He blinked twice and shook his head. "Sss't, it doesss not matter."

"Oh, let me guess. Steve Hanc.o.c.k?" When he didn't answer, she laughed. "It's okay. The next time you recall something Steve told you, just remember the source. Steve is not exactly the most reliable source of information. He misled you simply for the joy of it."

He nodded solemnly and stared down at her unblinking. "But, Leith, I am not sssure how to proceed."

Leith raised up, propping herself up on her elbows. Her gaze traveled over his tawny ribbing, rippling ribcage, the softer area of his stomach, to his abdomen. As she had observed once before, he lacked the obvious, yet displayed a distinctive bulge in the area above where his legs joined his torso. Leith ran her hand over the bulge. Something moved within, and J'Qhir grunted deep within his throat.

Her exploring fingers discovered what she thought was a decorative mark was actually an opening. The vent spread beneath her hand and something damp and soft-yet-hard nudged her fingers.

"Leith...if you do not ssstop, I cannot hold it in."

"It's all right. I have a place for you to put it."

J'Qhir allowed her hand to guide his to her point of bifurcation. He felt a vent, not unlike a Zi sa'aloh's, hidden beneath the triangular pelt of dark curls. At her urging, his fingers sank into her liquid heat and she gasped. Inner muscles contracted around him, and her hips pushed upward to meet his hand.

Encouraged, J'Qhir delved deeper. Sounds escaped her throat, low and primal, and caused his breathing and heart rate to quicken. He did not understand why her action should cause a reaction in him, but he did not think he should ask her at this moment.

Since he'd never had the opportunity to explore the interior of a Zi sa'aloh, he had no idea how similar or different they might be to human. He could not imagine a Zi this hot or this wet. He probed deeper until the tender flesh seemed to resist his advancement.

"Don't-" Leith began and had to clear her throat. "Don't break it."

He yanked his fingers from her and his eyes widened. "Break you? I did not mean-"

"No, you didn't." Leith laughed. "There's a membrane, a barrier. Proof that no man-no male has been there before you. Every human female has one. It has to be breached, but I would prefer that you do it with-" She broke off, unable to say the word again. They were nude, about to make love, and she couldn't say the word.

"Jha'i."

"Yeah, that's it. Do it with your jha'i." She only hoped jha'i meant what she thought it meant.

"You enunciate the Zi wordsss very well," he complimented her. "Except for p'ha'al."

"I'l work on it," she said wishing he would get on with it. Her limbs quivered, and she ached terribly where his fingers had explored. "J'Qhir, can we please do this now or I think I'm going to implode."

J'Qhir couldn't resist running his hand through the small patch of hair again. "You will feel plea.s.ssure?"

"Yes. Don't Zi females feel pleasure?"

He shook his head and entangled his fingers in the spirals. This hair was not as fine and silky as the hair atop her head. "It isss an endurance for them. It mussst be done quickly to caussse them a.s.ss little pain a.s.ss posssible."

"Have you ever done to them what you've done to me, the touching and caressing?"

"No! It isss not our way."

"That may be why. A human female body has to be stimulated to accept the male. Otherwise, it can be painful."

"Have you been ssstimulated enough?"

"More than enough. Please, J'Qhir..."

He lowered himself between her outspread thighs, pressing his vent against hers. She wrapped her legs around him and held out her arms.

"Hold me, J'Qhir."

He gathered her up and held her as close as he could. With a deep sigh, he at last allowed himself to let it go.

Uncertain what to expect, Leith cried out, mostly in surprise, but partly in delight. Immediately, J' Qhir withdrew.

"I'm all right," she a.s.sured him, whispering directly against his tympanum. "Can you do that again?"

"Yesss, Leith."

Once more his jha'i thrust into her, and she rose to meet it. There hadn't been pain as she had expected. A moment of discomfort, then only pleasure. Molten heat flowed from some center place throughout her limbs as her hips undulated against his. She had heard the expression "going nova" to describe climax, but she thought now it was an extremely inadequate description.

Through a white haze, she was aware that J'Qhir's body was very still.

"You should move with me, J'Qhir," she murmured against his tympanum.

After a few attempts, he matched her rhythm, his body naturally falling into its role. With the added friction of his thrusts, her back arched, casting her body against his. Waves of pleasure rippled through her, and she whimpered with each one. J'Qhir thrust into her a few more times until his entire body went rigid, then shuddered violently over her. Primeval noises sounded deep in his throat as he pulsed within her again and again.

When he had finished, he rested his crest against her brow, gently rubbing back and forth, and murmured words she couldn't understand.

Chapter 10.

"Look! Isn't it beautiful," Leith whispered and snuggled closer to J'Qhir, pulling the solar film more securely around them. The full moon had just cleared the tops of the trees and filled a good portion of the sky.

"It isss a wondrousss sssight," J'Qhir agreed, his voice lowered as well.

J'Qhir leaned against the back wall of the well-protected niche they had found near the top of the hill. Leith sat between his thighs, her back pressed against his chest. J'Qhir had wrapped himself in the beast blanket and with the solar film and her body heat, he had a.s.sured her he was warm enough. She had wanted to build a fire, but he pointed out the firelight would interfere with their viewing of the moon.

"Our moon back on Earth is much smaller, but when it's full it can be very bright," Leith explained. "Do you have a moon on Zi?"

"We have three moonsss, but they are very sssmall. Much sssmaller than the moonsss we obssserved that night on Arreisss and their light isss harsssher than thisss sssilvery glow. When all three are in the sssky sssimultaneousssly, they barely illuminate the night. It isss a rare occurrence and it isss called zar'az jha. If we know sssomething doesss not have a chance of being accomplissshed in a long time we sssay, not until the three moonsss."

Leith laughed. "I can't believe it! We have a similar saying-once in a blue moon. It means something that only happens every once in a great while. We usually have only one full moon in a month, but sometimes there's a second and it's called the blue moon."

"We do find more and more that we have in common," J'Qhir said and ran his fingers through her hair. She enjoyed his caresses. She tilted back her head and kissed him lightly on his cheek.

A few days had pa.s.sed since they had become intimate. She had expected awkwardness or embarra.s.sment, but felt neither. Leith was more comfortable with him than she had been with anyone in her life.

J'Qhir had been perplexed by the outcome. "Physssical plea.s.ssure," he had explained, "isss not attained during Zi rhi'ina'a. Physssical relea.s.sse, yesss, but not the intenssse joy I experience when our bodiesss join and peak."

She had fallen asleep, completely contented, in his arms. Later, when he had awakened her by kissing her cheek, her brow, and finally her lips, she was surprised but pleased and eagerly accepted him again. The third time, she had sleepily received his kisses and him, but her sated body refused to cooperate and would not peak.

The fourth time-in as many hours it seemed, but she hadn't checked her watch-she laid her hands against his chest and prevented him from settling atop her. "What are you doing?"

"Rhi'ina'a," he said as if the word actually answered her question.

"I mean, as much as I enjoy it, we don't have to do this all the time. I would like to get some sleep and so should you."

He looked down at her, blinked once, then fell back on his side, propping himself on his elbow. "Sss 'h. Rhi'ina'a isss not sssimply the act of joining, Leith. When Zi male and female begin rhi'ina'a, their biological rhythmsss coincide. When the female'sss cycle isss at the fertile ssstage, ssso isss the male'sss. Once rhi'ina'a ha.s.ss begun, they sssequessster themssselvesss from othersss. It isss a continual processs until the female isss no longer fertile, thusss ensssuring there will be isssue."

Leith had stared at him wide-eyed. "Are you saying once you start, you don't stop until the female's not fertile anymore?"

"Yesss. In a Zi female, thisss could be a.s.ss long a.s.ss a ssstandard month."

"And how long is a female's cycle?"

"It la.s.sstsss one Zi year." He drew in a sharp breath. "It isss not thisss way with humansss?"

She shook her head. "No. With humans, lovemaking can occur at any time, whenever two people decide they want to do it. Physical need drives them, and most people try to avoid fertility, but it's not something they have to do. It's something they want to do."

"Then sssleep," he said and gathered her into his arms.

Leith had closed her eyes, but his restlessness kept her awake. He tried to lie still beside her, but she could feel the slight twitches in his limbs.

"J'Qhir, is this something you have to do?" He didn't answer immediately, and Leith sat up to look at him. "Is it?"

"Yesss, a.s.ss long a.s.ss you are in your fertile ssstage."

Leith smiled at him. "Human female cycles last about a standard month. I should be fertile only a few days every month."

His eyeslits grew wider. "Every month?"

"Yes."

"Sss't."

She ignored the sound of dismay at the prospect of going through rhi'ina'a every month. She was as bewildered over the possibility of experiencing it only for a short time every year.

"Well, I don't think fertility is something we really have to worry about. We are much too different."

"I concur. But we are enough alike that I react to your cycle a.s.ss I would a Zi female." He paused. "No, I react more ssstrongly. I have wanted to lovemake with you sssince we were aboard the ssship."

She leaned over and kissed him as he had kissed her each time before making love to her-cheek, crest, and mouth. "And I wanted you from the moment I saw you."

J'Qhir pressed his crest to her forehead and rubbed slowly back and forth. The care with which he made the contact stirred her. She had never before considered the forehead to be an erogenous zone. She lay back pulling him with her.

"I thought you wissshed to sssleep."

"Not if you need me."

"I do not want to presssume-"

"No, it's all right," she a.s.sured him and ran the tips of her fingers around his tympanum. "I do have a question before you have your way with me. Will you be able to do this at times other than my fertile stage?"

"Normally, no, but with you I believe ssso. Your fertile ssstage la.s.sstsss only a few ssstandard daysss, but I have had thisss want of you much longer." He settled himself on top of her, drew her close, and thrust inside her. "I think the way your cycle continuousssly ebbsss and flowsss will make it posssible."

"Mmmm," had been her only response.

Now, as they sat together watching the huge moon move across the sky, Leith decided J'Qhir was correct. The urgency of his need had waned. After two days of joining several times during the day and even more at night, J'Qhir hadn't awakened her at all the previous night and had approached her only once this day.

She also hoped he was correct in that he would be capable after her fertile period was over. It would be unsettling if they had to endure an intense flurry of lovemaking over a few days' time, then nothing until a month later. Human bodies weren't made for such a schedule-or perhaps it was a schedule she didn't want to become accustomed to. Surely, over time their cycles would adapt to one another.

"Ssshould we go back?" J'Qhir suggested. "I can no longer sssee the moon."

"I suppose." Leith leaned out and looked up. The moon had moved directly overhead, but only a quarter of it was visible, the remainder hidden by the unscalable jagged rocks at the very top of the hill. Gray clouds seemed to be building to what she had determined as north. If it snowed heavily and grew colder, they might be trapped in the cave for who knew how long.

Leith stood and held out her hand for J'Qhir. His knee still hadn't healed, and he needed help sometimes, especially in the confining s.p.a.ce of the niche. He retrieved his staff, and they started down the hill at a slow and careful pace.

When Leith saw the mist rising from the pool, she stopped. "Let's go for a moonlight swim."

"The cloudsss, Leith." J'Qhir pointed toward the darkening sky with his stick. "It could sssnow at any time."

"And we might not be able to leave the cave for days." Leith turned toward the pool. "We'l have plenty of time to get there if it does begin to snow."

J'Qhir followed more slowly.

Leith started pulling off her clothing as soon as she reached the pool. She had found it was best to undress and get in the water as quickly as possible. The wind fluxed with the unstable air currents, sometimes enveloping her in steam from the pool and sometimes frigid air sweeping down the hill and sometimes a disconcerting mix of both.

She had doffed her jacket, shirt, boots, socks and was removing her trousers, standing on one leg, trying to pull them off the other. To keep her balance, she hopped around...and saw J'Qhir leaning against a boulder, watching her with widened eyes. She stopped and had to put her leg down to keep from falling over. She felt slightly foolish wearing only underclothes, her trousers wadded at her ankles.

"What are you doing?" She asked that question a lot lately.

He blinked. "Watching you."

"Yeah, I can see that." She held back a smile. "Why?"

"I enjoy the way your body movesss."

Leith had tried to prod him into embarra.s.sment, but it was she who became fl.u.s.tered instead. She didn't understand how he could have enjoyed her clumsy one-legged dance. How could he enjoy her at all when she was so different from what he should want? But wasn't he just as different from what she should want?

"Why?" she asked again.

"I do not know. I have never wanted to watch a Zi sa'aloh the way I watch you."

Zi sa'aloh...Zi female?

"Sa'aloh means female?" She choked on the question.

"Yesss." His crest wrinkled. "Thisss upsssetsss you?"