Awakened by the Giant Read online

  But that’s why I need to do this, she thought, fighting the guilty thoughts in her head. They’re gone but I’m still here. I need to feel alive, damn it! To know that I survived and I’m here, living and breathing and feeling.

  “Please, Calden,” she heard herself say. “I think…think you should go deeper, just to be on the safe side. I don’t want to take a chance that the enzymes might get, you know, up inside me.”

  “Of course,” he rumbled softly and now Maddy saw that his glowing topaz eyes were half-lidded. When she looked between his legs, she could see that his thick shaft was fully erect—and completely huge. Gods, he had a monster down there! There was no way she could ever take that between her legs.

  But I don’t need to take his cock—just his fingers, she thought and spread her thighs a little wider.

  “Please, Calden,” she said, hearing the breathless note in her own voice and not caring. “Please, touch me deeper. Make sure I’m protected.”

  “You’re so small and delicate,” he murmured and his hand began moving again, stroking her inner folds and sliding over the aching bump of her clit. “I’ll just use one finger.”

  “All right.” She nodded. “That’s all right.”

  She tried not to moan as one long finger slid down over her clit and found the aching entrance to her pussy. But she couldn’t hold back the gasp of pleasure that came to her lips as Calden slid deep inside her, filling her until he pressed against the end of her channel.

  “Oh!” Maddy threw back her head, feeling her long hair tickle her lower back as he pumped slowly into her. “Oh, yes, Calden—just like that! Please—make sure I’m protected. Keep me safe—don’t stop,” she moaned.

  Part of her was aware that she was being completely shameless but she couldn’t seem to stop—didn’t want to stop. And Calden didn’t seem to want to stop either. At least if the hungry look in his topaz eyes was anything to go by.

  “Gods, Madeline,” he murmured. “You’re so tight and wet inside! I never dreamed a female could feel this way.”

  “Because…you’re touching me,” she gasped. “Can’t help…getting wet when you pet…my pussy.”

  Calden looked both curious and aroused.

  “Forgive me, I’ve never been with a female before. Does this…what I am doing, please you? Does it really bring you that much pleasure?”

  “It more than pleases me,” Maddy assured him. “Oh God, if you’ll just rub my clit a little more, I’m so close…”

  But just then the door to the baths slid open and the old Mentat came hobbling out again.

  Both of them froze and then Calden pulled out in a quick, surreptitious motion and rose, putting himself between her and the Mentat.

  Maddy’s heart was pounding and her body still felt flushed with sexual need and unfulfilled desire. She felt like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Only it was Calden’s hand in your cookie jar, wasn’t it? whispered a jeering little voice in her head. But you were definitely caught. I wonder how much that Mentat saw?

  It was impossible to tell. The old Mentat simply looked at Calden for a long time without saying anything. Then he shook his head and hobbled away, swaying heavily on his backwards-bending knees and broad, splayed, seven-toed feet.

  “Come,” Calden said, as the Mentat left the steam room. “I think it’s time we got into the baths.”

  Neither of them said anything as he led her through the final doorway and into a room covered in pale blue and lavender tiles. In the center was a large, perfectly round swimming pool filled with fizzing, dark purple liquid.

  “So these are the enzyme baths?” Maddy said, breaking the silence at last. Her voice echoed against the strangely tiled walls and she felt suddenly even more conspicuously naked for some reason.

  “Yes, these are the baths.” Calden’s deep voice was neutral and it was impossible to know what he thought about what the two of them had just been doing.

  Maddy scarcely knew how she felt herself. Part of her was ashamed—what was wrong with her, acting like this when she was such a new widow? But part of her felt defiant. She was all alone on an alien space station and as far as she knew, she was the only human left in the universe. That was a pretty scary situation and she had a right to seek comfort from the one male who seemed to care about her, didn’t she?

  To be honest, she didn’t know. But she did know that her body still tingled where Calden had touched her and she was still aching with desire.

  Trying to push her conflicting emotions away, Maddy stepped up to the shallow edge of the pool and dipped her toes in. The purple liquid was pleasantly warm and the way it fizzed tickled her so much she couldn’t help giggling—her feet had always been horribly ticklish although they seemed even more so now. She wondered again why her entire body, with the exception of her hands, felt so sensitive everywhere.

  Calden looked at her quizzically.

  “Does it feel all right?”

  “Yes—just ticklish. What are all the fizzing bubbles?”

  “Just the enzymes at work. Come in—just be careful, the baths get deep near the center.”

  Well, deep on the big Kindred would almost certainly be completely over her head, Maddy thought. So she waded carefully into the dark purple liquid, going in up to her calves and then her hips.

  Calden was a little ahead of her, the purple liquid still only up to mid-thigh on him even while it was at Maddy’s waist, when he took a deep breath and dove forward, deeper into the pool.

  “Oh!” She hadn’t been expecting his sudden motion and the resulting wave swept her off her feet. With a gasp, she went under, thankfully remembering to close her eyes and mouth before her head went under the surface.

  Before she could panic, strong arms were lifting her up and Calden was holding her to his chest.

  “Are you all right?” He sounded anxious.

  “I think so. But I’m afraid to open my eyes—is it safe? I don’t want any of the enzymes getting in them.”

  “The enzymes dry almost immediately,” Calden reassured her. “So if you’re not fully immersed in them, it’s safe to open your eyes.”

  “Okay.” Blinking carefully, Maddy looked up at him. “Thanks for catching me.”

  “It was my fault you went under in the first place,” he said gravely. “I was…trying to cool off. I didn’t think about the consequences to you before I dived in.”

  “Well, don’t let go of me,” Maddy said. “We’re in really deep here and I don’t know how good of a swimmer I’d be with these big, heavy gloves on.”

  “Of course I won’t let go.” Calden pulled her closer and looked into her eyes, his topaz gaze strangely intense. “I never intend to let you go, Madeline.”

  The way he was looking at her made her breath catch in her chest but Maddy told herself he was just being supportive and kind again, as he had been earlier when he told her he wouldn’t leave her alone while she was grieving.

  Some grieving, whispered the voice of guilt in her head. You’re being held naked by a huge, muscular giant in a fizzing purple pool. And you’re enjoying it!

  Maddy pushed the voice away as well as she could. What was she supposed to do—ask Calden to drop her in over her head in the enzyme pool? Why couldn’t she just relax and enjoy the warm, comforting contact of his big body against hers? Was that really so wrong?

  Yes! said the voice firmly but Maddy decided not to listen.

  “How long can we stay in here like this?” she asked Calden. “I mean…how long will the, uh, gel last before we have to start worrying about our sensitive parts getting nibbled on?”

  “The gel lasts for a good amount of time,” he assured her. “Why—do you want to get out now?”

  “No.” Maddy shook her head. “This is kind of nice—relaxing. If you don’t mind holding me why don’t we just…wade around the pool for a while?”

  “Of course I don’t mind. In fact, I enjoy it.” He looked slightly troubled as he said it. “Much