Nikhil (Kaliszian Book 1) (20 page)

She couldn't hold back her moan as Nikhil renewed his attack on her clit and began twisting his thick fingers inside her. God, it felt so good! No wonder people talked about sex so much. When he added a third finger, a tension began to build in her body that she had never experienced before. It grew stronger and stronger until every muscle in her body had tightened, and she found she couldn't breathe.

"Nikhil!" she cried out, and after feeling a slight pinch, her first orgasm rolled through her.

Nikhil knew her orgasm was nearly on her. He could feel it in the way her channel tightened around his fingers, the way her hips struggled against his hold, and how short her breath had become. When he felt it all converge, he broke through her barrier and prayed to the Goddess that he hadn't hurt her more than necessary.

Lifting his head from a place he never wanted to leave, he found her head had fallen back to rest on the bed, her arms having relaxed. Her entire body seemed to glow, making him want to soak it up. Her chest was still heaving, tempting him to capture one of the taut nipples, and the faintest of smiles turned up the corner of her mouth making him want to kiss them. As his gaze traveled over her, he found himself sinking into the bottomless depths of her satisfied, brown eyes.

"Nikhil...” She couldn't stop herself from reaching down to touch his cheek.

"You need to give me a moment to regain my control, my Mackenzie," he told her, the muscle in his jaw clenching beneath her hand.

"No, I don't. What I need is for you to kiss me. I need you to kiss me, Nikhil."

"Then I will." Using his upper body strength, he pushed himself up then slid his hands under her covering, pulling it up as he moved up her body, torturing himself by letting his bare chest graze hers. "For I will always give you what you need, my Mackenzie. You are all that matters to me now."

Mac felt something shift deep inside her. Suddenly, she knew she was where she was always supposed to be, with who she was always supposed to be with. It no longer mattered what had to occur to get her here. It no longer mattered that there was still so much she and Nikhil needed to learn about and tell each other. Was this what Nikhil had felt when he saw his True Mate bead on her? She found her thoughts scrambling as instead of attacking her lips as she expected, Nikhil treated her as if she were something to be relished.

Nikhil nipped and sucked his way along his Mackenzie's full, bottom lip. He hadn't done this the last time they'd kissed. He'd been too overwhelmed with discovering his True Mate and let blind need guide his actions. He'd lost control. She had given him something she had never given another male, and he was going to make sure she knew he would always cherish it. Cherish her. When he reached a delicate corner, he gave her upper lip the same attention, capturing the sweet gasp that escaped her mouth with his own.

Goddess, she was sweet and addictive, and he wanted more, more than just her lips. "You are so sweet, my Mackenzie," he murmured against her lips.

"I don't want to be sweet. I want to be yours. Kiss me, Nikhil. Really kiss me." His gentle kisses were driving her crazy. He had just given her her first orgasm, but she still burned, still wanted more, more of him, and he was treating her as if she were some fragile, delicate female.

Nikhil found himself growling, his control slipping with her words. Closing the minuscule distance between their lips, he crushed hers beneath his, his tongue plunging into her mouth.

Mac wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers spearing through his braids as if he were the last solid thing in her world, and maybe he was.

Nikhil broke off the kiss, pulling back only far enough to glare down at her. "I told you not to touch me."

"I don't take orders very well," she whispered, "and I'd like to see you hold off from touching me as long as I did you."

"Mackenzie... I did it for your protection. You challenge my control."

"I don't fear your loss of control, Nikhil, because I know here," she touched her chest where her heart rested, "that you would never harm me. Your size has never scared me, Nikhil. Only the thought of you holding back, of you not trusting me, does."

"Mackenzie... you are so small... have been through so much."

"I am... and I have been... but both of those things will change. Hopefully."

"What do you mean?"

"Hopefully, I will return to my normal size... I'm not sure you will like it... but...”

"I will 'like' you no matter what size you are! Do you think your size matters to me?"

"But you think
yours
does to me?" she fired back. "You think because you are so much larger than me that I will fear you."

"Others have," he told her quietly.

"Just as others have disliked me because of my larger size."

"That is ridiculous! No one would ever consider you large."

"Maybe not in your universe, but in mine, there are those that think a female beautiful only if they are this size." She gestured to her current body size.

"For Goddess sake why? Is food so scarce on your planet?"

"No, for most it is plentiful, and those are the ones that view thin as beautiful."

"Your Earth is very strange, Mackenzie."

"No stranger than yours that judges you for being too big, Nikhil. You are perfect just the way you are. The way the Goddess intended you to be." Sliding back from him, she sat up and gave him a steamy look. "So, are you going to finish getting me out of this shirt? Or do I have to do it myself?"

P
arlan stood alone on the wall, his eyes angrily scanning the barren landscape on its other side. He couldn't believe he'd been assigned here.

To the wall!

Especially on Pontus.

There was no life on Pontus. No one that would attack. No one that needed defending. At least, no one that deserved to be. Those survivors surely didn't. If they were stupid enough, weak enough, to be caught by the Zaludians, then they deserved whatever they got.

Apparently,
General
Treyvon Rayner didn't feel the same way, and all because of that female. The one that Nikhil seemed to think was his True Mate. Which was impossible! She wasn't even Kaliszian! Reaching to his belt, he ripped off his comm and contacted the one person he knew would understand.

"Parlan...” the husky voice answered. "Where are you? Tell me you're on Crurn."

"Don't I wish. No, I'm stuck on Pontus. Walking a
wall
!"

"Walking a
wall
?!!" The disbelief he heard was satisfying. "Whatever for? You are Elite Warrior Parlan Spada!"

"
Exactly
! I knew you would understand."

"Rayner put you on the wall?"

"Yes," he hissed.

"Whatever for?"

"Because of a female."

"A female!" The female on the other end screeched.

"Calm down. She isn't Kaliszian. She's one of the Zaludian survivors we found in the mines."

"Zaludian... you...”

"She isn't Zaludian either. You haven't heard this yet?"

"Heard what?"

"In the last mine, we discovered a previously unknown species that calls themselves humans. There was a female among them. Nikhil discovered her and has claimed her as his True Mate."

"
What!
"

"I can't believe you haven't heard any of this."

"I've been... traveling. How long ago were they discovered?"

"Day before yesterday."

"But I thought...”

"Thought what?"

"Nothing. So you found them in a mine. Were there any Zaludian survivors?"

"No, they all died like the vermin they are."

"Why are you calling me, Parlan?" she demanded.

"I just wanted someone to vent to. That... human female... slapped me, for no reason, and when I would have retaliated, Rayner assigned me to the wall."

"Rayner never did have any loyalty to his own people, but I guess that's to be expected with who his ancestor is."

"Agreed."

"He needs to be reminded that he is not truly one of us, that he is not worthy of being one of us."

"He does," Parlan readily agreed.

"So does Nikhil. That he would think a female
not
Kaliszian could be his True Mate!" The rage in the other voice grew. "Impossible!"

"She wears his bead," he informed her.

"She does?" Now the voice quieted and turned speculative.

"Yes, I've seen it myself."

"How... committed are you to making everyone see Rayner and Nikhil the way we do?"

"As if that were possible. Rayner has Liron's ear, always has, and Nikhil...”

"Is now vulnerable."

"Nikhil?!! Vulnerable?!! Have you forgotten his size? He's never vulnerable."

"He is now. If another is wearing his True Mate bead."

"What...”

"Do I have to explain
everything
to you, Parlan?"

Parlan was silent for several moments, his mind racing. "But I thought that was a myth."

"Don't you think it would be worth finding out?"

"What do you need me to do?"

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Nikhil pushed himself up to his knees, his eyes glowing as he gripped the edge of Mackenzie's covering and ripped it over her head before tossing it aside. All he wanted was to claim his Mackenzie, but he couldn't stop his breath from catching at what his actions had revealed.

How could he have forgotten the severity of what she had recently survived and thought only of his own desires? While the bruises on her face and body had faded, the treatments she'd received had yet to restore her to full health. She had only had three meals and hadn't finished the last because her system still wasn't used to normal quantities.

He'd loved the way her small, pert breasts had felt in his hands and mouth, but seeing them this way he knew they used to be larger, much larger, because of the way her skin sagged. He'd seen it before, in the war-torn areas the Ratak had invaded where food supplies had been cut off. Not around a female's breasts, but in other areas.

"Nikhil, what's wrong?" She reached out to cup his cheek tipping his face up, her eyes searching his. What she found had her breath stalling, her eyes filling, and her ripping her hand away. He was disappointed. Covering her exposed chest with an arm, she tried to move away, but his gentle yet firm grip on her shoulders stopped her.

"Where do you think you are going?" he asked roughly.

"I... I need to get my covering, need to...”

"No. You need to tell me what is wrong? What we did before... has it harmed you?" Nikhil felt his gut clench at the thought.

"No."

"Then what?" When she just shook her head, his breath caught as his bead in her hair bumped against his arm, her utter devastation filling him. "Why do you feel this way? What have I done to you?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Mac stilled, her eyes searching his. "You haven't done anything to me, haven't harmed me."

"Then why are you feeling this way?" he demanded.

"Feeling...” She looked from the bead in her hair to him. "You... you can really...”

"Yes. It is part of the gift of having a True Mate. One will know what the other feels and needs. You become one and are never alone again."

"I...”

"Truth, Mackenzie. I need you to tell me truth. I have somehow upset you, made you feel as if you needed to hide your beauty from me." He reached up, and after a brief and fruitless struggle from her, pulled her arm back down. "Tell me."

"You are... disappointed when you look at me," she found herself admitting.

"
I am not!
" Nikhil all but roared.

"I saw it in your eyes, Nikhil," she argued back, but her voice was as quiet as his was loud. "You didn't like looking at my body."

"I didn't," he admitted because he would never give her an untruth, "but only because I know it is not your body's natural form. It hurt me to know you suffered so greatly, and I did not prevent it."

"You couldn't have prevented it. You didn't even know me when it was occurring."

"That does not matter. You are my True Mate. I should have known!"

"Nikhil...” She felt her eyes begin to fill again at the pain in his eyes.

"And now I put my needs, my desires before yours. You need rest and food and care."

"All I need is you, Nikhil. Don't you know that?" She dropped her head to catch the gaze he had lowered. "You give me life, make me strong. With you...”

"With me?"

"With you, I am who I was always meant to be. Because of you, I am now whole. Don't abandon me now," she begged.

"I never would. You are mine, Mackenzie," he said framing her thin, heart-shaped face with his large, calloused hands, his eyes glowing the soft pine green of the trees she so loved on Earth. "Mine. My Mackenzie. My True Mate. Mine."

"Then why are you pulling away from me? Why don't you want to love me... to join with me?"

"I do! Goddess, Mackenzie, I want you so much that I hurt for you, but I would never want to harm you. You need more time."

"No. What I need, is you, Nikhil. I need to connect with you in the most basic of ways. To give myself to you, and for you to do the same with me. Am I asking too much?"

"No. You could never ask too much of me."

"Don't be so sure of that," she said, giving him a small smile. "You don't know what I might ask."

"You can ask for all my credits. You can ask for my honor. You can even ask for my life's breath. And I would willingly give it, if it is what you need, my Mackenzie, for without you in my life, none of it matters."

"Nikhil... don't you know I feel the same way about you? If I had a True Mate bead you would wear it. I wish I could give that to you."

"You have already given me so much more, my Mackenzie."

"What? What could I have possibly given you?"

"You gave me your innocence. Did you not realize that?"

"You... it's gone?"

"Yes, I did not want you to feel any pain when we fully joined. I still don't, which is why we must wait."

"No, Nikhil, it is why we don't have to."