Sariana realized he was reacting exactly the way she had pictured him doing in the image of the embrace she had projected. In another moment she would be flat on her back and he would be on top of her, surging into her. Frantically she altered the image in her mind.
“Wait, not so hard,” she gasped, wrenching her head aside. She sank her nails into his shoulders and shoved heavily.
Gryph didn’t seem to hear her for a moment. When she finally got his attention he slowly raised his head and looked down at her with a confused expression in his glittering eyes.
“I thought that’s what you wanted.” His voice was a rasping whisper.
“Not quite.” Sariana realized she was shaking. “Obviously I have to do some fine tuning here.”
He watched her through dazed narrowed eyes and raked a hand restlessly through his hair. “Sariana, what do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m not sure yet.” She gave him her most brilliant smile and sallied forth once more into the fray. She caught hold of his hand and put it against her breast. “Kiss me again. Not quite so fiercely. And this time I want you to touch me.”
He swore softly but his fingers closed around her pert nipple as he lowered his mouth once more to hers. She painted a sensual picture in her head.
This time the kiss was just right.
“Exactly what I ordered,” she said against his mouth.
He ignored that, too wrapped up in the embrace now to pay attention to her self-congratulations. Sariana could feel his vibrating excitement. His desire was a tangible force that reached out to engulf her. When she deliberately projected the sensation of his tongue tangling with hers, she immediately found her mouth invaded. Once again the assault was a little too forceful.
“Easy,” she mumbled.
He backed off slightly. His tongue explored her softness while his hands kneaded the resilient flesh of her buttocks.
An image popped into Sariana’s head. It was similar to the picture of herself she had seen that afternoon on the sled, the view that seemed to linger on her backside. In this image the round cheeks of her buttocks were full and lightly flushed. The dark cleft that separated them was deep and shockingly mysterious. A familiar masculine hand was gliding around to explore the hidden valley.
Even as she realized what was happening, Sariana felt Gryph’s fingers sliding into that secret place, seeking its mysteries with a boldness that made her tremble.
Sariana gasped for air and banished the picture with an act of will. This was her fantasy, not Gryph’s. She would control it and control him in the process. He had a lesson coming and she knew now she could teach it.
Sariana won the battle to control his questing fingers but as she concentrated on that skirmish, she lost control of the kiss. It deepened quickly as his tongue slid between her teeth. Then she felt Gryph’s blunt, hard shaft sliding along her stomach.
Sariana realized she had to control the sensual battle on all fronts. Gryph was too clever, too knowledgeable about her responses. He was too much the hunter, the one trained to take charge. And he’d figured out what she was trying to do.
Sariana replaced the graphic image she had just banished with one of her own. This was a much softer, more romantic picture of a woman lying on her back while a faceless man knelt beside her and gently touched her breasts.
“That’s me, not some faceless fantasy,” Gryph muttered, lowering Sariana to the blanket that had fallen onto the sand. “If you’re going to draw pictures, get them right.”
The unseen man kneeling beside the woman instantly assumed Gryph’s features. And then Gryph himself was kneeling beside Sariana. He drew small circles around her dusky aureoles. The hard nipples grew even tauter. She arched upward, seeking a firmer touch.
“Is this what you want, Sariana?” He tugged gently at sensitized flesh.
“Yes,” she managed. “ Oh, yes, that’s what I want.” She took his hand and raised it to her lips, kissing his rough palm. Then she pushed it slowly, firmly down her body.
When his fingers threaded through the dark hair between her thighs she moaned and lifted herself against him. She thought of the way he had touched her there the last time he had made love to her and deliberately she tried to project that image. Then he was touching her there.
His fingers grew wet with her natural dew and they moved more slickly over her. Sariana reached down urgently to guide his hand still lower.
Gryph sucked in his breath and obediently gave her the caress she sought. He slid two fingers just inside her throbbing passage and opened her slowly until she felt deliciously stretched and waiting.
“Do you like that?” he rasped thickly. “Is that what you want, little tyrant?”
“More,” she pleaded imperiously. “I want more of you.” She looked up at him and saw the stark hunger in his face.
“How much more?”
“Everything. Anything.” She twisted restlessly under his hand and groped for him, trying to drag him down onto her. She was growing wild with her own desire and the knowledge that his passion was an inferno fed her responses. “Come here.” An image of him lying on top of her, thrusting into her formed in her head. It was getting hard to think clearly enough to create such explicit pictures. This one was definitely fuzzy around the edges.
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“What else is there?”
His eyes blazed down at her while his fingers continued a slow, achingly exciting motion. “Give the command and I’ll show you.”
She moved urgently. “Yes. Show me,” she ordered.
“As my lady wishes.” He moved then, but he didn’t come down on top of her as she had thought he would. Instead he gently pried her thighs widely apart and knelt between them. Then he lowered his head to drop a startling, incredibly intimate kiss into her warmth.
Sariana jerked bolt upright in shock. “Gryph!”
“You don’t like it?”
“I…I don’t know,” she hedged.
“Give it time.” He eased her back down onto the blanket and once more treated her to the exquisite, worshipful caress.
“By the Lightstorm,” Sariana whispered. She reached her hands down to push him away and found herself clutching at him and pressing him closer instead.
She could form no more coherent images. Her mind was consumed with a riot of colors and textures and heat. Sariana felt the tension coiling more and more tightly within her and she held Gryph firmly in place while she waited for the explosion.
Gryph didn’t seem to mind the fierce grip she had on his tousled hair. He sipped at her warmth as if it were nectar. His fingers probed gently into her channel as he took the tiny bud of passion between his lips.
The sudden release of the sensual tension exploded out of nowhere, convulsing Sariana’s entire body. She cried out and Gryph rode the storm as she arched upward and tightened her thighs around him.
When she sank slowly back to the ground, Gryph stretched out along her. His manhood poised at the vulnerable entrance of her body, his mouth still carrying the taste of her, he took her face between his hands and waited until she opened her eyes.
Sariana lay still for a long moment, vitally aware of him waiting for her to come back to her senses. She was tempted to let herself drift but there wasn’t much point in that. Sooner or later she would have to open her eyes and she knew that no matter how long it would take he would be waiting. Silently she lifted her lashes.
An unspoken question throbbed in the air between them. But Sariana wasn’t listening to silent questions. There was another image forming in her mind. She saw herself holding a babe with night-dark hair and blue-green eyes. The infant was smiling mischievously, its tiny fists grasping eagerly for whatever was within reach.
Gryph wanted that child. It represented life and the future to him.
Sariana r
ealized she wanted to give him that babe.
She also knew in that moment that she wasn’t falling in love with him. She was already in love with him.
Sariana thought about the contraceptive she had purchased from the medic that morning. Then she made her decision. She would not use it.
Wordlessly she pulled Gryph down onto her and into her. He took her with a low, hoarse groan of unremitting need, driving into her so deeply that Sariana knew instinctively she would never again be free of him.
Much later that night when she lay curled beside him on the gently rocking river sled, Sariana remembered the image of the babe that had formed in her mind.
She decided not to mention to Gryph that it had been a little baby girl.
Chapter
14
DAWN came late to the base of the river canyon. Gryph awakened in deep shadow. But he was stretched out on his back and when he looked straight up he could see the faint light in the strip of sky visible overhead. It was time to get moving. There was a lot of territory to cover.
But Sariana shifted slightly against him, her rounded hips nestling closer, and Gryph had several second thoughts about the virtues of rising early. He turned on his side and slid a hand under the rheenfeather quilt. It was cozy and warm underneath the lightweight quilt and the curve of Sariana’s thigh was an invitation he couldn’t resist. He was hard with his early morning arousal and the thought of sliding into Sariana’s tight, clinging warmth was far more attractive than getting up and building a fire.
Sariana stirred at his touch and Gryph smiled in satisfaction. She knew and responded to him even in her sleep. Stealthily he eased apart her thighs and stroked the silky interior of her leg. She shifted delightfully but didn’t waken.
Enjoying the game, Gryph gathered her closer. Her back was still turned toward him and she fit the natural curve of his body perfectly. When he explored further with his questing fingers he discovered she was warm and full and already slightly damp. He traced the outline of her body’s entrance and she grew moister.
Gryph waited no longer. He was ready and so was she, whether she knew it or not. This was morning, a time for action, not a slow, lingering interlude. He positioned her hips and guided himself slowly between her legs from behind. When he entered her soft, feminine channel Sariana came awake with a rush.
“I think,” she complained sleepily, “that you have just taken advantage of me.”
“I’m only evening the score from last night.” Gryph locked his hands ground her hips, guiding her into the rhythm he wanted. “By the Lightstorm, you feel good first thing in the morning.” He reached around to the front of her thighs and used his fingers to excite her further.
Sariana moaned and stopped complaining.
Lazy sensations of pleasure and gathering tension drifted in and out of Gryph ‘s mind, mingling with his own driving urge. He no longer tried to hold back his own emotions. As far as he was concerned Sariana had surrendered her right to gentlemanly restraint on his part last night. Any woman who could turn into such an imperiously demanding, exciting creature of passion deserved to be hit with the full force of the response she invoked.
The memories of the night combined with the potent excitement of morning and Gryph’s body drove into Sariana’s one last, glorious time. His half stifled shout echoed from the canyon walls as he poured himself into her. Sariana’s cry was much softer and more breathless but her climax seemed every bit as strong as his own. He could feel it subtly rippling through him even as his own swamped his senses for a long, sweet moment.
When it was finished Gryph inhaled deeply, feeling his natural energy rush back into him. He grinned privately and sat up. Then he ruthlessly yanked the travel quilt off Sariana and slapped her bare thigh. He was enjoying the sensation of possessiveness, he realized.
“Up you go, woman. I’m waiting for my breakfast.”
Sariana grabbed for the quilt and snuggled back under it.
“What happens if I tell you to fix your own breakfast?”
“I pick you up and drop you into the river for a refreshing early morning dip.”
“That’s not much of a threat. I was going to bathe again this morning, anyway.”
“Ah, but there are subtle differences between a delicate sponge bath at the shoreline using water heated over a fire and being dropped into a very chilly river,” Gryph pointed out as he reached for his pants and boots.
“You are a cruel, heartless, ruthless man, Gryph Chassyn.” Sariana sat up slowly.
“That’s something I think we should talk about,” Gryph announced, coming to a decision. He gazed thoughtfully at the scarlet-toe as it uncurled slowly from the depths of Sariana’s cloak and began nibbling at the small pile of leaves that Sariana had put out for its breakfast.
Sariana followed his gaze to the scarlet-toe and then looked at Gryph questioningly. “You want to discuss your cruel, heartless and ruthless tendencies? This early in the morning?”
“No,” said Gryph as he stepped over the side of the boat and waded toward shore. “I want to discuss the issue you raised so tactfully yesterday evening. The issue of my being a man.”
He didn’t bother to glance back as he went about building a fire and heating water for her morning bath. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Nothing at all was seeping into his mind from her this morning.
Half an hour later, cloaked against the early morning chill, Sariana sat on the other side of the fire and sipped her laceleaf tea. She waited in silence for Gryph’s explanations.
He lounged on a rock, warming his hands around his mug and considered his intelligent, passionate, unpredictable wife. He searched for the words he needed.
“You said you learned something about Shields yesterday,” he finally began.
“A few things,” she admitted evasively.
“It was something that made you think I might not be as human as you are.” He could feel his own grimness and wished he could control it better.
“I saw a portion of a play with Keri. It was a First Generation legend about the Shields saving the colonists on board The Serendipity.”
“And you found yourself a chatty medic who implied a few things that also made you wonder who or what you had married.” Gryph took a long swallow of tea. “Must have been a female medic,” he muttered.
“It was, as a matter of fact.”
Gryph gave her a level glance. “I told you last night that I’m as human as you are.”
She returned his gaze. “Is it true the Shields weren’t on board The Serendipity or is that just legend?”
“It’s true.”
“Then where did your people come from, Gryph?” she asked quietly.
“What your people don’t know, Sariana, or else they’ve forgotten, is that their ancestors weren’t part of the first wave of human colonists that left the home planets and scattered into the galaxy. There was another wave of colonization that took place a hundred years earlier. My people are descended from that first wave.”
Sariana sat tensely, her tea unfinished in her hand. “I’ve never heard of a previous attempt at colonization.”
“I know. Your people were lucky just to hang on to a distorted version of their own history. It’s no wonder they’ve lost all record of a previous history of other colonists. Even if the records did exist, no one would pay them much attention. As far as my people are aware, no one on the home planets ever heard from that first wave again after the ships left the solar system. Most of the ships were headed into this sector of the galaxy because the scientists had determined there was a cluster of star systems here that would be able to support human life. The odds of finding new homes seemed reasonably good in this sector. Since The Serendipity and The Rendezvous were both sent in this direction, too, we can assume that at the time of the second wave the home system scientists were still of the
same opinion about the usefulness of planets in this area.”
“They were right,” Sariana observed. “Windarra has been a very hospitable planet.”
“That may have been true of the eastern continent, but the west was a deathtrap. Almost every other inhabitable planet in this sector was also a trap,” Gryph informed her bluntly.
“What do you mean?”
“The main reason no one ever heard from the first wave of colonists was because most of them died in storms of light that consumed whole ships attempting to land on planets in the local star systems.”
“There was a scene in the play yesterday,” Sariana said softly, “a scene in which The Serendipity was nearly swallowed by such a storm.”
Gryph nodded, wondering how to explain the rest of the tale. “The people on board my ancestors’ colony ship were lucky. They escaped the storm that almost caught them when they attempted to land on the planet of their choice.”
“Windarra?”
Gryph gave her a small smile. “No, not Windarra. A planet called Talis. It was located in a neighboring system.” He saw the wonder in her eyes. He also saw the doubt. “It’s true, Sariana. I swear it. My people have kept their own history all these years. We have not forgotten our origins.”
“How did you come to Windarra?”
“We followed the trail of the crystal ships,” he explained simply, then realized he had skipped over far too much. “I’ll have to go back to the beginning. By pure luck my ancestors’ ship escaped a lightstorm that awaited it on Talis. It backed off and went into a wide orbit around Talis’ moon while the scientists and technologists on board tried to analyze what the storm was composed of and how to deal with the threat it represented.” Gryph swallowed the last of his tea and set the mug down on the rock beside him. “They eventually found the answer.”
“What was that answer?’
He still couldn’t tell how she was taking any of this. It irritated him. It also made him wary. But he had gone too far now. He might as well finish. He got to his feet and strolled to the water’s edge and stood looking out across the canyon floor.