Starlight Gleaming Ch. 12

There is a scene that briefly describes a brutal killing at the second break mark. For those who don't like to read about such things, skip to the next break mark. There are also scenes where children are discovered to have been murdered; the reason why may also be disturbing.

Thanks to my reader, gyfurune, who helps catch the errors. Any mistakes that slip through are my mine.

For those who are interested in such things, I have drawn a map of the region where events are taking place and submitted it on my page. It's basic, but it might help put things into perspective. Enjoy!

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"Lieutenant? Lieutenant, please wake up."

The voice poked at my consciousness, drawing me from sleep. Hot breath moved across my cheek, then a drop of wetness.

"Lieutenant?"

I finally registered who it was.

Zinja.

Opening my eyes, I saw the faint outline of her lean body above me. Normally, I'd be able to see some details with the ambient light. With the storm still raging outside, the room was nearly pitch black.

"What's wrong?" I reached under the pillow for the holstered Talon.

"I'm sorry to wake you, sir. I didn't want to. But I just .. I just need you right now."

"Okay, Zinja." Abandoning the search for the weapon, I propped up on my elbow.

"Can -- can we move to the floor? I don't feel right being in my Captain's bed while she's not here. And, we can't use my room."

It took a second. Then I remembered the little girl, Sisi. The murder of her mother and little brother, and her father's suicide. The grim images flooding back helped to wake me as I sat up.

Zinja moved off the bed and sat on the floor.

Crawling over the edge, I slid down beside her. Putting my arm around her, I drew her close, kissing her temple. "Talk to me, Zinja. What's bothering you?"

She turned into me then, burying her face into my neck. "I had a bad dream. It was all mixed up. What happened to me, what happed to Sisi's family. I know it was just a dream. I also know you haven't gotten much sleep lately. I just .. I just ..."

I lifted her chin, kissed her lips gently, nuzzling her cheek. "You want me to hold you?"

Her mouth moved along my jaw, licking my skin. "I need to feel alive. Please, make love to me," she breathed.

I felt her trembling, trying to burrow in against me.

"All right," I murmured.

Then her mouth came back for mine. My hand went to her face, caressing her. Moving over, she straddled my lap. There was need in her, but it was a fresh ache on top of old wounds. The desire was to be touched, comforted, and reassured. Another tear splashed on my cheek.

"Seeing them dead tonight brought back memories of your own family, didn't it?"

Zinja gave a strangled gasp, nodding as she clutched me tightly.

Her family had been brutally murdered by Atlantean raiders when she was fourteen. Assaulted, battered, and left for dead, from a family of seven, Zinja had been the sole survivor. Nine months later, Ixma was born.

I yawned.

And she immediately stiffened. "Oh, gods, I'm so sorry, Lieutenant. This could have waited until--"

"Hey! Just waking up is all. I have you, Zinja," I whispered, kissing her cheek. Then I lifted her face until I put my forehead to hers. "Right now, it's just the two of us. Be here, with me." Brushing away her tears, I kissed her eyes, working my way slowly down her face.

With a slow exhale, she relaxed. "Okay."

Reaching up behind me, I grabbed the blankets off the bed and piled them on the floor behind her. With the storm blowing around, the summer night was cooler. Then I rolled her onto her back. Scooting next to her, I drew her into my arms.

She reached for me, slipping her hand inside my underwear, seeking what lay within.

Cupping her small breast, I rolled her hardening nipple between my fingers.

She lifted up and pulled off her tee-shirt before laying down again. Her hands ran over my skin, through my hair. As my lips moved down her neck, she arched, pushing her breast at me. When my tongue caressed her aureole, Zinja gave a ragged sigh. Inhaling, I took in nearly all of her sensitive flesh, sucking and rolling her breast in my mouth. She stiffened, gasping. Her nipple hardened, and I suckled it firmly before flicking the nubbin and grazing it with my teeth.

"Oh, yes," she sighed.

Then I moved to the other one.

"Oh, gods, that's good," she murmured. "More. Give me more."

Moving back up, I sought her mouth, and Zinja eagerly opened her lips to me. Tongues danced, each of us tasting the other. One arm holding her close, my free hand drifted down, into her panties, exploring the growing dampness between her legs. She moved her legs apart to give me access. Putting her knee on my hip, she moaned into my mouth.

Dipping a finger within her folds, I probed her opening. She pressed against it, driving it deeper. Adding a second finger, sliding along slick flesh, I stroked the base of her clitoris and her swelling labia. Her kisses grew more urgent with her arousal.

"Please, I can't stand it any more. Take me," she whispered hoarsely. "I need to feel you inside me."

"Not so fast," I growled. Moving down, I hooked my fingers into the waistband of her panties, and she lifted her hips up as I pulled them down. Pulling her legs apart, I kissed and licked my way to her center groove.

"Oh, sir, you don't--"

"Oh, but I do, Zinja."

Using my hands to hold her legs apart and to keep her in place, I set about lathing those sensitive petals guarding her succulent channel.

Moaning, she reached down, ran her hands through my hair, and fisted them, while spreading her legs wide apart. The hitch in her breathing turned ragged. "Oh, gods, I love .. I love what you do to me."

Rocking her hips, she pushed her leaking, swelling sex at me, encouraging me to plunder her entrance. I was happy to oblige. Licking from the bottom of her crease, up along her thickening, full lips, all the way up to her engorged bud at the top of her mound. With each downward roll, I descended again, lapping at the juices leaking out of her.

As Zinja's breathing deepened and her belly tightened, her erect clitoris escaped its protective hood. I added more attention to it, circling it and caressing the underside. To keep her off balance, my tongue continued to give long caresses along her swollen lips, in between teasing her nubbin of joy.

Panting, her hips rocked faster. Pressing down her legs, I kept her leaking pussy open to my ministrations. Slowly, her feet lifted into the air, her breathing now hard gasps.

"Mmm. So close. Gonna .. gonna come!"

I slipped two fingers into her steamy canal, and she suddenly sucked air. Turning the fingers, I found the soft, spongy spot on the roof of her cavity, just inside her pubic bone, and gently rubbed. My tongue descended directly onto her clitoris, flicking the swollen bud with my tongue.

Zinja's gasps turned to grunts, her hands gripping my hair harder as I plundered her open flower, sucking and caressing and flicking her sensitive nether lips. With a sharp inhale, she suddenly arched and stiffened, then furiously ground her slick center into my face. Liquid gushed from her heated depths, her pussy convulsing around my fingers.

"Oh! Oh .. sweet gods .. above."

With heaving gasps, Zinja bucked against me for long seconds, then just as suddenly, she forcefully pushed me away. Her hands went between her legs as they snapped closed. Curling into a ball, she whimpered, her body shuddering.

Moving back up, I drew her into my arms, seeking her mouth. Covering her face with her own wetness, I pressed my tongue between her lips. Gasping, Zinja responded eagerly, pulling me tight into her arms, pressing herself against me.

As her body descended from her peak, she caressed my face.

"You are the only man and the third person who's ever done that to me," she whispered. "Gods, I love you. You didn't need to do that. I was wet enough for you."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Oh, yes," she breathed. "Now my thighs are soaked with how much I want you. I ache all the more to feel your hard, warm cock moving deep inside me, filling me with your presence. Don't make me wait anymore." Her hand moved down, stroking my erection.

"I enjoy giving you pleasure, Zinja. Any time you want me to lick your pussy, just ask. Do you want to be on top? I'd be happy to let you drive."

"No, sir. I like laying under you, feeling your weight on my hips, stretching me open and touching all those intimate places inside. I want to give everything I have to you." She scooted closer, trying to move underneath me.

I lifted up and moved over her. "Guide me inside."

Spreading her legs wide, Zinja aimed my hard shaft at her sodden center. As my swollen crown touched her pouty, wet lips, her legs wrapped around me. She held her breath as I slid down, down, down into her hot, slick, velvet sheath. Halfway in, she gasped, then held her breath again, her body tense. I felt her channel giving way before me, her liquid heat enveloping my shaft, bathing and caressing my entire length. With a sigh, I felt my balls and groin being kissed by her wet, lower lips.

"Joined together," she murmured, her body trembling. "Sweet gods, you feel so good." Locking her ankles behind my butt, her arms pulled me down until my chest lay on hers. "Ride me, sir. Love me."

Rocking my hips, I began a gentle thrust and retreat, probing her depths.

Remembering what Cholan had said, I nibbled her neck as I moved slowly within her clutching walls.

"Do you feel my cock plowing into you, opening you up like the earth, making you ready to take my seed?"

She stiffened a moment, then she giggled until the giggles became groans. "Someone's been talking ... sharing secrets." Zinja ground her hips against me.

"Do you feel me inside you?" Shifting from side to side, I brushed the entrance to her womb.

"Oh, gods, yes. So deep inside me," she grunted. "Harder."

I drove into her, moving faster and with more force, giving her what she wanted. Zinja rolled her wide hips, taking me deep with each stroke. Shifting, I moved higher, using my pubic bone to grind against her mound while I moved in and out of her slick channel. Arching, I ran my teeth along her shoulder, grazing her neck. Using one hand to keep my full weight from her, I used the other to squeeze her small breast. We moved together rapidly, I to plunge into the pulsing heat of her body, and her to envelope all the length I could give her. When I rolled and pinched her sensitive, fat nipple, she bucked faster, heaving for air.

"So good, so loving," I murmured. I felt the tingling in my balls, the pressure building. "I'm not going to last."

"Don't stop! Please don't stop!"

Gripping her shoulders, I thrust into her, over and over, the sensuous grip of her wet walls drew the pressure in my balls even tighter. She rocked her hips, meeting each thrust with her own drive to fill her aching depths. Panting and frantic, we both hurtled toward the edge.

"That's it! Yes," she moaned. "Make me .. feel alive."

Our coupling was a wet sound, discernable over the distant roar of the storm outside. Hearts racing, heaving for air, we held on to each other while I pumped into her searing, wet heat, and she rose to meet me. With every downward plunge, she ground her clit against my pubic bone.

"Zinja, I'm going to come inside you," I gasped.

Her fingers dug into my arms as she writhed beneath me, huffing and gasping.

Gripping her body tightly, I shoved into her center and crossed over into release. Hot, sticky streams burst forth, spraying deep into her open cavity, coating the entrance to her womb. Zinja gave a strangled grunt, her strong hands moving down and digging into my butt, trying to pull me even deeper inside as she rotated her hips, rolling her tight sheath around my cock. I felt her muscular flesh throbbing around my pulsing shaft, her cervix opening and closing as it moved across my fat tip, her womb greedily milking me for my sperm. All along her channel, a wave of slickness covered my length, leaking out and coating my balls and thighs.

For several long seconds, hearts hammering, we barely moved as we pressed our joined bodies together, trying to prolong the pleasure. Zinja quivered as her quiet cries slowly deepened to contented moans. Finally, as the pounding in my ears faded, she released her grip on me and I lifted off her chest.

"Do you feel alive?" I kissed her soundly. "Do you feel loved? For I do love you, Zinja."

"Yes, oh gods, yes!" Then she pulled me back down, kissing me with less hunger and more affection, rubbing her freshly wet cheeks against my face. "Loved .. and safe."

"Why the tears, farm girl?"

"Farm girl?"

I heard surprise in her voice. "Yeah. You take seed so well." For emphasis, I flexed my cock inside her sheath.

She gave a breathy laugh. "I have trouble seeing you as a farmer. Though seeing you with your shirt off, working in the sun would be appreciated immensely. You make an old woman feel like a teenager."

"Thirty-five isn't old, Zinja. Besides, I'm almost twenty-two. That's not so much of an age difference."

"Listen to you. Almost twenty-two. Lieutenant, I'm old enough to be your mother. If I met yours, I'm not sure I could look her in the face."

"Why? I'm not ashamed to be with you, Zinja Ba'lanchicotl." Reaching up, I brushed her hair from her face. "We're both adults. I meant what I said earlier tonight. We have a commitment. I love you. You love me. We didn't intend for it, but that's how it is. So why the tears?"

She sighed as she caressed my face. "They are tears of happiness, sir. I needed to be held and comforted, and you chased away all my night demons. I know I resisted it, but I'm glad she made me be your woman, too. I know you love our Captain best. You are good for her, and she loves you." She paused a moment, then continued. "I tried not to love you, Lieutenant. For her. I can't help it, but yes, I do love you. Knowing that I can have you like this? It's amazing to feel that way about a man and incredible that you love me right back. That said, you need to know that I love her, too. I crave her touch as much as I crave yours. I won't willingly leave her side. While you are gone, I intend to suck her tits and lick her pussy as often as she will let me. Are you okay with that?"

"I am okay with that," I assured her.

"I'm glad we understand each other."

I felt her relax even more. "She told me herself that she will need all of you to help her get through my absence. And I have no problem with you loving her. But I want you to know, I don't see you as old. I have no problems getting hard for you, farm girl."

"Are you going to start calling me that?"

"I just might."

"All right," she chuckled. "I think I will let you. Hmm. Nothing can come of it, but I think I like the fantasy of you taking your farm girl and giving her the seed poke. Like Cholan says, I'm down with that." She ran her hands through my hair, then she hugged me tightly. "Gods, this is so incredibly intimate. We're talking and you are still hard, deep inside me, and my belly full of your warm, sticky seed." Just then, my deflating cock was squeezed out of her pussy. "Damn," she muttered.

I rolled off her, drawing her against me.

Zinja gave me a gentle kiss. "I'd love to lie here next to you, curled in your arms, but I'd best get back. That little girl doesn't know Ixma as well, and she might panic." Reaching around, she grabbed her tee-shirt and rubbed it vigorously between her legs. "Would you really adopt Sisi as yours?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have said it otherwise. It's not a given yet. There's the thirty day wait. But there aren't any close relatives on record. Does the prospect of you and I raising a child together cause you concern, Zinja?"

"No, sir," she paused, then said quietly. "Quite the opposite, actually. Proud, and overwhelmed, too, that you would even consider it. It's almost as good as you filling my womb with your child. I'm just not sure how my Captain will take it. I worry about her. She's still finding her way with you and her heart. I don't think she's even given thought to the issue of children. I mean, she can't have them and still be a pilot. But she might find she yearns to have your children, and it is yet one more sacrifice she has to make to fly. Sisi being here might bring it to her attention louder, and with more force, than she's ready to face yet. She was strong last night, even after she learned you are leaving soon. I don't want to make it harder for her."

"I fully respect Janetta's need to fly, and I'd never pressure her to have children. I'd love for her and I to have kids. I won't deny that. But flying means too much to her. When you love someone, you support their dreams. However, you and I have our own relationship now. You are my woman, Zinja. You have my full support to keep Sisi and raise her as our child. I will no doubt make mistakes, but I will do my best to be her new dad. Considering the fine job you did with Ixma, Sisi is lucky to have you."

"Thank you, sir." Zinja got to her feet.

"How are you two doing on the educational programs?" I asked her.

"Real good. Ixma is starting to pass me up." She gave a half-laugh. "I can't tell you how much I love you for that alone."

"Keep at it. Buy what programs you want to study, both of you. It pleases me that it is so well appreciated, but it would please me even more to have you both keep learning. When you are getting things for Sisi -- you know, clothes and shoes and toys -- pick her up a child's tablet for her to practice on. If she hasn't started learning to read and know her numbers, get her started."

"I'll do that," she replied. "You are a generous man, sir." She went to the door.

"If I am to be her father, I need to not just keep her safe and healthy, but help provide opportunities for her." The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.

And, it helped settle my dilemma with Calia.

"Another thing, Zinja," I stood up, picking up the blankets from the floor and tossing them onto the bed. "I told Cholan, before she got injured, to pick some pictures and to have them printed up -- and large ones, mind you, in color. I want her to have something of hers in this house that says, 'Cholan lives here.' That picture of you and Ixma together, the one by the closet? It is beautiful, Zinja. I only wish it was in color--"

"I do have the digital file," she said. "It's in color."

"Really? Print up a color version, please. And please send a copy to me. I want to have more pictures on the walls, pictures of each of you. A shot of you, Ixma, and Sisi together, printed and framed, and hanging where everyone can see it. A large photo of the entire Flight Crew in the hangar would be grand, maybe in front of her Lightning. It should hang right beside the unit logo in the front room. If Janetta will stand for it, one with everyone, and Sisi, too. One in fatigues, one in dress uniforms. Use the charge card to pay for them. I'd also like some pictures of Janetta by herself. One wearing her flight suit, holding her helmet, standing next to her Lightning, or even sitting in her cockpit. One with her in her dress uniform."

"We have a lot to do tomorrow," she observed. "Going next door to get items for Sisi to keep. Whatever decent clothing that's hers. The Dependent's Office. Shopping. Pictures. Food. And then to visit our Captain tonight. Oh, and then she wants us to bring her some real food, and a bottle of metl juice. She mentioned the blue label three times, so best not forget it."

"All right," I chuckled. "Pick up a digital camera from the Commissary, then. The laptop can take photos, but they aren't designed for quality printing."

"Yes, sir. I'll see to the pictures. But we need to get some of you, too. I know our Captain would never ask, but am sure she would love to have your picture to help remember you by while you are gone. I know the rest of us would like it, too."