by Lyn Forester
"Mmm." The vibration of his hum follows the same path. Knees trembling, I clutch the counter. "You taste sweet. Like dessert."
"It's my lotion." My voice sounds weird, breathy. Nothing like me.
He releases my earlobe, his nose sweeping down to the place where neck meets shoulder. His chin nudges my bathrobe out of the way so his lips can find skin. "You have edible lotion?"
"It's all natural." I jerk as his teeth sink into the muscle above my collarbone. The next instant, his rough tongue traces over the pain and leaves a trail of fire in its wake. I gasp, achy and confused. "I'm not a piece of cake."
"No, you're better." He moves my hair out of the way as his lips skim the back of my neck. His mouth opens over the top of my spine.
I lean away; he follows. The hard counter and his body block me in place. "Don't bite."
As his teeth sink in, my spine arches, hips snapping back toward him in reflex. But, his body stays distant. Our only point of contact comes from the hot pressure of his mouth, the warm bracket of his arms on either side of me. Close without touching. A shudder shakes me as my nipples stiffen to painful peaks. I groan, the unfamiliar sound slipping past parted lips.
The space that separates us yawns like a chasm that needs to be bridged. I want him to hug me close, to press fully against me. To cling to me like he does to the others. He moves his attention back to my shoulder, and I turn my face to his.
"Vice." The plea drips from me with no idea what I ask for.
But he knows.
Head rising, languid green eyes focus on my mouth. One hand curves around the back of my head, thumb under my jaw as he tilts my chin back further. This time, I'm ready for the kiss. My eyes flutter shut.
"That's far enough, Felix."
I jerk around to find Connor in the doorway, already changed into grey flannel pajamas for the night. A frown twists across his face as he stares at us. Embarrassment floods through me, and my gaze drops. Twice in one day, he's caught me in a compromising position.
"Didn't you go to bed, bro?" Felix's hand drops from me to grab his towel off the counter. It rustles as he wraps it around his waist before he steps away. Cool air rushes to fill the sudden gulf left by his retreat.
"I forgot my glasses." Connor strides to the sink where his black frames rest on the shelf, forgotten.
Felix's narrowed gaze follows him. "You don't need them. It could have waited until morning."
"Someone might have taken them." He slides them on and glances at me. "Come on, Sparks, your room's on the way to mine."
"Yeah, okay." I rub at my cheeks, confused. Within me, irritation wars with relief at the interruption. What would have happened if Connor didn't come back?
I peek at Felix. He moved away so fast, and he looked annoyed but calm. Was I the only one affected? Is my inexperience fun for him to play with?
"I can walk her." Felix strides to his bathrobe, stuffed under the bench, and slides into it with his back to us.
One black eyebrow arched, Connor stares at his twin. "Don't you need to use the restroom?"
Felix peeks over his shoulder. "Not if I walk her back."
My eyes drop to his hips, faced away from us, and the blood leaves my face. He did not just imply what I think he did. The smirk on his face says he absolutely did.
"How dare you?" I twist toward the sink, grab the grooming caddy, and spin back around. He ducks, arms over his head as I fling it at him. Combs clatter off him and the plastic box clangs as it hits the floor. "Just what did you think would happen?"
He peeks through his arms, eyes wide. "Sex?"
"You said slow!" I search for something else to throw. "That's not slow!"
Connor rubs the side of his nose. "It's slow for my brother."
I swing on him, finger jabbing into his chest. "And you guys just left me here with him?"
"I thought you'd punch him." Connor winces as he backs away from me. "You still can, if you want. There's nothing else to throw."
I glare at Felix. He cringes, hands half raised in front of his face. He peeps at me through spread fingers. "Why are you so mad?"
"Don't talk to me." I spin on my heel and march toward the door, yank it open, and storm into the hall. Connor follows close behind.
"Sorry for my brother," he whispers as we turn left and walk past the quiet doors of other students.
"Don't apologize for him." Fists unclenched, I try to shake off the anger that pounds through me. A headache forms at my temples. "I can't believe you guys left me alone with him if that's how he is."
Connor, close enough for our arms to brush, keeps his voice low, "I didn't really forget my glasses."
"Oh." Surprised, I peek up at him. "Thank you."
"Although…" His cheeks turn pink as he scrubs a hand through his hair. "You didn't seem to dislike it."
"I thought he wanted to teach me how to kiss." Embarrassed to talk about it with his twin, I drop my gaze to the floor. "My first one was a complete failure."
"Was it Declan?" He clears his throat, and I glance at him from the corner of my eye. His head turns away from me so I can't see his face. "Earlier in the pantry?"
My hands fly to my face. "How do you both know about that?"
"That's how it looked when we found you guys."
Behind us, quiet footsteps fill the hall. I stop to glance back, expecting Felix. I'm surprised he didn't catch up to us already, despite my anger with him. Over the last couple days, I've noticed he doesn't like to be left alone.
Instead, Declan's roommate squeezes past us, pillow and blanket bundled in his long arms. Sleep lines crease his face, and his fine blond hair flops across his forehead.
"What's that about?" I frown as he turns at the hall's midway point and disappears down the stairs.
Connor pushes his glasses up his nose with a shrug. "Declan probably kicked him out."
"Why would he do that?" My anger, pushed aside by embarrassment, simmers back to the surface. "Declan shouldn't pick on him like that. Not everyone can acclimate to school life."
"He's forceful." Connor's shoulder lifts in a half shrug. "If someone doesn't stand up to him, he walks right over them."
I want to take the high road and call Declan a horrible person. But Father taught me from a young age that you're either a conqueror or the conquered. Seems like a common tutelage for the children of councilors. Today, I let them pull me along with their plans. I became a follower.
"I shouldn't have let Declan kiss me," I mumble through my fingers. "Or Felix. It makes me weak."
Father would stare at me with contempt as he delivered yet another lecture on the folly of emotions. A lesson I seem unable to learn. Eyes stinging, I stare at the hall's carpet to avoid his gaze.
Connor reaches for my arm with gentle fingers. "That doesn't make you weak. If you didn't want to kiss them, you wouldn't have."
Declan ambushed me, so I had little choice there, as did Felix. But I would have kissed both of them again if we weren't interrupted. I shake my head, and my whole body moves. "I'm so confused. If Felix knew Declan kissed me, why would he kiss me, too?"
"Because he likes you?" Connor's fingers tighten on my arms to pull me closer.
"How can he like me? We've only really known each other for a couple days." The words come as a surprise. It feels longer than that, but I learned their names two days ago.
"You're kidding, right?" His arms wrap around me. "We chased your light stream for over a year."
"But we never talked." My nose rubs against his chest, the flannel of his pajamas soft against my skin. Calm washes over me, different from the buzz Declan gives me or the tingling burn from Felix. I want to stay like this.
"Sure we did." His chin drops onto the top of my head. "You flipped us off a bunch, called us Deadstreams when you won."
"You bet I did." Hesitant, I wrap my arms around his slender waist. "That was trashy racer talk. You guys did the same thing."
"That was flirting, Sparks." His head shifts,
lips pressing into my curls. "You were hot in your red racer gear. I kind of miss it."
I wind my arms tighter and block the image of my gear as it slid into the incinerator. "Me, too."
"Don't be mad at Felix. He pushes until he finds your limit. He won't try that again soon."
"That's why he always lost the races." I smile, hidden against his chest. "He never knew when to slow on the curves."
"I kept telling him that." Connor's grip loosens.
"I'll punch him next time." I take his cue, arms dropping to my sides. "But, I won't be mad at him."
"Don't be mad at me, either."
With a frown, I glance up into his serious green eyes. "Why would I be mad at you?"
His hands cup my jaw as he leans in until his nose touches mine. "Because I want to kiss you, too."
My mouth drops open in shock, and I snap it closed. When I move to pull away, he holds me in place, fingers on the back of my neck as his thumbs stroke my cheeks. My voice wavers with uncertainty, "What are you doing?"
"I'm letting you know now what my intentions are." His breath ghosts across my lips. My heart stutters in my chest, all the calm lassitude of before gone. "But I won't sneak attack you from behind. When I kiss you, you'll know it's coming."
He releases me, and I stumble back, hand fisted over my racing heart.
This is too much for one night.
Spinning on my heel, I walk the few doors down to my room and flee inside.
What's going on with them?
"Did you have fun tonight, Caitlyn?"
I jump, startled to find Myrrine still awake. She reclines in her bed, digital notepad in hand. Bastian peeks up from his place on the floor between our beds, gaze alert. Flustered, I push away from the door to walk the short distance to my desk and sit.
"I'm not sure." My bag hangs off the back of my chair. I lift it onto my lap. "Did Connor bring this by?"
"He is your man with the glasses?" She sets her tablet aside as she scoots to the edge of her bed. "He is most courteous."
"He's not my man." My voice wavers with uncertainty. I'm becoming the maiden who protests too much. Especially after the events of tonight.
Her head tilts, pink braid sliding over her shoulder. "Is he not the one who marked you?"
"Marked?" Confused, I check the front of my robe, but all I see is pristine white.
"Yes." Myrrine rises, crossing the short distance to stand in front of me. Her cool fingers brush against my shoulder. "Right here."
"What?" My shoulder aches beneath the light pressure of her fingers.
I push up from my seat, step over Bastian's legs, and hurry to the closet. In front of the mirror, I pull my robe aside to see a red crescent of teeth denting my skin. "That deadstream! I'll kill him."
Pressing on the mark makes my whole shoulder ache. I didn't realize Felix bit me that hard.
Myrrine appears behind me, brow furrowed as she gazes at the wound. "Did he not ask your permission before marking you?"
"Of course not." I pull my hair aside. "Is there another one back here?"
Icy fingers smooth down my neck, and another ache blossoms. In the mirror, her pale blue eyes turn to hard crystals. "He did this without consent?"
"Yeah." I twist for a look at my neck, but can't see anything. "Do you have a pocket mirror?"
"No time for that." My roommate whirls away, silk nightgown belling around her thighs. "Bastian."
"Yes, my Lady." The bodyguard leaps to his feet to stand at attention.
"Fetch your psy-gun. We must hunt down this Connor."
His spine straightens as blue swirls darken his face. "At once, my Lady."
"Wait, what?" I move to block the door as they stride forward. "What's going on?"
Myrrine stops in front of me, hands on hip. "We will defend your honor, Caitlyn. Markings are a serious business. If he did this without consent, then he must pay."
"Oh." Sudden realization dawns, and I grab her arms. Her skin feels like solid ice beneath my palms. "Myrrine, no. It's not like that for humans."
She stares down at me, shoulders stiff. "Explain."
"This kind of thing," I wave at my neck, "it's like a marriage thing for halions, right?"
"Yes. We exchange DNA so that we will become incompatible with other possible mates. We call it bonding." She reaches out to pull my robe tighter around my neck as if to swaddle me for safety. "He did not force you to exchange DNA, did he?"
"If you're asking if I bit him back, then no." I'm not clear on the specifics of halion marriage, but I know it has to do with biting.
She pets my head, soothing. "Good. We need not kill him to break your bond. But he should be taught to control his urges."
"Yes," Bastian rumbles from behind her. The man lifts a psy-gun to display the orange light on the handle: non-lethal setting. "Even teenagers must learn restraint."
Myrrine moves to step around me, and I block her path. "Wait, listen. Biting for humans is different. It doesn't mean the same thing."
Her eyes narrow in suspicion as she repeats, "Explain."
"Can we sit?" Blood creeps up my neck at explaining this to them.
Myrrine tilts her chin in a bare nod, and she moves back toward her bed. As my roommate alights on the edge of her mattress, Bastian stays close to the door. I keep a wary eye on him in case he leaps out of the room to avenge my virtue.
"So." I rub my sweaty palms against my robe as I sit opposite her. "Halions have bite guards as protection while having sex, right?"
Pink and purple swirl into her cheeks as she nods. "That is correct."
"And the bite guards are to prevent accidental marriage?"
She nibbles on her lower lip, turning the plump flesh a darker purple. "I believe that is the human equivalent."
"Okay, well, humans don't marry each other through an accidental bite." My face ignites with heat. "If we need protection during sex, we use condoms."
Head tilting, she peeks at Bastian before her gaze returns to focus on me. "What are condoms?"
"My Lady, this is not appropriate conversation." He shifts from his stance next to the door. At some point his psy-gun disappeared, so he must assume the threat passed.
"I will decide what is appropriate," Myrrine snaps. "We will retire for the night, your duty is complete."
"My lady," he protests. At her narrowed eyes, his head drops. Guilt twinges through me as he shuffles into the closet.
Once he closes himself into the small, dark space, she faces me. "Explain what condoms are."
I don't want to. "Isn't it enough to know you don't need to avenge me tonight?"
"I am here to learn human customs." She lifts her tablet and swipes to a blank screen. "Please, continue."
I flop back on my bed to stare at the ceiling. "Do you know how humans get pregnant?"
"Is it not the same as halions?" Her bed creaks, then her face blocks out my vision as she hovers over me, eyes wide with curiosity. "I have observed you naked. We are built the same."
My gaze rakes over her tall, perfectly sculpted body. "Okay, yeah, we'll go with that."
She smiles as she settles on my bed. "You are petite. It is rare among my people. It makes me want to cuddle you."
"Please don't." I scoot away from her, closer to the wall.
She takes it as an invitation and lies down. Tablet on her stomach, she shifts around until she can look at the ceiling with me. "Please continue."
"So, humans use condoms to prevent pregnancy."
"They are like the mouth guards halions wear?"
Surprised, I roll onto my side to stare at her. "They wear them to avoid pregnancy, too?"
From the closet, I hear Bastian grumble with unhappiness. We ignore him, and Myrrine's head turns, eyebrows lifted. "Yes, of course. Otherwise we would exchange DNA."
"But don't you have to," with a glance at the closet, I drop my voice, "have intercourse?"
She covers her mouth as purple swirls darken her face. "Yes, but first
the male must mark the female, to ready her body for full DNA receipt. Otherwise the egg will reject the sire."
"Oh." Her anger makes way more sense now. "Thank you for worrying about me. But he wasn't trying to ready me for a baby."
"But he did not cover his teeth with one of these human condoms." Her fingers brush my robe aside to verify the broken skin. "His DNA entered you."
"Don't say it like that." I push her hand away to flop onto my back again. "Humans don't wear condoms on their teeth. Our bodies don't need to be prepared like halions do."
She lifts up on one elbow to stare down at me. "Then where does the condom go?"
"You know," I gesture down at my hips. "Down there."
Her gaze follows my hands, and she frowns. "But how does it stay on?"
"Huh?" I try to remember what the picture on the bite guard box looked like, the one time I wandered down that isle at a QuikMart, but my mind pulls a blank. "It goes over the whole thing, like a sleeve."
Her pink eyebrows swoop up. "Do human males receive no pleasure from intercourse?"
"They do." My hands rub over my face. "The rubber is thin, almost non-existent. Or, at least, that's what the box says."
"They are tricking you, Caitlyn." She lies back down and pats my hand. "Such a thing could never prevent pregnancy."
"But a bite guard can?" A giggle escapes me. "That sounds like a trick."
"They are made from hard plastic, impenetrable."
"You don't have to worry." I squeeze her cool fingers. "Father includes a contraceptive shot in my yearly physical. No accidental pregnancy for me."
She tenses on the bed next to me. "He has taken your eggs from you?"
"It's a temporary safety measure." Her obvious concern warms me. "It wears off after a year unless I get a new one."
"I will not soon understand humans."
As an image of the guys pop into my head, I touch my lips. "Yeah, me either."
FENDING MY HONOR
I wake up unable to move, a warm body draped over mine. My heart kicks into panic mode until I glance down to see a pink puff of hair on my stomach. Myrrine and I must have fallen asleep while talking last night.
"Myrrine, wake up." I pat her shoulder, my legs numb under her weight.
