Purity

  “Slowly now,” he said when he got to her mound. “Want to take a little time to savor this.”

  “But Boone…” K’s entire body felt tense with unfulfilled need. “Please, I need it now!”

  “Uh-uh, can’t rush it. Need to take it slow.” He placed a gentle kiss at the top of her mound, right where the tiny patch of black curls now grew.

  K shivered as she felt his warm breath blowing over the sensitive area.

  “Please!”

  “Would you like to watch?” He looked up at her, a little smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “Want to see me taste you, K?”

  K opened her mouth to say no and then remembered how much more intense it had been when she watched him touching her.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I…yes, all right.”

  “Good.” Boone grabbed one of the embroidered pillows from the head of his sleeping platform and placed it carefully under her rear. The pillow elevated her sex, making K feel incredibly exposed, especially when Boone spread her legs, causing the lips of her sex to open like the petals of a flower.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, placing a soft kiss at the top of her slit. “So ripe and sweet and ready. The Goddess of Fertility’s got nothing on you, darlin’. Now watch while I spread you open and kiss you. Watch while I taste your pussy.”

  The forbidden words sent another shiver of desire through her and K watched, her hands clenched into fists and her lower lip caught between her teeth as Boone spread her gently and placed a hot, open mouthed kiss right on her throbbing clit.

  “Oh!” K gasped and her hips bucked, as though they had a mind of their own.

  Boone gave a low chuckle. “You like that, huh? Well how about this?”

  Leaning down, he licked her—a long, slow stroke that started at the bottom of her slit and slid upward, bathing her aching clit in heat and sensation.

  “Boone!” K grabbed for his broad shoulders which were splitting her wide. Purity, how could he do this to her? How could he get such an immediate, intense reaction from her body with just a few kisses and licks? And yet, as Boone continued to taste her, she had to admit he could. And she never wanted him to stop.

  “Easy, baby,” he murmured, kissing her again. “Take it slow. Let it build. The more you hold it off, the more intense it’ll be when you finally come.”

  K clutched at his shoulders. “I don’t want to take it slow! I want it now.”

  “Of course you do.” He gave her a teasing smile and bent to lick her, another slow slide from bottom to top, bathing her sex with his heat. It was amazing but not quite enough to get her where she needed to go.

  K felt like she was going to scream. “Please,” she begged shamelessly. “Boone, please.”

  “Please what, baby? Please do this?” Without warning he sucked her clit between his lips and began to torture it sweetly, just as he had her nipples earlier.

  K let out a sharp little cry and moved her hands from his shoulders to his thick thatch of spiky brown hair. At the same time, her hips were pressing up, tilting her pelvis toward him to try and get more, to take all he had to give.

  Boone seemed to understand her wordless encouragement because he redoubled his efforts on her sensitive button. K could feel his hot tongue bathing her, laving her swollen little bud one minute and lashing it the next. He didn’t seem to mind the way she was pulling his hair either which was good—K was pretty sure she couldn’t have stopped even if she wanted to. She bucked her hips up and squeezed her inner thighs around his face. The wire in her lower belly was winding tight again, threatening to snap at any time.

  Then, just as the pleasure was reaching its peak, she felt something new. Two long, strong fingers slid down to the entrance of her sex and paused there for a split second before sliding deeply into her.

  K gasped and jerked, completely undone by the forbidden sensation. Penetration—contamination of the highest level. It was unthinkable…and exactly what she needed.

  As Boone pulled back and thrust in again, hitting the end of her channel with the broad, blunt tips of his fingers while he lapped her clit, K felt herself coming, coming so hard she saw stars behind her eyes and she couldn’t catch her breath.

  “Boone!” His name was a prayer on her lips—she wailed it with abandon as she writhed against his mouth. Boone stayed with her, riding out her wild bucking as he continued to lap her slick folds and thrust even deeper with his fingers.

  K pulled his hair and scratched his shoulders. She bit her lower lip until it bled. The pleasure was so much more this time—so intense. It was like nothing she’d ever experienced before and she never wanted it to end.

  But somehow, it did.

  Finally she lay back, panting, her body feeling limp and completely wrung out. K couldn’t remember ever feeling so relaxed, so deliciously exhausted. When Boone untangled himself from her legs and lay beside her on the bed, she turned to cuddle close to him.

  “Boone,” she murmured. “That was amazing…incredible. How did you learn something like that?”

  His deep laughter rumbled through her. “Well, I had a girlfriend who couldn’t get off any other way. So I guess you could say that practice makes perfect.”

  “A girlfriend?” K felt suddenly tight inside. “Is that like a mate? A wife?”

  “Take it easy, darlin’, it was a long time ago,” he assured her. “Gloria and I went our separate ways years before I ever met you.”

  K propped herself up on one elbow and looked at him.

  “So…you only do it for the female’s benefit? For my benefit? I mean, it brings you no pleasure?”

  “Hell no, darlin’, it brings me plenty of pleasure,” Boone assured her. “Holding you down, lapping your sweet pussy and hearing you moan my name—that’s hot. Damn hot. I get plenty of pleasure from it.”

  “But not enough to have a release.”

  “Well…me having a release wasn’t really the point.” Boone shifted and K felt something hot and hard brush her thigh.

  “But you could have one, right?” Curiously, she reached down and cupped the rigid lump in the palm of her hand. It was quite large and seemed to throb in her grip.

  Boone made a strangled sound. “Easy there, sweetheart! That’s a pretty sensitive area you’re manhandling there. Or woman-handling, in this case.”

  “That’s your shaft, right?” K looked at him with curiosity. “I’ve never seen an erect one—may I look?”

  “I don’t think that would be such a good idea right now.” Gently, Boone reached down and disengaged her hand.

  “Why not?” K demanded. “You’ve seen all of me naked.”

  “Yes, but if both of us get naked together…I think we agreed we should avoid that, didn’t we?”

  His words brought back Vanja’s warning and K sobered at once.

  “Boone,” she said, “What are we going to do?”

  He propped himself up on one elbow and sighed. “About what?”

  “About…everything. The third phase of my cycle…getting off this benighted planet…rescuing your sister. What are we going to do?”

  Boone sat up and rubbed a hand over his face. “Well, let’s start with the easiest first. My sister is taken care of.”

  “What? How?” K demanded.

  “Your mother—uh, the Empress informed me that she has several captured Purist ships in the docking bay here. She’s going to have a team of her soldiers go in posing as Purists and bring Shayla home.”

  “But that will never work,” K protested. “Even if they had skinsuits—which I’m sure they don’t—they don’t know the codes, the protocol, the passwords…”

  “I’m not very happy about it either,” Boone admitted. “But I don’t know what I can say since it’s pretty much what I was going to do myself.”

  “No, you were going in prepared. You have a fourth level Paladin with you—one who knows exactly what she’s doing,” K said fiercely. “The soldiers here, they’re useless fops. Idiots. Don’t
trust them with your sister’s life, Boone.”

  He spread his hands. “All right then, what am I supposed to do?”

  “To start with we have to get out of here.” K sat up, the sheet pooling in her lap. “Are there as many guards outside your door as there are mine?”

  “Probably more,” Boone said grimly. “I made the mistake of going to the Empress and telling her that I love you and that I won’t leave you.”

  K’s heart beat harder in her chest for some reason. “And…and what did she say?” she whispered.

  Boone scrubbed a hand over his face again. “She said that you were home now and she’d take care of things. Basically she told me to forget about you.”

  K felt her stomach lurch. “What did you tell her? Could you do that?”

  “Never.” Boone cupped her face in his hands and stared earnestly into her eyes. “I know we haven’t known each other long K but, well, I feel like you’re a part of me now. I can’t let you go.”

  Something in K’s chest loosened. “I…I’m glad about that,” she admitted in a low voice.

  “Mmm-hmm.” For a long time Boone held her eyes with his. Was he waiting for her to say she loved him? Did she? K wasn’t sure. She still didn’t even know what love meant. Finally she was able to tear her gaze away and Boone released her face gently.

  She cleared her throat. “So then…how are we going to get out of here?” She looked around. “The secret passage runs all through the palace—I think they made it in case of a siege.”

  “Darlin’, there’s no way I’m going to fit in there,” Boone said. “You could barely get out of it yourself and you’re a hell of a lot smaller than I am.”

  “Yes, I guess you’re right,” K said reluctantly. “All right, then we’ll have to gas the guards and run for it. We’ll wait until it gets dark—”

  “K…” Boone put a hand on her arm. “I know you don’t want to hear this but…maybe we shouldn’t leave. Not yet.”

  “What?” She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the fact that by tomorrow morning you’re going to need to have sex—multiple times,” Boone said in a low voice. “And darlin’, I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you. Not as many times as you need to be helped—it just isn’t possible for someone without Erian DNA.”

  “But you’re a geneticist, Boone,” she protested. “Can’t you think of some way to help me?”

  He looked frustrated. “Maybe if I had my lab and all my equipment and more time to work on the problem.”

  “Time is what we don’t have,” K snapped. “By tomorrow morning I’m going to become this vicious, mindless creature intent on nothing but getting myself penetrated and injected with male seed over and over again.” She put her arms around herself and shivered in disgust. “I’ll be no better than Sweetie was.”

  “Come on now, darlin’,” Boone said. “You can’t think of it that way.”

  “There’s no other way to think about it.” K took a deep breath. “I’m going to have to put my suit back on.” She was surprised all over again at how reluctant she was to do it. But if there was no other way…

  Boone shook his head. “I’ve thought about that, but I just don’t think it’s safe. Interrupting your cycle—especially your first cycle when your hormones have been suppressed so long—could kill you.”

  K gave him a level look. “I’d rather be dead, Boone. Rather be dead than let myself be touched—penetrated—by a stranger. By anyone but you.”

  “K—” he began.

  “But I can’t be with you,” she continued relentlessly. “Not just because of our different DNA but because I’d hurt you.” She looked up at Boone and bit her lip. “I know I swore to kill you but now that the opportunity presents itself I find myself…strangely reluctant to follow through on my threat.”

  One corner of Boone’s mouth quirked up. “You say the sweetest things, darlin’,” he said dryly.

  “So I’ve got to put on the suit,” K went on. “There’s no other way.”

  “There is a way—you could go through the cycle,” Boone said quietly.

  “Are you serious?” K looked at him, disbelieving. “Do you hear what you’re saying, Boone? You want me to let myself turn into some mindless, lust crazed…” She shook her head and tried again. “You want me to be contaminated—penetrated—by other males? I thought the Impure were territorial about their mates.”

  “We are,” Boone said grimly. “And believe me, darlin’, the idea of letting some other guy touch you…” His big hands balled into fists and his voice dropped to a growl. “I don’t like it one damn bit. But if it’s a choice between that and letting you die—I want you to live, K. I love you.”

  K felt numb. “You told me you’d teach me what love is, Boone,” she said in a low voice. “I have to tell you, I didn’t think it would be like this.”

  “I just want you to be safe,” he began, reaching for her.

  K dodged away from his touch and jumped off the sleeping platform.

  “I’d rather die than buy my safety—my life—at that price,” she said coldly. “I thought you could help me, Boone. I was stupid enough—emotional enough—to think I could bring you my problems and expect you to solve them.”

  He spread his hands. “I’m only human, K. I honestly think the best thing would be to go through the cycle and then try to find a way out of here. If…if you still want to leave afterwards, that is.”

  “Why wouldn’t I want to leave?” K demanded.

  “Because, well…” Boone shifted and cleared his throat. “You’re a princess here, K. You can have a whole new life if you want it.”

  “I had a whole new life. With you.” K felt like her throat might close but she forced the words out anyway. “You stole me out of my old life, stripped away my suit, taught me to feel—you changed me, Boone. I don’t want to go back to what I was—I don’t know why but I don’t.”

  “Then don’t do it,” he said softly. “We’ll get through this together, K. I swear we will.”

  “No.” K picked up the dress she’d shed from the floor and dug around in the inside pocket until her fingertips encountered the familiar, slithery fabric of her skinsuit. “No, there’s no more ‘we’ Boone. I never should have let there be in the first place.” She began pulling on the suit, heedless of the way her body was shivering in revulsion as the familiar black webbing flowed over her skin.

  “K, stop!” He jumped off the sleeping platform and came for her, one hand outstretched to keep her from her task. “You can’t do this—that damn thing really could kill you. Take it off!”

  “No.” K pulled the suit higher and slipped her arms inside the sleeves. As soon as she did, the familiar needles bit into her forearms, injecting coldness, replacing emotion with reason. Mercifully numbing her to the tortured feelings of hurt and disappointment that had swamped her just a moment before.

  “K, stop, before it’s too late!” Boone began pulling at her suit, trying to get it off her again.

  “It’s already too late. It was too late the first time you took off my suit and contaminated me.”

  K reached into an inner compartment of her suit, pulled out a stun capsule, and broke it under his nose.

  Boone took in a breath and clamped his hand over his mouth and nose. But it was too late, already his eyes were rolling up in his head and he was sinking to the ground.

  K watched him slump to a heap at the foot of the sleeping platform and felt nothing…well, almost nothing. For a moment, she knelt beside him and put a hand on his neck to check his pulse. It was strong and steady—the capsule was meant for smaller humans than Boone. He would be all right. Not that she cared.

  Then Boone startled her by lifting his head. His eyes fluttered, as though he was fighting the stun gas—fighting to stay with her.

  “K,” he muttered. “Don’t…do this. Not…safe.”

  “Neither is staying here,” K said coldly. “Don’t worry,
Boone—I don’t ever expect to see you again but I keep my promises. Goodbye.”

  “Don’t go.” He struggled to move but couldn’t—clearly the gas had incapacitated his arms and legs. “Love…you.”

  K didn’t know what to say to that. Even with the needles of her suit biting into her arms, injecting her with the calming essence of Purity, she still felt her heart thump strangely in her chest.

  “Goodbye, Boone,” she said again. Then she left him, lying in a heap, and went back to the secret passage behind the fireplace.

  She had much to do and she couldn’t let emotion get in her way.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “Boone? Oh my Goddess, Boone—are you okay?”

  Boone blinked his eyes with some difficulty. His eyelids felt incredibly heavy for some reason. When he could finally focus, he saw Loki leaning over him, a worried look in his gold ringed eyes.

  “What happened to you?” Loki demanded.

  “Dunno…” Boone blinked again, trying to remember. Why was he lying on the floor in nothing but his underbriefs? And why was his head pounding like a saurian had decided to sit on it?

  Suddenly it all came back to him—K coming through the secret passage, the way she had begged for his help and afterwards, the way he had failed her. I failed her and she put the suit back on. The suit…oh God, the suit!

  “K!” he gasped, lurching upright. A bolt of pain shot through his head and he groaned and clutched at it.

  “Take it easy, big boy.” Loki patted his back.

  “Can’t take it easy.” Boone tried to get to his feet and couldn’t manage. Loki grabbed his arm on one side and someone else grabbed on the other. Between the two of them they managed to haul him upright.

  “There you go.” Loki dusted him off. “Now do you mind telling me why you passed out in your underbriefs like a party boy who took too many psi-poppers?”

  “It was K. She drugged me.” Boone looked around woozily. “Where is she?”

  “That’s what the entire palace would like to know,” Loki said waspishly. “She’s been missing for hours.”