THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) Read Online Free

of our romantic emotions as residing in our heart.”
    He considered the concept for a moment. “I think I understand.”
    “So I’ve taught you something of my people,” she teased. “And I can teach you more.”
    He caught the light tone in her voice and arched one very bushy, dark brow. “Things such as?”
    Her lips curved in a smile. “Like advanced forms of kissing.”
    “Ah, yes,” he agreed, and he spoke the words with his lips only millimeters from hers.

PART II
    THE UNKNOTTING
    Elena sat in front of the dressing table brushing her hair. It had grown longer in the three months of her marriage, until it caressed the tops of her shoulders. Rohan loved to run his fingers through the golden strands, and it made her happy to give him what he wanted.
    She put down the brush and smiled as she took in her vibrant reflection in the mirror. On her wedding night she had wrapped herself in furs to hide her body. Now she wore a translucent white gown that she knew would excite her husband’s blood---and add to both their pleasures.
    But learning the joy of making love wasn’t the only new experience of her marriage. Rohan had expanded her world, literally as well as figuratively. She knew what it was to laugh and talk and share her intimate thoughts and feelings with another person. To argue and discuss and tease and play with a new and exciting freedom. They didn’t always agree. Yet they had learned to respect and trust each other.
    And three times during her marriage, the Guardians had let her husband take her from the fortress, although always with a military escort. She guessed that the Guardians were using the trips to gather information about the planet, but Rohan didn’t seem to mind. He had kept his promises, and more---taking her to glowing caves deep in the mountains and to streams where transparent fish danced in icy water. And he had shown her hidden valleys and windswept plains where she had gathered rare medicinal plants, plants she was even now growing in her laboratories so she could test their properties.
    But his latest trip he had made alone. For the past week, he had been touring a remote mining installation; and in his absence, the doctors had confirmed what she had only suspected before he left. She was pregnant---with his son. A shiver of anticipation crossed her skin as she thought about telling Rohan the exciting news. His broad chest would puff out, and his ferocious countenance would glow with pride. And her own pride would match his, because although there were other mated pairs, like her friend Sophia who was mated to Karn, she herself was the first woman in the colony to conceive in twenty years.
    Elena’s smile softened, and a dreamy expression came over her features. Rohan had been right; the getting of this child had not been unpleasant. In fact, each time they had made love, the thrill of joining with him had shaken her to the depth of her soul. He had taught her the true meaning of mating. It wasn’t simply a joining of flesh to flesh but a bonding of the souls of a man and a woman committed to each other. Ironic that she should learn from a “savage” what her high-minded race, with all of its supposedly superior knowledge, did not seem to know.
    As ironic as the scorn she experienced from her own kind for having lain with one of the enemy. The colonists wanted children, but they were repulsed by the means being used to produce them. Some---those who had opposed the plan for procreation and furtherance of their species---would never accept the human-Jalaran unions as legitimate marriages; indeed, thought they should be terminated. But Elena knew that it had been the luckiest day of her life, the day the Guardians had paired her with Rohan.
    The door opened, and her warrior stepped into the room. The smile of welcome froze on her face, though, the moment she saw his expression in the mirror. She was out of her chair so quickly that it toppled over and hit the stone floor.