Daughter of Destiny (9 page)

He said something about
helping, but the words blended with the deafening pounding of her
pulse. When Zane moved to take the bowl out of her hands, she
panicked. That single plastic vessel kept her rooted to sanity. So,
by god, she refused to surrender it.

"I'll take it,
Katarina."

"No!"

A stifled giggle startled
both of them. Zane stepped back. Seeing Naia gave her a strength to
summon up the stiff proud posture that earned her the nickname "ice
queen" in college. The door chime sounded, giving her yet another
excuse for escape. "I’ll get it." She deposited the bowl on the
table and fled to the front door. Naia’s laughter echoed behind
her. She consoled herself with the thought that she could kill her
later.

She paid the delivery guy
and no sooner did she set the box down than Naia snagged a piece
and pecked her on the cheek. "Be careful, Kat, but maybe not too
careful."

Naia headed out the door
without giving Katarina a chance to say anything in response. She
and Zane ate in stiff silence. He watched her and she pretended
that his gaze didn't rattle every nerve she possessed.

In far too little time Zane
pushed his plate away. "The food was very good. It definitely beats
the meal packs on board ship."

"Pizza is one of life’s
guilty pleasures." Katarina stood up, knocking the chair backwards
to the floor in her haste. She righted the chair. The guilty
pleasures she thought of had nothing to do with cholesterol and
everything to do with the man across from her. She snatched the
dishes off the table, and escaped to the kitchen. She dumped them
into the sink and placed her hands against her heated cheeks. Where
was her control? A small sound of distress escaped her.

She fumbled with the tap
and started to wash the dishes by hand instead of putting them in
the dishwasher. She didn’t think she could handle anything that
required brainpower, even if it was as minimal as pressing a couple
of buttons.

What if I hurt him? What
if this blasted energy inside me explodes?
With her control
fractured, any little thing might set her off.

She clasped a dirty glass
in her hand and stared at the soap bubbles forming under the
running water.
What the hell was I thinking? No matter how much
I want him, I can't do this!

Zane entered the kitchen.
He didn’t make a sound, yet even without using her telepathy, she
sensed his presence. Katarina’s heart pounded in her chest loud
enough to rival an army of demolition droids.

"Katarina," Zane murmured
as he reached around her and took the glass out of her hand. He set
it on the counter and turned off the water. He took her hand and
turned her around. Trapped between his body and the counter with a
hand’s width of space between them, her hormone addled brain
resented that space.

"Zane, I'm trying to wash
dishes." Katarina winced at the husky sound of her voice. His gaze
focused on her mouth.

"Dishes can wait. I've been
dying to see if a real kiss can match what we shared last
night."

A small portion of her
brain screamed at her to stop him. Almost as terrifying as the
thought of her harming him was the realization that he could hurt
her. She already cared far too much for the man. His lips lowered
to hers and the kiss carried her will away like a riptide. When
Zane pulled back and leaned his forehead against hers, his uneven
breath matched her ragged panting.

"I don’t make a habit of
seducing women on every planet I visit. I told myself I wouldn't do
this, and yet here I am tossing my sanity to the wind." Zane threw
his head back and gave a small laugh. "Mio Yawaha! I'm a fool, but
I want to embrace insanity."

His doubts gave her the
strength to remove her hands from around his neck. She could not
recall when they entwined in his hair. Fear knifed through her. She
extricated herself from his arms and put several feet of space
between them. "I can't do this. I'm sorry."

Zane frowned and studied
her face. "Why? You want this as much as I do."

She paced the small room.
"Yes. I know." Katarina took a deep breath and turned to face him.
"I just can't!" Her voice broke as she fought the physical ache
demanding she let him hold her.

"Talk to me, Katarina. What
are you afraid of?"

She stopped pacing with a
jerk. "Afraid? Who says I'm afraid?"

"Your eyes say it." Zane
approached her slowly, as if nearing a trapped animal. "You're
trembling, and not from desire. Your muscled are rigid and your
gait is stiff."

Katarina closed her eyes
and desperately sought her inner calm. "It isn't you, Zane. Believe
me, please. It isn't even the fact that you'll leave and I'll never
see you again."

His hand brushed hers and a
wave of fire washed through her. He brought one of her hands up and
pressed a kiss on her palm. "I won't hurt you."

She whispered, "But I might
hurt you." She cringed, expecting laughter. A finger under her chin
tilted her head up and she opened her eyes. His dark eyes held
patience and confusion.

"Why do you think you'd
hurt me?"

"I'm not a normal human,
Zane." She laughed harshly. "I don't know what the hell I am, what
I'm capable of, but I'm dangerous. That's why I keep people at a
distance. If I don't feel, then it's easier to maintain control. I
have to stay in control, Zane. What's happening to my body right
now isn't normal." She gripped his hands and prayed he would
listen, and yet dreaded the moment he would turn and
leave.

He placed his palm on her
cheek and she leaned into it. "I trust you, Katarina. The woman who
reached out to a man in a nightmare would never harm me." Zane
grinned. "Unless I deserved it."

She hiccupped a laugh that
mixed with tears she refused to shed. She pressed the heel of her
hand to her head, which throbbed from the effort to think
rationally. "I don't understand. My emotions are yo-yoing all over
the place and yet not one light has flickered. No glass has
exploded. I haven't fried the apartment's circuitry."

"Ah."

Katarina lifted her hand
from her head and stared at Zane. "What?"

"You're describing
telekinetic energy. I've heard of a few species with such
abilities, although it's never been seen in humans." He pulled her
close, fitting her body against his. Her breath expelled in a shaky
moan that she tried to disguise, but failed.

Zane laughed low and husky.
"That's where the energy is channeling. You can't bind energy. It
can be stored, but as the pressure builds, sooner or later it must
be released. Am I not right?"

"I skip sleeping for a few
days. It's the only safe way I've found to expel the
energy."

Zane smiled slowly,
seductively. "I think there's another, much more pleasurable
way."

"Are you
certain?"

"Take a chance."

Katarina laughed high and a
little shrill. "Your life isn't a game, Zane."

"No, it isn't, but you
can't be afraid to experience life." He tilted her chin up. "Do you
want me?"

"Yes."

"Let it be as simple as
that. From the moment you told me to shut up, I was
hooked."

Katarina smiled, stood on
tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his mouth down
to hers. This time she gave herself to the feelings inside her. She
ceased fighting the tide of desire. She met his passion with a fire
stoked high and hot. Zane lifted her up into his arms and she
squealed in surprise.

"I can walk
Zane."

He lowered his mouth to
hers and kissed her until she moaned and writhed in his arms. "Sure
about that?"

"Maybe not," she replied
with a grin.

***

Zane entered a room
dominated by a massive bed covered with fluffy pillows and a thick
azure coverlet. He subdued the urge to throw her on the bed and
bury himself in her. Instead, he set her on her feet. He lingered
over every kiss, every sigh, wanting every moment to last,
especially now, their first time together.

Zane tried to leash his
passion, but Katarina drove their kisses deeper in a feverish
tasting of lips and tongues, until they were yanking and pulling at
each other’s clothing. Her hands fumbled with his coverall and he
stopped short of gripping the fabric of her dress in his hands and
ripping it up the middle. He laughed and moved Katarina's hands
aside. He undid the closure so he could feel her hands on his bare
chest.

Katarina paused in the act
of lifting her dress over her head. "Zane, I haven’t done this
before."

Zane couldn’t stop the
idiotic grin. "Oh, really?"

A hint of a frown creased
her brow. "Do you mind?"

"I don’t mind,
rahmali o
mi."

Her dress landed on the
floor and they met in another feverish kiss. The pleasure and
rightness of her body both aroused and comforted him. Selfish or
not, he had to have her. He tore his mouth away from hers, eager to
taste more of her flesh. She stepped back and stripped off her
undergarments. When the last item hit the floor, a pink strappy
thing that showcased her breasts, he sensed her mental barriers
vanish. One moment he could read nothing and the next, like a flash
flood, joy and passion washed over him, through him, and his own
shields melted away. Her emotions or his, they blended so he could
no longer tell one from the other.

Zane finished removing his
clothes. He pulled her down on the bed with him, and starting at
her neck, he nipped and kissed his way down her body. Her body
vibrated with pleasure under his open-mouthed kisses. She buried
her fingers in his silken hair, pulling it free of the cord that
bound it, and shuddered when he captured her taut nipple with his
mouth. He suckled long enough to make her writhe and then set to
stroking every inch of her flesh as he worked closer and closer to
her center. He proceeded with infinite slowness. By the time his
hand brushed her heat she gasped and arched off the bed. He dipped
his fingers inside her moist sheath and she thrust against his hand
as she clenched the bedcovers in her fists. Katarina moaned as he
built her pleasure higher and higher. The need coiling inside her
pounded in his head until he could take it no more than she and he
lowered his mouth to her heat and suckled. She screamed and
orgasmed in a burst of energy that stole his breath and tested the
limits of his control.

Torn between her ecstasy
and the effort it took not to join her in release before he even
entered her, he tried to separate his mind from hers, but she
wrapped around him, in him. Or perhaps it was he that thread
through her mind. He could no longer tell. The meld was deeper than
anything he'd experienced and their shared bliss wound them closer
together.

He gave himself to the
meld, and drove Katarina's need higher by alternating suckling her
and delving his long fingers into her and toying with the spot that
sent waves of pleasure washing from her to him. When she balanced
on the edge of another release, he blanketed her, reveling in the
absolute trust flowing from her to him. He pushed inside her inch
by inch, straining at the effort it took to allow her body time to
accommodate to him. He halted when he butted against the membrane
that marked her as virgin. His muscles trembled and sweat beaded on
his forehead from the effort, but he waited until Katarina grabbed
his buttocks.

"More!" She thrust upwards
and he winced at the sharp pain that echoed from her to him, but
his desire drowned her pain so that she urged him on with hands and
hips. The tatters of his control gave way and he gave in to the
feral need driving both of them. She clung to him, meeting him
thrust for thrust as he ascended a mountain of pleasure higher than
he ever imagined. The whisper of his hair against her skin, the
tingle of hands as they traced his spine, and the mixing of her
scent and his into a unique perfume saturated his senses. He
yearned for release, but their combined need drove him higher,
coiling tighter and tighter. The pleasure--his, hers--consumed him
so that he shuddered as if he were cold, but felt as if he were
burning up on the inside. He wanted it to last, but feared that
already the intensity of their joining might forever change him.
Then, Katarina threw her head back and gasped as a violent shudder
rocked her body. Her nails dug into his shoulders and her muscles
clenched him, finally setting off his release. His mind exploded in
ecstasy and twined seamlessly with Katarina's psyche. For an
instant he was Katarina. Katarina was Zane. Together they were
unimaginable bliss. Time held no meaning. Seconds, minutes, or
hours, it didn't matter. Where before there was emptiness,
loneliness, now there was completion, unity, and the pleasure.
O
mala omea, the pleasure!
His thought, half in Truscan, half in
English shattered the unity. Or maybe it simply melted away. He lay
atop Katarina, too drained to think, feel, let alone
move.

***

Katarina's ragged breathing
finally evened out. "I never imagined it could be like
that."