Page 55 of Taken to Nobu
Kuana gasps, “Xivoora Xiveri.” She blinks wildly, flashing white, as if surprised by the words she herself has said.
The human male grins, as if he understands her words for what they are. Perhaps, between his translator and Svera’s manual, he does. Or perhaps heknowsin the way we allknowwhen we encounter our one true mate.
“Ziv-ooh-rah, Ziv-are-hee,” he says, the words butchered as he attempts the Voraxian language.
Kuana does not seem to mind. She returns his pleasure expression in full. He extends his hand towards her very carefully, like a scientist attempting an experiment he must get just right. So slowly even time seems to wait, Kuana places her six-fingered hand in his five-fingered one. His hand is large. Despite the Voraxian’s naturally larger physique, Kuana is small in stature and this male is quite the opposite. His palm dwarfs hers as he rubs his thumb across her skin.
“Stars,” he hacks, each breath he takes sounding painful for him. “This can’t be real.” The Xanaxana in Kuana’s chest begins to sound, a light purr rumbling throughout the room. Startled, the human looks at her chest where she wears only a light linen tunic and trousers beneath it. He licks his lips. Bites the lower. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
Kuana’s ridges intensify in color and she tenses. Less than a heartbeat later, I scent the sweet aroma of a female’s arousal. The Voraxian males in the room stiffen and I clear my throat as we each shame ourselves by experiencing this collective sensation.
“Kiki, come to my side,” I say, before turning my attention to the guards present in the room. “Xcleranx,” I address them, “Please accompany the humans back to their quarters. Ensure that Kuana and Jacabo have the privacy and supplies they need for as long as they need them.”
Embarrassment blasts over Kuana’s ridges in near fluorescent yellow, however, her human merely laughs. “That sounds good. Really good. That sound good to you, Koo-ah-nah? Is that your name?”
She nods. “Hexa. I mean, yes. That does sound good to me. And my name…I will tell you later, when we are alone.”
Jacabo smiles at her so tenderly, I feel a knot in my own chest I did not realize I carried, release. Kuana is an honorable female. It is an honor to us all that Xana has chosen a Xiveri mate for her. One who is honorable, for he would not be here as part of this congregation were he not.
“Then I don’t want to wait. Can I carry you?” She nods and Jacabo lifts her in his arms. He turns to face the group of humans and protectors they arrived with. “What are we waiting for? My mate and I need some privacy.”
The guard begin towards the door, but one of the human females — the frightened one — says, “So it’s real? This instant bonding thing?”
Jacabo nods. “Yes. It’s real.” As he speaks, he does not look away from Kuana’s face. “Very real.”
“What does it feel like?” One of the males asks next.
Jacabo exhales, “Like I just met my wife.”
The humans murmur amongst one another, but I do not look away from Kiki’s face. She is smiling, so resplendent and genuinely happy I know I will commit this moment, this vision, to memory for the rest of my rotations. Her laughter breaks me out of my trance — something one of the humans must have said.
Raku, behind me, whispers in his Rakukanna’s ear, informing her of the scent of Kuana’s arousal growing more potent and the Rakukanna quickly issues orders for the humans to disperse, the guards with them, until eventually Kiki and I are alone in the overlook room. I remain frozen where I am. She remains frozen with a smile on her face.
“I can’t believe it,” she says at last. “Like really cannot believe it. Jacabo is a farmer back home. He hates it and is this ridiculous, sarcastic person. Kuana is so calm and gentle and straightforward and diligent in her duties. They make an unlikely pair.”
“Don’t we all.”
Her gaze hits mine then and I feel appropriately struck by it. I release the hold I had on my ridges and my Xanaxana, allowing the room to fill with color and sound. Kiki’s grin holds and she comes at me in a run. Thinking she means to fight me once more, I’m caught off guard when she jumps, clinging to my frame. I wrap my arms around her and take her down to the furs and we commit this love act to and with one another throughout the lunar and it is only in the aftermath, as we lay bound together in the quiet dark, that I remember what it was I intended to tell her the moment her humans landed on planet.
“Your humans,” I whisper as the re’ien farrn fire glows softly, illuminating the gold notes in her skin.Ioni so full of life.“They did not come alone to Nobu.” I hold, awaiting her reaction. For her to pull away from me, to fight. Awaiting her hate to resurface.I would deserve no less. Svera and the Rakukanna’s surprises be damned, I should have told her before this.
But my Kiki only sighs, “I know.”
I sit up so that I may look down at her. Her full lips and their scandalous shape are slack and begging to be suckled. I take her face in one hand and tilt her head back so that she sees me and knows the meaning of the words that I say next, “No harm will come to you while he is on planet.”
“I’m not worried,” she says and I am surprised.
“You…are not?”
She takes my hand and licks a line up the center of my palm in a way that I find disastrously erotic. I will soon have her beneath me again, but first I must know, “You are calm, my Xhea…an honorable reaction.”
She laughs. “There’s nothing honorable about it. I just realized that the only power he has anymore is the one I give him. He’s a disgraced fool and he deserves nothing from me, least of all power.”
The rattling in my chest blots out all noise. Blots out all thought. I bend over her and plant my kiss against the center of her forehead. “You are a wise female,” I say. “The trial that will take place in two solars will be over quickly.”
She smiles as she begins her own slow caress of my body, my neck, my abdomen, my ribs, and then lower. Her mouth follows her hands, moving over me in movements that are possessive and sure. The whole room smells of her. Dark and devouring smoke. And I am happily inundated.
“I hope it isn’t,” she says against my skin. “I want him to suffer.”
