Cursed Read online

  “My, my—for a couple so truly in love that they were promoted to the Circle of Oneness, you certainly seem reluctant to touch each other intimately.” The Joined One raised all four eyebrows again, skeptically. “May we ask why?”

  “I have just told you why.” Stavros could hear the frustration creeping into his voice though he tried to hold it back. Somehow he had to argue their way out of this. He couldn’t let the damned Joined Ones force them into an act Charlotte would hate him for the rest of her life. If only he could get them to give himself and Charlotte a little more time—time to escape, hopefully—

  “We’ll do it.”

  “What?” Stav rounded on her, sure he was hearing things. “What did you say?”

  “I said, we’ll do it.” Charlotte glared at him fiercely.

  “But—”

  “What’s the big deal, honey?” she asked, obviously speaking for the Joined One’s benefit. “I mean, I know we weren’t getting along when we first got here but since that first night after our Sensual Touching class, we’ve been all over each other. It’s the reason Nar’sa and Ta’no promoted us so quickly.”

  “But…” Stavros was at a loss. Was she actually suggesting they do this? “But the Temple of Regrets,” he said at last. “The things you witnessed…”

  “Are all old pains,” Charlotte said firmly. “They hurt a lot but the grief isn’t fresh. It’s not like any of it happened yesterday—it just felt like that in that damn temple. So…we should be good to go.”

  “Charlotte, I don’t know about this.”

  “Well, I do.” Her brown eyes flashed stubbornly. “Besides, we’re going to have privacy to, you know, figure it out.”

  The Joined One leaned forward on its throne-like chair.

  “Do not think that just because you will have privacy you can fake or falsify your joining. Only an act of true physical and emotional intimacy will spilt the Pillar of the Heart.”

  “Meaning…” Stavros raised his eyebrows.

  “Meaning you must penetrate your mate and leave your seed within her.” A mocking smile played around both faces now. “Deep within her.”

  Beside him, Stavros heard Charlotte swallow nervously. But she still held up her chin and refused to back down.

  “That’s fine as long as we know you aren’t watching,” she said steadily. “Like I said, I’m not about to put on a show.”

  “Very well then.” The Joined One nodded its bulky, conjoined head and the male face spoke. “We shall give you a certain amount of time—one solar hour should be sufficient. When we return if the outer shell is split, we shall know you were telling the truth about your identities and purposes here.”

  “And if it’s not?” Stavros asked.

  “Then we shall call the Dark Kindred Commander and tell him you are his for the asking.” The female face smiled sweetly. “Happy joining, my dears. May your union be pleasurable and lasting.”

  * * * * *

  “Why did you do that?” Stavros demanded the moment the room was cleared and emptied of everything except a large thick blue mattress made of the thera-mat that covered the classroom floors. The Hossan guards had placed it right beside the vast cylinder as though getting it closer would help in their impossible task of splitting its golden surface open to expose the Heart. Charlie could see her reflection in it and the eyes staring back at her were scared and uncertain. She did her best to get herself under control and put on a brave face.

  “Why did I do what—get that damned Joined One off our backs?” she snapped. “You don’t have to sound so accusatory, Stavros. Next time a simple ‘thank you’ would be nice.”

  “You haven’t really gotten them off our backs and you know it,” he said grimly. “And you’ve agreed to do something you don’t want to do—and volunteered me to do it as well.”

  “You’re saying you don’t want to have sex with me?” Charlie tried to say the words in a casual, offhand way but inside she felt like dying from embarrassment. She’d been so sure of the way he felt about her she hadn’t even stopped to wonder if Stavros would object to them being intimate. It had just seemed like the easiest way out of their dilemma—the only way out—and so she had taken it.

  “No, I don’t want to have sex with you,” he said roughly and she felt her stomach turn over. “Just as I don’t want to fuck you.”

  “Okay, I get it—you don’t want to do the deed.” Inside she was shrinking with mortification. “Sorry I volunteered you for such a horrible task.”

  “You don’t understand me.” Stavros reached for her, taking both her hands in his. “I don’t want to do any of those things—I want to make love with you. To you.” He sighed. “What I’m trying to say is that if we do this, I want it to mean something. But it can’t. Because of your past and how you feel about me and my people.”

  “I…” Charlie didn’t know what to say. “Stav, I don’t really see that we have much choice,” she said at last. “I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have said anything. I was just looking for the easy way out.”

  “The easy way out?” He looked at her incredulously. “You think taking you sexually without bonding you to me will be easy?”

  At the word “bonding” Charlie felt an electrical surge run through her from the tips of her breasts to the tingling spot between her legs. She pressed her thighs together and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to ignore it.

  “Look, nobody said anything about that,” she said, wishing her voice wouldn’t come out sounding so high and breathy. “I just figured we could, you know, keep it impersonal. Like we did when you, um, touched me.”

  He laughed harshly, a bitter, unhappy sound.

  “Impersonal. Businesslike. Professional. I’m so fucking sick of being professional with you.”

  “You don’t have to say it like that,” Charlie snapped, losing patience. “In fact, you don’t have to say anything at all. Just do it so we can get the damned pillar open and see if there’s any way to get the Heart.”

  “Just do it? Like this?” The big Kindred was suddenly behind her. He pushed her to her hands and knees on the mattress and flipped up the hem of her robe, exposing her bare ass. “Is this what you want, Charlotte?” he snarled, forcing her legs apart. “Just a quick fuck to reach your objective?”

  “I…” Charlie’s heart was pounding and her mouth was as dry as cotton. But after all the weeping and wailing she’d done in the Temple of Regrets, she wasn’t going to show any more weakness. She was tired of feeling helpless and upset. This wasn’t how she’d imagined sex with Stavros—when she’d allowed herself to picture it at all—but it was, as he said, just a means to an end. So if this was the way he wanted it…

  “Well?” he demanded and she felt his big hands on her bare hips, bracing her open. She knew he was in position to enter her, knew that the broad head of his cock must be poised right at the entrance of her pussy.

  “Fine,” she said in a voice that only trembled a little. She turned her head to the side and met his eyes in the burnished reflective surface of the Pillar of the Heart. He was standing right behind where she was positioned at the end of the mattress and his eyes were burning with emotion. “If that’s how you want it, then go for it,” she said steadily. “I…I can take anything you can dish out. Anything.”

  She expected him to take her at her word and shove himself to the hilt inside her. In fact, she was trying to be mentally and physically braced for it. So she was surprised when instead, he sank to the mattress beside her.

  “Charlotte,” he murmured and her name was like a prayer on his lips. Like a litany of regret and ruined hope. “Oh, Charlotte…”

  He lay on the mattress and pulled her down beside him. Before she knew it, Charlie was cuddled against him with his broad chest pressed to her back.

  “Stavros?” she whispered uncertainly as he wound long, muscular arms around her and held her close. They were facing the golden surface of the Pillar and she could see sadness moving in his e