Embracing Ember (19 page)

Ember had rented a very small apartment one state over. She couldn’t stay in a town that held so many memories for her – good and bad. Thankfully her savings had amassed quite well during her marriage to Landon.

Ember let her colored pencil fall to the table and got up, wandering to the bathroom. The small stick sat staring at her. Taunting her with the truth. Ember read the instructions through and through and each one had done the same. She was pregnant. Ember let her hand fall to cup her still flat abdomen as she imagined giving birth to the little life that grew inside of her. A tear fell down her cheek as she realized that her child would never know his or her father. Ceylon was gone and he would never be back. Ember allowed herself to slide to the bathroom floor and the tears never seemed to stop. She thought after the first week of nonstop tears she would have cried herself dry, but she hadn’t. Every night she cried herself to sleep only to wake to a bleak reality that she was incomplete.

A knock at the door stirred her from her never ending misery as she hefted herself from the floor. Ember picked up the bat from beside the door and opened it slightly leaving the chain locked to keep out someone if it turned out to be Landon. Ember wasn’t stupid, she would never be caught by that bastard again. She had more than herself at stake this time.

Ember’s breath stilled in her lungs as she took in the sweetest sight she had ever seen. “Ember.” Ceylon whispered her name and she began to sob – relief and pain washing over her.

“Ceylon,” Ember sobbed.

“Yes, Sweet Ember, let me in.”

“You left.”

“I couldn’t leave.”

“Why?”

“Oh, my sweet Ember. I couldn’t leave without the woman that I love.”

Ember’s face crumpled, her heart re-breaking. He loved another. “Who is she and why must you torture me with this?”

“Ember. Open this door, now.” Ceylon’s voice became deep and authoritative. Ember had unlocked the door. She stood there in shell shock as Ceylon stepped into the house. He moved like a predator stalking its prey, backing Ember against the wall. Ceylon moved quickly pinning her to the wall and taking her mouth in a devastating kiss. His tongue pushed into her mouth and dominated her. Ember became pliant, a ball of mush. She had wanted him for three long and lonely weeks and now he was here kissing her senseless.

Ceylon pulled free from her mouth and kissed a path down Ember’s neck, tonguing her pulse points as he cupped her bottom pulling her against his erection. Ember moaned, her nipples tightening and her already moist folds, becoming drenched in her need for him. Ceylon pulled away from her long enough to divest her of her shirt and bra.

“Beautiful,” he murmured as he took a nipple into his mouth sucking strongly before biting with enough force to cause her to yelp. Ceylon laved her nipple, easing the slight pain. “That was for running, my sweet Ember.” He sucked the other nipple into his mouth before nipping it more gently, causing her vaginal muscles to clench. “Why did you run, Ember?”

“Because you don’t love me,” Ember wailed – emotional pain and pleasure warring within her.

Ceylon bit down on her nipple hard again eliciting another yelp from Ember. “That, my love is doubting that I love you.” Ember’s eyes widened at the implication of his words. Tears gathered in her eyes, her heart filling with hope.

“You love me?”

“
Sum
diligo vos
, Ember.
Vos sint mea
.” Ember’s face scrunched up in confusion. Ceylon smiled and kissed her gently on the nose. “My sweet Ember, I have been telling you that since the first time. I am saying in my language that I love you and you are mine. Ember, I have never loved anyone more than I love you. Silly woman, you are my mate, my other half. I don’t know how else to say it…”

“Ceylon.”

“Yes, my love.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

“My pleasure.”

Ceylon took her mouth, his kiss meaning so much more now that she knew that he loved her. Ember’s heart was overflowing with the love she felt for this man. Her hands spanned his muscular chest and she lifted his shirt removing it from his delicious torso. Ceylon unsnapped her pants, lowering them down her legs, then easily lifting her and placing her back against the wall.

Ember instinctively wrapped her legs around him, bringing her mound in contact with his pant clad erection. “Ceylon, take me please.”

Ceylon let his free hand slide down her abdomen and swirl at her entrance before plunging into her aching wetness. Ember cried out in pleasure as his finger became two, then three fingers all plunging into her, ratcheting her need to a fever pitch. Just when she began to reach the precipice, Ceylon removed his fingers. “Ahhh, I-I was almost there.”

“Ceylon kissed her lips even as he freed his erection. “I know, Ember but I want to be inside of you as you come, feel you clench me as I empty myself deep inside of you.” Ceylon’s erection was poised at her entrance, as if waiting for her permission. Ember nodded at Ceylon and he took her, hard and fast against the wall. His shaft plunging deep bumping the mouth of her womb sending her pleasure soaring as she shattered in his arms, her climax taking her breath away.

“I love you, Ceylon,” Ember screamed as she felt his seed bath her channel. They were both breathing hard.

“
Sum
diligo vos
, Ember.
Vos sint mea
.”

Ember smiled, those meaningless words he always sprouted now meant the world to her, meant love and security. Ember pointed Ceylon in the direction of the bedroom, his shaft never leaving her body as he laid her down and settled in the cradle of her hips. Ceylon cupped her cheek and kissed her lips gently. “
Sum
diligo vos
, Ceylon.
Vos sint mea
,” she repeated. Ceylon smiled down at her and repeated those words again. “How do you say I’m pregnant in your language?”

“
Sum
meet
filius
.” Ceylon said as he cupped her abdomen. “Merrcum told me that you last medical scan revealed some very interesting news. Do you have something that you need to tell me?”

“
Sum
meet
filius
.” Ceylon kissed her as he cupped her abdomen protectively.

“Ember,” he said after kissing her senseless again, “I do have to go back to Salin, the ship is waiting for me to return and I want you to go with me.” Ember thought about what she had on Earth. She was born an orphan, shuttled from foster home to foster home and abused for five years by a man who had promised to love and protect her. She had nothing here on Earth and everything to gain.

“I couldn’t imagine not being with you and for the past three weeks I’ve been through hell thinking that I would never see you again. I would love to go to Salin with you.”

Ceylon laughed and rolled his hips sending pleasure curling through her abdomen. It seemed Ceylon was ready for round two. Ember clasped his hair and pulled his mouth to hers, “Forever,” she whispered.

“Forever,” Ceylon whispered to her before taking her mouth. They made love through the night. Ember’s heart filled with love.

EPILOGUE

Ember couldn’t believe the beauty of space. The stars seemed to go on and on. Her eyes had absorbed each place they had passed, and her nights had been filled with passion as Ceylon never ceased to amaze her in the bedroom – and out of it. Arms wrapped around her, cupping her now distended abdomen, it had been three whole months since she had made the decision to go to Salin with Ceylon. She had never made a better decision. “What are you doing, Ember?”

“Watching as the stars pass by.”

“Well, we will be approaching Salin in about thirty minutes and I need to get you strapped in for our descent.”

“Okay. How do you think everyone else is doing back on Earth? I kind of miss the crew.”

“Don’t worry, sweet Ember. Silvius has his plate full looking for Maria and I’m sure the rest of the crew will call from time to time.”

Ember looked up into Ceylon’s blue eyes in confusion. What was Silvius looking for Maria for? “Why is Silvius looking for Maria?”

“Because she ran after promising she would wait for him. He is hopelessly in love with her, like I am with you.”

“Aw, I love you, too Ceylon. But why doesn’t he just go to her grandmother’s? It would be the place she went. When I first met her she and I would talk about us and she said that she had always felt close to her grandmother.”

“Apparently, my sweet Ember, males of our species don’t have the ability to communicate effectively, because he is simply unaware, besides Dais told him until he understood her reason for leaving then he wouldn’t be able to find her. I think it will do him good to have to find her. It did me some good.”

“I don’t understand?”

“I realized that I couldn’t live without you, a feeling that made me realize once and for all that it was okay to love again. I’m not happy about the time we spent apart, but I think an Earth male once told me that absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Ember laughed and then squealed in delight as Ceylon spun her around to claim her lips with his.

***

Maria walked into the dining room where the smells of her childhood had lured her to eat. Her Abuela was sitting at the table waiting for her. Maria had been here for a month and her Abuela had let her avoid telling her why she had driven halfway across the country out of the blue. She hadn’t realized how much she needed this, her abuela’s support as she attempted to forget about him – Silvius.

Silvius haunted her dreams causing her to wake up in the throes of passion her voice already hoarse from her screams. Her abuela never asked, just gave her a look every morning as she trudged down the stairs only to rush away from the table at the first whiff of food to vomit.

“Mija, I think it is time we talked. I would let you avoid this, but you need to face something in order to receive proper medical care.”

“I don’t understand, Abuela,” Maria said even as her stomach roiled with the truth that had whispered in her mind for weeks now.

“Now, mija, you know I didn’t raise you to be a liar. You are a nurse, una enfermera, mija.
Usted sabe que
está embarazada
, mi nieta.”
You know you are pregnant.

Maria took a deep breath and let it out as her tears began to fall, but her Abuela was there to hold her as she cried, “
Lo siento,
abuela
.
Yo no sabía
a dónde ir
.
Hice algo
estúpido y
entonces pensé
que me amaba
.”
I am sorry, grandma. I didn't know where else to go. I did a stupid thing and then I thought that he loved me.

Maria’s grandmother took her by the hand and took her into the living room laying her on the couch, to cradle her head in her lap. Her abuela sang softly to her until she fell asleep her worries melting away at the hands of her abuelita.

“
Que
le hizo esto a
mi nieta
.” Maria’s abuela stared up at the red-skinned male that stood within her living room looking down at Maria with tenderness in his eyes.

“I know and I apologize, but it was a misunderstanding. I am here to make her understand.” Silvius said as he peered down at the woman he had searched for tirelessly. He now understood that she had no idea how much she meant to him. Silvius realized this after Ember
fled from Ceylon from a simple misunderstanding. Now Maria would know not only that she was precious to him, but that she would be his mate. Maria had met her match.

Character and Location Profiles

Salin’s Salvation