Finding the Jewel Read online

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chloe lay quivering on the side of the sunken hot-tub pool and tried to catch her breath. She was still somewhat in shock.

  Chris, the boyfriend she’d had in college who had claimed he was, so into going down, (he’d called himself a “cunning linguist” ha-ha) had absolutely nothing on the big Kindred.

  Chris had made a big deal about what an oral artist he was but when it came time to do the deed, he didn’t seem to have any idea what he was doing. He would get between her thighs and take a few licks, looking up every now and again, as though he expected Chloe to be in the throes of ecstasy just from the fact that his tongue was in contact with her pussy.

  He always seemed disappointed that she wasn’t thrashing and moaning and begging for more. But Chloe had too much self respect to put on such a huge fake production—although she would moan so as not to hurt his self esteem.

  The few times her ex had managed to hit on something that felt really good, Chloe had begged him to keep going and stay in that spot. Which, of course, he’d taken as a sign to try something completely different…which meant that any momentum he’d built was immediately lost.

  Ultimately, Chloe had found that letting Chris demonstrate his “devastating oral skill” on her was an exercise in frustration and futility. Eventually she had started making excuses why they couldn’t do it and just as quickly, he had stopped offering. And that had been the extent of her experience with letting a man go down on her.

  Until now.

  Her experience with her college boy friend wasn’t at all like what Tark had given her. The big Kindred lapped and sucked her pussy like he was a starving man and she was his only sustenance. It was clear he loved what he was doing—there was nothing tentative about it. And the way he had known exactly when she needed penetration to help push her over the edge…how had he known that, anyway?

  Chloe couldn’t figure it out. She only knew it was the most intense sexual experience of her life and she’d had it with a man she had known less than a week. Less than two days, in fact. God, what did that say about her? For that matter, what did it say about Tark that he was the most giving and talented lover she’d ever had when he barely knew her?

  That’s not true and you know it, whispered a little voice in her head. You know him and he knows you. You click perfectly. It’s almost like you were meant to be together.

  She had a flash of bright golden eyes—the memory of a dream maybe?—and then it was gone, almost before she could register it.

  But the idea that they belonged together…that was crazy, right? True, they had a lot more in common than she’d previously imagined. They had both felt the sting of rejection although Chloe had to admit it sounded like Tark’s childhood had been considerably worse than her own. Her mother, who was thin, wasn’t above dropping a hint that she worried about Chloe and “just wanted her to be healthy” but it sounded like Tark’s father had absolutely hated him—and hadn’t been shy about letting him know it either.

  Chloe’s heart went out to the big Kindred again. She felt incredibly close to him right now, and not only because of the intense physical pleasure he’d given her. He’d seemed so big and strong and invulnerable before…now he had shown her his weaknesses and she loved him for it.

  Wait a minute, who said anything about love? asked a nervous little voice in her brain. What are you talking about, Chloe? Remember you’ve only known him a few days…

  Suddenly the stone door of the chamber slid open. It opened so soundlessly, that Chloe wouldn’t even have noticed it if she hadn’t been looking in that direction just then. The junior monk from the night before was standing there and for a moment they locked eyes—then his slid away to crawl over her naked body, glowing avidly with lust.

  Chloe sat up with a gasp, reaching for a towel since her robe still showed no signs of reforming. Before she could fumble it into place, the junior monk came barging in with another floating cart.

  “Oh, sorry,” he said, his eyes still fixed on Chloe’s half-naked body as he spoke. “But it’s lunch time so I brought your meal.”

  Tark sprang out of the hot pool angrily, putting himself between Chloe and the junior monk.

  “Y-you little shit! M-monk Taroni t-told us we weren’t going to be b-bothered,” he growled.

  The junior monk paled a little but held his ground.

  “My apologies,” he said, in a tone that made it clear how insincere he was. His eyes kept flicking greedily back to Chloe, who had finally managed to wrap a towel around herself. “I’ll just leave the food and go.”

  “N-not good enough.” In two steps, Tark was looming over the monk and then he had the other male by the throat. He lifted him easily, one-handed and glared at him. “Keep your eyes off my female,” he growled clearly, without a single stutter.

  “S-sorry,” the junior monk sputtered. “Didn’t…mean to…”

  “Don’t let it happen again.” Tark dropped him and jerked his head at the door.

  The monk understood and practically ran out of the sliding stone door, banging it closed behind him.

  “Little b-bastard,” Tark growled, staring at the stone panel balefully. He looked at Chloe. “S-sorry he s-saw you.”

  “I am too. But it wasn’t your fault. He’s a peeping tom.”

  “A peeping wh-what?” Tark frowned. “S-sorry, I’ve never h-h-heard that phrase b-before.”

  “Well, you just learned English yesterday,” Chloe pointed out. “So I wouldn’t expect you to know all our idioms and expressions. A peeping tom is a guy—a male—who gets off on watching women naked when they don’t know it or aren’t expecting it.” She shivered with disgust. “I guess maybe he has the same view on, uh, ‘Elites’ as you do. Or more likely he’s looking at every naked woman he can get a glimpse of around here.”

  “Sh-should have wrung his neck,” Tark growled, his eyes flashing angrily. “How d-dare he look at you?”

  Chloe sighed. “Well, it’s over now and I bet after the scare you gave him, he’ll never try anything like that again. At least, not with us.” Being seen naked and in such a vulnerable position, made her feel violated and upset but there was nothing she could do to take it back. “We’ll tell Monk Taroni about it when we see him,” she told Tark. “In the meantime, I wonder what’s for lunch. Are you hungry?”

  His eyes flashed again.

  “Always hungry for you, baby.”

  Chloe felt the heat rise to her cheeks when she remembered the hungry way he had tasted her pussy. The memory made butterflies take off in her stomach and she knew if she let herself, she could easily get lost in letting the big Kindred explore her body and exploring his. But they needed to reign it in some, she told herself. It felt dangerous to go so fast…dangerous and a little frightening.

  “I meant hungry for food, silly,” she said lightly, going over to the floating cart and looking at the oval silver dome over the tray. “I wonder what’s for lunch?”

  But when she lifted the lid of the tray, it was completely empty.

  “Hey, what’s this?” Chloe exclaimed. “That little jerk didn’t even bring us any food!”

  “It m-must have been a pretense,” Tark rumbled. “He intended to use the cart as a-an excuse to b-barge in and l-look at you.”

  His face was dark with anger, clearly he was still pissed off at the junior monk.

  Chloe was pretty upset herself, especially since she was actually quite hungry for real now. They hadn’t had any breakfast and the weird cakin they’d eaten the night before had been a long time ago now.

  “Yup, nothing here,” she said, reaching down to tap the bottom of the silver tray to illustrate her point. But strangely enough, something soft and spongy stopped her before she could reach the bottom. “What the…?” Chloe patted around the tray and felt more things on it—some soft and some hard and brittle feeling.

  “Wh-what is it?” Tark asked, coming over with a frown. His robe had reformed into full length trousers again,