Miranda sighed and Zulien kissed the top of her head and whispered, “I am glad you are
mine.  I do not like that you are afraid of me, Miranda.  What can I do?” he whispered.

“It is all right, Zule.  There have just been a lot of things to get used to.  Where I
come from, people get to know each other, and they do things together, before they…join. 
I’m just nervous, but I’ll be fine.”

Zulien tilted her chin and looked into the liquid pools of her blue eyes, lit by the
moon.  His mouth came down on hers, and the Atlantian ancestry she tried to deny took
over.  The sensation of his tongue sliding into her mouth caused desire and arousal to
flood through her.

Zulien smelled her arousal and groaned into her mouth as her arms tried to circle his
broad back and pull him closer.  His hands were buried in her long, wavy tresses.

He pulled back and looked at her.  Her eyes were filled with anticipation and her bottom
lip trembled.  She stood and lifted the caftan over her head.  Zulien quickly removed his
clothes and pulled her on top of him, thrusting his tongue back into the warmth of her
mouth.

The sparse curls on his chest tickled her nipples and sent more throbbing heat to her
core, causing violent, tight contractions at the emptiness.  Miranda felt like she was
going to explode and thought, Cripes! All he’s done is kiss me.  His tongue skated across
her teeth and left her mouth.

He laid her back on the pallet and leaned over her, his dark mane forming a curtain
around his face as his mouth lowered to her breast.  She balled her fists in his hair as
his teeth nipped one protruding bud and proceeded to suckle and tickle her nipple with his
tongue.

She gritted her teeth, sucking gulps of air in a light hiss.  His hand traveled down her
stomach to the soft, damp curls of her sex.  A finger slipped along her warm wetness and
she reached blindly to stop the agony.

“I can’t.  Zulien, please, I can’t.”

It was far too late for that.  The denial and sacrifice that had been building for days
erupted in him, and he took the small wrist with the scarf and raised it over her head. 
After circling the bedpost with the sash, he grabbed her other wrist and secured it to the
other end.

Miranda began crying.  “Please, Zulien, I can’t do this.  I thought I could, but I
can’t.”

He whispered in her ear, “Shh, my mate.  You are safe.”

She whimpered as his kisses trailed to her weeping cleft.  On the first stroke of his
tongue, her hips rose off the bed and she gasped.  He wrapped his strong arms under her
thighs, spreading her while she continued to shudder and cry softly, as his tongue lapped
her warmth.

Instinctively, he knew she was all right.  The passion boiling to the surface of his
little mate frightened her, but she was all right.  Zulien was ecstatic.  At first, he was
nervous at the thought of pleasing the Celestial, but their mating gene was strong, and
the room was permeated with their musk.

Miranda twisted her useless arms and turned her head into the pillow.  His tongue found
the tight bead and she sobbed as her clenching channel tightened with need.  She did not
want to do this, but how badly she needed it.  She felt her contracting core strain at the
emptiness, and her mind exploded.

A vision of her standing in front of a great glass pyramid with her warrior at her side
threw her into a trance.  She was wearing a sapphire robe, and their hair was moving with
the wind.  There was a crescent and a full moon lighting the darkness.

She felt him enter her with a lunging thrust and she wrapped her legs around him.  He was
her warrior, her protector, her mate, and her mind cleared enough for her to feel him
inside her, his long length filling her.

Her muscles grabbed at him, gripping tightly, but his strength was great enough that he
could pull and plunge, satisfying his claim on her.  He held her hips and thrust deep,
swearing oaths at the grip of her sheath.  Never was there a woman such as this, and he
felt a tightening in his loins and knew he was close to climax.  He felt the heat of his
seed rise and spill into her, and he yelled his triumph.

Miranda screamed at the heat of his fluid, his bucking hips causing her to climax again. 
The vision this time was of an infant lying in a cradle with the phases of the moon, suns
and stars carved into it.  Whether it was a boy child or a girl she did not know, but when
she came out of the trance, Miranda knew she was pregnant.

Zulien collapsed to the side of her.  He stopped shuddering as she came out of her
trance, and after quickly untying her wrists, he pulled her up to him and rested her head
on his slick, bronze chest.  He stroked her side until she calmed.

He finally whispered, “You are all right?”

She turned her head and kissed the sweat on his chest.  “I am all right, my mate.”