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    He stroked her cheek lightly. “It’ll hurt you, nodia. I don’t know any way to keep from hurting you.”

    She swallowed a little convulsively. “Don’t stop.”

    He studied her doubtfully for a moment and finally surged into her again. She squeezed her eyes tightly at the burning sensation, panting for breath, infinitely relieved when the burning began to subside. He slipped outward again, leaning down to kiss her, and she felt the heat slowly reigniting inside of her, chasing the discomfort away and replacing it with the pleasure she’d felt before.

    Breaking the kiss, he shifted lower still, withdrawing his cock from her completely. Before she could object, he settled his mouth over the tip of one breast. Her belly contracted almost painfully at the first tug of his mouth. She caught his head between her palms, half tempted to push him away, uncertain, but the pleasure that inundated her settled the matter. By the time he shifted his attention to her other breast, she was writhing beneath him, unable to lie still.

    “Anka,” she gasped plaintively when he finally ceased torturing her breasts.

    Eagerness filled her when he moved upward once more, engaging his body with hers and surging deeply into her channel. It burned, but pleasurable ripples wafted through her, as well. She gasped, lifting her hips when he began to withdraw. Shifting his weight, he caught her hips, holding her so that he could set the rhythm they both needed. She felt the pleasure build inside of her as he stroked his cock along her channel. Squeezing her eyes tightly, she focused on the quakes that promised something wonderful, and she was still caught off guard by the explosion of rapture that abruptly seized her, made her feel as if she actually had shattered into fragments of sheer ecstasy. She gasped, cried out at the sheer magnitude of it, shaking.

    He uttered a choked sound that was raw and hoarse. It made her skin prickle all over, made the walls of her sex clench in response. Shuttering as she had, he pumped into her shakily and finally stilled, gasping hoarsely.

    Sighing with relief when the convulsions finally stopped, Sybil felt darkness enfold her as she drifted on a cloud of supreme satisfaction. She frowned with displeasure when she felt him withdraw from her and settle on the bed beside her. She could tell he was studying her, but she was too tired to feel like opening her eyes. After a moment, he gathered her closer, pulling her onto her side and holding her against his chest.

    “Why me, nodia?” Sybil searched her mind, trying to figure out what he was asking. Finally, it dawned on her. She smiled against his chest. “I was waiting for the perfect man.” * * * *

    Anka had fully intended to make love to Sybil all night once he’d taken the plunge and asked her, completely contrary to any conscious plans he was aware of, and she’d accepted. He knew it was the wrong thing to do given their delicate situation. He’d known that before he’d discovered she’d never taken a lover before him.

    Afterwards… well he’d been near catatonic with shock, too stunned by the discovery to begin to sort the disastrous possibilities that might arise from it and, in the midst of trying to figure out just how badly he’d fucked up, sleep had descended over him.

    He woke curled around her and desire stirred even before his mind was fully alert. Fortunately, he’d woken to the problem he’d been trying to sort when he fell asleep before he’d managed to waken her. He was still reluctant to stop once he’d begun caressing her sleeping form, nuzzling his face against her to enjoy her warmth and her scent, and yet wariness rose the moment she sighed and moved against him, the entire situation descending upon him like a thunderclap.

    He realized that he was still having trouble coming to grips with the fact that she’d been virginal when he knew it was not at all typical for a woman of her age and culture. It certainly wasn’t typical among his own people. From the time they reached full maturity they were allowed to take lovers. For many, that was as early as twelve solars. Very few waited until they were even fifteen or sixteen solars. Even in her culture, few of them remained virginal through their teens. At some point, they succumbed to nature, regardless of nurture.

    Sybil was not that young.

    It was true that it was as hard for him to judge the age of humans as it was for her to judge the age of a feril. Neither of them had the ‘tools’ to make that sort of judgment, but he certainly came closer than her. He’d at least studied the exhaustive data collected over the years on humans. Regardless of the fact that he hadn’t had enough interaction to simply make an educated guess from their appearance, he had some data to help him calculate. She was an officer in service to her country. Even if she’d gone to school to become an officer, instead of entering service at the lowest rank, it would’ve taken time to move up. She must be at least twenty five solars, or years as they referred to it, he concluded.

    He realized that wasn’t actually the question in his mind-not why she had been virginal when she was old enough to have taken many lovers, or at least a few. The question was, why had she taken him?

    Because she’d been afraid to refuse?

    He feared that might be the answer and if it was, it could be disastrous on far more than a personal level.

    Anger flickered through him. He’d done his best to recover the situation when she’d told him outright that she was terrified and he’d seen that she was. He’d tried to sooth her. Why had she refused every attempt he’d made to convince her to simply return to her own people? If she was afraid of him, why hadn’t she fled when he’d given her the chance?

    He didn’t know. He wracked his mind for something he’d read about their psychology that might help him understand and came up empty.

    She hadn’t behaved as if she had never been with a man, damn it! He hadn’t discovered it until he’d been inside of her and by then he was lost. There was no point in trying to whitewash it. He hadn’t wanted to stop. He’d still given her the opportunity to push him away, but when she hadn’t he was just so much putty in her hands.

    Gods! She would go back to her people and tell them he had raped her and she would have proof that he had. He knew she was raw from his lovemaking. She had to be when he’d felt the delicate tissue tear.

    He would be fortunate if his people turned him over to hers in one piece when the fallout from his stupidity landed in their laps!

    Gods! He was nigh forty solars! She was not even a woman of Sumptra! He didn’t see how he could have fallen so swiftly and completely under her spell as to do what he’d done! He might as well have been a complete moron for all the brain matter that he’d used!

    What was it about him that drew virgins, he thought in disgust? A good half of the women he had taken as lovers over the years had been. He did not believe for one moment that it was a subconscious desire on his part. It certainly wasn’t a conscious one, by the gods! Beyond the fact that they had no idea how to please a man, they were not mature enough to form a comfortable relationship.

    Not that it would be any help to him to figure that out at the moment! There could not be any relationship with Sybil. That was one of the main reasons he’d decided he would ignore the attraction he felt toward her-that and the political ramifications of such a liaison.

That had worked well, by the gods!

    She had smiled at him, laughed at his stupid attempts at humor, looked him over with frank admiration, and he had completely forgotten everything that he’d worked out so carefully in his mind and allowed her to lead him off by his cock!

    Sybil stirred in his arms, dragging him abruptly from his mental rebuke and pitching him into a mild state of panic as it dawned on him that he’d been too busy berating himself to figure out how to handle the situation.