Page 51 of Secretly Abducted
I turn in his arms to face him, fascinated. "What else can you feel?"
His bioluminescence shifts to soft gold with threads of purple. "Your contentment. Your... satisfaction from last night. A slight soreness in your lower back."
"That last one might be from when you bent me in half during round three."
His colors flare brighter. "You didn't complain at the time."
"Definitely not complaining now either." I trace one of the bite marks I left on his shoulder. "How are you feeling? I was pretty rough with you."
"Sore," he admits. "But in a way I enjoy. It's... evidence. Of what we did. Of what we are now."
"Bonded," I say, still marveling at it. "I can actually feel your emotions. That's insane."
"Is it overwhelming?"
"No, it's..." I search for words. "It's like the difference between hearing music from another room versus being in the concert hall. You were always there, just muffled. Now you're clear."
He kisses me softly, and I feel his affection pulse through the bond, warm and bright.
"We should bathe," he says after a moment. "We're rather... sticky."
"Whose fault is that?" But I let him pull me from the bed toward the pool.
The warm water is a relief on sore muscles. I sink in with a groan while Vel'aan moves with his usual grace, barely causing a ripple. We settle on opposite sides of the small pool, just looking at each other, learning what this new connection means.
"Can you control it?" I ask. "What I feel through the bond?"
"To some extent." His bioluminescence dims slightly, and the emotional presence of him softens. "I can... muffle it. But not block it entirely. And strong emotions will always break through."
"Like what?"
Instead of answering, he moves across the pool toward me, and I feel it—a wave of desire mixed with deep affection that makes my breath catch.
"Like that," he says, straddling my lap in the water.
"That's cheating," I manage.
"You don't seem to mind." He's right—I definitely don't mind. But before we can do anything about it, we hear voices approaching from outside.
Vel'aan freezes. "No."
"What's wrong?"
"Those are..." His colors shift to panic-green. "My creator parents. And Kar'on."
"Your family? Here? Now?"
"They weren't supposed to—" He scrambles off my lap, moving to the pool's edge. "Kar'on works with the Council sometimes. He must have heard about us yesterday and told them."
The door to his dwelling opens, and a male voice calls out in Nereidan. I catch some of it—formal greeting, question about Vel'aan's whereabouts.
"We're bathing!" Vel'aan calls back, his voice higher than normal. "Please wait—"
But footsteps are already approaching. Three Nereidans appear in the entrance to the room—an older pair who must be his parents and a younger male who looks like Vel'aan but with darker coloring.
We're both very naked in the pool. The water's clear enough that nothing is really hidden. And the bite marks I left all over Vel'aan are extremely visible.
"Hello." Vel'aan's voice is strained.
