Authors: Bernadette Gardner
Icarus Unbound (7 page)
Icarus Unbound
by Bernadette Gardner
can't cross. At least when we're alone, can you treat me normally?"
After a tense moment, Kiala's expression softened. "I'm sorry. I was ... a little shocked yesterday and I wasn't sure how to act."
"Welcome to my world. I'm completely ... ah!" Lara tossed her hands in the air and riffled her wings. "Kee, I don't know what to do."
Kiala approached Lara cautiously and squeezed her shoulder. "Did you spend the night with Jaran?"
Lara shuddered at the memory of how she'd spent the night. "Yes, but, well, no..."
Kiala's blinked. "Did you mate with him? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."
Lara wanted to spill all the intimate details of her encounter with Jaran. She and Kiala had never kept secrets from each other, but somehow it seemed wrong to tell anyone about the sexual exploits of the Icarian leader. What had happened between her and Jaran would have to remain private.
"Kee, things are strange between us. Clearly we don't belong together, and I don't know what to do."
"Do you really want to dissolve the union?"
Lara swept her gaze over the cloudless sky, wishing the answer would fall from the heavens. "I don't know. If I do, I can't choose another mate. Jaran would never choose one for me—or what if he did and that was worse? If he dismisses me, no one else will want me."
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"You could find a human mate." Kiala's suggestion was a low whisper, yet it cut to the heart of Lara's dilemma like a knife.
"I could. Since I'm fully human, my DNA isn't important to the tribe. I can just give up everything about the way I was raised and live my life as a human ... who happens to have wings." Her sudden bout of sarcasm upset Kiala who backed up a step.
"I didn't mean it as an insult, Lara, just a possibility."
"It's not one I want to consider. I'm Icarian in my bones and in my soul if not my blood. I want to live as an Icarian."
"Then why have you been living at the research station for ten years? Why do you avoid trips to the royal aerie and why are you so upset about being chosen as co-leader?"
Lara bowed her head. "I don't know."
"Are you in love with someone else? If you are, tell Jaran and he'll release you to the other man. He's already taking a chance by choosing you. If you have a good reasons to—"
"What does that mean, he's 'taking a chance'?"
Kiala looked up and down the beach before answering as if to determine whether or not they were completely alone.
"There's already talk of an administrative challenge to his rule because of his choice."
"That's ridiculous. Why?"
"Jaran obviously chose you because of his personal feelings, no matter what they are, good or bad. He's one of the last full-blooded Icarians, and it was expected that he would mate with a hybrid so his offspring would be three quarters Icarian."
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"And the administrative committee would challenge his rule over that?"
"They could. If, at the next mating cycle, we can begin to pair up Icarian offspring properly, we can actually begin to rebuild our genetic integrity. The idea of your parents'
breeding program was never to combine human and Icarian DNA permanently, only to give our DNA a boost."
"You don't have to tell me that, Kiala. And it wasn't my parents' breeding program, it was Dr. Danson's." Raymond Danson had left Icarus twenty-five years ago, but his legacy lived on in the burgeoning Icarian population. He'd been a visionary, dedicated to saving the winged race, and Lara could not believe that one ill-fated mate-pairing would jeopardize his work. How could one full-blooded Icarian child make that much difference?
"Either way, Lara, there has been talk. If the administrators decide to remove Jaran from his position, you could still end up paired with someone else."
Lara couldn't decide if that was good news or not. Despite her opinion of Jaran, he was a competent leader. His full Icarian heritage notwithstanding, he was the right choice.
Jidar had seen that in him, and it made no sense for the administrative committee to remove him, no matter who he chose as a mate. She shook her head, wishing she could clear the fog from her brain. "Kee, what would you do? Would you stay with someone you didn't ... love?" The word left a strange taste in her mouth. Every time she thought of Jaran, her heart flipped, and after the things he'd done to her last 61
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night, other parts of her body reacted as well, but that certainly wasn't love.
Kiala straightened her wings. "I would do whatever was best for Icarus." She'd been staring out over the ocean and now she turned to face Lara. Pointing to a dark speck appearing in the northeastern sky, she said, "Whatever decision you make, you should make it fast, because Jaran is on his way here."
One of the two females standing on the crescent-shaped beach dropped to one knee the moment Jaran's feet touched the sand. Though they were still several meters away, he knew that one could not be Lara.
He covered the distance between them with long, purposeful strides, kicking up plumes of the pale green sand as he walked. He recognized Kiala and he bade her rise as soon as he approached.
Lara apparently remembered Icarian protocol too late and folded her supple, clothed body into the submissive posture just as Kiala rose. Waves of resentment seemed to pour off his mate as she struggled to hold herself perfectly still.
"You may go, Kiala. I'm sure your new mate misses you,"
Jaran said, managing to keep his irritation with Lara out of his voice.
With a questioning glance at Lara, Kiala stepped away from the royal couple and leapt into the air.
Jaran waited until the Icarian woman disappeared into the clear, aqua blue sky before turning to his mate. "You may rise."
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She obeyed, her stiff movements telegraphing her anger.
"My liege."
"I was disappointed not to find you in bed this morning."
"I didn't think you would miss me, at least until this evening."
"I figured you would want to catch up on your work. I've been told by many how dedicated you are. Normally, I would not have interrupted your day, but considering our misunderstanding last night, I wanted to make sure you were not under any false impressions."
Lara squinted at him. The mid-morning sun made her eyes glitter. "What impressions, my liege?"
Jaran stepped closer. "The impression that I was ...
unaffected by our interactions last night."
She lifted her chin. "I won't question you again, my liege."
"No, you won't need to. I intend to show you, right now in fact, exactly how affected I am by your presence."
Her eyes widened, and she glanced up the beach. All the way here, Jaran had planned exactly what he would do with his new mate once he got her alone. The erotic thoughts had threatened to send his symbion into a mating frenzy, but he'd managed somehow to maintain control.
Now, standing before her, he relinquished that control. His body hardened, his breath quickened and his erection grew.
"Even wearing clothes you excite me," he whispered, leaning close to take in her intoxicating scent. "I've decided we will go now to your bungalow so I can demonstrate how much."
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Her thin shirt did little to hide the suddenly stiff peaks of her nipples, and her eyes dilated a bit despite the bright sunlight. "Now?"
"Immediately."
"But—"
Jaran took Lara's hand and spread his wings. He leapt into the air, and following the lead of his symbion, hers obeyed the wordless command and drew her up after him into the ocean breeze.
The flight across the narrow, mostly flat research station island took only a few minutes, and together they sailed to a perfect tandem landing on the small patch of macadam next to her private bungalow. The tiny hut sat among dozens of others that had cropped up over the years as the staff of the research station grew. Fortunately, despite the population explosion, the residential part of the island remained mostly deserted during the day.
Lara arched a brow at Jaran. "You always said the bungalows were too small for Icarians. Won't you be uncomfortable in such a confined space?"
Jaran smirked. He recalled every derisive thing he'd ever said about human-style dwellings. The first time he'd seen one of the small huts that lined the southern beach he'd thought they were habitats for animals, not sentient beings.
He remembered a particularly cruel remark he'd made to Lara shortly after they'd been joined with their symbions. He'd compared her parents to small laboratory mammals when he found out they spent part of each year living at the research 64
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station even though they had claimed an island aerie as their permanent home.
He cringed at the memory, but forced his regrets aside.
Later he could apologize for his boorish childhood comments.
Right now he wanted to touch his mate and demonstrate that his need for her transcended all the bad blood that had passed between them over the years.
"I'll manage somehow." He grabbed her hand and headed into the tiny building with her in tow.
Within the prefabricated walls he did feel somewhat confined, but he also felt surrounded by Lara. The decor reflected more about who she was than he could have ever gleaned on his own.
She'd taken the mass-produced dwelling and turned it into a miniature aerie by painting the walls in shades reminiscent of island sandstone. Her belongings were stored in traditional Icarian fashion, hung in nets of alor vines, and though her bed was less than half the size of his, it bore a handmade fiber covering and smelled of the abundant plant which had provided his ancestors with so many of life's amenities.
Jaran slowed his pace, stunned by the familiarity of his surroundings. "You made this a proper home," he said, running his fingers along a bowl made of the shell of a symbion egg. His gaze wandered to the only human-inspired elements of the decor, photographs of Lara's parents which hung in the entryway.
"I figured I'd be spending most of my life here, so I modeled it after my parents' aerie." For the space of her response, all malice left her voice. Jaran liked the change.
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"I'm sure they're pleased with the result."
"They've never seen it. I moved here after they left for Daedalus."
Jaran eyed the photographs. He recalled Caleb and Zara being loving, understanding parents who treated their only child with great affection. After losing his own mother, he'd been resentful of many of the happy families of his friends, even after Jidar and Namara took him in and raised him with as much love and care as they did Odan.
"Don't we have business to attend to?" The caustic tone returned to Lara's voice, breaking the momentary spell that had held Jaran captive.
Irritation flared in him. He'd come here to demonstrate his arousal to Lara, to claim her and prove to her that last night it had been his choice to forgo his own satisfaction, not any failure of his abilities as a male.
Now, he felt foolish. His plan to ravage Lara, to let his symbion control their coupling, seemed petty and almost cruel.
He straightened his wings and cast a wary glance at her.
"I'm afraid our business will have to wait."
Shock slackened her features. "What?"
"I need to return to the aerie. I'm sorry to have interrupted your work day."
"Huh?" Her wings ruffled, and she hurried across the room when Jaran turned to let himself back out the door. "You changed your mind?"
"No. I merely need to put off our ... interlude." Jaran crooked a finger beneath her chin and raised her stunned 66
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gaze to meet his. "I will claim you later. I'll expect you at the aerie by sundown ... and you may leave your clothing here."
He ran a finger into the collar of her loose shirt, skimming her soft skin.
She gaped at him and for the first time in her life seemed at a loss for words. A wicked thought crossed Jaran's mind, and without preamble he brushed his lips over hers. The brief taste ignited his once again pent-up passions and after a second, he thrust his tongue past her lips. Rough and demanding, he took her mouth, swallowing her gasp of indignation.
Shocked by his aggression, she tried to pull away, but he wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and dragged her body against him. Her hands came up to his chest to brace herself, and though she made a show of trying to push him away, he was well aware all of her strength wasn't behind the rejection.
Her flavor filled his mouth and sent a call of desire to his dormant symbion. His wings rustled and his cock stirred again as he explored her hot mouth. He'd dreamed of kissing Lara for years, and none of those fantasies came close to reality.
She was soft and pliant in his arms, and even with a layer of clothing between them, he felt every sweet curve of her luscious body. He wanted her moaning beneath him. He wanted her open to him begging for completion. He needed her to belong to him completely, and that would never happen if she still harbored so much resentment.
Finally he broke their kiss, leaving her wobbling. He smiled and waited until her eyes fluttered open, then he leaned close 67
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and whispered in her ear. "The next time I decide I want you, you won't get a reprieve, so be prepared. Tonight, nothing will stop me."
He left before she could choke out a response and took to the temperate air on trembling wings.
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