"I will do that to you and you will scream, you'll like it so much,” he threatened, lowering his mouth to her nipples. She'd asked for more, begged for more, every time he suckled at her breasts last night.
He made sure she didn't have breath to scream.
Between kisses and touches and tangling limbs, Q'winn managed to get his pants off. He wanted to touch her all over, kiss her all over. He wanted to relearn the places he'd managed to get to last night and find the places their haste for each other had made him miss. He wanted to feel her wrap her legs around him and clutch his neck and ask him for more again.
He wanted to sink into her heat and just let the orgasm roll through him.
"Are you sore?” he asked.
"Aren't you?"
He chuckled wickedly, but did not answer her. A little tenderness wouldn't stop either of them. He nipped his way down to the soft swell of her belly, then his mouth went lower. She gasped in surprise and opened her thighs to him.
His ministrations were a gentle exploration of her. She would be still, then rise to his mouth, only to still again. She suddenly arched and gasped, burying her fingers in his hair. He smiled as he kept his tongue busy on her. He slipped a finger inside her and she suddenly pulsed beneath his lips.
She cried out again as he slipped a second finger inside her. Her climax claimed her. He kept his mouth on her, reeling with her taste and her scent and the sheer amazement he could pleasure her this way. He kept his mouth on her until she stilled and lay limp. He rose over her, taking her in one quick thrust.
She opened her eyes in surprise as he drove into her. The suddenness may have surprised her, but it ripped through Q'winn. His arms almost buckled as his whole body jerked in reaction.
He came on the third stroke. He didn't even try to delay it. He just opened himself to it and let it take him. When the haze cleared, he gently lowered his weight onto her. Trista wrapped her arms and legs around him and held him until his breathing leveled.
He nuzzled at her neck until she turned her head and their lips met in a gentle kiss that had them shifting to a tighter embrace. Q'winn finally dropped his head to her shoulder and sighed. He felt her give a little laugh.
"What do you find amusing?” he asked, not moving more than his lips. He was too boneless.
"What if I said I found you amusing? Would that make you angry?” She stroked down his back to his muscular flanks and Q'winn's phallus twitched.
"That would depend on why I'm so amusing, love."
He rolled from her and propped up on his elbow to look at her. Her face was flushed with more than their lovemaking. She wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Why don't you just say it and save me some trouble, woman."
"Where'd you learn to do that?"
"They don't do that on Terra?” He wasn't even sure they did that on Dannar. He didn't really know what had possessed him. All he knew was he'd wanted to taste her. Her response to it had been a wonderful surprise.
"Yes, people do that at home. A lot.” Her voice was muffled against his neck.
"You wonder if I told you the truth.” He'd seen the evidence of her virginity on his own body, but he'd had no proof to offer her of his. Only his word.
"Did you tell me the truth?"
"Yes. I've never done any of this before, love.” He laid his hand on her belly and felt her quiver beneath his touch. “I never held a woman, kissed her. Never touched. Not until you."
Trista rolled into his embrace. He felt her struggle to believe him. He held her without comment. She would have to find her own way to trusting him fully.
He held her tighter and told her again what he had told her in the darkness the night before.
"I never dared this with anyone before, Trista. I couldn't. A Dannarri woman would have known right away I was jayalor. I would have been ostracized by everyone, except perhaps my father and brothers. I would have had no place in our society.” He kissed her lightly.
"If it had been discovered when I was very young, I would not have even been educated. Only my father and brothers would have taken time to instruct me. I could never have served my people. It isn't right, I know, but old beliefs die hard."
"It sounds so unfair. You can't help the way you were born."
"No, I can't. But I am proof that those like me can be equal to the jaynards. It's not our birth that weakens us. It's the way we're raised not to believe in ourselves. My father was far ahead of his time in his rearing of me."
He rolled them so she lay on him and he could caress her back and bottom. He was beginning to display again and he wondered if she could feel it. He wondered if she would shift her hips the little bit necessary and take him.
"It will be known someday, Trista. It cannot remain secret forever. I know this. Perhaps I have done enough to secure my place as a kaden. We shall have to be patient and see."
"Does that mean you will tell it someday?"
"Perhaps. More likely someone will accidentally discover it and speak out. I have expected that all my life."
She fell silent again. Q'winn sensed a sadness in her that was at odds with where they were and what they had so recently shared. Dannar was very different from her world. Her longing for that strange, far-off place worried him.
Then she came back to him with a smile and a quick arch of her back that placed the tip of his phallus against her welcoming heat.
"Do I need to say please?” His voice sounded husky in his ears.
Her lips bowed in a mysterious feminine smile. She slowly moved down on him until he was completely sheathed in her. She rose up and looked at him expectantly.
"Please,” he said, barely breathing.
She began to move on him, slowly at first, then with increasing sureness. His hands cupped her breasts, then gripped her hips. He slipped his thumbs into the vee of damp, dark hair that mingled with his and she bucked against him.
His breath caught in his throat as he pressed his thumb to her and felt her inner walls contract once, then again. The sweat broke out on him as he fought back his release.
She suddenly came forward, her hands flat on his chest. She gasped his name and faltered. He gripped her hips and surged upwards into her. He felt the flood of her pleasure flow over him and drench his thighs. She tensed and sobbed his name again. Her inner body gripped his with an intensity that made him cry out with her.
She went limp on his chest but he didn't have time to savor the moment. He drove her hips down to meet his thrusts and hurtled over the edge. Closing his eyes, he rode the waves of orgasm until they were mere ripples.
He opened his eyes to find Trista watching him. It was somewhat disconcerting, but then, he watched her with equal curiosity.
She sighed and laid her head on his chest. He wondered if she were going to stay perched on top of him. Not that he minded.
"Q'winn."
"What, love?"
"Do you think we've figured this out yet?"
"It may take a few more times.” He said, patting her bottom. He wasn't sure just how much he really did have figured out. It seemed to happen so easily for them, he'd not had to think about it.
"It may take a few years,” she told him as she rolled off him and stretched contentedly.
Q'winn didn't respond to that. A few years, at the most, was all they had.
Fourteen
The next few days passed quickly for Trista. Vanteen made a sweep through Damali and introduced herself to as many of the women as she could. Consequently, Vanteen knew where all the work was done and who was in charge of it. This time, she involved them in the kitchens.
Trista was not pleased. This could actually be worse than weaving. She'd never cared much for cooking or baking and never learned more than basics. The woman in charge of the realm soon realized this and made it her sacred duty to teach Trista.
Trista spent her first morning as kitchen help gritting her teeth and fighting the urge to break something. That all changed just before the midday meal
when Sarra handed her a carefully prepared tray and told her to take it to Avaki H'akan and be back in the morning.
Trista decided Vanteen was one slick operator.
She had become almost grateful. The only time she'd had alone with Q'winn in the last four days had been when they'd shared the midday meal.
A tgahi had come to Damali. Excitement rippled through the palace when a young boy had gone running through the courtyards calling out the news. Sarra had dismissed her from her duties, telling her to go to the top of the east wall to see it better. Trista had joined the throng of people lining the ramparts.
The tgahi had immerged from the shimmering desert heat in a long line of drost carrying brightly colored banners that proclaimed their tribes. She'd counted two hundred four before the milling drost had made it impossible to continue.
They spread out in a huge camp around the oasis then set up their market. Riders on the biggest boggas Trista had seen went out before the sun had set that first day to carry the word a tgahi was at Damali. The number of people in and about the palace swelled by the hour.
Trista was silently bemoaning the fact that it had prevented her spending time with Q'winn. He was spending long hours in the Believer's Chapel and longer hours with the leaders of the various tribes.
Q'winn was gathering support.
The realization that these men were somehow part of a war council chilled Trista. She thought of the city of Patann sprawled across the valley as far as the eye could see and the contrasts of these people.
These peaceful people. They knew about the city. They knew their people traveled in space. Everyone she met seemed to understand she was not Dannarri and yet they embraced her. How could the people of the tgahi walk out of the dessert and still know all these things? It confounded her.
She hoped Q'winn would be able to enlighten her. A scruffy little girl had appeared in the kitchen at the peak of the day's preparations and told her the avaki had commanded she take his meal to her rooms. He would meet her there.
Trista began tingling with anticipation on the spot.
She soon gave up on the tray and found a suitable basket for delivering Q'winn's lunch. Sarra had overheard the little urchin giving Trista the message and had slipped a few extra things in the basket for her and Vanteen's breakfast the next morning.
The aroma of the fresh pastries made her mouth water. She didn't know if they'd last until morning. If Q'winn got a whiff of them, it was a sure thing they'd be dessert and not breakfast.
He was stretched out on her couch when she opened the door, napping. She set their lunch out on the table before she woke him. He pulled her down with him.
"Just let me hold you for a few moments,” he said when she started to protest.
"Only if you kiss me, too."
"I've not the energy, love,” he said, teasing at her mouth with his tongue. He finally kissed her properly and they snuggled together contentedly for a few minutes. She could hear his stomach growling.
"Why don't we eat?” she asked, poking his belly with a finger. “You can recharge your batteries,” she told him in Terran.
He looked at her quizzically and she grinned. He always accused her of saying Terran phrases just to enjoy his confusion. He was right.
"Get up and eat, Q'winn,” she said, poking him again.
He kissed her again then rolled to his feet in a fluid, graceful move that reminded her of a cat landing on its feet after being dropped. That quick move appeared effortless and it quickened her blood. She'd held that strength in her arms and felt it quiver at her touch.
"This is a feast,” he said, settling at the table.
"Not all of it was intended for you. Some of it is for Vanteen and me for this evening and tomorrow morning. I thought I'd offer it to you, though."
He tapped the pastry. “You don't really want me to eat this, do you?” he asked smiling at her.
"I'd prefer you didn't, no. But if you must, you must."
"I think I can control myself with your breakfast."
"Can you control yourself with other things?” She nudged his foot with hers.
"Barely. It's all I can do not to push all the food off the table and toss you on it."
"My, my. What an idea. Should I bolt the door?” His words had set that little pulse at her center to twitching.
"You mean you didn't?"
"I had my hands full of food."
"Ah. That's a good reason,” he said, handing her a small ghuitz.
"I thought so,” she replied and handed him a slice of bread liberally smeared with herb spread. “Are you going to tell me the real reason the tgahi is here?"
"You're very suspicious."
"Imagine that."
Q'winn gusted out a breath and looked at her. “You're smart. You know I meet with the kadens to assess their strengths. I need to know what young people they have willing to train, what supplies they will have available. I advise them of what I know is happening at our borders."
"What else? There's something more. I can feel it."
"You will join us tomorrow. They want to hear of your world,” he said, meeting her gaze.
"So you come here today thinking to take me to bed and soften me up to doing what you want me to do."
He stared at her in disbelief.
"You cannot truly believe that."
Trista had to look away. The hurt in his voice shamed her. And told her that he'd had no such ulterior motive.
"I'm sorry, Q'winn. No, I don't believe it."
"Yes, you do, or you would not have said it."
His voice had taken on that detached tone. She looked at him. He had on what she though of as his avaki face. Neutral and uninvolved. She flinched inside. She'd really hurt him. She could see the anger in the set of his shoulders and the stiffness in his back.
He ate a few more bites of his ghuitz, then abruptly rose and was out the door before she could stop him.
She dropped her face into her hands and tried not to give in to tears. How could she have just blurted that out? She hadn't given any thought to his feelings at all.
But he wasn't the one who'd been abducted, she reminded herself. He wasn't the one who didn't know what was going on. He wasn't the one that didn't understand all the talk that went on around him.
No, he was the one who was risking everything he was for her. His people were facing a war from which he was trying to protect her. They needed every kaden, and especially ones that could take a ship into space. He'd be cast out if his people ever learned the truth about him.
He was walking a fine line and disaster waited on both sides for him. All because of her. And all she managed to do was throw darts at him.
She wasn't stupid, but she had been insensitive.
She gave in and let the tears of shame come.
* * * *
Q'winn sat on top of the massive rock that gave the entrance to Damali it's unique character. He'd first made this climb over twenty years ago. He'd sat in the same spot and wept at his father's declaration that he would become an avaki. He'd been eight years old and had not fully understood. All that had mattered then was his father was sending him away from his older brother, W'eylin.
And he'd made the climb fifteen years ago when he thought he'd never see this place again. He looked south to where his mother lay buried. Damali had been her home. They'd brought her body here to honor her request. Q'winn had turned his back on Damali after that journey.
He'd not been able to see the beauty of this place on that last visit, only the desolation of endless sand. That desolation had been washed away, and Damali recolored, as he'd seen it anew through Trista. Everything he'd seen on the journey, everything here, he looked at as if he'd never seen it before, to see it as she would be seeing it.
If he could just see himself in that same light, maybe he would understand her better.
The physical exertion of the climb had tempered his anger, and his hurt. Maybe the men of her world used females in the
fashion she'd alluded to earlier. To be honest, he was sure there were men on Dannar that would do likewise. But he was not one of them.
He had arranged and rearranged his responsibilities over the last several days to free up this afternoon with her. And while he wanted her with a strength that sucked the breath from his lungs, he wanted her companionship more. Those few minutes they'd lain on her couch, tangled together, peacefully soaking up each other's presence, had been a balm to his soul.
He knew she struggled with her situation. Who, except perhaps the Okarrans, had not when retrieved by the Cael? He had withheld information from Trista for fear she would not believe, or worse, be unable to tolerate the truth. Others before her had slipped into instability. He had nothing, no information at all, on these Terrans on which to gauge her reactions.
He stretched out to let the sun bake him.
Q'winn knew he should go to her. Someone had to make the move to bring them together again, and he'd been the one to walk out. He doubted she would come to him. She would fear she'd draw attention to them if she initiated too much contact. She did understand that clearly.
A shadow fell over him. He didn't open his eyes. Only W'eylin would intrude on the avaki when he'd clearly wanted to be alone.
"Vanteen has threatened my manhood. You want to tell me what happened?” W'eylin settled himself on the ground beside Q'winn.
"Vanteen has nothing in this. It's between Trista and me."
"That's what you think. Vanteen's threatened yours as well, and since you've just discovered how to use it, I'd think that should concern you."
"We do not trust each other fully. And I tell you again, that is between Trista and me. Not Vanteen, and with all due respect to you, my brother, not you either."
W'eylin didn't respond immediately.
"Why do you distrust her?” he finally asked.
"It is more that I fear what she thinks. This world is strange to her. I am strange to her.” Q'winn suddenly sat up. “She thinks I arranged to be able to spend this afternoon with her to lay with her and make her amenable to speaking with the tgahi kadens."
The Skies of Mahdis Page 12
