Calan felt his face grow warm. “It’s more than that, Ajha, I don’t just want tofuckyou. I want to love you with my body and pleasure you and let you feel the love in my mind. I couldn’t help but grow to love you because of that connection we share. Yes, I do want to have sex with you, but because part of me has always loved you. Psion mates are meant to be life mates.”
He reached across the table and stroked her cheek with his fingers. “When we do copulate, it will be done out of love. I want to be with you and live my life with you and someday have children with you that we will raise together.”
Again, he gently shared his feelings with her. In return, he felt her hope that what he shared with her was real. She had been alone for so long---almost two years since Mikki got taken. Ajha still didn’t know if she were dead or alive. He felt her worry and sense of loss.
Calan read it as the memory flashed in her mind of the day Mikki was taken. All in the span of a thought, Calan knew what she meant to Ajha.
Calan took his hand away, wanting her to eat more of the food he gave her. “We will try to find Mikki,” he said, and Ajha flashed him a surprised look. “Your feelings about her are so strong, I couldn’t help but sense them. I wasn’t probing. It’s like when you hear voices in your head. I am super sensitive to your emotions.”
Ajha nodded, taking another bite of food. “What are you going to do in this place?”
“It’s going to be a safe refuge for people who want to live in peaceful harmony. Allowing for a corridor between the rows of dwellings, there is approximately room for 3000 units in this complex.”
“Who’s going to pay for all this? And how are you going to keep the overlords from sending their gangs to drive you out?” she asked worriedly.
“I’m financing the startup, in answer to your first question. My family has lucrative holdings on Aledus and Oltarin, and my share has been accumulating ever since I was born. I have enough to make a start.
“As for the thug lords and their gangs,” he said. “I will simplyhelpthem decide they don’t want to do that.”
“What if people come here and don’t want to stay?” she asked.
“They don’t have to.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“I can’t make you,” he admitted. “I can only ask you not to go.”
Ajha sighed and took another bite of food. “I’m not saying I want to go,” she responded to the concern in his eyes. “I walked for two fucking nights to find you… And I feel the pull between us. You’re not like those other dicks that just want to get fucked.”
Calan chuckled. She was rough around the edges and didn’t mince words, but he liked her. She made him think about the stories his parents told them about how his mother lived on Earth in the streets of the Farringay ruins. His father had been right; he never should have taken Chelle to Aledus.
It was different now, but Calan wouldn’t make that mistake. Humanity shouldn’t abandon Earth, they should try to fix it. Without the overpopulation and the infrastructure before the Procyon War, the ecosystem was starting to recover. But civilization was still floundering. They had gone from having a world government to having self-contained cities with no man’s land in between.
Farringay was hardly different from the days Calan’s mother lived there. The only safe place to live was within the starport compound. But not anymore. He was changing that.
Ajha finished eating and drank her tea which was now cooled. “Ooh, this is really good.”
“Aledanjerntea,” Calan said. “I brought seeds to plant, it grows almost anywhere. When you finish, I will show you your room and then how the shower works so you can get cleaned up.”
“And then are you going to fuck me when I am clean, and you can stand how I smell?” she taunted.
“Ajha, is that what you want?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she admitted.
“You’re tired from walking all night. Get some rest, and we’ll talk about things. I want our first mating to be good for you when it happens.”
The shower was heavenly, Ajha thought as she stood under the spray for a long time after the suds had been washed from her hair and body. The only shower she’d had before was in the cool summer rain with her clothes on. She’d seen a bathroom like this only once. It was at Farringay Starport, and they kicked Mikki and her out before they could try using it.
Finally, she got out, dripping water on the floor, and reached for the towel Calan had left her. The automatic dryers weren’t hooked up yet. When she had dried herself. She pulled on the light blue pants and tunic he gave her and put the ragged pants and shirt in the refuse chute. She didn’t think it odd not to have underwear. She never had any before that she remembered.
The clothes hung on her when she first put them on but shrunk until they fit as though they were tailored only for her. She combed out her straight brown hair looking into the grooming mirror.
Her hair was many different lengths, brushing her shoulders at its longest. Mikki had chopped it off for her before she was taken to make her appear less feminine with her slender figure. She thought it would keep Ajha from getting raped by unscrupulous thugs.
Ajha didn’t know if it worked or not. She took great care not to be alone in the open to protect herself. But she felt differently about Calan. She didn’t feel like she had to protect herself from him. She felt only a twinge of guilt for teasing him about fucking her because she knew he wanted to.
She groaned to herself as she realized she was trying to goad him to make the first move. He probably knew it, too. She was attracted to him, even before she felt him hard for her.
