“Well, tone it down, will you? I’ll stay on my guard. I’ll be very, very careful. Okay?” She shifted. “To be honest, I’m in more danger from your precious Ampliphi than I am from anything out there.” She gestured to the door.
“Don’t you think I know that?” he demanded sharply. “There are things going on here that you have no concept of. What you see happening around you and to you has almost nothing to do with you.”
“Nothing to do with me?” She gaped at him, utterly aghast. “Your friends want to force me into a lifetime of sexual and reproductive servitude! That has a lot to do with me!”
“I meant the motivations behind this!” He lurched forward and grabbed hold of her, jerking her up against him. “Every moment that ticks away, every resistance you thrust up between us wastes drops of precious time for me. I have made a claim of kindra, and it is accepted…for now. But if I do not prove that claim by the time the sun sets two days from now, they will take you from me and send you to live in the general populace and I will be labeled a liar and deceiver for trying to take a woman for myself under false pretenses. King or no king, that is a crime that carries the penalty of death, Asia.”
Asia swallowed visibly, her blue eyes wide with an answer she already knew as she asked, “What do you mean ‘prove that claim’? How d-do you prove I am your kindra?”
“You already know,” he noted as he bent to brush his nose against her temple, breathing her in all over again. “I will make love with you until this entire colony is flush and full with the fallout of our energy. I will make you feel orgasmic pleasure you could never find with anyone else. When we connect, you will change me into a being whose energy and power will be immeasurable and,” he lowered his voice so it drove into her with hot, thrilling impact, her entire being flushing with liquid heat, “will be yours to thrive in and play with for all the years of our lives. But if I fail to do this, if I fail to please you as I have been created to do, Asia, then I will lose you to a wealth of others and that, by far, will make death seem like a mercy to me.”
His fierce intensity and conviction finally made Asia realize just what she had done to him when she had threatened him with that very thing earlier on the walkway. Somehow she had managed to throw into his face the worst fate imaginable to him.
And she had barely known him half a day.
All the information she had gathered about him on Earth had been false and was completely unreliable, and yet within only hours of being exposed to the true Julian, she had learned so much. She had learned how best to hurt him even before she had learned how old he was or what his favorite color was. What did that say about her? Had she really become so cutthroat and vicious? She had been so careful to raise Kenya in a way that had protected her spirit from the harsher realities of the world, yet she had seen to it she wasn’t ignorant of them either. But Kenya had looked at the world as full of possibilities, while Asia looked at it as an ongoing act of damage control. She had no faith in her fellow man. She always anticipated the worst in people.
Lord, she’d become a bitter bitch, she realized. And Kenya’s disappearance had only hardened her all the more.
“Asia…I agree that you are a victim of our laws and that our legal system is failing you horribly by threatening to make you nightfly. God, the very thought of it makes me shudder to my everlasting soul. Your freedoms mean everything to you and we would be wrong to take them away when you have really done nothing wrong, but…you have to understand we are protecting both of our worlds the best way we know how—even when committing such an atrocity.” Julian closed his eyes briefly, his grip on her tightening in reflex to his wildly plunging thoughts. “You see, Asia, this entire situation we find ourselves in—the eradication of our women, our failing energy, and our dying peoples—this was all caused by one woman, a long, long time ago, who accidentally jumped across dimensions from another world to ours. When she begged to go home we couldn’t deny her pleas. After all, nothing like this had ever happened to us before and we didn’t know the ramifications….
“But despite swearing up and down that she would never speak of this world she had found, after we found the way to send her back and returned her, she talked to someone she shouldn’t have. A man. A brilliant man placed high in the esteem of scientists of his dimension. He recreated the conditions that had called the Gate to the woman and together they came back here. You could say they were the parents of the method we use even now to travel from Beneath to other dimensions. But…he was also patient zero of the plague that has more than likely destroyed us. In the physiologies of the men and women of his world, it’s nothing more than the equivalent of a cough with sniffles. Here, for our women, it was utter devastation. We knew then we could never trust another alien to keep silent once they had the slightest hint of our existence, and so we decided that no means were too severe to keep them from spreading that knowledge. This is why we cannot return you or anyone else to your plane with the knowledge of this place intact in your mind.”
“But don’t you risk other contaminations every time you or the other Gatherers stay among us?”
“Earth is the one dimension we know of where your contaminants are harmless to us and ours are harmless to you. This was extensively tested before we made the choice to recruit your women. However, it is your violence and paranoia that threaten us most. Our repopulation techniques are not risk free by far, but they are the least dangerous to us as a whole. This is also why we follow the letter of our laws and rules with what appears to you to be single-minded devotion. How can we not when we are all touched by the results of what it cost us to be lenient in the past?”
He reached up to brush at Asia’s dark hair where it was feathering over her ear. He watched her carefully as she processed everything he had told her. Julian had taken a great risk by laying all of his cards out on the table about how dangerously low they were on time to prove her to be truly kindra, but he couldn’t afford having her shut down against him because she didn’t understand their extreme laws and reasoning. She was right. There were many flaws and disagreeable solutions in their justice system, but hers was little better. However, both of their societies were doing the very best they could with the benefit of their peoples in mind. One day, perhaps, it could be different.
And now it felt like everyone was a threat to him, even his best friend Lucien, the man he entrusted the entire colony to whenever he went to Earth plane…until he made his claim on his kindra. He couldn’t even find sympathy in himself for Ariel and her coming fate. Her plotting had been an unforgivable act, one that might have deprived the entire colony of the richest energy source known to their breed. Starving children’s faces swam through his head, hazed in the red of his fury and the burning orange of his desperation as his deadline seemed to loom and mock him.
Trying to control the chemical and emotional storm his proximity to Asia was causing inside him, Julian forced himself to take several steps back from her. It was almost suffocating to be that close to her and yet never close enough. Equally maddening was knowing that she did not yet feel the same intensity. Oh, a few minutes ago she had been feeling it, but then her mind had latched on to their conversation, desperate for some way to throw up defenses against him yet again. It was a war between them, exhausting and fruitless…challenging and critical. The fates of thousands hung in the balance with every battle they fought against each other. He’d been engaged in the struggle for only half a day and already he was frustrated and feeling worn out.
Julian would rather lose himself in the pulse and power of Asia and spend his time and energy making sweet, unbearable love with her. He wanted to stamp his claim onto her and spend hour upon hour embedding his essence into her until no one could mistake her for anything other than his kindra.
Then, after he’d selfishly indulged in her for a few years, after he had seen his village fed and glutted from his passion with her, he wanted to put his child inside her and watch her grow even more lovely and dele
ctable with every single moment of her pregnancy.
“Stop it,” she breathed in a rasp of fear. “You want a kind of woman I just can’t be! I’m never going to be someone who takes contentment in being the lover and treasure of a man. And I don’t want to be a mother! I won’t have babies! Why can’t you understand that?”
Julian didn’t smile, although he wanted to when he realized she had just heard his unspoken thoughts and desires. She was already coming in tune with him, whether she wanted to consciously or not. Soon she would be unable to resist him any longer. Soon she would cling to him and beg him for the pleasure of his body.
“I understand perfectly,” he said with a renewed calm that had him exhaling a long breath. “But what I am craving at the moment is merely a part of the primitive instincts the males of my kind are born with, and I can’t help the urges I have to claim my mate and reproduce. Still, these things are not all I want from you. You are more than a body to my mind and my heart, but until I claim you and secure you to the satisfaction of my impulses, they will continue to overwhelm me from time to time.” Julian dared to step forward again, closing the distance between them until her scent, still flush with her arousal of minutes ago, rolled over him and through him.
“I am torn between my desires,” he informed her. “I want to show you the beauty of my world and prepare you for my society, to prove to you that it is worthy of a woman as powerful and strong as you are. I want to share my needs, yes, but even more I want to share the needs of my people with you. And not just for energy, zini. They need a dominant and authoritative queen to rule and guide them. When I think of Kenya and the kind of person you created her to be, I see so much potential in what you can do to shape and mold a frightened and struggling class of people. Don’t you see how well suited you are for being the mate of the king? You teach. You know how to fight for what is yours. You are lush with energy and passion, righteousness and determination.” Julian felt his heart pounding even as he described her for them both, his excitement and anticipation overpowering him. “You would defend what you love with every ounce of power in your soul. Look how far you have come for the sake of your sister alone. I wonder what you would do for the multitude of people in this colony who will earn your love and devotion if only you give them enough time.”
It was unspoken, but Asia heard loud and clear the question that followed as it raced through his mind.
What can you come to feel for me if only you would give me enough time?
Asia had no idea how to react to the query—nor could she react to any of his other questions and suppositions. He was demanding far too much from her far too soon.
And yet…
And yet she couldn’t deny the powerful draw of him. She felt more just standing in his sphere than she had while fucking with other men. His kisses alone stirred her to a point that felt like the very brink of orgasm. Even now her whole body craved the feel of large, purposeful hands curving intimately over her body. And she knew when she looked up at him through her lashes that he was fully aware of everything she was thinking and desiring. She was assured of that an instant later when he growled low in his throat and leaned forward to nip at the side of her neck with the lightest brush of his teeth and lips, driving her full of goose bumps until her breasts hurt with the stimulation.
“Stop that,” she whispered in a rush of breath she could hardly control. “You keep toying with me until I can’t even see straight, and I know it’s on purpose!”
“You’re damn right it’s on purpose,” he said roughly. “Everything I do has a purpose now that holds you at its center. I’ve never made a secret of the desire I feel for you. I’ve never concealed my motives. I never will. And I won’t back off, Asia, until you’re mine and mine alone.”
“I’m mine and mine alone!” she retorted hotly, stiff and repellant against him all of a sudden.
“I’m yours and yours alone,” he said softly against the skin beneath her ear, nuzzling and tasting her until all the rigidity melted out of her body. “I am yours to do with as you please…whatever you please…whatever pleases you, zini.”
His hands drove up between their pressed bodies, sliding slick and quick over the glide of silver until he surrounded both her breasts with the pressure of his intense hold. He slipped his fingers around the points of her nipples and then closed them into firm little vises between them. Asia strangled on the gasp lurching through her throat, her back arching to give him more of herself even as her hands fisted in the fabric of his shirt and pushed him away.
“Will it please you to have my mouth on you here?” he asked in a breathy wash of words against her ear. “My tongue dancing on every nerve before drawing you in deep so I can suck you hard? You seem the tough sort, Asia. Will it be nibbles or bites that arouse you most? Is it the anticipation of the sensation that makes you shudder like this, or do I already please you so easily?”
Asia wanted to rail at him and deny him in every way she could possibly come up with, but she was paralyzed with the sensations of bliss and buoyancy that lifted her up into his touch, her whole body writhing to feel more and more. He was right; she was shuddering in hard shivers, a cross of delight and shock as her body responded to him with an easy fire. Somehow his thigh had slid between hers and she was brazenly rubbing herself against the hard muscle she now rode. She felt abruptly empty and aching, desperate to be filled by him, urgent with her need for him.
The surrender of her body was so complete and so overwhelming that she was struck dizzy with the effect of it. She writhed up against Julian with wanton need, her heart racing until her pulse was pounding in her ears.
“Why do I feel this way?” she asked as she burned for his every caress and now the need to touch him in answer as well. Her hands weren’t at all hesitant as they began to chase paths over the well-shaped muscles of his chest. “Oh my God, it’s like…it’s like I have no control!”
She saw a frown flash over him, but it was a fleeting expression. All that remained of it were light furrows in his forehead as he bent to stroke his lips over her breastbone.
“You do have control, Asia. Merely ask me to step away and I will end this. But what you are feeling is the call of the kind. Similar to an animal in heat, our bodies respond to the proximity of each other with pure sexual drive…an increasing condition with every touch and every kiss we share.”
Julian shared his kiss with her once more, devouring her lips and mouth until they were both gasping hard for breath. Heat was burning Asia everywhere at once, the need to be the central focus of his every attention driving her to an act of haste. She reached up for his hands, grasping hold with desperate fingers, then slid them all the way down the length of her shimmering dress, straight to the hem. She dipped both of their hands beneath the hem and then retraced her path in reverse. Her skin came alive with a scream when she felt his hot, huge hands melding to her. He broke free of her guidance, his palms curving over her ribs and back.
She couldn’t possibly know what the feel of her skin was doing to him. It was something he had wanted so badly for what seemed like ages. She was so smooth, so deceptively soft. He could feel her strength flexing close beneath it, though, and it sent him into a spiral of need for her. Need for everything about her. Yes, it was the call of kind, but it was so much more than that. Couldn’t she see that? Couldn’t she feel it?
“God, I want to rip this little silver nothingness to shreds,” he growled with impatience as it caught against his fingers and impeded his path back around to her breasts.
Caught up in the moment and the burning need to feel his touch on her, she abruptly reached to grab the back of the dress and with a too simplistic pull sent it flying off over her head. A flutter of silver fabric in the corner of her eye was all that was left of it.
“God help me,” Julian said in soft desperation as he looked at her nearly naked body in its entirety for the first time and found it difficult to simply breathe, never mind have a single complex t
hought or reaction. As he had promised her, everything he was feeling was primitive and raw, instincts as base as they came. She must have felt it, sensed it, or somehow heard it as it wailed savagely through his mind, but whatever the reason, she made a sound of complete agreement. It was as if she were contemplating the perfect meal on a completely empty stomach and he could feel the appetite rolling off her in great, heavy waves. His entire body clenched in anticipation. This was what he had been waiting for. This was what he had been craving since the moment he had first understood she was his kindra. It had taken so long, and yet under half a day for it to finally strike her with equal intensity as it struck him. Now she wanted him as she was supposed to want him. Now she had the same hunger that he did.
At last.
Julian skimmed hot, famished eyes down her body, reminding himself that he had the right to all of what she was showing him, all of what she was offering him. He could see the pale pink of her nipples in contrast to the warm tones of her skin and was amazed at how wrong he had been about their color. But now that he could see their light, pearl pink color and their beaded thrust, he realized how perfect she was just like that. Unable to resist a moment longer, Julian bent his head to catch her between his teeth and against the flutter of his tongue.
Asia couldn’t have known how keen his sense of taste was. It was so sharply honed that he caught the full flavor of her skin, her perfume, and her perspiration in a single tasting. The mélange might have been confusing to some, but not to him. Oh, he would prefer her without cosmetics and artifice, but there would be time to express those desires later. For the time being, he liked the mixture of their cultures and their worlds on his tongue. He could imagine what she would taste like all over the rest of her skin, just as he had done every time he had kissed her neck, ear, or even her lips. The smell of her rising off her flesh was pure divinity. Pure excited female.