Page 9 of Tender Captivity
“It feels nice,” she murmured.
When he stopped, she lifted a hand to touch her hair. It was saturated with the oil he produced, but it didn’t feel heavy or gross. And it even soothed her scalp as she ran her fingers through her curly strands. It reminded her of the product she used to buy to keep her curls from becoming unmanageably tangled.
When she dropped her hands back into her lap, Holian tightened his arms around her and drew her in to snuggle against his chest. Neither spoke as his purrs filled the room, and a contentedness she hadn’t felt in years nestled in her heart.
Sleep snuck up on her, and as she dropped into unconsciousness, she couldn’t be sure she heard him speak or if her sleepy brain imagined it.
“I’ll always give you a choice, little flower. But I hope you choose me.”
Chapter 5
Unlike earlier, when Jinna woke up this time she knew exactly where she was—snuggled in Holian’s strong embrace. Only now they were in a bed with his larger body curled around hers instead of sitting in a chair.
One section of the wall near their heads was set to semi-transparent so it glowed with early morning light. Lifting her head, she looked over her shoulder to find Holian’s eyes open and watching her.
“Good morning,” she whispered, and then remembered Talins didn’t use that term. “Rise with the ancestors.”
Holian began purring as he answered with the Talin equivalent of saying good morning back to a person. “Let their wisdom guide us.”
Wiggling in his embrace, she moved until she was facing him. “You guys like to make even simple greetings complicated.”
“At least we aren’t like the Matok,” Holian replied, his purring interrupted with a rumble of amusement.
She snuggled a little closer to him, putting her head under his chin. “What do they do?”
“They will use their arms to embrace each other and then jump as high as they are able while shouting each other’s name. The louder they are and higher they jump is how much affection they feel for each other,” Holian explained.
“I like this better,” Jinna said with a chuckle.
Then she felt it—the hard press of flesh against her belly. She was a grown woman who’d had a husband and borne a child. There was no mistaking the organ pressed against her.
Holian must have belatedly realized what was going on because he tried to draw his hips away from her. “I’m sorry. I’ve never shared a bed with anyone before.”
That made her draw back in surprise. “I thought you had a son?”
“I do,” he answered with a quizzical rumble. “What does that have to do with sharing a bed?”
“You must have had sex with his mother,” she pointed out, feeling as confused as Holian sounded.
“Ah, I see where this conversation went wrong,” Holian said with an amused rumble. “You haven’t learned some aspects of Talin culture and law yet.”
“Then tell me,” Jinna urged.
“Giving birth to a child is illegal among Talins as it’s considered a waste of resources. When a couple enters into a marriage contract, they donate genetic material to a facility. They grow our children in artificial wombs and then raise them in the cresh until they are almost adults. Each Talin is expected to have one male and one female child, for the good of the empire. When the child is of age, they move out of the cresh and join the family.”
Jinna sucked in a horrified breath. “Do married couples even sleep together?”
“They’re expected to engage in coitus a few times, as a way to cement a partnership bond,” Holian answered slowly. “But my wife died soon after our marriage ceremony and we never had a chance to share a bed. I’d hoped to talk her into breaking the law and bearing our child, but thankfully we’d both donated before she died, and we got to have one child together.”
“You must have been heartbroken,” Jinna murmured.
“Our marriage was arranged,” Holian explained. “She was a clever woman with similar views on government and politics. I was content with the match at the time.”
“At the time? Have you changed your mind on marriage now?” she asked, wondering why her heart was beating so hard.
“After seeing the love matches between humans and Talins, I wanted…” He paused, his tone wistful and his purr going silent. Thinking she’d hit a topic that was too painful to discuss, she redirected the conversation.
“What about your son? Did you let the cresh raise him?”
