Starlight Gleaming Ch. 14

"It's haunted," I told him. He looked doubtful, so I pressed on. "I understand your feelings. My own background is science and mathematics. What are the four states of matter?"

Kitam looked surprised. "Solid, liquid, plasma, and gas."

"Just so. And two centuries ago, they believed there were only three states of matter. Plasma wasn't even considered. Who knows what they will say in the future about us for only believing in four states? When someone is dead, you can tell something is missing, a discernable emptiness to the body. I've visited the Chancocha battlefield, where more than fifteen thousand warriors died in brutal combat over a three-day period, and there were places at the site where I felt a howling loss, a great sadness. When I was inside that third house, I felt uncomfortable, and that was before anyone had said anything. My father has tested Calia, and he says she has the Second Sight. I believe in science, Sergeant, but when Calia tells me about such things, I listen to her."

He shrugged and then nodded. "As you say, sir. Very well. With only two houses, it will make our job faster. We'll get the reports to you as soon as possible, and thank you for the bonus. I'll pass it along."

On the way back to the hangar, Calia sat quietly, arms huddled tightly around herself.

As we pulled up, Ixma said quietly, "Please park outside tonight."

"All right." I did so.

As she released the buckle on Mina's seat, Ixma said, "Please spend time with Calia. She needs the comforting." Leaning over, she loosened Sisi's buckle as well.

Calia looked over the seat at Ixma. "But we had a plan to–"

"I know that, and believe me, I would love to do that with you. But not tonight. You need him to help you forget what you saw and felt. I don't have your gifts, but I do know that much. Come on, girls. Let's go make some hot cocoa, brush our teeth, and get into bed where I'll read you a story."

She lifted Mina out of her seat and got out of the vehicle. I was pleased to notice that Mina reached for Ixma in return. Sisi opened the door and climbed out the other side. Once the doors closed, Calia and I were alone.

"What exactly did you two have planned for me?"

She gave me a sad smile. "I was going to teach her how to suck your cock."

"Really? Ixma actually wants to do that?" Knowing how badly she had been hurt by so many men, I marveled that she even considered it.

Calia giggled, relaxing a little. "We thought you would like it, and she wants to learn. Ixma told me how much she loves it when you go down on her. We talked, and I told her about what I've done with you."

"Still, I'm surprised she wants to learn that."

"Ranji, she loves you and she wants to learn how to please you. She is still unsure of herself, but she is eager and I daresay even hungry for your love. I really like her. I never imagined trying to teach such things to your other women."

"Six months ago, she was shy, withdrawn, and afraid all the time. You wouldn't believe how much she's changed."

"You are not a crush for her. I've seen into her heart. She loves you true, Ranji. Your Janetta loves you, too. She's still not sure of me, but I see how much you mean to her in her eyes. Your Janetta has great passion for you, Ranji, but she also has a lot of mixed up feelings. And she's been deeply hurt. From the little I've talked with them, I know you are important to Zinja and Cholan, too."

I nodded. "They and you are my family. I hadn't planned on it, but that's the way its come about. Each one of you is a blessing that I thank the gods for."

Pulling her in close, I gave her a long, heartfelt kiss, and she sighed, kissing me back. When we broke for air, I smiled at her.

"I sense how tired you are. I will wait," she said, searching my face. "Being able to sleep beside you is balm for many things."

"I am tired, and there is so much yet to do. However, I think Ixma may be right. Let's retire to the back, hmm?"

"Are you sure?" A smile grew and she nodded. "I would so love spending some intimate time with you."

Our last time together had been quick. Tonight I intended to take my time and make Calia forget everything but being there with me.

Moving to the cargo area in the back, we stretched out on the thick blankets. Laying side by side, we kissed and caressed each other, enjoying the feel of the other with our hands and mouths. Bit by bit, I uncovered her body, reveling in her responses to my touch, my tongue, and my kisses. When I freed her breasts, teasing the sensitive flesh and rolling her nipples, she inhaled sharply, beginning to move her hips. While I nursed on one breast, my hand kneaded and rolled the other.

"Ah! Gods, I love what you do to me," she moaned.

When she was wet and panting, I began kissing my way down, moving over her, trailing a line along her ribs to her belly, and then to her mons. Soft kisses and teasing touches of my tongue on sensitive skin. Zeroing in closer and closer, then moving away, driving her crazy.

She lifted her hips as I slid the dress off. I resumed my teasing exploration. Calia tried to move her swelling center toward my mouth. "Please," she begged. "It's been so long .. since you've done this .. for me."

My mouth gently kissed those succulent lips, from top to bottom. Then I ran my tongue along the sensitive petals of flesh. She gasped, then moaned long and low, slipping her fingers possessively into my hair. Again, and again, the third time my tongue parting the outer lips and grazing the inner ones.

"Oh, my love! Oh, gods, what you do to me! Mmm ... hnnn."

Her hips rolled and her legs opened wider. As her arousal grew, Calia began to leak. Nuzzling closer, I lapped up what she gave forth, with the occasional plunge into her dewy center, followed by a visit to her hard nubbin at the top of her vee. Hiding under its hood at first, her point of pleasure swelled and then poked out.

As her lower lips thickened and darkened under my attentions, she moved, trying to follow my tongue, trying to get me to focus on her aching clit. I teased and flicked the base, then dove back into her leaking cavity. Calia moaned with pleasure, but there was also a growing sense of frustration to her sounds.

"Please, Ranji. Please?" she begged.

It was time to give her what she needed, what she ached for. Slipping two fingers into her hot, slick tunnel changed and deepened the tenor of her sounds. Turning then, I probed to find her soft, spongy diamond as my mouth sucked on her hard, throbbing peak. She bucked and writhed, pulling my face tight against her sex, huffing and panting as she thrust herself onto my fingers.

And then she exploded. Creamy, tangy nectar gushed from her depths, and I buried my face into her pulsing lips, sucking and licking and swallowing as much as she gave me. Despite my best efforts, her thighs and my face were soaked, and there was a huge wet spot under her butt.

When her spasms faded, I withdrew my fingers and licked up her juices, kissing around her too sensitive center.

When she was at last able capable of thought once again, she looked at me and smiled tenderly. "Still in your uniform, and your face and neckerchief covered in my juices. That is so hot, Ranji." She reached for me, tugging eagerly. "Please, my beloved, get undressed. I need to feel your skin against mine, and your lovely cock deep inside me."

"All right," I chuckled.

Her hands moved urgently, unbuttoning my shirt, helping me push it off. The delays in getting off my pants and underwear seemed to increase her urgency.

As her hands reached my erection, she moaned, drawing me forward, guiding hard cock to her swollen, sodden cleft. Spreading her legs, she arched up to receive me. My crown pressed open her slick, fat lips and she gasped.

"Oh, yes," she breathed. "It's so warm, and so thick. Oh, yes, that's it. Mmm ... deeper."

Wrapping herself around me, I moved over her and began my descent into her wet heat. Parting her, stretching her, as she enveloped me within her intimate center.

Once I was inside her, she seemed to settle even as she urged me deeper. She kissed me passionately, hungrily. When we parted for air, she licked my face, cleaning me.

"I love you so much," she breathed, giving a slow roll of her hips. "And I love feeling you inside me, so hard and warm and alive."

It only took a few strokes and I was fully buried in her snug sheath.

"You are so tight, Calia!"

"Your fault!" she groaned. "Not enough sex to keep me properly stretched. Oh no, not by a long ways. I need more, much more from you." She rocked her hips, reveling in our union. "Take me, Ranji. I want you to .. oh, yes! So big and so deep. Moving ... so deliciously. Oh, gods. Just like that! Take me ... fill me up with your love."

Then she lifted her legs and locked her ankles behind my butt. Holding my arms, she looked up at me with love and lust in equal measure. I began moving slowly within her. Stroking slowly in until my balls touched her ass, and then pulling out until only the head remained within. Moving slow and deliberate, taking my time with her. Pressing in, feeling her body swallow my entire shaft, yielding before my advance. The feeling of her wet heat along my length as I moved within her body was wonderful. Lifting as I withdrew from her inner core, feeling the undulating flesh clinging to my hardness. Then the pressing return. The sighs and gasps as we began moving together.

In the dim light filtering in the windows from outside, I smiled down at the woman who was my friend and lover of so many years, our bodies joined in an ancient rhythm. My passion for Janetta burned much hotter, but Calia? She was familiar and comforting, reminding of where I grew up in the mountains, where I was loved and known.

Calia panted, a thin line of sweat starting on her brow. Her eyes wide with arousal, her sultry, heated looks. "I love you, Ranji."

"I love you, too," I assured her. Leaned down and kissed her as I moved slowly, thoroughly, and intimately within her core. And she moved to envelope me within her tender, sensitive flesh.

Pleasure built for both of us. Moving in and out of her, she echoed with me, lifting to meet each drive into her slick, snug cavity. She groaned as my groin met hers, grunting as I felt the wet kiss of her nether lips caressing my base and balls. Her hands touching my chest, flicking my nipples. Bit by bit the pace picked up. Breathing shortened and deepened as my strokes penetrated her inner sanctum. Faster I moved, then faster still, until my balls slapped at her ass, Calia shaking under the frantic vigor of my shaft spreading her wide, filling her with my presence, and at the end of my descent, my crown brushing the door to her womb.

Calia gripped me tighter with her legs, her hips rushing to meet each drive, encouraging me to plunge as deep into her as I could manage. Her hands gripped my arms. I could feel the pressure beginning to build. Each thrust opened her up anew and she huffed and whimpered happily in response. Her hands reached down and grabbed my butt, her feet pressing me in with each drive into her slick, sensuous sheath, urging me faster. Deeper.

Pressure in my balls continued to grow.

With a sudden cry, Calia arched, holding me tight, bucking and shaking under me. Her pussy clamped tightly around me, coating me with a sudden wet warmth as her tunnel pulsed along my length. On the edge, I grunted as I grabbed her shoulders and ground deeper, feeling her womb convulse along my crown. The sensation was delicious, pushing me over the precipice.

"I love you, Calia," I gasped. My shaft swelled and then began spraying long, hot ropes of my sticky seed, dousing her womb, coating her inner walls.

Calia cried out, bucking harder, writhing as I pulsed into her core. Long seconds of bliss, and then the pounding of heartbeats faded and breathing began to ease.

"Oh, my sweet, sweet love," she murmured.

Pulling me down, she kissed me hungrily. My weight pressed her down, but instead of protesting, she licked my neck, inhaled deeply against my skin, and then sighed contentedly.

"I love you so much." Then she giggled. "And my pussy loves feeling you hard inside, and the sticky warmth of your love." Then she shivered. "Still coming for you. Oh!"

Lifting off her chest, I nuzzled her face. "You are so good to me."

"You are my man and my beloved. Everything else starts from that irreducible point. Of course, you feel so good that I just have to come on you. And come, and come."

"I freely admit I love it when you do that."

"We've done this hundreds of times, but it never gets old. I love making love with you. But I also love afterward, like we are now, knowing I've pleased you enough that you came inside me. I am your woman, Ranji, and I always will be. I belong to you. Please, wherever you go, take me with you. Being apart from you so long was so very difficult."

"You will be with me always, Calia." Leaning down, I kissed her. "You've helped so much here. And, I want to say that I appreciate how much you've done to help Ixma."

Incredulous, her mouth opened, then she slapped my butt hard. "Ranji Kandikan! When you are inside a woman, you do not talk about the other women in your life! Have I taught you nothing? That is just so wrong on so many levels."

I hung my head.

She reached up and caressed my face. "It's all right. Aside from bearing a child, penetration is the most intimate act for a woman, Ranji. Talking about another woman lets her know you haven't been giving her your full attention, and that can be insulting, even hurtful. She can bring it up, but you can't. Understand?"

I nodded. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Calia."

"You didn't. There is so much time and love between us, it really didn't bother me. But the other women might not understand. Not a good habit to get into." She gently brushed her fingers through my hair. "I think you meant to praise me, didn't you."

"Just so."

Calia smiled easily. "Let's talk of Ixma then. She is easy to get along with. You should know that we talk about you. A lot. She's very curious about you. What you like, don't like. What you were like as a teenager."

"Oh, ho. Should I be worried?"

"I was jealous at first," she admitted. "And hurt. I had cause to be both. I have told you how much I want your child and you have denied me. Yet you adopted a child and gave the care of your child to Ixma. And I don't bring it up to discuss the matter, but to help you see how much your actions have hurt me. But you asked me to give her a chance, so I did. As I get to know Ixma, I see how much she loves you. I know what she feels, Ranji, how she looks at you and aches to feel your touch, yearns to be your lover, to feel you moving inside her, filling her with your seed as your mate, wanting the strength of your arms around her holding her close. If not by blood, she and I are sisters in our shared love for you. I will not put such a notion into her head, but I would not be surprised if she doesn't soon ask for you to give her a child of her own body."

I looked at her.

"I can sense the desire in her heart, and the hunger in her loins. It is a hunger and desire I understand intimately."

She smiled as she continued. "I also like Cholan. She hasn't said anything, but she, too, yearns for more from you. Craves your contact. For Cholan and Ixma, it would be easy for them to leave the military and become your wives. I don't even think they would care whether you actually married them, just so they could have your children. And then there's Ixma's mother, Zinja. She is more reserved with me yet. She worries about your Janetta. Zinja loves your captain like a lover, and seeks to protect her like a mother. Even so, Zinja aches in her loins for you, too, Ranji. There is much of the mother in the daughter. Loyalty and kindness. Passion.

"And then there's your Janetta herself. She is incredibly strong, yet when it comes to her heart, she is unsure of herself. Her emotions are mixed and sometimes confused. She loves you with strong emotion, but she's also been hurt. More than once. I will do what I can to make myself useful to them and to serve your interests, Ranji. Even though she has given permission for me to stay, she may later change her mind. What prompted her to share you with them?"

"To protect them," I answered. "Like the neckerchief you wear, it says a warrior officer is their lover. It warns off men of lower rank, telling them how much trouble it would be for anyone to take the woman without her consent. Janetta wants them safe, and she is too honorable to lie about it. I think she didn't realize what the sharing would mean to her own feelings. But her sense of right and wrong, once she shared me, prevented her from denying them further. How did she put it? Ah, yes. She said it would be unfair to offer someone parched of thirst only a single drink. And, part of her sees her sharing as a good officer taking care of her crew, keeping them happy."

"A woman of her word. She loves them, and ... you love her for that, too. You speak – and think of her with such admiration," Calia observed. "And such desire."

I began to soften inside her. "I owe you a great deal, Calia, for your patience, your teaching me to listen so well, and most of all for your unstinting love."

"My motives have been entirely selfish," she giggled. "Having you so well trained as a lover means I get to enjoy the results! Even so, Ranji. I shouldn't but I have to say it, but five women? You will have no time for outside distractions with five holes to plug – well, fifteen if you and your cock are feeling really ambitious. I would give a great deal to see your mother's face when she learns of this. But you are most welcome, Ranji. While there is less time for me, I get to see you every day, and help take care of you. I love your parents, but you are my sun, my moon, and my dearest love."

I was about to reply, but I was suddenly pushed out.

"I really don't like that part," Calia complained, unlocking her feet and releasing me. Laying back, she closed her eyes. "And there it is. I feel your seed running out of me, dripping down my ass into a pool of sticky messiness. I love it, because it's from you. It tells me I am your woman. Sex and love are gooey and messy and fun. However, my practical side says that this blanket will have to be washed. I wouldn't feel right letting your daughters play on it, when it dries all hard and crusty."

"That is totally disturbing, Calia. Come on. Let's go inside and go to bed. You can sleep next to Ixma, and I'll snuggle up behind you."

As we crawled out the back, putting on some of our clothes and bundling up the rest, Calia asked, "Since you'll be behind me, when you get hard in the night, can I do what Ixma did?"

I chuckled. "What am I going to do with you?"

"I thought you already knew that. You are supposed to keep me and love me, Ranji."

I pulled her close with my one free arm, kissing her gently. "I can't help but love you, Calia."

Calia removed the blanket, and once we were back inside, she tossed it into the laundry.

* * * * *

Despite her expressed interest, we – or at least I slept through the rest of the night.

I woke up early and slipped on some socks and deck shoes. I stretched for a bit, then slipped out the back door. Trotting away from the hangars, I started running along warehouses, then turned north toward the Ground Service barracks.

The sun was rising and already the summer air was warming. After thirty minutes, I turned around and headed back.

As I passed the Ground Service Rec Hall, I felt something bite my left calf, and it threw me off balance enough that I hit the ground hard, scraping bare elbows and knees on the asphalt.