Free Crystal Healer by S. L. Viehl Page A

pushed deeper, groaning as he filled me, and I clamped down on him, squeezing him in a tight, ceaseless rhythm.
    "I love this," I whispered, pressing my fingers to his lips when he would have spoken. "No. Only feel it, Duncan. Feel what we are together."
    I kept him a prisoner of my body, and rode him that way until his fingers dug into my hips and his eyes became as intent and blue as a jlorra's.
    "Jarn." His muscles shook, so eager to spill himself inside me, yet somehow he held back. "I will not go over. Not without you."
    The thing inside me shattered as I rolled, and the single thrust of his body into mine brought us both to the very brink. Duncan kept his eyes open as he lowered his mouth to mine in a kiss so soft and tender that I lost myself to it. Then the pleasure brought me back, into his heat and his eyes and the blessed release we found together.
    We lay in the grass as the wind cooled our skins and the glowing dancers rose all around us and drifted away. I listened to the frantic pounding of Duncan's heart gradually slow to a smooth, comforting pulse against my cheek.
    "Do you think she would hate us?" I heard myself ask. "For what we have together?"
    The hand stroking my back paused, then resumed its soothing motion. "Cherijo hated many things. Ignorance, incompetence. Bigotry, slavery, and war. She hated them with all of her heart." He pulled me closer. "But not love. Never love."

Four

    We went back to our quarters and I slept in Duncan's arms, better than I had in weeks.The next morning I sent my husband off to take Marel to school, and went to meet Squilyp at his private lab. We'd arranged it the day before, officially to discuss the results of the tests he had performed on Reever's most recent tissue and blood samples.
    Unofficially, we needed to talk about a lot of things.
    "Wait, there is something on you." Squilyp stopped me just outside the lab and used a gildrell to pluck something from my hair. He showed me a fragment of yiborra grass. "Have you been rolling in the grass, Doctor?"
    "Only once or twice. Reever and I were too busy doing other things." I took the bit of grass and tucked it into my tunic pocket. "Speaking of mates, have you signaled Garphawayn lately?"
    "I signal my mate each night, thank you. If I did not, she promised to separate my head from my shoulders when she and our sons return to Joren." He keyed in the access code to the lab, which he had built and designed for his personal use, and led me inside.
    "They're coming back from Omorr to visit you?" This was news to me.
    "They will come back to live here with me. I have been offered a position as Chief Medical Adviser to the Ruling Council, and I intend to accept." Squilyp went to his central control panel and turned on several emitters, illuminating the interior. "We have already been granted permanent residential status. All my mate needs to do is decide among which HouseClan she wishes to live. It would be more convenient to reside with the Adan, but she has become very attached to the Torin."
    I had been planning to ask Squilyp to join the expedition to oKia, but now I hesitated. As much as I wanted the Omorr in Medical, this position sounded far more important. Squilyp also had a rather demanding wife, to whom he was utterly devoted, as well as two young sons he adored. It would be selfish to expect him to drop everything to jaunt to oKia with us.
    "What about your families on the homeworld?" I knew the Omorr lived almost as closely as the Jorenians did. "Do they approve?"
    "My family acknowledges the honor of the position. Her family"--he rolled his dark eyes--"is displeased by our decision to raise the twins away from Omorr, but I think they will come to accept it. Thus far they have made only the token arguments."
    I went to examine an interesting-looking experiment in progress. "They're more afraid of her than you."
    "Everyone is," he agreed. "Don't open that."
    I studied the contents of the culture dishes. "What is