Cursed Read online

  At first all she’d been aware of was the sensation of being deliciously warm despite the fact that it was cold outside. It reminded her of waking up in her snug down sleeping bag in the nippy fall air when Daddy had taken her on hunting trips.

  Then she became aware that her “sleeping bag” was breathing.

  When she opened her eyes she had been curled against his big body, her head pillowed on his chest with his long, muscular arms wrapped around her. Charlie was mortified to find that her bare breasts were pressed against his side and that she had even thrown one leg over his lean hips as though she was trying to climb him like a tree.

  She would have tried to extricate herself gracefully without waking him up but Stavros was already awake. He was looking down at her with an unreadable expression on his face which somehow made her feel even more naked that she already was.

  “Oh my God,” she’d groaned, scooting away from his warmth in a hurry and wrapping a sheet around herself. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why should you be sorry?” he’d asked in obvious confusion. “I told you to come to me for warmth if you needed it.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t mean to…to wrap myself all around you like that.” Charlie’s cheeks had been hot with embarrassment. After the events of last night, she had promised herself firmly that nothing else even remotely improper was ever going to happen between herself and her partner again. And then the very next morning, she found herself pressed against him naked, trying to climb him like a tree. Ugh, I’m an idiot! “I’m just…really sorry. It won’t happen again,” she babbled.

  “I did not mind,” Stavros said quietly. “And if it does happen again, that will not bother me either.”

  “Well it bothers me,” Charlie had said and then fled to the bathroom and cursed herself for a fool the entire time she was taking a shower.

  She looked up from her breakfast to see Stavros staring at her, as if he too was remembering the undignified way she’d woken up all wrapped around him.

  “Here.” She shoved another stuffed peenee-wee tube in his direction. “Eat up.”

  He took the tube and ate it without comment then deposited one had had made for her on her tray.

  Somehow the rest of breakfast passed and Charlie choked down all the donut/dill pickle flavored pasta-pea tubes. When they had all cleared their trays, she turned casually to Ssstha.

  “So you guys know this place better than we do. What’s next on the agenda? Maybe some free time?”

  “Meditation hour is right after the morning repasst,” Ssstha answered, her long forked tongue flickering on the last word. “It is a time for quiet reflection or visiting the cleansing pool. And after that, morning classes.”

  “So where are you two taking classes?” Charlie asked. “You’re so advanced—I bet you’re already in the Circle of Oneness.”

  “We have not reached that destination yet,” Hssthnk said seriously. “But we hope to soon. Right now we are still in the second circle—the Circle of Discovery.”

  “And what sort of classes do they teach there?” Stavros asked. “We ask purely for information—we want to know what to expect when we reach your level.”

  “Well, mostly the classes are about the discovery of your mate’s body,” Ssstha said. “So far we enjoy it very much.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Charlie said, trying to smile. Crap! Discovery of your mate’s body? Like we didn’t do enough of that last night. We have to get that damn Heart thingy and get out of here ASAP before we get promoted!

  “Is the second circle far from the first?” Stavros asked.

  Hsssthnk shrugged, an oddly snake-like gesture.

  “Not far. Simply take the middle corridor as you leave the dining area rather than the first. When you come to the purple door, you will know you have arrived.”

  “Purple door—got it.” Charlie smiled. “Hopefully we’ll be seeing that purple door soon.”

  “We wish you much progress in your relationship.” Ssstha touched her arm lightly and smiled. “I know some of the rules seem strict or strange to you, but being here in J’lorgon’s Mind truly has done wonders for Hsssthnk and me.”

  “Indeed it has,” Hsssthnk said, rising from the table. “Come, my love,” he said to his wife. “Let us go and meditate together before our first class.” He gave her a meaningful look and Ssstha giggled.

  “Yes, of course. I do think some meditation would be in order.” Then she looked at looked at Charlie and Stavros who had gotten up from the low table and were also standing. “We will see you at the midday repast.”

  “Yeah, see you at lunch time.” Charlie watched them walk away, the snaky tendrils of their hair entwined. “Okay, that was weird,” she muttered to Stavros. “Is it just me or is ‘meditation’ a euphemism for doing the nasty around here?”

  “I do not know what that means or what they intend to do,” Stavros said. “But for us it means an hour of unsupervised time. Let’s make the most of it.”

  “Right—let’s go.”

  * * * * *

  They walked casually out of the dining area together, as though heading back towards their rooms. But instead of taking the corridor that led back to the individual couples chambers, they took the middle corridor as Hssthnk had directed.

  Stavros kept a sharp lookout around them as they slipped down the long metal hallway but none of the Hossans who had been serving in the cafeteria were paying any attention to anyone except each other. He saw several pairs, including Nar’sa and Ta’no engaging in the light hair-tip caress they seemed to enjoy so much and a few more were simply staring soulfully into each other’s eyes.

  He thought of staring into Charlotte’s deep brown eyes like that and a finger of flame licked over his spine. Gods, he hoped he didn’t have to do that. For how could he keep the way he’d been feeling about her out of his gaze if he had to lock eyes with her so intimately?

  As for how she felt about him—well, there was little doubt about that. For a little while when he woke to find her snuggled against him, he’d thought she might be warming to him. Then she had woken fully and the horrified expression on her face when she found herself naked and pressed against him had made it clear she was most definitely not. She had fled into the bathroom and had been avoiding eye contact with him ever since.

  Stav sighed. And why shouldn’t she want to avoid me after what I did last night? Clearly she still fears me and mistrusts my intentions.

  Not that he blamed her. He distrusted his own intentions. Though he continuously told himself that Charlotte was off limits, his body refused to listen. Just being near her and smelling her sweet scent made his fangs ache. And smelling his own scent which was now overlaying hers, made his cock throb.

  There was no denying it—he had marked her last night. Even though he hadn’t injected her with his essence, rubbing against her so intimately had still been a way of claiming her as his own. No male with a halfway decent sense of smell could miss it. Though she had taken a shower, his scent still lingered around her like a subtle perfume. It just—

  “Hey, check it out,” Charlotte murmured, breaking his train of thought. “What do you think is going on in there?”

  The curving corridor had doors with sliding panels along its surface but most of them were closed. They had just come opposite one, however, where the door appeared to be stuck. Half an inch of space remained between it and the jamb but that small amount was more than enough to see that something was going on in the room beyond.

  Several couples were sitting facing each other on the blue thera-mat which had raised itself into low backed seats, the better to support them. At the instructor’s word, the male of each couple reached out to caress his female. It was difficult for Stav to see what exactly they were caressing since they were mostly alien species and often had different body parts than what he was used to. But from the soft sounds of pleasure coming from the females, it seemed to be something that gave them pleasant sensations.

  “What