Flicker (6 page)

Chapter Thirteen

He did not dignify her question with an answer, merely swatted her backside and held her close. “We need a bath.”

Nyal must not need the refractory period because he rose to his feet and took her with him. It was fine with her, she could not find her way around anyway.

The shower of water felt so good on her overheated skin. It reminded her of something. “I think I will require quite a bit of water if we are going for a marathon workout here.”

He chuckled again, on her left. “I will keep that in mind. Are you sore?”

He stroked his fingers down her back, probably so he would not startle her. When two of them entered the channel he had just been in, she did jump a bit.
 
“Yes, I am. To be expected since I am a little out of practice for this sort of thing.” She tried not to sound defensive, but she was slightly insecure. “Was it okay? Did I do anything wrong?” Geez. The one thing she had hoped she would not do.

He grabbed her hands and kissed them both. “It was fine. Wonderful. Beyond what I thought would happen when we finally mated.” He sighed heavily. “Should I remove the mask so you can see that I speak the truth?”

“No. Remove the mask only when it is time.” She smiled slowly. “I can feel it in your voice that you are telling the truth, and in your touch. I trust you.”

“Good. Now, let’s get you clean.”

After the short shower, he ran a bath for them and lifted her in, settling her on his lap. She snuggled in and simply enjoyed the warm scented water and her new husband. They both felt good. After she relaxed completely, he began to clean her from head to toe. She could not even help as she couldn’t see what he was doing so he moved systematically from limb to limb, telling her what he was doing.

“Did you know that you only turned invisible twice while we were together? And oddly enough, it was when you first started responding to me.”

“Yeah, I thought so. I am somewhat insecure when it comes to making love with anyone. Especially someone I love.” The words were out of her mouth before she knew it. The care, the sex and the freedom of not seeing his face let emotions out of her that she would not normally admit to in the light of day.

“So you love me?”

She jumped at his whisper when came to her out of nowhere. “Yes. I do. I have for a while.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

His voice moved again, this time from near her breasts. “Um. When I first realized it, you thought I was male. I did not think you would like the announcement. Besides, we were co-workers, nothing more.” His mouth had to be hovering over one nipple, she was getting a wave of his breath across it and it brought the soft skin to a hard peak in seconds.

“Interesting. So if Xara hadn’t tried to seduce me?”

“We would have continued as co-workers and I would have died a little inside every time you took a new woman to your bed.” The instant his mouth made contact, she moaned. It was better than she had imagined, his mouth on her breasts. Strong suction, light nibbles and the threat of those teeth. Her body gushed moisture at the thought. His fingers stroked up her inner thigh and she moaned through clenched teeth.

She was almost sure that her body was going to boil the bathwater, but her orgasm would not come. No matter how his hands moved or how she shifted her weight, her orgasm eluded her. When she began to hiss in frustration, he drew his head away from the breast he was suckling.

“I did wonder. Now I know. You are a better match for me than any other woman in the Alliance. Only my true mate would link to me like this in my mating fever.”

“What? You mean I cannot come unless you are ready to. No fair!” She smacked the water with her hands.

“It simply means that while my body is trying to get you pregnant, you will not want to have sex with anyone other than me. That includes yourself, or my hand.”

“You should really warn a girl before you strap her into the mask.”

He was amused again. “Where would the fun be in that?”

The next twelve minutes were spent with him dodging her and her trying to drown him in the tub while the mask was on. It was a damned big tub.

“Don’t worry, once your oestrus is passed, you will be able to have an orgasm if I am not in the room and horny.”

He snuck up on her and kissed her chin, which opened up another round of her trying to drown him. Finally she gave up and sat panting in a corner. “So, you are saying that I am in heat. Kennek mentioned it on the shuttle, but I didn’t think he was serious.”

“Oh, he was serious. Your cycle stopped when you became an Agent, right?”

“Yeah.”

“When you allowed your glands to be reactivated it woke up your reproductive system. You are now going to be in heat until you get pregnant.”

Pregnant, whoa. She had not thought about crib midgets. “Is there a way to end this without having kids?”

“Only having Medical turn off your hormones again. And even then, they will simply freeze you in this mode with your body sending out thousands of pheromones trying to get pregnant.”

She asked in a small voice, “Do you want kids?”

He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her into his lap again. If the erection he was now sporting was any indication, the answer was yes. “Yes, I do. I asked you to be my mate because I want offspring with you, and to see your face every moment of every day.”

Tears seeped from behind her closed lashes. That was what she needed to hear. She cuddled against him tightly and he stroked her hair. Life was good. And with the sudden pressure of his hand on her mask, she could see again.

He was wearing tearstained eyes that were bright red, marks of his mating fever, which matched her own. Laughing and crying at the same time, she leaned up to kiss him. A solid kiss, a meeting of mouths, emotions and souls.

With sudden clarity, she realized that he was hers for life and she was his. It was all a little heady and it had her straddling him to get a better grip on his hair for the kiss.

His obvious interest in her was re-awakening as the kiss continued. She shifted against him and trapped his cock between her belly and his. She was definitely interested, but she was not sure how much more she could take. “Can we just cuddle for a bit?”

His eyes sparked with heat and amusement. “Sure, but watch out. If you fall asleep, you are fair game.” He got to his feet, water sluicing off him, dumping her back into the bath.

She got up on her own and gracefully took the hand that he extended to help her out of the tub. “That was sneaky.” She flicked his cock with the snap of a finger and he winced, but took the punishment in stride.

He wrapped her from head to toe in a fluffy towel and, after a moment of carrying her squealing, kicking body, dropped her back onto the bed that they had shared. Only now there was a slight difference, someone had changed the sheets and coverlet. Seval could tell by the feel of the fabric under her hands. Someone had been in their room. “Vorabenik, please tell me that your mother doesn’t make your bed.”

Chapter Fourteen

He laughed and told her that when they went to the bathing room, he had rung for one of the servants to change the sheets and leave them some food. The food in question was on a small table behind them. “I thought you wanted to cuddle.”

She agreed that she did and crawled into his arms to rest there, with him spooning her from behind. After all the stresses of the day, she did the unthinkable, she fell asleep in his arms.

When she woke, her body was on fire. The only thing she was sure of was that he was inside her moving deliberately. He kept one hand on her belly and thrust slowly and softly into her with the beat of her breathing. She relaxed into him and turned her head to look into his serious features.

“That was very sneaky.” Seval was unable to say anything else as he took her mouth in the most serious kiss that he had ever laid on her. Twisting her head and shoulders to give better access, she gripped his hair and held onto him as he continued to thrust into her in that same slow beat. As her body’s reaction flared, she used her own teeth on his lips to nip and nibble while her fingers in his hair clawed to hold him to her.

The hand on her belly slipped to the juncture of her thighs and pressed down while circling her clit with his middle finger. A sharp groan from him and the short pistoning thrusts indicated his release while hers was hovering out of reach. When he stopped shuddering inside her, his fingers moved faster until she shrieked into his mouth, her eyes wide as her body shook. That was what he wanted. She could see it in his eyes. He had wanted to see her come.

When her orgasm released her, she slumped away from him, replete. It was nice to snuggle back into his arms with his half-hard cock still inside her. A great start to their honeymoon.

Four days of sex and unending companionship had exhausted her. Seval was so relieved when it was finally time to rejoin the world that she did not even question why. Ben was great, the sex was great, the companionship was great, but she missed other people.

Even the maids who changed their sheets and tidied up were only allowed in when they were bathing. There were separate entrances for them so that they could access any room in the house that was unoccupied.

Her clothing had been delivered on the second day, but she hadn’t bothered getting dressed in more than the lingerie. She didn’t really have a chance. The second that the silk skimmed her body, Ben was on her. He had learned every inch of her, and she of him. She knew the flaring head of his cock, the velvety foreskin and the smooth sac that hung beneath them. She knew his taste, musk, salt and sweat all at the same time.

A nibble at his neck caused an erection in seconds, a stroke on his ass made him whirl around and pick her up. She had one more surprise planned for him, but it would have to wait until they were out of their cocoon. It needed the threat of witnesses for her to pull it off, invisible blowjobs were best enjoyed in public.

Breakfast with the in-laws was on the agenda and Seval couldn’t wait. She had been trying to escape the room for two days, but Ben could smell her and pull her back before she reached the door. His damned heightened mating senses.

Vnash and Rabeni were waiting for them and her mother-in-law greeted her warmly. “Seval, glad to see you survived. Most women would go mad with a Nyal in heat near them.”

“I tried to escape twice.” She felt honesty was the best policy. The laughter that answered her comment from all of the watchers, which included the staff, was enough.

Ben took her hand and escorted her to her seat at the head of the table. “She wasn’t trying very hard. She has enough training to lay me out if she truly wanted to.”

“That is probably true.” She wasn’t going to give in to false modesty. She had kicked the hell out of larger and less naked targets in her time.

Rabeni smiled and took the seat to her left, Vnash to the right. “So what do you think, boy or a girl?”

Seval had been trying to decide what to eat first. “What?”

Vnash growled lightly, “The baby you are carrying, boy or a girl?”

That stopped her for a moment. “I am pregnant?”

“You didn’t know?” Rabeni looked surprised.

“It hadn’t occurred to me.”

“If you weren’t, Vorabenik’s eyes would still be red and he would still be in rut. When your body chemistry changed, so did his.” Vnash added that helpful explanation.

Seval was blushing so she did what she always did when embarrassed. She went invisible. Finally comfortable, she reached for food.

Her in-laws sat open-mouthed on either side of her, Ben at the other end of the table looking toward her in surprise. She raised her hand to wave at him and his eyes tracked the movement. That was odd.

“Rabeni, can you see me?”

“No, dear. How do you do that?”

“Vnash? How about you?”

“No, but that piece of fruit is moving.”

She frowned at it and soon it was as transparent a she was. She began to eat, her belly was rumbling in demand and she fed it.

“Seval, I can see you. Not completely, but you are transparent to me, not invisible.” Ben was smiling.

She stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed, he really could see her.

They all tucked into breakfast before Rabeni took her on a tour of the house and gardens.

“As you know, Seval, the Azon are a primarily studious species.”

“I have heard that, yes.”

“So it was quite the surprise to my mate and myself when our son announced that he was joining the Alliance as a Guard Agent, and stopping his research in exobiology. He was always very interested in your species. I think I now know why.”

Seval looked over the expanse of the gardens and smiled to herself. She had become visible again during the breakfast. “I had assumed as much. His training was minimal, and the amount of requests he put in to be assigned to Kalish Station were phenomenal.”

“So you knew?”

“I suspected. I do know that there is a database of Terran locations and personnel files here on Azon and in the Haldis Imperium. They are used for matchmaking to maximum effect. Did Vorabenik ever visit Kyra and Tiergar before he gave up exobiology?”

“How did you… Oh. Of course.” Rabeni laughed. “Well, my son was nothing if not a planner.”

“The funny thing is that he didn’t know that I was the Terran on Kalish until two weeks before we left it. I had to watch him relieve himself with the Companions over and over. He didn’t know what I was until I had my scent turned back on.” Seval laughed, but it was bittersweet. The pain of watching him go after other women had become a dull ache in her memory. Not painful, but still present. She had been too used to being the second choice in her life. It has caused her no end of personal grief.

“I didn’t mean to upset you by this conversation. Please, let us talk of more pleasant things.” Rabeni wrapped an arm around her and Seval let her. “Where do you want to live when the baby arrives? With us, or in a domicile of your own? Vorabenik has a nice house just a few miles from here.”

They continued with polite chatter, talking of babies, clothing and plant life. Seval knew one thing the instant that Ben rounded the corner to approach her, she was his first choice. His only choice. His mate for life.

She was just waiting for the chance to try that invisible blow job on him, it was going to be fun.