“You do not fear joining with me?”
“Do I look afraid?”
“Your words are brave, kerima, but I would expect no less from you. But even Kan-is-Tran women fear a warrior’s touch at first, no matter that they might want that warrior for their own. Such fear is normal and continues until the woman grows accustomed to her warrior. Such fear is even more prevalent in women captured or claimed.”
“Into which category I presumably fall? Let me take a wild guess, babe. Your women aren’t much bigger than I am, are they?”
“This is so.”
She laughed suddenly. “It must be hard, being a giant. Poor baby . . . now don’t take offense. It really is funny from my point of view. Have you had to be so careful with all your women?”
“Women are fragile and easily damaged,” he told her shortly, annoyed with her humor and her ability to completely distract him from his purpose.
“Some women maybe, but I’ve gone through a rough-and-tumble training. I’m not going to break if you feel like letting go.”
Unfortunately, she did not know what she was suggesting. “I fear I cannot be gentle with you whether I wish it or not. Too much do I remember of the previous rising.”
“All that superhuman control coming back to haunt you, huh? Well, I’ve got no sympathy for that, babe. Your farden control put me through hell.”
And his lack of it now would do the same if she did not be quiet and let him bring her to need. There was only one sure way to silence a woman without gagging her. This he proceeded to do for as long as his control lasted. It was not long.
The fire grew slowly, but when it arrived it was a conflagration that banished all traces of exhaustion from a sleepless night. And no sooner did she feel the full force of it than the barbarian moved to cover her completely. How had he known she was ready? Who cared. At last she was going to be breached, and by a man she’d known for only one day, though it seemed as if she’d known him forever. That was the incredible part, not that she wanted him so much and had waited so long for this to happen, but that she felt such an affinity toward him. Of course, having despaired of ever finding anyone who would suit her probably accounted for it. Going through so many ups and downs with him in the short time since they had met also would contribute to her feeling of having known him much longer. And none of it mattered next to the wild turmoil he so easily set loose inside her.
He was well positioned between her legs now, had risen up to do so, his full weight supported by his arms. The biceps bulged and glistened with moisture. There was so much of him to touch, and Tedra loved touching him, looking at him. But right now she wanted to feel him deep inside her.
“If you wait much longer, Challen, I’m going to—”
She gasped as his heat entered her. Stars, there was such tightness, such fullness. She knew her body would accommodate him, but she didn’t think she could wait long enough for it to do so. She didn’t think he could either. His great body trembled in restraint, his muscles quivered, sweat broke out all over him. Either he was in as much discomfort as she, or he was putting on another superhuman effort. The effort was wasted. Despite the discomfort of his entry, of knowing there would be greater pain to come, Tedra wanted all of him and she wanted it now.
“Are you waiting for my permission?”
He made a sound between a growl and a moan, and gritted out, “Permission is not needed of a challenge loser.”
“It figures,” was the best she could say at the moment, unable to take exception to anything just now except his restraint. “So why are you holding back?”
She thought he might laugh at that, but he couldn’t quite manage it. “Because you are so small.”
“I’m small? Maybe I’m normal, and you’re just too big.”
Challen could not believe he was even having this conversation, though he had to admit it was helping to keep him from savagely letting go. “Think you I have known so few women I cannot tell the difference? Long must have been your journey to come here.”
Tedra didn’t know what that had to do with anything, nor did she care just then. “Well, I’m not going to get any bigger, babe, until we start doing this on a regular basis. So if you’re holding back on my account, don’t.”
“Patience is a virtue you would do well to practice, woman.”
“Like you are? Forget that. If you don’t get on with it, I’m going to think you’re punishing me again by making me wait.”
His eyes closed and his forehead dropped to hers. His straining had become worse. “I do not want . . . to hurt you.”
She was filled with a warm feeling of tenderness for him upon hearing that, but there was no reason for them both to suffer. Her hands went to his face to make him look at her as she explained, “This is a breaching, Challen. Pain is unavoidable for me no matter what you do. I could have fixed it if I’d anticipated . . . You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? You will if you’ll just fill me, so come inside, my gentle warrior. Do it now. I promise you I can take it.”
There was no stopping him after hearing that, but he also heard the scream that ripped from her throat as he plunged to the hilt. Never in his life had he drawn such a sound from a woman, but instantly he knew the reason for it, had felt the skin as it was carelessly breached. Breaching—her word. If he had only known its meaning was literal. And now he understood her unusual smallness, not abstinence because of a long journey without a man at her side, but abstinence her whole life. She had been untouched, a woman of her bold looks and words, a woman, not a young girl. It was the one thing he would never have imagined her to be.
“Forgive me,” she said, breaking into his thoughts, her voice not quite steady. “That—that wasn’t as bad as it sounded.”
“Was it not, little liar?”
“No, really, I think it was a mind thing—you know, expecting it to hurt with a normal man, but here you are bigger than big. So my mind would naturally assume it’s going to hurt a bit more with you, and when it started to, the old mind thought, ‘Look out!’ and there you have it, a reaction all out of proportion.”
He almost laughed. The things she said could turn him inside out trying to understand them, but for once he felt he grasped her meaning.
“A mind thing? Women often cry before they have reason, merely in anticipation of a reason.”
“I’m going to let that comparison slide since you got the general idea, but take note there are no tears in my eyes.”
He smiled at her gently. “I did not mean to sting your pride, warrior woman. Your pain was great, and yet you bravely discount it for my sake. You also attempt to take my guilt from me, for which I am grateful. It is I who must ask forgiveness for hurting you. Your—breaching—need not have been so brutal. Had I waited—”
She put a finger to his lips. “I don’t mean any disrespect, babe, but can we put this discussion on hold? If you haven’t noticed, I’m not hurting now. And as much as I like the feel of you inside me, I’d also like to know what comes next, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d get on with it.”
She would appreciate it. A Kan-is-Tran maiden would have spent the rest of the day crying and screaming that she had been torn asunder and must never be touched again. His Kystrani maiden would appreciate it if he would “get on with it.” He did just that.
Chapter Sixteen
Tedra wrapped her arms around her bent legs and laid her cheek on her knees as the soothing motion of the comb gliding through her hair began to put her to sleep. Challen had been at it for nearly a half hour already and gave no sign of wanting to quit.
When he had produced the golden comb after they had finished the evening meal, and ordered her to sit between his spread knees on the fur, she hadn’t objected. Her hair was a mass of tangles by then and she didn’t know the first thing about removing them herself without a styler at hand. Her warrior had made short work of the tangles, only he hadn’t stopped there. She was beginning to think he simply liked to comb w
omen’s hair. That he might be fascinated with her own black locks didn’t occur to her.
They hadn’t left that morning for his hometown as he had planned. Tedra had fallen back to sleep after that first glorious experience of sex-sharing, and Challen had let her sleep the morning away. She had awakened when the sun was high overhead and had immediately been joined on the fur for her second, more leisurely experience.
Challen leaned forward now and bit her bare shoulder, bringing her to instant wakefulness. The man did like to bite. The many nips she had received so far had been hard enough to get her attention, but not hard enough to bruise. Yet the element of suspense was there each time those strong white teeth grazed her skin.
She sighed and glanced over her shoulder at him to see if there was a reason for the bite, then grinned at the look that was in his dark eyes. It was a look she was now able to recognize, one that hadn’t been there at all yesterday but had appeared a number of times today, a great number of times. It meant he wanted her again. She didn’t mind. She wasn’t surprised either. The third and fourth times he had rolled her beneath him today she had been surprised. She’d stopped counting and stopped wondering about it, accepting the fact that she had an insatiable barbarian on her hands. For whatever reason he had denied himself yesterday, he was making up for it today. And how could she object when she was getting so much pleasure out of his need?
“Did you want something, Challen?” she purred teasingly, only to find herself swiftly turned and sprawled over his chest as he dropped back onto the fur. “Do I assume that was an answer?” she asked, planting a kiss on the smooth chin she had earlier watched him scrape a blade over.
Without a word he pointed to his lips and she obliged, lazily running her tongue over their grinning surface. When she did no more than that, however, he nipped—and missed. She giggled, then squealed when he tried again. The trouble with that game was his arms were around her to trap her there. Unable to get away, she was quickly kissing him exactly as he wanted, giving him the joining kiss he had rejected last night.
Before she got really carried away, however, he drew her head back, wanting to know, “Are you sore?”
The question was a little late in her opinion, but she didn’t point that out. “No.”
“You would not tell me if you were, would you?”
She grinned. “No.”
“This will be the last time, kerima, I give you my word.”
“Just don’t make the sacrifice on my account—or are you sore?” She got a bite on the neck for that insinuation. “Ouch! So you can do this all day and night. I never doubted it.”
That brought a rumble of laughter from him. The man really enjoyed sex-sharing. Tedra found that she did, too, at least with him. He made her laugh. Sometimes he made her want to scream. And most times she did scream when the pleasure came upon her, it was so intense.
Right now he lifted her and sat her down on his lower chest, with her knees bent forward, her feet tucked near his hips. This put her entirely within the reach of his hands, and there was no part of her body that he left alone when he began caressing it. This time he wouldn’t let her touch him, making her place her hands on her thighs and keep them there. All she could do was stare at him and watch the passion deepen in his eyes and wonder if it was reflected in her own.
“Give me your breast.”
She made a sound like a whimper when she heard that request through the daze his hands had created. “It’ll be ... too much . . . Challen.”
“Give me your breast,” he repeated, making it an order.
She leaned forward slowly, groaning in anticipation just as he had claimed women do. But she knew she had good reason and she was right. The moment she was within reach, his mouth fastened on her nipple and began to suckle, and she went wild, knowing he was in no hurry, that he meant to take his time enjoying her. His urgency had ended that afternoon after the fourth time. Hers seemed to crop up each and every time they joined, regardless of how soon or how often.
She wouldn’t beg him, she wouldn’t.
She leaned away, only to be brought right back for her other breast to be suckled. Fire raced along her nerves, skidding from breasts to loins, pulsing in the latter. She trembled, she seethed in need. She forgot where her hands were supposed to be and shoved against him, but to no good purpose. She tried desperately to slide lower on his body to find him without his help, only to gain his hands on her hips keeping her where he wanted her.
Please, her mind screamed, while her teeth clamped on her lips to keep the cry silent.
And then she was under him and he was inside her, deep, deep inside, and she was coming, exploding around him, throb after throb of the sweetest, most glorious ecstasy, continuing on and on for as long as he drove into her, and this was endlessly, tirelessly. Oh, Stars above!
Tedra didn’t know how much time might have passed. Her guess was that she had fainted, for suddenly she was looking up at Challen and she didn’t remember her breathing having calmed down, or her pulse, but they were. He was smiling with a sort of male superiority that at any other time would have made her want to sock him, but right now she supposed it was completely deserved. He knew what he was about, her warrior. He might have driven her a little crazy wild this time, but the end result had been more than worth it.
“I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight,” she announced with a sigh.
“First we will talk.”
“Talk?” She blinked. There hadn’t been much of that today, but now? “Ah, come on, babe, the moon’s getting up there, and I’m feeling too mellow—” With a single tug she was sitting up, her legs were crossed for her, and her hands placed on her knees. A very talkable position. “I guess we’ll talk,” she said matter-of-factly, but her expression was grumbling.
“How is it you were an untouched maiden, yet you seemed . . . not to be?”
Tedra grinned and relaxed. “Is that the bug in your rug? It’s called sex education, babe, and it’s a mandatory subject taught to everyone. So just because I hadn’t tried it didn’t mean I didn’t know the hows and wherefores.” She suddenly laughed. “And now I can finally understand why Kystrani get a mite touchy when they miss their daily dose.” At his blank look, she sighed. “That was a compliment of sorts—never mind. Did that answer your question?”
He shook his head. “What of your manner that bespoke experience?”
“What of it? Was I supposed to pretend I didn’t like what I saw? Bold, brazen, and arrogant, that’s me.”
“Yet with such a manner, a woman would quickly find a mate for joining. How is it you have reached the age you have without joining?”
“Because I hadn’t met you yet, sweetcakes.”
“Is this another compliment—of sorts?”
“No ‘sorts’ about that one. I just didn’t like what I was being offered—until there was you. Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I just didn’t feel comfortable being with men I could . . . that I . . .”
“That you could challenge and defeat?”
She thought he would have taken offense at that just on principle for the male species, but he was smiling. “Maybe I should explain something, so you don’t get the wrong idea again about Kystrani men. I’m not your average Sec 1 trained in weapons and warfare. I took my training a lot farther than that, studying not only modern combat but the techniques of our Ancients, too. Such things had long been forgotten, powerful weapons making the old ways obsolete.” She frowned at his expression. “You don’t look like you’re getting the point.”
“Perhaps because I am not.”
“Then look at it this way. How confident would you feel in my presence if I were sitting here with a phazor pointed at you? Would you feel comfortable trying to seduce me, knowing that at any moment I might stun you? And remember, you’re not coming to my bed with a similar weapon on hand . . . well, I mean they aren’t. You, on the other hand, do have a similar weapon. Now do you see my point?”
“Your weapon is weaponless fighting? This is what your Kystrani men have forgotten the use of?”
“Exactly. Oh, they still know how to punch it out, but that’s kiddie stuff next to what I can do. And a Kystrani male wouldn’t raise his hand against a female anyway. So do you understand now why I was still unbreached?”
“Why you chose to be so, yes. Why you had not been claimed despite this, no. Does a man see what he wants and it is armed, he will find a way to disarm it.”
“Did you have to bring arrogance into this?” she said in disgust. “You can take that attitude, but a Kystrani male wouldn’t. And your weapon, friend, is your incredible size, and muscles like steel rods.” And she added a dose of her own arrogance. “Without that I’d have taken you, just as I did Kowan, a brother warrior of yours.”
He snorted. “This Kowan could not have been a warrior of Kan-is-Tra.”
“He isn’t,” she said, deciding not to elaborate if that pacified him, and it did. “Now can we go to sleep?”
“First do you explain your meaning of ‘fixing it.’ Did this imply you could have lessened the pain of a first joining?”
“Yes.”
“Such is not possible,” he snorted.
“Such is not only possible, it’s become standard procedure on Kystran. All it takes is about five seconds inside a meditech unit, and that little membrane you ripped to shreds could have been removed without my feeling a thing.”
“But you called it breaching, which signifies an opening.”
“ ‘Breaching’ is an old word, used before women got smart and started visiting a meditech first when they were ready to start sex-sharing. The word now simple means ‘first experience.’ ”
“Then why did you not see to this painless removal when you came of age?”
“Because it would have gone on record as being done and I would have been expected to accept my first man shortly thereafter, and that, too, would have been duly recorded into my files. At least I don’t have to worry about the Age of Consent law anymore, though how I’m going to prove an old-fashioned breaching without a computer as witness, I don’t know. I suppose I’ll just have to do it again for Martha’s benefit when she finds me. That farden machine would never take me at my word about it.”