I said, “That will help some.”
I looked around the room to see what safety we had, even though I had no idea what the dangers actually were. The room was about 15 by 20 feet wide. There were no windows. A few of the glowing lamps, like the ones in the cave but this time red instead of blue, dimly illuminated the place. These lamps were mineral, and lasted for centuries without fuel. At one side of the room was a raised platform, about the size of a king-sized bed, and apparently used as one. It was covered with and assortment of furs, presumably for comfort and warmth. Aeyli-ah grabbed a large one from the bed and draped it on hooks so that it covered the door, having me remove and then replace the bracing poles.
Aeyli-ah said, “This will help muffle any sound we might make tonight. The door and walls are thick. We’ll be safe enough now.”
Apart from the bed, there was only a sack, the size of my day pack. It contained a few more water bags and a few scraps of leather, but nothing else.
She said, “This is where I stay on my way to and from the shrine. No one disturbs it. Only beasts will visit this place now. We can relax. Tonight, we’ll stay in this room, and tomorrow we can fill more water bags and continue on our way. Or, we can gather some food and stay another night or two if we want to. Making your weapons, and teaching me to use one might be worth a delay of a day or two.”
I said, “Aeyli-ah, I don’t have a plan or a place to go. I came because I searched for John Carter’s cave, and once I found it, I had no choice but to see where it would take me. In many respects, I’m willing to trust you completely and place myself into your hands. You seem to have an idea of where we should go, and I’ll gladly follow you there.”
We moved to the bed and sat on the edge together and I took her hands in mine and looked at her.
I said, “But, we still need to talk. I’ve told you that I’m very happy to have been given the chance to choose you as my mate, even though you felt that I had no choice, but you said that you didn’t have a choice yourself. You bound yourself to me out of obligation, because you couldn’t let me die.”
She stopped me and said, “My Prince, I chose you in my heart before I ever set eyes on you. And when I saw you, and felt your heart, I knew that I had chosen what I truly wanted. I could have chosen differently. I wasn’t under an unbreakable vow. I followed my heart in the moment. It wasn’t my past or future that decided for me. Listen, it has been a long, momentous, very hard day. I think that by morning, we’ll both be sure of our true feelings.” And she smiled at me. “And, besides, haven’t I promised you my body as well?”
I said, “You are absolutely the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen! If your body is promised to me, I will cherish it and make you as happy as I can that you chose me. Um, you call me ‘My Prince’… do you mean…?”
In the stories of Barsoom, I knew that the phrase ‘My Prince’ was a very intimate title reserved for lovers; something a woman would only say to the one man that she had chosen and could not live without.
Aeyli-ah said, “I do. My love, I do. You are My Prince! My whole heart belongs to you. We only met, but I don’t need time to know my heart toward you.”
She stood up and removed the belt from her waist and laid it aside. She was completely naked even before she did it, but that act was the sexiest thing that I had ever seen. As much as my wife and I had loved each other, I knew that she had never loved me like this.
I stood and said, “My Princess!” and removing my belt, I took her in my arms and kissed her.
Chapter 8
Mating Night
Our bodies melted together. This was our first true embrace. The past several hours had been a fight for survival. It had brought us close emotionally, and it had created a bond that we now felt was unbreakable, but despite the intimate contact that we’d shared in order to sustain our lives, this was our first real touch.
I kissed Aeyli-ah, and she responded. Her lips met mine and our tongues intertwined. She pressed her bosom against my chest and pressed her pelvis against my groin. Our hands explored each other’s sides, faces, hips, backs, and buttocks. This was love, pure and simple. No questioning of the decisions that we had made or of the vows we had professed.
She reached down between us and finding my erection poking into her belly, she guided me to the space between her legs and wrapped her thighs around me. I was taller than she and there was no way to enter her in this standing position, but we slowly thrust against each other, me sliding along the folds that were quickly moistening and over the nub of her rapidly engorging clitoris. I felt the telepathic indication of a small orgasm causing the trembling of her body.
I whispered, “My Princess, I don’t know what the ways of this planet are for this night.”
She buried her face in my neck, continuing to thrust against me and said, “Neither do I My Prince, but, uh, I don’t think that will hinder us. Oh, uh… the only instructions that we were given as young girls were bawdy rhymes that the older women told us. Oh, my prince! The ‘little death’! I want to die a thousand times tonight!”
I felt another spasm take her and she clenched my manhood hard between her legs. The ‘little death’ was her euphemism for orgasm, just like in French, and I knew it was appropriate. A ‘little death’ that let you know that you are very much alive, and in love.
She said, “You see, My Prince? Only lovers… only mates feel this way toward each other. Oh, yes! Uh huh. Here, oh, let me go for a moment… no don’t… oh wait, yes, just for a moment.”
She pulled away from me and recited one of the rhymes as she turned toward the bed,
The word that she used doesn’t have any good equivalent in English. It meant, more or less, ‘Make love with abandon. Make love vigorously.’ The word was used mostly in a bawdy, but not obscene connotation. It was both reverent and irreverent and only used when humor was called for. It would never be used in public, but only between lovers who wanted to be very clear about their intentions to ‘wrestle between the bed furs’.
I have said that each word in their language had only one meaning, but there were often several words for similar things with different emotional context. In one case you might say ‘make love’ and in another, private setting, say, ‘shalock’. In one context, you might say ‘breasts’, but in a more private context, a lover would be more likely to use the equivalent of ‘tits’ or ‘titties’. And even in one context, ‘vagina’, but in the other, even the most refined girl would have no hesitation in talking to her mate about the needs of her ‘pussy’ and his ‘cock’. Because insults were rare here, people just said what they meant and these kinds of words had no meaning except as terms of aroused endearment.
She turned her back to me and got on her hands and knees on the bed. She placed her cheek down on the furs and looked back at me, spreading her legs and exposing the treasure between. I hesitated a moment, never having seen anything so beautiful, so vulnerable, and so incredibly arousing. As I watched, my lover reached between her own legs and using her fingers, rubbed and spread the cinnamon lips, opening herself to me.
I stepped forward and positioned the tip of my shaft against the opening, gathering lubrication by rubbing at the entrance. I pushed slowly… and met a barrier.