Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 (34 page)

Tilting her chin a little to one side, he licked up the salty droplets of blood that had slipped down her chin when she bit herself. Then he tenderly bathed her cut lip with his tongue, healing her with the essence his body naturally produced as soon as he got near her.

When he pulled back, Charlotte was looking at him with an uncertain expression on her face.

“So…” Stav said softly. “That was the end of your dream? That I tasted you and made you come with my tongue?”

But to his surprise, she shook her head again.

“No. Because you didn’t make me come—not with…with your tongue, anyway.”

“Then how?” he asked, intrigued all over again.

“You stopped licking me,” Charlotte said softly. “And then you pulled back and your fangs…”

“Yes?” His voice was getting deep and growly again but he couldn’t help it.

“They were so long and sharp. Like they were last night after we…after,” she murmured. “And you said…you said you were going to bite me.”

“What did
you
say?” Stav growled. His cock was throbbing and his fangs were aching. His whole body felt tight as a wire. Gods, if she said what he thought she might say…what he
hoped
she would say…

“I told you to do it.” The words came from her in a rush. Then she slowed down and looked at him. “No, I…I
begged
you to.” Her eyes were wide and uncertain as she admitted it. “I wanted to feel those long, sharp fangs in me so
badly
. I…” She looked away, clearly embarrassed. “I don’t know why. It was only a dream. But when you bit me…”

“Yes?” Stavros was holding himself rigid now. It was all he could do to keep from reaching across the truth-saying couch and dragging her to him. He wanted to crush her in his arms and kiss her ruthlessly, wanted to bare the slender column of her throat and sink his fangs deep in her flesh, injecting his essence until she moaned his name and begged for more.

“When you bit me,” she repeated softly. “I…I came. So
hard.”
She sighed and looked away. “
Then
I woke up.”

“Gods!” Finding he could move at last, Stavros got off the couch and paced to the other side of the room. He didn’t trust himself near her right now. Not after she’d admitted to
wanting
his bite. He had never desired a female so badly before, never wanted to sink his fangs into willing flesh and inject his essence until he met Charlotte. Now it was all he could think about even though he knew it was wrong.

“Stavros?” Nar’sa said softly, making him jerk. Their counselors had been standing unobtrusively to one side, observing so silently he had completely forgotten they were there.

“Yes?” His voice came out a ragged growl and he had to clear his throat and try again. “Yes?” he asked in a slightly more normal tone.

“How does Charlotte’s dream make you feel?” she asked softly. “You seem greatly affected—are you troubled by her admissions?”

“No, I…” He ran a hand through his hair. “Yes,” he admitted at last. “Both troubled and aroused. I never thought to find a female who would wish for my bite.”

“As Charlotte never thought to find a male who desired to taste her,” Ta’no said softly.

“Do you see the good that comes of speaking your desires aloud?” he and Nar’sa asked together.

“I…suppose.” Stavros cleared his throat. “At least now we have put our cards on the table, as I believe the expression goes. We now know where we stand.”

“We’ve also said things we can’t unsay,” Charlotte said quietly from the truth-saying couch. “Embarrassing things.
Private
things.”

“I told you that you would be speaking your secrets to each other,” Nar’sa reminded her. “This is good and proper—you should have no secrets from your mate.”

“Yeah, right.” Charlotte looked away, clearly unhappy.

“We shall give you a little time to consider these revelations,” Ta’no said quietly. “Come, my mate.” He and Nar’sa turned as one and left the little room, leaving the two of them alone.

* * * * *

“Charlotte…” Stavros came to her and sat beside her on the round couch. Charlie scooted over, putting some room between them. To her relief, he didn’t follow.

“What?” She cast a quick glance in his direction.

“I am sorry,” he said softly. “Sorry if the things we said embarrassed or pained you. But pleased believe I don’t think any less of you for saying them.”

“Well maybe I think less of
myself
.” She looked down at her hands.
The Kindred are the enemy. Stavros is the enemy,
she told herself over and over. But somehow she was having a hard time making herself believe it. “I can’t
believe
I said all those things,” she muttered aloud.

“I said some fairly embarrassing things myself,” Stavros reminded her.

“Yeah, right,” Charlie said flatly. “Like your little fantasy was more embarrassing than my big loooong dream. I’ve never admitting to wanting…the things I admitted to wanting to you. Not to
anyone.”

“And
do
you want them?” he asked softly, his voice dipping down to that deeper, growling register that sent a shiver up her spine. “Do you want me to taste you—to pleasure you with my mouth and make you come with my tongue?”

“I
shouldn’t
want it.” Charlie looked away from him. “You’re my partner. That’s
all.”

“But you
do
want it.” He lifted her hand and kissed the very center of her palm very gently. His whiskers were scratchy and rough but his lips were soft and hot against her flesh. “And I want to give it to you.”

“You shouldn’t…” Charlie wanted to pull her hand away from him but somehow she couldn’t. She made the mistake of looking into his eyes again she found herself getting lost in that indigo gaze that made her feel naked. Naked and hot.

“No, I shouldn’t. But I do.” He kissed her palm again. “Gods, Charlotte, I truly do want to taste you.”

“And so you shall.”

They both jerked and gave exclamations of surprise.

“What the hell?” Charlie looked up to see Nar’sa and Ta’no standing in the doorway once more.

“What are you doing there? I thought our class was over.” Stavros looked at least as pissed off as Charlie felt.

“It is not concluded until you have a private session—which you have just done.” Ta’no said.

“And now we must assign your home studies for tonight,” Nar’sa said.

“Home studies? You mean homework?” Charlie demanded. “I hope there isn’t going to be homework for every class.”

“There is no other class—not for the two of you. Not today,” Ta’no said.

“You have only to go back to your rooms and act out Charlotte’s dream,” Nar’sa said.

“We have to
what?”
Charlie’s heart, which had finally begun to slow down, began racing again. “You can’t be serious!”

“Of course we are serious,” Ta’no said strictly. “You must act out every part of your dream together.”

“What if we don’t want to?” she countered.

“If you want to move on to the third and holiest of circles, you will,” Nar’sa answered serenely. “Tomorrow you will be brought back here to sit on the truth-saying couch again. If you can truthfully report that you have acted out each aspect of the dream, you will be promoted to the Circle of Oneness. If not…”

“You will be demoted to the first circle,” Ta’no finished for her. “And those who have been demoted are seldom ever promoted again. At least, not for weeks or even solar months.”

“This is blackmail,” Charlie said, her mouth dry. “You’re
forcing
us to do this.”

“No one is forcing you to do anything you do not want to do,” Nar’sa said quietly. “I heard the words you spoke, Charlotte. You told Stavros you
shouldn’t
want him to touch and taste you. Not that you
didn’t.”

“So I’m going to be forced to do sexual things I don’t want to do because I made a bad
word choice?
I’m getting screwed over—literally—because of
semantics?”
Charlie demanded.

Ta’no frowned. “I do not see why you are protesting so much, Charlotte. You and your mate came here to learn how to love and cherish each other—the physical aspect of love is part of that. Why are you resisting so much?”

“I…because I…” Charlie groped for the right words. How could she say this without blowing her cover? “Because I don’t…I’m not ready,” she said at last.

“Your mind may not be ready but your body
certainly
is,” Nar’sa told her gently. “Listen to your body, Charlotte. It craves your mate’s touch every bit as much as he craves yours.”

Charlie didn’t know what to say. Her eyes flicked up to Stavros who said nothing but held her gaze until she was forced to look down again, her heart racing.

I shouldn’t want to do this! Think of Missy—of what she went through!
But somehow her sister’s face kept getting replaced with Stavros’. Charlie wished savagely that she could
stop
thinking of him. In fact, she would rather get a rock and bash her skull in than think of her damn, sexy, off-limits partner one more second.

Too bad there were no rocks handy.

“Well,” Nar’sa said at last, breaking the excruciating silence. “You have your assignment. You have until tomorrow morning to complete it. Farewell.” She and Ta’no turned as one and swept silently out of the room, leaving Charlie sitting by her partner with no idea in hell of how they were supposed to do this.

Chapter Twenty-three

“What are we going to do?” Charlotte was still looking down at her hands, refusing to meet his eyes. “How are we going to get around this?”

Stav sighed heavily. He knew her attitude was right and proper—they were, after all, only partners and nothing more. He absolutely should
not
want to act out her erotic dream with her. But he couldn’t help himself—somehow the little human female had gotten under his skin and now he couldn’t stop wanting her. And he couldn’t help wishing that she wanted him to.

“We can’t,” he said in a low voice, knowing it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “We cannot get out of this.”

“We
have
to.” She looked at him at last, her eyes wide. “We can’t just…do all that crazy stuff I dreamed. But then…” She put her head in her hands. “If we don’t, how will we ever get to the next circle? How will we ever get the Heart?”

“We won’t,” Stavros said. “The damn door is alarmed.”

“You don’t have to remind me.” She flexed the hand that had been burned by the panel. “So then what—?”

“What if we just do it?” Stav asked her. “Do our homework, as you called it.”

“What? No, I—”

“Hear me out.” He put up a hand to stop her protests. “We have a saying on my planet—‘You may obey the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit.’”

“Meaning?” She arched an eyebrow at him.

“Just because we act out your dream, doesn’t mean it has to get…salacious.”

She looked at him skeptically. “So you’re saying we can act out my very sexual dream
without
getting sexual?”

“I know it sounds strange but it
is
possible,” Stav insisted. “As you said, we are partners, nothing more. And as partners, we just have to keep things…professional.”

“I don’t see how I can stay professional while you’re, uh, biting me and doing…other things.” She blushed, her cheeks going pink.

“You have to hold yourself apart mentally no matter what you are doing physically. It
can
be done,” he insisted. “Look.” Without asking her permission, he reached out and cupped her right breast in his hand. She gasped and he could feel her nipple tighten into a hard little point at the center of his palm but he made no move to withdraw his hand.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, looking down at his hand and then back to his face.

“Touching you. As I did in your dream.” Stavros kept his voice even and calm, even slightly bored though in truth, he was feeling anything but. Gods, she was so soft…so yielding in his hand. But he couldn’t think about that right now.

“All right…” Charlotte made no move to withdraw her breast from his hand but she looked at him uncertainly. “And your point is?”

“That we can do everything you dreamed without allowing ourselves to get emotionally involved,” Stav said.
Liar
whispered a little voice in his head.
Your emotions are already involved.
He ignored it and went on.