A Story Begins Now

By Jane Carver

Warning: Adult Content

Gambrel woke sprawled in his bed, one side warmer than the other. One sleepy eyelid open, he spotted Vangee tucked into his embrace, her hair in disarray over his arm and chest. She sighed, stretched until one leg rode his thigh. Like any man who woke with a beautiful woman at hand, his thought turned to passion.

Coaxing his drowsy lover, he eased her up onto his body. She covered him like a small but seductive swathe. From there, he massaged the shapely muscles of her bottom. The warm smell of their lust drifted from her skin.

The windows in the rear wall remained opaque. Was it morning rise already? Black space surrounded the fleet now. Seven bells rang above decks. The early watch neared its end.

Vangee woke with a smile and a sigh so sweet that Gambrel’s heart flip-flopped in his breast. Soft kisses caressed his nipples. Her skin warmed more, and the scent of woman pressed into his senses. Slowly she reared above his body, her back arched, her hands working the muscles of his shoulders, chest, waist. The cheeks of her firm backside surrounded his shaft. Sensual words filled his ear as she knelt over his hips, got his hands where she wanted them then reached between her legs.

Gambrel almost came off the bed when she clutched his arousal in a firm velvet grip. With the skill of one recently taught, one who took pleasure from the lesson, Vangee guided his blood-filled erection to her opening.

“I want you.” Her last words as she lowered her sheath around him, her inner muscles squeezing and pressing. She drove him mad with need.

“Ride me. Pull my mind from my body.” His hands settled so hard against her waist she whimpered, but clasped them to her side when he tried to move them away.

“Never think you hurt me. Only if you go away.” She performed a sensual dance upon his shaft. “Never leave me,” she whispered and proceeded to drive him out of his mind.

He weathered her force and met her evenly, his own body powering into her softness, grinding his bones against hers, his injuries forgotten in the magic of loving Vangee.

Their climax erupted with such fury their screams surely rang along the lower decks. Neither noticed nor cared how much noise they made. Pure light filled them.

Vangee glowed. Her mystic light shown through his closed eyes. He imagined the brightness, but opened his eyes to see the illumination real. Astride his hips, head back, arms straight, fingers bruising his upper arms, a spectral beauty surrounded her.

The luminosity brightened further. He swore his body had been sucked into hers. The light faded, and he slowly reentered his own casket of bones, muscle, and blood.

“What happened?” Gambrel asked first because he drew breath sooner than her. She still appeared locked in some holy illumination. Did this have anything to do with being a Radiant?

The glow around her faded slowly.

He forgot his question when she collapsed like a boneless lump onto him. For a minute he worried she might be mind-lost or ill. When she blew a loud snort of air into the hairs of his chest, he smiled. Nothing wrong. Just worn out.

“Good?” He had to ask even as he knew the answer. She didn’t see his wide grin.

“I have nothing to compare with this,” Vangee admitted. “No man before you has come to me so I cannot say if you are better than any other.”

He stiffened in indignation.

She laughed. “I can certainly say this time was the best we have yet shared.”

With no modesty, she sprawled out upon him, one hand on a nipple, her legs wide across his hips. Her woman’s wetness still watered his shaft.

One large hand pushed her tangled purple curls off her face to lay down her back. “You are a wanton woman. And a fast learner,” he complimented with nothing but the truth. “Though my cock thinks it should be buried in your tempting body, we should get to our duties.”

A loud groan denied the necessity, but she got up. “You are a beautiful man.” She kissed him.

“Men are not beautiful, Vangee. Such words dig at our manhood.” He sounded insulted, but the denial of appearance came out sounding funny.

“Be that as you wish. You are a strikingly handsome man.” She wobbled when she stood.

Gambrel lay flat on his back but held out a hand to steady her. “You are sore?” After the activities of the full-dark, her slow walk across the deck to the dressing panel represented a feat of mind over bruised body. He refrained from chuckling in pleasure. She would think him laughing at her discomfort.

When ready to leave the cabin, Gambrel stopped Vangee. “A word.” How to say what he must? He hesitated so long she tried to go around him.

“I say this though it pains me. This is truth, however, and not to be denied. I love you. You don’t love me. You shared an incredible full-dark with me. You say I fascinated you from the beginning.”

She nodded but shot him an odd glance.

“Be that the way it is or not, we must be on our guard so others do not think less of you for what we did. Some day you will part from me, and this will be a fond memory. I would not change a sixty-brace of it. But you will forget it times from now. You will perhaps love Boratax, the explorer. I will no longer matter.”

Though he loved and wanted her more than his next breath, he assumed she did not share the same passion. She embraced wholeheartedly what they did in the dark, but that was not enough to build a future on.

A look he had never seen crossed her face.

“Are you finished?” Soft words hissed like the sound of an angry water flyer. Dark gray eyes snapped, the yellow slits narrow and cold looking. Her expression hardened into a deep scowl.

What did he say wrong?

Her fury burst over him. “You know what you think but never asked me what I think. You told me what I will believe.” A bottom-deep breath expanded her chest. “Do not think for me!” Vangee snarled his words back at him. “I might wish to forget this times from now? What do you know of what I wish? You never asked me.” She opened the door so hard it rattled. “Men!” The portal shook as she slammed it closed.

Gambrel stood with limp hands at his side and gaping mouth, lost in pure ignorance.