The Wind After Time by Chris Bunch

Author:Chris Bunch [Bunch, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781440553448
Google: S0in818JQWIC
Goodreads: 16561214
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 1996-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Candia moaned, leaned back, hands on Joshua’s knees, then leaned forward again and again as Joshua’s hand caressed her. Her body jolted, her head went back in a silent scream, then she sagged forward onto his chest, gasping for air. Her breathing slowed after a time.

“You are still ready,” she said in some surprise.

“Next time I’ll finish, too.”

“Does your Way teach that kind of control?”

“Yes.”

“Why is it not more popular?”

Joshua was silent for a space, then decided to tell her the truth. “Because, for one thing, it helps to have been a prisoner of the Al’ar for three years.”

Candia was jolted. “Oh. I did not know. Joshua, I am sorry. Now you are soft. Please. Forget I spoke. Think of something else. Think of loving me as you did a moment ago. As you will again. As I want you.”

Joshua breathed, measured, bringing control. Water, flow … water, move … water, change, and his body responded.

“Now,” she whispered. “Now we shall do it my way.”

Without freeing him, she pushed herself up and lifted a leg across his chest.

“Turn sideways,” she said, “until your feet hang off the edge of the bed.” Joshua obeyed. She swiveled once more until her legs were on the outside of his.

“Ah, I feel you. Now, sit up. Slowly. Yes. Now I shall do all the moving. You can use your hands as you wish on me.” She moved her hips up, down, a steady motion.

“You know,” she said, voice throaty, “I think all dancers dream of having … another dancer for their lover. Someone who has the muscles they do, someone who can move with them. Why we do not think of a fighter, a lover … Oh. Yes. Touch me there more. But … it seems men dancers always choose each other. Oh! Like that, Joshua. Oh, yes. But now I know the place to look. Ah now. Now I am coming. Come with me. I want to feel you let go!”

Her body pulsed around him, and he jerked upward, stifling his outcry.

• • •

“You said your ship talks to you.”

“Yes.”

“It sees what’s going on outside?”

“It does.”

“Inside, too?”

“Yes.”

“So it knows what we are doing?”

“I don’t know if it can interpret what it sees. Perhaps it can. Does it matter?”

“I don’t know. But I have never been watched by a machine before. I don’t know if I find it exciting … or creepy.”

• • •

Joshua threw another bucket of cold water on the stones, and steam swirled through the small room.

“That is all,” Candia gasped. “I have suffered enough for my sins! Let me out. I’m boiled!”

She pulled the sauna door open and staggered out, and Joshua heard her splash into the pool before the door swung to.

Two bucketfuls later he, too, stumbled out into the chilled air of the bathroom. Candia lay in the small pool, her splayed legs on its rim, head pillowed on an inflatable cushion. Water bubbled around her.

“I tried to talk to your ship,” she said, “but it ignores me.

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