She slowly walked closer to him, pain welling bright in her heart. “Yeah, it hurts me too. Especially right now when I need my clan so much and they’re not with me. Thank you for participating in my father’s funeral, by the way.”

  Japohn nodded, his face relaxing but eyes still shut. “Imperial Father Aaron great man. Honored to see him through final journey.”

  He finally opened his eyes and looked in her face. Lindsey saw her misery reflected in his eyes. “Clan broken, Lindsey. Vax no speak to us. Bacoj stare at nothing, no prepare for mission. I hit things, want to break.” His chest hitched, and his voice came out strangled. “And no Lindsey.” He shook his head, unable to say another word.

  “Then stop being stupid!” she yelled, no longer able to keep her frustration in check. “You and Bacoj need to stop being so damned noble and take me back. Make me your Matara again.”

  “No my decision,” Japohn groaned. “I agree now you stay with us, but Bacoj is Dramok. He is determined you go to better clan.”

  “If I live a million years, I won’t go with another clan. Japohn, he listens to you. Make him see reason.”

  Japohn sighed. “I try. But he stubborn. Like Nobek.” He offered her a weary smile.

  “So I’ve noticed.”

  Lindsey reached up to stroke his cheek, unable to keep from touching Japohn. The next instant, his arms were banded tightly around her, lifting her off the ground to consume her in a demanding kiss.

  Every sense exploded as he took her mouth, and Lindsey wrapped her arms and legs around his body, fiercely clutching at him. With a moaning growl, Japohn crushed her against the nearest wall, pulling her skirt up to her waist and yanking the crotch of her panties aside to explore her with insistent fingers. She squealed to feel his touch there, and she wriggled in response against his body pinning her to the wall.

  He stroked her soft folds, making her wet. As her honey seeped from her core, he spread it over her labia and clit. She rewarded him with more of her thick juices, which he smeared back to her anus.

  “Yes,” she sobbed the moment his mouth left hers. “Take me, Japohn. Take your Matara.”

  He rumbled deep in his chest in response. He lifted her slightly higher, and his head reared back. Lindsey saw his long, rattlesnake fangs an instant before he buried them in her neck, injecting her with the intoxicant that would take all the pain away.

  She sob-sighed as the first sweet twinges of euphoria crept through her mind, soothing all the hurts she’d endured these last few days. Soon there was nothing of importance except the muscular man holding her against the wall, his body a firm shelter in which to hide from the world.

  His fingers worked in and out of her sex and anus as he bit, exciting her willing flesh. Lindsey shifted her hips, taking him as deep as he would allow, whimpering with need. “Please, Japohn,” she begged. “Do it now.”

  He withdrew fingers and fangs, and she felt him work the crotch of his formsuit. His naked sexes sprang loose, throbbing with heat and slick with his lubrication. He shifted her again, and she cried out as his cocks parted her entrances.

  Japohn entered her slowly but steadily, and Lindsey warbled a welcome to the intruders. He was a big man, and she felt the slight ache of adjusting to him, but the discomfort was a balm to her shattered emotions. Her body eagerly adjusted, making room for all he would give her and begging for more.

  “Love you, Lindsey,” he whispered, and the words were a benediction. She soared on the emotion behind his simple utterance, and she knew she belonged nowhere else but in the arms of this man and his clanmates.

  I’ll find a way to get back into the clan, she thought, and under the influence of Japohn’s bite, she believed it. There had to be a way to convince Bacoj. She just had to figure it out.

  Her hands dove into Japohn’s curls, holding his head as she kissed him passionately. He returned the embrace a hundredfold as his thrusts moved her up and down the wall. She rode his fervor, climbing up and up the glorious path to completion. She felt herself dissolving around him, her insides liquefying. She was the softness to his solidity, becoming more malleable by the second to seep into his pores, soaking into him until she was an eternal portion of his very essence.

  When she came, it was with quiet cries that she announced her climax. The orgasm rolled through her in silky waves, and her sheath coaxingly milked Japohn, making him groan. He pushed into her harder and faster, his grunts as bestial as her sighs were melodic. The stronger his plunges into her body, the more yielding she became. He was granite moving through velvet, and the pulses of culmination flowed and ebbed in gentle surges that lit her from within.

  Japohn shuddered, and he pulsed hugely within her. His groan seemed to emanate all the way from his toes, and Lindsey delighted in every jolt his larger cock gave as it throbbed its offering into her womb. She kissed his face as he succumbed, tasting the sweet-salty tears that wet his cheeks.

  Words were beyond her as she continued to flow in bliss, but could she have spoken she would have told him not to cry, because this time would not be their last. She would make Bacoj see reason, even if it took forever. Somehow, she would rejoin the clan.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lindsey stood in front of the clan’s quarters, mentally rehearsing her speech. If Japohn had done as she asked earlier, he would have gotten Vax out so she could talk to Bacoj alone. She had a feeling the three of them ganging up on their Dramok would have the opposite effect of bringing him around to their way. As Japohn had observed, he could be obstinate, especially when pushed too hard.

  If Bacoj would just listen for a few moments. If he would just give her an opportunity to share her proposal and not dismiss it without thought. That’s all she could hope for.

  She stepped close to the door, and it opened for her. Lindsey realized the door was still keyed to recognize her at the same time she processed the fact that the room inside was dark. Before she could feel more than a twinge of disappointment that Bacoj must have left too, he stepped forward to be framed by the hall’s light. She had an instant of recognizing the desperate look in his eyes before his hand shot out to grasp her forearm. He yanked her into the quarters, and the door shut behind her, enclosing her in complete darkness with him.

  Without a word, his mouth took hers in a sweet, slow kiss that made Lindsey’s knees buckle. His mouth still locked on hers, Bacoj swung her up in his arms and carried her a few steps before laying her gently on the sleeping mat. His heavy bulk settled over her, caging her wonderfully beneath him.

  His hands worked at her clothes, pulling them off, making her naked. He touched her all over, as if to memorize every dip and curve of her. Lindsey moaned, her carefully rehearsed speech far from her mind as the hard, calloused hands enveloped her. The only thing that existed for her in this dark sanctuary was Bacoj’s touch and the eternal kiss he warmed her lips with.

  Her lover shed his formsuit like a snake sloughing off skin. He was so warm, so welcoming, like coming indoors from a winter storm. Lindsey felt his hard prods at her thighs, the tips tracing wet designs on her flesh. She parted her legs in silent invitation, and he moved to press inside her, seeking her heat.

  She arched beneath Bacoj as he breached her openings, filling her to perfection. Once fully immersed inside, he went still, nestling in her hearth while his mouth and tongue worked hers, kissing her as if he might die if separated.

  They lay like that for a long time, joined at mouth and groin, content to be one entity for a time. After a while, Lindsey could no longer separate where she ended and Bacoj began. They were fused, two halves making a perfect whole.

  But passion woke, stirring them to move at last. They twined together, sliding against one another in sinuous harmony. They moved slowly at first, lazily slithering about their combined bodies, in no hurry to ignite in tumultuous explosion. When they glided against each other a little faster, it was a natural progression. They let their senses dictate the pace, sometimes slowing again, sometimes stopping completely. If Lindsey had been forced to put a name to their joining, she would have called it organic. There was none of the usual frenzy to push to the end. There was only the purity of ultimate connection.

  When at last the need to find completion did overcome them, they still moved as if joined by one soul. No words were spoken, no encouragement was needed. Their unity was so total that they climaxed together, their mingled groans ebbing and flowing in time with each other. Only after the last pulse of orgasm spent itself and their breath quieted did they realize Japohn and Vax had come into the room, silently standing back and watching the pair.

  Once they knew Lindsey and Bacoj had discovered their presence, the Nobek and Imdiko joined them on the mat. Again, no words were needed or even wanted. The four bodies twisted and knotted together until it was impossible to tell whose limbs belonged to whom. For a too-brief time the hurt was healed and the clan was made whole again. The group made love far into the night until exhaustion claimed every one of them, sending them into reluctant oblivion.

  * * * *

  Lindsey’s eyes opened. The lights overhead were set to gradually brighten as the sun rose, and the room blazed. She looked into Bacoj’s steady gaze. She felt Vax’s body firm against her back. His and Japohn’s thicker arms circled her waist from behind.

  Bacoj looked at her with a look of agonized adoration. She swallowed. No one had ever looked at her with such hopelessness and love before.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  He smiled at her, but the pain in his expression remained nonetheless. “Hello. Last night no change—”

  She put her hand over his mouth. “Stop. I know, Bacoj.”

  “I so glad you visit. I think you no forgive me.”

  She fought for a light tone, thinking he’d be more likely to listen to her if she spoke gently, without an argumentative tone. “I figured, why deny myself the little time I have left here with you?”

  He smoothed her cheek with a calloused thumb. “Thank you.”

  She snuggled close to him, deliberately letting him feel the warm softness of her body. She had no compunction about using any unfair advantage she might possess. “I have an idea if you’ll hear it.”

  His eyes closed down with the finality of a slamming door. “Please no make harder. Hurt enough.”

  Vax propped himself up on an elbow and snarled, “I want hear idea.”

  Japohn sat up and with a respectful tone added, “What can harm to hear, my Dramok?”

  Bacoj glared at them both for an instant before his body sagged. He covered his face with his hands, muffling his groan. “All right. What idea you have, Lindsey?”

  Lindsey sat up, shooting a look of gratitude at Vax and Japohn. Bacoj also rose and sat cross legged facing her. His expression was still grim, letting her know he was ready to shoot down anything she might say. But at least he would let her speak.

  She took a deep breath. “I’ll go to Kalquor tomorrow as you wish. I’ll meet the suitors my sister has lined up for me. I’ll do everything I’m supposed to do. Does that meet with what you feel is right?”

  He watched her with sharp eyes. She could almost hear him turning her words over in his head, looking for the trap. Finally he gave her a slow nod. “It is what is required.”

  “Your assignment is for one year, right? Then you return to Kalquor, to the lives you had before the war.”

  Vax answered her. “Better lives. Bacoj qualify for better position after service.”

  Japohn added, “I have new opportunity when return. Real work, no more bounty hunter.”

  “So you’re going back to Kalquor in less than two years. Right, Bacoj?”

  He frowned, still obviously trying to figure out what she was up to. “Correct.”

  Lindsey was proceeding very carefully now. “That’s enough time to look over my clanning options. More than enough, in fact. Now suppose I don’t like any of the clans who court me?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Many men. Many clans to choose from.”

  “I’m a picky girl, especially since I’m already madly in love. So Bacoj, here’s my proposal. If I’m still unclanned when you get home, can we reconsider my being your Matara?”

  He blinked at her, his surprise apparent. “We will still no rank high enough.”

  Lindsey fought the huff of frustration that wanted to spring from her lips. “You know I don’t care about that.” She took his hands in hers and felt the strength in them. “Bacoj, I’m not going to clan with men I don’t feel something for no matter their pedigree or bank account.” At his confused expression she added, “Only belonging to a clan I love will make me happy. Isn’t my happiness worth something on Kalquor? To you?”

  He looked at her with an earnestness that broke her heart. “You happy worth everything.”

  Bacoj stared at their linked hands, his face heavy with concentration. Lindsey could feel Vax and Japohn at her back, holding their breath as their Dramok struggled to do the right thing.

  Finally he looked her in the eye again. A tired smile hinted at his lips, and Lindsey dared to hope. Bacoj nodded. “You no clan when we return, we reclan.”

  Vax and Japohn began laughing in celebration, but when Bacoj held up his hand for silence, they immediately quieted. There was no smile on his face when he said, “Lindsey, you want different clan, you join. Do no give up happy life for this clan. You swear this to me.”

  She tightened her hands on his, her heart racing and soul singing with victory. “Yes Bacoj. If I fall in love with another clan I won’t wait for you. Deal?”

  He picked her up and put her in his lap. His very hard, very stiff lap. “It is deal. I love you, my Lindsey.”

  Vax and Japohn crowded close, ready to join the celebration. And for Lindsey, it was a triumph, because there was no doubt she would be their Matara again.

  * * * *

  The next day came too soon. Lindsey’s heart throbbed painfully as the shuttle’s engines cycled on behind her. She did not want to board it. She did not want to go to Kalquor. Not without the three men Tara was bidding goodbye.

  Her mother kissed each cheek in turn. Japohn was almost bent double so she could reach him. They were all three blushing furiously, their smiles shy to be treated with such affection. Had Lindsey not been so miserable, she would have laughed to see the hulking Kalquorians so bashful with the tiny Tara McInness.

  “Take care of yourselves,” Tara told them.

  Bacoj bowed. “Yes, Imperial Mother.”

  Tara frowned at him, her voice all maternal disapproval. “You know better than that.”

  Bacoj’s grin split his face, and he wrapped his arms around her in a gentle hug. “Be well, Matara Tara.”

  Vax and Japohn joined them in a group hug, much to the undisguised shock of the other Kalquorians gathered on the parking lot/shuttle pad. Sarod’s mouth hung open to see Tara treated with such familiarity. Lindsey suppressed an urge to smack him upside the head.

  The clan let Tara go, and she stepped back, brushing the back of her hand against a suddenly wet cheek. “I’ll see you all again,” she said, her words more order than observation.

  They nodded, all three blinking hard. She turned and boarded the shuttle.

  It was Lindsey’s turn to say goodbye. She swallowed a throatful of tears as she stepped close to the men and gulped again when each one reached to stroke her hair and face. “Last chance to come to your senses,” she said.

  Bacoj pulled her close, crushing her to his body. He whispered in her ear, “We love you, Lindsey. Do no doubt.”

  She burrowed her face in his formsuited chest, inhaling his spicy scent one last time. Feeling the hard planes of his strong body, storing it in her memory to hang onto in the lonely weeks to come. With a resigned sigh, she finally stepped back. “I’ll see you in about twenty-one months, you big lugs.”

  The tears she’d fought broke loose as she embraced each in turn for final kisses and caresses and whispered words of love. Japohn’s arms shook around her and Vax wept openly. Bacoj tried to smile, but the look was so pained it was more a grimace.

  “Be well, our love,” he choked as she backed through the shuttle hatch, looking at her clan for as long as she could. Lindsey felt her soul ripping to tatters to be leaving them behind. This was such a mistake, but she’d done the best she could. The separation was for less than two years. She could handle it — couldn’t she?

  The door snicked shut, cutting her from her clan. It took all she had to not scream from the agony, the torture no less than having a limb torn off. She might have stood there forever, staring at the hatch and shaking if Tara hadn’t gently pulled her to her seat.

  Lindsey sobbed in her mother’s arms as the shuttle lifted off, carrying her away from the three men who held her heart.