Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, by Cecilia Tan Read Online Free PDF Page A

imagined the
water would steam off of me as Aston plied it on with a cloth, but it
did not, only sent me into fits of shivering. Danton sat by me
muttering and occasionally saying “Calidare” to see if I
would respond. And then he began ranting about a damn fool’s
errand for a man’s pride. I tried to stop him, tried to explain
why I’d taken the risk, but my words began to slip from me. It
seemed to me I slept after that and dreamed of cats and goddesses.

    * * * *

    In
the morning I was still alive, dehydrated, queasy, unsteady on my
feet. But I pulled on my clothes, and marched out to the center of
the wagons. She was still awake, waiting for me. I crouched down at
her level, and held out my hand. She smelled it cautiously, and then,
assured it was me, bit down just a millimeter into the skin. I
withdrew my hand with a nod, “I thank you, my lady, and now my
I fetch your breakfast?” She sat back on her feet, tucking her
tail around them.
    I
was half delirious most of the next few days, unable to keep much
food down, and sleeping between fragments of dreams only. Aston began
tearing out his hair every time I went near her. But I went near her
more and more, until I began to spend every evening sitting on a
stump near her, singing to her and telling her the stories of my
childhood, waiting for her to wake up from her diurnal sleepiness.
After all, what else was there to do out in the middle of nowhere?
The men were beginning to question my sanity, I think, but men are
often more like wolves than cats. A few well-placed arm-wrestling
bouts and some biting commentary kept the pecking order straight. The
time wasn’t right, not yet. I wasn’t even sure what it
was I had to wait for, I only hoped it wouldn’t be too long. I
watched the moon rising over the tops of the trees.
    She
was still purring. I rested my hand on her head and realized she had
wrapped her tail around my ankle. I knelt down next to her and began
scratching the base of her neck, under her long mane, and the purring
became a mewling in her throat and she began to rub against me.
Without thinking, I cooed back some sweet nothing, the kind of babble
Dara called baby-talk, even though it hadn’t produced any
babies for her yet.
    As
she ran her head up my thigh, I realized she’d put my boot
between her legs. Her tail waved from one side to the other as she
continued rubbing against me, her head on my thigh, her stomach on my
shin, and the tender part between her legs against my boot. I turned
her chin up with a finger, and looked into her eyes. There was a
flicker there, an intensity I hadn’t seen before. I might have
imagined it, but I could swear she gave the slightest nod. Dara will
tell you, at great length even, about how I never let an invitation
go unanswered.
    I
took her shoulders in my hands and gently rolled her onto her back,
the chain on her neck clanking. As I lowered my weight on top of her
I felt my erection press between us. She growled, but did not fight
me. I hesitated a moment, not sure what kissing her would do. I
rubbed my nose against her nose—she writhed and the purring
began again. I licked her lips and let my tongue into her mouth. I
felt the extra sharpness of her teeth but other than that it was like
any other woman’s mouth, wet, warm, and inviting. I felt her
claws through the cotton of my shirt, the points grazing my skin,
digging a bit deeper when I took to nuzzling her neck. Am I going to
have any back left? I wondered. I hadn’t built up a perfect
tolerance to her scratches, yet, and I knew she could seriously
injure me. For just a moment I considered whether this was some ploy
on her part to get rid of me. But deeper down I could not even think
that. Lifting myself up on my arms, I nudged her to roll over.
    I
settled back into place on her back and she writhed even more.
Perhaps, I thought, this is the way Cats do it. I buried my face in
her thick, black fur, surprised at the sweetness of it, but