45. Turk
45
TURK
I woke up from a thin, uneasy sleep with a feeling that something bad was happening to Jessina. I don’t know where the feeling came from but it was strong—it pushed at me with an urgency I couldn’t deny. It was the same feeling I’d had back when I had still thought she was Cass and Jerx had been attacking her—a feeling of danger and dread.
Fumbling with the light blanket that covered me, I stumbled out of my chair-cot and went to the door of my quarters. I couldn’t hear anything because of the privacy sound-proofing but the moment I opened the door, a low moaning caught my ear.
It was a painful, hopeless sound that tore at my heart. I felt a surge of guilt as I remembered Jessina’s earlier request to see the ship’s medic. I should have allowed her to go to him—or brought him up to see her. Instead I had shouted at her and locked her up in my quarters. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Jessina? Little bird?”
She didn’t answer.
“Lights low,” I said and the corner glows came up, showing me Jessina.
She was lying on her side in the bed and she didn’t move, even when I called her name again.
Quickly, I went to the bed and touched her shoulder—she didn’t respond—just kept up that low, painful noise that sounded like an animal in distress.
She was wearing one of my white undershirts and her skin through the thin fabric felt hot. Experimentally, I put a hand on her forehead. Goddess of the Four Faces, she was burning up!
More worried than ever, I turned her over and saw tear-tracks on her cheeks, shiny in the light of the glows. But even more concerning were the stains on the white undershirt. There were two big splotches right over her nipples.
The wet spots had made the white shirt nearly transparent and I frowned at what I saw—were her nipples bigger than they had been? I knew her breasts certainly were. What the Hell was going on here?
“Jessina? Little bird?” I asked, patting her hot cheek.
At last her eyelids fluttered open.
“Oh, Turk…I hurt…so bad,” she moaned softly.
“Where, baby?” I asked anxiously, though I was pretty sure I knew.
“There…” She made a vague motion that encompassed both breasts. “Hurts…so full…so tight . And I’m hot. I was cold before but now I’m so hot.”
“I can tell you’re hot, baby,” I told her. “Hang on—let me get something to cool you down.”
I went to the bathroom and got a towel and wet it in the sink. Coming back to the bedroom, I sat on the side of the bed and bathed her face with it. She moaned gratefully but plucked at the shirt she was wearing.
“Please, Turk…it hurts,” she moaned. “Please…can’t you help me?”
“I don’t know, little bird, but I’ll try,” I promised.
I pulled up the undershirt, revealing her breasts. Sure enough, I’d been right—they were at least twice as large as they had been and her nipples were tight and prominent. The sticky liquid I’d seen on the shirt was coming from them—it was leaking steadily down the undersides of her overfull breasts like some kind of honey.
“Oh, little bird!” I couldn’t keep the anxiety out of my voice. I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing but I was afraid it was a symptom of a much larger problem.
Could this be part of The Need? The collection of symptoms a woman went through when she found her Fated Mate and needed him to ease her pain? I didn’t want to believe it, but I was afraid it might be true.
“Hurts!” she moaned again and started to cry. Her tears tore at my heart, shredding it to pieces. Goddess of the Four Faces, this was my fault somehow—I just knew it! I never should have locked her up and denied her access to the medic! In fact, I was going to go get him right now, I told myself.
I started to get off the bed but Jessina stopped me with a hand on my arm. Her grip was surprisingly strong, considering her current condition.
“Wait—don’t leave me!” Her voice sounded panicky. “Need…need you to help me. Please, Turk! You’re the only one who can help.”
“Help you what?” I asked, but I already knew. There was only one way to help her now—only one way to ease her pain and suffering. It wasn’t something I should be doing—in fact, it was fucking forbidden. But there was no help for it—this was literally the only way to save her.
“Please!” she repeated and thrust her breasts up some more. “Please, Turk—they hurt.”
Her soft, pain-filled cry seemed to break something inside me. This was my little bird and she was in pain! A pain only I could ease.
Leaning over, I took one of her tight nipples into my mouth and began to suck.
The nectar—if that’s what it was—had a light, slightly sweet flavor and it reminded me somehow of flowers. Mostly of the honeysuckle—a plant that had survived from Old Earth. When you pinched the stem and pulled the stamen out, it produced a droplet of liquid sweetness—that was the flavor of Jessina’s nectar.
It wasn’t bad—in fact, I liked it. Though I was more interested in easing her pain than I was in the actual taste. I sucked and swallowed, sucked and swallowed, until her right breast was no longer as swollen as it had been. As I did, I bathed her tender nipple with my healing venom—my fangs were automatically producing it in response to her pain.
“Oh, Turk!” Jessina moaned and I realized—with some guilt—that she was getting more than just a lessening of her pain. My mouth on her breast was giving her sexual pleasure, too. Which, of course, ought to be strictly out of bounds, since she was Slade’s little sister.
But I couldn’t bring myself to stop sucking her nipples—not even when Jessina ran her soft fingers through my hair and caressed the curves of my horns. I had to ease her torment—even if that meant giving illicit pleasure. I couldn’t stand the sounds she made when she was in pain.
I sucked the other nipple, swallowing more of the honeysuckle nectar in the process, as Jessina continued to caress my hair and horns in a way that sent shivers of pure lust down my spine. I tried to ignore how I was feeling—the pleasure I got from holding her breasts in my hands and sucking on her ripe nipples. But as her moans of pain turned into soft cries of pleasure, that got harder and harder to do.
“There!” I growled at last, letting her left nipple slip from my lips. I had drained both breasts and no more of the nectar was flowing.
“Oh, Turk…” She looked at me, her big amber eyes filled with gratitude. “Thank you. I…I feel so much better now. Only…”
“Only what?” I asked guardedly. What else could she ask me to do?
But after a moment of nibbling her lip, Jessina shook her head.
“Never mind, I’m much better now—really I am.”
“Well…if you’re sure…” I started to get up off the bed, where I had been sitting as I leaned over her to suck her nipples. But again, she reached for me.
“Please—don’t leave me!” she begged. “I think…think being away from you makes it worse. Please, Turk—sleep with me tonight.”
I sighed and ran a hand over my horns. On one hand, I really shouldn’t—what I had done was already forbidden enough. But on the other hand, I didn’t want her to get sick again. Sucking the nectar out of her breasts seemed to have helped a lot—even her feverish skin felt cooler. And what if she got sick again in the middle of the night and I wasn’t there to help her?
You mean what if you’re not here to suck her nipples, whispered an accusing little voice in the back of my head. But it was right—if I wasn’t here to suck them if her breasts filled again, who knew what might happen to her?
“All right,” I said reluctantly. “But let’s get you cleaned up and changed first—you’re all sticky.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I couldn’t help it…they just kept leaking.”
“I know, little bird. It’s all right—I’ll get you all clean,” I promised her.
Then I slipped my arms under her and lifted her. There was too much of the honeysuckle nectar everywhere—I needed to get her into a shower and then change the sheets on the bed.
Of course that meant seeing her naked, but I told myself I’d already done that, back when she was pretending to be “Cass.” Of course then she’d had a Synth field around her that made her look male. This time I’d be seeing the real Jessina—with everything on display.
I pushed the lecherous thoughts out of my head. I wasn’t here to fucking perv on her—I just needed to get her cleaned up and comfortable so she could rest.
Keeping that firmly in mind, I carried her into the bathroom.