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a mouth…” He had
to stop and pant for a moment. “You’d win easily.”
    She was getting turned on herself just listening to his
moans and cries, feeling him swell and throb under her attention. The pulsing
in his cock changed and he pumped more quickly, pushing deeper into her throat.
When she gagged, though, he withdrew.
    Instead he flipped her over and moved on top. He tested her
readiness with a finger, found plenty of moisture and plunged in. Their bodies
knew each other at some visceral level. They moved together in a dance that
needed no words, only a small nudge or a gleaming look for a cue.
    A knot formed inside her, growing bigger and more complex
with each stroke of his cock inside her. She dug her fingers into his back,
clung to him as it tightened until she could barely stand it.
    Their pace grew frantic as he pistoned in and out of her,
driving her into a frenzied, groaning tension. She couldn’t stand it for long.
After a few more thrusts, the knot inside her burst. Spasms of release surged
through her, making her buck and pant. At the top of a thrust he paused then
rammed himself home and came as well.
    When it was over, they lay together, holding onto each
other, loath to move. They’d both have to get on with their lives soon, but for
just a few moments they had peace and complete contentment in each other’s
arms.
    She wanted to keep him with her forever. It couldn’t
happen—they each had obligations and separate lives—but she indulged a pleasant
dream of building something lasting between them.
    His thoughts ran along similar lines. “It doesn’t end here,”
he said.
    “No?”
    “No.” He said it firmly. “This is too special, too
impossible to let go. We can arrange meetings, coordinate maintenance schedules
and rest stops. Devonne?”
    He rolled off her and lay at her side, waiting. She looked
into his odd, light eyes. She still wanted him more than any man she’d ever
met, but was it a good idea to try to continue what they’d had that night? They
knew little about each other, aside from the fact that their bodies seemed in
tune. Their minds and instincts were, too, on some level, since they’d worked
together well during the fight in the bar. Did she dare try to build some
future with him on the strength of that?
    “Yes,” she answered.
    * * * * *
    Over the next year, they actually did manage to meet about
once a month. Several times they coordinated their ships’ maintenance times to
bring them together. They also worked their schedules to bring them close
enough periodically to let them shuttle to some nearby world for shared leave
time. Some spectacular vacations together ensued, and sometimes they did even
go check out the local scenery. Climbing mountains, paddling rivers in long
canoes and watching blazingly colored lava explosions from a fancy restaurant
deepened their understanding of each other beyond the sexual needs. On a world
called Blaise’s Keep, they joined some traditional dance group to learn a set
of intricate steps for something called rondels. They ended up dancing the
entire night.
    She had to tell her crew what was going on. They ribbed her
about it, of course, but they also supported her completely and went out of
their way to make sure she could make rendezvous with him.
    At the end of the year, though, her relationship with Raje
changed some more. When the hail came, she and her crew were just finishing up
the successful delivery of a cargo of smuggled Asgenish brandy to Latrovsky’s
Pier. A city full of connoisseurs of fine liquor there had been denied their
enjoyment of it by a nobility that decreed some things were intended only for
the upper classes. Devonne’s arrival with half a hold full of the beverage had
caused rejoicing and brought her crew a nice reward.
    Raje asked for a meeting and she agreed. They met on the
closest planet with shuttle docking facilities and made love, of course, but he
had more than that on his mind.
    “I’ve