“You could … I’d be ok with it if you want to put the other in the … uh … the other place,” she said tentatively.
He lifted his head to study her face. She could see he was torn at the invitation, but she didn’t know if that was because he found the idea intriguing or repellent. “The idea is to pleasure one another,” he said finally. “You weren’t made for that and I’d think it would be painful for you.”
It had been—very. But somehow she didn’t think it would be with him and, in any case, she desperately wanted to please him. “It’s ok,” she said, unable to bring herself to assure him he wouldn’t hurt her.
He shifted downward to nuzzle his face against hers. “It isn’t ok to hurt you and it wouldn’t be ok with me to give you pain instead of pleasure.”
He wanted to, she decided. He just didn’t want to hurt her and that realization helped allay her lingering doubts. She titled her head to meet his lips. “You could try it.”
Instead of responding, he kissed her lingeringly on the lips and then redirected his kisses to her breasts, moving from one to the other until she felt the building desperation to have him enter her and began to move against him. He slid between her thighs at her urging, but, as if he sensed the sudden tension that seized her when he did, he merely moved against her for a time, kissing her on the lips, throat and neck until she began to bump her mound against his belly in demand. That time when she felt the probe near her rectum, she closed her mind to it and focused on the feel of his cock against the mouth of her sex.
He penetrated both slowly, merely pumping against her for a few moments until the twin heads penetrated both openings. He paused, giving her a moment to adjust and then pushing inside a little more and withdrawing until her natural lubrication eased the tension of skin stretched uncomfortably tight. She struggled to make herself relax, to focus on the pleasurable feel of being filled and his next thrust took him deeper with little discomfort.
Surprise flickered through her and then pleasure stirred to life and the sense of being filled by him. He paused again and pushed himself up on his arms to study her face. Apparently satisfied, he lowered himself again and, slowly but surely, increased his pace until he set a rhythm that diverted Lexa from any thought of pain. She felt the pleasurable tension building and focused on it, concentrated on attaining the gift he’d given her before, hopeful, doubtful, but determined to reach it if she could.
She discovered it wasn’t the battle she’d expected. Almost as soon as the discomfort gave way to ripples of pleasure those waves became harder and came faster, rushing her upwards toward the peak she was straining to reach. This time when the tension broke and her pleasure crested it almost seemed to shatter her mind into a million, brilliant fragments of light, as if the pleasure was so intense it couldn’t be contained. The low, pleasurable groan escalated to sharp, ecstatic cries, blinding her to the world beyond the explosion inside of her.
She had no awareness of when Gabriel found his own release. She was still coming down from her own experience when he ceased to move and settled heavily against her. His deep, satisfied chuckle was the first thing that actually penetrated her cocoon of bliss.
“Better?”
“Oh my god,” Lexa gasped.
* * * *
Lexa had never gotten into the habit of saying no. She’d wanted to, many times, but she knew that Ralph was liable to knock her senseless if she even looked like she wanted to object. It wasn’t fear that made her hold her peace, though, when Gabriel coaxed her into a second coupling and then a third. It was gratitude for the pleasure he’d given her, the hope of receiving more of the same, and pleasure that he wanted her that way.
She’d gotten far more than she’d expected. She would never have dreamed any man could make her feel as Gabriel had.
Of course she knew better than to think it made her special to him in any way even though it had been a life altering experience for her. Men just liked to fuck and they would at any opportunity—if they could get their hands on a woman, willing or not. She supposed a willing woman had a certain appeal since they didn’t have to work nearly as hard to get their pleasure, but then Gabriel had indicated that that was what he was accustomed to—women that wanted him to fuck them.
She understood now—completely—at least why women wanted Gabriel to fuck them. She wasn’t so sure that she believed it was the common way of things among the angel-demons, whatever Gabriel had suggested, but she supposed it was possible if they were all as handsome and exciting as Gabriel was—if they could make their women feel the way Gabriel had made her feel.
He was handsome. It was a pure pleasure just to look at him. To touch him and be touched by him was beyond the most wonderful thing she’d ever experienced before. She hadn’t expect to cum, as he referred to it, after that first time, but she had, which was a very welcome surprise for her when she’d only agreed for his sake. Mostly.
Her sex was sore by the time they’d coupled the third time and she was so drained from her experience that the flight back to the campsite wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the first time had been. It was still scary. She just couldn’t arouse enough energy to reach the peak of terror she had before.
Contrary to her hope that the entire episode would remain their secret—and she thought Gabriel had been hopeful of the same thing or he wouldn’t have suggested that she wait until everyone was asleep—their return didn’t escape notice. Gabriel had seemed reluctant to release her immediately once they’d settled on the ground and she’d enjoyed the embrace that had changed from security to keep her from falling to one that seemed purely for pleasure. He’d stiffened after a moment, however, releasing her slowly and when she’d pulled away she’d discovered he was looking at something over her head.
She started when she discovered the shadowy figure behind them and then felt a moment of panic when she recognized the figure as the woman who’d come with the supplies—walking beside the scary thing that had strange, metal legs and a flattened body but no head. The woman’s eyes narrowed when Lexa met her gaze and she felt a wave of anger that almost seemed physical. Glancing from the woman to Gabriel, she saw that Gabriel was focused completely on the angel woman and dismay filled her.
She wasn’t certain what it was that passed between them, but she suddenly felt like the outsider she knew herself to be rather than the appreciated lover. Without a word, feeling as if she’d vanished completely from notice, she headed back to her pallet and settled there, listening for angry voices she never heard.
She was still straining to hear the argument she expected when she fell asleep.
* * * *
Gah-re-al knew that the idea he’d hatched had far more to do with a desire to be alone with Lexa again than the search for answers to some of the questions the udai had about the world they’d colonized. He’d managed to convince himself that it would serve his purpose to claim that was his motive, however, when he was questioned by his superiors—and he would be—and he discovered that that was all he cared about at the moment. It was reasonable even though his actual motive wasn’t.
And he might just get away with it without the risk of flushing his career down the toilet.
“There’s something I want to show you.”
Lexa looked at Gabriel in surprise when he spoke. She’d been so focused on her thoughts she hadn’t noticed that it was him that had moved up to walk beside her.
Well … and her misery. As much as she’d enjoyed the night they spent together, she was paying for it in pain now, aching almost as much as if she’d been in fight rather than spent half the night rutting … and enjoyed every minute of it. She thought it might not be so bad if she’d had more sleep before she’d been rousted from her pallet to march again, but she’d had just enough time for unused muscles to get stiff and sore.
A surge of pleasure instantly rose inside of her. “What?” she asked hopefully.
He looked amused, as if he knew she’d immediately jumped to the
conclusion that he wanted her in that way again. She felt her face heating with discomfort.
“I’d have to carry you. It would take much too long to reach the place on foot,” Gah-re-al said, deciding to ignore the look that told him she was thinking about the trip they’d taken the night before. The trip might even take longer than he thought it would, he added mentally, since he’d be carrying her and he was already sore from carrying her the night before. She was a tiny thing—which was why he hadn’t considered it would be any great feat before—and far too thin even for her small frame, but they were still a good distance from his goal and the trip the night before had taken more out of him than he’d expected.
Well, he’d had fucking on his mind, he reminded himself wryly. He hadn’t actually spent a lot of time thinking about the logistics of getting her there and back when she’d have to depend on him to carry her.
Fear flickered in her eyes. “Oh.” She swallowed convulsively several times.
He shook his head at her. “On my honor, I would not allow anything to happen to you. I know it scares you, but I think you’ll think this is worth seeing.”
Lexa nodded jerkily instead of flatly refusing. It warmed her that he had promised to protect her, but it didn’t make her any less afraid. “When?”
“Right now.”
“Oh. Well … uh … what is it?”
He chuckled, drawing the notice of the people closest to them—or their gazes. Lexa was pretty sure they’d already been straining to hear the conversation without being too obvious. “It’ll be better if I just show you.”
Dismay flickered through Lexa. Her stomach was already knotting and churning at the prospect of going high into the sky again, but she wanted the opportunity to go with him again, even if it had nothing to do with coupling, and she just couldn’t bring herself to refuse him.
“Ok,” she replied finally.
He moved closer. Taking her arms, he lifted them to his shoulders and told her to lace her fingers together behind his head for a better hold as she had the night before. He wrapped one arm around her upper back then and reached down to cup her buttocks with the other, lifting her off the ground. She tightened her arms when she heard the swooshing sound of his wings as they stirred the air around them, squeezing her eyes tightly closed.
She would never have thought she was capable of maintaining fear for such a long time. Whatever it was that Gabriel was determined to show her was clearly a very long way away, though. They stopped repeatedly so that he could rest and stretch. She didn’t object. She was just glad to have her feet firmly on the ground for short periods of time, but it scared the hell out of her every time they went airborne again.
* * * *
Lexa shivered as she stared at the sight before her, feeling her flesh creep and her belly float upwards with the sensation of falling. “What is it?” she whispered.
Gah-re-al had been studying her rather than the excavation, trying to gauge her reaction, but at that he turned to stare at the remains of the city below them. “It was a city once.”
Lexa whipped a sharp look at him. “The city?” she whispered in a strange voice.
Her tone instantly caught Gah-re-al’s attention. “You know about this?”
She shook her head slightly without dragging her gaze from the panorama that stretched out below. “Sir saw the city one time. He said he went there with his parents. He described it but ….”
“A city like this?”
Lexa gaped at him. “There was more than one?”
“I’m guessing quite a few more,” Gah-re-al responded quietly. “My people have found the remains of several.”
Lexa frowned. “Who lived here?”
Gah-re-al hesitated, but he was convinced Lexa was descended from the builders. He still doubted the majority of the humans—if any—were, but Lexa was different and it went beyond the unusual coloring. She’d risked her life to help him when he’d been attacked by the cougar. That wasn’t something someone completely focused on their own survival would have done. They would’ve run in the hope that he would keep the cat occupied long enough for them to escape, he thought wryly. She had the nobility of spirit one expected of a higher race. “Your people.”
Lexa sent him a disbelieving look.
Gah-re-al shrugged. “At least that’s what my people believe—the khabler. The word in your language was archeologist. They study ancient cultures by digging up and examining what they’ve left behind. It’s been … difficult to put together the civilization that built these cities we’ve found—very few remains of the inhabitants. The skeletal remains they have found were definitely human, but there’s no way to say with absolute certainty whether they were the people that lived here or ….” He broke off. Her people had become scavengers if they really were descendants of the original inhabitants. The ‘villages’ where he’d found all of those he’d found thus far were like the one below them—built long before the people that now occupied them and crumbling to dust around them.
Lexa frowned. “But you don’t believe it?”
He shrugged. “You tell me. Did your people build these cities? And if so, how is it that no one seems to remember? Or to remember how to do any of the things that your people once knew how to do?”
A mixture of shame and resentment flickered through Lexa. She wasn’t completely certain of why beyond the fact that it seemed that Gabriel thought they were too primitive and backwards to ever have done anything like—or even close to—what his people had.
It seemed to her that he—probably all of his people—just wanted to see her people as beneath them. Why? So they felt justified in taking over what didn’t belong to them?
Despite her resentment, images flickered through her mind of the village the people at the encampment had come from. It hadn’t looked much different from any other village she’d seen in her wanderings and, with great reluctance, it struck her that they were a sad, sorry lot.
Why had no one gone back to the great cities they’d built, she wondered abruptly? How had they sunk so low?
The olders like Sir had to have remembered many things from before.
But then it was a rare thing to see olders, she realized, and even Sir hadn’t been able to do many of the things he remembered from before. He’d said his garden didn’t grow well because the earth wasn’t the same, and maybe that was true and why no one had been able to make things like before? Maybe it was because the ones who should have remembered had forgotten? And maybe it was just because everyone was too busy trying to stay alive to do anything else?
“Would you like to see more? It’s safe enough.”
She wanted to. At the same time, it made her feel strangely sad, and afraid, and ashamed. Finally, she nodded, though, her curiosity overcoming her reluctance.
That time when Gabriel held her tightly and flew down to the hard street below them she scarcely noticed the discomfort. She was too busy trying to see what was below her for a change.
The street, she saw when Gabriel alit, was the hard, black ribbon Sir had described—sort of. The black rock was fractured all over, like the surface of a frozen pond and there were great pits and small pits everywhere. As she stared into the distance, though, she could see that it did look the way he’d described it—wide and very long, seeming to go on forever.
It was even filled with the things Sir had described as cars. At least, that was what she thought they must be even though they were mostly crushed and flattened. On either side, there were tall buildings like he’d described, too.
It had to be ‘the city’! Sir had said it was a very long way from their farm.
She’d thought of it as a story when she was a child and he’d told them about it—something magical and fanciful and not really real. When she’d grown up, she’d decided that must have been what the stories were, something he’d made up to entertain them because she had walked a very long way and she’d never seen anything like the place he described—not before.
Maybe.
What if it was just that his parents had found a place like this and taken him there?
“Sir saw ‘the city’ when he was a child,” she said after a while. “He described it to us.”
“What was the city called?”
Lexa blinked at him blankly. “The city.”
He frowned. “You said your father saw it? Not your mother?”
Uneasiness flickered through Lexa. She always felt uneasy when he questioned her. She wasn’t certain why it made her feel threatened somehow, but she didn’t know why he wanted to know the things he asked and it was the possibility that it was ‘wrong’ to tell him that made her uncomfortable. “I don’t think so,” she finally admitted reluctantly. “She was born before, I think, but she didn’t talk about it like Sir.”
The Lawgivers: Gabriel Page 17
