by Mel Teshco
He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. As he stilled just out of reach she could see it was him—his body—but there was no soul within. His eyes were empty of warmth, vacant of love or care. Breath shuddered from her lungs as she perceived her fate. He wasn’t here to help her and she didn’t even blame him.
Even so, the instinct for survival couldn’t be quelled. She reached out a hand. “Genesis, help me, please. I love you, I’ve always loved you.”
The eyes on the body of Genesis were no longer vacant. As though flicking on a switch, they abruptly burned into life. But it wasn’t with love. His stare seared her with hostility, the windows to his soul revealing every dark emotion he carried and then some.
She felt hollowed out, as empty within as the man before her had been just seconds before. But the hollowness scraped her raw inside and profusely bleeding when her sister appeared beside Genesis and, ignoring her outstretched hand, took his instead.
“I’m not a baby, Eden,” she said in a faraway voice, “I can take care of myself.”
In that moment a baby’s cry filled air. Aline’s free arm adjusted to form a cradle, just as an infant’s shadowy form flickered in and out of her sister’s hold.
Eden’s heart twisted. “No,” she whimpered, dying a thousand deaths. And as they turned, their hands interlinked, and walked into the haze of a red sky, she screamed manically, “No!”
She twisted, writhing away from the sudden strength of invisible hands on her shoulders, pushing her down into the inescapable, sulfur-scented quicksand. But even as she scratched and clawed, a far-off voice penetrated her senses.
“Eden, it’s me! Genesis.”
Her eyelids flickered open, hoarse breaths wheezing in and out of her lungs while she stared up at the man she loved with all her heart, her soul. The real man who was caring and thoughtful and everything that was honorable in the world.
The man who hadn’t left her.
Far from it.
“I can see,” she rasped hoarsely, her throat bone dry.
His smile was all kinds of gentle—so much more than she deserved—when he eased the jellied remains of a fimordh from her clenched hand. “I’d say you’ve been out to it for some time.” He lifted a water bottle to her lips and instructed, “Drink slowly.”
She took a mouthful and immediately choked. It was the sweetest liquid she’d ever tasted. She struggled into a sitting position.
“Easy,” he said in a soothing tone.
She squinted at the flesh-colored bandages, probably some kind of shield material, wrapped around his chest. “Are you okay? What happened?” she croaked.
“I hit some rocks exposed by the storm’s wind and rain.” He shrugged, but she noted it was a careful gesture, his lips whitening with pain. “My fault, I should have known better.”
She closed her eyes, reading between the lines. He’d been preoccupied—devastated—at learning the true identity of his so called intended. Dear lord, how much more pain would her web of lies attract?
Her eyelids flicked apart, her stare automatically moving past him to where Trasean and Auron stood, watching impassively.
How they must hate her too. It didn’t matter that she’d never meant for things to get this out of hand, didn’t matter she’d never meant to hurt anyone in the process. She’d wanted to save her sister a whole lot of pain, but in doing so she’d created a whole lot more.
Her focus returned to Genesis. How did he feel about her now? She bit into her bottom lip. Did she want to hear the answer? She wasn’t yet that brave. “How did you find me?” she asked instead.
Genesis jerked his head to the right, where Colin lay on his side, panting. “Your zadmet found our camp. I knew you were in trouble the moment he made an appearance.”
“Made a ruckus, more like,” Auron growled.
Genesis nodded, and for a moment his eyes gleamed with repressed humor. “We followed him here.”
She stared at Colin, amazed her animal friend would go to so much trouble. “Animals love my sister, not me,” she whispered.
In truth though, Bonnie had been one animal who’d divided her time and devotion equally between her and Aline. Perhaps she’d never given herself enough credit when it came to her furry friends.
“Seems to me they like you a whole lot,” Genesis remarked drily.
She nodded. Simon and now Colin had both risked their lives for her. Affection filled her chest. But right then she had far more important things to think about and discuss. She’d already put it off long enough. She held Genesis’ stare. “Can we talk?”
He nodded, capping the bottle before gathering her carefully in his arms and pushing to his feet.
She sucked in a breath, horrified he was overdoing things by lifting her.
Trasean stepped forward. “My Prince, I don’t think you should—”
“I’m fine,” Genesis injected roughly, facing the two men. “It’s just a physical injury, it will heal.” His eyes narrowed, searching. “But I know you two are far from fine.” He dragged in an unsteady breath. “Go. Find your intended.”
It was Eden’s turn to suck in a breath, horror overtaking her from the inside out. Genesis had given Trasean and Auron permission to get her sister, despite everything?
He jerked his head in the direction she assumed they’d left their cercannes, his attention still on the men whose expressions gave away their eagerness to leave, despite their obvious reservations about their prince’s health. “The craft is waiting. I don’t need to tell you that our people hope you both will repopulate the province, where you requested to live with your intended.”
Auron nodded. “Our seed will soon grow in her belly.”
Eden bit back a horrified gasp even as Trasean shared a self-satisfied smile with Auron and added, “It will be no chore. She appears to be a very spirited and beautiful woman.”
She’s more than that…much more!
She looked up at Genesis, silently willing him to change his mind. But he appeared all too pleased by his men’s eagerness, all too happy to send them on their way. “Safe trip, my brothers,” he said with a grin.
The men’s stares fell on her, but it was Trasean who advised in a softer voice, “Rest assured, Princess, we will love and protect your sister with everything we have.”
She couldn’t respond, couldn’t even plead with them not to go. And then it was too late when they swung away and strode toward the nearby craft that began to shimmer back into its normal color.
Her eyes widened at just how close the craft had been before she’d stumbled and blacked out. Hell, if she’d taken another twenty steps she might well have smashed into the craft instead.
“The craft’s shield walls chameleon their surroundings,” Genesis explained, “the walls can also open up so that anyone—like you—who might stumble across it, would only see through it and to the other side. A bit like the louver windows you have on Earth. A perfect concealment.”
His voice became a distant monotone as she watched Trasean and Auron stride toward the craft. A doorway formed even as the shields fashioned a step. The two men boarded the craft and she turned stricken eyes to Genesis. “Please tell me this is all a bad dream.”
His eyes softened, but there was steel beneath. “They will make your sister wonderful husbands. She will be very happy.”
She shook her head. “Only one of us was promised. You can’t break that oath.”
His nostrils flared. “I broke that oath the moment I had Trasean and Auron promise not to reveal your true identity. As far as my people are aware, you are the first born.” He turned around. After taking just a few strides he placed her on his cercanne. “No matter what has happened, no matter when you were born, I no longer have any doubt that you are my intended.” His eyes burned. “You’re the one I want, no one else.”
Somewhere deep inside, joy suffused her body, but for the moment at least the dark emotions lashing at her were far more prevalent. She lifted her chin, her eyes c
lashing with his and her heart walling up at his obvious pain. “You knew everything I did was to save my sister!”
He stared at her, his eyes sharp, knowing. “Was it, Eden?”
She didn’t back down, though everything inside her shriveled just a little as she said hoarsely, “You gave Trasean and Auron not only your permission to retrieve Aline, but your blessing too.”
“Would you deny your sister the chance of happiness?” The back of his knuckles scraped along her jawline, his stare almost savage with its intensity. “The same happiness you’ve found here.”
She jerked her head away from his touch. Calling Colin, who immediately bounded behind her on the cercanne, she said to Genesis, “Just…take me home.”
Chapter Twelve
Eden peered over Genesis’ shoulder with a disbelieving stare as he slowed the cercanne on approach to his camp.
His people were lined up in front of their donyas, leaving a pathway as they waited expectantly for their prince’s arrival. But it was the cheer that went up the moment they saw she was a passenger that had joy push back the numbness that’d stolen over her after seeing Trasean and Auron embark on a mission to find her sister.
She dismounted from the cercanne and Colin jumped nimbly to the ground, staying close to her feet. The men and the women crossed their arms and bowed their heads, showing respect for their princess and future queen.
Warmth and a sense of belonging infused her. She’d been forgiven now she’d served her time.
Genesis dismounted and then bent to lift her into his arms once again. She shook her head. “No, I can walk.” At his assessing glance she added, “I want to walk.”
He stepped back, face unreadable when he nodded. “Of course.”
She managed a smile as he helped her dismount. At the proffered crook of his arm, she hesitated, then placed her hand on the silken warmth of his skin before walking with him past the small crowd of his followers…her followers too now.
Did they know they accorded her the esteem of royalty when it was Aline who deserved that honor? Aline who deserved the amazing man at her side.
“Eckn’a, sa Sheehar,” the Earth woman, Katy, said proudly in Carechian before translating unnecessarily, “welcome, my Princess.”
“Thank you, Katy,” she said with a smile, looking almost eye-level to the tall and voluptuous woman. “I’m glad to be back.”
But once in the privacy of the blessedly cool donya she wasn’t quite so sure. Glad wasn’t something she felt knowing Genesis supported Trasean and Auron in the finding of Aline. Did it count for nothing that she’d risked everything to keep her sister on Earth and unattached?
Genesis’ eyes fairly burned between her shoulder blades when she left him with Colin and ducked through the hanging shield that separated the main room with its table and chairs, sylak plant and two panka lamoras from the bathing room.
She pulled her dress over her head, a heavy piece of fimordh plunking to the floor. She scooped it up, running a thumb along its fleshy stalk. It might have sent her blind when she’d least wanted it to, but it’d also undoubtedly saved her life from an unrelenting desert heat.
She rolled the stalk in her hand. The plants on this world really were amazing and she still had so much to learn. It was with a pang in her belly that she realized she really didn’t want to return to Earth—and not just because of her love for Genesis. She dropped the fimordh and automatically lifted a hand to trace her necklace, acknowledging the gift from Genesis represented everything she wanted on this world.
Stepping into the water, she closed her eyes on a sigh as she sank into the soft caress of warm water until she was completely submerged. Staying under for as long as possible while her pores undoubtedly rejoiced, it was only when she emerged from the water, gasping in a lungful of air, that she became aware of Genesis standing in the bathing room with considering eyes.
“I thought I was alone,” she said coolly. Crazy that after being alone for so long she felt as though she needed that very solitude to think things through.
One of his hands lifted and he unfastened whatever held the bandages in place. “And here I thought you’d had enough of being alone,” he drawled, “and were in need of rescue from drowning.”
The strappings slithered from his chest, exposing nasty purple-and-blue-mottled bruising. The need for solitude melted clean away as she stared with horror and croaked, “Dear lord, you lifted me like that?”
His eyes held hers as he slowly peeled off his pants, exposing his long, hard cock that jerked free and was thankfully devoid of the bruising that colored his upper torso. Then he was stalking down the steps and into the water, his presence managing to suck the spaciousness right out of the room.
She swallowed. Yearning stirred to life within, a longing to take hold of his broad shoulders and lean forward to kiss him until all the lies and regrets were a thing of the past. Until it was just the two of them with absolutely nothing standing between them…except for his cock.
Her face cracked into a smile at the thought even as Genesis got all serious looking and reminded huskily, “You wanted to talk?”
Her smile faded. God, that request seemed so long ago, barely remembered.
“No more talk,” she said. “At least…not right now.”
He dropped into the water until only his head was clear, level with hers. And with his eyes still holding hers she had to wonder if the water wasn’t a conduit to all the longing sparking between them, a desire that was open and honest—had always been the one thing that was open and honest.
Her pulse fluttered, her blood warming and the breath catching in her throat.
His hand moved through the water, sending ripples out one after the other. The brush of his fingertips on her hip was as light as the touch of a dandelion, yet it sent a bolt of heat straight to her core even as it pulled the oxygen right back into her lungs.
As one, they merged together, the water surging around them and half-carrying them to the rim of the huge bath. His lips covered hers and she opened under him as though a flower to the sun, a little moan escaping her throat. She’d never get enough of him, not in her lifetime. Not ever.
As his tongue pushed into her mouth, she twined her legs around his hips. The velvet press of his cock against her belly created a shiver in the vicinity of her navel before radiating straight to her womb. Wanton. Primal.
His thumb brushed along her clit and she jerked from him, then melted slowly back to his capable touch. Shock waves of lust burned through the nerve endings of her clit as he massaged her sensitized flesh, strong circular motions that brought her quickly to the edge, before gentle strokes kept her a heartbeat away from ecstasy.
The bastard.
And all the while he kissed her, the tip of his tongue dipping into her mouth, exploring, tasting, his other hand cupping her buttocks and kneading until she distantly wondered if she should demand her right to come right there and then, no penetration required.
But then the wondrous pressure of his touch withdrew and his hand moved to rest on her shoulder, gently guiding her downward. His cock brushed the opening of her pussy and her belly fluttered with anticipation. She didn’t have time to enjoy the delicious sensation.
His hips thrust forward. Her mouth fell apart, her breath expelling on a hiss. She might well have been a virgin all over again with his shaft filling her pussy to the threshold of pain and a little beyond.
But then her muscles adjusted, giving a little under the strain. She looked up. Genesis’ jaw was clenched tight. She wriggled, watching his eyes burn molten and a muscle in his temple stutter into life.
She locked her arms around his shoulders and drew herself up a little, his shaft suctioning free, inch by glorious inch. His teeth gritted and she realized he only barely withheld from climaxing.
She smiled a little smile, suddenly wanting to see him lose complete control, wanting to see a part of him that wasn’t under the restraint of his formidable discipline. And a s
mall part of her wanted to be reassured that he too could be influenced under the right conditions, that she wasn’t the only one who could forget everything in themselves that mattered.
She dropped back on his length. His groan was barely disguised as his glittering eyes slid half-closed, then focused on her breasts as they slapped the water when she took up a rhythm that increased on every downstroke, the sloshing water unable to drown out the sound of her panting breaths and the inarticulate words he uttered in his native tongue.
His cock throbbed inside her once, twice, before an orgasm exploded from him, his warm seed shooting deep. Seating herself on him fully, she watched ecstasy rework his face into blissful angles and lines even as she continued to rock on him a little, her inner muscles squeezing his shaft as he shuddered into her, his balls draining dry.
“Gods, Eden,” he said hoarsely, “I couldn’t hold back.”
Her smile was all on the inside at the knowledge he’d been so taken by surprise he hadn’t even had a chance to shock her into coming with him. “You lost control,” she teased, “am I bad for liking that?”
He cupped her face and kissed her slowly, tenderly. Pulling back just a little he searched her eyes and said, “The only bad thing is that I came and you didn’t.” He stepped back and carefully disengaged from her. With an arched brow he added, “I can’t have that.”
He slipped under the water and her legs automatically disentangled from around his hips. She leaned back on her elbows at the edge of the pool. A wry smile curled her lips. If he was offering oral sex, she wouldn’t be saying no, she’d already discovered that his tongue and mouth were wicked instruments of pleasure…
But when he resurfaced and commanded her to spread her thighs wide, it wasn’t his mouth that covered her eager flesh. Instead, tiny pulsations pinpointed her clit. She gasped, jerking startled eyes to the kio kio plant he held to her already sensitized cunt.
“Told you I’d take pleasure in showing you later,” he rasped.
