by Mara Kelly
"There's a lake not far ahead," said Kaya. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking completely refreshed. "Ready to go?"
"No," replied Nicabar acidly. He pushed his sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes and leaned back pointedly against the tree.
Kaya made a face at him and shrugged. "Oh!" she said a moment later, her mood shifting so quickly that it took him aback. "A gapata plant!" She knelt next to the rock where Nicabar was sitting and examined a low, dark green mass of leaves. "This is wonderful."
Nicabar leaned over to get a closer look. To him, the plant looked more like some kind of weed, with long vine-like tendrils, each holding several round, hard-looking dark green leaves. "It doesn't look like much to me," he said.
"Looks can be deceiving," she shot back without looking at him. She leaned forward and began chanting softly in her own language. He couldn't make sense of any of it.
Kaya finished chanting and gently broke off four leaves from the vine. Nicabar leaned in closer to see the leaves in her hand. He glanced up to ask her what use they were anyway, but broke off when he saw that her face was just inches from his own. She glanced at him awkwardly, then stood and put the leaves into the little bag that hung at her waist. "We should keep going." Nicabar would have almost believed he had imagined the moment of awkwardness if it hadn't been for the fact that she didn't meet his eyes. Nicabar stood and nodded, and the two of them continued through the forest.
They pressed on throughout the rest of the afternoon, stopping only briefly to drink and fill Nicabar's waterskin when they came to a stream. Conversation was minimal, though the ever-growing oppressiveness of the humidity would have accounted for that even without the awkwardness between them.
As the first sun was beginning to set, alleviating the heat slightly, they stumbled out through a tangle of trees and came to a wide, open expanse of land framing a lake.
"Wonderful!" said Kaya from behind him. He turned around at the glee in her voice.
"Ready for a swim?" he said, one eyebrow raised.
She shot him a look. "As a matter of fact, I am very much looking forward to cooling off."
"Do you need to, well, thank the water or anything before going on?" Nicabar asked, unable to resist.
Kaya rolled her eyes and turned away from him. Nicabar grinned and sat down at the bank to take off his boots. She reminded him of his little sister Miestra in one of her fits—he supposed that was why he enjoyed getting a rise out her. That, and her constantly superior attitude. "There are quite a few water plants in there, though I don't suppose you're closely related to..." He finished removing his boots and turned around. His words died on his lips as he saw Kaya's naked back moving into the water. He looked quickly back at the bank, and there were her clothes, folded into a tidy little pile. Three of the dark green leaves sat on top of the pile.
Well, that answered one question.
"What are you doing?" he asked, before he could think about it.
She paused and glanced over her shoulder at him. "Bathing," she said scathingly. "And I might suggest you do the same. You don't exactly smell like a selinesse yourself."
Nicabar blushed. He hadn't thought about that last night, when he had been sitting close to her. He sniffed surreptitiously to see how bad it was, and decided that bathing was definitely a good idea.
"Use one of the gapata leaves," she called, her back still facing him. "The liquid inside is an excellent cleanser."
Nicabar wasn't sure, but he thought her voice shook ever so slightly. He studied her back for a moment, smooth green shimmer against the water. He wondered if other parts of her body shimmered that color as well.
Nicabar shook his head to clear it of such thoughts and retrieved a leaf from the pile. He checked to make sure she wasn't looking, then slipped out of his tunic and breeches and darted into the water. He needn't have bothered; she didn't turn around at all.
Nicabar waded out into the lake, careful to stay away from her spot. She continued to face away from him, and virtually ignored his presence. The message was only too clear. He turned his attention to the leaf in his hand, and attempted to tear it open, but the sides were hard and rubbery, and he couldn't rip them. He tried for a few minutes, then finally sighed in frustration. "Is there some secret to these things?" he said, irritated that she hadn't bothered to tell him if there was.
Kaya looked over her shoulder at him again, then lowered herself into the water and swam over to him. The tops of her breasts were just visible over the water line, and Nicabar felt himself immediately become aroused. Thankfully the water was dark enough to cover this, however; he was fairly certain that she would slap him if she knew. "You can't rip them," she said reproachfully. "The liquid is concentrated in the center, so you have to crush them gently, like this." She put her hands on the outside of his own and pushed them together, crushing the leaf. A thick green liquid oozed out of the center of the leaf. It tingled a bit, but Nicabar barely noticed; her hands were warm on his, warmer than he would have expected for someone who had been in the chilly lake water.
"Then you just rub the leaf over your skin," Kaya continued, taking the leaf in her right hand and absentmindedly running it up his right arm. Nicabar gasped at the sensation; it was hot and cold and tingly at the same time, and the warm pressure of Kaya's hand behind the leaf made it nearly unbearable. Kaya paused in her movement for a split second, staring down at her own hand on his arm, then continued to move it upward and across his chest. Nicabar's breathing quickened, and he could hear that Kaya's had as well. Her hand came to rest on his chest, and he wondered if she could feel his heart pounding against his ribs. Time seemed to freeze, and Nicabar stared down at the top of her head, not daring to move, not daring to give her an excuse to break this moment.
Finally, she looked up at him, and her eyes held none of the disdain he had seen there earlier. He took a step closer, and she did not back away. And when he bent his head to kiss her, she tilted her own to meet him. His lips crashed against hers, and he slipped his arms around her waist to pull her closer. She came willingly, pulling him deeper into the kiss.
A moment later, she was running her hands up his back, leaving a trail of tingles where her touch had been. Nicabar arched his back into the sensation, breaking the kiss, then ran his hands up her arms. They were still slick from the water.
He bent forward again and moved his lips along her neck, causing her to emit a strangled sigh right next to his ear. He felt a triumphant thrill that he could elicit such a noise from someone like Kaya.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind, however, than he felt Kaya's hands moving below the waterline, sweeping along his lower back and around to the front of his body. Her lips found his once more as her touch trailed up the skin of his thighs and came to rest on his lower stomach. Her fingers danced with an almost dizzying intensity along his erection. He gasped and dug his fingers into her back. He felt her grin against his mouth, and he realized with a jolt that she knew exactly what she was doing to him. Kaya may have looked like a young girl, and may have been considered young by Treekind standards, but she had told him she was over two hundred years old. In another time and place, Nicabar might have wondered whom she had been practicing on in all that time. But here, and now, the thought only aroused him more.
Nicabar swept his lips along the soft flesh of her shoulder, determined to make her make that noise again. Kaya remained silent, and the practiced movements of her fingers never faltered, so he moved his lips lower. She arched her back, lifting her breasts fully out of the water, and Nicabar paused for a moment to take in the firm roundness of her. Then he bent forward again, skimming her breasts with his lips, and stopped to take one hard nipple into his mouth. The softest of sighs escaped Kaya's lips, and her hands ceased their movement. Pleased, Nicabar moved his tongue over her nipple, and she breathed in sharply. He raised his head to look at her.
She stood before him, head tipped back and eyes closed, with the last rays of the second sun play
ing across her face. He wondered if she had the slightest idea how beautiful she was. An odd pang of protectiveness came over him as he saw her face, vulnerable and open, for him. He had never seen her this way before—he wondered if anyone had. Before he even thought about it, Nicabar laid his right hand softly on the side of her neck and caressed her cheek with his thumb.
He felt her go rigid at once, and her eyes snapped open. She stared at him, her expression a mixture of startled alarm and…something else he couldn't quite read. He realized her breathing had quickened even more, and a moment later she broke the eye contact and stared down at the water to her right. Nicabar reluctantly removed his hand and watched her, certain that it was all about to end, just like that.
"What is it?" he whispered, and his voice seemed to echo in the silence of the lake.
Kaya shook her head quickly, then took a deep breath and turned to face him, her expression still unreadable. But she drew his mouth down to hers and kissed him with an intensity he had not yet experienced from her. His hands went to her waist, and he pulled her close to him as the kiss deepened. Kaya's hands roamed up his arms, over his shoulders and chest, down his back, as though she wanted to touch all of him at once. The hard knot of want that had been forming in his chest seemed to expand, and his desire for her increased with every breath. He tore his lips from her mouth, moving them down over her neck once more, his hands kneading her back.
A moment later, Kaya planted her hands on his shoulders and pulled herself up, wrapping her legs around his waist and twining her arms around his neck. Nicabar let out a short sound of surprise and pleasure and braced his legs to better support her. On dry land, he knew Kaya would have been light, but the water rendered her nearly weightless, and the warm slickness of her wet skin against his was exhilarating. She drew him into another kiss, her tongue roaming along his bottom lip. Nicabar moved his hands down her back and up the impossibly soft skin of her thighs, desire pounding through his veins.
Kaya pulled back slightly and gave him a swift look, then reached down and guided him into her. The sensation of sudden warmth after the cooler lake water was shocking, and Nicabar gasped, digging his fingers into her back once more. She moved against him softly, her fingers playing over his shoulders and chest, and her lips following suit. Nicabar closed his eyes and gave in to the sensation of cool air blowing against his face, while Kaya left a trail of warm handprints across his flesh and the water lapped gently around them.
Kaya continued to rock against him, and he was drawn irresistibly into the motion, moving ever more quickly. He pulled her head up to kiss her again, wanting to share every sensation with her. But her lips met his with astonishing force, and she drew her fingernails sharply up his back. Stars of pleasure exploded before his eyes, and the spasms pounded through him, his cries muffled only by her kiss.
Kaya drew back and looked up at him mischievously. Yes, said the voice in the back of his brain, she knows exactly what she's doing. Nicabar breathed deeply, trying to get his heart rate down to a more reasonable level. He felt exhausted and spent, and his legs felt like stone, but he had no desire to move from his current position.
Kaya ran her fingers over his chest again, not meeting his eyes, then reached up to kiss his neck. He closed his eyes, shuddering at the sensation on his now hypersensitive skin. She leaned backward into the water, and Nicabar placed his hands on her lower back to support her. She looked up at him, the meaning of her expression a mystery. It became clearer a moment later, however, when she reached down and took one of his hands, placing it on the swell of her breast.
Nicabar looked down at his hand, then back up at her face, marveling that she was his, if only in this moment. He wondered if Kaya could ever truly belong to anyone.
He ran his fingers over her breast and down her stomach, making her shiver slightly. He stroked the skin of her lower stomach, then dipped his fingers to where her body met his. Her skin was hot and soft, and she shuddered gently at his touch. He moved his fingers faster and she shifted slightly, eyes closed, a pleased look on her face. She began to rock against him once more, and he tightened his grip on her lower back with his left hand. The fingers of his other hand were moving in dizzy circles now, and Nicabar felt his own desire rising again, feeding itself even as it recovered from being satiated. He watched her face, and felt somehow that he was watching her pleasure from a distance, that he was removed from it even as he was the cause of it. The odd sensation was nevertheless arousing, and he was thrusting into her before he even realized it. Kaya gasped and pulled herself up to kiss him, trapping his hand between them, and he pulled it free to clutch at her back. Kaya's tongue danced against his, and she dug her fingers into his shoulders as her breathing quickened and a series of soft moans escaped her throat. She tore her lips from his and pressed her face into his shoulder, and he could feel the spasms overtaking her, wrapped around his own desire and pushing him once again toward climax. He rocked against her one more time, and felt a less explosive, but somehow deeper, sensation of release. He clutched at her convulsively, drawing soft patches of skin on her shoulder into his mouth, and the sensation receded, leaving him standing in the lake, completely entwined with Kaya.
They stayed that way for a moment, neither moving nor speaking. Then Kaya raised her head and disentangled her legs from around his waist, stepping back. Nicabar bent his knees, and wondered if Kaya's legs hurt from being in that position for so long. She looked up at him.
"Are you all right?" he asked. He was desperate for something to say, and it was the only thing he could think of.
Kaya caught his eyes a bit uncertainly, then nodded slowly. She then did something wholly unexpected: she took a step forward and buried her face in his chest, rather like a small child looking for comfort. Nicabar stared down at her in surprise for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her, bringing one hand up to stroke her hair.
Even if he had a Treekind lifetime in which to do it, he decided, he would never, ever understand her.
* * *
A bird was trilling sharply in the tree above when Kaya woke. It took her a few moments to realize where she was, and why. She'd been dreaming about her mother, and the lecture she had heard from her so often. "You think you know where you are going, but only fools are sure of their way. You are still looking for yours, no matter what you think."
Kaya's eyes snapped open. She was lying on her back, a few feet away from the lake, and Nicabar was curled up beside her, his head on her shoulder and one arm lying across her stomach. Pale light filtered through the trees, telling her it was already past first sunrise.
Kaya turned her head carefully and looked at the dark head just inches away. Nicabar looked incredibly comfortable where he was; he was still asleep and she could feel his breath all along her collarbone. She remembered, with utter clarity, the sensation of his breath on other parts of her body, and shivered. And now, here they were, lying out in the open...for how long? How could she have let this happen? How could she have let them fall asleep here, where anything could have happened to them?
Disgusted with herself, Kaya carefully pulled her arm out from under Nicabar and slid slowly away, lifting his arm and gently setting it down on the grass once she was free. Nicabar mumbled something incoherent, then turned over onto his back. Against her will, Kaya's eyes swept the length of his body.
Stop it, she told herself. That's how you got here in the first place.
Kaya went over to the pile of clothes, still tidily folded, and fished out one of the uncrushed gapata leaves. She thought guiltily of the wasted leaves from the evening before, crushed and destroyed without even being used. Well, not entirely wasted, came her mind's unbidden response. She grimaced in annoyance at herself. Why did her priorities seem to be forgotten whenever she was near him?
Slipping into the morning-cold lake, Kaya inhaled sharply as the water made contact with her skin. It was a deep cold, penetrating right to her bones, but it felt good—as if it might clear her
mind and set her thinking straight. She moved out into the deeper water, then stopped and plunged fully underwater. Surfacing, she broke open the gapata leaf and began slathering the green liquid across her skin. It still made her skin tingle, but nothing like it had the night before. She tried to forget the picture of herself moving the gapata leaf across Nicabar's arm, the double sensation of heat and tingly cold that it had wrought against her palm. She avoided looking toward the sleeping figure on the bank as she scrubbed angrily at her arms.
It was her own fault, she knew that. She had given in to the temptation the goddess had set for her. Her mother was right; she'd been foolish ever to swear off love in the first place, to make learning the knowledge of her people her life's work, and vow never to let Nori's deceitful ways interfere with that. "You invite Nori's interference," her mother had warned. "And she is an impish goddess."
She could almost hear the echo of the love goddess' laughter in the morning breeze. She ducked her head briefly under the water to drown out the sound and forced herself to think rationally. It was done now, wasn't it? Now that she had made love to the human, they ought to be able to find the others. Kaya had known, the moment she and Nicabar had arrived back in the empty clearing, that they had not been left behind by accident. This was Nori's work.
And, oh, the cruelty of the goddess, that the object of her unwanted passion would be a human.
"Kaya?" She looked over to see Nicabar sitting up, rubbing his eyes. "Why didn't you wake me?" he asked.
Kaya shrugged and focused on rinsing her left arm. "You looked comfortable," she said shortly.
There was a pause. Kaya finally looked up to see Nicabar watching her with a frown. "Did you sleep well?" he asked.
Kaya nodded, unwilling to let herself be drawn into the concerned look in his eyes. She dipped underwater again to rinse off, then moved toward the bank and emerged from the lake several yards away from where he sat. She pulled her clothes on, aware of his eyes on her the entire time.
