Frieda held herself still and swooned in his kiss. He held her on tenterhooks so acute she could barely breathe. Every nerve tingled in quivering anticipation of what he would do next. Would he go further next time, or would he stop here? She couldn’t bear the thought that he would decide to leave her like this, yearning and incomplete.
He gazed into her eyes with his lips touching hers. “What is it?”
Her eyes crinkled. “I’m metabolizing the algae’s byproducts.”
His eyes flashed until he saw the wicked glint in her eye. Then he laughed, and she laughed with him. “Are you getting used to it now?”
“I think so,” she murmured.
In answer, he rolled up on top of her, and his knee nudged between her legs. She gripped that knee with every muscle fiber she could marshal and held on for dear life. He let her exhaust herself against him before he proceeded. He kept his eyes locked on her face until she whimpered in desperate agony under him. He waited until she would do anything, submit to anything, if only he would act.
He hovered over her with the stealthy intent of a hawk over its prey. He judged the direction of the wind, he measured her expressions, her breathing, with masterful accuracy. Then he dropped out of the sky with his talons bared and seized her body, limp and ripe and ready.
She watched him swoop and her breath stuck in her throat, but she couldn’t resist. Before she knew what happened, she lay bare and open to his insatiable appetite. He filled her with the power of his presence until she couldn’t take another particle. In the end, no watery vision could compare with the complete union of their bodies and minds.
Frieda dissolved into him, into his body and his spirit. The vision she experienced in the meadow came back to her, and she never wanted anything so much as to be his, like this, the way the vision showed her she could be. If she only stayed there, in his arms, her body wrapped around him, she would never lose that vision, and she would be happy.
Chapter 7
Frieda woke up the next morning and found Deek sitting on the edge of her bed. “I didn’t know you were up.”
He turned around. He had his pants on, but not his boots or shirt. He bent down and kissed her. “I have to go. I’m helping lay the foundation for the new hall today.”
“You weren’t going to sneak out without saying good-bye, were you?” she asked.
He took her in his arms. “You looked so peaceful sleeping, I didn’t want to wake you.”
“I would rather you woke me up before you leave,” she told him. “I wouldn’t want to wake up and find you gone.”
“Okay,” he told her. “Now I know.”
“Will you be at the work site all day?” she asked.
He nodded. “I’ll see you later. You’re coming to the gathering, aren’t you?”
“I’ll come to the gathering,” she replied, “as long as you understand I won’t be coming to the convocation.”
“I understand that,” he replied. “I still wish I could convince you....”
She cut him off with a shake of her head. “Don’t even try. You got me this far by respecting how I feel about it. Don’t spoil it by trying to convince me.”
He kissed her again. “Okay.”
She watched him pull his boots on, and then his shirt. At last, fully clothed, he stretched out next to her again on the bed. She lay under the covers and he lay on top of them with his arms around her. They kissed and cuddled for a long time before he got up again. “I’ll see you later.”
She nodded and watched his form get smaller in the meadow outside her door. Pretty soon, only the shimmering multi-coloured sunlight rippled over the grass outside.
Frieda lay in bed for a long time and listened to the wind murmuring over the land. Nothing could soothe her like that sound. Nothing disturbed the everlasting tranquillity of that day. She never had to get out of the bed. She would never get hungry or thirsty.
Only boredom could drive her out of bed, and in the