STARLIGHT DESIRE

by Astrid Cooper

  "You're a fast learner," he ground out.

  "Yes, when I'm inspired."

  "Are you inspired?"

  "Oh yes. I never knew it could be so good."

  "It?" John asked. "What it?"

  "Everything."

  He smiled, then, a very self-satisfied male smile. "Honey-cat we haven't even begun. Good is just the beginn…ahhhhh."

  Sam scraped her tongue tip over his hard nipple and he flung his arm across his eyes, thrashing on the bed.

  "Cat-boy, I want you to turn over, face down, spread your legs."

  "I'm not cat-boy. My name is…oh, stars!"

  "What is your name?" she demanded, stroking his erection, leaning over so her hair teased his sensitive flesh. "What is your name?"

  "I…oh…stars….I can't think…"

  "Good evening, Samantha, Kuno," Harimal's voice intruded.

  Sam gasped, rolled off John and pulled the quilt to her chin. Her act of modesty provoked a low chuckle from Hari. Her ears burnt. Mortified, she couldn't look at him.

  "Don't you ever damn well knock?" John snapped.

  "In my own apartment? Besides, if I was so polite, I'd've missed an interesting display. I've never seen such a response, Kuno."

  "Harimal!"

  "You remember my name, at least, brother-mine. Moments before I think you said you'd forgotten yours." He laughed.

  Sam glanced at him. Hari was leaning against the door, arms folded, his deep blue eyes sparking. He winked at her, flinging his hair back in that unconscious manner that made every woman in the universe melt. She swallowed.

  "You turn up everywhere uninvited these days, Harimal," John said.

  "Me--uninvited? Where?"

  "In the holo-room. I didn't think even you would have the nerve."

  "Ah, did I offend you, Samantha?" Hari's narrowed gaze was almost tinged with uncertainty. Almost.

  "No, no it was okay."

  "You see, Kuno, nothing to worry about."

  John groaned. "You shouldn't encourage him, Sammi."

  Hari padded across the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, lying back, reclining on his elbows. The curl of his lip and the glint in his eyes told Sam all she needed to know. Hari-cat was intent on mischief.

  Harimal grinned at her. "I know I'm interrupting, but when I've gone, you'll rise to the occasion, Kuno. That I'm sure." His narrowed gaze took in his brother's body, naked, engorged. "And as for the holo-room, I seem to recall you both were purring loudly when I left."

  "You know what I mean Harimal."

  "It's never worried you in the past."

  "That's the past, Hari. This is now. Times have changed."

  "I can see that." His gaze flashed. He smiled, slow, teasingly. Aimed to devastate.

  "And you can stop looking at me like that, too," John said. "Go play with someone else."

  "Tsk," Hari said, grinning at Sam. "And I thought my brother's humor would improve now that he has you. If anything he's worse. And that's saying something. Kuno, your temper can be so human."

  "You needn't insult him, Harimal," Sam said.

  "The she-cat comes to your rescue, Kuno. I like it when she spits."

  "You're impossible," Samantha snapped.

  "Impossible has some interesting connotations." Harimal laughed, a deep throated sound that was a mix of purr and a growl.

  Could John laugh like that? She'd have to ask him.

  "Yes, I can, in private, Sammi." John's thumb ran down the side of her neck. "That sound is personal." He glared at Harimal. "So what do you want, brother-mine?"

  "To say goodbye. I've been ordered home. If I didn't have a schedule to meet, I think I might remain behind and explore your definition of impossible."

  "And do what?" John ground out.

  "Why, whatever I was asked. If I was asked." He put a finger on Sam's foot, tracing the arch.

  "I'm not ready for that," Sam said. "I…I can't."

  Harimal smiled and touched her big toe. "Ah yes, I know that, Samantha. One day you will want to share and I hope I'm around when you do."

  "Have you...before?" she asked John.

  John flushed and Harimal laughed. "You can't have forgotten that dancer on Vega? Or her sister? When she put her tentacle into your ass, I thought you were going to detonate."

  "I never kiss and tell," John snarled.

  "Who said anything about kissing? She fucked you and you--"

  "That's enough, Harimal!" John glanced at Sam.

  Samantha grinned, pleased to see John so discomfited. No longer the cock-sure cat. "Enlighten me, oh do! A few days ago that would have shocked me. After Rendezvous, I don't think I can ever be surprised."

  "You want for me to shock you?" Harimal asked.

  "You could try."

  "Ah, a challenge and I so love a woman who challenges me. Alas, no time to shock you, Samantha." He pushed himself up from the bed. "I have to leave. But first, my disguise."

  "Your what?"

  "Most felinus travel in cognito. It saves… entanglements."

  "Felinus live for entanglements."

  Harimal grinned. "There's entanglements and then there's entanglements, Samantha. Kuno understands. I wonder if we could make you understand the difference?"

  John snorted.

  Harimal slid up from the bed and strode to the wardrobe. It opened automatically at his approach. He hunted through the garments and drew out a long frock coat and trousers. He stripped off his silk caftan.

  Samantha tried really, really hard not to watch. A flash of bare skin, the scrape of cloth over flesh. He was doing a strip-tease in reverse.

  When she glanced up, Hari was facing the mirror, brushing out his hair. She watched the slide of the bristles through his gleaming blue-black mane, noticing the copper highlights. His gaze held hers in the mirror. She smiled.

  Hari continued to groom himself. John swore in exasperation.

  "You have something to say, brother-mine?" Harimal asked. "Or something to do?"

  John fell back on the bed, an arm across his eyes. "Stars have mercy!"

  "Don't let my presence here upset you. Can't you rise to any occasion?"

  "Any time."

  "So what's stopping you?"

  "You."

  "Don't tell me you're shy?" Harimal bit his lip as he winked at Sam.

  "I want privacy."

  "Oh, how boringly human."

  Sam grinned at Harimal. He shook his head and her mouth became dry, her throat constricted. Hari dressed was…overwhelming.

  The black, high-necked coat reached to his knees, the matching trousers and black boots--he was a man of shadow, of contradictions as only a felinus could be.

  He braided his hair, rolled it into a bun, pinning it at his nape with a silver clasp.

  "If that's your disguise, Harimal, I can tell you now it's not gonna work!" Samantha said. If anything, Harimal covered from neck to toe, with his long hair bound had the opposite affect. Every woman would want to remove each layer of clothing, to reveal the layers of man beneath…

  At least as far as she was concerned.

  She chewed her lower lip. She ought not to be feeling this for the brother of the man who was even now lying naked beside her, his finger stroking her nether curls. She hadn't even felt John's hand creep under the quilt to find her.

  Harimal was exuding sex from every pore. She'd have to be dead not to respond.

  Glancing at John, she saw his tight smile. A smile of understanding and of sympathy. "He's a bloody cat, Sammi, what do you expect?"

  "Thank you for the compliment," Harimal said and inclined his head.

  "It wasn't intended as such, Harimal." John eyed him dangerously.

  "No?" Hari laughed. "Every felinus journeys in disguise, Samantha. Before John met you, he traveled as I…because his hair, well…" He rolled his eyes for emphasis.

  "Brother-mine, will you shut the fuck up?"

  "Even for a felinus, his vanity was remarkable. With good reason. Go
lden hair, tipped with red and streaked with black." He paused and grinned. "Just overwhelming--that was the word you used before, Samantha. Yes?"

  Sam glared at him. Bloody mind-reading cat!

  He grinned harder and held up his hands in mock surrender.

  Sam glanced at John. His hair was in disarray around his shoulders, but it was just human brown-blonde, though now as she peered closer, there were red lights in the strands. She was certain that such highlights hadn't been there yesterday.

  Hari nodded. "Not much to speak of at the moment, but wait a few months, when it's grown. Do you know, he cut his hair for you? Now that doesn't happen very often--a felinus male cutting his hair."

  "For me?"

  "If you'd seen him before, then you'd have run because you would've known he was not pure human."

  "It wouldn't have mattered to me, Kuno!" Sam said.

  John snorted. "No? I couldn't take that chance. Hellstars, Sammi, it took me months to get you to talk to me one on one in the chat room. Even then you wouldn't give me your real name. That took me another three months of--"

  "Coercion!" Sam said, recalling. John had been patient, but determined. She had given him the cold-shoulder so many times, yet he kept coming back for more. A cat was single-minded when he had a goal in sight.

  Now, knowing what she did, she hadn't stood a bloody chance.

  "Not a bloody chance," John echoed.

  "Her call sign was Tosca as I recall," Harimal said. "I know your love of opera. Is Tosca your favorite?"

  "Yes and…no."

  "Ah," Harimal said. "A mystery."

  Samantha swallowed and felt John's hand over hers. The lightest pressure of his fingers. "I was a different person, then. It's in the past, Hari, let it remain so."

  Harimal inclined his head, a smile passing between the two brothers.

  "You share all my secrets?" Sam demanded.

  "Not every one, but with his problems over you, he did come to me for advice."

  "Feegle you," John growled.

  "Why thank you, Kuno, if you weren't my brother, I'd take you up on the offer. I know how well you can fuck, when you put your mind to it--and other parts of your anatomy, of course!"

  Sam stared from one to the other.

  "We felinus share, Samantha, when our kin are hurting. John was hurting--then." His eyes misted as he looked at his brother. "Does this alarm you?"

  "No," she said. "No. Pain is better shared than suffered alone." She stroked the bed cover, her fingers trembling. She knew about pain, contained, in the darkest nights…

  "Samantha!" One word from Harimal…

  She wondered if Hari had caught the images she had long tried to suppress--the images that only Kuno-John glimpsed.

  John leaned into her, his leg tossed over her thighs, holding her close, his breath over her cheek. He purred.

  "That's in the past, kitten-mine. No hurt in the universe will ever touch you. My promise--as human, as felinus as…ah…cat-boy." The last whispered.

  Harimal bowed, his folded hands over his chest. "My promise as felinus, Samantha, no hurt in the universe will ever touch you. I speak as san-duran."

  Harimal, the Prince--san-duran. Even John was shocked, his eyes bright with tears.

  Sam loved them both so much in that moment she thought her heart would explode.

  "You cut your hair for me?" she asked. "Will you grow it again for me?"

  "I'll do whatever you want, Sammi."

  "Anything?"

  "Yes." His gaze held hers.

  "Don't ever call me Tosca again, Harimal," Sam said.

  "I will not."

  The silence in the room beat at her ears.

  John cleared his throat. "I've been trying to convince Sammi that she ought to have a felinus name."

  "Yes, that would be appropriate," Hari said.

  "I am not felinus, I am just a human…it'd be a complication."

  "There is nothing just about you, Samantha! Don't you like complications?" Harimal raised his brow. "They can be so entertaining."

  "I like a quiet life."

  "Then you shouldn't have chatted with Kuno and agreed to meet him."

  "I was set up. You both set me up."

  "It took our pooled experience to lure you out of hiding, that's true! But once Kuno decided on you, kitten, you didn't stand a chance. I mean a woman who anonymously bequeaths three million credits to Starwatch--do you truly think you wouldn't be noticed?"

  "Enough, Harimal." You don't understand. I mean it--no more.

  "John, you said our meeting was fated," Sam accused, fear slicing through her.

  He sighed. "It was fate, karma, destiny. Everything that has happened before and since."

  "But the money bought your interest?"

  John's hand fisted over hers. "Bought, kitten? No way! No one buys me! It inspired me to find you, Sammi. I traced you through various means…"

  "Your spies?"

  "Mmm. And your friends."

  "Who set me up for a Christmas Night date with a sensualator. But what if…what if I didn't donate the money…? Oh stars!"

  What if…a hundred what ifs swirled around her mind. Horror washed through her.

  "You see what you've done, you stupid bloody cat!" John's whisper was coldly furious.

  Harimal's pupils dilated. Not from anger, but anguish. Sam knew that much about felinus.

  "Kuno, Sam, I don't understand. I want to. I mean no offence, to either of you. Please." He took one step forward, holding out his hand, palm up.

  Ignoring Hari, Sam swallowed her tears. "You promise me, John, that the money didn't matter."

  "Honey-cat. The money got my attention. I made it my mission to discover your identity, no matter who you were, whether eighteen or eighty." His love washed through her, emphasizing his words, his meaning. "When you refused to answer the Starwatch emails, well, I went undercover. When your friends told me about you, there was no way in the universe I would let you go, without at least thanking you and shaking your hand."

  "But, John--"

  "No buts, Sammi! I wanted you from the first moment I read your email."

  "Sight unseen?"

  "Mmm. Sight unseen."

  "I could have been a fright, a bitch."

  "You actually were both to me for a long time. Stars, you had a way with words that would have scared off a human. Lucky for us both I'm a hybrid."

  Sam smiled, blinking back her tears. "Yes, lucky for us both."

  "That's true," Harimal said, climbing on the bed, nestling behind Sam. He drew her back against him and John moved forward. She was captured between them and held tightly, wrapped in two pairs of arms, legs thrown over her. "I read some of your emails and then a couple of the chats. I told Kuno you would be a challenge."

  "I was?"

  "You are," the two brothers whispered in unison.

  "I am not."

  "You're still a hissing honey-cat when you need to be. Defending him," Harimal said. "As is proper for a felinus."

  "I am not felinus."

  John licked her neck. "Genetically, perhaps not. But who knows, Sam? Shifter blood turns up in the most surprising places."

  "Samantha is special, Kuno. I sense no felinus within her, at least not her own essence. There's plenty of you inside her."

  Sam gasped and blushed and the two men laughed.

  "Samantha, listen to me," Harimal said, stroking her temple.

  She glanced over her shoulder at him and saw the intensity of his gaze, the determination to be heard and understood.

  "Yes," she whispered.

  "The past is in the past. Fate brought you to John, to me. The money was incidental. Trust me. My name is Harimal, I am san-duran of Chizan and I speak the truth. Do you hear me?"

  "Yes," she whispered, then frowned. What had he just said? Chizan. Shock raced through her. "You've gifted me the name of the felinus homeworld? Chizan. Thankyou."

  John wept quietly. Harimal lightly scratched his brothe
r's arm.

  "It's my right to gift it to her, Kuno. To gift you both thus. I am san-duran. Prince. Understand this, Samantha. By giving you the secret name of the felinus world, it allows you sanctuary--it opens all doors to you. You are sister-mine." He bit her nape. "You are marked by Harimal Prince of Chizan."

  Sam leaned into Kuno and kissed away his tears and then turned to Harimal, her lips lightly touching his. She bit his neck and Hari stiffened against her.

  "Alas, I must leave, otherwise, Samantha, I'd accept the promise contained in that kiss."

  Silence descended. What could she say? What could any of them say in the intimacy and layers of that moment?

  Minutes stretched in comfortable silence. Then, Sam laughed. "I'd be interested in this campaign you and he mounted against me." She looked from one brother to the other, frowning. "Didn't stand a chance, huh?" She slapped John's leg and he captured her hand, raising it to his lips. He smiled at her, his tawny eyes afire as he lathered her palm.

  "Not a chance," he whispered.

  "Of all the insufferable conceited… You're gonna pay for it, John-Kuno."

  "Is that a threat?"

  "Nope, a promise."

  "You see what you've done, Harimal? Sam is going to make me pay."

  "Rightly so! With blood? With tears or some other body-juice?"

  Sam flushed and the brothers roared with laughter.

  "Kuno, are you going to give the kitten a proper name? Samantha is so inadequate."

  "I have some ideas," John said.

  Sam wanted to wipe the smug look from his face. "I haven't got any say in this, I suppose?"

  "Harimal is a Prince. He commands and I obey."

  "Oh, pleeeeze!" Hari snorted. "If only. But if you're mated to a felinus, Samantha, it's only proper that you have a true name."

  "I'm not mated," she said.

  "Rrrrrreally?" Harimal purred.

  "She's so contrary," John sighed. "You see what I have to endure?"

  "Yes, my heart bleeds for you, saer-tan!"

  The closest interpretation would be brother-mine, Sam thought. Yet, the meaning went deeper, the love and intimacy in the words vibrated on other levels.

  Hari pushed himself up from the bed. "I have to go now. I hope I'll be back within the month, unless Father and Uncle have decided I'm to be mated. In that case, I'll be back immediately."

  "Don't you want to be mated?" Sam asked.

  "One day, when I'm good and ready and with someone I choose." He slid away from the bed. "Now for my disguise." He laughed.