Cheris must have sensed them also. She shook her head. “Who—”
“Focus on me. On our joining,” he bellowed. She ducked her head to the mattress as he slammed into her.
“Again,” she squealed, “I can’t believe… Coming! Again.”
As she shivered and trembled beneath him, he halted his hips and leaned over her lanky frame to plant three kisses on the upper left portion of her back. He whispered, “Believe me, Cheris. You are mine.” Holding Cheris firmly beneath him, he clawed where his lips had been until her skin turned crimson.
Her screams turned to wails, then sobs. He nodded at Lydia and Selma who rapidly approached the bed and dabbed at Cheris’s wounds with a soothing balm.
Satisfied he’d done what was required, Lexus pulled out of her. His cock, still erect and full, hadn’t subsided. He stepped around the bed until he could see Cheris’s tear stained face. She cranked an eye open. “You okay?”
“I will be,” she said softly. “Your assistants are good.” She propped herself on an elbow and stared hard at him. “I’ve never had a man scratch me to an orgasm.”
“I’m glad I was the first,” he said, giving her a slight bow. “I hope there will be no others.” Her brow furrowed with questions. He held up a palm. “Go with my cousins. They will bathe you and further prepare you. When they are finished, we will share a light meal and I’ll entertain more of your questions.”
“You damn well better,” she said, looking only slightly annoyed at being turned over to the women. Perhaps she welcomed a respite from his lust.
* * * *
Trying to stay alert to her surroundings and to the two women bathing her, Cheri still found it difficult to fathom that she might actually be in a palace in Atlantis. She stood at the shallow end of a pool of aqua blue water that had to be larger than any Olympic pool. Unlike most pools she’d been in, this one had undulating curves. The decorations on the walls echoed the same curving lines.
The cousins, Lydia and Selma, were each lightly washing a breast. They’d already thoroughly bathed her backside and had spent great care tending to her recently inflicted wounds. She trembled a little, recalling his fingernails.
Both women were as nude as she was. They stood about a head shorter and their skin was darker. Each was full bodied. Lydia wore two golden armbands—one on each arm. Selma wore only one. They matched the one Alex had worn, with the same delicate engraved tracery. Fortunately, the women were quite talkative. Apparently, no one had told them to ignore her questions.
“This man who brought me here, you say he is an ambassador of some sort.”
“That’s right,” Lydia responded, paying considerable attention to swirling a cloth around a nipple.
Cheri didn’t think she was trying to be particularly erotic, only thorough.
“Lexus is one of very few who leave our land to journey Above. Our ambassadors travel alone or with their lifemates, if they already have one.”
“And he doesn’t have one?”
Lydia shook her head, but wasn’t particularly good at hiding a smile.
“Why do you smile about my question? Did I say something wrong?”
Selma giggled. “Our cousin has chosen a lifemate, but she hasn’t responded to his initiation yet.”
Cheri frowned and Lydia turned her back to her. For the first time she noticed scratch marks below the woman’s left shoulder. She nearly fainted. Both women grabbed her, or she would have fallen. “He wants me?” she gasped. “For a lifemate?”
Lydia arched an eyebrow. “He needs you. All of Atlantis needs you.”
Cheri backed up to the edge of the pool and sat on its ledge. Some of this began to make sense. She’d witnessed ritual matings in some of the so-called primitive cultures she’d studied. Looking back, there were aspects of her joining with Alex—or Lexus—that contained ritual qualities. And he’d never come. “He never climaxed in me.”
“Atlantean men only climax with lifemates. They may have sex with any woman who will have them, but they only ejaculate with lifemates.”
“And the women?” Cheri gulped. “Do they have sex with other men?”
“Of course. We are a society of equals. Women may join with women and men with men. Isn’t that the way it is Above—where you live?”
“Not exactly. And they can do this even after choosing lifemates?”
“Of course. It would be silly to restrict people to one partner. No one would ever choose a lifemate, and there’d be no future generation.”
“Yes,” Cheri admitted, “that is silly of me.” She knew her sarcasm was lost on the two women nodding their heads and washing her thighs.
“May I touch it?” she asked Lydia, pointing at her scars.
“Of course. Didn’t my lifemate do a good job of claiming me?”
Cheri swallowed, rubbing her fingers over the four distinct scratches. “How long do these scars last? How long until they fade and disappear?”
Lydia scowled. “They won’t disappear. That would be terrible. Then other lovers wouldn’t know you are already a lifemate.”
“So what if I reject Alex—Lexus, I mean?” Her voice hardened and the two cousins stepped back from her. “Would they fade then?”
“Yes,” Selma said, her voice shaking. “But we know when we find our lifemate. That is why I don’t wear the marks yet. I haven’t found mine.”
“Can women be lifemates with women?”
“Sometimes,” Selma explained, “if we have an abundance of children, then more women and men take their own kind as lifemates. If there are not enough, then the greater good of Atlantis is honored. No two lifemates may have more than two offspring. And there is no guarantee they will have any.”
“I see. Interesting.” Cheri blinked and gasped as each woman worked on her toes. Her newfound friends certainly knew about luxury. “So is it fair to assume I have to do something to make this pact with Lexus as a lifemate? His clawing me half to death didn’t do it?”
“Absolutely not,” Lydia asserted, “Atlantean women have choices.”
“How are you so certain I’m Atlantean?”
Selma smirked and covered her mouth. “You are.”
“How do you know? Your cousin may be wrong.”
She shook her head vigorously. “Only Atlantean women can accept the heat of an Atlantean cock.”
“Oh my God.” It was Cheri’s turn to cover her mouth. It hadn’t been her imagination. His cock had been scalding. Almost too much at first, then she’d adjusted. “And if I do accept Lexus as my lifemate, what do I do to let him know?”
Lydia smiled demurely. “Because you are Atlantean, you may stay in Atlantis whether you accept or reject him.”
“And if I chose not to reject?” Cheri insisted, hardly believing her question or the strain in her voice.
“Then first you must make every orifice available to him.”
Cheri stiffened. “Every orifice?”
“That’s right. And you must open his orifices.”
Cheri frowned.
“With finger or thumb.”
“Jesus, what am I into.”
“After that you must scratch him deeply on the left shoulder, which protects the heart. Finally, he will pump his seed into your vagina, sealing you as mates for life.”
“But that last coupling must be witnessed by two others,” Selma added. “Two others must see you claw your mate.”
“Oh my.” Cheri’s heart stopped. “That’s why the two of you came into the bedroom when you did. You weren’t just there to tend to my wounds, you had to see him claw me.”
Both women waited, letting her take in this information.
“Anything else?”
“They must be relatives,” Selma pointed out. “Only relatives are permitted to watch lifemates mate. When you are mating with someone else, like us, then anyone is permitted to watch.”
“Do you always have sex with others watching?”
“Of course not. Most of the
time not. But there are rules for those who want to watch. Even those who cannot any longer participate or choose not to can enjoy watching. Don’t you agree?”
“That had never occurred to me.” She glanced down sharply at Lydia, who began to massage a soapy substance along her vulva. “Are you trying to seduce me?”
Lydia shook her head. “We’re not allowed to do that yet. No one will come to you until after you make a choice about Lexus. Have you been with women Above?”
Cheri swallowed and shook her head. She’d considered it, but she’d never gotten around to it. “So I become eligible whether or not I accept Lexus—unless I decide to leave Atlantis entirely.”
“Of course. I thought you understood that,” Selma said, looking quite hurt. “Does that mean you’ll reject me, too?”
Cheri’s heart wrenched for the young woman. Maybe she was more vulnerable than Lydia because she remained unattached. Cheri reached out and grazed the back of a hand across Selma’s raised dark nipple. “If I do decide to stay and accept Lexus, and if I want to learn, it will be you I’ll seek to teach me how to love a woman.”
The girl beamed broadly. “That is good.” She reached out and grazed the back of her hand across Cheri’s taut nipple. “Then I will definitely pray to the gods and goddesses for you to choose Lexus.”
Cheri smiled at Lydia, who was brushing against her other nipple.
“Oftentimes two teachers are better than one,” the woman said softly, “don’t you think?”
“Apparently that’s true here in Atlantis.” She squeezed both women’s hands and nodded. “I have prided myself all my life on being open to new learning experiences. Somehow, I expect that commitment to learning will be stretched if I remain here in Atlantis.”
* * * *
“I wonder if either your curiosity or your passion can be satisfied.” Lexus grinned at Cheris, who sat opposite him on the bedroom carpet nibbling on a juicy fruit. “It’s a hybrid, sort of like the peach you’re familiar with Above.”
She nodded. “Superb taste.” Seductively, she licked her fingers clean before reaching for a fig. “I hope neither my curiosity nor my passion will be so sated that I’ll run out of questions or desire.”
“Doubt there’s much risk of either happening.” He reached for his chalice and sipped wine, admiring again his future lifemate and thanking the gods for his good fortune. Lydia and Selma had returned her to him adorned in a long light blue transparent gown. In addition to the jewelry she’d arrived with, his cousins had given her a substantial gold chain for her waist and a thin gold anklet chain. They’d also placed an engraved gold armband on her right arm. He smiled to himself. So his cousins believed Cheris would decide to stay in Atlantis. She’d receive a second armband if she accepted him as lifemate.
He tried to lift his gaze from her very evident puffy pussy to her eyes, which were crinkling and snapping. He knew her well enough to know she was enjoying toying with him. Yet she must know the stakes of their banter had increased exponentially since he’d transported her to Atlantis.
“So you really believe your historians are accurate when they say the island of Atlantis was deliberately imploded by your ancient ancestors to preserve its peace loving way of life.”
“Yes.” Lexus sighed, trying not to be annoyed with Cheris. While he couldn’t keep his mind off what they yet needed to do to cement their bonding, she seemed at least as interested in pursuing her scholarly interests. “I have no reason to disbelieve. Our people were far advanced in the sciences as well as the liberal arts. They sank the island miles beneath the ocean under the cover of darkness. They had little choice. The alternative would have been conquest by the Athenians and subjugation to their many depravities.”
“And as an ambassador, you travel to the world above, but rarely does anyone discover you are from Atlantis?”
He chuckled at her arched eyebrow—there was a related question she’d failed to ask. “That’s right. I’ve read some of your work on Shamanism around the world. From what I can tell, passing through the membrane surrounding Atlantis is similar to experience of shamans who travel to other realities or worlds. You have joined shamans on their journeys.”
“Yes.” She smirked. “At first I thought it was a trick of the mind or a drug.” Her eyes widened. “All that was preparation for my return to Atlantis, wasn’t it?”
“I expect so, but who knows the minds of the gods and goddesses. So have you returned to Atlantis?”
Cheris paused to chew on her lower lip. “I will be able to travel back Above with you?”
He folded his arms over his bare chest, making no attempt to conceal the tent rising under his loose trousers. “If you choose me as lifemate, you may go where I go, and I will go where you go.”
She didn’t hesitate. “Would you kiss me please? It’s been too long.”
He leaned across the space separating them and gathered her in his arms. She tipped her head back and he settled his lips across hers. What started as a gentle, teasing kiss quickly turned into one of urgency. She separated his teeth with her tongue and probed the roof of his mouth. When her tongue withdrew, he chased it with his own until she suckled it.
Her fingers slid down his bare chest and under his trousers to wrap around his cock. “Nice,” she murmured.
He broke their kiss to lift her gown over her head. He covered a breast with his mouth while Cheris pushed his pants down over his thighs and he kicked the material aside. Her fingers skimmed his cock. Her laughter filled his ears. He bit down on a swollen nipple before tearing himself away to stare at her.
“I wonder how the juicy fruit tastes à la cock.”
He grinned when she reached for a fruit slice and mashed it up and down his rigid length. She shifted to straddle his chest. Facing his groin, she lapped at the juices streaming down his cock. He eyed her damp vulva hovering before him only briefly before reaching for a slice of fruit and sliding it along her fleshy folds. Her moans as she took him into her mouth delighted him.
Cheris had listened well to her coaches. She was opening her orifices for him. They’d already probed each other’s mouths—now she was working his penis into her throat. She pressed back against his tongue as he curled it into her slit. There. Her finger prodded his anus, seeking entry. He held back a shout for joy.
He swallowed some of her juices mingled with those of the fruit. He lifted his butt, encouraging her finger. She didn’t disappoint. He settled back onto the carpet as her finger passed through his outer ring. She contented herself with moving her mouth smoothly up and down his shaft and easing her finger in and out of his ass, yet they both knew this was only foreplay. This was not about climaxing for either of them. He waited for her to lead.
She withdrew her finger, dropped his cock from her mouth and moved away to wash her finger and nibble on another piece of fruit.
He didn’t detect indecision in her eyes—perhaps a little wariness.
Then she bent over and hefted his testicles gingerly. “According to Lydia and Selma, I’m supposed to believe these guys have been saving up for me for quite some time.”
He nodded. “During adolescence, Atlantean males are allowed to spill their seed. Once they reach maturity, they do their best to save their seed for their lifemate.”
“And have you been a good boy?” Cheris’s eyes sparkled with mirth.
“Very.” He hesitated.
Cheris bit her bottom lip. “But you have something you must do first.”
“That’s right.”
She nodded and turned to face the bed. She knelt as she had earlier, only this time she was surely aware his focus wasn’t on her pussy.
He moved up behind her, admiring the curve of her ass and how that little ridge between vulva and anus stood out. He bent down and traced it with his tongue.
Cheris flinched and moaned.
He clutched her hands at her sides as he rimmed her asshole. She shuddered under his oral caresses. He smiled at her delight. She a
ppeared well practiced in the ancient arts of anal play. His cock strained for contact. Lexus leaned back and guided the head of his shaft to her dark portal. He pushed inward and paused, waiting for her to accept him. Cheris curled her fingers into the bed sheets. He pressed onward. “Holy Zeus, you’re tight.” He flexed out and back in, reseating. Half of his length still awaited entry.
“Good God!” Cheris squealed. “What are you doing to me?”
He froze. “Surely you’ve done this before.”
She shook her head wildly from side to side.
“Damn Poseiden and all the others.” He started to pull out.
“No,” she cried. “I need to accept all of you. Please.”
Lexus cussed under his breath and glanced quickly at the nearby couch where Lydia and Selma now sat watching intently.
Lydia nodded her head in agreement with Cheris’s assessment.
He knew the rules, damn it. How the hell had the woman traveled the world and done so much and not taken a cock in her ass? He sighed, then beamed. That meant she’d been saving her ass for him!
“Not much more,” he said, reassuring her as best he could. Again he flexed back a little before pushing forward. He grinned and his lungs filled with triumph when his cock disappeared into her. She must’ve sensed her bottom pressing against his hips.
“Yes!” she shouted. “Now what?”
“Now,” he said, “I withdraw as gently as possible.”
“Whoa,” she cautioned, tipping her head back. “Slow. I’m stretched so wide I think I could snap in two.”
“There,” he said, holding his tingling cock in his hand. “This will become pleasurable for you, but it will take some practice.”
She nodded her head. “I trust that. I’ve never felt so full. I’m still burning up back there.”
“Selma will help you with that,” he said, as Selma came forth with a jar of balm and Lydia with a bowl of water and soap.
Cheri fought to get her eyes back in focus. Then she saw Selma drop to her knees beside her.
Atlantis Allure Page 13
