He sighed, turned over, and wrapped his arm around her waist, but never fully wakened. She settled down beside him, head resting on his chest. She was working overtime to keep her dreamy, romantic heart from making more of this than there was. Yes, astounding sex, but he was still an alien, and this was his planet, not hers. Something she would be wise to remember. Who could blame her for getting a little carried away after everything? She was a smart female, though. She would regain her focus and get herself and her friends free of this experience once and for all. She wouldn’t let some great fucking cloud her thinking. She just wouldn’t.
“What are you thinking about?”
He startled her, and she felt instantly guilty. “Nothing. Just lying here.”
He turned to his side and propped his head up on his hand. “After all this, you’re going to lie to me?”
This cut her deep, the vulnerability in his eyes especially. “I was reminding myself not to get lost to some good sex. I still want to go home.”
“I see.” He rolled over and got out of bed, leaving her feeling emptier than she ever had before. He searched for a moment for his pants. She remembered earlier exploring his entire body, her fingers running over the six-pack abs, her mouth encircling his cock. She was getting aroused again just thinking about it. That was another big difference with the sex. It wasn’t just that it was perfection in the making but that she could be ready again and again at just a glance or a fleeting touch.
“And now you aren’t even going to answer me?”
She blinked, realizing he’d been speaking and she’d been lost in a memory. “What? I was...completely zoned out. What did you say?” She was ridiculously glad that he hadn’t re-dressed.
He sat back down on the mattress beside her. He reached out to touch her, then stopped himself. “I don’t want to be just someone you fucked while you had nothing better to do.”
She realized now that she had hurt him. She sat up and tucked her knees beneath her. “We both know I can’t stay here. I shouldn’t be here in the first place, but you aren’t ever going to just be some guy I fucked. This afternoon was…I never knew sex could be like that. I never felt such a deep connection with anyone as I did with you when we…” She got suddenly embarrassed by the raw animalistic quality of their lovemaking. “Earlier.”
She knew instantly that she’d given him the upper hand. His half-smile confirmed it. He ran his fingers down her cheek and over her jaw, tipping her head back so she was forced to look him in the eye.
“Earlier?” He cupped her face in his hands and delivered an erotic, slow-burning kiss directly to her lips. “You mean when I did that?”
She whimpered while she nodded. He ran his hands over her back to her waist, then maneuvered her into his lap. He was hard again, and she wanted him inside her.
He slipped his hand between them, finding her clit and stroking it. “Or when I did this?”
Within a minute she was writhing and on the brink of another orgasm. He picked her up slightly and set her back down on top of him, sliding her pussy down over him until he was fully sheathed within her.
“Or perhaps, when I did this.” He put both hands on her waist and began sliding her body up and down his shaft. He was so large that he filled her completely and every movement he made inside her only brought her closer to another powerful crest. “Is that what you meant, Naveenah?”
“Uh-huh.”
He sucked the curve of her neck, licking over the small bite wound from earlier, one of several now marking her body. He bit into her shoulder then lowered his head to her breast, sucking the nipple into his mouth, then torturing her with a mixture of suckling and tongue flicks until she was about to scream.
She joined in on her own, no longer needing his guidance to ride him. She clamped her thighs against his as if they were the barrel of a horse and began a fluid dance that rose and fell while she squeezed down hard on his cock with her inner muscles. Within seconds he was groaning and begging her for more.
He clasped her ass with a hard smack. His head dropped back. “Good God, female, you’re going to kill me!”
She quickened her pace, not that she wouldn’t have liked to draw this out, but she was about to come and wanted to make damn sure he did as well. A fraction of a second later she got her wish as she felt him come inside her, felt the warm fluid that was his essence fill her. She felt her pussy grasp him like a fist as her own orgasm attacked her.
“Oh.” She rode him up and down again. “My.” And again, her ass slapping down hard on his thighs as her orgasm reached its apex. “God!” She wanted to impale herself on him, bind herself to him in some inseparable way.
He fell back on the bed, pulling her down with him. Her mind was so foggy, a part of her was fighting to remember not to get so lost in him, but most of her was yelling, “Shut up!”
“Swear to God, female, I’ve never felt anything like this in my life.”
He was panting, but so was she. He pushed back her hair and kissed her lips so tenderly. The sun was gone as she looked out into the trees. Darkness had fallen. She really had no way of knowing how long they’d been there, making love and sleeping in each other’s arms, other than the telltale darkness outside. She wondered when he would leave her, because surely he had things to do, and she could use the time to straighten out her lust-filled head.
“Nikolai.” She swished her fingers through his hair and over his sweet lips. “What will we do now? What will happen with your brother?”
“Ah, mi sienta, we are in a rough spot there, are we not?” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “For now, we must keep this a secret. Can you do that?”
She nearly answered with a no before thinking, but she luckily stopped herself. None of the rules she knew applied here. She had to remember she was still a prisoner, she was still on an alien planet that she knew nothing about, and currently she had one ally. It would serve her best not to alienate him.
“I’ll do whatever you think is best.”
He kissed her again, then rose from the bed. “It’s late. I wish more than anything I could stay with you tonight, but we are to be very careful for now.”
He dressed. She felt cold and let down, although rationally there was no need. Her higher brain functions seemed to return, and she sprung up on the bed.
“Wait a minute, you can’t leave me like this!”
After replacing his boots, he gave her a wicked smile, leaned in, and kissed her.
“Sienta, I have taken care of you numerous times today.”
She slapped his shoulder. “That is not what I meant! You took my clothes. I have nothing else to wear, and it’s getting cold in here.”
He seemed to consider her request for a moment then pushed his shirt back into his pants.
“I will have better bedding and some robes sent up for you. Tomorrow I will find you some suitable clothing.”
“You’re coming back tomorrow?” She felt ridiculously needy in that moment.
He grazed her jawline with his knuckles. “Nothing could stop me.” He placed another soft yet searing kiss on her, but pulled away all too soon. “I have to leave.”
He walked to the door. She grabbed her towel again and, once wrapped, joined him. After so long having to be strong for everyone else, it felt really nice to just be with another person who was looking out for her.
“Tomorrow.” He kissed her forehead. “I promise.”
He slipped out the door and closed it behind him, leaving Naveenah wondering if she really would see him again or not.
Chapter Six
Antares felt exhilarated as he walked into his suite of rooms in the old hotel. He stripped off his coat and dropped it on a chair. After lighting a few candles, he spread the thin, delicate papers across his desk before sitting. He could look at these diagrams all night. They mesmerized him. As a people, they had so much to overcome, but on this his designers had gone above and beyond.
It will be brilliant!
“You seem pleased with yourself, brother.”
Antares looked up to see Nikolai seated in a chair across the room. Apparently he’d been there this whole time. This surprised the king, but his brother’s presence pleased him. He just couldn’t figure out why he’d been sitting here in the dark. “I appreciate your willingness to spare candle wax, brother, but you could have lit a few while you waited.”
“I had no need of light.”
His brother seemed brooding as usual, but the topic drew his mind back to the largest dilemma he was currently facing. Though the day had been very productive, one large obstacle still loomed in his way.
“You know, that is one of the biggest issues with this project. To repair the electrical grid in the old cities will require materials we don’t currently have. There’s not much left on the planet worth anything in the stellar barter system. On a positive note, I was out at the lake today and we may be able to do something with our fishing market.” He sighed, reality settling on him. “If people can overlook the whole Vraigor thing and trust our fish to be poison-free.”
He pushed the thought away and forced his attention back to the issue of the moment. “Then to plumb and wire out to the castle…” He rubbed his chin. “I just don’t think we’ll be able to manage that in my lifetime.”
He’d gone over this again and again in his mind. In his heart he had made the decision—he was not going to rebuild the cities. Rather than restore Vaturia to her former glory, Antares had decided to reform her. Make her something more organic, more meaningful. Something beautiful that they could all be proud of, something stronger than she had been before, something alien races like the Vraigor would have no interest in.
“Why, Antares?” Nikolai stood and moved to the desk. “Why is this so damned important to you? Why can’t you see you’re trying to save a dying dog? It’s over already. We should cut our losses and leave. Start new somewhere else, somewhere there is hope. Somewhere there is a future!”
Antares critically viewed what would be his new suite of rooms in the castle, purposefully ignoring his brother’s rant. He was in too good of a mood to be brought down. The entire north side of the castle would be rooms for the people who worked in, or served, the castle in some way. His suites would be on the south side, facing the ocean. He still needed to figure in guest suites. Perhaps he needed to add another wing to the north. He wanted to make certain there would be enough space for expansion of the realm.
“Oh and what amazing news!” Antares clapped his hands, remembering the moment he’d seen it. “There’s farmland in the surrounding valleys. More than enough to provide food and medicinal herbs. It’s like a gift from the gods and I took it as a sign that the project will be blessed.”
Nikolai slammed his hands on the papers, so frail they tore in one corner from his contact. “Damn it, Antares! Answer me!”
Antares rounded the desk and had his brother pinned to the wall by his throat faster than Nikolai expected. “Do you know how rare paper like this is these days?” He pointed behind him to the desk. “This is important to me, Nikolai! Why isn’t that enough for you?” He released his brother, royally pissed at him for succeeding in fouling his mood.
“Antares, we were invaded, slaughtered, our technology all but eradicated, our planet—”
“The planet is rebounding! Can you not see the trees on the mountains, the flowers in the meadows, the fish in the streams? That is proof that we can do the same.”
Nikolai’s jaw tensed. “Maybe we could have sprung back by now as well, but rather than attempting to rebuild their lives, the past ten years our people have been embroiled in a civil war you started. They are disheartened, hungry, missing the life they once knew, and most would leave this planet in a heartbeat if they knew of the small fleet you’re keeping hidden.”
“You never talk with the people, Nikolai. I do. You just put your own feelings on them, but I walk among the villages and visit the camps set up in the old city buildings. And my civil war, as you put it, was a necessary evil. You seem to forget the corrupt council of the Hruang and what it was doing to the people, or perhaps a little thing called the occupation of the Vraigor! This planet lay in ruins before I did anything. My resolve to bring healing to the people of this planet guides my every thought and deed. The people do not want to leave. This is their home. Many of them have said to me that anywhere they went, they would have to start over, so why not do it here? Here where they were born and raised, where they understand the culture and the traditions.”
He clasped his brother’s shoulders.
“Nikolai, why do you refuse to see? I have longed for this moment all my life. When I was a boy, I spent much time sick, reading. Stories of kings and queens, horses and magic—books that our mother loved—saved me. As a boy, all I wanted was to live in those worlds, and now, good God, Nikolai, now I can! Not only live in it, but I am the king. These people need and respect me, and I them. I fought for them, for our land and our way of life, and won. Yes, we have had a long, tortuous journey to this point, but I believe in this like a calling from the great realm of Chibelle. I believe in it with all that I am.”
Nikolai growled beneath his breath and walked away.
“I do find it very hard to ignore your passion, Antares, but I have little faith in the existence of such a place as Chibelle and I just cannot bring myself to share your vision. It will be decades before power can be restored to the cities, and indoor plumbing was rather a convenient luxury, I personally think. So few of us remain. Last count I heard was seventeen thousand. We used to be a planet of billions! Our females no longer bear us children, so that number can only dwindle…”
“But we might have luck with the humans. We can’t forget that.”
Nikolai’s entire face hardened. Something nearly akin to hatred flashed in his brother’s eyes, only for a moment, then was gone, so fast Antares had to push the notion off as conjecture on his part. “And if we do not? Then what? We search for another race and kidnap their citizens? By the way, the female you are supposed to be seducing needs clothing and perhaps a room with unbroken furniture. Did you even give her a second thought before you went running off this morning?”
Antares tried to hide his guilt. In truth he had not…Okay, in real truth he had, and then he decided he’d just run out to the construction site first. Then it had grown dark.
Okay, in real, total truth…he’d been avoiding her.
“Nikolai, we are not being fair to the female. My first love is always going to be the planet, the people. No female, not even one of our own, can compete with that. This castle build is the most exciting thing I have ever experienced in my life, and I am going to be spending all my time out there. If we are to convince her to stay, to mate with us, she needs more than fleeting moments with a man. She needs someone who will dote on her. Get to know her, understand her ways. I cannot do that.”
Antares tried to think of a delicate way to put his request, but there probably wasn’t one. He just hoped Nikolai wouldn’t slug him, but he’d thought on it off and on all day, and it made the most sense.
“Why don’t you mate with her, brother? You are now of the royal house just as am I. The priority must be to establish a new royal bloodline. If she becomes pregnant, the child could still be the heir and we could make the people see the reasoning behind it all.”
In the flickering light he couldn’t be certain, but he thought he saw a flash of panic cross his brother’s features. He knew it was ultimately unfair to ask his brother to devote so much time to this, but he’d checked with his council this morning and there was no news on the Cassarian females. He hadn’t told Nikolai yet, but it seemed all the Cassarian females, along with the men they were supposed to mate with, had completely disappeared. There was talk that perhaps the Cassarians had re
ached their people and the group had left the planet, but there was really no way to tell for sure as there was much of the planet where they simply did not have the ability to track. The only thing that was certain was at the moment, the human females were their only hope left for reviving the race.
The problem was, if all the Vaturian males responded to the idea of mating with them the way he and Nikolai were, the idea might die out itself and they’d be back to the drawing board.
He wouldn’t think about that now. He still had hope the humans would bear them young. The bigger problem was who would mate with the female currently living halfway down the hall from him.
Nikolai was clearly formatting a response in his head and working on keeping his temper. Antares could always tell when his brother was about to blow. His shoulders rose, his neck disappeared, his entire body tensed, and often, he made fists at his thighs. A poker face, his brother had not.
Watching Nikolai, a pang of guilt struck. In the end, he was king. It was his responsibility.
“Antares. Perhaps I spoke too quickly. Perhaps I could make an attempt to seduce the human.”
Antares waved his hand at the idea and returned to sit at his desk. “No, Nikolai, I’ve asked enough of you. You’re right, this is my responsibility. I will see to her clothing and furnishings this evening, and tomorrow, I shall take her with me to the build. We’ll share some time together. Who knows, our species can’t be that different. Maybe I will grow to tolerate…like! Like the female.”
“Antares, really. There is no need. You were right in the first place. You have a heavy burden on your shoulders trying to get our planet thriving once more. What have I to do? Nothing, really.”
Antares looked up, appreciating the sacrifice his brother was attempting to make, but the decision had been made. He would take his responsibility and he would mate with the female. Perhaps they would even both enjoy it.
To Love a King [The Reformation 1] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) Page 6
