Adrian brought his arms up and rested his palms on the sides of her face. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them and looked directly into his.
“I’m sorry for what I said,” Adrian said, “I didn’t mean to judge you, Anessa. The Shara Daim are not like my people. I don’t know what the best action was. But I’m glad that you are trying to change your people, and I understand that your ways are not like those of my people. I believe that you are better suited to lead than your Elders.”
“I apologize as well,” Anessa said, the words sounding unfamiliar on her lips. “I know that you didn’t mean to judge me, I know who you are. It was my own frustration, at what I have done, my choices and my beliefs,” she said honestly.
Adrian’s eyes softened. “If you truly want to change your people, then there will be peace between the Empire and Shara Daim, that much I can promise you now.” He realized that his hands were still cupping her face, so he let his hands drop down.
“I might want more than peace,” Anessa said.
“For anything other than that, we would need to discuss much more, and when I’m not suspended in the air,” Adrian said, adding the last part in a lighter tone.
Anessa glanced down at his feet, which were not touching the ground, and then up at his face. Her eyes narrowed a bit and a side of her lip curled slightly up. “So, we are at peace now, are we?” she said softly.
“Uh, yes?” Adrian said unsurely, the change in her tone and demeanor catching him off guard.
She pulled him off the wall, still keeping him in the air as she walked around the sofas.
“Anessa?” Adrian asked as she reached the large bed at the end of the room and threw him on it.
Adrian rose to a sitting position, just as she grabbed her Shur At by the shoulder and pulled. The clothing changed and slipped off her effortlessly, leaving her in all her naked glory.
She reached down at his shoulder and tugged at his skin-suit. Almost instinctively, he sent a command through his imp and the suit loosened and turned into a two-piece. She tugged the top off and then pushed him down onto the bed. Common sense went out of the window the moment he removed his leggings and she straddled him, her hands dropping to his shoulders, keeping him in place.
A part of him knew that he shouldn’t do this, not now at least, but another part of him was eager. He had thought about her like this for a long time, and he doubted that he could stop himself, or her, for that matter. He looked over her body, tracing her curves with his eyes, and watched as one of her hands left his shoulder and moved slowly downwards over his body until she found what she was looking for, and then guided him as she lowered herself slowly onto him. Both of them sighed in satisfaction at the feeling. Anessa lowered her mouth down onto Adrian’s neck; he felt her teeth gently bite his skin. She started to move, and soon both of them found a rhythm.
There was too much need and passion for it to be anything slow and steady. Their movements were fast and urgent, both seeking release as fast as they could, and when it came, it was glorious. Adrian watched as Anessa’s back arched, and Adrian’s fingers traced the softness of her skin over her hips and thighs as she shuddered above him. Finally, she leaned back down close enough for Adrian to put his arms around her neck and pull her head down. He put his lips on hers and sought entry with gentle movements of his tongue. She didn’t react for a moment or two, but then she hesitantly opened her mouth, and followed his lead unsurely.
After he let her go, she raised her head and looked at him curiously. “What was that?” she asked.
Adrian frowned, and then it hit him that they were really two different cultures. “Uh… it’s a human way of showing affection,” he answered lamely.
“Hmm…” She licked her lips in a way that made him hot all over again. “I like it,” she said, and put her lips on his again.
Sometime later, Adrian watched Anessa’s body sprawled on the one side of the large bed, her limbs stretched across the bed grabbing as much space as possible. Her dark skin glistened with sweat in the lights from the ceiling. She was asleep, and Adrian watched the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest as she slept. The bed was far larger than any humans used, so both of them had sufficient room. They had exhausted each other. During the second time, they had realized the differences that they had ignored the first time. She was much taller than him, and that made things awkward a bit and took a bit of getting used to, but they had managed.
And there were other differences as well. They were different races, with different norms and ideas about sex, but those differences only made them more interested in each other. Although the things worked pretty much the same. Adrian wondered if the Nel and human couples in the Empire experienced something similar. They had experimented, forgetting the outside world completely.
But Adrian knew that the outside world was waiting; already they had been in this room for several hours. Too long of a time for a simple talk. The guards outside must have been getting anxious, but so must his people. Now after the excitement was past, the magnitude of what they had done truly hit him. He had slept with a ruler of a foreign empire. He knew that it wouldn’t really change the way he would approach any negotiation, but it could still pose problems for both of them.
He had enjoyed himself, and he cared about her. She was not like anyone in the Empire; the morals of Shara Daim were not the same as those of humanity or the Empire. She had manipulated him ruthlessly into eliminating someone in her path. And no matter how much she said she wanted to change, how much intellectually she understood that her people weren’t superior to others, she would still look down on the weak. She would always be arrogant to some extent, respecting only strength. There were serious differences between them, social and moral norms that were completely different. She might never understand his human morality or thinking, but she understood that other part of him, the one that made him different than anyone else in the Empire. She knew him and he knew her, on an instinctual level.
And Adrian was fine with that. He had given up ever finding someone who could understand what it was that drove him to push himself forward, what drove him to act. And she did understand. He came back from his inner mulling to find her white eyes open and focused on his.
Anessa woke slowly. She felt satisfied and more relaxed and rested than she had been in a long while. She moved her head and noticed the person lying on the other side of the bed watching her. Immediately, she remembered their intimacy earlier. It had been amazing, strange, and new. They were different enough for it to be intriguing and similar enough for it to be more than satisfying. But it was also more than just an experiment, more than just release.
She had feelings for him, strong feelings that she hadn’t felt in a long time, but that were also more fulfilling. Adrian understood her. He knew that she was different than him and his people. And he cared for her in the same way that she did for him. She had suspected it, but after what they had experienced together, now she was sure. There was a closeness between them that made her feel at ease. It had been present even while she was a prisoner, only both of them had kept it suppressed.
And he was not afraid of her. She remembered picking him up and pinning him against the wall; he hadn’t even tried to defend himself because he had known that she wouldn’t have harmed him. There was no envy in him towards her power, even though she was stronger both physically and with the Sha. She remembered her pinning him to the bed and being in charge. A Shara Daim man wouldn’t have been so at ease with letting her handle him like that.
She crawled over to his side of the bed and lay down an arm’s length away, keeping her head leveled with his.