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The Seduction of Seleste

from the world of the mating season

Why Don't You?

Chapter 19

"I'm not _married _to you and Keme!" Seleste hissed under her breath.

The second she sat down beside Talisa at the fire, Seleste received an earful. She couldn't believe it, the anger, the indignation of the auburn warrior as Talisa scolded Seleste for letting Ahote touch her. She knew Talisa was possessive, but until that moment, she had never realized how much. It was endearing . . . but also irritating. Ears flat, Seleste wrapped herself in her blanket and glowered in the opposite direction as she was ranted at.

"The hell you're not!" Talisa snapped and her voice was a growl. "How could you? And why would you --?"

"I didn't plan it! It was a heat of the moment thing --!"

Talisa laughed darkly. "Sex is never planned, simp. It just happens." She snapped her slender fingers and her dark nails clicked. "But the _fact _that it happened is what's pissing me off here."

"We didn't have sex!" Seleste cried irritably. "He healed me where it hurt - where they - ganged up on me . . ." She stammered herself quiet and glared at a distant tree.

"Oh. . . ." Talisa said guiltily. "I thought . . ."

"Well, you were wrong."

"But I heard you moaning . . . So that means . . . you liked it? You liked him touching you?"

"A little," Seleste admitted grudgingly.

"Oh . . ."

Hearing the sullen note in Talisa's voice, Seleste looked up. Her anger dissipated: Talisa was slouched over and staring wretchedly at her folded legs. She drew her knees up and hugged them, and she looked so small and vulnerable. It was strange to see Talisa that way. And painful.

"Talisa," Seleste said soothingly and put her arm around her friend, "what did you think? Did you think Keme and I . . .?"

"No," Talisa said to her feet. "But I hoped. I hoped you would stay with me."

"Oh, Talisa . . ."

"I've been alone so long . . . I told Keme I didn't have a lover. That was a lie."

Seleste's ears pricked forward and she went very still. "What do you mean?" Her throat tightened, and she didn't know why, but her heart was pounding. Why keep this lover a secret? Why lie to her and Keme? She didn't understand.

"Please, please don't be angry," Talisa said. She lifted her head, and when she looked at Seleste, her dark eyes were earnest.

"I have to admit, I'm a little hurt that you lied to us," Seleste returned, but her arm tightened around Talisa's shoulders. "That last night you were with Keme and me . . . I thought about asking you both to - to be with me . . . I wanted us to live with you."

Talisa gave a half-smile. "I wanted that too, simp."

"But this other lover?" Seleste said darkly.

"I'm asking you not to be angry," Talisa said, "not because I lied about them, but because of who they are."

Seleste waited. Why should it matter _who _Talisa's lover was? The fact that she had lied was more than enough for her. Seleste didn't like the idea that she helped Talisa cheat on her lover or - even worse - her husband.

Talisa took a deep breath. "Since I was a teen fresh from my first mating season . . ." She glanced nervously at Seleste. "In fact, he took me at_ _my first mating season . . . he . . ."

"Yes?"

"I've been sleeping with Honiahaka."

Seleste's arm fell absently from Talisa's shoulders. She stared at the fire as if she hadn't heard Talisa right. "You and Honia . . .?" She looked up and grinned. Why should she care? She wanted to laugh. She did.

Talisa blinked. "But . . . I thought you and Honi - weren't the two of you in love?"

Seleste shook her head. "Oh, no, Talisa. That's a one way street. I only ever loved . . ." MeRorr. She couldn't bring herself to say the name. She touched a paw to her breasts and stared sadly at her lap. She lifted her head and explained, "Honia has ever sought my paw, but my father knew I loved another. My father promised that he would never force me to marry. . ." Her voice trailed away as she thought sadly of MeRorr, of the last time he touched her, of the way she last saw him . . . She squeezed her eyes shut, squeezed as if to shut off the sudden rise of tears.

"Oh, I'm sorry, simp," Talisa whispered and wrapped an arm around her. "I forgot. You lost that other male, back before Keme."

Seleste nodded wretchedly at the ground. "My sister had him killed," she whispered. Her lip trembled and she angrily wiped away her tears with a corner of the blanket. "In f-front of me. Right in f-front me . . ." Suddenly unable to stop herself, she broke down sobbing. She was glad when Talisa held her without a word, just held her tight. And the harder she cried, she tighter Talisa held on. When she found she had sobbed herself breathless, her head was on Talisa's soft bosom. The dark auburn fur rose in a soft mound against her face and a faint thump, thump tapped her ear. She smiled sadly: Talisa's heart.

"Go to sleep now, simp," Talisa whispered and kissed Seleste on the head.

"No, I'm alright," Seleste insisted and huddled closer. "Just hold me?"

Seleste heard Talisa's laugh press up from her breasts.

"Sometimes I don't know if I love you like a lover or a sister," Talisa said happily. Her wild mane rustled, and Seleste knew she was shaking her head. "I just don't know."

"Talisa?"

"Hmm?"

Seleste pulled back and looked up at Talisa. She made a face, "Why were you sleeping with Honia?"

Talisa laughed. "Why not? He's a beautiful male, a good friend, and good in the sack. That we enjoy each other's company is harmless. In fact, it does me much good."

Seleste laughed at the faraway lusty look on her friend's face. She wondered what Honiahaka would look like now. She hadn't seen him since he was a skinny, annoying little boy who loved to smell her mane. Whenever she thought of him, she still saw that scrawny boy with the pale, preoccupied eyes.

"So why don't you?" Talisa asked.

Seleste lifted her face, startled. "Why don't I what?"

"Love Honi. I thought he was every princess' wet dream."

Seleste rolled her eyes. She sat up and stared at her small feet, her slender toes, and her pink nails. She could feel Talisa's questioning gaze but did not look at her.

"I don't know," Seleste finally answered. "I just never felt the same. All the months he spent in my village when we were children, he pursued and I resisted. I tried so hard to make him understand. And I knew that when he found out what happened, he would ask me to marry him. And what would I say? How could I escape it?"

Talisa laughed incredulously. "So what were you going to do? Hide out in my house the rest of your life?"

Seleste shrugged dismally. "I thought I'd lay low until I could figure out what to do. Figured I'd be gone with Keme by the time Honia got word that I was in the village."

Talisa grinned. "It's so cute. The way you call him Honia. No one does. In fact, only his mother ever did."

"Yeah. Everyone always called him Honi. I just . . . kinda fell into calling him Honia."

"You have no idea how much he loves you, simp."

Seleste closed her eyes. She really didn't want to hear this.

"He has this lover - his bodyguard, Kota. They've both been fooling around with me for years. Sometimes we'd be cuddling together at my house, and he'd go into this happy rant about how he hoped to one day travel to the summer village and ask for you. He would go on about you all the time like that. I was a fool not to recognize you on the spot, he described you so many times. When I took you to the sun village, I figured he'd come out and sweep you off your feet, you two would get married, and Keme would stick around as your courtesan." Talisa laughed to herself.

"It never occurred to you that I might not love him back?"

Talisa cocked an eyebrow. "I thought Honiahaka was the whole _reason _you were running to the sun village. The way _Honi _talked, the two of you were madly in love. Who was I to stand in the way?"

Seleste went very still at the bitter tone Talisa's voice had taken on. "Talisa . . . why don't you?"

"Don't I what?"

"Love Honi."

Talisa smiled sadly, a lick of auburn mane in her pretty eyes. "Who says I don't?"

They fell silent, and on the other side of the fire, Ahote stirred in his sleep. Seleste's heart leapt: she had almost forgotten he was there. He slept on his side, his cheek on his arm, his phallus soft and thick as it lay along his hard thigh. God, he was beautiful. His thick lashes fluttered as if he was waking, but he only licked his lips and continued to sleep. The way his cheek bulged against his arm lent him the peaceful innocence of a child. His mane tumbled in his eyes. He pushed it back lazily and slept on.

"At first," said Talisa quietly, "I just wanted you two to play nice so I didn't have to listen to you bitching. Now I'm scared to leave the both of you alone."

Seleste made a face. "Talisa! It's not like I'm in love with Ahote --"

"Since when does it take love to have sex with someone?"

Seleste huffed.

"Listen, simp," Talisa said and took Seleste's paw, "I know you're hurting after everything that's happened, but don't go doing anything rash out of . . . out of despair."

Seleste's eyes grew round. "Talisa! You're talking like I'm out to marry Ahote! I'd sooner strangle him."

Talisa laughed but said seriously, "I mean it, Sel. I know it looks like you've lost everything now, but you haven't. Don't forget: I'm here."

Seleste's heart warmed when Talisa's rich dark eyes smiled at her. She squeezed Talisa's fingers and said worriedly, "But . . . do you think he's . . . alive?" She realized she must have looked wretched when she asked the question, for Talisa's brows pressed together in concern and she stroked her mane.

"Oh, simp," Talisa answered. "If Keme is alive, he won't be any happier than I to find that Ahote ate your pussy."

Seleste went stiff and colored up. She felt Talisa's soft lips kiss her cheek, then the older female curled up on her bed of flattened grass and went back to sleep.

Seleste sat staring at the fire. If Keme was alive, let him find her. Please! She closed her eyes and tried to remember his face. Ah. There it was! Those green eyes, so on fire that last night he touched her. She remembered looking down between her own slender thighs to see the top of his black head moving as he ate her out. He had looked up as if he'd felt her gaze, and his green eyes had smiled at her so warmly, so hungrily. She remembered the way his eyes remained locked on her face as he slowly licked her juices from his lips, then he kissed her thigh and went back to licking her. She felt his warm, hot tongue lap her with such finesse and skill that she'd squirted on his face. And the gentle way his tongue had bathed her clean, the affectionate way in which he held her afterwards . . . there had been love in all that.

Seleste wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and huddled miserably before the fire. "Please, Keme," she whispered, "be alive. I miss you!"