Page 110 of Rok's Captive
“Stop eavesdropping on my thoughts,” she projects, her mental voice stronger than her spoken one.
“I am not dropping anything,” I respond.
She freezes, blinking rapidly. “Say that again. I mean,thinkit again.”
“I am not dropping anything,” I repeat in my mind, focusing on sending the thought clearly to her.
“Holy shit,” she whispers, setting the meat aside. “We can hear each other now? Without touching foreheads?”
She is right. I’d been too caught up in the aftermath of her glow that it did not fully occur to me.
I nod, though I cannot hide the disappointment. “I enjoyed being close.” The words echo in the mindspace. “Looking into your water-eyes when we share thoughts.”
Her expression softens, and she moves toward me, the meat forgotten as she climbs into my lap, her legs straddling mine. The position brings her core directly against my hard stem, and I grip her hips to steady her.
“We can still be close,” she whispers, leaning forward to press her lips to mine. The water sharing is slow, deep, a claiming of her own. Her hands frame my face, her thumbs tracing the angles of my jaw with a tenderness that makes heat pool low in my gut.
“This is madness,” she whispers against my mouth. “What if I’m imagining all this?”
I grunt. “I am real.”
“But you’re reading my thoughts. And this planet. Everything about it. Everything about you. And yourcock. It’s like…”
“It is real, too.” My hands tighten on her hips, keeping her anchored to me as I slide my hips upward, rubbing her along my length. “As real as the pain I feel whenever you are not near. As if part of me is missing.”
She blinks. “Pain?”
My gaze searches hers. “I cannot be far from you, my light. It is impossible for me.”
Her throat moves, and I see confusion in her eyes. I sense it in her mind.
“Last night…” she whispers.
I pull back just enough to meet her gaze, my hands sliding up her sides to cup her small, perfect mounds through the thin fabric of her top. “You showed me the universe,” I finish for her, “and now I will show you mine.”
Her eyes darken, her lips parting as her breath quickens. The scent of her arousal fills my nostrils, and it’s driving me to near madness.
“How soon will we reach your clan?” she asks, even as her hips continue their maddening rhythm against me. “Are you sure they’ll help the others? There are many of us.”
“Many daughters of Ain,” I agree, my hands moving to the band of her strange coverings. I want to feel her skin, all of it, pressed against mine.
She goes still beneath my touch, a strange tension entering her body. Before I know what I did wrong, she looks away, her thoughts suddenly guarded.
“My clan will do anything to keep such treasures safe,” I continue, confused by her reaction. I pull at the thin fabric, revealing more of her pale skin to my hungry gaze. “You are precious to us. Tome.”
She shifts off my lap, turning her back to me as she pulls her coverings back into place. Her shoulders slump, and I sense a heaviness in her that wasn’t there before.
I approach her carefully, uncertain what has changed. Have I offended her somehow? Misunderstood a signal? The intricacies of female behavior are unknown to me.
When she turns to face me, there is water in her eyes. Alarm shoots through me. She’s leaking again, as she did when she told me of her missing kin.
“Jus-teen?” I reach for her, my hand hovering uncertainly. “Why leak water? Pain?”
“It’s normal,” she vocalizes, wiping at her eyes. “They’re called tears. It happens when we’re sad or scared or…overwhelmed.”
I cup her face gently, my thumb trying to rub the tear back into her skin. I do not like seeing her body waste water so. Even after so many times, it is alarming. “What makes you sad? Tell me, and I will fix it.”
She laughs, but the sound is hollow, lacking the warmth I’ve come to crave. “You can’t fix this, Rok. Because you think I’m something I’m not.”
