by J. S. Wilder
I smiled down at the woman that was going to save my people, and potentially the entire galaxy. “You’ve once again restored my belief that we can avoid going into the long darkness.”
She smiled up at me. “All part of the service, my Lord.”
Chapter Nine
Catherina
“Do you want to mate with this woman or not?” I yelled, my frustration bubbling over.
I was tearing my hair out. Eight weeks of work, and I was no closer to making progress with the Waters than the day I started. They simply had no drive.
“If she would like to mate with me,” Quoll replied, casting his eyes down.
“No!” I yelled again. “That has nothing to do with it! She may reject you, as is her right, but you have it want her. Do you want her?” Quoll stared at me, his face completely blank as he all but cringed before me.
The Water males were beautiful. If you liked a dancer’s body, long, lean, and graceful, the Waters were just what you were looking for. I preferred a bit more manly man, but I could acknowledge their attractiveness. Like the women, they had large, stunningly beautiful eyes. But they were so goddamn passive they made me want to scream.
I whirled to my two guards. I’d asked that some male guards be assigned to my protection detail so the Waters could see them as something other than brutes. I pulled my blade and pointed at the male. Using my blade as a pointer established my dominance. I couldn’t hope to stand up against any of the Fires in a fight, but they all knew if they so much as touched me, their life was forfeit. The control I held at first was fear and the refusal to dishonor themselves by acting against orders, but now they were beginning to respect me, and I needed that for them to trust me.
“You! Tokalas, right? Step forward.”
He did as he was told, stopping in front of me. I sheathed my blade and ripped his ceremonial spear that also served as a weapon from his hands and held it out to the Waters.
“Take it!” I snarled. “It won’t bite!”
I tried hard not to let the Water’s customs annoy me, but sometimes they were a bit much. The Waters were what we would call on Earth, a vegan. That was fine with me. I had a friend that was almost a vegan, but they took it to the next level. They had no blades of any kind, even for cutting their food. Instead of cutting something in half, they used their strong and nimble fingers to pick away at it until it parted, or used their teeth to tear it away. Most would refuse to touch anything that could be even considered a weapon. I respected their commitment to their ways, but sometimes I think they got carried away.
Quathaul stepped forward and took the spear. Thank god for her.
Quathaul had done her job too well. We’d had more than four hundred thousand Water women volunteer. These women weren’t cold or uninterested in breeding. They were desperate to mate, but their males were letting them down. We’d kept twenty for the trials. I wanted to put the woman in charge, to have more Fire men than Water women, so the woman could choose her mate. But I was getting nowhere. The Fires were at least trying, but the Water men? They were useless. They simply couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that a woman wanted to be wanted. I should try to pair the Water men with the Fire woman and let those ultra-aggressive Fire women try to put some lead in their pencils, but I was afraid they’d kill them in the process.
“Do you want to mate with me?” I demanded, holding Tokalas’s gaze. He hesitated. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed the Fires always, always, told the truth, and I could sense he didn’t want to answer. “Speak!” I ordered. “No dishonor will follow your answer.”
“Yes, Catherina.”
“Do you know if I want to mate with you?”
“No.”
I gave him a smile. “Thank you. Station.”
Quathaul handed Tokalas his spear and he returned to his post. I looked at the forty waters there. “Was that so hard? He wants to mate with me. Whether I want to mate with him has nothing to do with his desire.” I glared at Quoll again. “Now, do you want to mate with Quelliaon?”
Quoll stared at me. “I…”
“Yes or no?” I yelled.
Where I always spoke softly with the Fires, I yelled a lot when I was with the Waters, trying desperately to install some anger, passion, lust, anything in them. At first they cringed and huddled, but Quathaul was slowly winning them over to the idea they had nothing to fear from me.
“No,” he said softly.
“Why? She’s beautiful!”
“I don’t know if she—”
“Quelliaon!” I snapped, cutting off Quoll. “Do you want to mate with Quoll?”
“If he will accept me.” I glared at her, letting her know that answer wasn’t going to fly. “I mean, yes.”
“Yes! She wants you, Quoll! Do you want her?”
He looked at me, uncertain. “Yes?”
I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time over the meekness of his answer. “Yes! Show her!”
“How?”
I took a deep breath. The Waters were going to give me an aneurysm. Let’s see how well my nanites dealt with my head exploding.
“Quoll,” I said softly, “we’ve been over this hundreds of times. Does anyone here understand what he should do?”
“He should pull her to him and kiss her…” Quathaul said.
I motioned to Quathaul as if it was the most obvious answer in the world, but still Quoll did nothing.
“Well?” I prompted.
“What?”
I thought about pulling my blade and plunging it into my heart just to end my misery. “Kiss her!”
“But what if—”
“She said she wanted to mate with you!” I yelled. “How much more invitation do you need?”
To his credit, Quoll tried, but I’d been kissed better during my first kiss when I was thirteen. They simply didn’t get it.
“Is that how I showed you?” I asked quietly.
Quoll lowered his head and I sighed. I turned to Tokalas. “To me.”
I again took his spear and handed it to Quathaul. Tokalas wasn’t one of my students, but I had to get through to the Waters somehow.
“You want to mate with me?”
He smiled, wise to the game. “Very much.”
“Show me.” He hesitated. “No dishonor will follow your actions. Show me, show us all, what desire looks like.”
He swallowed hard then stepped in, pulled me to his chest, and kissed the shit out of me. I nearly moaned in desire. I had been on the Fire planet for three month, and I hadn’t taken a lover. It was killing me. The nanites had given me a twenty-year-old body, and I assumed twenty-year-old hormones, and I was dying. I was taking care of myself at night, but nothing could replace a good-looking man, and all the Fires were walking wet-dreams.
I melted into him, my desires flaring. He was kissing me too hard by half, but I didn’t care. He left my lips and attacked my neck. I didn’t want him to stop, but this wasn’t the time or the place. It took every bit of my control, but I shoved him away. He smiled, thinking it was part of the game and began to move in again.
“Station!” I barked, using the hardest voice I possessed, the voice I had perfected over the past five years working with that old goat, Dunbar. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sereni bringing her pike to attack position.
Tokalas took another step before he stopped, his face twisting into a mask of horror. He paused and then dropped to his knee. With his head lowered, he slowly pulled his scabbard and offered it to me with both hands. I glanced at Sereni and shook my head. She slowly relaxed and returned to her parade rest position.
I took the scabbard. “Rise.” When he did I returned his sword to him and then took his spear from Quathaul and gave him that as well. “No dishonor was intended… or taken. Return to your station.”
He dipped his head low then retreated. My lips were smarting from the brutally hard kiss, but I’d recover. I turned to the Waters while licking and sucking on my lips to ease the discomfort. They w
ere looking at me with horror. I looked them over.
“Who thinks he was too aggressive?”
All the Waters placed a hand on the top of their head, their version of raising their hands.
I nodded. “I agree. But look at me. I’m not hurt, and he stopped when I ordered him too.” I looked directly at Tokalas. His face was a mask of shame and he lowered his head. “The Fires are a good and honorable people. They just have different ways from the Waters. They are not brutes or monsters.” I smiled at Tokalas. “Yes, he was a little too aggressive, but I knew he wanted me.”
“He frightened me when he attacked you like that,” Quillen said. “Even your other guard felt fear for you.”
I smiled. “Perhaps, but I’m still not hurt, and Tokalas didn’t understand. His actions were acceptable and reasonable for a Fire.” I was about to go far out on a limb, and I prayed Tokalas wouldn’t saw it off behind me. “Tokalas. To me.” He came forward and Quathaul took his pike. “Now that you know, do you think you can do better and not frighten these women?” His eyes went wide and he began to shake his head. “I think you can.” I smiled again. “Let’s show them what gentle passion looks like.”
I saw Sereni stiffen. I held her gaze and gave my head a barely perceptible shake. She stood at the ready but made no other move. “Tokalas, show me that you desire me... gently…”
His eyes were wide and I could read the concern, but I’d given him an order and he began to move in.
“Gently,” I whispered as his lips covered mine.
It was still a hard, lust filled kiss, the type of kiss I’d given and received in the heat of passion, but it was no longer painful or brutal, and I did moan as I pulled him in. I could feel myself flood with desire, as we devoured each other before he slowly pulled back. I swallowed hard and stepped away while trying to gather myself.
“Thank you, Tokalas. Station,” I said softly. I took a long hard breath then turned to the Waters. I was still reeling from the kiss and the desire flooding my system. If I was like this when I actually was twenty, how did I stand it?
“Catherina? Are you well? You’re red and you seem dazed,” Quathaul asked as she moved to my side.
Her voice broke me out of the spell, and I smiled. “I’m fine, Quathaul,” I replied softly, then raised my voice to address the crowd. “Do you see what happened there? Do you see the effect Tokalas’s kiss had on me? Do you see how the color of my face changed? That’s passion. It’s my body signaling that I’m ready to mate. I don’t control it, it just happens.” I was beginning to recover from the kiss and smiled at crowd. “Now, who here wants to feel what I just felt?”
I couldn’t help it. I giggled as every woman, and half the men, placed both their hands on top of their head, the Water equivalent of jumping up and down while waving their arms and shouting ‘Me! Me!’ Holy shit! Now we were getting somewhere!
-oOo-
“Tokalas, Sereni,” I said as the Waters filed out.
I was exhausted. We’d gone long today, very long. Normally we did three, one hour sessions, with a one hour break between where I could answer questions and work with someone individually. It also gave the students time to compare notes and decompress. I realized how hard the work was for the Fires and the Waters, and I didn’t want to burn them out. But the Waters hadn’t wanted to stop and we’d gone straight through, and two hours beyond.
For the first time the Waters were trying. Something seemed to have clicked with them today, especially the women. They were still a very submissive and conflict avoidant as a people, but I was sure these forty Waters were now the most aggressive Waters on the planet. Quathaul had even asked to change partners with another woman because she found the other woman’s partner more appealing. When she did that you could have heard a pin drop in the room and I couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d stripped herself bare and made love to Tokalas on the spot.
I’d called a five-minute break, walked outside where I couldn’t be seen, then did the happy dance. My feet were a blur of motion as I slowly turned in a circle, squealing softly in delight with my fists clenched tight at my ears, my eyes crushed shut, and my smile so wide I thought my face would split.
“Tokalas, you did well today. I think, with your help, we’ve made a major breakthrough. You brought no dishonor to yourself today. I put you in a difficult position, but you did your duty well.” I didn’t apologize. I hadn’t wronged him and to apologize would be a sign of weakness.
“Thank you, Catherina. I—”
I jerked my hand up, silencing his voice. “We will speak of this no more.”
I looked at Sereni. I was signaling to Sereni the matter was closed as far as I was concerned, and by stopping him before he could apologize, I’d stopped him from admitting he’d made a mistake.
She nodded. “We will speak of this no more,” she agreed, then nudged Tokalas with a grin.
Officially I’d given him cover and he was in the clear, but I had no doubt that within hours of us returning home, the entire palace guard would know that Tokalas had kiss the great Catherina Hume, and the effect it had on me. I smiled to myself. I didn’t care. I was only human, so to speak, and I had desires like everyone else.
I nodded. “Let’s go home.” I was looking forward to a shower, something to eat, and maybe a little alone time to take care of certain needs. God I hated being twenty again.
Chapter Ten
Stevan
“Enter!” I called with the chime.
“My Lord,” Catherina said as she entered my suite and knelt.
“Rise and approach. Are you ready to begin our lesson?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
She seemed subdued. “Is everything okay?”
She smiled at me, but there was something off. “Yes, my Lord.”
“Stevan,” I corrected softly.
“Stevan,” she amended, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
I could order her to tell me what was bothering her, but I didn’t. I tried a softer approach. “If you are not feeling well, we can reschedule this for another time.”
She smiled again but kept her eyes low. “No, Stevan. This is fine.”
I stepped forward and tipped her face up to mine. “If we are going to work together on this, we have to trust each other. Tell me what’s wrong.”
She sighed. “I’m not comfortable doing this.”
“I’ve given you my word that I won’t attempt to mate with you. Do you doubt my word?” I kept my voice calm, but if that’s what was bothering her, it was a grievous insult.
“No, Stevan. It’s not you that I don’t trust.”
“No one will ever speak of what we do here, Catherina.”
“It’s not that either. It’s me.”
“You?”
She nodded. “Yes. I’m… becoming lonely.”
“You miss your own kind, your old life? You can return, if you wish, but you have accomplished so much! I’m asking you to not go. Not yet.”
“That’s part of it, I guess.” She shook her head and smiled at me. “No, I don’t wish to return home. Not yet. Shall we begin?”
She spent the next hour simply talking to me, explaining the differences between the Fires and the Waters, and about the breakthrough she’d had yesterday. She told me how the Waters wanted to mate, wanted to breed, and how we only had to meet them halfway.
We talked at length about how the Waters viewed their world and how we viewed ours. She had keen insights into the Fires. Nothing she said about us surprised me, but I was surprised at how well she’d figured us out in only three months. If her insights into the Waters was as accurate, and I had no reason to believe they weren’t, then I understood what had to be done. I only had to learn how.
“Show me,” I said. “Show me how to touch a Water.”
She smiled, rose, and pulled me to my feet. “It’s all about trust. Until your mate, your Water mate, learns to trust you, make your movements slow and nonthreatening. Like this.”
She reached for my face, a small smile on her lips, her movements slow and graceful, her hand loose with her fingers slightly curled. It was neither a fist nor an open palm, both of which could be used to strike. She brushed her fingers with the softest touch across my face, and it was very pleasurable.
“Now you try.”
I repeated her movements and focused on the task. I wanted to grab her and pull her to me, to overpower her and make her mine, but I resisted the urge and touched her as she touched me.
“Good, but lighter. Touch me so lightly that you can barely feel it.”
“But isn’t the touch supposed to be enjoyable?”
“Yes, but my face is more sensitive than your hand. When you can barely feel it, it will feel perfect to me.”
I nodded in understanding and touched her again, dragging the back of my fingers along her cheek as lightly as I could. She smiled as her eyes closed. I continued to stroke her face and she took my hand and brought it to her lips for a gentle kiss. I’d never been kissed on the hand before, and it was surprisingly pleasing.
She looked at me, her eyes bright. “Very good. How did it feel to you?”
I shrugged. “Fine. I could barely feel your skin. I liked the kiss on the fingers, though.”
She nodded. “Here’s what I want you to think about. The act of mating for the Waters isn’t about taking pleasure, it’s about giving it. You give pleasure, and it is given to you in return. The Fire way is to take pleasure from your mate, as they take it from you. Understand?”
“No,” I admitted. “Isn’t it the same thing?”
She giggled. “In some ways, yes, but in other ways, no. You both give and take pleasure, but it is the attitude that’s different.”
She stroked her fingers lightly along my cheek. I was again surprised at how pleasant such a light touch could be.
“Did that give you pleasure?”
“Yes, very much. It is a much different sensation than I’m used to.”
