Page 14

W aking in Wenvari’s arms was a novelty. She jolted every time, and he soothed her. He turned her in his arms and kissed her every morning.

On their third day on the way home, he asked, “How do you get aroused?”

She suddenly realized what he was waiting for. “Oh, it either happens cyclically, or you can just touch me or kiss me like you mean it.”

“Mean it?”

“I have some affection for you, Wenvari. We are bound together for the next five years. I have also been alone for about the same amount of time. So, if you don’t want me, I won’t take up your time, but if you do, you are going to have to start things.”

He smiled and caressed her cheek. “I can do that. I did not want to rush you.”

“Rush away. I can keep up. Well, as long as you can hold back.”

“Ah, they fixed that. May I demonstrate?”

“Are your hands clean?”

He grinned, got up, and went to wash his hands. He returned, yanked the sheet off the bed, and looked her over. He looked her over, head to toe.

“Doing an assessment of what you bargained for?”

“Trying to decide where to start.”

“Well, you can make a list and start at a different place every time.” Reem smiled.

He knelt next to her and bent to kiss her lips. “That is a very sound idea. You have sealed your fate. I am starting at the centre.”

Reem thought he was going for her navel, but he grabbed her leg, flipped it, and planted his kiss over her sex, exploring and licking, and she started to feel bolts of excitement shooting through her. Wenvari chuckled and spread her thighs apart from their clamped position around his pointed ears.

Reem blushed when her hair turned purple. Wenvari grinned. His marks were white hot to look at, and when he returned to her thighs, she heard a crackle of energy. His hair was lit with lightning.

She craned to see what he was doing as her body writhed against his mouth and then his fingers, but he pressed her back with his wing and continued driving her mad with his mouth.

Reem felt the tension building and gasped softly as the first release washed through her.

The bite she felt on her inner thigh was matched with the crackling of energy against her clit.

She yelped as the soft pinpoints of pain kept her orgasm going and going.

He moved his wing, and she met his gaze.

He lifted his head and licked his lips. He moved the fingers that he had thrust inside her, and they gleamed brightly. She covered her mouth and mumbled, “That hasn’t happened for a while.”

“The climax or...”

“The slick on your hand. It’s why the machine was so soothing. It had lube.”

He slurped it off his fingers and smiled. “Well, you are deeper than my fingertips, which is good enough for a start.”

She felt the blush across her skin. “A start? What’s a finish?”

“We will find out.” He moved over her, and his erection pressed against her. The head moved and then slid into her, moving, stretching, and filling her.

Reem looked up at him; he filled her vision as he filled her body. She squeaked and grunted as he continued into her, and then, suddenly, he stopped.

“Look at me, Reem. I want to memorize your expression.”

She stared at him as he started moving, and he smiled softly as he led her body to pleasure and then did it again.

Reem woke up on a table in Wenvari’s bath chamber. His oiled hands were moving over every muscle group and rubbing until she was limp. She groaned and could see that her hair was grey-blue.

He was glowing grey-white and smiling. “There you are, Comptroller. Perhaps seeking your power a fourth time was too much, but I can’t regret it and will help you to retune your instrument.”

She spoke in a whisper. “Retune?”

“Yes, speeding your recovery means that we will be able to move together again. I have started at four different points and enjoyed them all. You have hundreds of other points to begin, and I wish to experience them all.”

She leaned up on her elbows as he rubbed at her lower back. “We don’t have to do them all right now.”

“How will I know which is my favourite without trying them all?” He sounded amused but reasonable.

“Well, I know one thing specifically that will trim your list.” She grunted as he pressed her flat.

“What is that?”

“Lord Wenvari, you like to watch my face, and I only bend so many ways.”

He smiled. “Excellent point. What about turned to one side?”

“Maybe, but you will have to line up. I will have a limited range of movement.”

“Your stamina does need work, Reem. I am delighted with your current capabilities, but I am waiting patiently for your body to settle into its new lines.”

“Lines?”

“You now wear the same veins under your skin that I do. They are rising with every peak you visit.”

“Yeah, about designs. Yours are lightning.”

He kept massaging her thighs. “They are.”

“And each time you wanted to speed things up, I detected the crackle of energy along my body.”

He chuckled. “I was eager. I believe the urge to see your eyes go blank will fade in a century or two.”

“Our contract is only five years.”

“What were you planning after that?”

“I was going to work as long as possible to make money for retirement. Buy a small house, grow some herbs, and live out my very short life on Wenavik.”

“How short was it?”

“Was it?”

“Your lifespan.”

“In my family, ninety-five years or so. I was already close to fifty.”

He continued his slow massage of her back with a strong slide from shoulder to ankle. “Well, it is now considerably longer, and your fertility has been... refreshed.”

“Yeah, I guessed as much. The records from the different Hmrain that had human consorts all indicated that eggs with Hmrain DNA had been assembled.”

He chuckled and kept working on her until she was limp. “While you were studying my people, I was learning how to take care of you.”

“Like a pet?”

“Like a new species that I want to see thrive.” He leaned down and kissed her shoulder, then the other, and finally the back of her neck.

“I can’t move.”

He laughed and scooped her up. “You have such a strange effect on me. I feel lighthearted. I never feel that way.”

“Oh, I learned about that, too. My genetic donor was a class called ambassadors. They were designed to look generic to several species with a little effort. One of them was sent to make sure that the Ra project worked, and she left her child with its other mother.”

“Ah. Interesting. I felt that the designers would not have left us alone without some supervision.” He chuckled. “I would not have noticed that someone came to check. I have always kept to myself if I could. Also, I don’t know faces, so that is a factor.”

She smiled. “It would affect your interaction with people around you. Everyone would look the same.”

“This is the issue. I don’t know why they made me that way, but they did. I am rather happy with how things have worked out.”

She nodded and then dozed against him, warm and limp. She used her computer back home to greet petitioners and continue her work as comptroller.

He murmured against her temple, “You are working again.”

“Mmphf.” She grunted.

“You have my markings on your forehead under your skin, and they are glowing white-gold as you work remote.” He chuckled. “I will be able to see if you are splitting your focus with a computer.”

She smiled and patted his chest. She tried to find instructions on caring for a Hmrain, but it always ended in sex position manuals. Reem would check again later; for now, she was a limp, warm cinnamon bun.

She was in the shower but didn’t remember getting there. The large male she was leaning against might have had something to do with it.

“How are you feeling, Reem?”

“Less sore than I have a right to be. The massage did the trick. When are we home?”

“Forty-six hours. Eager to be back?”

“Yes. Do I still have to wear the consort uniform?”

“Of course. You are my consort, after all.”

“According to the contract, I am a companion.”

“I have the addendum and change in terms on the tablet in the bedroom.”

She chuckled and arched into him as he massaged her tailbone. “You are getting very good at that.”

“I gave you visual clues. Your markings help me know what you are feeling.”

She looked up at him and slid her hands up his chest. His white-grey was in evidence, but a soft lavender was visible beneath her skin. “That isn’t fair.”

“Fair or not, I am glad for it.”

She chuckled and reached around his ribs and stroked the skin where his wings and back became one. He froze, and his designs were white and blazing under his skin. “I am taking the hint as well.”

He lifted her for a kiss, holding her as the heat built between them.

He cut off the water and walked to the air column that dried them from top to toe.

At first, she thought it was strange to use a shower like that on the ship, but then he blandly explained that he was a Hmrain, and he would have a sunken tub if he wanted one.

The water was recycled and was fine for reuse over and over.

He sat at the edge of the bed and pulled her onto his lap, rocking her against him while kissing her senseless. She rocked against him until she gasped and held onto him as a low groan ripped through her.

“I believe you would have broken the machine if I brought you in in this state.” He chuckled. “Or rather, I would if I were there to witness it.”

She swallowed and rasped, “Why?”

He pressed his mouth to her neck. “I touch you, not a bot. I make you gasp, not a bot. I take that dazed expression in your eyes, and I remember it.”

She shuddered and clutched at his shoulders. Her body was still hot, and she wanted more.

Wenvari lifted his head, smiling. “I admire your capacity for pleasure.”

Reem smiled. “If not my stamina?”

He aligned them and slowly slid into her.

Reem let her head fall back as he lifted her and lowered her with delicate slowness.