Free Without a Front by Fletcher DeLancey Page B

matters, I was beyond your aid long ago. I’m not sure when the student surpassed the teacher, but it’s been many cycles.”
    â€œOh, the dokshin is deep this morning!” He laughed, delighted to see her so happy. “I see your joining has made you completely insufferable, as if you weren’t already well on your way.”
    Crossing one leg over the other, she exuded satisfaction and contentment. “I speak mere truth and you call me insufferable. This says much about your own self-doubts, Micah. I can help you with those.”
    â€œNo thanks. With your kind of help it would be another three cycles before I touched the skin of a woman.”
    â€œWell, there’s something to be said for quality versus quantity. But I forget, you have no time for complicated issues such as true joining.”
    â€œI’m glad it was so perfect and true. Will there be a Sharing, then?”
    Her easy contentment vanished. “We’ve only just joined! Give me a little time.”
    A Sharing was normally more intimate than a mere physical joining. Sexual pleasure was simple and transitory, but to open one’s full emotions to another, with no front at all, required a level of trust that most Alseans did not give so early in an acquaintance. Especially someone like Tal. And especially when that Sharing meant revealing a rather large secret.
    â€œI wish I could,” he said, “but your time is limited.”
    â€œBelieve me, I know. I want to tell her. I’ve already let too many opportunities pass, but…it’s been too long since a woman wanted me for myself. I’d forgotten what it felt like.”
    â€œIt has not been that long. Captain Serrado knew who you were.”
    Tal looked pained. “Darzen is not Ekatya.”
    â€œAh. She’s a vacation tryst, then?”
    â€œNo, she’s more than that.” She shook her head. “You knew that. You’re baiting me.”
    â€œI want to understand. Tell me.” Micah leaned forward, watching her fidget in her chair.
    â€œShe’s good for me in so many ways. Smart and funny and thoughtful and easy to be with. And she challenges me and keeps me thinking. I doubt I would grow bored with her. But…” She hesitated.
    â€œBut?”
    â€œShe’s not my tyree.”
    â€œOh, Tal.” He sat back, his heart aching for her. “We’re not all destined to be tyrees. You cannot turn your back on someone who is good for you and may love you, simply because you hope for more. That ‘more’ might never come. You know how rare it is.”
    â€œI know, I know. But I’ve felt it.” She looked up at him, a deep longing in her expression. “Ekatya and Lhyn couldn’t feel it on their own, so I linked them. Every night for a nineday and a half, I was part of a tyree bond.”
    He sucked in a breath, and she gave him a wry smile.
    â€œThat’s why I didn’t tell you.”
    â€œI’m not judging,” he said. “I’m just…”
    â€œShocked.”
    He nodded. “You’re not usually so…imprudent. You linked a pair of sonsales tyrees. There’s no precedent for that. You had no idea what it would do.” But it didn’t take much thought to come up with the most likely scenario. “They couldn’t control it. It all came back on you, didn’t it? Why would you do that to yourself?”
    â€œBecause they didn’t understand. Fahla gave them one of her greatest gifts, but not the ability to truly feel it or understand it. I couldn’t stand by and let them flounder when it was so easy to show them the truth. It was an in-the-moment decision the first time, and an addiction after that. Yes, it was impulsive and unwise, but it was the most spectacular thing I’ve ever felt. Ever. And then they left, and it was gone. I thought I’d come to peace with that. I thought I could make Alsea my bondmate. But