Sam's Secret (Icehome)

I fight back the stab of jealousy that courses through me at the sight of her running her hands over this male. There is no reason to be upset—Sam is resonating to me, I remind myself. Sam is being kind. She wishes to help him as she would wish to help anyone. It does not mean he is a rival for her affections.

"Help me undress him?" Sam asks, looking up at me.

I grit my teeth. It means nothing, I tell myself. Nothing at all.

16

SAM

The strange-looking cat guy is surprisingly large once we pull him free from the pod. There's a million tubes hooked under the strange, plastic-feeling jumpsuit he's wearing, and we pull them all free. He still doesn't awaken and I worry that we're somehow making things worse. Does he need these tubes so he can breathe? He's an alien, after all. I think briefly that maybe we should have gone to fetch Mardok from the Croatoan village, but it's too late now. The tubes are out and he's breathing, if not awake.

Sessah hefts him into his arms, and I carry both of our spears as the strong sa-khui male totes both packs and the mysterious stranger. I'm impressed at Sessah's strength and resilience, because by the time we make it back to the warmth of the fruit cave, I'm exhausted and it's barely noon. We settle in atop the main ledge, even though we've been sleeping by the pool down below for the last few days. Sessah is gentle with the guy, placing him carefully atop the fur blanket I roll out, and I press a hand to the furry forehead. "I wish I knew that we were doing the right thing."

"You are doing what you feel is best," Sessah says. "No one could find fault with that."

His view might be a little too simplistic, and I could argue that there's probably a lot of things people could find fault with, but what's done is done. The cat-man shivers, and I wonder if perhaps the fruit cave isn't as warm to those without a khui. It's hard for me to tell anymore. "We need more blankets."

We pile them atop the stranger and try to dribble water into his mouth, but I don't even know if he drinks water. I feel helpless, gnawing at my lip in frustration. Sessah moves next to me, and fresh arousal flares through my body. Hot need clenches deep inside me, and I double over with the intensity of it.

I might have temporarily forgotten about resonance, but resonance is making it clear that it hasn't forgotten me.

"Sam?" Sessah gently touches my shoulder. "What is wrong?"

"Re-resonance," I pant, clutching at my belly. My channel ripples again, reminding me that I'm aching and hollow inside and that I need to be filled. Filled and fucked and all those good F-words.

He rubs my cheek with a tender finger that just makes the need stronger, and I'm tempted to turn my head and drag that finger in my mouth, sucking on it like the needy thing I am. "Do you need to edge?"

Oh god. If only he knew what it really meant when he asked that. This whole resonance thing is like one big edge-fest, bringing myself to the brink and not allowing any relief. "I think I should." I struggle to my feet, my knees weak. "Give me a few minutes and I'll be back—"

Before I can finish my sentence, Sessah is on his feet and sweeps me into his arms. "No."

I let out a squeak of protest. "What do you mean, no? Where are you taking me?" For some reason, I'm not panicking at Sessah's touch. I'm not freaking out that he's got control, and that fills me with a sense of wonder and calms me. I trust him, I realize. I trust him enough to know that he's not going to hurt me or do anything that would make me upset. I poke him even as I relax in his arms, knowing he's not going to toss me over the side or anything. "Where are we going?"

He gazes down at me with blazing blue eyes that steal my breath away. His khui is loud and insistent—or maybe it's mine. It's hard to tell. "I am going to edge you, like you do for me. You need relief, and I will not allow you to hurt any longer."

I squirm in his arms, shocked. He's going to make me come? Just because I touched him this morning? I'm utterly aroused, the insides of my thighs immediately slick with my need. "Sessah, you don't have to—"

The growl he makes startles me. "I want to, Sam. I have never wanted anything so badly in my life." He settles me gently at the far end of the cavern from the sleeping cat-man and pulls his cloak off, making a bed on the floor. "I want this more than I want my next breath," he tells me in a low, urgent voice. "Let me do this for you."