The Journey's End by Kelly Lucille Read Free Book Online Page B

womb. His lips hovered over hers, his
eyes fiery heat and possession.
    “Touch me,”  he ordered, nothing short of a royal decree.
“Touch me .”  He stressed the ‘me’.  What she said had bothered him. 
Good,  she thought, even as her arms went around his neck and clung.  She found
her pleasure once again, her back arching.  He followed.
    He was still inside her, his face against her neck when she
realized she was running her fingers through his hair and stopped, dropping her
hand to the side.
    “A biological imperative?”  he said casually, though the
look in his eyes was anything but when he raised his head.
    “It’s not you,”  she said firmly, hoping her eyes would not
betray the lie.  She was grasping at straws, but there had to be a way out of
this.  “Do you really want a queen who at certain times of the month is like a
cat in heat?”
    “And you were still untouched because?”  he asked
doubtfully.
    “My people mature at different ages than yours obviously.”  How
many lies can one woman tell, she wondered, before they all come crashing
down?
    “So you would react this way to any man who touched you?” 
There was no expression on his face, and his eyes were cold as ice.
    “Absolutely.”
    “Let’s test that theory shall we?”  he said, pulling out of
her and standing up.  He pulled her right up with him, taking the sheet to wrap
around her and pulling her to face the door. 
    “What does that mean?”
    He ignored her, going to the door and yanking it open, the
force of it making Nori aware that whatever he was projecting on the surface,
the man was in a rage.  “General Renik,” he bellowed, and then leaving the door
open, walked to her and pulled her around to face the door.  He adjusted the
sheet to cover more of her and kept his hands on her shoulder as the general
came in.
    “Sir?”  he asked, careful to keep his eyes off the new queen.
    “What are you doing?”  she hissed. In answer, he pushed her
a few steps toward the general and dropped his hands.
    “My wife…”  he said with a bite on the word,  “is trying to
educate me on her kind.  Touch her.”
    “Sir?”
    “What?”  They both spoke at the same time, and he answered,
but his eyes did not leave the general.  “Touch her.”
    Then he leaned over and she could feel his breath on the
back of her neck.  “Show me that you want his touch Nori and I will let you
go.”
    So she stood still, while the expressionless general took
the steps needed to reach her.  She tried to stay still, she really did, but
when his fingers touched her bare shoulder, she hissed; scratching his hand
away and jumped back, right into her mates open arms. 
    “Thank you general. See that your hand is looked at. You may
go.”
    “Sir,” he said, holding his bleeding hand. He bowed and
headed for the door.
    “And Renik,”  Menelaus left his eyes on the top of his
wife’s head, his hands finding their way under her sheet at her hip.  “That
will be the only time you try that.”
    Renik held up his bleeding hand.  “I think that goes without
saying sir.”
    Menelaus chuckled as Renik closed the door behind him, and
then there was quiet and his hand went from soft hip to breast under the sheet,
making Nori tremble.
    “How did you know?”  she said forlornly as soon as she got
her breathing back under control.  She tried valiantly to ignore the hand
kneading her breast, or the lips skimming her neck.
    “By the coach, when anyone tried to touch you, you reacted
defensively.  It was instinctive.  When I touched you, the instinct was
different.”
    “That doesn’t mean anything.”  But it was weak, even to her
own ears.
    He nipped at her ear lobe for the lie.  “It means you want only
me.”
    “It’s still just biology, I do not want you. My damn blood
thinks you’re my mate and acts accordingly,  but I don’t want you.”
    “But your blood does?”  he asked quietly.  “Is that what
you’re