Soul Dancer (2 page)

“To jail? To death? You’re messing with my head, aren’t you?” She’d had enough. If she didn’t save herself from this insanity, no one, including Jamar, would bother. She took a few steps forward and lifted her hands to push him out of her way. In less than a heartbeat, he propelled her against the wall. Her spine touched the brutally cold stone.

“We grew up together, Kierra. Did you think that after we were adults, I’d simply turn my back on you as if we’d never had anything between us?”

She cringed at his terse words.

“We were children. We didn’t know any better,” she burst out, her heart racing with fear and, oddly, elation. Niggling suspicion began to erode the joy. What did he really want? A fling in bed then leaving her to take the consequences alone?

His thickset eyebrows arched upward.

“We didn’t know any better,” he repeated on the threshold of her hearing. Setting his hands on the wall to either side of her head, he blinked several times. “I don’t think you understand. I want to make love to you. I want you lying naked on my bed, your nipples puckered into tiny pleasure spots and your thighs open for me so I can lick your clit and fuck you. That’s what I want.”

In an edgy whisper, she said, “But you never asked me what I want.”

Had Jamar changed into a monster she no longer knew? Had he been blinded by his power over the kattanee?

His lips curled in a thin smile. “We’ve always wanted the same thing. Always.”

As if that explained everything.

She opened her mouth to retort. Nothing but a moan came as his lips claimed the soft curve of her throat. Her hands rose of their own accord, and her fingers twined in the short strands of his onyx hair.

Her panties under her uniform dampened and her heart beat faster than pounding rain. He tilted back his head and gave her a wicked grin. “I know you want me as much as I want you.”

Jamar acknowledged they were much too alike not to share the same desires. Kierra knew each small detail about him as he knew all about her—how her dark eyes flashed when she was upset. How she became irritated or troubled but never angry.

Now Kierra was in his room and very close to being in his bed. If only he could show her how much he loved her. If only his parents and Kierra’s could look the other way and forget the division that existed on Becutan. He could hope, but it was a foolhardy hope that everyone would continue to look the other way. Jamar considered telling Kierra about his thoughts, but she’d changed in the last few years. She’d become more distant and inexplicably afraid of what she couldn’t directly relate to. Not that he’d seen too much of her, but he’d missed her more than he cared to admit. The few times he’d encountered her in the villa, she’d been frightened and fled as fast as she could.

As she toyed with the fine hairs at his nape, he shuddered with the thrill of her tender touch.
I want to make you my wife, Kierra Vonne, and make you Mrs. Q’ellan. We won’t care as heads turn and gossip and rumors swirl around us. No matter what happens, we’ll have each other. Nothing can come between us.

He couldn’t voice his thoughts to her, the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about, the woman who tormented him in his wet, erotic dreams.

“I want you,” she whispered suddenly, breaking the hushed silence.

“I hear a ‘but’ in there somewhere,” he murmured, unfastening the button at her throat. The bland, white uniform did nothing to enhance her natural beauty. Her face was startlingly pale.

She nodded and slapped his hand from her collar. “But we can’t. I know the luxurious, privileged world you come from protects you from everything bad, but my world,” she said emphasizing the last two words. “My world is bad. Period. You don’t belong in mine, and I don’t belong in yours.”

Her melancholy expression told Jamar just how much she hurt.

“Maybe you and I should start a revolution,” he said half-jokingly. “We need to get married and show our world how happy a Jaquill and a kattanee can be. That it’s not unethical.”

“No! Marrying you won’t make me Jaquill, will it?” she thrust at him.

This time she didn’t run or push him away. Was he making progress and getting through to her? Did she understand he wanted her but not just for a brief fling. Forever and damn the consequences?

“No?” he demanded. “But it will make you mine.”

“You can’t do that. You can’t marry me. Manitee-a might never be ready for the kind of wedding you’re proposing. And I refuse to be a seshan pig you can test your theories out on.”

She ducked around him and turned her back on him to flee, but he wouldn’t have her running away on him. He caught her around the waist and spun her around. “Kierra. I’ve always loved you. From the moment we met. I love the way the sun glints on your blonde hair. I love the way you laugh when I make a joke. I love the wonder on your face when I show you a hidden lake or a night sky filled with stars that glitter like a million jewels. I love you.”

Her hands came up in tight fists, and she pummeled his chest. “No, Jamar! You can’t say that! You can’t even think it! It will never, never happen.” Her cobalt eyes were bathed in fear. And tears.

Seizing her wrists, he pulled her to him. “Maybe not at a macro level, but we’ll change the world at a micro level. Ours,” he told her, willing the hurt and pain to disappear from the eyes he loved so much.

“Let me go. You can’t do this to me.”

They’d gone full circle. If he couldn’t reason with her then he’d take her to bed and show her how much love he had for her. Releasing her hands, he scooped her up in his arms and strode toward the bed. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about the brocade bedspread and tossed Kierra on it, coming down on top of her with a vengeance.

She lay facing him as if she were formed of ice, but he refused to look into her expressive eyes, afraid of what he’d find there. More pain, more frustration, more desperation. He could only hope that once his cock lay deep inside her cunt that she’d realize his deep love for her, that she’d change her mind.

Kierra squirmed under his deft, experienced hand as his warm palm trailed up the outside of her thigh, sending delicious shivers into her pussy. Need spiraled into sharp-pointed arousal, and despite her misgivings, she relaxed into the pleasure that he offered.

“You’re hot for me.” His statement was matter-of-fact and filled with awe.

This time his earnest, slumberous eyes met hers. His long fingers burned a trail of fire along her skin under the well-worn cotton of her uniform. She marveled at the tenderness with which he not only spoke but also caressed her. She moaned as her pussy clenched in a short, powerful spasm.

“When we were younger, I’d get so horny just thinking about you naked under me, even as we lay under the stars looking up at heaven.” He chuckled lightheartedly. “All I knew, heaven was right beside me and her name was Kierra.”

She couldn’t help herself and smiled. They’d never made love before. “You sound as if you’re a lovesick fool.” His fingers edged between the elastic of her panties and her burning skin. Kierra shifted, longing for him to move faster, to ease the desperate yearning swirling through her body. Her nipples beaded into tight buds and her channel was wet with her juices.

“Don’t put words into my mouth,” he kidded, his eyes lighting up. He jerked aside the elastic. His thumb searched and expertly found her weeping channel. “And you said you didn’t want me.”

Kierra snorted self-derisively, sensing their relationship had taken a major turn. They were no longer children. He was twenty-four to her nineteen, and although they’d never been afraid to touch each other, they were at this moment exploring each other at an intimate level. Her mind urged her to escape the sexual madness in which they were embroiled, but her heart demanded more and her body even more yet.

Her fingers strayed to his nape and to the fine hairs there. As a child, he’d worn his hair shoulder-length, but had acquiesced to society’s pressure that Jaquill men sported it short. She never wore her long hair down anymore, not even to sleep at night. Instead, she twisted it into a braid, then into a tight bun to make herself as featureless as possible as all the other white women did. Kattanee women were not allowed to flaunt any part of their body. It was considered shameful and a punishable offense to wear short-hemmed uniforms or make-up. It was a capital offense to sleep with a Jaquill male.

Kierra groaned as Jamar’s thumb rubbed her clit in tight circles. She could still get up, pull her uniform down to her knees and walk away, couldn’t she?

His chest rose and fell with his ragged breathing. “I’ve wanted you like this for such a long time. It was making me crazy.” His voice was as gentle as a welcome breeze on a humid summer’s day.

She didn’t say anything to spoil the moment, one she’d never have again. After they finished making love and satisfying the demands of their bodies, she’d go out of her way never to see him again. That is, if she wasn’t found with him in his bed and put to death before that. Her heart drummed loudly as he pressed his wrist against the slight curve of her mons.

“Oh,” she murmured, as her muscles tensed and the whole length of her body quivered. She closed her eyes tightly as an orgasm ripped her apart.

Jamar laughed softly. “That’s my girl. Just keep it coming.”

She tried to squeeze her thighs together to deter him from rubbing her hard clit. He edged her legs apart wider with his knee. His rigid cock nestled against her lower thigh, pulsing, aroused and insistent with its own need.

Another orgasm rent through her, mocking her determination never to allow Jamar near her again. As if she’d been able to resist being with him, she admonished herself.

“I want to see all of you,” he said reverently. “Your breasts, your cunt, everything,” he whispered, lifting his thumb from her clit.

“No,” she protested, opening her eyes wide. She couldn’t let him see her naked. Without her clothes, she was much too vulnerable.

His eyebrows shot up in question. “Are you changing your mind?” he asked in a husky baritone.

“You’ve never given me a choice to begin with,” she murmured, fully meeting his hot gaze. Choices for kattanee were strongly discouraged.

He pursed his lips into a thin line. “How inconsiderate of me.”

His hands traveled to her throat. He didn’t bother with buttons, grasped the fabric of her collar and tore the material down her front in half.

“Jamar,” Kierra chided softly, “look what you’ve done.” Without any effort, they were back to the easy camaraderie they’d shared when they were young.

His adoring smile twisted her heart. “Well, I’ll be,” but there was no contrition in his tone. His gaze focused on her barely covered breasts. With a tender finger, he tossed the cotton toward her arm where it fluttered then he did the same with the other side, exposing each soft globe to his admiring eyes.

She beheld his face, his full lips slightly parted, his concentration intense, and his nostrils flaring. She realized he’d all but shut her out emotionally, which was new to her and terrifying. He’d never done that before. Sadly, they had changed, even though they were still perfectly suited to each other in the same way night and day were perfect complements but never meant to meld. Night and day, Jaquill and kattanee, there was no mixing the two.

Tears blurred Kierra’s eyes and rather than let Jamar see her cloying fear, she closed them.

* * * *

Jamar watched as her nipples puckered into even tighter pebbles. His heart roared in his ears as he’d heard the waves pounding furiously at the side of the jagged cliff on the far side of Becutan near the ocean. His groan reverberated around them.

He’d waited for Kierra for so long. He’d sought the right opportunity and persuaded his mother, the house overseer, to assign Kierra to clean his rooms. Like an awestruck teenager, he didn’t know what to do now that Kierra was in his arms. He could only stare as his balls hardened painfully. Swallowing hard, he lowered his head and slipped a tiny bud into his mouth to savor it with his hot tongue.

She moaned. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, flexing and un-flexing with turbulent passion. Blinded by his need, he shakily unbuckled his belt and tugged his pants down his legs. His breathing was raspy and his pulse was tattooed.

“Kierra,” he ground out with great effort, his mind momentarily drawing a blank to any other thought than that she was here with him.

Her hair! He’d loosen her golden tresses and rake his fingers through the silken strands. When his hand touched the tight knot on top of her head, she batted her eyes open, her gaze inquiring.

“Your beautiful hair,” he said softly. “You never wear it down like you used to.”

She did nothing to stop him as he twisted the elastic of her hair band and the lustrous strands unraveled and fell across the pillow. He combed through the tangles and when her hair flowed on the stark white of the pillow, he said, “Why don’t you wear your hair down when you’re with me?”

She was so very beautiful. Why did society have to make such stupid rules about keeping Jaquill and kattanee Manitee-ans apart?

“I can’t be with you again,” she murmured before averting her gaze.

The gaping chasm between them, not through any fault of their own, was still there. He would attempt to rectify that though as soon as his father passed away. Jamar wanted far-reaching change whereas his father wouldn’t even think of them. The kattanee would have more freedom, and the Jaquill would have fewer powers over them.