Forest Whispers (8 page)

Chapter Seven

Lana was ready to set out after Sadin as
soon as she woke—in spirit. Physically, she realized as soon as she
made her first trip across sickbay that she wasn’t in any condition
to leave immediately. After a brief internal debate, she headed for
her cabin, made use of the facilities to freshen up, and then
collapsed on her bunk.

When the faintness had passed, she rolled
onto her side and called up a display of the area and the files on
Sadin. She was deeply immersed in sifting through the puzzle of
where Sadin might have gone when Corin came looking for her some
time later. Several minutes passed before she realized he hadn’t
moved from the doorway.

As it slowly filtered through her mind, she
pulled her attention from the files and glanced at him curiously.
His expression was taut, his gaze fixed on the curling thatch of
hair between her crossed thighs. As if he sensed her watching him,
he dragged his gaze up her body. Their eyes locked for several
moments before it dawned on Lana that Corin wasn’t accustomed to
nudity.

Without a word, she rose from the bunk and
moved to her locker. Removing a long, loose robe, she slipped into
it and dropped onto her bunk once more. “I was trying to figure out
where to look for Sadin.”

Corin frowned and moved closer, studying the
display. After a moment, he moved to the end of the bunk so that he
could see it correctly. Lana moved over and patted the bed. “It’ll
be easier to see if you sit here beside me.”

He glanced down at her hand. Finally, almost
reluctantly, he leaned his trident against the bulk head and
settled on the bed beside her. Lana glanced at the wicked looking
trident that was never far from his hands and shrugged mentally. It
wasn’t a bad idea to be prepared. She doubted Sadin would attempt
anything on their ground, but there was no sense in taking
unnecessary risks. It was only through sheer luck that she’d
managed to escape him with her life. She’d have felt better if she
could’ve convinced herself it was her skill that had saved her, but
she knew better.

She’d allowed herself to be distracted and
it had almost cost her her life.

“
He will have left Ata Prime,” Corin
said after a moment, his voice sounding deep and husky.

Lana shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. I imagine
he headed for his ship when he managed to elude us, but the first
thing I did when I arrived was find his ship and disable it. Unless
another ship has arrived since I did and he was able to either
stowaway or steal it, he’s still here. And, if he’s still here, I’m
thinking he’s tired of having me on his tail. He’s going to be
trying to figure out a way to set a trap to get me out of his way
permanently.”

Corin was silent for so long that she
glanced at him questioningly. “The rangers would send another.”

“
Yes, but by the time they did, his
trail would be cold. It could take a long time for another ranger
to present any sort of problem for him.”

Corin moved to the end of her bed and began
discarding his armor. She watched him curiously for several moments
and finally dismissed it. He didn’t need it at the moment and she
doubted it was very comfortable.

“
I’ve been giving this a lot of
thought. I feel that Sadin is still in the area, that he hasn’t
gone far. I’m as sure as I’ve ever been about anything that he only
went far enough to gain the time he needed to set a trap … which
means we can only spring his trap, not set one of our own
up.

“
I think we’re going to have to split
up.”

Corin turned to look at her in surprise.
After a moment, he dropped the last of his armor on the floor and
sprawled out on her bed on his side, propping his head in his hand.
“You said it would be safer if we stayed together.”

“
Safer, yes, but we won’t get the
chance to spring his trap and come out of this alive if we do. It’s
me he wants. You’re not a ranger and he knows all he has to do is
leave Ata Prime and you won’t be a problem for him. With me, it’s
different.”

“
Will he not be
suspicious?”

“
Probably, but if we don’t give him a
choice I think he’ll go for it anyway. Not that I intend to really
split up. I only want to make it appear that we have. Your ability
to communicate with the forest could be helpful. Is it strong
enough that you could track me at a distance of say a quarter of a
mile?”

Naturally enough, Corin wasn’t familiar with
the measurement. After a short discussion, they settled on a
distance they were both comfortable with. They worked out several
simple signals and counter signals that they could use to identify
themselves to one another, verbal and hand signals in case they
were unable to use one or the other for any reason. “It’s important
that we agree that we’ll use the signal and counter signal
immediately. That way, if Sadin tries to mimic either one of us, he
won’t be able to get close enough to attack before we realize it’s
him.

“
I’ll take the trail and check each
cabin I come to. That way I’ll always be in plain sight. The only
thing that worries me is that he managed to morph and elude you
before in the forest.”

“
It will not happen again.”

“
We could be betting our lives on it,”
Lana cautioned him.

Corin shook his head. “His scent does not
change, whatever form he takes. The forest knows him now as the
strange one.”

She studied him a moment and finally nodded.
“Good then. We’re set. We’ll rendezvous at the nearest cabin at
dusk each evening if we’ve had no luck with Sadin. I don’t mind
camping on the ground if I have to, but I’d rather have shelter if
it’s available. Agreed?”

“
Agreed.” He tugged on her arm until
she yielded and lay back against the bed, staring up at him. “And
when we have captured this killer, you will return to your own
people.”

It wasn’t a question. She couldn’t tell how
he felt about it, however, whether he would be sorry to see her go,
or relieved that he wouldn’t have to deal with a female so unlike
those he was accustomed to. She didn’t want to examine her own
feelings about it, but an unaccustomed sense of loss swept through
her. She draped an arm across her eyes, clearing her throat of a
sudden huskiness. “Yes. I’ll head back to HQ with him to turn him
over for trial.”

“
He has killed here on Ata Prime. Rex
Pimetrius will want him tried here.”

Lana shrugged but dropped her arm to the
bed, fixing him with a determined look. “I expect a lot of planets
will be fighting over who gets to execute him. That’s not my
problem. My job is to take him in. I hope you and I will not find
ourselves on opposing sides once we’ve caught him … because I’ve
been after him a lot longer, and I’m not about to let him slip
through my fingers now.”

He smiled faintly. “You are so quick to
challenge.”

She couldn’t tell whether it was a rebuke or
not, but she suspected it was. “I’ve never seen that ignoring an
issue helped me in any way.”

“
I have no concern that you will not
see that justice is done for all. I will find a way to satisfy Rex
Pimetrius that will be satisfactory to you, as well.”

Relief surged through her. She knew Corin
was a man of his word. She would do what she had to do, but she far
preferred to think that she could part with him on good terms.
“Good.”

She started to rise, but Corin met her half
way, covering her mouth in a heated kiss that made desire curl in
her belly. She felt more than well enough to indulge, but guilt
pricked her, too. She had wasted enough time as it was, even though
it wasn’t something she could’ve helped. She knew they should be on
their way.

“
We have things to do,” she murmured
when he broke the kiss and began to chart a path down her
throat.

“
Yes, we do.”

Amusement touched her. “I meant work.”

She felt his lips curl against her skin.
“This is work—very hard work. It requires concentration, stamina,
self control—skills I am striving to master.”

Lana chuckled, dropping back on the bed and
smiling up at him. “You’ve mastered them. Believe me.”

He shook his head. “I require much more
training and practice—till morning, at least.”

Lana’s brows rose with interest. “It’s
night?”

Desire and suppressed laughter gleamed in
his eyes. “The sun has set.”

“
That
will
require stamina,” she murmured. “All
night?”

“
Until one emerges victorious,” he
promised, pushing her robe up her thighs and sampling the flesh he
exposed with little nibbling bites and the stroke of his
tongue.

Lana gasped as he reached her thighs and
pushed them apart, nibbling along the keenly sensitive flesh of the
inside of one thigh. “Sounds like a challenge,” she whispered
huskily as he reached the apex of her thighs and his hot breath
trickled through the thatch of curls that covered her mound. He
studied her pussy for several moments, as if mesmerized by the
intricate folds of pink flesh. Swallowing audibly, he glanced up at
her, his eyes glazed with need. She looked down at him through half
closed eyes, waiting breathlessly to see what he would do. With
slow deliberation he opened his mouth and stroked his tongue along
the delicate flesh, parting the petals, delving past the fragile
barrier to the exquisitely sensitive flesh it protected.

Lana jerked as she felt the heat and faint
roughness of his tongue. Her breath left her in a choked rush. Knee
weakening pleasure jolted through her, the flesh over her entire
body erupting with sudden, stinging sensation. Her mind clouded
with the drugging euphoria of passion.

Emboldened by her reaction, he settled his
mouth over her, feasting on her flesh with the gentle suction of
his mouth, the teasing stroke of his tongue. Her fingers curled
into claws, digging into the bedding. She was torn between pleasure
that bordered on unbearable and the desire to spread her thighs
wider and give him greater access. The latter won out and she
curled her hips up to meet his deliciously agonizing caresses,
pushing her thighs wider.

The stroke of his tongue, his tugging kisses
on her clit wrung whimpers and tortured cries from her as her body
soared rapidly beyond her control, racing toward release. Abruptly,
sharp convulsions of pleasure exploded inside her, tearing shrill
cries of ecstasy from her lips.

She went limp, gasping for air as he lifted
his head and looked up at her, too weak even to protest as he began
a tortuous climb up her body with his lips that wrung shuddering
echoes of bliss from her sated body and spawned a burgeoning of
renewed desire. With an effort, she lifted her arms and wrapped
them around his shoulders as he reached her breasts and assaulted
each in turn with the same determined patience to wring every ounce
of pleasure from her body.

By the time he lifted his head and moved up
her neck, she was writhing with renewed need, breathless, drunk
with desire. She pushed against him and when he dropped beside her
on the bed, she charted her own course of discovery. With her hands
and lips and tongue, she tasted and tested every inch of his flesh,
every contour, every hard ridge of muscle.

He jerked reflexively when she reached his
taut belly, his breath rushing from his chest as if she’d punched
him. Catching his cock in her hand, she lifted her head and caught
his gaze as she opened her mouth over the head of his cock, sucking
it. He let out a hoarse, choked groan, grasping her shoulders. She
lifted her head, fixing him with a heated glance. “My turn,” she
murmured. Opening her mouth over the head of his cock again, she
sucked the rounded knob until he was gasping hoarsely in an effort
to catch his breath. She took him fully inside her mouth then,
gripping him tightly with her tongue and cheeks as she engulfed as
much of his turgid flesh with her mouth as she could before she
allowed his cock to slide from her mouth and then took him fully
inside her mouth again.

Tremors went through him. He moved
restlessly beneath her ministrations, catching her shoulders in a
tight grip and then releasing her, as if he wasn’t certain he could
bear the pleasure and was more reluctant still to give it up. She
moved at a pace that seemed to tear the most pleasure from him,
feeling her body climbing toward release once more as she sensed
his body spiraling toward culmination.

Abruptly, he caught her, stilling her
motions as he reached the edge. She hesitated, torn between a
desire to bring him off and an equal desire to feel him inside of
her, bringing her to culmination once more.

The former won out and, ignoring his efforts
to stop her, she began moving over his cock rapidly once more,
sucking him, stroking the length of his cock with her mouth and
tongue. He groaned, his cock jerking in her mouth as he reached his
crisis. She sucked him hard, stroking his cock with her mouth and
tongue until she’d milked him dry and his cock ceased to jerk in
spasms of pleasure.

Her body was still humming with need when
she released him at last, but a sense of satisfaction filled her as
she lifted her head and looked at him, sprawled weakly beneath her,
his massive chest laboring for breath. Dipping her head once more,
she kissed his sated member, then his belly and moved upward,
kissing his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her
down on top of him and nuzzling her neck. She lifted her head,
sucking his earlobe. “I believe I won that round,” she murmured
huskily.

A sound that might have been a half-hearted
chuckle rumbled from his chest. Spearing his fingers through her
hair, he rolled until she was beneath him. Covering her mouth with
his own, he kissed her languidly, stoking the fire that still raced
through her blood until her body vibrated with her need. She kissed
him back hungrily, stroking his tongue and sucking it as she had
his cock. Her fervor fed his own.