“Greatly wise, were the ancient Jotan.” Tagen’s fingers dipped suddenly to tease at the sensitive bud crowning her sex, and his strong arms cradled her as she came alive in orgasm.

He would not let it end. His fingers at her tender cleft, the steady rolling of his hips, his sensual growls against her ear, all kept her afloat in a spreading ocean of warmth through which she ultimately sensed something even greater building.

All consideration for the thinness of the walls and the other sleeping patrons of this fine establishment flew in tatters from her mind like a swarm of butterflies. She cried his name aloud, sinking her nails into his restraining arms, and let herself go to him. His thrusts slowed even further, but the power in them increased, pushing her up and out into the open air in waves. Flying, she was flying in every sense and the pleasure was so complete she couldn’t even feel him anymore, only the molten ecstasy that filled her. And then it struck.

Daria slapped her shaking hands over her mouth as she screamed, her body slamming back against him in the extremity of her climax. Shivers lit all through her; she started to drift back to Earth, and then felt Tagen’s final thrust, the flood of his passion, and she came back to crying life and rode out another blossoming of helpless rapture.

He guided her gently back to bed as he withdrew, arranging her on her stomach with her hands curled beside her head. The sheet was resettled at her shoulders and she mumbled sleepy sounds that might have been praise or gratitude or anything at all.

“You see?” Tagen stretched out beside her and draped his arm around her waist. “The ancient Jotan were masters of the curing arts.”

“Wise beyond compare,” Daria mumbled. She was asleep in seconds.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Thirty-Five

Morning could not come soon enough for Kane. From the moment his eyes opened on sunlight, he was ready to move, impatient to be gone. He shoved Sue-Eye onto the floor and sat up as her first dumbfounded cry came cawing up at him. “Get dressed,” he ordered, and turned to wake Raven.

She was already struggling up from sleep, swiping at her eyes and throwing back the sheet that wrapped her. Her hair was mussed, strands of purple and white all thrown together, and for a brief moment, the faceless urgency that scratched at him faded and he could remember only the pleasures of the day before. He slipped an arm around her, pulled her tightly to him, and grazed his teeth lingeringly along the full curve of her throat before biting at her jaw.

Her hand groped at his chest, found the home of his heart, and then only rested there. Her weak little claws flexed on his flesh as he nibbled carefully. He could smell her sweat and the musk they had made with all their matings, and it was a fine thing to lose himself in so early. He felt himself beginning to relax, to savor.

No, damn it all, it was time to go. Kane drew back with a snarl and gave Raven a hard push to the edge of the bed. He swung out over Sue-Eye and stood, pacing restlessly out to peer behind the curtains, and then back again. “Get dressed!” he snapped at the stubbornly-naked ichuta’a crouching by the bed, and gave her a kick to the ribs to send her on her way. “And you,” he added, throwing a dark glance Raven’s way. “We need to get gone. Now.”

She was on her feet and stepping into her skirt in an instant. “What’s the matter?” she asked, looking tense.

“Nothing.” Kane went back to study the world outside the curtains, and then returned to the bed. He bent to fetch his clothes, threw them down again, and went in to the bathroom where his ichuta’a had disappeared.

She was dressing, obedient enough and certainly speedily, but he hit her anyway. She fell into the shower and landed hard, her arms askew and one leg slung over the side of the bathtub. She stared at him, her eyes satisfyingly wide, and a little trickle of blood painting the side of her mouth. Kane felt better.

He went back out to the main room and suited up. It was going to be another hot day. He couldn’t feel it yet, but he knew it down in his bones. More of that sick yellow sun cooking the crust off the whole damn Earth, more Heat itching and churning up his guts, more humans stinking up his claws with blood and piss and fear, and he had to dress for it in a heavy coat. His feet had to bake out the day in footcovers. His hair had to crawl with sweat under a hat. He couldn’t even wait out the day riding in the climate-controlled groundcar because he’d pissed away so much time yesterday fucking Raven.

Kane scowled at the lacings of his footcovers as he cinched them tight. He’d piss away today fucking Raven, too, if he could. Raven was a fuckable little thing. But time was scratching at him for some reason, and he couldn’t fight his instincts. They’d saved him too many times in the past. ‘When your gut tells you to run, you run,’ as Urak used to say. ‘Intuition is nothing but long stripes of perception squeezed into small spaces.’

Kane grunted amusement at the thought, and then slumped over with only one foot covered and put his head in his hands.

His father’s voice, warning him. He’d heard it a thousand times in his life. And now there was something…something…

Raven’s fingertips brushed at his shoulder. Kane dropped his hands and looked up at her. The mood he was in, and she’d come and touched him. His fearless Raven.

She didn’t say anything, but she stepped around before him and went to her knees. Kane leaned back, thinking indistinctly that a quick blowjob was probably just the thing to calm his rattled nerves, but she merely picked up his second footcover and started loosening the laces. Her hand slid around to cup his calf; she fit his foot inside the human cover and gently brought it home around his heel.

Kane pulled in a breath and let it out slow. His fingers combed at her bent head, sorting out the colors of her amazing hair. It was growing in dark at her scalp. When he got home, he was going to have to find out how to color hair and let her fix it.

She finished with his footcover and sat back, looking at him in that wonderfully solemn way she had. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

“Bad night,” he said, and smiled crookedly as he added, “Great day. But a bad night.”

She nodded, accepting this.

“I’ve been here too long.” Kane glanced toward the window, and then rubbed at his eyes again. “Too long and too long and too fucking long. And I’m not done yet.”

“What can I do?”

“You’re doing it,” he muttered, and then straightened up and waved her off. “Let’s get moving. Where’s my ichuta’a?”

“I’m here.”

She was eyeing him warily, just out of arm’s reach, which in itself made him feel briefly like stepping out and slapping her down again. This time, he restrained himself.

“We’re going,” he said, and headed for the door.

Raven ran in to do whatever it was that she did when they left these places, and Sue-Eye came with him into the back seat of the groundcar. Kane pulled his pack onto his lap, one claw takking now and then on the solid surface of its lid. It was heavier now. He hadn’t noticed before, but the difference was there and as soothing in its own way as the feel of Raven as she knelt to cover his feet. Less quieting to him was the weight of Sue-Eye’s stare as she sat beside him. From the corner of his eyes, he could glimpse one of her hands rising, as though she were daring herself to touch him. He didn’t think he cared whether she did or not, but this back-and-forth business was scratching at him.

Finally, “Do you want me to do anything?”

“Yes,” he said, watching Raven through the hotel’s windows. “I want you to shut up unless I talk to you.”