Daughters Of A Coral Dawn Part 20

She lifted the chain from around her neck, the chain holding the precious crystal she had found first on this new world, and lowered it over my head; the crystal rested between my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She took my hands and kissed them, drew me to her and kissed my forehead. "I will love you forever," she whispered, her arms enclosing me.

I slid my hands over the irregular surface of her brocade shirt until my arms fully embraced her shoulders.

Uncaring of the witnesses to my love, I kissed her. . .

Music began. Megan's arms tightened around me. We danced, her arms holding me close into her, I lay my head on her shoulder, aware only of her, her arms, her slender graceful body in my arms.

After a while she told me in a low, pleased voice, "I have never danced before."

I asked with a sigh, "Is there anything you do not do well?"

She chuckled softly. "My hair. Demeter prepared it for this moment, took great pains with it. I don't like it nearly so well as when you dress it."

"It will be my beloved task every day from now on," I promised. I caressed her slender shoulders, feeling her warmth through the ornate fabric. "I've been threatened with dismemberment at the very least if I fail to make you happy."

She laughed. She had danced us into a shadowed corner, and her arms tightened . .. When she danced us from the shadows again my head lay once more on her shouldera"from necessity; I was weak from the sweet pa.s.sion of her mouth.

Vesta brought us food, wine. I tasted nothing except the mo.rsel Megan told me was delicious, feeding it to me with her fingers ... We danced again. If I could not be alone with her, I was content holding her, being in her arms.

Mother came up to us. "You two might as well leave," she grumbled, "since you'll have nothing to do with *the rest of us. Take the hovercraft beside the council chambers. The controls are set. A place has been made ready at Barney Lake, supplied with everything you need." Mother reached for Megan, kissed both cheeks. "If I see you before many days from now, I will be most seriously annoyed."

She turned to me, took my hands, kissed me as well. And whispered, "Make her happy."

XIV.

Personal Journal of Megan 15.1.17 Each-with an arm around the other, we stood at the window watching Barney Lake become dark coral rippling, our world become silver. I took Laurel into my arms and touched my lips to her forehead,- and began to take the flowers from her hair, cascades of silk tresses spilling over my hands.

"Perhaps it doesn't seem the time to talk of it," she said hesitantly; her lovely face upturned to mine and solemn,, ''but. .. Megan, will we have children together?"

"Yes," I whispered, kissing her forehead, "yes."

With a pleased sigh she lowered her head to my shoulder, her arms drawing me close. "But not for a while," she said. "We'll enjoy each other for a while before we begin having them."

"Them?" I murmured, smiling. "How many did you have in mind?"

"I think . . .three."

Tears in my eyes, I tightened my arms around her.

She murmured, her lips close to my ear, "Three beautiful little girls with dark hair and green eyes."

"Two will have blue eyes," I said firmly, "and gold-streaked hair."

"One can have blue eyes. The other twoa""

"We'll have four then, two of each," I said, and stopped my reply with my lips.

Kissing her throat, I opened her lace dress to kiss her shoulders. She stepped away from me and pushed her dress off her shoulders; it feil in a soft heap around her feet. I gazed, not attempting to touch her yet, treasuring her loveliness in the silver light, all curves and contoured shadows. She turned for me, slowly, *standing for a moment with the full, swelling curves of her hips to me; then she stepped to me.

I reached for the gleaming crystal between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to take it off her, but she stopped my hands. "I wish to wear it always," she said. I nodded, knowing that never would I take off her ring.

She opened my shirta"but in tantalizing increments, her hands and lips exploring each exposure of throat and shoulder. She pushed the shirt from my shoulders but not off my body, so that my arms were pinioned in its sleeves; she kissed down to my b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her lips circling them, her tongue stroking.

"Laurel," I whispered, eyes closed, my body warm, weakening.

"Let me," she murmured against my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

My body was a fine network of filament ever more glowing as each nipple was exquisitely, repeatedly, taken.

She released my arms from the shirt and discarded it, then knelt to me, running her hands caressingly down my legs; she took off my boots.

Slowly, she slid clothing down, then off me, her lips inflaming me as they also descended, to my thighs...

I clutched at memory to control my weakening and the trembling of my legs.. . memory of how I had commanded escape from pursuing Earth ships, how I had confronted the monster GEM with so many lives at risk .. . But as her lips traced the triangle of hair within my legs I further weakened; and when her lips began to brush through the hair all sensation left my legs and I sank to my knees, and finding no strength there, further collapsed onto the fleece-cushioned floor.

She bent to me, hands gentle on my thighs. "Let me," she whispered, and lay down between my legs.

Slowly, her lips brushed me again . .. And then she turned my bones to water.

Never at any time in my life had I been out of control, and as my legs acquired quivering life of their own from this inconceivable pleasure, I fearfully put my hands in her hair and took her sweet mouth away.

Her hands took mine. "Megan dearest," she whispered, "let me."

I gripped her hands; I clasped her in my legs. Her warm mouth again took tender possession of me. In my deepening ecstasy my legs trembled uncontrollably around her, my hands tightened vise-like around hers amid pleasure as pure as a note on her crystal reed. Able only to take swift breaths into me, my body an ever more rigid arch of ecstasy, I approached a dazzling edge and hovering there, tried to speak her name and could not. And within my stilled body it was as if our planet's two suns had fused.

She cradled my head in an arm as she dried my tear-streaked face with her discarded dress. She held me close for a long time, then took my face into her hands and smiled and told me softly, her blue eyes merciless, "If you cry each time this night, you'll have no tears left long before morning."

*I closed my eyes for a moment with the thought of that, then rose and pulled her to her feet, led her to our bedchambera"to discover it banked with flowers.

Laurel playfully tucked blossoms behihd my ears, laughing at me; laughing together we removed the blossoms covering our bed. I took her into my arms, pressing my naked body into hers, caressing her body with all of my own. "Megan," she soon breathed, eyes closed. I lowered her to our bed.

Entwined in her soft limbs, I kissed her face, her throat, in unhurried loving of her. .. The Wind came up and played its tune as again my mouth came to hers, my tongue parting her lips to stroke the velvet within, an act so suggestive of another that I was suddenly impaled with desire. As her body surged into mine with each stroke of my tongue I heard the sounds in her throat and knew no more of the outside world then or throughout that nighta"only our own sounds of joy, of love.

XV.

20.1.1.

On this, our twentieth Anniversary Day, Christa and I swell with pridea"our beloved Celeste competes for the first time in the games, and in a most difficult event, the pentathalon.

Megan has opened the games as usual. As is now her custom, she does not remain with Mother and our Inner Circle, but goes to a tiny plateau overlooking the amphitheater to watch the games with her dearest ones. As the games begin, I bring Megan in on my scope . . -.She lies on a fleece with her head in Laurel's lap, smiling at the antics of their second born as she struggles to walk, a lovely blue-eyed child of less than a year whom they have named Crystal. Laurel, even lovelier in these past few years in the fullness of her womanhood, sits stroking Megan's hair. Their first born, a restless child displaying extraordinary intelligence at the age of only three, is raptly watching the game of Criss-Cross on the holograph, determined to comprehend its complexities. She has Megan's coloring and those green eyes, and they have named her Emerald.

Megan has changed so these past few years . .. Although her advice is constantly sought on many problems of significant scope, she is less involved with the affairs of our two colonies and we must seek her; she is not freely available, to us as she once was. And while she is no less a personage, no less revered among us, she seems softer in manner, youngera"less Olympian. Happiness has come to her.

And changed her. And no one of us would wish that to be different.

I ruminate over events of these past years, trying to calm myself as our dear Celeste prepares to compete . . . She is so like my Christa, the beloved woman to whom I am Joined, who has brought such joy all these years to my days and nights. . .

*The pentathalon begins.

Celeste has finished fourth, a highly creditable performance for a first appearance in the games, considering that she is but fourteen. All the members of the Inner Circle are gathered around us in congratulation.

Mother has joined us, has kissed my cheek, and Christa's, "Hers is a medal that will give me great pleasure to award," she says, beaming.

Then she pulls her green cape around her and examines each of us with those extraordinary eyes. "Dear ones," she finally says, "honestly now, how much more of this peace and quiet and happiness do you expect me to endure?"

We greet this with astonished silence.

Mother looks at us impatiently. "You mean to tell me that none of you is bored?" She adds hopefully, "Even a little?"

"Perhaps we could arrange a trip for you, Mother," Hera suggests drily. "A month on the treacherous continent of O'Connor."

"Phosh," Mother retorts. "Volcanoes? Earthquakes? In a week I'd be bored again. Dear girls," she says so softly that I have to strain to hear, "I find myself thinking more and more about.. . my other girls. I know better than to worry, but I do wonder..."

We all stir uncomfortably; I exchange glances with Demeter and Diana. Such thoughts have never been far from any of us, and only yesterday we had again spoken of our sisters, speculated about that part of our Unity that has been separated like an amputation from us.

Suddenly Mother turns to my beloved and says, "Christa, what do you think about returning for a visit to your birthplace?"

"Whatever Minerva would wish," Christa says carefully, in a low voice. "We would have to consult." But I have seen the surge of eagerness and excitement on the face of my beloved to whom I can refuse nothing.

Mother's cleverness is, at times, not to be borne.

"We would all have to consult," Venus murmurs, gazing at her latest companion, a pretty young woman with Oriental features and dark glossy hair.

"It would be so good to see Olympia and Isis," Vesta murmurs, looking at Carina, who takes her hand and smiles.

"It would be good to see my daughters and all my offspring," Mother says softly.

"Mother." Hera's voice is exasperated. "Do you realize what a trip to Earth would involve? The preparation?

*We would have to outfit that primitive Cruiser in orbit around us, we would have to discover a method of entering the solar system undetected, we would have toa""

Mother waves a hand. "Details. You know how details bore me." She calls back over her shoulder as she returns to her chaise to watch the games, "I know you girls can manage."

The End.