The Krinar Eclipse, page 10
part #0 of Krinar World Series
“We are seeing a ballet in London.” He helped her inside the ship, and she sat down on the slender plank, which morphed into a seat around her body. She was still getting used to Krinar technology and couldn’t resist wriggling a little to test out the range of motion. Soren chuckled as he piloted the ship. He tapped the colorful screen a few times before he settled back and pulled her chair closer to his. She leaned against him, and they watched the skies darken as they moved higher and higher into the air. Normally, it would take eight hours to fly to London, but it took only an hour and a half in Soren’s craft.
“Why don’t we teleport, like you did on K-Day?” she asked. It was something she’d been meaning to ask him the last few days as she was getting more comfortable with Krinar technology.
“Ah, I was wondering if you’d ask me that. The device I used to appear in the White House that day was a very special short-range device. It works only within a few miles. We’re working to extend the distance and now have it up to fifty miles. The use of the machines is heavily regulated since not all of my people have the self-control needed when using such a device. Being here on Earth, full of its new temptations”—he looked at her with a mischievous wink—“we have to make sure our people learn to obey our laws, which means not using our technology carelessly around humans the way we would at home.”
“So the humans can’t get it, right?” Bianca frowned at him. “That’s not fair, you know. The technology is—”
“Incredibly dangerous. The average human would be tempted to misuse it since the balance of power would be in their favor against other humans. We plan to ease use of our technology into your society in small pieces over time to allow you to adjust.”
“Okay, you have me there.” She couldn’t deny that most humans would definitely misuse alien technology for their own selfish purposes.
“Don’t be disappointed. As my charl, you’ll be allowed to use the technology when you’re with me among my people, or in our home.”
She trembled with delight at the thought of a home she’d share with Soren and the future life they would have. Damn, Claudia was right. I have it bad.
They landed on a special Krinar airstrip outside of London. She and Soren got into a black cab, which took them to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. As they stepped out of the car, a thick fog rolled in, curling around one of the streetlamps, dimming the golden glow. The eerie beauty of a London fog night made Bianca lean into Soren and curl her arm around his. Dozens of people in fine clothes, more than a few of them Ks, wandered up the steps of the opera house, their feet vanishing into the tendrils of the fog.
“I haven’t been to London since my father became president,” she told Soren.
“It’s an amazing city. I admit, I prefer it over DC.”
“Then why do you stay in DC?”
He shot her an amused, indulgent look. “Arus actually wanted me to travel to more cities around the world and live in the cities for a few months at a time, but I did not wish to be too far from you. I convinced him that I should stay in DC.”
“Because of me? I was just a kid when we met…”
“You were, and I did not think of you as a potential charl then, but I convinced myself it was important to stay close to your father—and therefore you—as part of my duties. That keeping an eye on you was in the best interests of my people because of how important you are to your father. But I confess, I did have a connection to you that first moment I saw you. I recognized your bravery, your need to seek answers but not necessarily fight with violence. You challenged me without outward fear, and that fascinated me. It was only after we met again on the campus tour that I had to face that my curiosity was turning to obsession.”
They stopped at the top step to the Royal Opera House, and he cupped her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes. “I have waited eight thousand years to find you, and I have not doubted for one second that you were perfect, and perfect for me.”
A warm glow built inside her, and she basked in his words and the intimate way he created moments like these, even in the midst of a bustling city.
“It’s crazy, you know,” she whispered. “To do this.” She gripped one of his wrists and brushed her fingers over his skin. He was so warm to the touch. Always deliciously, invitingly warm.
He quirked a brow at her. “To do what?”
“People don’t just fall in love this fast. I don’t believe in love at first sight.”
“Love at first sight? Oh, lilana, how you delight me with your human phrases.” He chucked her chin like she was an adorable child.
She growled a little, but then she laughed as well. “What I mean is I can’t love you, not yet. This feeling has to be lust, doesn’t it? Really powerful, mind-blowing-sex-based lust.”
“Close your eyes, Bianca,” he urged. After a moment’s hesitation, she did.
“Now, let all your thoughts go. Abandon all your focused feelings and simply let your body tell you the truth. Do you want me? Do you want to be with me always?”
Until the end of time. The thought came to her softer than the fog that had wrapped itself around London. If she hadn’t pushed away her thoughts and her sensibilities to listen to that quiet little voice, she might never have heard it.
She opened her eyes, feeling calmer now than she had been before. “Yes.” Soren trailed a fingertip down her nose and then to her lips.
“I felt that instinct the first moment I kissed you. You are still young. I’ve had far more practice and know when to listen to it. I knew you’d be afraid of what I am, that you would sense that instinct and it would confuse you. So I waited for you to feel it as I do. I’d planned to woo you slowly, but then you asked me to claim you, and I couldn’t say no. I was right about what lies between us.” His obvious smugness should not have been so charming, yet it was.
“You know, you’re lucky you’re a hot alien, or I’d be tempted to slap that smirk off your face.” She chuckled and delicately cupped his cheek, giving it a playful but tender slap, which made him laugh. The rich baritone sound made her entire being hum to life like strings plucked on a harp.
She rolled up on her tiptoes and stole a kiss. She savored the feel of his soft lips over hers. She opened for his tongue, and he thrust it inside in slow, seductive patterns that made her flush with heat. He knew just how to make her more eager for his kisses, even in public, and for once she didn’t care. Right now, there was only the two of them. It was a dream she never wanted to end.
When at last their lips parted, he gently pulled her toward the opera house entrance and removed two tickets from his inside coat pocket. For a moment, Bianca felt like she was on a date with a movie star or a celebrity, not an alien ambassador. Soren smiled at the ticket attendant, who glanced at their tickets and waved them toward a private entrance.
“Enjoy your evening, sir.” The man nodded at them as they got into an elevator that took them up one floor. They exited to find a row of gilded doors leading to private boxes.
“Wow.” Bianca had been to plenty of expensive galas and other events in her life, but this felt different.
Soren opened the door to their box, and they stepped inside. The plush, gilded opera box had two comfortable-looking red velvet chairs, which were angled toward the stage on their left. People were beginning to file into the seats in the auditorium below, as well as the other boxes. Soren guided her to her seat and then went to a drink cart and pulled a champagne bottle out of a tub of ice that was waiting for them. He popped it open and poured a glass for each of them. Bianca took hers with a grin.
“I’m not one for alcohol, but I do love champagne.”
Soren’s eyes gleamed. “That’s good to know.” He took a slow sip, watching her over the rim of his glass. As far as she knew, alcohol didn’t affect Krinar the way it did humans, but he was drinking to make her feel comfortable. He looked so damn sexy in his dark-gray formal three-piece suit. It had to have been custom tailored, with the way it perfectly accented his muscled form. He leaned back against the edge of the box, watching her.
“Alcohol doesn’t affect you guys that much, right?” She nodded at the glass in his hands, wondering if he would tell her the truth.
“Correct.”
“Can I… Can I ask more about you? The Krinar, I mean?” She scooched forward in her chair.
“I will tell you all that I am allowed.”
“Okay, so about the blood. Why do you drink it?”
His lips twitched, and he took another drink before he answered. “There was once a primate species called the lonar on our planet. We hunted them and drank their blood because it gave us a much-needed hemoglobin that we were lacking. But a plague struck the lonar, and they began to die out. By then we were working together as a race to survive. It was around the time the lonar became extinct that we created synthetic blood to drink.”
Bianca digested this carefully. “Okay… So why does it feel good when you bite me? Surely I’m not just having a kinky reaction to my teenage vampire fantasies.”
Soren let out a deep, rich laugh that warmed her insides.
“Our saliva, when introduced into your bloodstream, has a…” He struggled for a word. “Calming effect on humans. We developed this trait to make our prey more manageable while we fed on the lonar. With humans, it seems to have a more sexual effect on you, and for us, perhaps because we’re much closer species. Of course, you’re less close to us in DNA than, say, gorillas. The lonar were a food source, not a potential mating species. You humans, however, are much closer to us—and could in the future suit such a purpose.” He paused, their eyes meeting as those words sank in, and she couldn’t help but picture having a child with Soren. Would it have her eyes or his? Her lighter hair or his darker hair? Would it be tall and strong or favor more human characteristics? The biologist side of her was undeniably fascinated, and the human female part of her blushed with the thought.
“It’s important that we not feed from humans too often, or else a human could be drained. So we now have our clubs offer saliva injections rather than actual bites. That way humans can experience the freeing sexual highs without any of the drawbacks of losing blood.”
“But you bit me. Twice,” Bianca reminded him.
“I did.” He chuckled and walked over to sit in the chair beside her. “Because you are my charl, I may drink from you whenever I wish, and given that you tempt me at every moment, it will be a duty of mine to resist the call of your blood. But the bites I took were small and quick. It was more to get a taste of you, not to drink.” He brushed the hair back from her neck, and his gaze lingered on the vulnerable skin of her throat. Bianca felt like a Victorian heroine facing Count Dracula, but she had to admit, it made her hot just thinking about his teeth sinking into her neck while he pounded inside her until she couldn’t remember her name.
The lights above them flashed, indicating the ballet was about to begin. Soren refilled her champagne glass, and then they settled back as the orchestra began to play the opening musical suite. Bianca’s eyes widened as she recognized the hauntingly familiar strains.
“Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty?” she whispered. Soren nodded. “Oh God, I’ve always wanted to see this ballet.”
“I know.”
She reached for his hand automatically, needing to hold some part of him, to feel a deeper connection as the red velvet curtains rose and the ballet began.
She held her breath throughout the first act, watching the doomed princess dance among her suitors until the black fairy, cloaked in a dark robe, slipped into the grand ball and presented her with a bouquet of roses. Within those roses, the deadly spindle was hidden. Bianca listened to the eerie strains of music, knowing the spell of the spindle would be far too great for the heroine to resist.
The dancer spun, and her colorful gown swirled as she pirouetted and balanced on her pointed shoes until she pricked her finger on the spindle. Princess Aurora crumpled gracefully and tragically to the ground. The dark fairy prowled closer, swirling her cloak over the princess’s prone form, hiding her from the view of the three beloved fairies who wanted to rescue her.
Bianca was so lost in the moment that she tensed when she realized Soren had lifted her from her own chair and settled her onto his lap. He kissed the sensitive skin just behind her ear. She tried to look his way, but he guided her face back to the stage.
“Watch them and let me play with you,” he murmured in that dark, seductive voice that sent spirals of excitement and anticipation through her.
It was next to impossible now to focus on the ballet, as Soren did indeed play with her. His hands roamed her body, cupping each breast and pinching her aroused nipples. He gripped her throat, not to squeeze, but merely to hold her against him as he slid a hand between her thighs and parted her panties with a finger before delving inside to stroke the folds of her sex.
Dark pleasure began to build inside her as she realized he was going to finger her right there on the balcony during the middle of the ballet. Her eyes flashed around the opera house, trying to see if anyone was watching them. But they were more or less isolated in their box, and all eyes were on the stage. The prince was dancing through the woods now, and he stopped to stare at the vision of the cursed princess asleep in the tower as the three good fairies revealed it to him.
“That is how I feel when I see you,” Soren whispered. “That you are a vision of loveliness, a goddess, one I would wait forever to possess, to make my own.” His fingers slid inside her, and she covered her own mouth to silence the moan that would have otherwise escaped her. He stroked, coaxed, and teased her until he found that small ridge deep inside her and rubbed against it. Her legs turned to jelly, and she was grateful she wasn’t standing—otherwise, she would have melted into a puddle at his feet.
Bianca gripped the armrests of the chair, squirming as he continued to play with her, teasing and stroking her like a master harpist. When he bit down on her bare shoulder, she jolted as a climax hit her in full force. She almost bit her tongue to keep from screaming as she tensed, her channel clenching desperately around his finger.
Her vision blurred, the dancers on the stage ahead of her spinning in circles almost as fast as those in her mind as she slumped back against Soren. He growled in approval and kissed her cheek.
When her eyes blinked open after several long moments, she found herself on the floor of the box. His body was on top of hers, her dress shoved up to her hips. She welcomed him, gasping in hungry delight as he thrust into her, taking her in the way she needed. That one tiny bite was as drugging and deliciously dangerous as the prick of a finger on an enchanted spindle.
The sounds of Tchaikovsky’s ballet drowned her in dark, sweet dreams as Soren made love to her. She imagined herself lying prone on the bed, cobwebs clinging to the faded royal fabrics of the bedspread, a spindle lying on the floor beside her. Soren knelt at her side and leaned in, his lips covering hers as he gave her a kiss to wake her from the cursed sleep. Reality and dreams blurred together as she drowned in the sweetness of Soren’s touch until she knew no more.
Soren carried his sleeping charl from the private ballet box. He’d taken care to fix her clothes, and he’d fabricated a light coat for her so she wouldn’t be chilled in the foggy London night. As he carried her out of the elevator, the attendant met them.
“Is she all right?”
Soren nodded. “She enjoyed the show, but I fear the jet lag has caught up with her.”
The attendant nodded. “Poor thing. Jet lag can be difficult. Have a good day, sir.”
“And you.” He exited the opera house, glad the crowds had thinned. He didn’t want to have to fight his way through a group of people while carrying Bianca in his arms. He spotted a row of black cabs along the curb and deposited Bianca in the back seat before he climbed in beside her.
“Where to?”
“The Ritz.” He had booked a suite for them tonight because he wanted to enjoy the evening with her. While she was still on American time, it was late at night in London, and the city would be asleep in a few hours. Soren planned to spend those hours with his charl in a bed.
By the time the cab pulled up to the hotel, Bianca had woken up and was able to walk with him, although she yawned the whole way to the door. A doorman decked out in a fine uniform greeted them. Bianca’s eyes widened as she took in the size and lavish quality of the Ritz’s lobby.
Soren checked in at the front desk, and then they took an elevator to the Prince of Wales Suite. Bright and bold fabrics on the chairs and couches were luxuriously arranged alongside the delicate gold filigree rosewood furniture and a fire had been lit in the fireplace. Service at the Ritz was rumored to be the best. He grinned as he saw the bottle of wine and two glasses set out on the table between the two couches near the fireplace. That would be excellent for later.
Soren carried his little prize to the bath and stripped her of her clothes. He poured in a small bottle of bubble bath he found on the side of the overlarge tub as he ran the hot water. Bianca sighed in delight as she slipped inside. She rubbed her legs together and splashed around a bit before she leaned her head back on the tub and closed her eyes. Soren sat on the edge of the tub, gazing down at her—his beautiful, alluring charl.
“You make me crazy, you know that?” she said with a sigh, and it startled him. He thought she was asleep by now.
“I can’t tell if that’s an insult or a compliment.” He stroked the top of her head, loving the feel of her hair, soft and silky beneath his fingers.
“Mostly a compliment,” she murmured, leaning into his touch. “I had my life together. I had my plans. And then you just came in and made me throw it all out the window. I was shy before, and now I’m naked in a tub with you after we had sex in a private box in a London opera house.” Her eyes opened, and she tilted her head back to look up at him.
“Before three days ago, I commanded the respect and trust of my people,” Soren said. “Now I’m removed from my job, and I lost respect from my peers. I may even be facing exile from Earth, all because of how you make me feel.”
