“I too have a confession to make.”
Double crap. It couldn’t be anything serious, could it? She’d declared her love for him and he’d declared his love for her. So what did he have to confess? That she was going to be shipped back to TLC and he was duty-bound to stay here and be a leader of his people. True, they hadn’t exactly ironed out all the issues of this life—love—partnership but, weren’t those mere details?
“What?” she asked. She did, after all, have a policy of finding out where she stood with people.
“I hate chocolate.”
“You’ve got to be kidding?” She collapsed on a nearby boulder in a fit of laughter.
“No, I’m serious. I’ve tried it, but I just don’t like the taste.”
“No, no,” she said, waving her hand madly in the air as she tried to get her breath back. “I don’t mean are you serious, as in are you serious. I mean, you had me worried.”
“Then you don’t mind?”
“No. Why should I mind? It’s not as if I can’t eat it, just because you don’t like it. Right?”
“Alone,” he said.
“Huh?”
“I don’t like the smell, either, Myrina.”
“Oh. Okay, alone then. As long as you understand I’m not giving it up.”
She stretched out her arm to him and he helped haul her back onto her feet. They set off along the trail again. Eventually they veered to the left, following a secondary path that seemed steeper than the main road they’d been on.
“During the meeting with the Ktua this morning,” he said a while later, “I was elected Council Commander.”
“Congratulations.”
As Dakokata’s representative to the Confederacy, he’d be expected to attend Council meetings regularly. Which meant when she went back to TLC, he’d be along for the ride, too. His appointment effectively solved one of their biggest problems—the long-distance relationship. So why didn’t he just say so?
Because he was involved in one of his convoluted jumps in logic, which only made sense to him and confused the heck out of her.
“I thought that if your mother doesn’t object, we could adopt Zane.”
She was three paces past him before she realized Judan had stopped cold in his tracks. She swung around to face him.
“What did you say?”
He seemed a bit dazed and she wondered if he had a touch of altitude sickness.
“That we should adopt Zane. Give him a home, with us.”
He swayed a little and she rushed forward to catch him in case he fell. He gripped her arms and hauled her to within a few centimeters of his face.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why not?” she asked back.
They marched double time after that, his hand clasping hers so she wouldn’t fall behind. There were no more convoluted conversational gambits. She watched the road to keep from tripping on the pebbles, so she didn’t see when they reached the top of the next rise. And the path fell away down a short but steep incline to a valley bounded by rock on all sides, except for the narrow path they’d walked in on.
“By the Three Sisters, it’s beautiful,” she said.
“The valley is owned by my family. I gift it to you, Myrina, so that you can have your wildflowers.”
Everywhere she looked that was all she saw. An entire meadow filled with wildflowers.
“What? You mean all of this is mine? I own it?” Other than her small apartment, she’d never owned a piece of property in her life. She’d never aspired to be a landowner either, because unless you were born into property or went off and colonized a hunk of rock, forget it.
“Yes. You own it,” he said. “You can come here anytime.”
“Do anything I want?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Yes.”
“Good.” She slapped his arm to tag him “it”. “Race you,” she said and set off at breakneck speed down the slope and into the flowers.
By the time he reached her, she’d collapsed in a heap somewhere near the center. He must have walked, because she’d had plenty of time to strip off her jumpsuit. The sky above them was a cloudless blue until he arrived. He loomed over her like a great shadow, his hands on his hips.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” she told him.
“You’re crushing the flowers.”
“Fantastic, isn’t it?” She patted the ground next to her.
He flung his shirt and boots to one side, but his leggings caused a large problem. He had to ease them past his engorged cock. His shaft and balls glistened with pre-cum. When he lay down beside her, the air around them filled with the sweet scent of crushed blossoms.
“There’s something you should know,” he said after the third butterfly flitted past.
Triple crap. She really wished he’d get to the point rather than ruin her perfectly good erotic fantasy. She rolled over and straddled him. Her pendant swung low between them, a reminder of what they’d already promised and shared. She sat just far enough down that the tip of his cock grazed the entrance to her pussy. He hissed and grabbed her thighs. She wasn’t sure whether he meant to push her down on top of his shaft or pull her away. She didn’t think he was too sure himself. Either way, she stayed right where she was.
With his copper hair spread around him, his body gleaming with sweat, he looked like a wild creature. Her wild man, one who wouldn’t easily be tamed. But then, who wanted tame when she could have Judan?
“Later,” she said. “There’s something much more important I need to do first.” She bent down and kissed him on the mouth. His hands didn’t waste much time. They brushed up her sides to settle around the curves of her breasts. He pinched and stroked her nipples until she squirmed with need.
“Enjoy,” she whispered. “This one’s for you.”
She sat up, impaling herself on his cock. He cried out and arched beneath her, shoving his shaft as deep as possible. She rode him hard and talked dirty. Describing in exquisite detail all the things she planned to do to his body.
He came with a mighty roar that echoed off the rocks around them. She bowed her head, panting as she always did when his cock filled her almost too full to breathe. She shuddered and her pussy clenched, tightening its hold and then, slowly, releasing him.
She collapsed on top of him and his arms encircled her in his fierce embrace. One of his hands scooted up her back and his fingers threaded their way through her hair. His other hand drew lazy circles across her back. Contented, she caressed his chest.
“I should tell you about Zane,” he said.
She lifted her head to look at him. He was staring at the sky.
“I know all I need to know,” she said.
He looked at her then, a quizzical expression on his face.
“He loves you,” she said. “And you love him.”
Judan nodded. “I’ve wanted him as my son since the beginning, but, until today, he could never truly be mine.”
“What?” The green guy looked dead serious. Which, in her estimation, should be pretty darn impossible when lying naked in a field of wildflowers.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with some complicated Dakokatan custom, does it?”
“I thought it did, because I wasn’t listening.”
Okay. He was getting deep, sinking into more convoluted thoughts.
“To Zane?” she asked.
He shook his head and shifted her hand until it rested over his heart. “I wasn’t listening here,” he said. “Otherwise it wouldn’t have taken me nearly four years to realize I love Zane. And it wouldn’t have taken nearly losing you to realize I didn’t just want you, I love you.”
She sniffed and blinked and shook her head. “That’s okay,” she said. “It took me a while to figure out I love you, too.”
They lay together, mostly side by side, in her field of wildflowers for the rest of the afternoon. Talking, laughing, not talking. Every so often a soft breeze blew through the tall grasses and flowers, cool
ing their bodies. At last, the sun touched the edge of the jagged rocks around them. Judan caressed her hand.
“I intended to bring you out here, show you the valley and then take you home,” he said. “I still haven’t coaxed you into my bed.”
Myrina laughed and rolled over, propping herself up on one elbow. Her fingers traced the twin scars and settled over his heart.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You have fifty or sixty years to keep trying.”
About the Author
A world traveler, Robie loves visiting mystical places and learning about other cultures and peoples. She's spent several years living abroad, allowing her to study human nature in a variety of settings and circumstances. These years also included a few wild exploits of her own. Previously published in a different genre under another name, she uses her knowledge to enhance her stories. When not traveling, or planning her next trip, Robie creates characters that can do the adventuring for her.
Robie welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Also by Robie Madison
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