Free Thieves In Paradise by Bernadette Gardner Page B

body.
    With practiced skill he rose above her and guided his erection inside her. Though she'd grown used to his size, the sensation of his thick cock parting her inner flesh set her shivering with need. His rhythmic thrusts, coupled with the rough touch of his hands on her breasts, her hips, had her lost in wave after glorious wave of passion.
    Charity forgot about the proximity of the carnivores, and let her voice rise to urge him on. She met each incursion eagerly and cried out, louder each time as her body ripened toward climax.
    Braced above her with one hand, he wrapped one muscular arm around her waist, sealing her sweating body to his, and when he shuddered with his own release, she called his name, not caring what manner of creature might respond.
    "A'Kosu! Finish me. Make me come."
    "Kol.” The word escaped his lips as he drew back, preparing to fulfill her request. “My name is Kol."
    Charity barely heard his soft words. Her body reacted to the hot rush of his ejaculation, spasming to draw his pulsing sex deeper toward her womb.
    Some still-coherent part of her brain registered the significance of his sharing his true name with her, and that knowledge heightened her pleasure and touched her soul.
    She wrapped her trembling legs around him to pull him even closer against her, and she brought her hands up to his face. With a gentle sigh, she guided her lips to his and drank him in.
    As if he'd waited all his life for her kiss, Kol dove into her hungrily. He devoured her, sucking her tongue, tasting her lips. Charity pulled away only long enough to gasp in a breath of the musky night air, flavored with the scent of pollen and their own co-mingled pheromones. Then she took his mouth again, meeting his new demands as readily as she'd taken his cock inside her.
    Together they sank into a dim oblivion, letting passion guide them eventually into contented sleep.
    * * * *
    When Kol woke later, the forest was silent. He attributed the quiet to the coming of dawn, those few precious moments on any world when all of nature sleeps at once.
    Next to him, curled in the crook of his arm, Charity slept so deeply he could barely discern the rise and fall of her chest.
    He'd told her his name.
    In the heat of their unnatural coupling, he'd given her something reserved only for those who had earned their place in his life.
    The word “unnatural” echoed in his head as he shifted position to allow her more room on the scant bedroll. Last night hadn't been a reaction to the pollen. Anyone versed in rudimentary botanics could tell Lebron's hyper-growth cycle was ending.
    No.
    Last night he'd taken her because he wanted her, and he didn't need a vision to tell him he would do it again.
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CHAPTER 8
    "I hear the ship! It's here.” Charity practically danced through their campsite late that afternoon, dropping a precious container of water in the dirt in her haste to collect their scattered belongings.
    Kol rose and instinctively kicked dirt over the fire he'd just prepared. “Who is here?"
    "My contact from Gossamer. I recognize the ship. He's hovering over the lake. I know he saw me. He'll be landing on the far beach no doubt—there's no closer space that's wide enough, so we may have to wade through the shallows to reach him. Let's go! Goddess, bless us, we're getting off this rock."
    Relief battled with natural apprehension, but that didn't stop Kol from snatching up the last of their supplies and the selenite. He raced after Charity, who sprinted along the treacherous forest trails as though she'd been born to the place.
    She'd be free now, and Kol would have to decide how to present his failure to the tribe. The A'Kosu elders would not be pleased that he had doubted the veracity of his visions, or that he had allowed personal feelings to interfere with his work.
    He pushed his anxiety aside now and followed Charity all the way to the narrow crescent beach. When he reached her position, she pointed at