The Melier: Home World (Women of Dor Nye Book 2) (13 page)

****

Later that night, Lucia lay awake,
thinking
. She was always thinking, and half the time it would just spin her round and round, never reaching any type of resolution for her thoughts.

Tonight she thought about
Val’Zun
.

She thought about his slight caress of her face and curls. He always touched her with a softness that had her wanting
more
lately. Had she
liked
him all along, despite his grouchy exterior? Lucia
did
enjoy a challenge, but she hadn’t even realized there
was
a challenge.

Val’Zun still hadn’t asked her about mating, even today when she had initiated intimacy. She wasn’t even sure what had come over her, just that it felt
right
.

There was that niggling part in the back of her mind that still called what happened
betrayal
to Soren, even when she countered that Soren was the one who initially brought it up. If he didn’t want Zun to be her mate, he would’ve told Zun no. She probably wouldn’t even know about it if that was the case. She would blindly go about her life, never knowing Zun felt as he did.

How
does
he feel?

I don’t even know.

Maybe all this is really just your pheromones.

That’s depressing to think about.

Is it?

Maybe.

He had been really patient with her lately, ever since he apologized with the muklori plant. She found herself eagerly getting up in the mornings to kiss Soren goodbye and feed the plant with Zun, despite how ridiculous that even sounded.

She enjoyed the timid kisses he would give her. It was all so strange. Whenever it came to anything physical, the self-assured Zun she knew would disappear, and out would come this gentle, bashful version that followed
her
lead and didn’t do anything without her say so.

So strange.

It was the opposite of Soren, who was the big teddy bear usually, but was aggressive and all-consuming in the bedroom. Maybe not at the start of their relationship, but that’s what Soren had grown into. He loved teasing her, making her beg, and ramming her until she was limp, twitching, and satisfied.

Lucia’s lips parted just thinking about the differences between them both, and how much she
needed
both extremes. Her skin grew warm and that familiar coil began to unwind within her, heating her blood. Images of Zun’s throbbing cock in her hands and the
taste
of him flooded her mind, and then she was pulling her thighs apart.

She hadn’t been touched in so long she almost didn’t remember when the last time was. The stress of traveling to a new world full of prejudice had nearly clammed her up, and then there was Lenny, who stole plenty of her attention. There just hadn’t been time or desire, it seemed.

Lust slammed into her like a bag of stones and she bit her bottom lip while her body flooded.

Her fingers trailed down her body, tickling and teasing the sensitive, warm skin before she swiped across the curls between her legs. Her spine bowed and she sucked in a gasp. Slim fingers traced up her slit and dipped in. She wet the tips and circled her sensitive nub, squeezing her eyes shut at the sharp sensations that sung up her core.

The doors swung open and Soren came shuffling in. She stared at his silhouette, her hand still between her thighs under the sheet. He scented the air and Lucia nearly came without any further stimulation.

Immediately the doors were shutting behind him and under the sheets he went. Her hand was smacked away and her legs were pinned wide. Warm gusts of air hit her core as Soren scented her again before his scorching, long tongue flicked against the soft skin of her inner thigh before his teeth nibbled.

The anticipation nearly had her humping the air to direct him to her aching slit. A powerful purr flooded the atmosphere around her as his tongue licked up her pussy, the suddenness causing her to jerk, and moan. Again he tasted, teasing her nub with the bumpy texture of his tongue. She was nearly out of her mind and he had just begun.

The tongue dipped into her channel, lapping up everything she offered him. His thick tongue rolled, plunged, and vibrated with his purr. Chills rippled through Lucia and soon she was covering her face with a pillow to muffle the scream of her orgasm. It shook, and squeezed every ounce of energy from her while Soren licked, and sucked, and devoured her flesh.

The sensations were
too
strong and before Lucia realized, she was slipping into unconsciousness.

****

The next morning, Lucia was late waking up. Her limbs were rubbery, and a sense of immense satisfaction made her sigh happily when she cracked her eyes open. Soren was already gone, and an emptiness flooded her.

Her mate had given her great pleasure and she had passed out before she could reciprocate.

I’m a lousy lay.

She willed herself to get up and bathe before Lenny woke. It was a miracle the babe was still sleeping, and once she finished fluffing her hair dry, she slipped into a white, thin fabric robe. Over to the purring, sleeping Lenny she crept, and cradled her up into her arms.

“Hi little one,” she whispered when amber eyes similar to her own blinked sleepily. Lucia smoothed her hands over the silky black curls atop the babes head, and then began feeding her. As she wandered about the room, soothing Lenny, she thought about Zun and the plant. Had he fed the muklori without her?

Once she finished with Lenny, she slowly left the room and nearly startled when she ran into Gi’Ren. He was pacing outside the door beside Sola and when she emerged, his eyes glued to Lenny, and with her permission she was being scooped into his many arms. All three admired her for a few moments more and then they were heading for the gardens.

Before they left the suite, the doors were opening again, and in came Val’Zun.

Lucia paused and so did he.

Gi’Ren and Sola continued on without her as she stood rooted to the floor. She and Zun simply stared at one another. It seemed a million infinities passed between them, stealing the air from her lungs. When she finally took a shallow breath, she stepped forward only for him to step backward.

Another step forward, another step backward.

At that point, she was beginning to think it was a strange game he liked to play with her.

“Loo-Sha,” he warned.

“What’s wrong?”

His calm demeanor flaked for a minute, a small panic flooding his expression which caused Lucia to stand where she was. Maybe he really had changed his mind about her. Maybe he no longer wanted her as a mate. A while ago she would’ve been relieved, but now it felt like an iced bucket of water sliding over her head.

She took a step back, not wanting to make him even more uncomfortable.

“Will you help me feed the muklori?” She averted her gaze and went to go stand beside the plant where it sat happily atop its table.

Like every morning, she tickled the vines and they tickled her back. While she didn’t look directly at Val’Zun, she could see him slowly heading to the panel to turn off the lights, and soon they were surrounded by blackness.

Ever so slowly, the glow started and began flooding the surrounding area with its midnight hue. He stood on the opposite side of the table instead of beside her like usual, watching her instead of the plant.

Her heart sank just a little. Maybe she was right; he had changed his mind about her. Was it because of what she’d done in the gallery to him yesterday?

He did look like he was in pain…

A small sigh escaped her parted lips as she squeezed the air from the dropper, releasing, and letting it suck up the golden boma sap. She still wasn’t sure what kind of plant or tree it came from, nor how the muklori fed on it in the wild. It was possible the muklori didn’t grow in the wild at all, which would make most sense to her. It could be a completely hybridized plant concocted in a lab by
mad botanists
.

Her lips twitched at that.

“Val’Zun?” she whispered, and dropped another bead of sap into a smaller flower, giving it some extra nutrients.

“Yes?”

They always whispered when they were feeding the muklori, as if they spoke too loud, the plant would close its beautiful pods and never reopen.

“I’m…” she gulped the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have. It was wrong of me.”

The thought that her actions yesterday may have felt
forced
upon him almost made her groan with loathing. She
refused
to be like Gi’Moy, or any other female that
forced
someone to do something they didn’t want to.

A breath escaped him and he looked away. Lucia nibbled on her bottom lip and then finished feeding the muklori. When she was done, she looked back up into his eyes. Only slivers of the buttery irises could be seen around the black expanse of his pupils. They always blew up in the dark, even with the glow of the plant.

This would normally be the moment Lucia would kiss him.

Her tongue wet her lips as Val’Zun stared at her mouth. She watched his throat bob as he swallowed repeatedly, but made no moves to get closer to her. The seconds passed, and then he shook himself, only to disappear into the darkness out of the blue glows reach. Her hands found the base of her throat and rubbed nervously, trying to settle her beating heart.

The lights slowly ebbed on, and bit by bit the large flowers shrunk in on themselves, and the pods sealed shut around them.

“I want to show you something,” he said hesitantly. “Will you come with me?”

She found herself nodding, relief flooding her body that he even wanted to be around her. When had that happened? When did she even
care
if Zun wanted to be near her or if he felt repelled by her presence or pheromones?

Since you turned into a traitor.

Shut it.

I’m just sayin’.

She followed him through the suite doors in silence, her eyes roving over his lean frame. It was really no wonder he could move with the speed others couldn’t. He was just as broad shouldered as his brothers with their looming height, but he didn’t have the mass. Every part of him was toned and defined, muscles stretching over his slim build, and begging to be touched. The angular shape of his physique made his feline features much more prominent than his siblings.

Lu curled her fingers in on themselves as she got a grip.

Soon they were outside the palace and she was glad she wore light fabric. The dress was more like a length of cloth with a hole in the middle that fit over her head. The sides of her body were exposed from shoulder to sole, and she wore a red sash around her hips to keep the material from flying about and flashing anyone with a set of eyes.

Two orana mounts stood waiting by guards who held their tethers. The beautifully strange beasts flicked their tails back and forth, the orange feathers shimmying and glittering in the light of the suns. While Lu would love to know how to ride one, she was wary since she’d never done so alone before.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea I ride my own mount,” she voiced to Zun, chewing the inside of her cheek nervously. Any other time she would be raring to go, but she knew nothing of these large beasts other than what Soren had told her.

“Your mount is gentle,” he assured her. “She is too old to cause the fuss a younger orana may.”

Before she could protest further, a pair of his hands lifted her from the waist, and set her atop the older female. Not that Lu could tell she was old; they both looked the same to her. The blanket that served as a saddle was soft against her legs, and then Zun was placing the reins in her hands.

“It is easy to guide orana. Use your body to tell her where to go.”

She watched him mount and then noticed how his legs did most of the work in
guiding
the orana, not the reins. She tried following his lead and the orana veered in the other direction, causing her to yelp and hold tight.

When they made a full circle, she finally shifted her knee more gently against the side of the mount, and it began moseying toward Zun as he sat ahead, waiting on her. The dip of his head was meant to encourage her, but she was still nervous atop the giant animal. If she fell,
something
was going to break.

Once she felt comfortable enough that her squeezing thighs weren’t going to spur the mount into a run, she let herself breathe a little easier and began to enjoy the sights around them. They were following a narrow path, barely wide enough for them to ride side by side, and the forest began to close in around them.

She was instantly reminded she was in a foreign land, and she had no idea what type of beasties roamed unseen. A small shiver of fear slithered up her spine, and she suddenly wished she had been more insistent on riding with Zun, and
not
alone.