Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I claw at his back, nearly coming out of my skin. “Oh!”
“That’s the piercing,” he tells me, and then captures my mouth in another heated kiss. “It hits you in just the right spot.”
Oh, by the twin suns, it sure does. He strokes into me again, and I feel as if I’m coming undone. This is different than the intense build of sensation as when his mouth is on me. This is like striking stones to make a spark, except it is nothing but a pure blaze of heat. I whimper, clinging to him, because I do not know how to handle it. “It is too much.”
“It’s not,” he whispers. “I’ve got you. Stay with me.”
My eyelids flutter, and it is the most difficult thing possible to keep my gaze locked to his, but somehow I manage. I make a soft, needy noise with every pump of his cock into me, each time stroking that fire brighter and brighter. My entire body feels as if it is clenching and knotting together. He moves faster, breathing my name.
“Come for me, Farli,” he tells me in a low, urgent voice. I cannot look away, pinned by his gaze, and it feels as if every bit of my body is alive with sensation. He strokes harder and faster, and I cry out, my back arching as my body stiffens. Still he thrusts into me.
I come apart with a cry, the world shaking around me. Spots dance in front of my eyes, and the breath explodes out of me. I feel as if I am as tight as a stretched-out drumskin. And still he pounds into me.
And I come again.
And again.
Over and over, it feels as if I am being driven to the edge, only to fly over once more. I do not know if it is the piercing, or resonance, or Mardok himself, only that I am out of my mind with sensation. The world is an endless cycle of thrust-and-climax.
“Your eyes,” Mardok grits, and there is strain in his voice. “Give me your eyes again, Farli. I want to have you with me when I come.”
It feels like the most difficult thing in the world to open my eyes again, but I do, and as he surges into me one last time, we are locked together. He comes with a shout…and I come again, too.
My breath is gone. My energy, gone. My mind? Possibly gone. I am nothing but a boneless, happy mass crushed under Mardok’s delicious weight. I wrap my arms around him and somehow find the strength (and breath) to sigh.
He pants, pressing exhausted kisses to my face. “Farli. My Farli.”
“That was…” I have no words.
“Yeah,” he says, dazed.
My khui’s gentle song continues, the only sound other than our breathing. I thought it would stop if I were pregnant. Perhaps it did not happen, then. And tomorrow my khui will be gone. I feel a sudden sense of loss. Tomorrow I lose my khui, Chahm-pee, my family, my world—everything. I will follow Mardok to his strange, cold world, where everyone is unpleasant like Niri and Trakan. Where everyone eats bland food and people kill other people because their chiefs demand it.
Mardok will be there. I must cling to that. I will be happy with him. I know I will.
But I cannot stop the tears that flow as I bury my face in his arms.
13
MARDOK
It feels wrong. All of it, just wrong on every level.
I can’t get over the feeling that a mistake has been made as we fly The Tranquil Lady back to the village. Rukh, Harlow and their small son are glad to be returning. They talk of visiting the Elders’ Cave—I think in their eyes it will always be a cave and not a ship—and working on it again soon. They are excited for the future and what this means if Harlow can get the computers to work again. Her eyes are bright with excitement and she looks much healthier than before, so I am glad about that. I cannot help but notice that Farli is quiet as the Lady lands on the ridge just at the edge of the crevasse for the last time. She is at my side, her hands on me and a smile on her face, but silent.
I remember how she cried last night in my arms. Gods, it made me feel helpless. I think she didn’t want me to know…but how could I not? Her sadness eats at me, but I’m not ready to give her up. I need her with me, at my side, for whatever the future may hold. And she wants to be with me. So why does this feel so hollow?
I squeeze her hand as the ship settles to the ground with a little bump. She looks at me, and her smile brightens. Her khui hums gently in her breast, the song barely loud enough to catch my attention.