Chapter 9.

J'Qhir's appreciation of the humor overcame his self-control. His mouth curved at the corners, edges parting to reveal the two rows of his sharp teeth. Leith's eyes widened- By the rock, what had he done! He had been told the baring of his teeth would frighten humans. They would perceive it as a threat and react defensively. He had been so careful for so long and now- Leith jumped toward him. She threw her arms at him and pressed her face to his, her soft pink lips closing in on his mouth. Instinctively, his body tensed and his jaws snapped shut to cover his teeth.

"Ow!" she yelped as he backed away from her and staggered to his feet. She clamped a hand to her mouth. When she withdrew it, a drop of blood stained her fingers. "You-You-You bit me!"

"Leith, b-beg forgivenesss," he stammered. Then he shook his head. He straightened his rigid form and glowered down at her. "I did not bite you. Your flesssh sssc.r.a.ped acrosss my teeth. What did you expect when you attack me in thisss ssstrange fa.s.sshion?"

"Attack you?" Leith stared at him incredulously. It hadn't taken decades after all to make him smile. It had only taken the right kind of joke. She was so elated she had reacted before she could consider the implications or consequences. She had thrown her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his. Deep inside, she hoped he would respond as a man. She should have known it wouldn't be so easy. He wasn't a man, he was Zi...and he thought she had attacked him!

Leith tried to control the laughter but couldn't. She clamped both hands over her mouth to suppress it, but giggles escaped in short bursts. He stared at her, his crest knotted in confusion, his eyes unblinking, his mouth a grim slash. His serious expression sent her over the edge. She nearly doubled over, laughter wracking her body.

She has finally gone mad! J'Qhir thought in alarm as he watched liquid stream from her eyes and her arms wrap around her waist. She jerked spasmodically and strange deep-throated sounds emitted from her. He d.a.m.ned himself as she had explained he should do when one caused a terrible calamity to befall another. He had provoked her attack then driven her insane. All because he had smiled.

J'Qhir didn't know what to do to help her. He could only watch her collapse onto the beast blanket pallet, then fall to her back in a coughing fit. Between hacking coughs, her body shook and guttural noises continued to escape sporadically.

He eased down beside her, allowing his good knee and arm to support his weight. She glanced at him occasionally, but each time her body convulsed and she closed her eyes against the sight of him.

Every time she looked at him she would be reminded of the frightful appearance of him baring his teeth. J'Qhir decided he would have to leave her.

"Leith," he whispered so as not to scare her again. His fingers ran through the ends of her brown hair. How many times had he crept close to her in the middle of the night and touched the silken filaments as she lay sleeping? "I will go away, deeper into the cavesss. I will not frighten you again."

Her wet round eyes popped open. A gurgle caught in her throat, and she coughed once to clear it. "

What?"

J'Qhir turned away from her. If she didn't look at him, she wouldn't become hysterical again.

"I will move deeper into the cavesss. You won't have to sssuffer my uglinesss any longer." There. He said it. Among his own kind, he was considered neither homely nor comely. All Zi looked remarkably similar. To humans, especially a female, he had to appear brutish even without the baring of his teeth. How had she withstood his countenance this long?

He felt her stir behind him, no doubt preparing to pack up his share of their supplies and send him on his way. Suddenly, she was upon him. Her hands latched onto his shoulders, pressing him back until he lay supine beneath her. Brown hair brushed his cheeks and neck. His vha'seh tightened and his jha'i threatened to release. He lay as still as a stone so that he would not disgrace himself beyond redemption.

"Are you crazy?" she snapped, her full lips parted, showing square teeth so unlike his own. He did not know if her people considered her beauteous. To him, humans were so different from Zi, there was no way to compare. He only knew his heart beat faster whenever she looked at him, and his blood pounded wildly through his veins whenever she was close to him. His jha'i felt as if it might explode at the slightest pressure.

He shook his head and turned away from her. "Leith-"

Warm fingers cupped his chin and brought him around to face her. "I didn't attack you, J'Qhir. I kissed you."

"Kisss?" The touching of lips, a custom of many species, including humans.

"Yesss..." she murmured, subconsciously mimicking his sibilant speech pattern. "I'm sorry I laughed. It's been so long since I've had something to laugh about, I couldn't stop once I started."

"You-You were laughing?" Blood rushed to his face and burned hotly. Only two circ.u.mstances caused a Zi to give off any extra heat-acute embarra.s.sment and rhi'ina'a, the mating ritual. Blood vessels expanded and engorged. The dense acc.u.mulation of blood caused the extra warmth. Stimulation of certain nerve endings-sss't! Recitation of his ancient studies did not lessen the expansion and engorgement of either set of blood vessels at this moment. "Leith, I have ssseen you laugh, but thisss...thisss wa.s.ss not laughing."

"It was very funny that you thought I attacked you." She rubbed the back of her hand over his cheek. "There are different kinds of laughter, just as there are different kinds of kisses. Don't the Zi kiss?"

"No. Full frontal approach isss consssidered an act of aggresssion."

Leith nodded and sighed. "You're not ugly when you smile, you know. I bet all the Zi girls back home think you're quite a catch."

"A catch?"

"An expression. Remember, humans have one for every occasion."

"I remember," he said seriously.

Leith shifted until she lay beside him, her side pressed close to his, her chin propped in her hand. She frowned slightly. "Is there a Mrs. J'Qhir back on Zi?"

"There once wa.s.ss, but ssshe died many, many yearsss ago. Our binding wa.s.ss arranged by our fathersss." He did not know why he felt the need to explain. "Her father isss a member of the Council of Eldersss, and I think he ha.s.ss alwaysss blamed me for her dying while under my protection."

"I'm so sorry," she said very softly.

"But no, I have no lifemate now or I could not have-" He stopped short. He almost told her that he could not have asked the question of her. If he did, he would have to explain its significance. He was afraid she would draw away from him. "Or I could not have you thisss clossse."

"No younglings?"

"No. My lifemate died before there wa.s.ss isssue."

She made a strangled sound in the back of her throat. "Um, just because you have no lifemate doesn 't mean there couldn't be younglings."

He felt his face grow warm again. She could not truly believe he would dishonor himself or a female in such a way. "No no. It isss qa'anh'al-forbidden."

"But accidents happen, no matter how careful one is-"

"No. It never happensss becaussse it isss not done."

"Never?"

"Never."

"Oh." Her lips remained pursed and her round eyes blinked languidly then widened. "Oh!" she said again and started to move away.

Quickly, J'Qhir rolled his bulk over until he had captured her. He lay along her length as he had envisioned so often. Not forced by unnatural gravity, not as a haphazard result of falling, but simply to experience the pleasure of her softly rounded body beneath his.

He blinked once when she did not resist.

He was careful to keep most of his weight off her as well as his injured knee. He slipped his arms underneath hers, which raised to accommodate him, and planted his elbows on either side of her torso. His hands entangled in her l.u.s.trous hair, cupping the back of her head.

He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent, the sweetness of the jhuhn'gha flower. His body absorbed her wonderful heat through the woven fabric of their clothing. He wondered what it would be like with nothing between them, to feel the p.r.i.c.kle of her body hair, to touch the fleshy mounds that rose and fell with each breath.

He wondered how long she would allow the impropriety to last. If she were Zi, she would have cried out in outrage long before now. She was not Zi...and he was pleased she was not.

"Plea.s.sse to explain what isss kisss?" He mangled the Terran Standard syntax, but he was too distracted to care. Her fingers lazily traced along his jaw, around the sweeping eye socket, over his crested brow. Her accidental touches had driven him mad, but her deliberate caresses plunged him into incoherent insanity.

"A kiss can mean different things at different times. It can express respect, affection, pa.s.sion, or love." Her fingers found his tympanum and explored it thoroughly, delicately, sensuously. "I finally made you smile, and I was excited about the achievement. So a kiss can also express joy at accomplishing something one sets out to do. I'm sorry if I frightened you. Is kissing qa'anh'al?"

"No. We know nothing of kisssing." He opened his eyes and looked directly into Leith's. "Would you ssshow me how to kisss?"

A tingle had already worked its way through Leith's body, down to her toes. If she taught him how to kiss, including demonstrations, she would be on fire with unfulfilled longing. She suspected he would, too. Becaussse it isss not done. Didn't he mean premarital relations were qa'anh'al? If they continued the kissing lesson, but could go no further because of his mores, they would be left physically frustrated. Was it wise to teach him how to kiss?

His amber eyes watched her expectantly, his mouth slightly parted, sharp teeth gleaming. The scratch on her lip was nothing more than a small sore spot. Kissing him would be a dangerous adventure.

Perhaps he was only curious. If the Zi hadn't discovered kissing, maybe the act wouldn't arouse him at all. Therefore, it wouldn't lead to anything more-for him.

Leith placed her free hand on the other side of his head and drew him closer to her. "One can kiss there." She lightly touched her lips to one high cheekbone. "Or there." His crested brow. "Or there." Tenderly, she brushed his mouth with hers.

The tingle turned into a burning flame and settled in the pit of her belly. She suppressed the instinctive surge of her hips toward his and the urge to spread her thighs for him. All natural reactions, but she didn't want to tempt him against his taboos.

He trembled beneath her fingertips, his breathing as harsh and ragged as her own.

"There isss more?" he whispered gutturally.

She nodded. "I have to be careful of your teeth. They're very sharp."

His crest, a thick fold of skin running across his browbone, rose up and out a few millimeters. He's preening, she thought in amazement.

"Is that considered a compliment?"

"Yesss..."

She ran one finger along the lower rim of his mouth then over several of his teeth. "J'Qhir, you have the sharpest teeth I have ever seen."

His crest inflated a little more.

She wanted to laugh, but didn't dare. He wouldn't understand at all, and she didn't want to hurt his feelings. Instead, she slanted her mouth across his, moving her lips. Carefully, she ran her tongue over his teeth then probed deeper. He caught on quickly and his tongue met hers, flicked against it teasingly.

The burning flame moved lower and became a throbbing ache. She couldn't stop the undulation of her hips this time. For the first time in her life she was completely and totally aroused. And the only time in her life, the only male she had ever truly desired could not take advantage of the situation.

Leith sighed deeply, a long shuddery breath. "W-We have to-to stop now or-"

"Or?" he prompted.

She looked into his amber eyes. "We have to stop or not stop."

"Not ssstop?" His crest had returned to normal. He c.o.c.ked his head to the side and blinked once. "Do you want to not ssstop?"

"I want to not stop, but I don't want to expect more from you than you can give." Once again, she ran her fingers along the hard contours of his face. She frowned. "Honestly, I don't know if it's physically possible."

"Sss. Rhi'ina'a-the mating between male and female. Kisssing isss part of thisss ritual?"

"Most of the time. Not always, but usually." She noticed he offered no opinion whether he thought it possible or not. "The day I walked in on you when you were doing that failure ceremony...you...I didn't see..."

She closed her eyes as heat infused her face. They were on the verge of mingling those body parts, why was it so difficult to talk about them?

"Leith, they are internal, protected from the high temperaturesss on Zi."

Biology hadn't been her best subject, nor one of her favorites, but she remembered the basics. Human male genitals were located outside the body because s.e.m.e.n, to remain viable, required temperatures slightly lower than normal body temperature. Since Zi was a hot world and the Zi body temperature was naturally lower, it made perfect sense that Zi male genitalia would be located inside the body, protected from the heat.

"Okay, but what you said before. You implied that-that rhi'ina'a is not acceptable unless the couple is married."

"Bound," he corrected. "It isss the way of my people."

"It was the way of my people up until a few centuries ago. Even when it was supposed to be forbidden-qa'anh'al, most did it anyway." Thoughtfully, she bit her lip. "But it's not that way with the Zi, is it? You don't ignore your rules and customs, do you."

"No. If we were on Zi and we were obssserved a.s.ss we are now, we would be ssshunned, ca.s.sst out from the clan. No Zi would ssspeak to usss or interact with usss. However, no Zi female would have allowed a male thisss clossse. And no Zi male would have presssumed-"

"Then we have to stop," Leith whispered. "I won't let you do anything that is forbidden to you."

She tried to extricate herself from him, but he held her fast.

"We are not on Zi, Leith. I will never sssee Zi again, nor you Terra. It isss difficult to go againssst what one isss taught from birth-but not imposssible."

"J'Qhir-"

"If you wisssh to ssstop, we will ssstop. But Leith, do not wisssh to ssstop becaussse of me."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel guilty afterward. I don't want our lovemaking to be something you regret."

"No regretsss." He took a deep breath. "Lovemaking. I do like the sssound of the word. Can we ssshed our clothing now, Leith?"

At her nod, he started to rise, but she stopped him. She fumbled with the antiquated loops and b.u.t.tons on his jacket, undoing each one slowly. When she finished, he shrugged it off. His heavy shirt overlapped at the front with a tie at the side. She pulled the string loose and tugged the ends of the shirt from the waistband of his trousers. She pushed the shirt over his shoulders bulging with muscle.

"Your turn," she said mischievously.

J'Qhir had to sit up to keep from exerting pressure on his bad knee. Leith sat up also. His taloned fingers grappled with the thin cloth of her shirt, sliding it up and over her head. Her bra confused him. He ignored the front fastenings and pulled it over her head too. He stared at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and her nipples hardened under his scrutiny.

"Touch them, J'Qhir."

Tentatively, he cupped them in his hands and held them almost reverently for a few moments. Then he carefully released them. Leith sighed and decided the finer points of foreplay could be covered later.

He was unlooping his trousers and Leith did the same. They wriggled free of pants and underclothes, socks and boots. Leith finished first and stretched out on the pallet. When J'Qhir was done, he lay on his side next to her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and eased her over onto her stomach. He clutched a handful of her hair as he latched onto the back of her neck.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he mounted her. He froze and released her instantaneously.

"Isss thisss wrong?"

Leith squirmed beneath him until she turned over and faced him. "Not wrong. It's one way to do it... J'Qhir, I've never done this before and I want this first time to be the-the most proper way."

"Never?"

"Never."

He fell to the side, leaning on an elbow. "I thought human femalesss-I have been told human femalesss are promissscuousss."

"Some. Not all. Not me. Who told you this?"