by Lilly Cain
“What the hell?” He almost jerked from her touch but she held tight to him, and the ridges radiated pain and pleasure both until he moaned.
“This is only m’ittar dothal. A dream. Anything can happen here.” She stroked him harder and then rolled, pulling him along with her until she could pin his hips to the ground with her weight. She writhed against him, rubbing her breasts against the thicker skin of his chest. He gripped her arms and pulled her moth to his. She met his kiss and sucked hard at his tongue. Slowly she levered her body until her wet pussy pressed against the tip of his cock and he realized he didn’t care what kind of things she would do to him in this dream world; she could decorate his entire body with ridges, as long as she’d ride him, right now.
He thrust upward and met the heat of her pussy. She rocked down on him and they both gasped as they experienced together the intense penetration.
“Sarina, I’m not going to last.”
She laughed, the sound painting lines of ecstasy along his chest through the borrowed experience of her L’inar. “You’re not meant to.”
The thought was lost; everything was lost as they rocked together. He rolled her over and thrust harder into her, pausing for only a second to grasp her breasts and pinch the nipples hard. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling her knees upward until she formed a tight sheath around him. He ground into her, lost himself to the tightening in his balls and the feeling of orgasm gathering behind the pressure. She called out his name and he felt within her the same mounting tension.
They mounted the peak together. He pulled out at the last second, her orgasm clenching her tight against him, and pumped hot come over her skin, feeling the heat against his own belly. They sagged against each other, gasping for breath. Their hearts pounded a matching rhythm and for a moment, John thought their very souls breathed as one.
Chapter Ten
John opened his eyes. They were kneeling on the floor, both fully clothed. “What just happened?”
“M’ittar dothal. A shared dream. Great for having quickies.” Sarina stood and took a few steps away from him. A small part of his mind noted how she shook slightly, leaving him there on the floor.
He hadn’t meant for this to lead to sex. Not again. He wanted something more from her, needed it. And he believed she needed it too.
The watchdog unit in his pocket began to buzz. Someone was at the main hatch. It didn’t matter what he wanted; evidently he wasn’t going to get it.
Sarina opened her mouth, but before she could say anything more to him the patched comm unit beeped, clicking open a channel through the interior intercom system. “Inar choksan. This is Inar Soryen Yatchim. Soryen Tariim, please enter your identification code and clearance.”
Sarina walked over to the unit and tapped in a series of codes. Apparently the person on the other end was taking no chances. “Inar tel sahiir, Soryen Yatchim. We are in the hydroponics lab.” She shut the channel. “It has been a pleasure, John Bennings.”
“John Norton.” He responded almost automatically.
She lifted her lips in a small smile but he felt it—a sense that what they had together was coming to an end. He wasn’t certain if the impression was coming from her or was his own. An edge of panic cut at him. Something wasn’t right.
Sarina turned away and began shoving aside some of the things they had used to create a barrier against a second possible attack. He joined her and they worked together in silence. She did the majority of the lifting—his arm had begun to throb again as soon as they’d left the waking dream.
“I will have to report your true position to Commander Finar.” Sarina commented as calmly as though she was still playing poker. He wondered for a moment if she still was. “I will wait until I can give my report with a degree of confidentiality. Your cover will be secure.”
“As secure as it can be when someone’s already handed over my identity to the terrorists or the Raveners. Or both.”
“I am certain you will do your duty.”
John sat on the bench beside hydroponics tank two—the same place they’d played with the electro gel. He felt unsettled as he watched her pull away the last of the barrier. The one time they’d actually taken things all the way might be their only time. A dream didn’t count. He wanted her and she was shutting him out. He had no sense of her mind seeking his. He should be concentrating on the next step in his mission—identifying Davis as a mole and removing any last threat to the legal team. But he watched her and his thoughts felt…empty. Alone.
In another moment the Inarrii team was through the door, and a medtech was helping him onto an antigrav stretcher. Sarina spoke to an Inarrii warrior and he couldn’t hear what they were saying. Things were moving and he was no longer a member of the team; he was the charge, not the keeper. He closed his eyes. For the first time he couldn’t care less.
* * *
Things moved faster than she expected, but in the same direction she’d calculated. Sarina sat in the medtech lab on the Horneu, finally experiencing a moment’s peace. She’d been rushed here the moment they arrived, her reassignment from bodyguard to “unassigned” applying the moment she greeted Soryen Yatchim at the surveillance base. Nothing less than she’d predicted; the job of guarding John had gone to an Inarrii warrior with a full and untarnished ranking. And she was being poked and prodded as the medical staff evaluated her level of stress and pondered her explanation of full release with John’s careful attentions.
Sarina reflected on what she’d been able to gather from the constant chatter of the medtechs. The other human members of the legal team had been tested for Gathan DNA and any trace of alien technology, but the search had come up empty. Either the prisoner had been lying, or they hadn’t succeeded in infiltrating the heightened level of security on board the Horneu. John remained undercover after a short period of healing, or at least she thought so—there’d been no gossip about his identity, but she wasn’t sure that kind of news would have reached her here in medical seclusion anyway.
Commander Finar had taken her report, listened to her discuss her final mission. He hadn’t seemed surprised that she’d been able to function on such a high level, defending John and securing a prisoner, but she knew there would be others who would believe John had been the one providing both the physical strength and the strategy to make their escape. He’d listened to her revelations about John’s identity with equal composure, so much so that she wondered if he’d already been aware of John’s secret mission. She crossed her arms, fought against the mounting level of impatience within.
The sound of rising voices in the next room caught her attention. The medtech lab normally operated on a fairly silent mode—everyone spoke using m’ittar and only the hum of equipment broke the peace. She was nearly crazy with it. If she didn’t get out of here soon, the stress from being confined would be enough that she’d have to try therapy again, and that was the last thing she wanted.
The door slid open. Commander Finar stepped into the room, quickly followed by John and Soryen Yatchim. Sarina stood, the L’inar along the back of her neck fluctuating with excitement.
“Inar tel sahiir, Soryen Tariim.”
“Inar tel sahiir, Commander.” She nodded at John and the Inarrii warrior standing in the background. “Soryen Yatchim, John Bennings.” She used John’s cover name, not certain what had been revealed and to whom. She held her shields tightly shut. What were they doing here? Her mouth felt dry. She ran the mission through her head. What more would they want from her? Her behavior had been regulation…except for the questioning of the Gathan prisoner. She’d heard little about the blue-skinned Ravener, despite the fact that he would be prime gossip material. Perhaps she had pushed him too far. If his mind had not recovered…
“Tariim, we need your help.” Commander Finar broke into her thoughts. “I understand that you are in a diffi
cult position, faced as you are with a long term of medical testing, but we have been unable to flush out any more of the Gathan spies. Despite the probability of Agent Norton’s cover being compromised, we have no choice but to put him back into position at the finalization of the human’s planetary Accord.”
Relief slid through her. Whatever their plan was, it wasn’t about her treatment of the Gathan spy. And the commander had used John’s real name, not his alias. He must have told them she knew everything. Sarina glanced at John. His gray eyes were unreadable, his m’ittar as tightly shuttered as her own, but he must trust her. He’d included her. “Why do you need me, specifically? I understand that Soryen Yatchim has been assigned to guard Agent Norton?”
John stepped forward. He looked good, completely healed. A flutter of desire trembled through the nerve lines along the curve of her belly. She thanked the gods that she’d been tired of being stared at while her L’inar were reviewed for every reaction and had insisted on a full shipsuit. “None of the humans would be aware, and probably none of the Gathan operatives either, that you have been taken off duty for medical reasons. We need to prove who within Starforce is handing over information. Having you return as my guard makes it look as though nothing has really changed.”
“I see.” Her mind raced. She would be part of his cover.
“Even more importantly, my mission tech is the prime suspect. I’ve been trying to reach him, but he hasn’t been responding to my contact codes. But he’s a ghost, set to hide and follow data streams. He’ll be difficult to find. However, he seems to have developed a…fascination with Inarrii sexual customs. I think your return will draw him out.”
The Commander continued. “The Human Accord will be signed tomorrow afternoon, and the Confederacy Treaty only a week from now. We suggest you be placed back on duty immediately. Soryen Yatchim will be assigned as general protection for the Inarrii legal team set to witness the signing, but he will actually be there to watch out for you.”
The room grew silent. Sarina imagined she could hear their individual breaths. This would be her last chance to prove herself. If she could complete this mission, her clan would surely post her back on active duty. The hope was short-lived. Perhaps they would imagine that she was simply stronger than most, that her mind would still collapse eventually. She needed to prove she was fit for duty, permanently.
“Commander, while I understand the seriousness of this assignment, I wish to speak with Agent Norton privately for a moment.” She didn’t look at John.
Finar nodded and motioned Yatchim to follow him from the room. When the door slid shut behind them she glanced at John. He stood still, waiting for her to speak. She stood and paced the length of the small room. She knew its dimensions far too intimately already.
“I need your help.”
He still waited.
“They want me to help you. You want me to help. But if I can’t prove that I am truly fit for duty, this will be the last mission I ever have.”
“But you told them that you…that we…” John broke off, seemingly at a loss for words.
She lifted her hands in an Inarrii shrug. “Yes, and I’ve had an Examiner corroborate. But it isn’t enough.” She lifted her hands to her neck. Asking for this…the words were clawing their way from her throat. She’d never once had to beg for help. “I need you to mate with me. I need to be given back my status so that when you move on, I will have my life back.”
Her chest felt tight. She needed this one thing from him, but the commander had been right—there was no such thing as simple sex with a human.
“I’ve already mated with you.” His voice vibrated with a depth that made the L’inar on her breasts tingle with anticipation. His eyes were dark; he looked at her like he had the first night on board the Osprey, like he could devour her. She opened her mind widely, hoping for some trace of m’ittar between them. She needed his desire, but any trace of pity and she wouldn’t be able to try this, no matter how much she needed it.
“I need you to have sex with me in the dining hall, before witnesses.” She rushed on when his mouth dropped open in shock. “It won’t be permanent. But Inarrii custom will identify us as mates, at least temporarily. Then they won’t be able to say I cannot find completion, or that I am going to slowly go insane. There will be visual proof and many witnesses. I will be reinstated. My clan will take me back.”
She watched as he clenched his mouth shut. A muscle trembled with tension along his jawline. “I wouldn’t ask this, but we have no time to have an Examiner do a full memory recall before the medical tribunal. It has to be now if you want me to help you complete your duty.” Her mind raced. What more could she offer him? “Do this with me, and I will help you find your spy. You might not find him without me. And—” she paused, trying to catch her breath or the words that were tumbling from her lips, she wasn’t sure which, “—and, if you require it I will pledge a further service to you.”
* * *
John fought against the urge to take Sarina into his arms. Her desperation was evident. He glanced around the medical lab and wondered how bad the last two days had been for her. He’d only had to undergo an hour of treatment to heal his arm. She’d been trapped here the entire time and expected to remain, perhaps indefinitely. Here, surrounded my technical equipment and being poked at indefinitely by medtechs, she would certainly go crazy.
She belonged in the world, working, fighting. She belonged beside him.
“Okay.”
“Okay? You mean…” She trailed off. He could almost see the thoughts working through her head. “What service do you require?”
“We’ll get to that. For now, let’s say that we go through this and find the spy, stop the assassinations and save the world, okay?”
He reached out to her, hoping for a hug. She stepped away instead. He held back the urge to slam his hand against the wall. Asking for a favor, even if she did offer to practically pay him to sleep with her, had clearly been difficult for her. He relaxed, opened his mental shields as he now thought of the walls surrounding his thoughts and felt for her.
“We have to do it tonight. Before we go hunting for your traitor. Perhaps it will even pull him out of hiding.”
John caught a glimpse of her thoughts. Heated, flushed skin and the wet friction as he pumped within her. Eyes on them, watching. He pulled away quickly and swallowed hard. Thinking about being watched was not a good idea. He’d never been a show-off. But at least her thoughts were on them, and not on honor and duty. The fact that he wanted that…wanted her to be thinking of him, struck him hard.
Then he focused on what she’d just said. “Tonight?”
“Yes. I will order as much electro gel as I can afford—”
“No.” He caught Sarina’s hand, forced her to look him in the eyes. “If we are doing this, it’s just you and me. No gel. No toys. Just us.”
She shivered. “What if it doesn’t work?”
“It will. Trust me.”
He pulled her close for a kiss. She let him, so he tried to be gentle. But he’d wanted to kiss her from the moment he saw her in this sterile place. Not from pity, but from desire. He’d missed her. He tasted her, breathed in her scent. The soft brush of her mind against his felt good. Her emotions were overflowing—fear, hope, joy, anticipation. He hadn’t realized how much a part of their contact was through this embrace of the mind.
The door slid open. Commander Finar stepped through. “I see you have come to an agreement. I suggest that we go to my office to make our plans. Your Commander-In-Chief Johaness will be boarding the Horneu in two of your hours, Agent Norton. We’d better be prepared before then.”
* * *
John swallowed hard as he looked over the main dining hall of the officer’s level of the Horneu. The casual setting looked nothing like the usual military mess halls of the Osprey or o
ther ships within Starforce. Small groups lounged around low tables and couches, some eating, some…engaged in various forms of sexual play. Sarina had warned him they would be watched, but there were a lot more people here than he’d expected. There were even a few humans at a couple of the tables, although they seemed more engrossed with watching and eating than participating.
He noticed a few Inarrii wander over to a table to apparently get a better look at a woman on her knees, pressed between two men. All three were naked, food discarded on the table and their L’inar forming tight bands of designs along their skin. The largest male held the female steady as the male in the front took her, then pulled out for the other to thrust in from behind.
“Holy fuck.”
Sarina took his hand and linked to his thoughts. “They are demonstrating that they are a mated triad. By having open sex, they make the other Inarrii understand that outside advances would be unwanted.”
He remembered that from the report on Inarrii sexual conduct, mostly compiled from Captain Susan Branscombe’s experiences on board this ship. But reading about it and planning to become a part of this spectacle were far different things. He’d never thought himself a coward, but this might prove things differently.
“Forget them. Let’s get something to eat.”
Sarina led them toward an empty table about a third of the way into the room. At least she isn’t putting us dead center. John’s mind raced and he felt a bead of sweat forming along his forehead. He took his eyes off the crowd and concentrated on Sarina’s back as she led them among the tables. They both wore pettans and he admired the design of her auburn-colored L’inar lines on her back and the curve of her hip as she swayed with each step.
Watching her, he recovered some of his balance. She needed this. It might only be temporary, but by agreeing to do this he was agreeing to be her mate. She was already his partner. In his mind that meant he protected her, whether she wanted him to or not. Making love to her here would give her back her life. He stiffened his resolve. It would be making love this time. She was the partner that he wanted. She just needed to want it too.
