Finding the Jewel Read online

  “Plus, I’m not a one-night-stand kind of girl—I never have been. I can’t help it, Tark, I feel like sex ought to mean something. It ought to be saved for someone you love. I mean, when I was a kid and my mom taught me the facts of life she told me, ‘Chloe, sex is like a gift. And if you go giving that gift to just anybody, it cheapens it…it doesn’t mean anything anymore.’”

  “Chloe—”

  “And I try to be a liberated, sex-positive woman but there’s a part of me that still really believes that. That’s probably why I was twenty-two before I finally lost my virginity. I just…”

  She trailed off, realizing she was basically just spewing words at him. The big Kindred was staring down at her in complete silence, his golden eyes unreadable.

  He probably thinks I’m crazy now, Chloe thought unhappily. Just completely nuts. Well, at least the hem of her robe had turned white again, so he knew she wasn’t lying—not that it helped much.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. “I’m just…really freaking nervous.”

  “I-I am t-too,” he rumbled. Cupping her hot cheek in his big hand, he leaned closer. “But I p-promise you, Chloe—I w-won’t hurt you. I’d r-rather die than do that.”

  His soft words and the sincerity on his face made a knot that had formed somewhere in her stomach somehow relax.

  “All…all right,” she whispered, nodding.

  “W-we’re in this together,” Tark told her. I g-got you into it and I’ll g-get you out.”

  “Okay.” Chloe nodded again. “Sorry for the freak-out.” She took a deep breath. “Uh-oh—I think it’s starting.”

  “When you first came here,” Monk Aaroni was saying, from his place on the raised podium. “We told you that we would heal your sexual dysfunction through touch, tone, talk and taste. All of you have experienced the tones of the resonite which makes up your robes and keeps you truthful. And all of you have been encouraged to touch and taste each other as much as possible, to rekindle the fire in your relationship or, in some cases, to heal the Skin Hunger that has grown in you as you neglected each other.”

  Chloe thought again, with some shame, of how Tark was still hungry even after their earlier encounter. But then the monk continued and she felt like she had to pay attention again.

  “Now, we will practice talking to each other as we put some of these other techniques to use,” he said. “If you would, please sit on your gellas together and face each other.”

  Since the old monk had stated that he could see into their cubbies, Chloe didn’t think they had much of a choice. And she assumed that the gellas he was referring to was the Jell-O filled mattress in the center of the cubby. She looked up at Tark who shrugged and lifted his eyebrows.

  After you, the look said.

  Chloe nodded and took a deep breath. Well, they would just have to get through this somehow. And knowing that Tark was in it with her and wouldn’t hurt her, helped to ease her nerves.

  She stepped to the strange mattress and sat gingerly on the edge of it. Immediately the gella rippled and she found herself moving closer to the center—she was being carried there by the motion of the mattress itself.

  “Whoa—hey!” she exclaimed but when she reached down to grab at the surface of the mattress, she found it was too slick and smooth to get a hold of. Once she got to the center, the mattress stopped moving but it had been an extremely strange sensation, being glided over its surface and not being able to stop herself.

  “Chloe?” Tark looked at her, obviously concerned.

  “Be careful,” she told him, a bit breathlessly. “It…it has a mind of its own.”

  Frowning, he nodded and sat down himself. At once, the mattress rippled under him. Despite his size and muscular bulk, the gella moved him every bit as smoothly as it had moved Chloe, until he was sitting right across from her in the center.

  “Whoa…” He looked down at it.

  “Freaky, isn’t it?” Chloe said softly. “I wonder what it’s made of or if it’s some kind of living being?”

  Before Tark could answer her, Monk Aaroni was talking again.

  “Now that I can see all of you are settled as I asked, I want you to take each other's hands. Those of you with two or more partners man need to take turns,” he added.

  Holding hands—well, that didn’t seem too hard. Chloe breathed an inward sigh of relief as she reached for Tark and felt him take her much smaller hands in his larger ones. It was funny but his hand with the metal glove felt as smooth and warm as the other one—whatever technology he had, it was really natural-seeming.

  “Now, while looking into your partner’s eyes, tell him, her, or it, what you find most beautiful or attractive about them,” Monk Aaroni intoned.

  This is just like some kind of marriage counseling session back on Earth! Chloe thought. And she had been so worried. But this was going to be a piece of cake! Well…kind of embarrassing, actually—but still, easier than having freaking sex on the self-moving Jell-O mattress. The point was, she could do this.

  “Do you want me to start?” she asked Tark.

  “O-okay.” He nodded.

  Chloe wasn’t exactly sure what she intended to say. But looking into those molten gold eyes of his, she found herself telling the truth.

  “Tark,” she said softly. “At first when I saw you at the Commercian’s station, I was scared to death of you. You were so big and muscular and scary and I thought you had come to buy me and carry me off like some kind of trophy.” She smiled and shook her head at her own misapprehension. “Then you turned out to be a nice guy instead and I was kind of in awe of you. I mean, you’re so attractive…” She shrugged. “You could be some kind of movie star if you were on my home planet.”

  He frowned. “M-movie star?”

  “A really famous and beloved actor,” Chloe explained. “Like, I could definitely see you starring in some kind of Conan the Barbarian remake or something if you lived on Earth.” She shook her head. “Never mind about that—what I’m trying to say is: when I started to get to know you, I realized that you were more than just a big, scary muscular guy or a pretty face.”

  Tark snorted laughter at this. Clearly he didn’t think of his face as pretty. Maybe he was thinking of the scar that ran through his eyebrow and gave him that rakish, pirate look. Chloe wondered if he realized it only added to his appeal. True, with his long, wild hair and his beard he wasn’t exactly the smooth-faced preppy kind of guy she’d gone for in college but there was something real about the big Beast Kindred—something she couldn’t put her finger on but couldn’t ignore either.

  “Listen, though,” Chloe told him earnestly. “I’m trying to say this, but I’m making a mess of it. You have so many admirable qualities, Tark. You’re brave and kind and gentle and sweet and strong…and…and when you touch me it seems to set me on fire inside,” she finished breathlessly.

  She hadn’t meant to say that last part—it had kind of just slipped out. But when it was said, she knew it was the truth. Even now, just holding hands with him made her heart pound and her heart race. Her whole body felt like it was blushing.

  Also, sitting across from each other and leaning in close, as they were, she could smell that warm, smoky, spicy scent again—the smell of his skin—and feel the heat radiating from his big body—his broad shoulders and muscular chest. God, he was so damn hot! Chloe felt like she might burst into flames just sitting there staring at him!

  “M-my turn,” he said softly, breaking her train of thought.

  “Okay,” Chloe whispered, bracing herself. What would he say? That she was a sweet girl but this was a one-time thing and after they were done here he would take her home and they would never see each other again? What was going on behind those inscrutable golden eyes?

  Tark took a deep breath and gripped her hands tighter.

  “Chloe,” he said, speaking on the exhale, as she had taught him. “You are…e-e-everything I have ever wanted in a f-female.