He smiled lazily again and ran his finger the length of her spine. “Scientifically speaking? I haven’t a clue. But I do have a theory: I think that the reason probably is-maybe-that Petaybee likes us.”
“That’s it? It provides for you, lets you live here and allows you this …” She searched for a word. “This blissful form of communication just because it likes you?”
“That’s about the size of it.” He nodded. “And it protects us from its own extremities as well, don’t forget, with the adaptations.” He gave her a delicate nibble on the back of her neck to punctuate his remark.
“That didn’t ultimately provide enough protection for Lavelle,” she reminded him, trying to sound rational when all she wanted to concentrate on was how to twist in order to nibble him back.
“It can only protect its people here, Yana. Miracles are seldom things.”
“Will I grow the adaptations? The-what was that ugly term?-brown fat and the protective layer under the skin?”
“If you need them.”
She pressed a thumb roughly across his bare forearm and gave him a quizzical look.
“Oh, yes I have it,” Scan said comfortably. “And a few other accommodations you’ll just have to find out for yourself. Some of us are more fully adapted than others. I, for instance, am even more a creature of Petaybee than Lavelle.”
“I don’t believe it! You don’t look different. And you don’t carry an extra ounce of flesh anywhere,” she said, almost accusingly. She was remembering his body all too vividly.
“Are you sure?” he said in a teasing voice, and his hands began to wander across the skin of her back and arms.
That was the first moment she realized that she was as naked as he was. When had that happened? Yet their nudity did not surprise her, seeming as natural as if they had just shared a sauna-and she had wanted to see his finely muscled body again. Did this damned planet grant three wishes? Had she taken hers without knowing what she really wanted?
Of their own accord, her hands began to caress his warm silky flesh, the muscles excitingly firm beneath her fingers. Then Sean added the persuasions of his lips to those of his hands, and Yana responded with an ardor she thought she had lost too long ago to ever regain it. He was so silky, so strong, so agile, suddenly so demanding, and she found she had a few demands of her own. His chuckle seemed to beat against her diaphragm and against her breasts, forcing an echo from her as he rolled himself into her with a speed and skill she had to admire. He filled her as she had never been filled before, and the ascent into ecstasy was almost more than she could bear … than they could bear, for Sean, in mind and body, was subtly, and impossibly, linked to her in a way that she had never experienced before. She was herself, matching the urgency of his rhythm; she was him, sheathing and unsheathing with a power that he, too, had never encountered in a long life of couplings.
They both called out at the same time, in the same voice of joy that was colored with an agony of regret for so ephemeral a moment. As they clung to each other, breathless, unbelieving, that moment seemed uncannily elongated-and all too brief.
“Yana!” Sean murmured in her ear, his tone reverent.
“Oh, Sean!” With strengthless arms, she pressed him against her, burying her face in his neck. The million things she wanted to tell him remained unsaid, for words would shatter the sense of bonding and she felt she had to preserve it, extend it.
For the first time in her adult life, sleep overcame her after sex. Sometime later, Sean shook her gently by the shoulder, kissing the corner of her mouth.
“Hmmmm.” She didn’t wish to move. She wanted more of him and put her hand out to pull him back to her. But he was dressed. That effectively brought her fully awake.
“We must leave now, Yanaba,” he said, his eyes tender and his hand gentle as he began to dress her.