gaian consortium 06 - zhore deception (34 page)

That seemed rather terrifying to him, and certainly not a cause for amusement. But Trinity’s expression told him she was teasing, at least a little. Also, he realized then that the mass defection of Gaia’s women might have one beneficial side effect. “Ah, well,” he said then, “I suppose that will be all right, especially if it has the end result of teaching your men that they should treat their women a little better.”

She laughed and pulled him to her, and they kissed, her lips so soft, so full, that he could feel himself stiffening at once. But then the door chime sounded, and he had to pull away so he could relieve the delivery mech of its burden and bring their food inside.

It was only the work of a moment to take everything he’d ordered to the living room, where they sat and ate, speaking little, both of them knowing that they only partook of this food now so it would give them the energy they needed for what was to come next. Truly, he didn’t know when Trinity had last eaten, but for him it had been more than a day. Perhaps he should have been more weary than this, considering all that had transpired over the last thirty-six hours or so, but he knew he couldn’t be tired, not with Trinity sitting next to him on the sofa, her knee brushing against his, the soft lights in his apartment catching shimmers of gold and even deep copper from within the masses of her hair.

She looked thoughtful, though, the teasing light of earlier gone from her eyes. “But what will all this mean for Zhoraan’s women? Gabriel seemed to think that the fertility problems were all theirs…but are they?”

He didn’t reply at first, considering her question. Truly, he did not know for sure. It was obvious that he had no difficulties fathering a child, but how much did that truly mean? “I cannot say, Trinity. It is something we will have to consider. One would think that if a woman of your race can share the
sayara
bond with a man of the Zhore, then a woman of my people should be able to bond with a human male. It just has not happened yet.” Something in him found that difficult to believe, but then he told himself not to be so narrow-minded. Simply because Gabriel Brant was such a despicable specimen of humanity didn’t mean all Gaian men were like that. Ejiro, now — he seemed like a good enough sort. Perhaps his adventurous spirit was the sort of counterpoint that calm, cool Leizha truly needed.

The thought made him smile, and Trinity’s mouth quirked in response.

“I think you’re playing matchmaker,” she said. “Which I’ve heard is a sign of a man who’s happy in his current relationship.”

“Oh, I am happy,” he replied. “Indeed, let me show you how happy I am.”

He reached out to her, taking her fingers in his. At once she rose and let him lead her to the bedroom.

There was no need for speech. Not now. Slowly, carefully, he undid the unfamiliar fasteners of the tunic she wore — buttons, he thought the Gaians called them — and then pulled the garment away. Underneath she wore a breast support of some lacy fabric, very different in appearance from what the women of Zhoraan might wear, but with the same basic purpose. This one seemed almost calculated to be enticing, though, with the way her creamy flesh was cupped by the material and at the same time revealed by it.

Trinity seemed to notice where he was staring, and gave a humorless laugh. “Trust Gabriel to leave some sexy lingerie for me.” She used the Galactic Standard word for “lingerie,” since Zhoraani had no real equivalent. Undergarments among his people were strictly utilitarian. “Thank God he didn’t have a chance to actually see it on me.”

Neither did his people believe in a universal deity, the way some Gaians did, but from what he could tell, many of them seemed to evoke this “God” when giving thanks — or cursing — even if they didn’t seem to be people of faith otherwise. But although Zhandar didn’t share that belief, right then he found himself thanking God as well that Trinity had been rescued before Gabriel could get make any further progress in his nefarious plans for her.

“I do enjoy seeing you in it,” Zhandar told her, then bent and trailed a line of kisses from her collarbone to the curve of her breast. Again, the velvet softness of her skin entranced him. She let out a soft, hissing breath and arched her back slightly, pushing herself into him.

Ah, that lacy garment was entrancing, true, but what it hid was far more delectable. He located the hooks at the back and undid them, then dropped the scrap of fabric to the floor. His hands closed on her bare breasts, stroking them, feeling how her nipples hardened under his fingertips.

There was nothing for it but to take one into his mouth, to run his tongue over the pebbled flesh and hear her cry out. She was so very responsive, as if every nerve ending in her body had been attuned to his. Perhaps it had. After all, she was
sayara
.

Then they were falling to the bed, her fingers tugging at his garments, pulling them away. She pressed her naked body against him, as if she wanted to feel the whispery sensation of his finely scaled skin against every centimeter of her form. He couldn’t blame her for that, because he was also marveling at the smooth suppleness of her body, the exquisite texture of her skin. Perhaps when he had first looked upon her in this form, he had thought her alien, but now she was only herself, perfect in every way, every curve seemingly designed to fit against him. And when he finally slid inside her, it was as if they had been made to lock together, their bodies the light and dark of the universe, of wholeness, of creation.

He could ask for nothing more than that.

She slept beside him for hours and hours. So much so that when Trinity woke up, she felt almost dizzy.

Then Zhandar’s hand was on her shoulder. “Good afternoon, my love.”

“Afternoon?” she echoed, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. The bedroom was quite dim, the shades almost fully drawn, but she thought she could see the faintest traces of bright light seeping around their edges.

“Yes. You’ve slept for almost twelve hours.” His hand moved to her hair, stroking it, and she almost purred at his touch. Even now she could feel herself begin to tingle and come alive, her body needing him. Craving him.

Seeming to sense her arousal, he moved his hand lower, stroking her. She cried out as his fingers buried themselves in her sensitive flesh, and she rocked her hips in time with those delicious strokes, knowing that the orgasm would hit her very soon, partly because she’d already been so relaxed, so satisfied, to begin with.

She clung to him as she came, and even as the shudders were still rippling through her, he lifted her and set her down on him so he could fill her again. Ah, that was it — that was perfection, Zhandar inside her, their bodies moving together, no words, only their need and the one thing that would satisfy it.

This time he climaxed first, but only by a few seconds. Gasping, she let herself collapse on his chest, feeling the shudderingly delightful sensation of all those tiny scales against her naked breasts. For a long moment they stayed that way, until their breathing smoothed out, and they were quiescent. Trinity knew she’d have to get up soon, go take a shower, do whatever else she needed to do to get ready for the day, but this felt so good that she didn’t want to move.

“I didn’t know it could be this perfect,” she said at last, her voice barely above a murmur.

A long pause. Then Zhandar replied, “Neither did I.”

Something in his voice seemed to catch at her. Very gently, she pulled herself off him, then lay down at his side. She pushed a long strand of night-black hair away from his face. A sort of hidden pain seemed to pulse from him, although she couldn’t tell exactly what had caused it. Taking a breath, she said, “It’s — you don’t have to say that if it’s not the truth.”

“‘Not the truth’?” he echoed, his tone genuinely incredulous. He stared into her face, his silvery eyes a cloudy gray in the darkened bedchamber. Then he shook his head. “Oh, my love. That is not what I meant at all. It is only — ” The words stopped there, as if he was turning them over in his mind, attempting to find the best way to arrange them. When he spoke again, his voice was so low that she had to strain to hear it. “After Elzhair, I had thought there would be no one else. It is very rare, you know, for someone to have the
sayara
bond with two different people. Not impossible, but it also does not happen very often. So to have it with you, and then to realize….” He paused again, and Trinity forced herself to remain silent, knowing that this was very difficult for him. “…to realize that what I share with you is even more than what I had with Elzhair….”

Once again words seemed to abandon him. Trinity pressed against his side, molding her body to his. “Zhandar, it’s all right. This is not a betrayal. This is only affirming that life goes on. You will always love Elzhair. But you love me, too. Love isn’t something finite. You can have as much love as you need for everyone in your life.”

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then at last his hand slipped over the contours of her form, going from thigh to hip and then resting there. Finally, it moved to her belly, still flat, showing nothing of the child growing within. At last he spoke, his tone filled with wonder.

“Yes, life does go on.”

EPILOGUE

Gabriel Brant knew, from the look of glee on his coworker’s face, that Eli Turner had some piece of news or other tidbit that he wanted to torture him with. After six months here, Gabriel still couldn’t decide which was worse — being demoted to data analysis in this windowless hole of an office, or being forced to share said windowless hole with Turner, who seemed to delight in his office mate’s fall from grace.

It could have been worse, he supposed. At least he wasn’t coordinating waste removal in Luna City.

Yet.

“What is it, Turner?” he asked, voice as even as he could make it. Letting that little bastard hear even the slightest edge of irritation was enough to set Eli off on ever-increasing rounds of petty torture.

“You might want to see this, Brant,” Eli said, making the vowel in Gabriel’s last name as flat and nasal as he possibly could. It was an affection that had made Gabriel begin to hate the sound of his own name.

“We’re on a deadline.”

“This’ll only take a minute. Besides, it involves your last mission. Sort of.”

Despite himself, Gabriel scowled. The last thing he wanted to be reminded of was that complete cock-up of a project. And that stupid bitch, Trinity Knox. How could someone who looked that innocent and big-eyed and sweet be such a conniving wench? Every once in a while, in the darkest hours of the night as he lay awake, rehashing what had gone wrong and what he could have done to change it, he might have admitted to himself that wanting to screw her senseless could have impaired his judgment a little. Still, how was he supposed to know that the Zhore could have mounted anything like that assault on the space station where his little breeding experiment was supposed to take place? Those scaly bastards were supposedly complete pacifists. What the ever-loving hell were they doing hiring mercs to do their dirty work?

“I’m busy, Eli.”

Grinning, Eli pointed his handheld at the screen on the opposite wall. It was supposed to be used only for official business — projecting charts and graphs, watching the occasional “motivational” vid — but Eli used it for his noon entertainment, mainly because he knew that Gabriel hated the mindless shows that he watched.

What appeared in the next moment, however, was not the sort of vapid entertainment broadcast or rerun of an adventure serial that Eli usually chose. Instead, the screen showed a background of blue, blue sky, the sort of blue one never saw on Gaia any longer, and waving fronds of lacy blue-green trees that looked alien, although Gabriel would admit that he was no expert on botany, alien or otherwise.

That wasn’t what drew the eye, however. In the center of the screen was a very pregnant Trinity Knox, looking glowing and radiant and happy, despite her bulk. To either side of her were two women that Gabriel also recognized, although he had never seen either one of them in person. One was the coolly beautiful former ambassador, Alexa Kreg, and the other was Annika Jespers, the colonist’s daughter from Lathvin IV. Alexa held a sleeping infant in her arms, an infant with the glinting rainbow-scaled skin of the Zhore, while Annika was wrestling with a similarly complected little boy, almost two standard, who clearly wanted to get down and run around.

And standing behind them were three tall Zhore, similar in appearance at first glance, although their eyes were all different. The one with Alexa was the tallest, the other two just a shade shorter.

All these observations passed through Gabriel’s mind in an instant. Then his thoughts caught up with his eyes, and he had to prevent himself from doing a double take, because Eli would have enjoyed that too much.

None of those Zhore males were hooded. They wore high-necked tunics in shades of black and dark gray and the deepest green, but that was all. And they stared into the camera steadily, showing no sign of discomfort that they were so revealed for all the galaxy to see.

Trinity was speaking, her voice clear and steady. “…change comes to everything, even Zhoraan. We wanted the galaxy to know our stories, and those of our families. The Zhore are not monsters, but merely another humanoid race, like the Eridanis and the Stacians. One that we can join with, and mingle with, if our hearts and minds are compatible.” She paused for a second and smiled, and the Zhore behind her — who must have been Zhandar — laid a hand on her shoulder.

They both looked ineffably happy, and Gabriel wished he somehow had the power to reach across the light-years that separated them from him and punch them both in the face.

The camera shifted to Sarzhin. “Too long we have kept ourselves separate, but, for many reasons, that time is now at an end. We want our children to be citizens of the galaxy, to be part of a greater community, and not locked away.”

Annika smiled up at him, nodding, even as the camera moved once again, this time focusing on Alexa Kreg, who apparently had just handed her sleeping infant off to the Zhore male behind her. Damn, she was gorgeous. How was it that those scaly-skinned freaks could somehow attract the best-looking women?