StarlightComplete

by Astrid Cooper

  John turned them both and they hovered close to the ceiling. “Bite me again, hell-cat. Bite me; love me, Sam! And then after that, you’ll know what starlight ecstasy means.”

  Starlight Rapture

  “Stop!” Samantha whispered.

  Immediately, John paused. “If this is your desire.” He exhaled over her skin.

  “No, I mean, don’t…just… Ah!”

  “Honey-cat,” he said. “How am I to know what you want? You tell me to both stop and continue. I’m confused.” Another warm breath whispered over her skin, followed by a lick of his tongue.

  She squirmed. “Just keep doing that—all of it.”

  Samantha shivered with the deepest delight as John lightly ran the tips of his fingers over her stomach. It was his felinus touch—the most delicate of caresses—that brought forth the most intense reactions. He knew it and tortured her mercilessly.

  John carefully nibbled the groove in her neck, a tongue tip pressed into another of the sensual nerve endings that only he could find. In response, her body grew even damper—inside and out. His fingers stole between her thighs.

  She leaned against the plasti-wall, facing outwards, her hands splayed. The stars shone and the swirling light from Saturn’s rings bathed them both with purple and red. Beyond lay the blackness of space.

  Sam swallowed hard. What John was doing…what she wanted him to do… “Are you sure no one can see us?”

  “Yep, stop worrying, kitten. I programmed the shield for one way. I’m not gonna share you with anyone.”

  “I…oh.” Those fingers delved into her, parting and teasing. Demanding.

  “There’s only one person I share with, Sam,” John whispered against her nape. He purred in the back of his throat.

  “You sound like a cat.”

  “Thanks. I try. My brother, Harimal taught me.”

  “Harrrri-mal.” Sam pronounced it as a felinus, placing emphasis on the first half of the name.

  “Very good, kitten-mine. Your felinus is improving.”

  “I learn fast when I’m inspired.”

  He laughed. “And are you inspired?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Mm.” He nuzzled her nape, a hot tongue and teeth seducing her flesh.

  “What else has your brother taught you?” The thought made Sam shiver anew, flood anew. Cat shifters were known throughout the galaxy for their unbridled loving; there wasn’t anything they didn’t dare—provided their partner was willing.

  “I never tell. I always show. One pleasure at a time.” John paused. “Would you prefer the touch of cat or man?”

  “You, Kuno. Only you.” Sam reached back and grasped his erection. “I like you how you are.”

  John exhaled against her neck, his breath warm and moist. “Good. My life is complicated enough without being a shifter.”

  “Am I a complication?” She said it to tease, but she wondered and behind the thought, pain and sorrow lurked. John was a sensualator and they rarely—if ever—had the one woman for life. Like shifters, it just wasn’t in their nature to be monogamous, or so she’d heard. One day, he’d leave her—not because love had died, but because she did not have enough love to give. The realization cut deeply, but she turned it away. Live for the moment! She had lived too long with fear and regrets to waste any more of her life.

  “You’re the best complication any cat-man could have,” John whispered.

  He laved her shoulder blades, nipping, while his nail stroked down her thigh, the fingers of his other hand teasing apart her inner flesh, scraping lightly over her clit. “Lean forward more, Sam. Spread your legs wider. That’s it, honey-cat.”

  “You want to be a cop and frisk me?” she demanded.

  “I can be anything for you. A cop? Now that has interesting possibilities. I could arrest you. Detain you. Handcuff you. You’d like that?”

  “I might. If I can do it back to you.”

  “Deal.” He squared his shoulders, his expression serious. Except, the tawny fire in his eyes said it all.

  Samantha, assuming her role, held her hands up in surrender. “I won’t resist.”

  “You concealing anything, ma’am? I have to search you. Don’t move.” John bent down and began at her ankles, running his palms over her, pressing upwards.

  “I’m not hiding anything,” Sam whispered. “Ah…”

  “Ma’am, I’ll be the judge of that.” His exploration was deep, intense and thorough—every part of her palmed, investigated. “Yep, you’re right, you’re not hiding anything. At least from what I can see.”

  “John…”

  “I’m officer to you, ma’am.”

  “Game’s over, John, you win.”

  “Are you surrendering to me?”

  “Yes. Yes! Yes!”

  His cock slid into her. “Honey-cat, now I know you aren’t hiding anything, but inside, hell, that’s another matter. What I’m feeling is verrrry enlightening.”

  Sam squeezed her eyelids shut, her nails tearing at the glass. She moved so that he could gain greater depth. She heard his hiss, then groan as she flexed her inner muscles around him.

  “You were concealing something,” John ground out. “A surprise. Great stars, do that again.”

  Sam tensed, holding him hard, tight, then releasing him. She did it some more.

  “Star’s sake, kitten—stop! Don’t stop…ah!”

  John surged upwards. A delicious contradiction—hard thighs and silk-smooth skin moving against her. “Kuno, saer wan naemis-al.”

  Sam squirmed at the sultry whisper, in itself a caress: My name is Kuno and I exist for you. That was what he had said the night before, every time he loved her. The felinus promise. He said it again, this time his lips against her ear.

  They moved as one. Sam closed her eyes. “Samantha, saeran wan naemis-alen.” My name is Samantha and I exist for you—she returned the pledge. How she knew the words, she did not know, perhaps a legacy of their starlight rapport?

  “Honey-cat.” He purred and pulled back from her, his erection just at her entrance.

  Sam glanced at him and saw the tears in his eyes.

  “Did I mis-pronounce the words?” she asked. “Is that why you’re crying?” Was that why he had withdrawn from her? Felinus were so damn particular about their language and if outsiders spoke it, it had to be perfect, or not at all.

  “You do me much honor, Samantha, in your pledge and in the way you speak my language. Much honor.”

  He gently moved a fraction into her.

  Sam waited, holding her breath. Anticipation was a torture. How would he do it—which direction? Which pleasure-spot would he touch? The suspense built and she shivered.

  John slowly eased into her, to the right and converged. A simple world with a multitude of meanings. Converge: the felinus touch.

  He had said that one day they would attain the deepest level of Convergence and she had squirmed to think that there was more, that what she was experiencing was only the first level. She hadn’t believed him and smiling at her, he proved his point by a subtle lift of hips and a new direction.

  His nerve endings were more than human, and when he touched her in places no human male could ever reach, it set off stars inside her brain and starlight flowing in her veins…

  A universe in that touch and she couldn’t breathe.

  He retreated, finding the place to the left.

  Back and forth, slowly, deeply.

  She screamed her release, frosting the glass with her breath.

  The starlight touched their skin, gold-blue light flowing between them, warming, highlighting. Linked to him, the felinus gift flowed deep into her, layering every cell with its sultry veil. Starlight Ecstasy… Tiny points of gold-blue light flickered over her skin, swirling around her body, pulsing and igniting.

  He leaned into her, his chin on her shoulder, his hands cupping her breasts as ripple after ripple consumed him; consumed her. His skin glowed, the starlight engulfing them, a mantle
of light. This was ecstasy…

  John pressed to the left, then to the right. She thought she screamed, but it might have been him—perhaps both. I exist only for you.

  Later, satiated, they lay on the window ledge upon a pile of cushions dragged in from the bedroom.

  Sam twirled her finger around John’s right nipple, watching the bronze skin pucker. He shivered and captured her hand, licking her wrist.

  “Is that another one of your passion points?” she asked. “How many do you have?”

  “I’m not sure, because you’ve found a few new ones today. I guess we’ll just have to keep exploring.”

  She smiled and rested her chin on his chest. “I never knew it could be like this.” With a man…

  John studied her intently. “What do you mean? With a man—continue the thought.”

  Sam blushed. “I forgot you can mind-read.”

  “One day, after Convergence, you’ll be able to, as well.”

  “Just what is Convergence?”

  “The highest level of starlight passion.”

  She stroked his nipple. “Why is it that felinus are so enigmatic?”

  “We’re cats.”

  She sniffed disdainfully. “That’s an explanation, is it? Yeah, I know, as you always say—all the explanation I’m gonna get for the moment.”

  He purred, deep in his throat. “Answer me this, kitten. I know you enjoy me, but you were married for six years, your husband must have—”

  At his words, Sam felt her horror well up inside and she tried to ease out of John’s embrace. His arms and hands held her immobile.

  “Kitten?” Their gazes locked.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Sam?”

  “No,” she whispered, resting her head against his chest, so she didn’t have to face him. She squeezed her eyelids against the sting of tears, and the memories.

  John glanced down at her, as he finger-teased her blonde hair. From their internet chats, he—as Kuno—had discovered that she had been married for six years before her husband, Andy Sinclair, had been accidentally killed. He knew a damn sight more about the guy than he let on. Why was Sam so frightened? What had been done to her? What hadn’t been done to her? She was a passionate woman, his Maera Passionata—had Sinclair failed to bring her to climax because of ineptitude? Humans could be so cruel, so selfish, so inept. And a woman hurt in that way—mmm…

  Am I the only lover to give her pleasure? The thought was shocking. If he was the first…stars! She obviously enjoyed his basic level of felinus loving; she was going to adore the rest… He smiled in smug satisfaction.

  “You’re very quiet,” Sam whispered. “You must be thinking and when you do, I get nervous.” She lifted her face, resting her chin on his chest.

  John sensed her apprehension, and beneath it the undercurrent of… Great Stars! Pain. He tightened his arms around her. What pain? What had been done to her? She’d hinted before that she had been hurt in bed. By whom? Sinclair? His fists curled; he wanted to claw something. Badly.

  Sam sat upright, biting her lip. “You growled.”

  “I was just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  “You.”

  “And that made you growl?” She studied him dubiously.

  He laughed and pulled himself up to sit facing her, cross-legged. “Sam, we need to talk.”

  Her fingers twisted together in agitation and she turned to stare out the window.

  “Oh, look!” Sam cried, pointing.

  Reluctantly, John glanced away from her. He saw four surfers on their boards weaving through the rings of Saturn. The laser beacons bathed the largest rocks with silver.

  Sam rested on her knees, leaning against the window, watching them in delighted fascination, oblivious to him.

  He smiled as he studied her, framed against the black of space, her body glowing with the light of Saturn’s rings. John crawled forward and crouched behind her.

  “They’re ring surfers,” he said. “That first one is Kaylen, she’s the leader.”

  “That must be fun to do.”

  “It’s hard work.”

  She glanced at him. “You ring surf too?”

  “I used to. They’re practising for the Galactic Games. I stopped doing it when it became legal. It was only fun when we were outracing the Justiciary.”

  “You’re kidding?”

  “Nope.”

  They watched the four figures zipping around and beneath the tumbling chunks of rocks that made up Saturn’s outer ring. One surfer swerved upside down to avoid a collision with a man-sized boulder.

  “He’s going to fall off.”

  “No, they have grav units attached to their feet.”

  “You used to do this?”

  “Oh yeah. My friends and I got away with it for a few months. Eventually, I was caught and arrested. Aged twelve with a criminal record. Except…well, I got off with a warning after Harimal arrived.” He smiled wistfully, remembering. “Hari clawed me and I couldn’t sit down for a week. He was really angry. Afterwards, he took me to Aves and I lived with a clan until I was eighteen.”

  Sam stared at him. “I’ve heard of Aves. It’s the home of the bird shifters and like the felinus planet it’s off limits to humans. Why didn’t your brother take you home to Fellinal?”

  John grimaced. “I hate that human name for my world. It’s so ugly.”

  “What do you expect? Felinus won’t reveal the true name of their home world, so we have had to improvise. Better than calling it the cat house.”

  “Some humans do.”

  “I know,” Sam said. “If Harimal took custody of you, where were your parents?”

  John shrugged. “Long story.”

  “So, I’m listening.”

  “I’m not talking about it.”

  Sam leaned back against him and his arms wrapped around her, holding her close. “So, why did you ring surf? It was stupid and dangerous.” She waited for his response, sensing as the minutes passed in silence that he was not going to answer. “Maybe you did it because it was a show of rebellion, maybe desperation? Maybe wanting to get noticed by parents? You’re felinus and also human—you walk between both worlds, a part of each, but not at home in either.” She heard his sharp intake of breath. “Got it in one, did I, Kuno?”

  “Yep,” he said, nibbling her ear. “Maybe you recognize a kindred spirit.”

  “And how did you reconcile your two selves?”

  “What makes you think I have?”

  “Be serious.” She stroked his leg.

  “You’re asking me to be serious, when you’re doing that to me?” He laughed. “Okay, well on Aves I had clan brothers and sisters and no one cared who or what I was. Taren would… No, that’s all I’m gonna say. What were you like as a child? Were you sugar or spice? Your parents—”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “That’s all I need to know.”

  “What?” she asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

  “You were more spice than sugar. Takes one to know one, kitten.” He smiled. “And no older brother to claw your ass?”

  “I was an only child. I’d never…”

  “Never—what?”

  Sam shrugged.

  “Maybe we could go ring surfing. The enviro-suits they’re wearing have inbuilt deflectors, so these days there’s not much danger.”

  “But for you—no danger, no fun?”

  “Exactly so, kitten. When I ring surfed, we just had ordinary suits and plasti-boards with solar panels, nothing like the equipment these guys use.”

  “If I was your brother, I would have more than clawed your ass.”

  He laughed and tightened his arms around her. “What would you have done to punish me?”

  “I dunno. I’d have to think of something suitable. That’ll take time.”

  “When you’ve decided, let me know. I’m intrigued.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”r />
  “Same thing, kitten, same thing!”

  “Ready?” John asked, studying Sam. They were standing at the entrance to the narrow corridor of the station’s ‘official’ lowest level.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She smoothed her hand over her little black dress—a girl had to have one l.b.d. in her wardrobe for special occasions. And meeting John’s felinus friends in their hang out was certainly a special occasion. Maybe she was under-dressed? Or, knowing felinus proclivities—over-dressed? She worried her lower lip with her teeth.

  “Relax, sweetheart, they’re gonna love you.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  John raised his brows. “I told you before that no shifter is ever going to do anything to you that you don’t want. You’ve been listening to rumors and no one outside the felinus and their chosen know the truth. We don’t—ever—force. Tease, torment, cajole—that’s part of the game. But force? Never! That’s our law.”

  “It’s the cajoling that worries me.”

  John edged her backwards until she touched the wall. Sam knew she was trapped as his arms on either side of her formed a barrier. He was up to cat-mischief. At her thought he smiled at her.

  “Yep, cat-naughty, Samantha. That’s me.”

  His mouth descended, a plundering kiss, full of possession, full of intent. She laced her fingers into his hair, and lifted her leg, twining it at the back of his thighs, pressing him to her.

  “Match for match,” John said, lifting his mouth a fraction from her. “I never thought…”

  “What?”

  “I never thought I’d meet a woman who would want me as much as I wanted her. You’re killing me. If I don’t love you, I’m gonna explode.”

  “I’m not doing it in the corridor,” she said.

  He grinned. “It has interesting possibilities.”

  “Not from where I’m standing.”

  “Who said anything about standing?” John leaned into her.

  Sam batted at his hands and edged away. “Johnathan Lucas, alias Kuno, I’m not going to lie down on this metal floor. It’s cold and—”

  “How about using me as a mattress? You could lie on top of me. I’m soft…in a few places.”

  And hard in others…yeah, don’t I know! “You want me now?” Sam whispered.