Companion's Dilemma (Brace for Humanity Book 5) Read online

  “Nice trick.”

  He snorted. “I will teach you when you are older.”

  He took her to the tissue regeneration station for first aid, and her forehead was treated while additional scans were run. She and Lekorh were both relieved to find that no additional damage had been done.

  He didn’t need to carry her back to the admin building, but he did. He kept her cradled against him, and his mind was comforting but blank for the quick ride.

  The lift back to their home was done in silence. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she lifted a hand to his cheek. “Are you all right?”

  He looked at her, and his third eye blazed. “I am the furthest from all right that I have ever been.”

  She felt the maelstrom of his thoughts, and she did the only thing that she could do to stop the burning storm in her mind, she passed out.

  Chapter Ten

  A cool compress woke her. She was lying in Lekorh’s lap, and he held the compress to her forehead.

  “If there were a way to keep you from putting yourself in danger, I would do it in a heartbeat. As it stands, you are not leaving my side until we can find a way to keep you safe.” He had control of his emotions and thoughts again.

  She grimaced. “You are not apologizing, so I am guessing—”

  “That I figured out you triggered it. You were weak, so it didn’t take much, but it did delay the conversation for a while.” He moved the compress to her cheek and the back of her neck.

  She sighed. “I have got to stop getting hit in the head.”

  He smiled. “Perhaps you should wear a helmet.”

  “I just need to find someone safer to hang around with.” She chuckled.

  “You need to stop looking for snacks.”

  She cackled, and then, she touched her head. “It shouldn’t hurt, but it does.”

  He pressed his lips to her forehead and the pain drained away.

  “How did you do that?”

  “You learn that in the lessons that come after not getting hit in the head all the time.”

  Sarah struggled to sit up, and he adjusted his arm around her back, pulling her up so that her head was leaning against his shoulder.

  He sighed. “You have no idea what you are doing to me.”

  “I have a pretty good idea.” She was sitting with the evidence throbbing under her thigh.

  He snorted. “Not that, though it is on my mind. Telepaths are selfish by nature, or they lose their minds. With you, all I can think of is us. I am no longer alone, and it goes against everything I have learned and had drilled into me.”

  Sarah thought about it for a few seconds, and then, she squirmed out of his grip, turned to face him, and crawled into his lap facing him. “If you want to not be alone, then I think we should stop simply teasing each other with images.”

  She went up on her knees, and she pulled her tunic up and off. Lekorh was locked in surprise.

  Her bra hit the floor next to her top, and she leaned against Lekorh, rubbing her breasts against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, smoothing his hands over her back.

  She could feel his delight in the texture of her skin, and she slid her hands behind his head to pull him down for a kiss.

  He held her tight and stood up, walking to the bedroom in long strides.

  They didn’t need to discuss things. If she had a problem with what he was doing, she could tell him without words, and it was reciprocal.

  He set her down on the edge of the bed and stepped back to remove his own clothing. She worked her shoes off and peeled her leggings and underwear until all she was wearing was the light in the room.

  Lekorh gleamed in the light when it was all he was wearing.

  He gave her the most thorough look she had ever experienced, and she could see it through her own eyes, which made it more peculiar. She never knew she had a tiny freckle on the underside of her left breast. It was the first place that Lekorh applied his tongue.

  She shivered at the wet heat and ran her fingers through his hair. When he wrapped his lips around her nipple and tugged, she threaded her fingers through his hair and enjoyed the surge of lust that the small caress generated.

  He took the hint and began a thorough and devastating assault on her senses. Just when she thought that pleasure was inching into pain, he moved and changed his plan of attack.

  She was squirming against the sheets and pulling at his arms and shoulders. Her request was in his mind. She wanted him inside her, and she was trying to get him there.

  “If you want me inside you, just say so.” His voice was clear, but his mouth was between her thighs as he lapped at her clit.

  She tried to ask in clear and concise communication, but it didn’t come out. He scraped his teeth along the small bud of flesh, and the air rushed out of her lungs. When she inhaled, she heard her voice saying, “Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease...”

  Lekorh lifted his head and grinned at her, moving to cover her with his cock gliding up her inner thigh until it lodged in the slick folds that he had been teasing.

  She wanted to close her eyes to savour the sensation of him slowly sliding into her, but his third eye was glowing, and it held her hypnotized.

  She gasped when he started to press into her. The cool touch of his mind on hers didn’t have any effect on the fire in her blood. She lifted her hips to take him deeper, and he slid in another inch.

  The dance started so slowly that she wasn’t sure if there was a beat at all. She raised her knees and tilted her hips to keep him inside her.

  His mind was sending her the feeling of her body gripping his, and the quiver in his mind made her smile and gasp as he thrust deep. He wasn’t as sanguine about this as he had seemed.

  She pulled him down so she could kiss him, and when she bit his lip, the instinct took over, and they rocked together. Sarah closed her eyes at the feel of him sliding in and out of her.

  The feel of him moving inside her was wonderful now that she had gotten used to the girth at the base of his cock. The heat and friction were amazing, but she needed something more.

  He leaned to one side while his butt flexed as it thrust. Lekorh slid his hand between them and stroked her cit. It must have been awkward, but there was no indication in his thoughts that this was anything but pleasurable.

  He stroked her clit, and his hips quickened their pace. The velvety soft caress of his hide on her breasts added to the sensations, and within twenty strokes and endless circles, she felt fire explode along every nerve. She gasped and shook under him.

  Lekorh waited her orgasm out, and then, he pursued his own.

  She wrapped her arms around him and drew her nails down his back in a slow pull that ended with her cupping his buttocks and forcing him into her. Her body’s rhythm was still pulling at him in slow, pulsing grips.

  He growled, and the sound caught her by surprise. He thrust deep and held himself inside her, his hips slowly grinding against hers.

  She held him close as his heavily muscled arms slowly collapsed and his body rested on hers.

  There was lazy satisfaction in his thought. “That was so much more fun than simple fantasies.”

  “I am very glad it was fun.” She smiled.

  “Oh, it was. In fact, so enjoyable that I want to build up a library of memories.”

  She smacked him on the arm. “I am not going to be just a memory.”

  He lifted his head and smiled down at her. “You don’t understand.”

  To her appalled amazement, he replayed her orgasm in her mind, and her body was triggered into spasms once again.

  She shuddered and sucked in air as the cascade of sensation hit her. When the waves stopped running through her, she looked up at him with a dazed expression. “Well, hell.”

  He grinned. “I am guessing you didn’t know I could do that.”

  She saw the promise in his gaze to repeat the moment as often as he could. “You had better wait for socially appropriate moments to do that.”
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br />   He grinned. “I will.”

  She got the distinct impression that he wasn’t going to keep it to appropriate times. There was far too much delight in his surface thoughts.

  She shifted under him, squirming slightly as she was still impaled on him. His gasp and the flash of enjoyment in his mind were clear, so she did it again and tried to remember what his mind felt like at that moment.

  He lifted up on his elbows and kissed her slowly.

  Sarah leaned up and into his kiss. He tasted her slowly and deliberately, and she tasted herself on him.

  He began to slowly rock into her with controlled arches of his back and thighs.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips and undulated with him. It was a delightful forever before her orgasm came over her in a slow and wonderful wave. He withdrew from her when her last internal clasp had ceased, dropping onto the bed beside her and cuddling her against him.

  She sighed when she put her right palm between both of his. Being surrounded by heat was relaxing even if the sweat drying on her body cooled the exposed parts.

  “I am very glad that we are able to be in contact tonight. Being away from you last night was torture.” He murmured it against her temple.

  “We were holding hands when I woke.”

  “I know. My control lapsed somewhere after three in the morning.”

  She sighed. “No need for control tonight. Is it okay if I just go to sleep? It has been an eventful day.”

  He held her close and kissed her temple. “Sleep, I will watch over your dreams.”

  Sarah trusted him, and Lekorh was as good as his word, he watched over her until it was time for breakfast. After breakfast, all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sarah was sitting at the meditation station that had been set up for her sometime between her leaving the previous day and that morning. The cushion was extra puffy, and her focus was a light that cycled through the visible spectrum. She sat with a cup of tea held in her lap, and she focused on letting her mind drift in a slow sweep through Imrahl. From the distant farms to the folks below in the admin, she checked on them all, and none of them had any untoward thoughts.

  Lekorh was surprisingly quiet on the psychic plane. There was something that he had to do, and he was trying to keep it from her.

  He ran his morning reports, and then, he stood up. “I am stepping out. Remain here.”

  Sarah stared at him and shook her head. “No. I am going to stick to you today unless I am not authorized.”

  He sighed.

  She could see that he wanted to argue the authorization, but she already had it.

  “Fine. Come with me and do not speak. I am going to be interrogating the raiders from last night.”

  She stood up. “I am going with you.”

  To her surprise, rising from kneeling was much easier than it had been the previous day. Sure, her thighs were shaking, and there was a definite ache in muscles that hadn’t been used in a long while, but all in all, she was having a pretty good day.

  He gave her a long look, but he nodded. “Fine, but don’t interfere.”

  She nodded. “I won’t.”

  Lekorh pulled his hood up as they walked the halls and took the lift down to the fifth floor and stopped. “Remain outside the interrogation room.”

  She nodded. There were two Sthik standing outside a door, and she guessed where the prisoner was currently being held.

  “I am going to have to tear his mind apart to get to the information, so protect yourself.”

  “Yes, Lekorh. I will keep myself calm.”

  He nodded. “I am counting on it.”

  She understood that this was a serious matter when he didn’t give her a pat or peck or anything. He simply opened the door, and she felt the mind on the other side freeze in panic.

  Sarah took up a position across from the door and tried to keep her mind calm and concealed so that she didn’t distract Lekorh.

  The raider inside was a Luthin, and after five minutes with Lekorh, he was sobbing and curled into a ball, asking for forgiveness.

  Lekorh emerged, and the guards half carried, half walked the man out.

  Sarah blinked and watched Lekorh key in information through his tablet. “What now?”

  “Now, I go through the surviving six. There is a tea station down the hall if you need it.” His mind was cold, but she guessed it had to be. He had to remain completely and absolutely calm while going through the raider’s mind and picking out the information he needed.

  She nodded and remained across the hall from the interrogation room for the next four Luthin and Regiz. She didn’t flinch from feeling Lekorh tear one man into every fear he had ever had, and he offered him one way out, tell him what he wanted to know.

  Lekorh got the names and coordinates of thirteen colony worlds where stolen females were being used to start new populations. The section of the Rrassic that were doing this thought that there was no chance against the coming invaders, so they were hiding in pockets of time.

  Sarah filed that information for later but kept her outer mind calm against the screaming of borderline madness from the other side of the door.

  The last interrogation of the morning was the trickiest. She was standing in the hall across from the interrogation room door when the Zjin that had been in the vehicle with her during the crash was led down the hall.

  His head lifted as he scented her, and he gave her a leering grin as he was led into the interrogation room. His mind was replaying his enjoyment of her scent and the feel of her through the clothing that she had been wearing.

  Sarah hoped for his sake that Lekorh wasn’t listening, but she knew he was when his mind when white hot as Lekorh closed the door behind them.

  Sarah waited for a few minutes when the questions were being asked, and she knew the moment when the Zjin opened his mouth regarding her.

  The heavy thud of bodies hitting the wall was unmistakable. The two guards turned and tried to open the door, but one of the bodies was wedged up against it, and that body was suffering the punishing impact of fists and teeth.

  Sarah saw through the Zjin’s eyes, and her calm Lekorh wasn’t the one that had just finished a report in the hallway. He was beyond rage, and he wasn’t going to stop until the male who had enjoyed hurting and groping her was dead in the throes of terror and agony.

  Sarah sent her thoughts to him, calming him and sending him the memory of her arms being wrapped around him. She wasn’t trying to hold him back, but she was trying to keep him from killing someone during the interrogation. It was the sort of thing that could get someone removed from a posting.

  She felt a flicker of response from him, and the heavy, wet sound of a body being pulled away from the door was audible through the barrier.

  The Zjin was lying in a spreading pool of blood. His guards grabbed him and pulled him out of the room with only a quick glance to the other inhabitant of the interrogation chamber.

  Sarah walked in, stepping over the bloody smears on the floor. She blinked at Lekorh’s appearance, but she smiled at him. “I am fine. He didn’t hurt me. It was embarrassing at the time.”

  Lekorh had two large fangs that were covered with blood, as were his fists and the front of his robes.

  She chuckled. “I am pretty sure I would have noticed those teeth last night.”

  He blinked. She was replaying the moment when he was lying on his belly with his face between her thighs.

  “They retract. Most Saya don’t need them.”

  “Most Saya don’t mate.” She stroked the blood on his cheek and shared her concern for him.

  He sighed, closed his third eye, and pressed the upper edge of his forehead against hers. “I don’t regret it.”

  “I only worry about how it will affect you.”

  “It won’t. We are a population colony. Defending your mate is expected, no matter who you are.”

  She wrapped her arms around him, the scent of blood and the blood its
elf getting on her clothing. “Just so you know. I feel the same. If anyone tries to injure you in any way, they are going to be in for a very bad time.”

  He chuckled and held her close.

  Iktabi appeared in the doorway. Sarah could feel him staring at her back. “What happened?”

  Sarah mumbled, “The Zjin shared his thoughts and plans for me, continuing the groping from last night into a fully formed fantasy.”

  “Ah. Right. Lekorh, change your clothing. We have a meeting this afternoon.”

  Sarah smiled as the overseer left. “Well, that was unexpected.”

  He chuckled. “I did tell you, we are a population colony. If there is a chance that I can be the first Saya in generations to have a child with a new species, he will take credit for it as the Overseer of Imrahl.”

  “He takes credit for your reproductive capability?”

  “No, for my grace and charm. Come on. We will return home and change.”

  She grinned and parted from him, covered with half the blood of the Zjin. “A shower might also be in order.”

  “I had heard that ladies were fussy, and you are definitely holding to the rumour.” He grinned, and his canines had retracted, both sets. The upper and lower teeth were a little surprising, considering his urbane appearance.

  They walked to the lift and headed down and to the private shuttle.

  He held her on his lap and nuzzled her neck on the short ride to their home. Sarah blinked when she realized that part of his libido was being driven by the scent of blood. She kept that bit of observation to herself.

  Sarah started peeling off her clothing in the lift and walked out of the transport into their home, carrying her clothing and boots.

  She felt rather than heard Lekorh behind her, and he lifted her and carried her into the bathroom, as naked as she was.

  The water struck her back, and she wrapped herself around Lekorh like a spider monkey. He turned to get the water jets between them, but she kissed him, blocking some of the spray. He turned and pressed her back against the wall, letting the spray rain down on them from that angle.

  She was having fun, and his mind was calming from the fury that he had experienced earlier. Sex was an amazing distractor.