The Great Escape Chapter 8, Part 8 of 9

The Great Escape
Chapter 8, Part 8 of 9


"I do. Has Thalassa refused?"

"No, she thinks refusing will cause more trouble, but she's scared stiff."

Again, Kalyndra was silent.

"I'm not letting Belena touch her," he said, "whether you're with me or not."

She thought for five full minutes, then:

"When has Belena demanded Thalassa?"

"Tonight."

"Then there's nothing we can do. There needs to be more time to organize an opposition.

Belena is very wily and will be harsh on anyone who confronts her."

"Not if you and Ferne are with us, then we will be too strong for her."

"But how can I persuade my mother? What if she refuses? There's no time."

"I will delay Belena tonight so you can make a plan with Calliope, and if nothing comes of that plan, then I will prevent her from ever hurting anyone again. Are you with us?"

Against, she paused to think.

"I'm with you, Ezra. I vowed to follow you. I meant it."

"Good, but I don't want you to join the divers just because I tell you to. I want you to do it because it's right."

"That means my mother's wrong. I don't believe that."

"Your mother does what's best for her faction, as does Calliope. It's the system of factions that's wrong. Help Calliope break it, Kali. Get Ferne to unite with Calliope against Belena."

"I'll try ... But I can do nothing here in the forest, with Belena and her loyal faction watching everyone. I'll go to Calliope's hut tonight."

"No, go to my hut when the rain stops. There are loose boards at the back. Devon will let you in."

"Devon? Where will you be?"

"Pacifying Belena." He didn't explain anymore. "Kali, I'm glad you're doing this. ... Wherever I go, I am taking you with me. I will never let you go."

"You don't understand. If I do this, I can never leave the Mariners! If I stand up to Belena and my mother on behalf of Calliope, then I have to stay here, just in case the other faction becomes stronger again and punishes the divers. I won't be able to follow you."

"I will make it good, Kali, and you will follow me as you promised. This is my promise now.

Trust me?"

"Yes, I trust you."

"Good."

They worked silently and were almost done when they heard a shout to say lunch was ready and returned to the clearing, carrying a heavy load of logs.

The journey back to the settlement was slow, with many rest stops, but there was a good stack of wood to dry for the campfire or repairs. On the way, Ezra had the chance to whisper to Calliope that she must prevent Thalassa from going to Belena's that night, but they should both go to his hut when the rain stops. Kalyndra would also go.

There was just time to bathe in the stream when the wood-cutters returned before a quick dinner and off to bed. Devon and Ezra sat silently on the bed, waiting until about ten minutes after dark, then he got up and strode across the camp, past the gutting fire, to Belena's boat.

He tapped loudly at the door.

"Who is it?"

"Ezra."

"It's not convenient, Ezra. I'm expecting someone."

"I know. I've come instead."

"What do you mean?"

"Can I come in?"

"Not until you've explained yourself."

However, she opened the curtain and faced him in the doorway.

"I know you're expecting Thalassa. I've come to make a bargain."

"What bargain?"

"Me for Thalassa."

"Explain."
"I want Thalassa for myself. I mean, I want to be her first. It's a male thing. Women don't usually care about that, but men do."

"I see. So what's the bargain?"

"I will sleep with you tonight instead of Thalassa, and I will get Thalassa tomorrow night."

"So that you can have her first? Does Thalassa want this?"

"I haven't asked her, but I know she wants me. She's said so."

"So why didn't you choose her when you won that swimming race?"

"I nearly did, but then I saw her sitting on the sand, playing with the children, and I thought she didn't look mature, not by Earth's standards. She barely looks sixteen. True, where I come from on Earth, sixteen is the legal age, but I know it's eighteen here, and I couldn't convince myself she was mature."

"So, what changed your mind?"

"That fact that she's willing to be your bedmate. She wouldn't do that if she weren't mature."

"And where is she now?"

"Waiting to see if I return or not."

"You seem to have it all figured out. So why should I accept you?"

"Don't you want to know what being with a man is like? To feel like a woman should feel when a man takes her?"

Belena was thoughtful. As a girl, she'd dreamed about men: all the women of Samothea had.

She'd learned to live without that dream, suppress it, or deflect it into less savory practices.

Now, she could fulfill it. She was very much tempted.

"I'm past child-bearing age," she said, hedging. "My daughter is at Cloner City conceiving my granddaughter. Why would I want sex with a man?"

"For joy! Because it's what you were made to do, what we all were made for. All your living instincts tell you that we are sexual beings, products of half a billion years of sexual evolution.

That's some legacy. None of us can stand against it, nor should we want to. Sex is the celebration of being alive. It can make you feel more alive than you've ever felt."

It was not the world's best seduction technique. It might have worked at a philosophical seminary on Earth, but frankly, any speech by the only man on the planet to a sex-charged dominant woman whose strongest desire was to submit to a man would have worked. He might as well have recited nursery rhymes.

She invited him in and brought him into the bedroom, lit with oil lamps and a closed leather bag in the middle of the bed. Here (Ezra thought) were her contraptions for fucking young women. She invited him to sit next to her and casually pushed the bag off the edge of the bed.

"All right, Ezra," she said, "I'm flattered that you're willing to have sex with me to have sex with someone else, so show me what's so special about sex with a man."

He laughed.

"Oh, I'm more than 'willing,' as you said. I've always admired power and confidence. On Earth, we say power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Usually for women but for men as well."

"You mean you're attracted to me?"

"Why not?"

"Why not, indeed?"

She didn't believe it entirely but thought: Why not indulge in the fantasy for one night? It ought to have made her suspicious, but after ten years in power, she couldn't conceive of treachery. Instead, she thought: Why not see what it's like? When would she get another chance? And what if he finds me desirable? Maybe he'd stay with the Mariners. What a coup that would be!

As for Thalassa, it was confirmed she fancied the skinny nubile girl more than any of the other young Mariners she'd fucked. Her lust for the beautiful teenager had driven her to try to change her agreement with Mirselene, chief of the Woodlanders, and now to demand the girl from her mother. But her main pleasure in being the first was making the girl scream, and she had other ways of doing that. She could forget that particular pleasure for one night for the sake of a different pleasure.

Because here was a man who wanted to fuck her in preference to any of her women. It was a heady thought, and she meant to enjoy it. She did something she had wanted to do since she first saw him in the forest a month ago: she put her hand in his beard, which was now rather long and unruly. The hair was soft. In return, he put his hand under her shirt and cupped a sagging tit. He felt her response, her intake of breath, and saw her close her eyes and puff out her chest. There was a definite rise in temperature, and an erotic charge passed between them.

Ezra leaned over for a kiss. She responded strongly. She was a confident woman, used to having power and indulging her lust. She kissed him back hard and began to enjoy herself.

An oil lamp guttered and went out, leaving one side of the bedroom in shadow. They were lying on the large, firm bed, still springy after a century or more. Ezra was naked and was slowly undressing Belena, putting his lips to her bare shoulders as he gently pushed back her dress. Her tits were mid-sized, the down-turned nipples rubbery and big. He put his mouth to a tit and caressed the nipple with his tongue. His hand was under her skirt on her thigh, stroking, working toward her pussy.

She held his head to her breast and put her fingers in his hair.

"Yes, that's it!" she said, "That's good!"

His roving right hand reached her pussy: his left hand was massaging her right tit, squeezing and fondling. She spread her legs and pushed up her pelvis, giving his hand full access.

Ezra had fucked a fifty-year-old woman before when he was in his mid-twenties. The barrel-shaped Russian woman, Tatiana Tchernikovna, had been an excellent teacher and sex partner. Something important she taught him was the pleasure of a frustrating delay. He ignored Belena's pussy and pulled away to continue undressing her slowly, putting gentle kisses on her dry skin as he exposed it.

Now they were both naked, and he lay on her and pulled her arms over her head, trapping them together with one hand. He kissed her and rubbed her tit again with his free hand. She responded eagerly to the kiss and didn't try to rescue her arms. She was not trapped under him but was losing herself to the feeling of surrender, of having no choice but to respond. He was offering her a gift to give in to him and release the burden of authority.

"Leave your arms there," he commanded to see what she would do. She obeyed, and he began to kiss down her thin body. From her nose, he could tell she liked having her ribs kissed, so he spent some time there, meanwhile working his hand up her thigh again.
"Spread your legs!" he said when he got to her pussy and, with a fingertip, checked to see if she was getting wet. Not enough. He put his fingers in her mouth, and she sucked them; then, he began to play with her clitoris while he kissed along her belly to her pubic mound.

"Oh God! Oh, yes!" she moaned as he put his mouth to her clitoris and sank a finger into her vagina, but he didn't let her get too worked up. He pulled back to kiss her thighs, stroking his fingertips gently around her pussy, building her arousal one level at a time.

When he kissed back to her pussy, he made her cum, with his tongue flicking over her clit and a finger rubbing her g-spot. She cried out, "Oh God!" and lay back, breathing heavily, but all this time, she hadn't moved her arms.

Ezra made her cum a few more times with his tongue and fingers before he got her to kneel and suck his cock and then gave her a long slow fucking, lying on her at first but ending doggy-style, with her kneeling across the bed, her skinny arse in the air, him standing behind her, ramming her hard.

They rested for half an hour before Ezra was ready to go again. He lay on the bed, gathering his strength, and she lay beside him, twiddling her fingers in his chest hair.

"Ezra, that was even better than I expected. It was like you knew my body better than I do."

"Yes, it seems that way, but I'm following your directions and reading the signs you're giving me."

"I wasn't aware of giving you any signs."

"Yet you were."

She thought for a minute. It was the afterglow of the sex that inspired her: her brain was doubtless still a little foggy from her ecstatic highs.

"If we are so well attuned, maybe we would make good partners in other things."

"What do you mean?"

"What would you say to become joint chief with me? You've shown only a few Earth skills but are fundamentally changing the tribe. Doubtless, there are many more skills you could teach us. So, what if I make you responsible for our buildings and technology? I'll handle negotiations with the other tribes and keep the women well."

"I don't know, Belena. I have friends among the Woodlanders. I don't want to leave them."

"You won't need to. You can visit them as often as you like and, in the future, we can combine our tribes. Of course, you'll keep all your present bedmates and take as many new ones as you want, but we'll rule together. It'll be a relief to hand over half my power to someone I can trust. And when Gerta is ready to take my place, you can rule jointly with her. What do you say?"

"It's a generous offer, Belena. I need to consider it carefully. I've never wanted power for myself, but it's tempting."

"How tempting?"

"Very tempting. There's so much I could do to improve life in Samothea, but the Woodlander tribe is just not big enough."

"I see the possibilities opening to you; there's an urge to say 'Yes.'

"You're right. I'd find it very difficult to turn down this opportunity. Let's say I give you a provisional 'Yes,' and we sleep on it?"

"No, let's say you give me a definite 'Yes' and we fuck on it!"

She pulled him onto her. He rolled over and planted his mouth on hers. He was soon ready and slipped his cock gently into her, taking his time, speeding up gradually, rocking her body in ways she'd never known before. When she came, he switched their positions. This time, they finished with her on top, with him thrusting up into her to a mutual throbbing climax.


To be continued