Taken (Warriors of Karal Book 3) (12 page)

Damn, it felt so good, too good, and her body tensed as he rubbed her clit, his fingers slipping into her wet sex. Chrissi arched her back as he pushed two fingers inside her, stretching her, using a firm pressure against her inner walls which intensified her arousal. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing his mouth, his neck, his chest, urging him to make her come.

But he pulled back, his hand going to her knee, and lifting it, before he moved his hips forward, the head of his cock pressing against her outer lips. He eased forward again, the head of his cock entering her. It was big, so much wider than his fingers, and she felt a moment of panic. Malik stopped moving, allowing her to adjust to his girth. Only when she relaxed again did he move forward, and her body yielded to him.

Inch by inch he moved inside her, the ribs of his cock stimulating her inner walls. Deeper, until he broke her innocence, and she bit down on his neck until the pain passed. Malik was gentle, his body so attuned to hers, over the weeks they had been in space, that he knew when to stop and when to thrust forward, until eventually he had impaled her on his cock.

She looked into his eyes. He was staring at her face, his hand stroking her cheek. In this moment they were one; it didn’t matter if they weren’t the same species, all that mattered was that they cared for each other, loved each other. And she thought he did love her, that was what his eyes said anyway, and the colours that flitted across his skin, which lit up against the backdrop of the darkening sky.

His rhythm was slow, his thrusts long and leisurely, until their arousal grew, and he moved faster, in and out, his hips flexing, leaving her full and then empty. Her sex ached, her muscles stretched as they tried to accommodate him. Her orgasm was hovering close. Malik became more insistent, his lunges faster, harder. Chrissi rose to meet him, her hands on his back, nails digging into his flesh as she urged him on, urged him to take her to the ultimate pleasure.

When he finally came, his thrusts stopped, the head of his cock seemed to swell inside her, and she felt his warm seed spurting into her. Her body reacted, tensing, her sex gripping him tightly and then she came, her sex contracting tighter around him.

Malik cried out, his voice echoing around the small valley. She clung to him, letting his presence ground her, when her soul wanted to leave her body and fly up to the stars above their heads, which were appearing one by one in the night sky.

When he had finished, he rolled off her, lying on his back next to her. They stayed like this for a while, watching the night sky as it lit up with the tiny lights of faraway stars. Never had she seen such beauty, never had she felt such love.

Lilith was perfect; Malik was perfect. How could she have got so lucky?

Nothing could spoil this moment.

After watching the stars come out one by one, he had picked her up and carried her back to the cruiser. There they had eaten a meal before going to bed and making love again. He lay here now, with Chrissi in his arms, listening to her quiet breathing, thinking of how their lives would be once they were back on Karal. For that was where they were going, today.

He had made up his mind as she cried out his name at the height of her orgasm. Now their relationship had moved on, and there was a chance she would get pregnant, he wanted her safely back on his planet. Away from any possible danger that might exist while they were out here alone. The threat of the slavers was real, especially since they had been seen in this sector.

She stirred, and turned in his arms, opening her eyes sleepily. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Chrissi. Did you sleep well?” he asked.

“Not so well as I have been up until now. A certain Karalian kept me awake half the night with his sexual demands,” she said, threading her arms around his neck.

“I remember you making some demands of your own,” he said, kissing her neck, and nuzzling the hollow of her collarbone.

“Really?” she asked, pressing her body against his, and then hooking her leg over his thigh. “And what were they?”

“You wanted me to touch you,” he said.

“Where?” she asked.

He drew his finger along the length of her wet sex and said, “Here.”

“And then what?” she asked biting her bottom lip as he pressed his finger inside her.

“Do you remember now?” he asked.

“It’s starting to come back to me,” she said.

He pushed another finger inside her, drawing it along her inner walls, making her squirm. Then he withdrew his fingers, and turned her onto her back, his body moving to lie between her thighs. She opened her legs wider and he eased himself forward, the head of his cock brushing against her sex.

Slowly he flexed his hips forward, his cock entering her, stretching her, stimulating her nerve endings, which were still inflamed from his previous lovemaking. Malik certainly had stamina, and she would be aching for days, but it was worth it, the pain a trade-off for the incredible pleasure he gave her.

“Yes,” she said. “I most definitely remember this.”

He thrust into her hard. “I will make sure you never forget me, Chrissi. Even if the whole universe separates us, you will always think of me,” he said, his rhythm quickening.

“Let’s not think of things like that,” she said. “If all we had was here and now, I still wouldn’t change a thing. But we have the rest of our lives.”

“Yes … we … do,” he said and then his cock fused to her inner walls and his seed spurted deep inside her, and he hoped, as her body responded, her orgasm sweeping over her, that soon she would conceive the child he wanted, the one that would make them a family.

***

“We should get up,” he said. They had stayed in each other’s arms for another hour or more, the night was a distant memory, and the sound of birds calling reminded him of the samples they had taken. They needed to be stored away safely before they left.

“I know.” She stretched. “Why don’t I make breakfast?”

“Sounds good, and we can sit and eat outside. It will be nice to feel the warmth of the sun.”

He kissed her, and his colours swept across his face, he longed to take her once more, but they had spent long enough in bed. The journey home would give them plenty of time to make up for all the wasted days and nights they had spent getting to know each other. He sighed, stroking her shoulder. No, they hadn’t wasted a moment; this was so much better than if he had forced himself on her. They had built a relationship first, in the way their children would when they reached their primes. He smiled. It would be a great thing to watch young Karalian men and women looking for their mate, rather than having them chosen by Darl and his DNA.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“I was thinking of our children,” he said. “How our son and our daughter will grow up and fall in love.”

“Our daughter?” she asked, puzzled.

“Yes. I can tell you now, because by the time we arrive home Elissa will have had her baby, and if all goes well, she will have given birth to the first female child of this generation.”

He watched her expression as it cycled through surprise to wonder, and then her brow furrowed and she asked, “How?”

“There was an accident, she hurt her hands and somehow she ended up with Karalian DNA. And that somehow made a miracle happen.”

“That is amazing. So we can have a girl too?” she asked.

“I think the Council hopes every female will have a girl and a boy. I have no idea of how, but Darl will make sure it’s safe,” Malik said.

She lay back down on the bed. “Your species will be complete once more.”

“Yes,” he said.

“Is this all some kind of a trick then?” she asked. “Coming out into space, is this like a sound bite, you know, the Karal making the right noises, saying the right thing, when really there is no way they will make a new colony for humans.”

“No,” he insisted. “That part is true. Okil worries what will happen if the girls are not fertile. If this planet is habitable, then I will do everything I can to help the colony succeed.”

She sighed. “You’re right, we should get up.”

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, and got up, grabbing her clothes and dressing quickly. He did the same, and once he had his overalls on, he went to her and put his arms round her, hugging her close. His colours drifted lazily across his skin, like clouds on a warm, sunny day.

“I promise you,” he said.

“I know, and I trust you, Malik. Now, let’s eat,” she said.

“I will put the samples away while you make breakfast. Then we can either leave, or fly to another part of the planet and take more samples. A few more hours here won’t hurt,” he said, pulling on his boots.

“Sure, I’ll put some tole on, it might wake me up,” she said, yawning.

She went to the small kitchen while he picked up the backpacks and emptied the contents out. The water samples weren’t there. They must have fallen out while they were by the stream.

“Chrissi,” he called. “I’m going to run back to where we were yesterday, we have lost the samples.” He went to the storage compartment and got two more vials, just in case he couldn’t find them. “I’ll be twenty minutes.”

“OK. Breakfast will be ready by the time you get back,” she said.

“Good, I’m starving,” he said, and opened up the exit ramp, leaping down it and then jogging off towards the lake. The day was beautiful, the sun warming the ground, and all around him birds flew, heading towards the lake, where he could see large flocks flying low, dipping into the water, and then taking off again.

It was idyllic. He made up his mind they would spend the day here; it would be fun to explore with Chrissi. And the fresh air would do them both good before the long journey home.

Reaching the lake, he turned to head along the shore, back to the place where they had stopped by the stream. Sure enough, there on the ground were the small vials. Gathering them up and filling the two spares, just in case, he put them in his small pack and paused to watch the birds. Hundreds of them, calling to each other as they flew around, drinking and feeding from the vast lake, a cacophony of noise that shattered the silence.

Shaking his head and thinking this would not be a good place for a colony, he headed back towards the space cruiser, relieved when he left the foothills and could see it shining in the morning sun.

And then he stopped dead in his tracks. For there, up above him, another space ship could be seen. He began to run, wanting to get back to Chrissi, to warn her, to protect her from the coming craft. He cursed himself for being too preoccupied to wear a communicator, and then he stopped again, his heart filled with dread.

The space ship wasn’t coming in to land, it was heading
away
from the planet, entering the atmosphere before disappearing out into the vastness of space.

The question hammering at his temples, thumping with each beat of his heart, was whether Chrissi was safe on the cruiser, or had she been taken by slavers?

It happened so fast. She had been in the kitchen boiling water, humming to herself, when she became aware of a beeping sound coming from the control deck. Quickly removing the water from the heat, she ran to check the cause of the alarm, worried it meant something had happened to Malik.

She slipped into his seat, studying the screen in front of her. Staring at it, she then asked the computer, “Identify craft.”

“Space craft is Hrokili.”

“Hrokili. They are the slavers?” she asked quickly.

“Yes.”

“How long until intercept?” she asked, her mind racing as her training kicked in.

“Five minutes. They have entered the atmosphere and are on a direct course.”

“Why didn’t the alarm sound sooner?” Chrissi asked.

“Unknown.”

Chrissi tried to gauge how long Malik had been gone. There was no way he would have reached the stream and be back again. Her choices were either go and get him, and hope they had enough time to then outrun the Hrokili, or leave immediately and try to draw them away from Malik. She could return later to retrieve him.

The problem with both of those solutions lay in the fact that she wasn’t skilled at piloting the cruiser, either on land or in the sky. She didn’t have the expertise to outrun a fast ship. So they would both end up captured.

That left one more scenario. She let herself be taken.

The idea appalled her, but it meant that Malik would be alive and free.

What if the Hrokili took the cruiser too? Lilith was habitable, he could survive here, and the Karal would return. This was the planet they planned to turn into a colony, of course they would return.

“Time to intercept?” she asked.

“Three minutes.”

Propelling herself out of her seat, she went to the kitchen and gathered up food, some tole and a means for lighting a fire. Shoving them all into a backpack, she went to the exit ramp and threw the pack out. That would help him stay alive if the ship was taken.

Next she went to the control deck, and spoke to the computer. “Override command, Chrissi 3692.”

“Override command.”

“Shut down ignition system.”

“Unknown command.”

“Shut down engine ignition.”

“Unknown command.”

“Damn it!” She tried to think of all the commands Malik had given. Of course none of them were ever to shut the engines down!

“Intercept in two minutes.”

“Think. Think,” she said to herself. “Engine offline.”

“Engine offline. Await reboot.”

“That’s it,” Chrissi said to herself, the feeling of elation taken away from her instantaneously. She hoped she had made it impossible for the Hrokili to take the ship, but there was nothing she could do about them taking her.

If she ran, they would scout the area, and find both of them. No, if she wanted to save Malik, she had to sacrifice herself.

But Chrissi wanted to run.

The sound of the alien space ship drew closer, a low drone as it came into land, and when the shadow of it passed overhead, the need to get out of there and hide became unbearable. But she had to stay out, and hope Malik was far enough away that he would be safe.