Tolstoy Read online

  11

  Anna

  Anna reeled at the question.

  How do you feel?

  Her mind was racing a mile a minute, or a light-year, or however she was supposed to measure things now. Questions piled on questions and all the doubts and fears she’d ever had about her body, her judgment, her freedom, and her future crowded each other for space at the front of her brain.

  But even as the storm raged on in her head, her body’s reaction to this man and his proposition was graceful and sure. Her heart pounded, her chest ached, and warmth pooled as her body prepared to seal the bond he had described.

  Could this really be happening? Could she really have traveled through space for centuries to fall in love with an alien on a dormant cruise ship?

  But she was already leaning closer to him, watching his dark eyes go hazy with need as her own body pulsed and trembled.

  “Are you human all over?” she blurted out just before he could kiss her.

  He smiled, brown eyes twinkling. “Yes, technically speaking this will work in the way you are used to.”

  She smiled back and he caressed her cheek, sending a rush of pleasure through her whole body with his gentle touch.

  “Do you have more questions?” he asked.

  His eyes were on her lips, making her think of kissing and licking and…

  “Is it really forever?” she heard herself ask.

  “Yes, forever,” he told her. “Does that frighten you?”

  “No,” she said. “Yes. I’m not sure.”

  He smiled indulgently and she noticed the dimple above his left cheekbone.

  “I left Earth in order to be free,” she told him.

  It was not a rejection. She realized too late that he might take it that way.

  But he only nodded and she felt the invisible bond between them swell with his understanding.

  “We will not seal the bond tonight,” he told her, his jaw tight with barely restrained need. “We must give you time to be sure.”

  A sympathetic pull through their bond nearly drove her out of her mind with desire.

  He closed his eyes as if in response to the surge of lust she felt.

  This was insane the way the feelings bounced back and forth between them, amplifying in some sort of emotional feedback loop. They would surely drive each other mad.

  “Lie down, my love,” he murmured.

  “No, I couldn’t sleep now,” she protested.

  But he slid his hand into her hair, cradling her head, and she found herself lying back on the bed.

  He crawled on top of her and leaned in close.

  Her whole body arched up to him, as if gravity were working in reverse.

  “I will not seal the bond tonight,” he told her again. “But I will help you to sleep, my love.”

  She wrapped her arms around him, pressed her breasts against his chest.

  His eyes seemed to almost change color.

  “No,” he whispered through a clenched jaw, wresting her arms from his shoulders and pinning them to the bed. “You can’t touch me.”

  “Wh-what?” she asked.

  “If you touch me I won’t be able to control myself,” he whispered. “Just be still, my love, and let me comfort you.”

  He lowered his face to hers before she could protest, and then hesitated for an instant before brushing her lips with his.

  Stars burst behind her eyelids like entire universes colliding.

  He kissed her again and she felt it all the way down to her toes - a rightness so strong she could build empires with it.

  “Good girl,” he murmured, kissing his way to her ear.

  She sighed and willed herself not to move as he nibbled her earlobe and moved on to the tender spot where her neck met her shoulder.

  “Oh, Anna,” he groaned, mouthing her sensitive skin.

  She closed her eyes, steeling herself for the bite, but he had already moved on.

  Leo nuzzled her breasts through the thin cotton of her sleeping clothes.

  Her nipples stiffened instantly and she whimpered for more.

  He growled and unlaced her top, keeping her arms pinned to the bed.

  She waited as he gazed down at her breasts for a glorious instant of anticipation before lowering his head to her.

  His warm mouth latched onto her right breast and she squealed with surprise at the sudden ecstasy.

  Leo seemed to lose himself, licking and nipping each tender bud until her hips were quivering and she could barely contain herself.

  He lifted his head and fixed her in his golden gaze.

  “If I let go of your hands, will you be still?” he asked.

  She nodded, unable to speak.

  “Do you promise?” he asked.

  She nodded again, emphatically.

  “Good girl,” he said. “Remember your promise.”

  Before she could beg for mercy he released her hands and lowered his head to kiss his way slowly down her belly.

  12

  Leo

  Leo allowed himself a heartbeat to gather his strength.

  I will not claim her, I will not claim her, I will not claim her…

  But the way she looked down at him with equal parts trust and need shot him through with desire.

  Leo had seen other human women. He wasn’t proud of it but he had spent his share of credits on the pleasure ships where human women were pitifully plentiful. There weren’t any barbarian females left that he knew of - those ships had been his only release.

  The women on the pleasure ships had no wish to be toyed with as he was seducing Anna now, but he had enough knowledge of their anatomy to change himself slightly and give them unspeakable pleasure with a slightly angled cock or a triple jointed thumb.

  But tonight he would remain constant, in the body he had assumed for her sake. There would be no shifting, no cheating the laws of nature as she knew them. He would give her ecstasy just as he was.

  The idea was intoxicating.

  Anna clutched the sheets but didn’t touch him.

  “Good girl,” he murmured again.

  The pale skin of her elegant neck glowed like a target.

  He dragged his eyes back to her breasts, her sweet nipples stiff and swollen from his attentions, begging for more.

  But he had other plans.

  “Leo,” she murmured.

  He nuzzled her soft belly again, then worked his way lower, nudging her legs apart.

  She pressed her legs together instinctively, then relaxed them, allowing her thighs to fall open for him.

  Leo moaned at the sight of her.

  She lifted her hips in response and the bond between them sizzled with lust.

  Her shell-pink sex glistened, her pouting lips the color of the dawn.

  He nuzzled and then licked.

  Anna cried out.

  Leo moaned in sympathy, losing himself in the honey-sweet taste of her desire as his own body raged and throbbed.

  Anna’s sounds grew frantic and he slid a finger up to slowly penetrate her as he licked.

  “Ohhh,” she moaned, her thighs tightening.

  His cock throbbed in desperate sympathy, the demand to claim her mounting to a fever pitch in his blood.

  Determined not to let that happen, Leo quickly moved his tongue to find the stiff little pearl that seemed to melt at his touch.

  “Leo,” Anna screamed.

  He flicked it twice then sucked.

  Anna made an indescribable sound and he felt her tighten around his finger as she convulsed with pleasure.

  Yes, yes, my mate. For me, only for me.

  He felt a satisfaction he had never known, in spite of his own agony of need. He continued to caress her until her tremors had ceased.

  “Leo,” she panted as he crawled up beside her.

  “Thank you,” he told her earnestly.

  She laughed and it sounded like bells.

  “Can I…?” she licked her lips and looked down at the place where
his throbbing member tented his makeshift loin cloth.

  He nearly lost his resolve, but managed to shake his head.

  “It’s time to rest,” he told her. “We can talk more tomorrow. But for now you need to sleep.”

  She made as if to protest, but he patted his chest and she rested her head against him instead.

  He stroked her hair and her shoulder blades and felt her relax.

  “The baby,” she said sleepily after a moment.

  “I’m here,” he told her. “I won’t leave either of you, ever again.”

  He should not have said so much.

  But her even breathing told him she was sleeping.

  It was a good beginning. She had accepted that he was not human. She had acknowledged the pull of the bond and then shown him her feelings through it.

  He inhaled the scent of her hair and stared up at the paneled ceiling, wondering how he would tell her the rest.

  13

  Anna

  Anna awoke in a cocoon of gentle warmth and stretched before opening her eyes.

  A pair of strong arms tightened around her.

  Leo.

  She opened her eyes and took in the view - six feet, five inches of muscular man encircled her. His heart beat lazily under her ear.

  It felt dizzyingly, perfectly right.

  Mates.

  She tried out the word in her head. It didn’t scare her as much as it had yesterday.

  “Did you sleep well?” he asked.

  His voice was so deep, and there was a teasing quality to his words.

  Her nipples stiffened as if they were reporting for duty.

  “I did,” she admitted. “Did you get any sleep at all?”

  “I don’t need as much sleep as you do,” he told her. “But it was a peaceful night.”

  A series of high-pitched beeps issued from the door to the tiny chamber where the baby was hidden.

  Anna was on her feet in record time, her heart in her mouth.

  “The pod appears to have lost connection with the generator,” BFF19 said calmly.

  Inside the pod, the baby still floated, but his amber light was extinguished.

  Anna attempted to disconnect the pod from the wall where it hung, but she wasn’t tall enough.

  “Leo,” she cried.

  But he was already right behind her.

  “I’ve got him,” he said.

  His face was tight with panic, but he moved calmly to the pod and lifted it from its place as BFF19 fluttered busily around his head.

  “Be careful of the cord,” the drone squealed.

  Anna detached the cord from the wall.

  Leo carried the pod to the bedchamber and placed it down.

  “Do you have a power source?” he asked Anna.

  But she was already digging through her pack, snatching out what she needed.

  “That’s my back-up battery source,” BFF19 cried.

  “Tolstoy needs it,” Anna said, cutting the wire harness that would have connected the battery to her suit.

  “Are you sure that’s safe?” Leo asked.

  “No, but it’s better than leaving him in there,” she said.

  She stripped the insulation from one of the wires with her teeth and spit it onto the floor.

  This was it, the moment of truth. She said a little prayer to whatever gods might be watching over a clone baby in a ship. Surely this couldn’t be that different from rewiring the constantly malfunctioning equipment in her parents, cafe.

  She took a breath and twisted the wires together, braiding the battery cable into the electrical input wires of the pod.

  The liquid in the tank went amber again as the light came on, indicating that the little one’s stasis pod was in full operation once more.

  “You did it,” Leo said, sounding immensely relieved.

  Anna was so relieved herself she thought she might faint.

  She studied the sweet little face in the pod. He was still sleeping but his chubby arms were up around his head, hands in fists as if he were showing off his muscles. His tendrils of blond hair drifted as he dreamed on.

  “He’s so small,” Leo whispered from his place over her shoulder.

  Anna nodded. There was a lump in her throat.

  “We have to get him to safety,” she said after a moment.

  “Intergalactic privateering code twelve states that all effects must be properly tagged and removed by recon drone,” BFF19 said.

  “This is different,” Anna said.

  “This pod is booty,” BFF19 pointed out. “All the contents of this ship are.”

  “He belongs to the public,” Anna retorted. “He’s a priceless treasure.”

  “Like hell he does,” Leo roared. “He’s a baby. He’s not a prize.”

  Anna turned to him, stunned. Even BFF19 stopped fluttering and hovered in apparent surprise.

  “You’re right,” Anna said, after a moment. “He’s a living person. He doesn’t belong to anyone.”

  Leo nodded, but his jaw rippled with tension, as if he were holding something back.

  “But,” Anna continued, “if we leave him on this ship, he could be in danger.”

  “Of course we’re not leaving him on the ship,” Leo said, placing a protective hand on the pod.

  “So let’s get some breakfast and figure it out,” Anna suggested, realizing their empty stomachs might be adding to the tension.

  “I’ll grab the breakfast,” Leo said. “You relax.”

  Anna nodded and watched him leave the chamber looking calm.

  “What was that about?” she wondered out loud.

  “Your barbarian companion is extremely protective,” BFF19 said. “This is a quality that may be valued or deplored depending on whether the recipient wishes to be protected.”

  “Uh, okay,” Anna said.

  “You should relieve your bladder, he is almost certainly doing the same,” BFF19 pointed out.

  “Noted,” Anna replied.

  She grabbed the pod and carried it carefully into the chamber’s bathroom with her. She wasn’t taking any chances with the baby.

  The bathroom was unlike anything she had ever seen before. A carpet that looked like grass but was really some sort of synthetic material covered the floor. The tub was sunken and oblong, looking more like a small pond than a bathtub. A UV light shone above it and lily pads floated inside.

  A stump-like structure in the corner turned out to be the toilet. She placed the baby in the grass, took care of her needs, then knelt and dipped a hand in the water.

  It was warm and inviting. If the lily pads were surviving, there couldn’t be anything too toxic in it.

  She peeled down and sank into the water.

  It was utter heaven.

  Her quarters on the Stargazer had access to a shared shower room where she had quickly lost her modesty bathing at a breakneck pace each morning with the other low-ranking privateers in tepid, recycled water. At least they were an all-female crew.

  She hadn’t had a nice soak in literally hundreds of years.

  “Anna,” Leo called from the chamber.

  “I believe she is bathing,” BFF19 told him helpfully.

  “I’ll be right out,” Anna called to them.

  But there were footsteps and the door flew open.

  Although he had done unbelievable things to nearly every inch of her body last night, Anna reflexively hugged her arms around herself.

  Leo appeared in the doorway, arms laden with small white boxes.

  “I said to stay put,” he growled.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “The baby is fine.”

  “I was worried,” he said.

  “Yes, but I’m here. I didn’t leave,” she told him.

  He placed the boxes on the grass near the edge of the tub and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, Anna. You scared me.”

  “You startled me too. Don’t they knock on space ships?” she asked.

  He looked momentarily horrified. />
  She splashed him. “Next time, knock.”

  “Okay, okay.” He laughed and shook his head, then made a show of wiping his face.

  “What’s for breakfast?” she asked.

  “Ah,” he said, pulling the stack of cartons closer. “I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat, so I grabbed a little of everything I thought might be familiar.”

  She swam over to look.

  He seemed to have her era basically right, though not her exact cultural norms. She looked at sketches on the top of each box. There was fish soup with rice, some kind of millet pudding, naan with chutney, and a box with eggs, bacon, baked beans, a scone and jam.

  “Any of these look good?” he asked.

  “They all look good, but I like the looks of the big English breakfast,” she said.

  “What’s that?”

  “This one,” she said, pointing to the last box.

  “You’re hungry,” he said, eyebrows raised.

  “Someone seems to have drained my energy last night,” she said, bold enough to flirt, but somehow not bold enough to look into his eyes.

  “Mm,” he said. “If I didn’t know better I would think you were trying to get out of eating your breakfast by distracting me. But I’m not falling for it.”

  “Fine,” she said. “Let me grab a towel and I’ll come eat.”

  “No, no,” he told her. “You soak. I’ll warm this and you can eat in the water.”

  “Okay,” she said, smiling.

  “This time really don’t go anywhere,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes.

  He bent down.

  She lifted her chin, expecting a kiss.

  Instead he splashed her.

  “Stay put, little mate,” he told her again, then disappeared back into the bed chamber.

  A moment later he reappeared with two plates heaped high with steaming food.

  “That smells so good,” she sighed.

  “I’m glad,” he told her.

  He sat by the water’s edge and placed the plates beside him.

  “They need to cool a little,” he told her. “So we can talk plans. What do we do? How do we get the baby off the ship?”

  “We need to get word to Mama that she has to come back for Tolstoy,” Anna said thoughtfully. “We can’t wait for the appointed pick up time. That’s not for days.”