“Really? You’re a, you know, what they used to call a…dom?”
His apparent embarrassment was so endearing to Suka she felt a rush of emotion for the man she had cursed and reviled for the past months.
“I can’t deny it,” he said. “When they finally perfect time-travel, I’ll be first in the queue at the dungeons.”
Suka giggled. “You’d have to hold me back.”
“Believe me, it would be a pleasure.”
They maintained wry eye-contact, glowing at each other, neither quite ready to say the thing they were both thinking.
“So, have you done that before?” Suka asked.
“Not on a human person,” he admitted. “Not outside my imagination.”
“You seemed quite the expert.”
“I’ve studied widely.” He patted her bottom. “How does it feel?”
“Very sore.” She sighed contentedly. “Gorgeously so. It…” She held herself back. Even given the powerful emotional experience they had just shared, she was not about to tell her commanding officer that his whipping her had made her insanely horny.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just…it was nice. I wish we could do it again. I mean, I could do it again.” She corrected herself swiftly, but Paul had stiffened and released her from his embrace.
He shrugged. “If only,” he said neutrally.
Shit, now he thinks I’ve got a crush on him, thought Suka, cross at herself. But I have. Oh, stars. I really have. The way he did that…the way he whipped me…oh, I want him. I really want him. Oh, this is awful. I wish I’d never come down now.
“Well,” said Paul briskly, putting the whip in his belt beside the landing pack. “That’s one way of introducing yourself to the local customs. Shall we look further?”
Chapter Two
Suka dusted herself down, still naggingly aware of the tug of need for Paul at her crotch, but determined to ignore it. Difficult when your arse was hotter than Mercury and every step caused friction between the unforgiving fabric of your trousers and the smouldering surface of your behind, but it had to be done.
“Right,” she said. “What is that building over there? Is it a temple of some kind? A religious edifice?”
“Let’s see, shall we?”
He strode a few paces ahead of her, so she could not help feasting her eyes on the broad shoulders, the strong back, the long booted legs and the perfectly-shaped behind in front of her. The head of close-cropped hair made her want to reach up and run her fingers across its prickling fuzz. Everything about him seemed designed to torment her with unassuageable lust. The universe hated her—it was official.
She concentrated on shaking herself free of these inconvenient longings by taking a keen interest in her unusual surroundings.
The building they were entering was made of something a little like marble but with a glow about it. Before Paul and Suka reached the top of the steps, Suka was stopped in her tracks by a feeling.
When Paul turned around to look at her, Suka knew he felt it too.
“This is…what’s this then?” she asked helplessly. She had a violent urge to drape herself around Paul’s neck and cling on to him.
“This must be the coupling place,” said Paul, visibly struggling to keep control of himself. “One of the little tricks the Paladians had—infusing building materials with emotion traces. Their cultural signature, if you like. Or one of them, at least.”
“When you enter this building you feel—”
“Love. Erotic love. Romantic love.”
Suka had not noticed herself doing it, but she had managed to wrap herself up in the crook of one of Paul’s powerful arms. Her head rested against his chest as she lifted her eyes to his.
“It’s like a spell,” she murmured.