Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) (16 page)

“I’m not afraid of a little pain, Steel,” she said, smiling.  “What about you?  Have you done this before?”

Steel grimaced, wishing he hadn’t brought it up, but it was a fair question and he would not lie to her.  “Yes, once, in college,” he said.  “I was inebriated and don’t remember much about it, which is shameful, I know.”

“Was it someone you didn’t care about?” she asked.

“No,” he said.  “She was a nice girl and we dated for a few months.  I cared for her, but I was not in love with her, nor was she in love with me.  She broke up with me about a week later because I didn’t feel comfortable repeating the experience.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t really know,” Steel said.  “At the time I was learning to trust myself and my feelings, and my feelings told me not to do it again, so I didn’t.”  He looked into her eyes.  “Are you disappointed in me?  I wouldn’t blame you if you are.”

“No, I’m not disappointed,” she said.  “For one thing, what you did in the past is not my concern.  But since you asked, I’ll tell you that I’m glad you trusted your feelings.”

“This is right, Tani,” he said, gazing steadily into her eyes.  “This is the most
right
thing I’ve ever done.”

Tani smiled as she reached up to place her hands on his shoulders.  He understood what she wanted and lifted her up so that she could wrap her legs around his waist again.  This time the head of his cock brushed against her wet heat and without actually intending to, he thrust forward, stopping himself only with the greatest of efforts after he’d entered her a bare inch. 

“Don’t stop,” Tani gasped, tightening her legs and pressing her body downward.  He stopped her even though he was panting as though he’d run straight up the cliff at top speed.  She looked at him, hurt in her eyes, and he smiled.  “I just want to do this slowly,
Khalute
,” he said.  “All right?”

She nodded, but he read the need and frustration in her eyes, and understood.  He felt the same way.  He’d been hard for days now, and repeated masturbation had done nothing to ease his desire.  The only reason he was able to hold back at all was due to his fear of hurting her, a fear that she didn’t share. 

He held her hips and gently pressed her down another inch, then paused, gasping for air as he fought the nearly overwhelming urge to thrust deep and hard.   

“What does that mean?” Tani asked in a breathy whisper.  “That word you called me.”

“
Khalute
?” he ground out between clenched teeth.  She nodded and he groaned when he felt her inner muscles tightening around his shaft, then releasing. 

“It’s…fire flower…,” he gasped. 

“Steel, please,” she begged.  The edge in her voice combined with the soft, moist heat tightening around his sensitive cock was too much.  Desire overcame reason and he arched his hips forward while his hands pulled her hips down to meet his.  His cock burst through her hymen with ease, not stopping until he was buried fully within her depths.  His body strained and shook with the effort of holding back.  When he was able to open his eyes again, he saw her beautiful tight body arched back, her stiff, nipples thrust toward the sky, the long line of her neck straining as the muscles in her vagina spasmed around him.  She was coming, he realized, and nearly came himself at the realization.  He held onto her firmly and began fucking her in long, hard strokes that required every ounce of control he possessed, each one more pleasurable than the last until his testicles drew up so tightly it verged on the edge of pain.  Tani screamed as another orgasm took her and this time he joined her, pulling her hard against him as he buried himself as deeply as possible, roaring his pleasure to the heavens as his semen poured into her, filling her womb with a hope, and a dream.

Tani shivered and shook in his arms, her body jerking every few seconds as the intense pleasure continued to course through her in undulating waves.  When she finally came down from the clouds and opened her eyes, Steel was pressing kisses into her hair, one hand stroking her back soothingly.  She took a long, deep breath and released it.

“So this is making love,” she said.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked.  “I never imagined it could be like this.”

“Me neither,” she said.  They remained like that for long minutes until their bodies relaxed and he reluctantly slipped out of her. 

“Next time, we need a bed and a fireplace,” he said.  “I want to taste every inch of your body, Tani.  I want to memorize every curve, every dip, every line.”

Tani smiled then stretched upward, nibbling his lips as she ran her fingers over his smooth scalp.  “As long as I get to do my own exploring, I’ve no objections,” she said. 

“It’s a deal,” he said, then kissed her once more, slow and soft, before setting her on her feet.  “As much as I regret it, we should continue our journey.”

“Yes, I know,” she agreed.  “You’ll need some time to rest when we get back.” 

He closed his pants as he watched her pick up her clothing and shake it out before putting it on.  When she sat down to put her shoes on she glanced up at him with a shy look.  “What are you staring at?”

“You,” he said, then knelt in front of her to tie her shoe while she put the other one on.  “I’ve never watched a woman dress before,” he said.  “Everything you do is fascinating to me.  You’re so graceful all the time, no matter what it is you’re doing.  Putting on your clothes, eating, walking, healing Naran, even attacking those Nomen in the alley.  I must have watched that vid a hundred times while I sat beside you, waiting for the tranquilizer to wear off.  I couldn’t get enough of it until you woke up.  After that, I had you to watch, live and in person.”

Tani blinked the threat of tears back, his words touched her so much.  She didn’t know what to say, so she leaned forward and kissed him again.  He kissed her back, then leapt to his feet.  “If we’re not careful, you’ll be naked again in a minute, and just saying that makes me want to do it, so let’s go now before I lose what little control I have left.”

Tani laughed and stood up.  “You better shift then.”

He grinned and stepped back.  A moment later he was in his
mahrac
alter form.  Tani leapt into his arms, then reached up to kiss him without a moment’s hesitation.  He shook his head at her though he couldn’t prevent the smile that split his face, long glistening fangs and all.  He spread his wings and jumped into the air. 

Half an hour later he pointed his chin in the direction he wanted her to look, not nearly as surprised as he expected to be when she immediately understood and turned her head.  “Almost there huh?”  He nodded, then began to descend, his eyes searching the terrain carefully.  The tiny Blind Sight hid them both from sight as long as she stayed close to him, but he never relied entirely on technology. 

A couple of minutes later he landed, set Tani down, then shifted back to his human form.  She studied him carefully, looking for signs of fatigue.  “How long do you need to rest?”

“An hour should do it,” he said.  “Come on, we have a store of food and supplies up here.”  She followed him up the side of the hill they’d landed on, and watched as he moved a pile of large, heavy rocks out of the way to reveal a cavern lined with a ground sheet, and filled with a variety of items.  He went for the high protein energy bars, and she grabbed a container of water.  After they’d replenished themselves, they each took a pair of long range telescoping glasses and Steel recovered the store the way he’d found it, just in case they had to leave in a hurry.

“Don’t forget to stay within my wingspan,” he said, and she nodded.  If she left the range of the Blind Sight he wore, she’d not only be visible to any eyes that happened to be looking their way, she’d set off any sensors that might be planted around the perimeter of the compound as well. 

Steel led her to what appeared to be a haphazard pile of rocks and boulders at the top of a rise overlooking the compound below, but were actually a carefully designed and camouflaged observation post.  They sat down and he pointed out a couple of strategically placed gaps that gave a clear view of the mine.  She found one that was comfortable for her height, and went to work examining every tiny detail of the mine laid out below them. 

She counted fewer than a dozen Nomen wandering around, easily identifiable by their bald heads and larger than normal size.  They all wore side arms, but none of them appeared to be actively guarding anything.  The mountain where the mine entrance was located formed the back wall of the compound, but there were no guards there, either. 

“Why don’t I see any humans down there?”

“Because they’re forced to work in the mines from sunrise to sunset.  All of them, every day.  They aren’t returned to their bunkhouses until after dark which is why we haven’t been able to get an accurate count of them.  We can see in the dark well enough, but not that far away.”

Tani tamped down her anger at the thought of six year old children being forced to spend their days in a dark, dank mine, and focused on her task.  “Are all of the ground transports there?” she asked a few minutes later.

“Yes,” he replied.  “Nothing’s missing.”

Tani shifted her attention to the high metal fence surrounding the complex, inspecting each foot of it, then studied the main gate.  “Their security appears to be minimal at best.”

“They aren’t worried about us causing trouble,” Steel said.  “After all, in over four and a half centuries we never so much as talked back.  A few of us are being annoying right now by refusing to come in and work like good little slaves, but we aren’t a
threat
.  We’ve had a few individual skirmishes here and there, but we’ve never taken anything or destroyed anything other than their Blind Sight which isn’t inside the compound, and they’ve fixed that so we can’t touch it now.  They’ve never tried to kill us because we can’t work in the mine if we’re dead.  The worst thing they’ve done is hit a couple of us with that tranquilizer you were so fortunate as to experience for yourself.”

“Does it always knock people out for days at a time?”

“No, it doesn’t,” he said.  “They usually adjust the dosage depending on how long they want you out.  Maybe they made a mistake, or your physical chemistry reacted differently to it.”

“Or they intended to take me to a location that’s four days travel from EDU-12,” she said.

Steel couldn’t argue with that so he just nodded.  “After we raid this compound, the Nomen are going to change their view about you.  They’ll start to see you as a threat to their operation if not themselves, whether we succeed or not.”

“Then we better make damn sure we succeed because we’re doing this, Tani.”

Something in his tone caught Tani’s attention.  She lowered the glasses and turned to look at him questioningly.  Steel met her gaze, and told her what he’d been too embarrassed to tell her before.  “We were slaves for centuries, then we were farmers.  Some of us went away to school to learn whatever interested us, but none of us are warriors, Tani.  We’ve never been taught to fight, nor did we think we’d ever need to learn.  When the Nomen returned, all we could do was run to the caves.

“We purchased a large number of surplus weapons, those you saw in the armory.  We’ve spent the last year trying to teach ourselves how to use them.  That’s why we have no more wound adhesive left.  We’ve injured ourselves, and each other, sometimes quite seriously, in our attempts to develop some level of skill as quickly as possible.  We’ve succeeded to some degree, but there is so much we don’t know, so much that isn’t included in the simple manuals that came with some of the weapons.  It’s one thing to know how to assemble, load, field strip, and charge a laser weapon.  It’s another to figure out how to hit a distant or moving target without help.”  He paused and looked at her with a little smile.  “I bet you know how to do both.”

“Yes, I do,” Tani said.  “But I have the benefit of years of training.”

“Yes, you do, and that’s exactly what we need.”

“Years of training?”

“No, Tani,
your
years of training,” Steel replied, then shook his head in frustration.  “It’s like the data we’ve collected on that compound down there.  We spent months compiling it, risked capture gathering it, and now that we have it, we don’t have a clue in the galaxy what to do with it.  But you
do
know these things, Tani.  I’m just beginning to realize how much you know, and it’s given me the first real hope I’ve had for my people in a year.  With your help, I think we just might be able to get our women and children out of there.”

“We’ll get them out of there, Steel,” she said.  “I don’t know how yet, but I
will
find a way.  Trust me.”

“I do,” Steel said simply.  Tani smiled, then raised her glasses and resumed her study of the compound.  She finished her perusal of the gate and fence line, then turned her attention to the buildings.

“Do you know which building houses what?” she asked, continuing her study of the mine as she asked questions.

“Yes,” he replied.  “Three of them are bunkhouses for our people.  One holds the women and children, the other two hold the men.”

“Those long narrow gray buildings?”

“Yes,” he replied, wondering at the faint trace of excitement he heard in her voice.  “The other three are bunkhouses for the Nomen, but only two of them are in use.  They’ve never had enough Nomen to fill the third one.”