Time to Heal Read online

  Oh! Oh God, feels so good…so good! Almost too much pleasure, she thought almost incoherently and was surprised to hear an answer in her mind.

  “Your pleasure is my pleasure, delora. Gods, I could come myself just from tasting you—your honey is so sweet!”

  “Skahr?” Her eyes, which had been tightly shut in pleasure, flew open and she looked down at him. There was no way he could have spoken to her—his mouth was very definitely otherwise occupied. So how…?

  “Through the bond we now share,” he informed her. “I can speak into your mind and you can speak into mine. Try it.”

  “I…I hardly know what to say. You’re driving me wild!” Emmeline sent to him.

  He lapped her again, running his tongue slowly over her still quivering pussy.

  “That was exactly my intention. And now that we are bonded, I will be driving you wild much more often, I hope.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Emmeline admitted. “But now I’d like to feel more than just your tongue inside me.”

  She shocked herself with her naughty talk but it seemed easier to say such things through the new intimacy of their bond. Now that she and the big warrior were bound together for life, nothing seemed off-limits.

  “You are right—there are no limits or barriers between us now,” Skahr told her as he pulled aside his loincloth and repositioned her so that her pussy was directly over his pulsing shaft. “Are you ready to have me in you again, delora? Are you ready to ride me as you did the other night?”

  Once that question—and the idea of having a male member inside her—would have frightened Emmeline to death. But she trusted Skahr and knew that he would never hurt her. She felt his love and devotion, his desire to only bring her pleasure right to the bottom of her soul. And feeling that allowed her to push aside her past and love and trust her new mate wholeheartedly.

  As she nodded and took him deep within her, she knew it was because Skahr was so gentle and patient that she could be with him.

  “I love you!” she moaned aloud as he thrust deep inside her, filling her to the core. “Oh God, Skahr—I love you so much!”

  “I love you too, Emmeline. Stay still with me a moment, I just want to feel you—feel connected to you like this.”

  He stilled inside her and, tangling a hand in her hair, he pulled her down for a long, loving kiss. Emmeline tasted her own secret flavor on his lips and her desire flared again. Somehow she knew they were going to be making love for a long, long time because she couldn’t get enough of the big Kindred.

  “Can’t get enough of you either, delora. But that’s all right— we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us. And I will be proud to call you my mate.”

  “I feel the same way,” she sent back. “But where will we live? I don’t want to go back to my own world—the Earl will never stop hunting for Jamie and besides, I hate it there!”

  “We could go back and live in the world your kin, Richard, has chosen,” he offered.

  Emmeline thought of it—thought of living in the white and silver metal world which Kat had told her was actually a kind of ship floating in space.

  Then she imagined raising Jamie in this world instead—in the mossy forests and wide-open plains where Skahr himself had grown to manhood. She thought of her son laughing and running and playing with the other children in the sunshine and she knew she had made her choice.

  “We’ll stay here,” she decided, looking into Skahr’s eyes. “Here where you grew up is where I want to raise my son.”

  “Our son, delora,” he murmured. “I claim the boy as I claim you—the two of you are mine to protect and love from now on.”

  Emmeline felt tears sting her eyes.

  “I never thought I’d find a real father for Jamie,” she whispered. “I never thought any man would want to raise the illegitimate son of another.”

  “He is not illegitimate,” Skahr growled. “He is mine now, just as you are. And together we will be a family. But right now, I simply want to claim you as my mate.”

  And with a long slow stroke, he pulled almost all the way out of her and thrust in deep again, making Emmeline throw back her head and moan with pleasure.

  As they moved together, Emmeline felt like the luckiest woman in the world. She had a man who loved her and who loved and valued Jamie too. And she had a whole new world to explore—one that wouldn’t judge her for her past and which promised a beautiful future.

  Her life was forever changed and she and Skahr would spend the rest of their days together all because he had given her… Time to Heal.

  Epilogue

  “Are you ready for the ceremony? It should be starting soon,” Caroline said.

  “I’m ready.” Richard sighed. “I just wish we could attend it in person.”

  “I do too but you know the PORTAL won’t work for us anymore. Besides, it’s better for Skahr’s people not to have a whole hoard of strangers from another world descending on them out of the blue,” Caroline pointed out. “And this way Sophie and Kat and Liv can all share in the moment with us.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Richard ran a hand through his hair. “I just miss my cousin. She was always like a little sister to me.”

  “I know she was, honey.” Caroline kissed his cheek consolingly. “But think about it—now she’s with a good man who loves her and is going to care for her and her son forever. Isn’t that what you always wanted for her?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I suppose I just wish they had chosen to come live in our world instead of staying in Skahr’s.”

  “Well, Emmeline would have adapted pretty well here but you have to admit, Skahr really wouldn’t fit—not in the long run,” Caroline said. “I mean, he’s like Conan the Barbarian and his whole world is all swords and sorcery. He’s built for riding across the wide-open planes. I’m sure he would have agreed to stay here if Emmeline wanted to, but he would have been miserable in the long run, living inside a spaceship. Even one as big as the Mother Ship.”

  “I do not know who ‘Conan the Barbarian’ is but I must agree with you.” Richard nodded grudgingly. “He is better off in his own world. And I think Emmeline will do well there as well.”

  “She’s going to love it,” Caroline assured him. “His society is so much less repressive and sexist than the one you two came from.”

  Richard snorted. “Well, I can’t argue with that. Come on—are you ready?”

  “Yes, let’s go.” Caroline took his arm and they left their suite and started down the hall towards her lab where they were going to view Emmeline and Skahr’s Joining ceremony through the PORTAL’s window.

  There was already a crowd when they came in. Liv and Sophie and Kat were seated on a temp couch—a Kindred invention with was a bit like blow-up furniture but much firmer and more supportive. It was a semi-sentient creature which had been genetically modified to enjoy holding humans. Once it was inflated, it could be coaxed into any shape or size to seat as many people as necessary.

  “Oh, there you two are!” Kat waved them over and patted the gray hide of the temp couch encouragingly. “Come on, buddy,” she said to it. “Make room for two more, would you?”

  At once, the temp couch grew five feet longer and formed two inviting cushions for Caroline and Richard to sit on.

  “I see you brought popcorn,” Caroline said as she sat down beside her friend. Indeed, Kat had a big bowl of it which she at once offered to share.

  “I wouldn’t bring it to a wedding I was attending in person, you know, doll,” she remarked. “But since they can’t hear or see us I figured, why not?”

  “I guess.” Caroline settled down.

  “You two are late,” Liv called from further down the couch. “You missed seeing Emmeline heal the Peace Crystal.”

  “Oh, did we?” Caroline couldn’t hide her disappointment. “That’s too bad—I really wanted to see that!”

  “You didn’t miss much,” Sophie said consolingly. “Emmeline just put her hands on it and it he