”What is it, my wife?” Anara asked her softly. ”What made you halt so?”

”There’s just… something I’ve been meaning to talk with you about, that’s all. Something important.” Kes explained softly, kissing Anara’s skin lightly.

”What… what is it?” Anara asked, her nearly sightless eyes fluttering closed.

”What would you think of… coming back with me? To where I came from, I mean… To the Ocampan city?” Kes asked. ”It… would be much safer for us… For… for our family.”

There was a cry then from Lanam and she and Anara both sat up in fright right away. ”What happened? Kes, is she-?’

”It’s alright.” Kes interrupted, exhaling in relief as the fear that had welled up within her subsided. ”She only hurt a toe. Tresit is seeing to her. Should… should we go over too?” She asked.

Anara sighed, clearly forcing her nerves down with deliberate intention. ”No… no… It happens sometimes.” Anara replied softly, laying her head on Kes’s shoulder and leaning against her for comfort. Kes wrapped an arm around her waist and held her hand. ”Normally, she is careful, but, at times, she gets over-excited and forgets herself… Lanam doesn’t like it when we make too much of a fuss over her about these things though. It makes her feel badly, to need help so much… Tresit would call to us if we were needed. He takes no chances with his sister’s well being… He never has. He’s so much like my brother Ralka in that way… Always her protector…”

”I’ve noticed that.” Kes replied softly. ”He does you proud. They both do…”

”…Thank you…” Anara replied. ”It’s… it’s nice, more than nice, to hear someone praise them. Before you came, I’d…” She closed her eyes and a few tears fell. Kes turned and gently wiped them away. ”Of course…” Anara spoke again. ”Of course I’ll go with you, of course we will… I would follow you anywhere. I am yours, Kes, with all my heart…” Anara told her devotedly, moving to kiss her ardently.

Kes returned the kiss just as ardently, melting into her, that tempting feeling starting to feel like it was too big for her to contain. Anara’s words were like music in her blood, under her skin, in her head. ”With all my heart, I’m yours too…” Kes echoed the words, feeling just as devoted. Anara was her wife, her family, the one she loved and would always love. She felt that and knew it had settled into her bones and heart to stay. The way she felt, she knew now, understood it in a way she couldn’t have before marrying Anara, just why it was there were so very few instances of divorce among her people.

In the background, she heard Lanam laughing at something her brother said, and what little tension she still had over Lanam’s outcry before eased away, and she felt that feeling begin to overcome her again. ”I want…” Kes broke off kissing her wife breathlessly. ”I…”

”Whatever it is, my wife, my answer will always be yes…” Anara told her, pulling her back down to kiss with her again.

–I want to be closer…– Kes told her, mind to mind. –I want to try to share… share thoughts, what we feel… do you want me to try?– Kes asked, even as she was stubbornly trying to remain cognizant enough to do this in the face of where Anara’s hands were going.

–Yes, of course yes, yes to everything… yours… always yours…– Kes heard Anara’s thoughts, felt how much trust Anara had for her and was amazed by it. She opened the doors between them, a little at first, and felt Anara’s wonder at what she was feeling, felt her sense of awe and love and devotion that she had for her. It worried her a little at first, but as she opened things up between them more fully, her worries fell away… Anara’s feelings for her were completely genuine. She loved her, the same way Kes loved Anara. Just the same way. It wasn’t because Kes had saved her, or anything else, it was just… because… that great, wonderful, nameless because…

Kes felt herself rolled over onto her back, the last of her clothes being urgently removed by her wife. A thrill of desire went through them both. Kes could feel what Anara felt, and she could feel that Anara felt what she felt too, heard her thoughts… Kes couldn’t help herself, she went deeper, and then it was like she felt Anara’s touch as though she were in Anara’s body, and Anara in her skin too, in her body, sharing every touch…

All coherent thought was gone for her now, just feeling and want and love. When they both cried out in pleasure at their first release, Kes could hardly tell where her own pleasure began and where Anara’s ended. The feeling was… simply incredible…

———

to be continued