Uh? “Uh…that’s okay, Shakar. It was just for fun.” He looked so earnest, so sweet, so sexily sweaty (it had been a long afternoon), she couldn’t think of what to say. Was this real? Sure, she was a homesteader, a colonist, and she was used to odd things happening, but they were usually bad odd things. Not godlike gorgeous fellow dropping from the sky and being sweet and helpful things.
“You know what?” she said at last, because he was entirely too close…kissing close, if that didn’t sound too absurd. “You want to cool off?”
He blinked. “Cool off?”
Chapter 4
“This…is…wonderful!” he bellowed as he launched himself from the old rope and landed with an enormous splash in the middle of the largest outdoor bathing area he had ever seen.
She laughed as he paddled around her like a puppy, and splashed him when he got too near. “Told you. This is just the thing after working on the place all day.”
“The water is so odd…it smells different.”
“Well, I guess. You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.”
“No, and I suppose the Lion and the Scarecrow are lingering nearby as well.”
“I hope not. How’d you know—oh, your mama told you.”
“She told me many things.” He dived under the cool water, which smelled a great deal like the grass, peeped at her bare legs, then resurfaced. “She also mentioned Negroes. I think that is fascinating. Everyone has the same-colored skin at home. It is quite dull.”
“Oh, is that what she mentioned.” Rica laughed again. Shakar loved the sound. It was like the gurgling of a child, innocent and sweet. “And catch up, fool, it’s not Negroes. And it’s not African-Americans anymore, either. It’s colonists. Small c.”
“Small c-letter,” he repeated obediently. “I do not understand why others of your kind were cruel because your skin was darker. I would like to have skin the color of a kumkoss,” he added wistfully. “It would make hunting much easier.”
“No it wouldn’t.” She shook her head, and water droplets flew from her hair. “Your skin is the color of the sand back home, right? You’re perfectly evolved to hunt there. But as to understanding the whole issue…you got a year or two for me to explain it to you?”
“A year?”
“Sunround,” she corrected herself.
“Oh, yes! I have many of those.”
She gave him another odd look. “Well, I was only kidding. That shit was a long time ago, excuse my language, and it doesn’t really matter anymore. We’ve been in the majority for a long time.”
“So have I,” he said cheerfully.
“I’ll bet, Prince.”
“Thus, we are perfectly…” Mated, he had been about to say, but was wary of frightening her. “…suited,” he adjusted.
“Think so, Prince?”
He splashed her, and her laughter changed to choking. She suddenly disappeared and, while he blinked water out of his eyes, felt a tug on his leg and then he was the one gurgling and coughing out odd-tasting water.
“You are sly,” he told her when she resurfaced.
“Keep it in mind, Prince. Don’t spit, that’s nasty.”
“I do apologize. The water is different.”
“Different, yuck, or different, hmmm?”
“It does not taste bad,” he assured her, “just different.”
“Oh. Well, I love this little man-made lake. It’s always so refreshing. I look forward to jumping in all day.”
“Do you bathe here?”
“No, there’s a head back at the house, with soap and everything. I just come out here to get cool.”
“At home—”
“You’ve got those big bathing pools inside, right? Do you even have lakes or ponds?”
He thought and thought, and finally said, “Just the sea. There is the sand, only the sand, and then suddenly there is the sea. Only the sea.”
“Oooooooookay. Sounds like a dream vacation spot.”
“I will never see it again,” he said, dismissing his birth planet with a wave of his hand. “It does not matter. It is lakes and ponds I must get used to, and soap and heads.”
“And Negroes,” she added dryly. “Don’t forget those.”
“Colonists with a small c-letter,” he said obediently.
She had been swimming away, shaking her head, but at that she abruptly turned and swam back to his side. They treaded water, facing each other.
“Wait a minute, you’re serious? What are you talking about, never see it again? How come? Did they send you away? I can’t imagine you did something that bad.”
“No, I was not sent away. I wished to come here. I have always wished to come here. And finally, my wish was granted. It happens at home, only the other way…people from your world fall into ours. Except not only the other way,” he added, correcting himself, “because your dam came here.”
“Well, yeah. It’s kind of funny, it was exactly like this—Dad was working on the farm, and Mom fell out of no place and landed right in the pile of ma—never mind, the point is, she was surprised to be here, but she never…” Rica trailed off, troubled. “She never wanted to go back,” she finished.
“That is how it is.” Still, his heart cramped at the thought of never seeing his good father or brothers again, or Lois, or the small ones she would bear Damon.
“Well, it doesn’t have to be.”
“Yes,” he assured her, “it does.”
“Does not! I mean, just because my mama never wanted to go back doesn’t mean she couldn’t. Dad built her the machine and everything.”
“What?” And again, “What?”
“Hello, how do you think we got here? He was an engineer way back in the day, and after she told him about the SandLands, he went into town, talked to the Elder, brought back part of the machine, modified it, and Mama could go back home whenever she wanted. Theoretically, I mean. She never wanted to go.” Rica thought about that a moment. “I think that’s part of the reason Mama settled in so well. Part of the reason Dad built the thing in the first place. She knew she could have gone back anytime, and that made her never want to go back. I bet he was counting on that. He was a smart guy, my dad.”
“Your father was a—a builder?”
“An engineer, yeah.”
“And he made a MASH-een that could send someone to the SandLands?”
“Muh-SHEEN, and yeah, he did.”
Shakar was gaping at her. She could practically count all his teeth. “When you were alone all this time, why did you never go visit the home of your dam?”
Rica shrugged. “I don’t know. Mama never wanted to go back. So I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to leave here and go someplace that Mom disliked so much, she never looked back.”
“Buh—wh—b—”
“Maybe you should get out of the water and lie down,” she said, concerned. “You look kind of weird.”
He had swum to her and was holding on to her shoulders. “You have never used it? Not even to settle your mind? Never put it in motion even if you yourself did not journey?”
“No, I—oh, I get where you’re going. No, I didn’t push any buttons for fun. Whatever’s making people pop out of nowhere, it’s not Dad’s machine. Maybe it’s a residual effect,” she added thoughtfully. “Something about the traveling…the ships…maybe it tore a—a thin spot or whatever between our planets. Making it easier to go back and forth—or maybe someone, somewhere, built the same thing my dad did, and he or she is pushing buttons for fun. Also, your fingers are digging into my shoulders.”
“Forgive.” He abruptly released her. “I was just…taken by surprise. I did not realize…” He trailed off. “I did not realize…”
“But that’s good news, Shakar. You can go home whenever you want. Probably. I mean, nobody’s tested it, but my dad knew his shit. And I’ve maintained the machine; he did it every week, and after he died, I made damn sure I did it every week.”
“You know this machine?”
“I know all the machines on this place. It’s the advantage of being a single girl.” She smiled.
“I guess…you are correct. It is good news. I had thought…”
“Well, do you want to go back right now? We can dry off and I’ll show you where I keep—”
“No,” he said, seeming to come to a sudden decision. “I do not want to go back right now.” Then he gripped her shoulders again, pulled her to him, and kissed her wet mouth.
“I knew skinny-dipping was going to get me into trouble,” she murmured, looping her arms around his neck and kissing him back.
Chapter 5
She had wrapped her legs around his waist, hoping they wouldn’t drown (but such a way to go!), and Shakar supported them easily in the cool water. Consumed with curiosity, she reached down and found him, hot and pressing against her palm and like rough silk in the water.
“Not to kill the mood or anything,” she said, nibbling on his throat, “but my parents died when I was fourteen.”
“I am very sorry,” he replied, cupping her bottom.
“Thanks, but what I meant was, I’ve never done this before.”
“No?”
“I’ve been really busy the last ten years,” she said defensively. “I never quite got around to going to town to lose my virginity. To buy feed, sure. But not the other. Anyway, my point is, if you don’t want to do this—”
“No.”
“—too damned bad. I’ve waited long enough.” She paused and realized what he’d said. “Oh, no? Good. I mean…let’s just say, I’m a big believer in signs, and when a great-looking guy falls out of the sky and is nice and gorgeous and sweet and great-looking, I’m gonna jump him.”
“As you wish.”
“No offense.”
“I am not offended.”
“Are you laughing at me?” she asked suspiciously.
“Oh, no, Rica, that would be very disrespectful.”
“Ha ha ha. Shut up and kiss me.”
He obliged, which she found delightful. The water was like cool silk against her and he was like hot silk, and everything was fine. She touched him again and again, half wondering if he would disappear in the same flash of light that had brought him.
His hands were all over her, his mouth was all over her, and soon enough she was climbing him like she used to climb the biggest tree in the orchard. He stopped her with his hands and easily lifted her out of the water, laying her on the bank.
“It is easier the first time to not be in water,” he told her, and then dipped his head and sucked the moisture from her nipples.
“Whatever you say,” she groaned. His head moved lower and lower, his tongue flickering out to caress her navel, her mons, her sweet inner folds. She had thought she was ready for him before, but the terrible need that swamped her was a new thing, a huge thing.
He carefully spread her wide for him and started to ease inside her, and she was clumsy in her eagerness—God, it felt like she had been waiting forever—but he stopped suddenly, just as it had started to become painful. He wriggled back down until he was licking and kissing her between her thighs again, until she was clawing at his back. Until that sweet dark heat she had previously only been able to bring to herself was coursing through her, spreading out from her stomach in dizzying, delicious warmth.
He entered her while she was still vibrating and this time there was no discomfort, only sweet friction—she’d never known friction could be so glorious. She had to give voice to it and her hoarse screams forced the birds to give wing, and it seemed for a moment she was spiraling up with them, flying with them, and she never, never wanted that moment to end.
Chapter 6
Sixty-eight sunrounds later…
“The rabbit,” Rica announced, “is dead.”
Shakar, who had just come in from watering the cattle, looked surprised. “What is a rabbit? Do you require a new one?”
“It’s a smallish brown and white—never mind, look, I’m pregnant.”
“You are…with child?” A slow smile of delight was spreading over his face. “Truly?”
“Yeah.”
“But how do you—I admit this is a very mysterious thing, a woman-thing.”
“There’s nothing mysterious about peeing on a stick—not that we do it that way anymore. I haven’t had any flow since you came here, so I put a few things together and sent a blood sample to Central. You’re—happy?” She realized she had been holding her breath, and let it out with such a woosh she was momentarily dizzy. “That’s great.” “Great” sounded inadequate, so she added, “Really really great. I wasn’t sure what you would think. I don’t know what to think.”
“But that is wonderful!” He had started to sit down, but then jumped up and prowled around the room. “Only think, a new prince or princess!”
“Will the baby be a prince or princess?” she asked quietly. “I thought you had turned away from all of that.”
He stopped in mid-pace. “I did not turn away from being my father’s son…only from being home.”
“Uh-huh.”
He came to her and put his big hand on her stomach. “How will you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Have the baby. You cannot do it here on the farm alone, with only me to help you. I am not knowledgeable in such things.”
“No, I guess we’d have to go into town. We’d wait until it was close to my time and I guess we’d…” She trailed off, troubled. It was the exact problem that had been worrying her. “I could get Daran to watch the animals for me…heck, his family has been angling to get their hands on this place for a generation.”
Shakar was silent. She bore the silence for a minute or two, then asked, “Why don’t you say what’s on your mind? You want to go back.”
Still he said nothing.
“Come on, Shakar. You miss the SandLands.”
“I think…I think it was you I wanted,” he said, almost apologetically. “I thought, all this time, it was a place I wanted. But it was only you. I do not mean that I dislike your home.”
She grinned at him. “I’m not offended, Shakar. That’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. But we have a little problem. And it’s gonna be a big problem, soon enough. A blessing, as my mama would have said. But a complicated one. Got any ideas?”
He hesitated.
She said, “Better spit it out and get it over with.”
“I do not wish you to birth the child here, alone save for me.”
“Gotcha.”
“I do not wish you to spend your last days of confinement in the town, away from both our homes.”
“Uh-huh.”
He paused again. “I would wish for Good King Sekal to see his son-by-his-son.”
“So: The bottom line is you want to go home.”
“Yes. I want to go home. But also, you should not give up your home to please me.”
“Give up? Shakar, we can go back and forth whenever we want. Probably. Assuming the machine hasn’t popped a screw loose or something.”
“It seems…unnatural. To use a machine to go back and forth.”
“I should have known you’d be a technophobe,” she teased. “Look, I know you’re used to magic portals just opening up out of nowhere, but I’m telling you, this way is better.”
“It is not dangerous in any way?”
“Let’s put it this way: My dad loaded that thing with so many fail-safes, if everything’s not exactly right, we just won’t go anywhere. We won’t be like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. Never mind. It’s safe, Shakar. I’d never risk you or the baby if I wasn’t totally sure.”
“Hmmm…”
“Why not visit the home place, make nice with the future grandpa, all that good stuff? I can let Daran have a plot or two in exchange for watching the place while we’re gone.” Why am I trying to talk him into this? she asked herself. Because I don’t want to have the baby alone on a farm with just a prince to help me. That’s why.<
br />
“It seems,” he said, giving her a warm look, “that you have thought of everything.”
“I’m pretty bright like that,” she replied, and leaned over to kiss him. His response was enthusiastic, to say the least, and after a moment she heard the plates crashing to the floor and felt herself bend over as they both hit the table.
“Good in theory,” she groaned as his hands were busy opening her shirt, baring her for his mouth, his hands. “But hell on the back.”
“As you wish,” he said, and picked her up (it still amazed her that he could do that), and hurried down the hall into the small bedroom. They fell to the bed together, his mouth on her breasts, teasing her nipples, pulling on them with his lips.
“I really really really love it when you do that,” she sighed, stroking his coarse hair.
“I really really really love to do it. You taste…wonderful. Wonderful, Rica.”
Wonderful, Rica, she thought, helping him help her out of her clothes. She had lost count of the number of times he had said that in the past weeks. And she thought he was pretty wonderful, too. He was like a dream come true, falling out of the sky and into her life, her love, her prince.
She grasped his pulsing cock, gently squeezed, and his tongue swept past her teeth. They nibbled and kissed and she raised her knees for him, felt him slide inside her with a sweetness that left her amazed every time—it was as if they had been made for each other. Corny, but true.
“Oh, Rica…”
“I love you,” she told him. And telling him was the same as it had been the first time: amazing, awe-inspiring.
“And I, you, my own.”
She braced herself, then wriggled until she was on top of him, the way she liked, the way they both liked. Her breasts hung down for his mouth like exotic fruit, and he gobbled at them and sucked and licked, while she rode him to orgasm, until they were both spent.
“Okay,” she said, straightening from her father’s machine, the thing he had built to please her mother, and keep her mother. “Everything looks good. Stand over here. Pretend you’re in one of those old episodes of Star Trek. Never mind,” she added as he opened his mouth to ask the inevitable question. “Just stand there on the pads. I’ll program it to toss us in thirty seconds.”
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