Page 68 of Elanie & the Empath
Time floatedby in a warm and contented blur. We ate, napped, kissed, more than kissed. Life was easy in Thura. Even Gol had left us alone to settle in. But this morning, I’d opened my eyes to find a monster perched on my chest.
“Elanie,” I whisper-shouted. “Help.”
She strode in through the door like a sun-kissed dream, her skin tan, feet bare. “Grover.” She tsked. “Leave Sem alone.”
Giving me the stink eye—because while he loved Elanie, he still wasn’t so sure about me—the grint opened his beak and squawked. Then he scampered from the bed and jumped into Elanie’s arms, crawling over her shoulder to coil his tail around her neck.
“You should get up,” she said, running her knuckle over Grover’s beak. “The breakfast spread is delicious today.”
I sat up so I could drink her in. She’d been changing, little by little, day by day. Maybe I’d been changing too. But there was something about the way the sunlight caressed her skin here, the color dusting her cheeks. It started in the cave, her smiles outnumbering her scowls, a laugh here andthere, an openness. But here in Thura, with the warmth and the sand and the flowing linen clothes, she was blooming.
Wondering if she had any idea how beautiful she was, and if not, how I could spend the rest of my life convincing her it was true, I asked, “How are you today?”
She thought about it for a moment. Then her rosebud lips unfurled into a smile so warm it gave the sun a run for its money. “I’m happy.”
The word was an arrow through my heart, making me want to open up my chest to show her that she’d hit her mark. Instead, I walked to her, kissed her lips, and said, “Me too.”
She hadn’t been wrong.The breakfast buffet had been phenomenal, as had our lunch and dinner. Fresh eggs, juicy meats, warm and crusty breads. And bowls filled with a seemingly never-ending supply of fruits and vegetables. Everything was always cooked to perfection and artfully prepared, always steaming hot or perfectly chilled. But even as I filled my belly meal after meal, replenishing the lost calories from our time in the cave eating foot-eels, I couldn’t help but wonder who was making all our food.
I hadn’t seen a kitchen, no staff or volunteers cutting the melons into tiny stars or glazing the hams. Aside from Mal, there were a few older generation bionics toiling about, setting tables and clearing plates. But there weren’t enough of them to be cooking everything too. If, according to Gol, the entire purpose of Thura was to offer freedom to bionics, working the older gens to their cores didn’t exactly fit that model, even if it did make them feel useful.
“What do you really think of this place?” I asked Elaniewhen she came back into our hut after taking a shower. Something we’d done together for the first time the other day, playing with water and soap and how slippery the two could be when combined.
Drying her hair with one of Thura’s downy-soft towels, she peeked at me from under her thick, dark lashes and said, “I think it’s amazing. Why? Don’t you?”
She wore nothing but a thin pink linen robe, the outline of her body visible through the fabric. While she brushed her fingers through her hair, her robe falling open enough to reveal the curve of a breast, I had to physically sit on my hands to keep them to myself.
“What are you doing?” She studied me, brow furrowing.
“Oh, just mentally undressing you,” I admitted, my blood stirring as I imagined the feel of her body under my hands, my teeth grazing the underside of that perfect breast, my tongue swirling over the rosy nipple starting to harden under her robe. “It is beautiful here.” I tried to ignore the way she let her robe slide down her right shoulder, exposing golden skin that gleamed under the glowlight. “But you know how I’ve been taking walks after lunch?” Sometimes she joined me, but she preferred to engage in a time-honored tradition she’d only recently been allowed to appreciate: afternoon naps.
Nodding, she toyed at the tie holding her robe together.
“While I’ve been walking, I’ve also been thinking, noticing things. Like where are the power generators or solar converters? Where are the satellite arrays sending out the SBN signals? What is keeping the glowlights on or the terradome functional?” My gaze trailed down her throat, her sternum as she pulled the tie loose. “I mean, who makes our clothes? Who made”—my breath caught as her robe fell to the floor—“your robe?”
Taking a step closer to me, she suggested, “We could ask Gol.”
“You think he’d tell us?” My focus sank to her navel, my attention slipping inside the soft, shadowed divot. “He seems secretive, doesn’t he? Enigmatic? Doesn’t it all feel a little…cultish?”
Placing her hands on my shoulders, she nudged my knees apart and stood between them. “Cultish?”
I brushed my lips over her belly, breathing her in. Cinnamon, vanilla, mouthwateringly edible. I’d never been so hungry. Hungry for her, for the heaven hiding beneath those curls at the apex of her thighs. Especially since she hadn’t let me kiss her there yet. Saints help us both when she finally did.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured against her skin, sliding my hands over her hips—which she promptly repositioned on her ass. “There’s the big, muscle-bound, charismatic leader.” I swiped my tongue over the point of her right hip. “The docile followers wandering around like they’re on a constant supply of Bliss.” Bit the tender skin above her left. “Everyone wearing the same outfit.” Squeezed the divine cheeks in my hands. “And I think I heard some bionics speaking in tongues earlier today.”
Slipping a finger under my chin, she tipped my head. Probably to meet her stare, but I got stuck on her breasts halfway up.
“They were Ulaperians, Sem,” she explained. “They always sound like that. You’ve just never heard it because of your VC translator.”
Licking my lips, I kissed the swell of one breast. “I don’t know,” I said, moving to kiss the other while she threaded her fingers through my hair. “But there’s something about this place.” I sucked her nipple into my mouth, leaving itwet and hard. “That makes me feel.” She moaned while I swirled my tongue around the peaked tip. “Like we probably shouldn’t drink the punch.”
“Why would that be?” Gol’s voice was the most unwelcomed thunder that ever clapped. “Our punch is delicious and 100 percent organic.”
Shooting to my feet, I thrust Elanie behind me. And while I tried to appear nonchalant, my erection pointed straight out beneath my pants, wagging at Gol like an accusatory finger.
“Ever heard of knocking?” I grumbled.
“I do not knock,” Gol replied simply. Glancing down, he grinned at my erection the way a parent might grin at their child’s stick figure drawing. Encouraging, like it was the cutest little attempt they’d ever seen. I half expected the next words out of his mouth to be something along the lines of “Aww, look what you did there, little guy.”
