Beyond Varallan by S. L. Viehl Read Free Book Online Page B

Yes, yes, that was what I needed. What I wanted more than anything. The way he felt, moving against me. He reached, pulled my face up to his. Sounds spilled from my throat, hummed against his mouth.
    “Cherijo.”
    I shook my head, caressing him with my lips. “Don’t… don't say anything.” I didn't need a cargo hold of words now. I was more than willing.
    His head lifted. His long frame went rigid.
    “What?” I was breathless, still moving under him. “What is it?”
    Now he shook his head, as if to clear it. “No, Cherijo.”
    I couldn’t have heard that right. “No what?”
    His hands hurt me. “No more mindless seductions.”
    Mindless? Seductions? My overloaded nerve cells made it hard to put the words together. They made no sense.
    Then they did. He was referring to the only time we’d had sex. When the Core (by rendering him mindless) had forced him to take me. To rape me, however reluctantly. My lungs expelled a ragged breath. Reever was comparing this to that !
    “Have you lost your mind?”
    “Is this all you want? To have intercourse with me?” His voice was absolutely frozen. So were his eyes. I must have hallucinated all that heat before. Maybe he’d spiked my chicken noodle soup when I wasn't looking.
    Wanton desire became cold-blooded fury. “Right now? Of course not, Reever. I thought we could discuss the League negotiations in the Tuyhui Quadrant. What the hell do you think?”
    “What sort of stimulant did you program into the prep unit?”
    I stared at him, aghast. He thought I’d spiked his soup. “None!”
    “Then you merely want to have sex?”
    Ah, I got it. He needed a bunch of words. “Yeah, I do.”
    “Do you expect to find satisfaction in this?”
    “Do you expect to be breathing in another five minutes?” I struggled. “Get off me!”
    He kept me pinned beneath him. “Why me, Cherijo?”
    “Good question!”
    “Why not one of the Torins?”
    “Take your damn hands off me.” When his grip loosened, I shoved him away and rolled off the mattress. “God, Reever, you know how to choose your moments.”
    I stalked over the viewport and stared at the stars. I was trembling. Duncan Reever had me trembling.
    “Why don’t we do this another time?” Never again. Ever. I'd commit suicide first. No, I'd kill him, then I’d commit suicide.
    “What is wrong with you?” he said. “You are never like this.”
    “How would you know?” I got snide. “The only time you had sex with me, an alien life-form had to take over your brain first!”
    “I could do this.” He sounded cruel; another first. “I could touch you, take what you offer. I could use your body, Cherijo, until you couldn’t move from that bed from exhaustion.”
    I glanced over my shoulder. Saw behind the mask of his face. All that passion simmering. Waiting. He denied me that.
    I jerked my head back toward the viewport. Made my voice as nasty as his. “Promises, promises.”
    “Cherijo. Look at me.” When I didn’t, he came up behind me and spun me around. “I could do all those things, but that is not why I came here.”
    “Oh, really? Funny, I thought that was the whole idea. Why are you here?”
    He only shook his head. “I won’t be used as a substitute.”
    “As a substitute for what ?” I pushed him away from me, and flung my hand toward the sleeping platform, “Do you see anyone there, Reever? No . Heard of me sleeping with anyone else? For your information, I’m not .“
    “The Jorenian males remind you too much of Kao Torin.”
    “Oh, for God’s sake!” I pushed a handful of loose hair back. “Jorenians bond for life, remember? No wedding, no sex. I get involved with someone, next thing you know, I'll be picking out names for our kids!”
    “A Torin would expect you to bond with him.”
    Was he deaf? “Yes. Yes!”
    “So to avoid commitment, you chose to take me as a lover instead.”
    That wasn’t the case at all. So why did my jaw drop open? Had I chosen Reever because I’d