is relatively diverse—”

  “Relatively diverse. Ha, ha.” He didn’t sound amused.

  With dignity, she replied, “I am the last of the direct line of the Yews, at least from my MotherSire, though he had a younger brother from whom Cuspid and the twins are descended. The other strains of the Yews are even less closely related to me, and there are a few boys my age. As I said before, I like you. Better than any of those boys, who didn’t know or care to understand what I did in the Residence, my situation here, how I was trained, being trained.” Yes, she liked him better than any of her relatives at all.

  “What of you?” she asked, a little daring. “And your Family?” She understood from their previous conversations that he valued Family.

  “My parents were HeartMates, and they went together when sickness struck them. My father failed first, but my mother didn’t care to live without him, so they died within minutes of each other. HeartMates often do.” Just from the way he slipped the words into the quiet told her that he’d loved them.

  She nodded. She’d heard that but had no personal knowledge of HeartMates. She reached up and stroked his face. This was a man, not a boy, not like any of those other boys who were her own age and had stared warily at her as D’Yew over the years. For them she’d been but a formal stranger from the Residence.

  She was a person, an individual, to Draeg. And she thought that he’d have seen behind her manner had she put the formal attitude on along with the formal clothes, seen her.

  With a few movements, Draeg arranged them so she could stare into his blue eyes and talk easily. His arm cradled her head, and she’d put her hand near his torso where she could trace the indentations of muscles when she wanted. She noticed that he appeared to be getting interested in sex again, but she definitely liked that the bond between them had grown, and the emotions flowing back and forth between them spoke of like minds. The more time she spent with him, the better friends they were becoming, and she couldn’t think of anything more important than a true and open lover who was a good friend.

  “What I don’t understand,” Draeg said, “is why all you Yews are isolated from the rest of Druida City. And the FirstFamilies, too.”

  Lori tensed a little. “My mother made the decision before I was born. It had something to do with the death of her father, my MotherSire, who was T’Yew at the time. I haven’t been told all the details.” Rather, she’d been told several different versions of the story, all changing in details, and she hadn’t been able to deduce the truth. In the vizes he’d left, her father hadn’t said anything about that particular matter.

  “You keep everyone cooped up here?”

  She shrugged. “Most of the Family enjoy living here rather self-sufficiently. We have had people who became restless and left, six, I believe. Those of the Yews who have left have been disinherited. They aren’t ever allowed back. Our business is our business and we want no interference from outside. We need no bad influences.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t understand it. There’s a wide, wide world out there, just beyond this estate. Starting with Druida City. No wonder you sneak out every night.”

  Her stomach tightened a bit. Should she tell him what she intended to do? That they were alike on this, too, that she wanted to see much, much more of the world and would not be staying here and that, like other Yews who left, she’d be disinherited.

  No, not yet, she didn’t trust him yet, but she might come to that. A quick dizzying vision flickered into her mind, then gone: Draeg accompanying her to her new home.

  That notion was far too scary. She could barely believe she would trust him that much.

  Her calendar sphere dinged and appeared, flashing a notice of her quarterly appointment with the head fisherman in fifteen minutes. The river fishers were a small but important part of the Family. “I must go.”

  He caught her hand as she rose from the bed to her feet, and, yes, her legs wobbled. “You’ll be back this afternoon at your regular time to work with the horses?”

  She smiled at him, squeezed her fingers, and then shifted from foot to foot. “I’ll be here, of course—”

  “Not
only just because of the animals. Because you want to spend time with me, too.”

  “Yes. I do. But perhaps not to ride. I have some unusual aches and pains.”

  He grinned, narrowed his eyes. “Your leg looks good.” His brows went up and down. “Great legs.” Then his amusement faded. “Where do you go? Will your Residence and or your Family question you?” His mouth firmed into a straight line. “Will you have to be careful? Your Family won’t like that you’ve taken a lover, especially someone like me.”

  Her own expression hardened. “I will have to hide this from them.” She tossed her head. “It’s my secret.” Lady and Lord knew that Vi, Zus, Folia, Cuspid, and even the Residence probably kept secrets from her. The twins and their excursions to their new friends, for instance, and those new outside-the-Family friends.

  He sat up, then stood, all economy of effort and masculine grace. “What of tonight, Loridana?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Will we be together tonight?”

  “For more sex?” She rolled her shoulders, which felt a little tight, and smiled. “I don’t think I could give up such pleasure with you.”

  He heaved a dramatic sigh. “Good, because I want to get my hands, and all the rest of my body, on you again.”

  She smiled. “You can be my teacher in this as well as showing me how to train the horses.”

  That thought seemed to strike him. “Oh, yeah!” He rubbed his hands. “Can do. We will explore what we have together.”

  Serious now, she held up her index finger. “Two things. I will not slight my animals in having sex with you instead of caring for them. We must find other times to be together.”

  “Agreed.”

  She sighed. “I’d planned on cutting back on my nightly excursions in Druida City anyway, as they seem to be more draining than, ah, profitable.”