Sheala (6 page)

Her voice was muffled. “Just be quiet and enjoy yourself. You aren’t on Gattan.” She tongued him.

Sucking in a huge breath that made his cracked ribs ache, Marljas spread his legs and leaned back against the wall. He
wasn’t
on Gattan. He was on Drakan, the most hedonistic planet in the galaxy. And his betrothed, the woman he desired more than any other, was sucking on his cock. Who was he to question fate?

Ignoring another stab of pain from his cracked ribs, Marljas pulled his tunic over his head and dropped it to the ground. He didn’t want Sheala hidden underneath a piece of cloth. He wanted to watch her every move. Sighing, he buried his fingers in her hair.

“Mmmmmmmm, you taste good,” she whispered against his cock.

He answered with a grunt. When she sucked him into her mouth again, he thrust his hips forward, shuddering when she was able to take his entire length.

Her tongue danced and caressed. She sucked harder. Her hands stroked his thighs.

Groaning, he pulled his cock out of her mouth.

She fell to her knees, slid her hands into the crotch of his pants, cupped his balls, and began to roll them around in the palm of her hand. Her right hand she braced against the bare skin of his thigh, her fingers tracing small circles amongst his leg hairs. She kissed the head of his cock, licked it, suckled it. Then she raised her head and looked into his face. Her smile was the most seductive he’d ever seen. “How long can you hold back? How long shall I allow you to hold back?” Bending her head, she trailed small nibbles down one side of his erection then up the other. She released his balls and began to massage the base of his cock.

He threw back his head and closed his eyes, concentrating only on how her hot mouth felt. “By all the seven hells, Sheala, you’re torturing me.”

He was answered with an enticing chuckle.

He heard the rustle of cloth. Her mouth was replaced with supple fingers that teased and caressed.

“Open your eyes.”

Obeying her, he looked down.

Her shirt hung open and she was rubbing his cock between her full breasts. She brushed it against her left nipple.

“Mother of all the fates,” he muttered and thrust his hips forward.

She pumped him. “I want you to come on my breasts.”

His stomach muscles quivered. “Yesssssssss.”

She bent and licked his cock, pumped him more. With her other hand, she pinched her own nipple, which was a tight, hard nub.

Marljas licked his lips. He wanted to taste those nipples—but the sight of his brown cock against her ivory skin…

“Are you ready to come? Do you want to wait?”

Grasping her shoulders, he thrust his hips forward. She leaned back as his cock slid up between her breasts. His voice was a shuddering growl he didn’t recognize. “No waiting. Now!”

Another low laugh escaped her. Tilting her head back, she smiled up into his face. “Very well.” She slid her fingers down his cock to his balls and rolled them in her left hand as she squeezed and pumped him with her right.

Marljas shuddered. Her hands were pure magic. “Your mouth. I want your mouth!”

“And I want you to come. Now.” She released his balls, slid her hand under his tail, and pressed a finger into his anus.

Fire exploded in his balls and rushed up through his cock. His hips thrust forward involuntarily. As he watched, his cum squirted onto her breasts.

She pushed her finger farther into his anus.

More fire, more cum.

Marljas felt his knees begin to buckle as she pulled her finger free and rose to her feet. Before he could say a word, she grabbed his hand and pushed it down the front of her loose pants.

She was slick and damp. Moisture coated his fingers as she moaned and pushed herself against them.

Her voice was a breathy whisper. “Help me. I need…”

Gathering his scattered wits as best he could, Marljas slid his fingers between her lips and rubbed the hard nub she pressed against his fingers. In a matter of seconds, more moisture coated his fingers, and she grabbed hold of his arms as she shuddered with her own orgasm.

When she rested her forehead against his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

Long minutes passed before their breathing and heart rates returned to normal.

Slipping his finger under her chin, Marljas tilted her head back. “Sheala…”

Voices coming up the path interrupted him.

She pressed her hand to his lips, smiled and stepped back. Pulling her shirt closed, she spun around and disappeared in the direction of the house.

After a moment, Marljas shoved his now flaccid cock back inside his pants and raked his hair back off his face. He snatched up his tunic and pulled it over his head. Midsummer. Less than a week. He could wait that long to have her.

And he
would
have her. She
would
be his mate. No other man would ever touch her again. He’d kill anyone who tried.

* * * * *

Naked, Sheala lay stretched across her bed watching while her grandmother and sister-in-law Fionilina put the finishing touches on the dress she would wear on Solstice. Her family had told her over and over again that being born on Solstice was extremely lucky, but she’d never believed it before this year.

Brianna’s arrival and Fionilina’s marriage to her oldest brother Rodane had had a dramatic impact on the Alalakan household. And then the Gattans—and Marljas—had come.

She shivered. Marljas. Two days ago they’d practically made love. He’d avoided her ever since. Why?

She shivered again. His cock had been delicious. To have it between her legs, buried deep!

“Are you cold?”

She blinked. “What?”

“I asked if you were cold,” her grandmother asked again.

“A little maybe.”

“Here, then. Try this on.”

Pushing herself up, she stepped onto a stool and her grandmother dropped her dress over her head. A shimmery midnight blue, the dress clung to her like a second skin and outlined the smallest details of her body, from the pert nipples on her breasts to the springy pubic hair that grew between her thighs.

“Do you want your tail in or out, Shea?” Fionilina asked.

“I don’t know. What do you think, Grandmother?”

“How do your friends wear theirs?”

“Out.”

“Well, then you must wear yours in, of course,” Jenneta answered. “One should always strive for individuality.”

Sheala swiveled her head to look at herself in the mirror. “That’s why you like Brianna so much, isn’t it, Grandmother?”

Jenneta nodded. “That’s one of the reasons, my love. She’s also very self-assured and quite comfortable with herself.”

Fionilina grinned. “And not afraid to let others know exactly how she feels.”

“I don’t understand, Grandmother,” Sheala said as Jenneta added a few more pins to the hem of the dress. “You’ve always told me to be polite and not push my opinions on other people.”

Her grandmother chuckled. “I hadn’t realized just how much the Alalakans had begun to stagnate in our behavior. Brianna’s arrival and, to a lesser extent, Ban’s return have revitalized our family. There has been more laughter in this house since Brianna returned with Char and Ban rejoined the family than there has been in years.”

“Not to mention Charjas and Hendjas running about the house. If Meri’s Celene were old enough to follow, we would be outnumbered,” Fionilina added with a grin.

Sheala noted how Jenneta smiled gently herself.

“I’d forgotten how much joy children bring to a house. The Gattans’ visit has been a blessing,” the older woman said.

Sheala agreed completely with her grandmother’s last statement but said nothing as her dress was pulled over her head. Jenneta’s and Fionilina’s discussion of the Gattans brought forth a mental picture of Marljas as he had stood over her while she suckled his cock. Desire flared in her belly and she quickly swallowed a moan.

“Sheala, are you listening to me?” asked her grandmother good-naturedly.

“What?”

“I said you can get dressed now.”

“Oh.”

Fionilina smiled. “Perhaps Sheala is deciding on her first man.”

Jenneta chuckled. “It’s a good subject to think on.”

“Why?” Sheala asked a little too quickly as she pulled on comfortable clothing. “One man is much like another, is he not?”

“One’s first sexual experience is very important, Sheala. You should take care to choose someone who is experienced, for only an experienced man can bring you to the height of pleasure your first time. That first experience will be the standard by which you will judge all others.”

Sheala smiled mischievously. “Maybe a lack of experience would be better. What if I never meet anyone else as good as my first? My life will be filled with one sexual disappointment after another.”

Both Jenneta and Fionilina laughed. “You minx,” Fionilina said after she regained her composure, “we should just bundle you up and drop you in bed with the first unrelated man we can find.”

“It’s too bad you and Ban are cousins. He’d have been perfect for your first lover. I have yet to meet a woman he’s had who doesn’t long to be back in his bed,” Jenneta said. “He’s devilishly inventive from what I’ve heard.”

“It’s because he’s half Medirian. He’s trying to make up for his lack of a tail.”

Both Sheala and Jenneta stared at Fionilina. “Oh?”

Fionilina smiled but said nothing.

“Better not tell Rodane,” Sheala said with a laugh. “He’s beginning to act more and more like Char.

You’ll soon find yourself buried in your suite like Brianna.”

Jenneta shook her head bemusedly. “Don’t underestimate Brianna, Shea. She initiates sex with Char as much as he does with her. Now aren’t you supposed to meet Jami and Vani?”

Jenneta and Fionilina followed Sheala out of the room. “Any ideas as to who the man is she’s been thinking about?” Jenneta whispered.

Fionilina shook her head. “No, but if I know you, Jenneta, you’ll soon find out.”

* * * * *

Sheala stared out her bedroom window. In just a few short hours, the grounds of the estate would be filled with people celebrating Summer Solstice. She glanced back at the stack of notes on her dresser, all asking for an assignation. She chuckled. The Alalakan clan was rich and powerful, and many families were encouraging their sons and daughters to make themselves and their availability to be her first sexual liaison known. All of them were hoping for a lasting attachment that was often formed with a first lover.

Every now and then, marriages did sometimes result from a young man or woman’s first love affair. The possibility of an alliance with the Alalakan clan was not to be ignored.

“What kind of makeup and jewelry are you going to wear?”

Sheala looked back at Vani. “I don’t know. At first I thought I wanted to look like everybody else, but now I think I want to look different.”

“Well, Brianna is about as different as you can get, unless you want to ask Deni.”

Jami giggled. “That would be different, dressing like a Gattan. Maybe Brianna will lend you her red diamonds.”

Sheala shook her head. “No. They won’t match my dress, but she’ll probably have some ideas for me.

Come on.”

With both Medirian princesses in tow, Sheala led the way to Brianna’s apartments. In a few short minutes, Sheala stood in the middle of Brianna’s sitting room floor in her new dress as her sister-in-law circled her slowly.

“It certainly doesn’t hide anything, Shea. That dress fits you like a second skin.”

Sheala grinned. “Why would I want to hide anything?”

Her sister-in-law sighed and shook her head. “Never mind. I’ll get used to it, I suppose. I guess you don’t plan on wearing any underwear.”

Vani and Jami both giggled as Sheala said, “Under what?”

Brianna just snorted. “Did you ever think of cutting your hair, Shea?”

“I used to cut it all the time.”

“No, I mean really short.”

“How short? I don’t want to look like Rodane,” Sheala protested thinking of her brother’s very short hair.

“No, not like that. I mean cut and styled. You have a lovely neck and should show it off.”

“What do you have in mind?”

Half an hour later, with the help of Brianna’s maid Verna, who was quite adept at styling hair, Sheala had a unique hairstyle for a Drakian. Most of her hair had been cut off. What was left was styled to frame her head—longer on the top and sides, tapered in the back.

She loved it.

Thick bangs stopped just short of her eyebrows and emphasized her brown eyes. Her ears were exposed, and thanks to her Medirian ancestry, she had earlobes, earlobes that now displayed a pair of blue Medirian pearls donated by Jenneta.

With her hair cropped short, her neck and shoulders were displayed to their best advantage. A man wouldn’t have any trouble trailing kisses along either.

“Your grandmother’s ear cuffs are lovely, and I have the perfect necklace and bracelet to match them,”

Brianna said as she walked into her bedroom. In a few minutes, she returned carrying a large box. Setting it on the table, she opened it to reveal row upon row of blue pearls.

Sheala gasped. “Brianna, they’re beautiful.”

Lifting them out of the box, Sheala draped them around her neck. Shimmering incandescently against the midnight blue of her dress, they fell below her waist.

Brianna gazed at her critically and said, “Let’s try this.”

Looping the necklace once around Sheala’ neck, Brianna draped the necklace down Sheala’s back like a cape. Clasping a silver bracelet studded with more pearls around Sheala’s wrist, Brianna said, “Since this dress is backless, the pearls will seem to glow in soft light. A beautiful effect, I think. What do you think, Shea?”

Her reflection in the mirror had a stunned expression on her face. A stranger looked back at her.

Brianna had applied small amounts of cosmetics earlier to highlight Sheala’s eyes, high cheekbones and mouth. The haircut and pearls were the finishing touches.

Sheala swallowed. “I don’t know myself.”

The door connecting Brianna’s sitting room with that of the guest quarters opened, and Ban sauntered in followed by Marljas. Both men stopped immediately upon seeing Sheala.