Free Guardian of the Storm by Kaitlyn O'Connor

taste of a real kiss. Naturally, she’d done some experimentation, despite her parents’ warnings that ‘kissing leads to capitulation’, but she hadn’t believed them because none of the times she’d tried it before had made her feel like this, had made her the least bit interested in carrying it any further.
    Now, she completely understood what they’d meant, because she really hadn’t wanted him to stop and she would have allowed him to do most anything he had wanted to do.
    He released her abruptly and moved away and Tempest shivered at the absence of his warmth. Sluggishly, her brain kicked into gear again and she began to wonder what, exactly, he’d been saying, offering.
    After a moment, she rose, almost like a sleepwalker, and moved back to the bedding, sitting on it and covering herself with the blanket. The tiny fire had given off little warmth and it had been allowed to die to embers. As she watched, Kiran removed the food carefully and moved over to sit beside her on the bedding, offering her a portion. She took it, but found she’d lost much of her appetite. She ate anyway, knowing she would be hungry later if she didn’t eat, and there would be nothing to eat. Almost absently, she tore off a small piece of her own food and tossed it to Kirry. The grat sniffed it, rolled it around with her paws as if she was playing with it, but, obviously, she’d already eaten her fill.
    When she’d finished eating, Tempest rose and wandered off to relief herself and to find the watering hole so that she could wash up and drink her fill before sleeping. Kiran was stretched out in the bedding when she returned and she stopped abruptly, surprised. He hadn’t offered to share the bedding with her since that first night, leaving it to her while he lay on the other side of the fire from her with nothing at all to protect him from the night air.
    They had no fire tonight, though, and she supposed it was as much for that reason as any other that he’d claimed a portion of the bedding for himself. After that brief hesitation, she moved toward him with as much unconcern as she could muster, crawled beneath the blanket and lay down on her back, staring up at the stars.
    “You are afraid of me now?” Kiran asked, raising up on one elbow to study her in the shadows.
    Tempest glanced at him in surprise. Was she? She didn’t think so. She wasn’t afraid of sex, if that was what he was thinking. Before the disaster, she’d looked forward to it with eagerness, impatient to explore the new experience. When he’d kissed her, she’d felt nothing but anticipation, hadn’t really given a thought to what might happen next. If he’d decided to have sex with her, she was fairly certain she wouldn’t have objected at all.
    Now she wondered if it was even wise to consider it. For all she knew the Niahians might have taboos regarding copulation that could mean serious trouble for her … for both of them. It was all very well to think about seeking, or accepting, companionship from someone who was not of her own kind when she’d had no choice, but he’d said there were other Earthlings. Wouldn’t it be best to stick with her own kind, particularly since she knew and understood the ways of her own people?
    And she had no means of birth control, she realized suddenly. She hadn’t reached the age of consent before the disease struck, so she hadn’t been given the implantation that prevented conception. That was something else to give serious consideration to.
    “No,” she answered him finally. “I’m not afraid. I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”
    He sighed gustily, a mixture of relief and irritation. “I should not have kissed you.”
    Tempest smiled faintly. “Probably not … but I expect it was my fault anyway. I gave you the wrong idea. It’s just… I was so relieved and happy, I didn’t think before I did it.”
    Kiran frowned. As relieved as he was that he hadn’t frightened her, he wasn’t particularly pleased