Alliance Forged

by Kylie Griffin

  “Just for now, accept it, Varian,” Kymora whispered.

  Her words were like a release and permission all rolled into one. He exhaled a shuddering breath, and in between one heartbeat and the next, peacefulness filled him. Where she touched him, it bled into him through the pores of his skin. The deeper he breathed, the faster it rushed through his veins. He almost groaned with the sensation.

  “This is temporary, Kymora.” He exhaled a shuddering breath. “It’ll disappear once I step outside your door….”

  “Then I hope you’ll find me or send me a message, and I’ll come to you. It’s what friends do. They’re there when you need them, Varian.”

  “But you have your Temple duties….”

  A smile curved her lips as her fingers eased the frown on his brow. “Let’s live in this moment, and worry about everything else later.”

  She made it too easy to comply. That he sat naked on a cold tile floor while the most influential spiritual leader in all human territory knelt at his feet didn’t seem to matter. It would later, but for now Varian wanted to ignore the future and enjoy the present.

  He reached to cup her cheek, chest aching at the tear tracks marking it, and smoothed his thumb over them. No one, except perhaps for Hesia, had ever cried over him before.

  “You care too much,” he stated, grimacing at the hoarseness of his voice.

  “I’ve been accused of that many times. It’s just who I am, Varian.” Kymora smiled and placed her hand over his.

  A simple gesture but one that tugged something loose inside him. She stroked his knuckles, caressing each one with her fingers as if she were memorizing every crease and indent. While her touch wasn’t sexual in nature, there was a sensual element to her actions. One his nerves were beginning to fire and come alive with. A look at her face assured him she wasn’t doing it deliberately.

  He wished she would.

  He liked her hands on him. He’d never thought any woman would make him feel the way she did. It was contentment, satisfaction, hunger, desire, and lust all tangled together. His appetite for them all was a growing addiction.

  He wanted more.

  Varian twisted his hand under hers, gripped her wrist, and drew it to his mouth. He placed a kiss on the underside of her arm, where the skin was soft and warm. A faint flush stained Kymora’s cheeks, and her scent deepened into a rich floral sweetness. The serene expression on her face changed to raw anticipation.

  “I like you touching me, Varian.” Her scent confirmed her statement, yet she made no move toward him like he thought she might.

  Was she waiting for confirmation of the direction he wanted to go with her? Where did he want to take this moment?

  Images and sensations crowded his head, vivid and explicit. Some he’d already experienced with her, others he didn’t even know if they were possible. Fast and hot, arousal raced through him, a powerful jolt that hardened him in a matter of seconds. He swallowed a groan.

  Varian released it as he reached for her, unable to resist. He buried his hands in her hair, tilting her head up so he could place his mouth on hers and taste. Her lips opened and her sweetness exploded on his tongue.

  Merciful Mother, she was nectar and honey, spice and heat.

  The contact between them could have been minutes or just seconds. He didn’t know or care. Not when her tongue twined with his, tasting, taking, teasing him to the point of breathlessness. She made a soft sound, like a sigh, and the firestorm of need seething inside him erupted.

  He wrapped his arms around her, and without losing contact with her mouth, pulled her over him so that she straddled his hips. He groaned as her weight settled on top of him. There was no way she could miss what he wanted, not with his erection caught between them.

  Sliding his hands from her waist to her behind, he spread his fingers and cupped the taut curves of her rear, savoring the smooth heat of them through the folds of her robe. He gripped her hard so that he could feel the heat of her through her dress, then worked her in a slow, hot gliding motion against him.

  Kymora cried out, breaking their kiss, and a small tremor traveled the length of her body. Varian sucked in a shocked breath, as unprepared as her for the delicious heat that seared him. He could smell her desire, a concentrated, heavy scent he tasted in their next kiss.

  When she started tugging at the folds of her robe, he stilled. “What are you doing?”

  She issued a breathless chuckle. “I thought that would be obvious.” Her hands shook as she plucked at the tie. “I want to feel you skin to skin.”

  It dawned on him then that they were still on the floor of her bathing room. He grimaced. Cold tiles were no place for her or what they were doing. “Put your arms around my neck.”

  Once upright, he bent to grasp the hem of her robe and pulled it over her head and let it drop to join his clothes on the floor. The pleasure of just looking at her held him spellbound for several long seconds.

  She stood before him, her skin flushed with a rosy hue, her long hair settling around her shoulders in a dark wavy curtain. Her breathing was as erratic as his and drew his attention to her breasts. It took every ounce of control not to reach out and cup them, to feel their weight, to stroke the dark-pointed tips of her nipples.

  He wanted to savor the pleasure he’d brought her. The swollen wetness of her lips, the hard thumping of her heart, the fragrant heat glistening in the curls that covered her sex.

  Sinking back onto one knee, he pressed a kiss to the curved flare of one hip. “Mother of Light, you’re so beautiful.”

  As he closed his teeth over her flesh in a gentle bite, her fingers threaded through his hair and dug into his scalp. He banded his arms around her hips and back and scooped her up against him.

  Kymora gave a startled cry as he lifted her from the ground and headed out of the bathing room. Her hands gripped his shoulders and squeezed. “Where are we going?”

  Besides the door he’d entered through to come into her apartment, there were three others, all closed. “Where’s your bedroom?”

  “Second on the right.” She buried her head into the crook of his neck, her breath hot against his skin. As he started in that direction, her lips pressed against his throat.

  The sensation made him growl and she laughed softly in his ear. By the time he’d entered her room and kicked the door closed with his heel, she’d sampled both sides of his neck and left a stinging bite of her own just above the hollow of his throat.

  Varian dropped her onto her bed, grinning at the small scream she issued as he let her go. She landed with a bounce, then huffed as she levered herself up on her elbows.

  “You did that on purpose!” she accused him.

  He placed a knee on the end of her bed and a hand on the soft blanket near her ankle. With a gentle nudge he parted her legs.

  “Why would I”—he began, and starting at her feet, kissed and licked and sucked and bit his way up her calves and thighs—“want to bruise this body?” Past her hips. Her stomach. “I can think…” Her breasts. Her throat. “… of so many other”—her soft moan thrilled him—“more desirable ways”—she was squirming beneath him as he reached her lips—“to mark you.”

  Her scent was so rich and thick it made his mouth water. Their uneven breaths mingled, and from the corner of his eye, her hands fisted the blanket into wrinkled wads. He was surprised the heat pouring off both of them didn’t set the fabric alight.

  “I can sense how much you like teasing me.” A sensual smile curved Kymora’s lips. She slid one leg up the side of his, then locked it around his hips. In a single motion, she flipped him onto his back so their positions were reversed, the action so smooth it reminded him she trained daily in combat. “You can’t feel how much I like it, but I can show you.”

  She angled her hips so the heat of her core pressed against the base of his erection, an intimate meeting of flesh. A slow drag of her hips along his length startled a groan out of him. Her wet heat coated him.

 
Lady’s Breath!

  With a hiss, he arched upward. “Kymora…”

  Her kiss cut him off. She nibbled at his lips, tongue sneaking out to taste them, the depths of his mouth. She was fire and sweetness and desire. And focused totally on him, on driving him to the edge with everything she did.

  Her teeth closed on the soft lobe of his ear, an erotic nip that twisted the temperature inside him so high he felt like he’d been thrust into a potter’s furnace. A growl erupted from his chest; his hands clamped on her shoulders. He gazed up at her, then froze, stiffening with shock.

  Kymora’s skin and everything around her had turned a light shade of crimson.

  Chapter 33

  VARIAN’S fingers dug into Kymora’s upper arms, and beneath her he stilled. A hoarse cry exploded from his lips even as she sensed the powerful surge in energy coming from deep within him.

  “Kymora, get off me!” His voice had dropped, deepened into the familiar gravelly growl associated with battle rush.

  Her breath caught as strands of sensations whipped at her mind, a maelstrom of rage, desire, loneliness, hunger, sorrow, and agony, all shadowed by a cloud of desperation and need.

  “No, wait, Varian.” She gripped her legs against his flanks to stop him throwing her off. “Let me feel this. Don’t move.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you!” Varian’s panic slammed into her.

  She clasped his head between her hands. “Focus on my voice.” His hands clamped around her wrists. His breath heaved in and out of his lungs. “I can sense your other half. It wants something.”

  “It’s angry.” His voice came through gritted teeth.

  “Yes, I know.” Her heart thundered in her chest, but she kept her voice calm. “Kiss me.” His head shook from side to side. “Trust me. Do it. Now!”

  Their lips locked, the kiss lacked the heat of their previous ones, but it served the purpose she intended. She felt pressure against her aura. Pushing, straining.

  “It’s reaching… for this,” she whispered against his mouth. “Our pleasure. Our joy. Can you feel it?”

  Her heart constricted as she understood the why of what was going on. The Lady had designed all Na’Chi to have both human and Na’Reish traits, but She’d never intended them to live one without the other. Circumstances and thoughtless behavior had created the problem Varian, and the other scouts, now faced.

  He’d rejected part of himself for so long, only drawing on it when he needed it to protect or ensure the survival of his people, and now all the emotions associated with those actions were mostly negative.

  A child raised on harsh discipline would crave the gentler emotions, but having never experienced them, it made sense he would feel threatened when confronted by them. Controlling and twisting that particular situation to something more familiar, yet ultimately harmful, was logical. For him.

  It explained the anger and more destructive feelings Varian’s other half showed in times of high emotion, but it also accounted for the desperate need buried deep beneath them.

  Feed it and the balance would be restored.

  Kymora laughed softly. It made sense. She lifted up on her knees and reached down to clasp Varian’s erection. His grip on her wrist tightened.

  “Trust me, Varian. Focus on what I’m doing and what you’re feeling as we make love.”

  Fear stained his aura; she could sense it swirling around the edges of the maelstrom inside him. She waited, not willing to push him into this. Lady help her, she was asking a lot, but what waited on the other side of the storm was something she hoped would be worth the risk.

  Varian’s hold gradually slackened. “Just go… slow.”

  “I will.” Her stomach fluttered with nerves as she took a deep breath. “Remember, focus on us and only us.”

  As she brought the head of his erection to the heat between her legs, she slid him against her, gently at first, then when his hips started thrusting upward, with more friction. Her mouth dried at the hard, steely heat of him gliding against her. She was wet, covering him and her fingers with her cream.

  “All right?” she asked, the pleasure shortening her breath.

  “There’s fire in your touch, Kymora.” Varian’s hands dropped to her hips, then skated over the curve of her rear to grip the flesh behind her thighs. “It brands me.”

  His words scorched her. She swallowed hard, her whole body heating, tightening, needing something more. While she knew what that more was, actually knowing and doing were two separate things.

  Biting her lip, she settled herself against him and lowered herself down. Her mouth parted on a gasp at the blunt feel of him stretching her, the sensation unfamiliar. With every slow push, her body wept to accommodate him. There was heat and pleasure from working him a little deeper every time.

  Against her mind, she felt Varian’s aura pulsing, twisting, one moment giving off a thousand sparks, the next sucking inward like a vortex. A struggle between desire and the need to cause pain.

  Varian fought to keep his gaze on Kymora. Every gentle movement of her hips, the incredible heat of being taken by her, the way her thighs trembled as they spread over his hips, tested his resolve to keep his eyes open.

  Concentrating on their combined pleasure was one of the toughest battles he’d ever encountered. Her every movement threatened to shatter his control, yet to lose it would mean endangering her.

  Through gritted teeth, he growled, “This burns all the way to my soul.” The words helped ground him. He stretched a hand up to cup her arm and steady her. A fine sheen of sweat dampened her skin. “I didn’t think it would be this good.”

  Kymora smiled and her fingers dug into his forearm. “Good? Mother, this is more than I think I can handle….” Her husky voice trailed off on a laugh that hitched and altered into a moan.

  On the next rise, she hesitated a moment, then dropped down on him fast. She cried out, a sharp painful sound. Something inside her gave as the friction whipped like lightning along his shaft and straight up his spine. His head jerked back and the crimson world around him flared.

  Vision swimming, lungs working like a pair of bellows, Varian forced himself to focus once more on Kymora. She remained seated on him, unmoving, her brow creased in a frown, a slight grimace on her face. His heart thudded hard as he realized the significance of her last action.

  “Breathe, Kymora.” His gruff reminder drew a shaky smile from her. She was tight around him, furnace hot. “I need to touch you.”

  She gave a jerky nod. With one hand, he parted her wet folds and stroked her with his thumb. She shuddered and her inner muscles clamped tight around him. Her hips rolled toward him.

  “More, please,” she gasped.

  Watching her shiver and respond to what he was doing continued to help him focus. Slowly she started moving again, rocking against him, falling and rising. Her soft cries grew louder.

  Varian tried to let her set the rhythm, but the heat of her consumed him. He couldn’t help thrusting up to meet her every other stroke. He lost himself in the incredible sensation of her muscles gripping and releasing him. The sounds, the scents, the burning tension tightening between them centered him. Then there was nothing except pure pleasure rushing through him. At the edge of his hearing, Kymora cried out, her body convulsed against his, and she peaked with him.

  Their mutual pleasure took him hard, surging over him like a wave of fire. One after another. Each stronger than the last, then finally ebbing.

  When he regained some sense of his surroundings, he discovered a warm, limp weight draped across his body. Kymora. His lips curved. The heavy spiciness of their scents mingled, a satisfying accompaniment to the satiated exhaustion afflicting his limbs.

  Varian blinked, breath catching. “I see color….”

  And he did. The inky blackness of Kymora’s hair, the rich deep blue of the blanket, the stark whiteness of the walls. His throat tightened.

  Kymora’s hand pressed against his damp chest. “And what do you fe
el inside?”

  Focusing inward, he was startled to discover there was no surging darkness, no tearing fury or anger threatening to consume him, no hollow emptiness waiting within. Just a salve of contentment spread over his soul.

  How had she known what to do? The gift she’d given him was overwhelming.

  “Breathe, Varian.” There was a smile in her voice.

  With a shaking hand, he cupped the back of her head, unable to find the words to speak.

  “There’s no need, Varian,” she whispered. “Not when I can feel your heart.”

  Chapter 34

  “YOU’RE thinking too hard.” Kymora paused in brushing Varian’s hair.

  Kneeling behind him on the bed gave her a height advantage. A quick pull to free her dress from under her knees, and she looped her arms around his shoulders to hug him. His shirt still carried a light herbal wash odor, but beneath it was Varian’s unique fragrance. A clean, outdoor, woodsy scent.

  “You’re not having second thoughts about this dinner are you?”

  His large, warm hand closed over both of hers. “I won’t say I’m comfortable with the idea, but I said I’d go.” He took a deep breath. “I need to see Lisella.” Kymora nuzzled his cheek as pain slashed through his aura. “And I should also talk to the other scouts.”

  Kymora’s heart squeezed tight. There was an edge of vulnerability in his tone, but in typical Varian style, he was preparing to take action to protect those he loved. She truly loved his strength and determination.

  “Since Arek discovered the secret of our shared history with the Na’Reish in Zataan’s journal, Kalan’s had our historians searching the archives for more information about the times before the first war.” She returned to brushing his hair. “He wants to know more about what life was like when we all lived together. Human and Na’Reish and Na’Chi. That information might also explain more about you and the other Na’Chi.”

  “Don’t you think that past Councilors who kept the secret from everyone would have made sure nothing remained?”