Page 59 of Dark Space
Anna shuddered. ‘I’m not sure what’s happening,’ she said thickly, ‘but I don’t want it to stop.’
I wasn’t about to admit that I seemed to have finally fallen over the precipice dividing sanity and – well,not sanity, so I helped her step out of the garment, flinging it into the corner when she was free. I rubbed my cheek over her stomach, taking hold of her hips when my mouth decided to roam lower. I brushed my nose over the short, coarse curls on her mound, breathing in a mouthful of Alcide’s scent.
He’d been everywhere.
I followed the scent to her lower lips, listening as she gasped. Her body began to tremble more violently, so I guided her hands to rest on my shoulders and my own held her tightly by the waist,keeping her upright when I nuzzled at her core and her shaking knees threatened to give way. I took one of her legs and hooked it over my shoulder, which didn’t help her stability but spread her open for my mouth.
And this body liked that. Very,verymuch. It liked it even more when my tongue licked a stripe up the centre of her and she mewled, her hips flexing of their own accord. Alcide had paid attention to the bud at the top of her sex, so I did, too, sucking it gently as Anna made a stream of incoherent noises.
I rather liked my little lodestar losing control.
‘There?’ I murmured, though I suspected I didn’t need the confirmation.
She whimpered in response, which I took to meanyes.
My scent was mingling pleasantly with Alcide’s now, his spice and my woodsmoke settling deep into Anna’s skin. For a moment, I wondered what it would be like to have Callan’s musk there, too, a steady base to the richness of the other two male scents.
I worked Anna steadily, flattening my tongue as her fingers tightened on my shoulders. Sex wasn’t new to me: intimacy opened doors like nothing else. It was amazing what beings would do for you after a few selflessly-given climaxes and the right mix of adoring words, delivered with a well-practised, hesitant smile. Researching the right target, shifting into their desired form, and applying the formula of an orchestrated chance meeting and whirlwind courtship had always been one of my favourite plays; it required nothing from me but time, and time was something I hadplentyof.
I didn’t seem to want anything from Anna, though, which was a new experience, and one that troubled me. She didn’t own anything I could steal; she held no secrets to use, no valuables to be sold on, no deeds of ownership to be transferred. And this body liked touching her very, very much; but even worse, I likedthe way it felt to be with her in this form. I didn’t need to change anything for her to desire me, and the organic suit I wore desired her right back. It waspleasantto feel her hands tighten on me, pleasant to taste her with this tongue, pleasant to run my fingers over her skin and lose myself in its silken softness.
I wasn’t pretending, I realised. That was what was different. I wasn’t faking my need to make her shatter, wasn’t faking my enjoyment, wasn’t faking how badly I wanted her.
I wasn’t fakinganything.
Her fingernails dug into my shoulders and her body tensed; I realised she was nearing her end, and doubled my efforts, holding her tightly upright as she cried out. Her body shook and she pulsed under my tongue; I couldn’t repress a groan as her taste flooded my mouth and her scent became stronger, sweeping to the fore and clouding both Alcide’s and my own.
‘Vesper,’ she sighed, once she was still. ‘What theheck.’
I carefully manoeuvred her leg back down, my arm circling her waist so she wouldn’t fall. I folded to sit, stretching my own cuffed leg out, and took Anna with me, cradling her in my arms and increasing my heat slightly when she shivered. She pressed her face into my chest; I heard her give a soft, incredulous laugh, and moments later, she was asleep.
I buried my nose in her hair.
Mine and Alcide’s scents were equal now, but for some reason, that didn’t quiet the feelings raging inside me. They were all new, to be fair, so I ignored the ones that made this body’s heart constrict and concentrated on the ones I’d felt before. Jealousy, possession, desire. I’d only ever had those feelings forthingsrather thanbeings, but they were similar enough that I could recognise them.
Anna gave a sleepy murmur and shifted in my arms; I held her closer. The longer I sat there holding my human, the more certain I became.
My twin, with their multiple lovers, had it wrong. Starlings didn’t share. The thoughts I’d had about Callan and Alcide didn’t matter. ThedesireI felt for them didn’t matter.
The human in my arms did.
This was just another play. I could be patient and wait until the time was right.
And I would have Anna all to myself.
I stared at thescreen, my hands bunched into fists.
I shouldn’t have watched, not when I realised what was happening. I should have closed the livecast when Anna stepped towards Vesper. I should have turned away when he stood, when he dropped his mouth to Anna’s neck.
And Idefinitelyshould have walked away when he slowly unzipped her uniform. I should never have seen him push the garment off her shoulders, should never have devoured the sight of her smooth back, marred only by the still-healing scars of Dainn’s bite. My blood should not have caught fire when Vesper uncovered her nakedness, and I should not have started to growl when he hooked her leg over his shoulder. I should not have groaned to see him working between her thighs, his hands tight on her waist to keep her upright and in place for his mouth. She’d come apart swiftly, her head tipping back, herfingers digging into the starling’s shoulders with enough force to hurt. He hadn’t seemed to care, scooping her up when she’d recovered, cradling her in his arms like the precious thing she was.
I should never have watched. And my heart shouldn’t have pounded, not forbothof them.
‘Callan?’
I started, blanking the screen as I turned. ‘Bryn?’
He frowned at me, politely ignoring my flushed face and probably blatant arousal. I couldn’t do anything about either, so I crossed my arms and waited, mustering an imitation of self-possession that I was sure the engineer could see straight through.
