Stolen Dreams (27 page)

 

Gabriel groaned aloud
as
she took him into her mouth and continued to use her nails to tease the
rest of his sensitive flesh. It took an incredible amount of strength
to remain standing as she pulled him closer to the edge of his control.
With every ounce of willpower he possessed, he brought her back up to
her feet to face him.

 

Rather than entwining their bodies more
intimately, however, he stepped back from her and took a deep breath.
Shara reached for that part of him that was straining to return to her,
but he took both her hands in his before she could touch him.

 

His
tongue caressed each of her wrists; then he dipped his head forward to
give her a light kiss on her mouth. Still holding her hands, he said,
"You wanted to find out what we've been missing. So do I. There's no
need for another frantic coupling as long as the fever is controllable."

 

He
brought her hand to his cheek, then touched hers. "We're both a little
warm, but nowhere near delirium.
Nothing in life is supposed to be as pleasurable as foreplay and
coupling during one's mating fever. Consider this a rare opportunity to
experiment with something you may have had to wait decades for. Close
your eyes, Shara, and don't think about anything except what you're
feeling. Lets see just how long we can make the pleasure last."

 

Shara's
attempts to drive him to distraction had taken its toll on her. She
almost demanded that he satisfy her immediately, but his words had now
aroused her curiosity as much as her body. She obediently closed her
eyes.

 

"Hold your arms out to your sides," he instructed,
positioning
them as he wanted. "Palms up and head tipped back as if you're a
goddess beckoning to the moon to increase your power over me. Spread
your feet a little farther apart ... to keep your balance."

 

From
the
teasing tone of his voice, she guessed her balance was not quite what
he had on his mind. The pose left every part of her body exposed to
him. It might have been somewhat embarrassing, but with her eyes closed
and her temperature creeping higher, she had little problem ignoring
her usual modesty.

 

"Can you guess what I'm doing?" he asked
from
behind her. She turned her head toward his voice. "How about now?" he
said at her side. "Or now?" He was back in front of her. "I'm tempting
myself by looking without touching. Don't you feel my eyes on you,
devouring you, committing every sexy, feminine part of you to memory?"

 

Her
breasts tightened in response.

 

"I
was once asked to describe what I considered the perfect female body.
My answer then was long and lush, with full breasts and hips ample
enough to offer
comfort to a body as large as mine. I might have added hair like black
silk, soft, full lips made for kissing, and eyes that would tell me
exactly what she's feeling when I touch her. My answer now would be
only one word." His breath was hot against her ear as he whispered that
word.

 

"Shara."

 

He stepped to her side and was
gratified to see her
head automatically turn to follow his movement. "You are the beautiful
Goddess of the Moon, and I am here to worship at your temple."

 

A
shiver slipped down her spine and into her core. He had claimed to be
tempting himself, but his words were playing havoc with her patience.
She closed her thighs to try to relieve the throbbing.

 

"Don't
do
that," he said, noting the movement. "You wouldn't want to lose your
balance when there's so much more to come. All I've done so far is
look. Now I'm going to touch. Is there any place in particular you'd
like me to start?"

 

The smile she heard in his voice prompted
her to
shake her head rather than reply. Whatever he had in mind was probably
better than any suggestion she might make.

 

"No preference?
Then I
think I'll start here." His fingertips tickled the palm of her left
hand, then slipped in and out of her fingers.

 

As lightly as a
butterfly's caress he grazed his way up one side of her arm and down
the other. The mild tingling she had been feeling grew more intense
wherever he touched, and when his fingers trickled over her shoulders
to her other arm, smoldering trails of sparks were left behind. His
hands sensitized every centimeter of the back of her body, from
shoulders to heels. And when she was about to scream at him to be done with it, he came around to
her front and began working his way back up from her toes.

 

She
told herself she could wait, that she should appreciate the steady
building of her need, that the release would be that much better when
it finally happened. But when his fingers moved from her thighs to her
stomach, avoiding the neediest part of her, she couldn't hold back the
disappointed sigh. "Gabriel, please, I'm dying."

 

His hands
eased up
her sides and cupped her breasts. "No, you're not. You're hot, but
you're in no danger." She gasped as he scraped his palms over her
nipples. "Let me assure you, my Moon Goddess, I'm hot, too. But I'm not
ready to finish it yet, because I've been waiting to do this for too
long."

 

She felt him lift and knead her breasts and then his
firm,
wet mouth closed over one peak. Slow, controlled actions were discarded
as he covered one breast, then the other, with eating kisses that
became more demanding by the second.

 

"Please!" she cried,
clutching his shoulders. He raised his head to take her mouth while he
urged her down to lie on the pouch.

 

She
parted her legs, anticipating his immediate entrance, but he stretched
out beside her instead. When she tried to turn toward him, he pressed
her back again and broke the kiss to say, "Just a bit longer. There is
something I wish to learn while I'm still able."

 

She was
beyond
understanding. His mouth was hard and hungry when it returned to hers.
His fingers were no longer gentle as they raked over her stomach and
into the curls between her legs. With a desperate moan, she arched into
his hand. As he used her own dampness to stroke her, she grasped
his shaft and moved her hand to the steady rhythm he set.

 

His
tortured groan let her know his need was no less than hers, and yet he
seemed intent on giving her a release without coupling. She didn't care
how it came, only that it should. But wanting it to happen didn't make
it so. Simultaneously, their movements became more hurried as they
strived to help each other escape the rampaging fever.

 

Breathing
heavily, Gabriel abruptly stopped his efforts and raised himself over
her. "It has to be this," he said in a strained voice, and plunged into
her body.

 

Her cry this time was of relief and pleasure
combined, but
it was only momentary, for now that his fire had joined with hers, the
blaze of passion burned even hotter. She wrapped her legs around him
and lifted her hips with each of his powerful thrusts so that he was
embedded as deeply as possible. Though the need to climax was
overwhelming, she didn't want the delicious torment to stop.

 

Higher
and higher into the heavens she rode the spiraling sensations, until
there was no heaven, no ground, no bodies. Only pleasure and the raging
inferno demanding its tribute.

 

As it had been in her dream the
other
night, she was suddenly at the base of an erupting volcano and scaled
her way up to its mouth. A tongue of fire shot up from the bubbling
cauldron of lava and shaped itself into a man.

 

Shara! he
called, and held out his arms.

 

In
a panic she looked behind her for an escape route, but the path through
the flowing lava was no longer there. The only escape from the volcano
was through its fiery heart. Leaping off the rim into
the man's arms, she spoke his name in return. Gabriel!

 

He
caught her as the eruption rocked through them and held her securely
against him in the rippling aftermath. It was like nothing she had ever
imagined, and it was no less incredible than she had known sharing
herself with Gabriel would be.

 

Shara knew everything had
returned to
normal when she recognized the feel of the sleeping pouch beneath her
and the weight of the man above and within her. She opened her eyes and
gave him a shy smile. "An experiment, huh? Did we learn anything?"

 

He
gave her a dimpled grin and rolled them both onto their sides without
separating their bodies. "I think so. First of all, we've confirmed
that only coupling will cool the fever. No substitutions. Second,
either passion can trigger the fever, or the period of relief just took
a drastic drop. It's only been about four hours since the last peak."

 

She
didn't want to think about that, so she revealed a different concern.
"I saw the volcano again. Only this time I knew it was you."

 

"Yes,"
he said, picking up her bewilderment. "I saw it also, and I heard you
say my name, but it was more like a hallucination than a dream. So now
it's certain: We're not only sharing the fever, there's a mental
connection of some kind, in spite of my jammer, and without being
formally joined."

 

Shara had a strong feeling that the vision
had a
deeper meaning than the obvious, but it made her uncomfortable to think
about that also, so she pushed it to the back of her mind.

 

She
felt him flex within her body and her muscles hugged him in return.
Having decided to momentarily
shelve her personal codes of propriety, she could admit that she liked
feeling him inside her. Bending her knee, she drew one leg up to his
hip to bring him even deeper.

 

"There is one more thing we
learned," he said in a husky voice. "They were right."

 

Shara
wrinkled her forehead. "They who?" He laughed and a spear of pleasure
darted through her.

 

"Whoever
they are who said, 'Nothing in life is as pleasurable as coupling
during the mating fever.'" Instead of agreeing with him, she lowered
her lashes, and he experienced a very strange feeling in the pit of his
stomach. "Shara? What's wrong?"

 

She shook her head, but kept
her eyes averted.

 

"Please
look at me." As she complied, he noticed her eyes were still the
delicious shade of chocolate he liked so much and his hunger for her
returned full force. But there was something he hungered for even
more—assurance that she had enjoyed the foreplay and coupling as
greatly as he. "Am I mistaken? Was that not the most incredible
physical experience you've ever had?"

 

She heard the insecurity
in
his voice and had to tell the truth. "I could count the number of
experiences I've had on one hand, and none of them could be described
as incredible. I didn't know it could be like that for me. It was
really quite . . . wonderful."

 

His reward for her honesty was
a kiss so sweet, it almost made her forget that he was the enemy.

 

As
the kiss became less gentle, however, she realized that he wasn't
withdrawing from her body or growing tired. And if he didn't sleep, she
couldn't do what she needed to do. "Gabriel?"

 

"Hmmm?" he
asked, but his grin hinted that he knew her question.          
 

 

"As
I said, I don't have much experience with . .. intimacy, so I hope you
don't mind my asking this. Each time we've coupled there's been
evidence that you had a release, even if you don't clearly remember it.
But you're still, um . .."

 

He shifted his hips forward and she
inhaled sharply. "Aroused?"

 

She nodded. "Is that normal for
you?"

 

"Drek
no," he said with a laugh, "and thank the stars for that. If it was, I
may have had the bothersome appendage removed years ago." When he saw
the shock on her face, he laughed again. "I'm joking. But it does get
rather uncomfortable going around all day in this condition."

 

Shara
swallowed nervously. "All day?"

 

"And
night. The swelling subsides somewhat, but not completely." He wondered
what she'd say if he told her this condition of his began weeks before
the first time-hop—when he first saw her in her lab.

 

Though
Shara
couldn't know precisely how he felt, she could certainly empathize.
Each time they'd coupled before this, she had been left wanting. Even
now she was far from totally sated. She mulled over the problem and
came up with a logical solution that could also help her get on with
the task she'd planned. "I think we need to run another experiment."

 

"Oh?"
His hand skimmed down her back and massaged her bottom.

 

She
closed her eyes to hold on to the tiny tremors of pleasure he was
giving her. "I ... oh my ... we should endeavor to find a way to bring
us ... you some relief." He partially withdrew and slowly entered her
again. "Um ... we know that once is not enough to ... relax you.
Perhaps a ... a repetition is . .." His movements eloquently finished the
sentence for her.

 

The
experiment was mutually exhausting, but they worked at it until they
had their conclusion: Three couplings were required to bring complete
relief . . . and put Gabriel to sleep.

 

Unable to let go of the
lovely feeling of contentment too quickly, Shara lay snuggled in his
embrace for some time, yet she couldn't allow herself to sleep. She had
work to do.

 

After a while she whispered his name, and when he
didn't
stir, she eased away from him, then paused to make sure he didn't
awaken before she left him completely. Once she was free, she wasted no
time getting to work.

 

Gabriel reached out in his sleep to
bring
Shara close again and her absence awakened him. With a feeling of
dread, he opened his eyes and searched the immediate area. He felt some
relief when he saw her a few feet away sitting cross-legged on her
tunic, working her microputer. It was not as bad as if she'd left him,
but it wasn't good, either.