Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

  Odan squeezed her shoulder. "Lara, you are worth something to Icarus. Your contributions are valuable. Don't let the committee make you doubt your importance here."

  "Too late. I had no idea they thought so little of me."

  Odan cursed. "They don't. That's not the point. The point is, the next mating cycle will begin to produce offspring who could be closer to full Icarian than any of their parents.

  There's a belief that proper mate pairing will eventually breed all human traits back out of the population."

  "Why do I make such a difference? Why does it matter so much what I do? Jaran and I could have one child this cycle and possibly one in the next and then he'll become infertile 76

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  again. The most we can contribute is two people to future generations that won't mate for thirty or forty years."

  "Like I said, it's mostly nonsense. Political nonsense. And the underlying worry that we will never be a genetically unique race again. But as Daralei said at the meeting, if they wish to uphold Icarian tradition, you can't be dismissed just because you're human. If you can prove your contribution to Icarian society, they have to accept you."

  Lara paced in a tight circle. "But how do I do that?

  Everything I've done since I earned my degree has been to help Icarus. I don't know what else I can accomplish before the mating cycle begins that will change anyone's mind."

  Odan sighed. "I don't know either, but give me some time.

  Maybe I can figure something out."

  Lara studied the handsome man before her. He resembled Namara who had been her own mother's dearest friend.

  "You'd help me?"

  "Of course."

  "Why? You have to know better than anyone that Jaran and I don't belong together. Do you know why he's doing this? What is he trying to prove?"

  Odan leveled his own golden gaze at Lara. In that moment, he resembled Jaran even though they were not related by blood. "Only he can tell you what he's trying to prove, Lara, but trust me when I tell you, Jaran has made the proper choice. His reasons are valid."

  Lara would have scoffed, but Odan's voice held such conviction. What did he know about Jaran's motives that he wasn't telling?

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  She crossed her arms over her chest and eyed him skeptically. "If I want to remain part of this world, I have to follow through with this. If you think you can help me—"

  "I'll do my best, for you and for Jaran."

  "All right. I believe you, but if it looks like things won't work out, I need you to do something for me."

  "What?"

  "Convince Jaran to dismiss me and pair me with someone else immediately before the committee does it for him.

  Otherwise I'll be an outcast for the rest of my life."

  Odan offered Lara his hand, a human gesture, but one she appreciated. She put her fingers into his palm, and he closed his other hand over hers. "I'll try, Lara, but my greater fear is that Jaran will step down as leader rather than give you up.

  As much as I believe you belong with him, I don't want to see that happen."

  "You don't really think he would give up his rule for me, do you?"

  "Like I said, only Jaran can tell you his reasons."

  "Well, I wish to hell he would before I lose my mind. He's torturing me, Odan, and I don't understand why."

  Odan smiled enigmatically, which did nothing to ease Lara's frustrations. "Ask yourself, Lara, is it really torture to belong to Jaran?"

  Before she could form a coherent response, Odan stepped back and leapt into the air. She watched him soar away in the warm afternoon breeze and cursed him in her frustration just as she had his brother.

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  Icarus Unbound

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  Chapter Eight

  He was reading when she arrived. Taking cues from the personal touches Lara had added to the generic decor of her bungalow, Jaran had requested some changes to his own sparse chambers.

  He'd swapped out the bed for a more traditional Icarian sleeping pallet. The fresh alor fibers smelled wonderful. He'd added more storage nets and a privacy screen to divide the room, making it seem smaller and more intimate. The place smelled of freshly cut fruit, specifically the varieties Lara's botany team had developed, and he'd dimmed half the sconces which also served to make his expansive private quarters seems more cozy.

  Her expression changed the moment she strolled through the entranceway dressed in her usual uniform of a light-colored shirt and short pants. He would have commented on her deliberately disobeying his decree to leave her clothing at her bungalow, but the look on her face dispelled any annoyance he might have felt. Astonishment replaced the usual sardonic lift of her brows, and her mouth dropped open in what he hoped was awe.

  "Now maybe you'll feel more at home here," he said, spreading his arms to indicate his accomplishments.

  Still silent, she let her gaze wander the room. Jaran eyed her outfit and grudgingly admitted the thin clothing didn't diminish her beauty, even if he preferred she hadn't worn it.

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  least she'd shown up and now managed to look impressed by the work he'd done.

  "It's very nice."

  "Nice?"

  "Yes. It's definitely homier."

  "I did this for you."

  "I ... appreciate it." Her voice betrayed her true feelings.

  She sounded more puzzled than grateful.

  "We should learn to please each other if we're going to make this union work."

  "I ... yes. I agree. And as far as making this work, we need to talk." She crossed the room slowly, approached the bed and ran a hand over the soft alor fibers.

  All Jaran wanted at this moment was to see her lying naked on the pallet, waiting for him and prepared to indulge his every desire.

  Instead she wanted to talk.

  He didn't let her see him roll his eyes. "What about?"

  "Did Odan come to see you today?"

  "My brother worries too much. I'm sure he told you the requirements for dismissal. You don't meet them."

  "He told me everyone agrees I have not made a valuable contribution to Icarian society."

  "And clearly everyone is wrong."

  "But they're not. I mean, the work I've done has helped with food production and ocean maintenance, but I see the point they're making. Those things were necessary because of the changes caused by the breeding program, increased population, pollution from the space shuttles. I helped solve 80

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  problems that were caused by human influence on Icarus. I need to do something an Icarian would have done if there were no humans here."

  Jaran stared at her. His symbion wanted release, and it was becoming harder to deny the beast on his back, but he understood Lara's concerns. "What do you suggest?" he asked, stepping closer to her. The sweet scent of her skin worked its way to his brain. His fingers itched to touch her and peel off the concealing layers in which she'd bound herself.

  "I don't know yet. Odan said he would help me come up with something."

  Jaran's blood cooled by a degree. Fortunately, he'd mated Odan to Jehri at his brother's request or he might have cause to be jealous right now. "He didn't tell me that. He only told me I should consider letting you go, mating you to someone else before the committee decrees it."

  Lara's eyes widened, and Jaran put a hand on her shoulder, hoping to stave off her alarm. "I won't do that. You are mine, and you will remain mine."

  She stiffened. "They can remove you from leadership."

  "They won't. I am Jidar's choice, and they respect his wishes even though he's gone."

  "Jaran—"

/>   He pressed a finger to her lips. "Don't worry about it now.

  We have more important business to attend, such as getting you out of these clothes."

  A sudden wave of desire collided with Lara's mounting frustrations, leaving her trembling in the wake of Jaran's 81

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  touch. A tumult of conflicting emotions had her nerve endings on fire.

  How could Jaran dismiss something so important? How could his warm breath across her cheek make her forget all her worries?

  He pressed his lips to her jaw, and her knees weakened, forcing her to stiffen her muscles to remain standing. His earlier kiss had left her breathless and unable to think clearly.

  Now a series of them trailing down her neck obliterated her ability to reason.

  Her symbion woke and drugged her with an influx of biochemical lust. Heat swept through her body, and in seconds her sex was wet, her thighs damp and her nipples hard and aching. Twenty years ago, had someone explained how her symbion would control her sexual desires, she might have reconsidered the joining. At thirty, she'd never experienced a mating cycle before. For ten years, she'd enjoyed sex for recreational purposes, as all young Icarians did, but this was the first time symbion hormones had come into play, and she found them impossible to fight.

  What a cruel joke that the alien bird with whom she shared her body would choose to supercharge her mating instincts now, with the man she'd spent most of her life trying to avoid.

  A shiver ran down her body as Jaran began to peel away her clothing. He freed her breasts from the soft binding of her shirt and pushed the stretchy material down to her hips.

  "This is better," he muttered before taking the tip of one breast in his mouth.

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  Lara gasped. An arrow of sensation shot through her, sharp pleasure, causing her clit to pulse between her tightly clenched thighs. Jaran thumbed her other nipple, making the flesh stand straight and tight, then he suckled harder.

  Instinct bade her to wrap her hand around his golden head and hold his hot mouth against her. A small part of her brain rebelled. She couldn't do this. Every time she surrendered to him, she lost some of herself, some of the anger that had kept her from crumbling during all the times he'd taunted and teased her.

  Growing up, no one had made her feel as bad as Jaran had. How dare he be the one to make her feel this good now.

  "Spread your legs for me." His demand came in a rough whisper while he trailed his lips from one aching nipple to the other.

  Lara obeyed mindlessly, her ire forgotten when he pushed her clothing down past her hips and helped her shed the flimsy material. One strong arm snaked around her waist and pulled her to him. The other hand found her sex and began to part the plump, wet folds. "I can't forget the way you taste,"

  he said as he searched between her thighs.

  She moaned when he found her clit and pinched it. Her already trembling knees gave way, and he caught her before she crumbled and guided her to the pallet. The alor fibers enveloped her like the pelt of some exotic animal. She sank into the sweet-smelling fluff which helped accommodate her symbion's anatomy so she could lie on her back and not damage her wings.

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  Jaran's eyes had darkened to bronze, and he sported a full erection, unmistakable proof that not only did he find her arousing, he had the ability to do something about it.

  Another wave of desire washed over her, purely chemical she told herself as she spread her thighs and wantonly guided his hand back to her sex. Her symbion was practicing for conception, filling her body with sex hormones that would ensure the couple seized every opportunity for intercourse over the next several months.

  Once the mating cycle began in earnest, they would both be insatiable. This frenzy of sexual heat was only a taste of what they would go through until they conceived a child together—or until the cycle ended and proved them unfertile.

  By then, their bond would be unbreakable. Jaran would be her mate forever, the father of her children, assuming they were lucky enough to have more than one. The thought of spending the rest of her life with her nemesis might have cooled her ardor. It might have made her jump off the bed and fly screaming into the darkening sky, but Jaran's next move left her utterly unable to think of anything but achieving her own release.

  He lowered his upper body between her legs and spread her weeping sex wide with his thumbs. Without warning, he thrust his tongue deep inside her.

  Lara arched, moaning, and her hands flew to his head, tangling in his soft hair. A rumble of appreciation escaped his throat as he sucked her clit. The feel of his tongue against her intimate flesh sent her spiraling into a world of raw sensation.

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  She arched her back, raising her hips off the pallet in an effort to put more of herself into his mouth.

  "Jaran, please..."

  "Yes, anything you want, my mate. Anything."

  She bit her lower lip to stifle any more pleas. It was bad enough her body craved more of this sensual torment, but to tell him so, to plead for him to fuck her with his tongue, his finger, or his cock ... she couldn't allow him that satisfaction even when her own was only moments away.

  "Come for me," he demanded. "Like last night. I want to feel you go tight around me and I want to taste your climax."

  She wanted to resist. She wished her symbion would fall asleep or peel itself off her body and disappear so she could regain control of her emotions. "Just do it ... Jaran, take me."

  He pulled his lips away from her swollen sex and rose up on his knees. "As you wish."

  His shaft hung heavy between his legs, engorged and dark red, thickened by his own need for orgasm. With both hands, he guided himself to her. Lara closed her eyes. She would not pretend it was someone else, not after all the times she'd shamelessly fantasized about this very moment. But still she couldn't bear to watch as her illicit teenaged dreams became reality.

  Jaran entered her, his erection spreading her inner sheath and stretching it to the point that she had to draw in a breath and hold it. Seeming to hover over her in the dimness of the half-lit room, he made a sound she'd never heard before.

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  flesh before he lowered his hard body over hers and gathered her in his arms.

  Still reeling from the fullness and the pressure of his shaft within her, she pulled in a short breath and wrapped her arms under his, burrowing into the soft warmth between his back and his wings.

  His mouth worked next to her ear, but he said nothing coherent. Lara squeezed her eyes shut and for a moment allowed herself to float in a dark bliss. She'd longed for Jaran to accept her, to look at her without malice in his eyes, and right now, with him buried inside her and giving her the most exquisite pleasure of her life, she could pretend he'd always loved her.

  She sighed as the tension in her muscles eased. Her relaxation allowed him to thrust deeper and harder and suddenly his wings spread. His symbion was taking over now, claiming its prize, a willing female.

  With a low, feral moan, he began to move within her.

  Jaran willingly gave up control to his symbion. He'd achieved a moment of pure ecstasy when he'd claimed Lara's body with his. A need he'd denied himself for so long was finally fulfilled. He wanted to tell her, but the words faded away in a haze of uncontrollable lust.

  Coherent thought abandoned him, as his body writhed. His wings flapped, the momentum pushing his erection deeper into Lara's body. Beneath him she arched, wrapped her long slender legs around his back and clung to him. Each of his movements wrung a sound from her, a gasp, a moan, a sensuous whisper. He'd longed for this, to have her cleav
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  him. A part of him wished it could last forever, but his symbion demanded sexual release, not endless bliss.

  The animal brain of the alien bird controlled this union, and the mission it strove to fulfill was climax, a completion that when the time was right would ensure conception and the all important continuity of the Icarian race. Emotion did not have a place in the symbion's mind and so, for a moment, Jaran's actions were void of emotion as well.

  He raced to his end, clutching Lara's shuddering body to him like a possession. She cried out, a mixture of pleasure and pain as her sweet sheath began to convulse around him.

  The pressure of her inner muscles on his cock heightened his need as well as his demand for satisfaction. Without thought, he increased his rhythm and his depth until his own orgasm erupted. Every muscle hardened and his seed shot in hot, insistent spurts.

  Lara moaned, and her body curled around his. She trembled in his arms, her own sex still pulsing in time with the intermittent pulse of his cock.

  He panted in her ear as he slid out of her. "Our ancestors will remember this night." He resisted the urge to chuckle at the nonsensical Icarian saying. To hell with their ancestors.

  Jaran knew this night would live in his memory forever.

  He finally possessed Laramee, and he knew he would never let her go.

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  87

  Icarus Unbound

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Chapter Nine

  A cool breeze wafting through the open windows of the bedchamber woke Lara hours later. She lay still and silent for a moment, contemplating the exquisite softness of the alor bedding, the warmth of the muscular male body sprawled next to her and the buzz of contentment in her well-used body.