Finding the Jewel Read online

  Chloe didn’t interrupt except to ask questions now and then. She seemed quietly appalled when he described his childhood and squeezed his hand tightly when he had difficulty getting some words out. But she never turned away in disgust or horror and she never tried to finish his sentences, which Tark was grateful for.

  So often people got impatient if he tried to say anything that took time to get out—they lost interest or wanted to skip to the end. Chloe wasn’t like that—she listened to the good and the bad and never tried to avoid the ugly details.

  “Thank you,” she said, when he was finished at last, laying the whole ugly mess before her. “I know that must have been hard to share. Thank you for trusting me with it.”

  “Th-thank you for lis—lis…for hearing me,” he answered, nodding.

  “I don’t care what you’ve been told in the past,” Chloe said, looking up at him earnestly. “When I look at you, I see a strong, brave, handsome warrior. You’re an amazing guy, Tark.”

  Tark shook his head. “N-not brave,” he denied.

  “What? Of course you’re brave!” Chloe exclaimed, frowning. “You saved me from the Commercians and from that awful Slimerian! You let yourself get hurt protecting me.” She took his left hand in her smaller, softer ones and examined it. “Oh, there are barely even scars here—where did all the wounds go?”

  “Kindred heal f-fast,” Tark said shortly. “But…I’m n-not brave because I h-h-haven’t told you y-yet that we c-can go.”

  “Go?” Chloe frowned. “Why would we go?”

  Tark frowned back at her. “B-because of wh-whu-what Monk T-t-taroni is d-demanding we d-do.”

  “Oh, right. That.” Her cheeks—and her suit, which he could see because her towel had slipped open—went pink again. Tark was almost certain now that the color of their robes was tied to their emotions. It must be another special property of the resonite to show the feelings of the one who wore it. Now if he could just decipher which colors corresponded to which emotions…

  “Yes. Th-that,” he said shortly. “I kn-know we haven’t kn-known each other long. So I’m s-sure you don’t w-want to let me taste you.”

  Chloe’s cheeks and the three tiny triangles covering her breasts and sex got even pinker.

  “I…um…it would be kind of awkward but I don’t want you to have to give up your dream of finding the jewel and curing your stutter either.” She looked up at him from under her eyelids. “How…how do you feel about it?”

  Tark raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.

  “Y-you’re asking if I w-want to taste you?”

  She nodded, biting her lip. “I mean, I had a boyfriend who was kind of into that once—or he said he was—but I think he just wanted me to, you know, reciprocate. Because he never really, um, did much. And no one else—”

  “Chloe…” Tark lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. “I want to,” he said slowly and clearly. “So much.”

  “You…you do?” she asked uncertainly.

  “Even if there w-were n-no jewel,” Tark promised her. “I w-would still w-want to taste your sweet pussy.”

  Chloe’s face went nearly red at that and her robe-bathing suit blushed with her.

  “Oh,” she whispered in a small voice. “I…thank you.”

  Tark could still see the doubt clouding her lovely blue eyes and he wished with all his heart he could show her how he felt. Suddenly he had an idea.

  He slipped back down into the water to equalize their heights a little. Chloe watched, wide-eyed, when he came to stand in front of her as she sat on the edge.

  “I w-want to kiss you,” Tark told her, looking her in the eyes.

  “Oh, um…okay.” Her breathing was coming short and her cheeks were pinker than ever as she nodded.

  He kissed her mouth, softly at first—letting her know he would be gentle. This was nothing like the hungry, insatiable kisses they had shared the day before in the monk’s chambers. Tark knew instinctively that he needed to take this slowly. Chloe might put up a brave front but inside she was as insecure and uncertain as he was himself. Plus, she was so much smaller than him and he knew his size could be intimidating. He didn’t want her to fear him.

  “Oh,” Chloe sighed when he finally broke the kiss. Her towel had fallen even further open and Tark could see that her suit was turning a darker pink—almost a rosy red. His own suit was turning the same color.

  Red must mean passion…lust…desire.

  He was glad he had the visual cue to go by. Knowing that Chloe wanted this as much as he did was incredibly arousing and it also let him know she was willing and not just giving in to him out of pity or fear.

  Tark looked in her eyes again.

  “I w-want to kiss you more. I w-want to kiss you everywhere,” he told her.

  Chloe nibbled her lush lower lip.

  “You do?”

  Slowly, Tark nodded. He brushed her flushed cheek gently with his knuckles, feeling the heat and softness of her skin. Gods, how he wanted to taste her—to spread her thighs and lap her honey right from the source! But again, he didn’t want to hurt or scare her. She was so tiny…so delicate and so very precious. He had to be careful with her.

  At last, Chloe nodded.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “All right…go ahead.”

  Tark had the idea that she expected him to dive right in, so to speak, the moment he got permission, but he knew that wasn’t the way to proceed.

  Along with their ability to learn almost any language quickly and fly or pilot almost any craft or vehicle, Kindred had a third unusual skill which wasn’t much talked about. All Kindred males had the innate ability to please a woman sexually—to understand exactly what a female needed in order to arouse her and make her come. It was a talent given by the Goddess, who doubtless knew her children would need it as they traveled across the universe, looking for mates.

  Tark had this Kindred talent too—his speech might be halting and uncertain but he knew what Chloe needed and right now she needed him to take things slowly.

  So instead of grabbing her breasts or reaching between her thighs, he pushed her long, pink hair to one side and kissed the side of her neck.

  “Oh…” It was almost a moan and Chloe’s suit turned an even darker shade of red.

  Tark kissed her some more, lapping gently at the soft, vulnerable skin just under her ear and sucking briefly on her earlobe.

  Chloe moaned again and seemed to melt under his touch. Her towel had fallen all the way open now, revealing her full breasts and lush sex, barely covered by the three red triangles, but she didn’t seem to care. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was rapid as she tilted her head to one side, giving him free access to her throat.

  If he had been a Blood Kindred, Tark would have wanted to bite her. As it was, he was tempted to at least put his mark on her. He bit down gently and sucked hard, right at the tender junction where her neck and shoulder met—marking her, claiming her the only way he could right now.

  Chloe moaned and reached for him, digging her sharp little fingernails into his shoulders, urging him on.

  Tark felt his cock growing heavy and hard between his thighs and his mating fist throbbed. He wished he could claim her here and now and make the luscious little Elite his forever but he knew he couldn’t do that…not yet, anyway.

  Finally, when he was sure she was ready, he made his way down from her throat to her breasts. He nuzzled between them, letting his neatly trimmed beard scratch her tender flesh, making her moan again.

  Chloe looked down at him as he pressed his face between her soft mounds—Goddess, he loved how it felt to bury his face between her breasts!

  “Tark, I…I thought you were going to kiss me?” she said, her soft voice coming out high and breathy.

  “I am,” he murmured. Looking up to hold her eyes with his, he took one of her nipples between his lips and placed a soft, sucking kiss on the tender tip.

  Of course her robe-suit melted conveniently away, leaving
her nipple bare for him. Tark took advantage by sucking the tight peak more fully into his mouth and circling it with his tongue. Goddess, she tasted good! Her skin had just a tang of salt and he could hear the excited pounding of her heart, as rapid as a bird’s wings fluttering in her chest.

  “Oh!” Chloe gasped and pressed her chest forward, granting him greater access.

  Tark sucked harder, loving the way she arched her back and presented herself so shamelessly to him. She was so beautiful—so curvy and perfect. He wanted to show her, even if he couldn’t exactly put it into words, how utterly gorgeous she was.

  Switching to the other nipple, he sucked it hard, taking as much of her full breast as he could into his mouth. Chloe was moaning steadily now and running her soft fingers through his hair which made him want her even more. He let his hands cup the curves of her waist and then drift down to her hips. What he wanted was to take a double handful of her ass and spread her thighs so he could taste her creamy pussy, but he was taking this slowly…letting her get used to his mouth on her body.

  He spent a long time on her breasts, going from one to the other and back again as Chloe moaned and pressed up to meet him. At last, when her nipples were as rosy red as her suit had been and her thighs were spreading on their own, Tark knew it was time to go on.

  He let the tight peak of her nipple slip from between his lips and placed a soft kiss between her full breasts. Then he kissed again, lower down…and then a little lower…and a little lower…

  “Tark…” The uncertainty in her voice stopped him for a moment. He looked up at her.

  “Yes?”

  Chloe was biting her lip and breathing hard.

  “This is…you’re going to…you're going to kiss me lower now, aren’t you?”

  “Going to taste your sweet pussy. Yes,” he replied simply. A part of his brain pointed out that he hadn’t stuttered at all but he was much more focused on Chloe right now…on touching her and tasting her…on making her come.

  “All…all right,” she whispered at last, nodding. “Then…should I lie back?”

  In answer, Tark arranged more of the fluffy towels for pillows under her head. Then he lowered her gently, his eyes never leaving hers. At last she was laid out before him like a visual feast.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, stroking a line from the side of her neck—which held a faint imprint of his teeth and a dark passion mark—down over her breasts and to the spot just above the tiny red triangle covering her sex. It was all that was left of the robe-bathing suit since the triangles over her breasts had melted away and showed no signs of reforming, even though he wasn’t touching her there right now. Tark wanted to make the last triangle melt too.

  “Going to kiss you now,” he told Chloe. “Going to kiss your sweet pussy, baby.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, letting her thighs drift farther apart. “Go ahead, Tark. If…if you want to.”

  Tark had never wanted anything more in his life. With a growl of need, he bent his head between her spread thighs and placed a hot, open-mouthed kiss over the tiny deep red patch that covered her pussy.

  As he had hoped, the tiny triangle of fabric melted away, revealing the plump outer lips of her sex. She had a tiny, well-groomed patch of blond curls on her mound and he could already see how wet she was getting—her thighs were shiny with moisture.

  It was a beautiful sight—her sweet little pussy like an unopened flower before him, ripe for the plucking. But it was her scent that made his shaft so hard it hurt. She smelled so fucking good—a deep, warm, feminine aroma that seemed to reach inside him and draw him to her. He wanted to breathe her in forever—wanted to bathe in that scent and, at the same time, cover it with his own.

  Acting on instinct, he rubbed his cheeks and lips against her soft pussy, marking her with the scent-glands Kindred males have around their mouths. Chloe gave a little gasp and writhed under him as his whiskers scratched her tender flesh.

  “Tark!” she exclaimed as he continued to bathe in her scent. “What…what are you doing?”

  He looked up briefly.

  “Breathing you in, baby. And now I need to taste you.”

  Not want but need because it was a need—a biological imperative built into his very DNA. The need to taste his female…to pleasure her with his tongue…to lap her sweet juices and coax her to make more so that he could taste those too.

  Tark couldn’t wait any longer. Using his thumbs, he parted her outer lips, spreading her open, baring her slippery pink folds and the throbbing button of her little pink clit.

  Gods, she was beautiful! So perfect and fragile and hot and sexy laid out for him like this to taste and pleasure. She was everything he had ever wanted in a female and he couldn’t wait to have her.

  Starting at the bottom of her well, he lapped upward, dragging the flat of his tongue over her sensitive inner folds, tasting her salty-sweet juices as her flavor exploded on his tongue and went straight to his brain like a strong drink. He felt immediately drunk—intoxicated by the taste and sight and scent of her—and he knew he needed more…much more.

  Leaning down further, he wrapped his arms around her thighs and split her wide, baring her completely so that he could see not only the pink, glistening folds of her pussy but the tiny pink ring of her rosebud winking at him.

  “Oh!” Chloe gasped, tensing for a moment. “Tark, what are you doing?”

  He looked up at her.

  “Need you open for me—all the way open.” He could hear the animalistic growl in his voice but he couldn’t seem to help it. All he wanted was to taste her more—to lap up her juices and feel her honey coating his chin. All he needed was to feel her quivering under him with pleasure and hear her call his name while he made her come on his tongue.

  Chloe looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

  “All right,” she whispered. “Go ahead…I trust you.”

  Her soft words and the way she relaxed and opened herself even wider for him seemed to squeeze Tark’s heart and his shaft at the same time. She was so beautiful, so perfect…

  And all mine, growled a possessive voice in his head.

  Well, for now, anyway.

  Leaning down again, he lapped her hungrily, starting at her tight pink rosebud and working his way up, dragging his tongue over the sensitive pearl of her clit and all the way to the top of her slit as she gasped and writhed under him.

  Then he did it again…and again and again. Chloe moaned and he felt her fingers sliding into his hair, tugging at the long strands as she bucked up to meet him, offering herself shamelessly for the pleasure he was giving her.

  “Tark…oh God, Tark!” she gasped as he lapped her again and again before sucking the pink pearl of her clit into his mouth and lashing it ruthlessly with the tip of his tongue.

  The sound of his name on her lips, moaned with such need and desire, was intoxicating—almost as hot as tasting her was. The salty-sweet flavor of her honey threatened to drown him in desire. He never wanted to stop, never wanted to lose the sweet taste of her.

  Chloe gasped and dragged at his hair, pulling him closer.

  “Please, Tark,” she moaned, her hips moving with a rhythm of their own. “Please, I’m so close…so close. Just need…need more…a little more…

  Tark wished he could give her a lot more. The mating fist at the base of his shaft ached and throbbed—longing to take her, to fill her and flood her pussy with his seed, to bond her to him.

  Somehow, he held himself back. She hadn’t agreed to anything like that. To bonding with him and staying the rest of her life. She had only agreed to let him taste her.

  Taste her and make her come, Tark thought and he knew what she needed.

  Sucking her clit into his mouth once more and teasing the sensitive bud with his tongue, he slipped two long fingers into the entrance of her pussy.

  Chloe stiffened at first, then nearly wailed with need as he pressed home inside her and thrust hard against the end of her channel.


  “Yes,” she gasped. “Oh, Tark, yes! Right there…right there, please don’t stop—please!”

  Tark had no intention of stopping. He kept up a steady rhythm, fucking deep into her tight pussy with his fingers and lapping her swollen clit with his tongue—giving her exactly what she needed to reach the peak.

  Suddenly Chloe’s fingers tightened in his hair and her back arched as the orgasm finally washed over her. Her soft inner pussy squeezed hard around his fingers and he tasted fresh wetness as her honey gushed, just for him.

  “Oh! Oh Tark!”

  His name on her lips sounded as sweet as any hymn, it made his cock surge again to know that he was the author of her pleasure—the one who had brought her to the peak of orgasm and made her come. Gods, how he wished he was inside her right now, filling her…claiming her. But he reminded himself again that wasn’t to be.

  Control yourself, he told himself harshly. This is a one-time event, never to be repeated. So have some self control, damn it! She’s not really yours, no matter how much you want her to be.

  He made certain she was satisfied before withdrawing his fingers and licking her gently, to clean away her juices. She quivered under his tongue but made no move to try and stop him as he lapped her gently, giving her a tongue-bath—trying to make the moment last forever.

  At last, however, her fingers loosened in his hair and he looked up to see a tired but happy expression on her face.

  “Tark,” she whispered. “That was amazing.”

  “My pleasure,” he growled softly—and it had been. He loved the taste of her…the way she moaned his name and pulled his hair…the helpless way she quivered and the soft little noises that fell from her lips when he tasted her. He would have been happy to keep it up all day but he sensed she’d had enough.

  Gently he placed one last sucking kiss on her sweet, pink folds. He felt like he could never get enough of the taste of her, his perfect little Elite. He never wanted to let her go.