Forgotten (44 page)

Rone nodded, looking miserable.

“
Do you see why I didn’t
want to tell you? Especially after what you told me?”

“
I guess so…” Kate bit her
lip and then squeaked in pain. “Ouch!”

“
Are you all right?” He
looked at her anxiously. “What happened? Is your back still
hurting? I thought I healed all of it but…”

“
No, no,” Kate hastily
reassured him. “My back feels fine—better than fine, actually. It’s
my lip.” She touched one fingertip to it delicately and hissed in
pain. “I practically gnawed through it when I was trying not to
yell while Madam Shadow was whipping me.”

“
I know.” His eyes were
shadowed. “I thought my heart would burst when I saw that. It
nearly killed me to watch you take that beating and not be able to
get lose and help you.”

“
It was no fun for me
either,” Kate said grimly. “But you healed me up. And maybe
something
good
came of it. Now we understand each other a lot more than we
did before.”

“
Much good it does us.”
Rone sighed. “What I still
don’t
understand is how you ever opened yourself to me
in the first place after having such a horrible
experience.”

“
I must have trusted you,”
Kate whispered. Somehow, she couldn’t stop looking at him—his
strong features…the way his eyes glowed with concern for her. And
he smelled so
good
—it made her want to reach out and touch him. She put her
fingers to her sore lip again.” Could…do you think you could heal
this too? My lip, I mean? It really stings.”

Rone’s piercing blue eyes were intent as he
looked at her.

“
If you trust me,” he said
quietly.

“
I do,” Kate whispered and
she was no longer certain she was just talking about her
lip.

“
Then I’ll heal you,” he
murmured. Cupping her cheek, he lifted her jaw and leaned towards
her. Kate’s heart was pounding as she felt his warm breath against
her face. God, what was she doing?
Just
letting him heal me—that’s all,
she
insisted to herself. Then his hot tongue was bathing her wounded
bottom lip, tracing delicately along her hurt flesh and taking away
her pain.

As she had before, Kate felt a tingling
running through her, a healing warmth that spread to all parts of
her body—especially the more sensitive areas. She moaned softly as
she felt her nipples go tight and between her legs her pussy began
to feel swollen and hot. God, how could he affect her so much with
just a kiss? Because that was what it had turned into—her lip was
healed now but the big Kindred hadn’t withdrawn. Instead, he leaned
closer and ran the tip of his tongue along the seam of her lips,
asking for entry.

Kate couldn’t deny him. She parted
willingly, inviting him in but to her surprise, Rone didn’t
immediately slide his tongue into her mouth. Instead, he sucked
gently on hers, inviting her to invade him, offering himself and
asking her to explore him with her own tongue, to know him more
deeply and intimately than she ever had before.

With another low moan,
Kate took his offer eagerly. She pressed her tongue into his mouth,
tasting him, enjoying the warm, spicy flavor that was foreign and
yet somehow completely familiar. The taste that was Rone. God, she
shouldn’t be doing this—shouldn’t
want
to do this. She’d just re-lived
the worst memory of her life—she shouldn’t want anything to do with
any male anywhere right now.

But there was something about the big
Kindred. Despite the Beast he kept chained inside him and the
incredible danger he posed, he made her feel safe…made her trust
him. Maybe because he was letting her take the lead.

With a soft little growl of effort, Kate
pushed the big Kindred over onto his back. Rone went willingly,
letting her do what she wanted to him. Even when Kate straddled his
chest and put her hand to his throat, he made no effort to stop
her.

“
Lalli,”
he murmured as her fingers tightened around his
neck. Of course her hand was too small to really do any damage but
that didn’t stop the surge of power Kate felt. The feeling of being
in control was intoxicating—exhilarating. She squeezed as she
leaned down to kiss him again—not to choke him or hurt him, but to
hold him in place, to let him know she was on top and in
charge.

Rone made not a murmur of protest. He only
opened for her, eagerly accepting her tongue in his mouth again as
she kissed him ruthlessly. Kate ravaged his mouth, nipping sharply
at his sensuous lips and pressing her tongue deep inside him,
exploring him as though she owned him, as though she had every
right.

Rone’s eyes flickered from piercing blue to
bright silver and she felt his big body shiver beneath her as she
continued to kiss him. She could feel his muscles trembling beneath
hers, like an engine running hot and hard, going into overdrive.
But still he made no move to stop her or push her away—he just
submitted to her kiss and let her do as she pleased with him.

Deep in the darkest part of her mind Kate
understood that what she was doing—the way she was pushing him—was
dangerous. But somehow she couldn’t stop. She didn’t know what had
gotten into her but she wanted this—wanted to be on top of him,
kissing him, tasting him—wanted to push him and know he wouldn’t
push back. Wouldn’t hurt her no matter what she did.

“
Gods, baby,
please,”
he groaned,
when she at last came up for air. His eyes were pure, piercing
silver and there was a look of desperate hunger on his face.
“Please,” he begged in a deep, hoarse voice. “We can’t go on like
this. I can’t…the Beast, we’re teasing it, riling it up. And I need
to keep it down, keep it inside.”

“
You need to feed
your
hunger
don’t
you?” Kate released his throat but still sat on his chest, looking
down at him.

Rone looked away. “I don’t…I’ve managed this
far. If we can just set a course to my home planet—to G’nera and I
can get to the Howlund to let it out…”

“
How far away is that?”
Kate demanded.

“
The nearest stable
wormhole is at least a day away even with our hyperdrive going full
speed,” he admitted. “And after that, at least another day’s travel
at full speed.”

“
Can you wait that long?”
she asked directly.

His jaw clenched. “I’ll have to. I
understand how you feel now, baby. I’d never ask you to do anything
that makes you uncomfortable.”

“
I’ll tell you what would
make me ‘uncomfortable’ Kate said sharply. “Having your Beast come
out and rip me to shreds. Now
that
would be really uncomfortable.”

A look she couldn’t read passed over his
face. “Actually, I used to be worried about that but I don’t think
it would do that to you—not now.”

“
What then?” Kate
demanded. “I’m sure it won’t just shake hands and agree to stay for
tea if you lose control of it.”

Rone looked away from her. “I think it’s
safe to say the Beast…is more interested in breeding than feeding.
At least when it comes to you.”

Kate felt a shiver of fear run through her
entire body but she tried not to show it.

“
So you’re telling me you
might turn into a huge, hairy Beast at any minute but don’t worry,
you can
probably
control it?”

“
I
can
control it,” he insisted,
looking back at her. “I have for this long—I can stand the
hunger
a little
longer.”

“
It’s been six months,
Rone,” she pointed out. “Six months since we made love…since
you…you tasted my, uh, honey.” Her cheeks were burning and she
didn’t know why she was doing this—she only knew she couldn’t seem
to stop pushing.

“
I’ll be
fine.”
He pushed her
gently off him and sat up, putting his head in his hands. “I
have
to be.”

“
That’s not what Mistress
Light and Madam Shadow said,” Kate pointed out.

“
What do they know?” he
demanded, jerking his head up to glare at her.

“
Rone…your eyes are
silver.” She gestured at his face. “What does that mean? Doesn’t it
mean your Beast is close? Close to the surface?” She didn’t know
how she knew that but something inside her whispered it was so.
Maybe a buried memory that wanted to come out.

Before, whenever his eyes
went silver you knew it was time to take him someplace
private,
whispered a little voice in her
head.
Take him someplace quickly and raise
your skirt and push his head between your legs. Then and only then
when his tongue was buried in your pussy, tasting you, did you know
he was safe…

Kate reached for the memory eagerly—was she
finally coming back to herself and regaining the time she had lost?
But it slipped away like sand between her fingers, dissolving like
a dream the moment one wakes up.

“
Gods…” The big Kindred
ran a hand through his hair and let out a harsh sigh. “Kate, I
think it’s time to hide you away,” he said. “We need to get you
into one of the smuggling compartments on the far end of the ship
and lock it up tight.”

“
What? No!” Kate shook her
head. “Besides, what good would it do to try to hide from your
Beast? You told me before that we used to play that game—that ‘Hide
and Suck’—and you always found me by my scent. And aren’t your
senses a thousand times stronger when you’re in your Beast form?
Your senses and your physical strength too—whatever lock we use,
you’ll just tear it right off and come for me anyway, won’t
you?”

“
Well, we have to
do
something.”
Rone ran both hands through his hair this time in obvious
agitation. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby! We have to do something
to hold back my Beast.”

“
We will.” Kate felt
strangely calm and centered as she spoke. “We’re going to give it
what it wants—what it
needs—
so desperately.”

“
What do you mean?” His
blazing silver eyes narrowed.

“
It means,” Kate said
evenly. “You’re going to taste me. Now.”

Rone shook his head.

“
No. Not after what you
told me. Not after what you went through at the hands of that
bastard—who I’m still going to kill, by the way, as soon as we get
back to Earth.”

“
Forget about him,” Kate
said evenly. “I have. Or I was able to enough to trust you
before.”

“
It took us months to get
to that point,” Rone pointed out. “Months of me proving myself to
you, showing you I would never hurt you, that I would always be
gentle and careful of you,
Lalli.
It’s only been days since I found you again and
you still don’t have your memories back. And for most of the time
we’ve been together, your system was so loaded with fear toxins you
couldn’t even bear to let me
touch
you—let alone do anything else.”

“
The fear toxins are gone
now, you know that,” Kate said. “And as for it taking months and
months, well…even in the few short days I’ve known you, you proved
yourself over and over again to me, Rone.” She ticked the ways off
on her fingers. “You saved me in the mall, even when I shot you—you
hung on and pulled me up when I would have fallen. You came with me
to Flame and Frost and refused to abandon me when I went into the
Shadow and couldn’t get out. You saved me from that damn swimming
pool filled with toxic gunk and you offered to take my beating from
Madam Shadow…”

A look of anger and sorrow passed over his
face.

“
I’m not proud of that. I
shouldn’t have let her touch you—should have been strong enough to
break free and keep you safe.”

“
Don’t be sorry,” Kate
said softly. “What happened was a
good
thing—it got us talking. Now we
know where we stand. And I…” She took a deep breath. “I know what
you need.”

“
But how can you even
think of giving it to me—of giving
yourself
to me that way, after what
you just told me?” Rone demanded, his voice ragged. “Dredging up
that memory had to be horribly painful, baby—I don’t want to put
you through any more.”

“
It
was
hard,” Kate admitted, putting
her arms around herself. “But I think it was good in a way—to talk
about it. It was…cathartic. You know I’ve never told anyone about
it before? Not my roommates…not my Mom—nobody.”

“
Not even me,” Rone said
softly, nodding. “But do you really think you could trust me—trust
any male—after letting yourself remember it again?”

“
I think I can—I did
before, didn’t I?” Kate frowned. “Tell me about it—you talked about
it on the way to Flame and Frost but I was still so freaked out I
didn’t really absorb it. How did we do it? How did you taste me
that first time?”

“
Very slowly and very
gently.” Rone’s silver eyes went soft and he stroked her cheek
tenderly. “I think I told you—we started with your panties on and
just went from there.”

Kate bit her newly healed lip.