Wyzak

by Layla Nash

  Gemma exhaled and moved her body against his, but Wyzak was lost. He couldn’t have stopped moving for anything in the world, burying himself over and over in her until nothing else existed in the entire universe. She stretched out underneath him, squirming and rising to meet every one of his thrusts, and groaned his name right in his ear in a whisper that shorted out his brain.

  Wyzak slid his arm under her back so he could grip her shoulder, holding her in place as he moved faster, harder. His vision narrowed down to only her face, the way her mouth hung open in a silent cry as her body tensed and clenched around him. He moved through her climax, drinking in every moment of her pleasure, and chased after his own.

  She whispered something desperate and dirty in his ear, though he only half-understood her, and pressed hard against his chest so she could lick his spike once more.

  He roared as the climax barreled through him like a sandstorm through the desert, burying his cock in her sweet folds and staying there as his world splintered in flashes like a supernova. Wyzak groaned and exhaled as he relaxed, reveling in the feeling of Gemma against him, and gradually moved to the side so he didn’t crush her with his weight.

  She still clung to him, panting, and absently stroked the spikes on his shoulders until Wyzak grumbled and adjusted his shoulders, his body reacting predictably to her gentle touch.

  Gemma smiled against his shoulder, her eyes closed. “Too much?”

  “Just perfect,” he muttered. His hips pushed against hers in a lazy reminder of how perfect he found her, and Gemma stretched and relaxed beneath him. Wyzak inhaled from her neck and hair, grumbling, and kept her pressed against him.

  He couldn’t let her leave. He couldn’t lose her. Wyzak moved to his back, dragging Gemma across his chest, and stroked her back as she sighed and relaxed. Such a fragile body, so delicate. So perfectly suited for him, in all the ways he’d never expected to find.

  As she dozed and played with his hair, Wyzak pondered how to convince her to stay. He’d had enough time around Faros and Violet to know that when Faros ordered Violet to do something, the Earther ignored him and did what she wanted. Wyzak had seen at least once when the captain made a suggestion or hinted at something, and his mate seemed to at least consider his input.

  Telling Gemma what to do and forbidding her from going to Proxima hadn’t worked out the way he intended. She just dug in her heels and insisted on doing things her way, despite that logic suggested the danger would be too significant. Wyzak waited until her single heart slowed to a normal rhythm and she murmured and nuzzled against his neck, then spoke softly, a whisper between only them. “You don’t have to go to Proxima. You were right when you said that we earned the Tyboli bounty with our own actions. The consequences of those actions belong to Faros and the Sraibur; it is not right to ask you to take responsibility for addressing those consequences.”

  She made a thoughtful noise but didn’t open her eyes. “I know.”

  “Then you do not need to go,” Wyzak said. He kissed her shoulder, stroking her arm, and lifted her hand to his mouth so he could kiss her fingers as well. He didn’t think before he spoke, and the words slipped free into the silence. “You should stay on the Sraibur. You should stay with me.”

  He squeezed her hand and brought her palm to his mouth, needing to maintain the connection.

  Gemma went still, suddenly tense, and Wyzak braced for her immediate departure.

  Chapter 31

  Gemma

  She’d been basking in the afterglow of a pair of powerful orgasms as Wyzak held her close and played with her hair. She didn’t really notice as he kissed her shoulder and then her arm and down to her hand, and then he asked her to stay on the Sraibur with him. Gemma fought back a smile and meant to murmur that she wanted to, then she noticed that he held her left hand to his mouth. He’d kissed her mech arm and fingers and hand as if it were normal, as if she were whole.

  Gemma tensed, suddenly uneasy. He touched that awful arm just like he touched her other, undamaged side. Surely he knew the difference? What was he trying to do?

  She pushed up on her elbows, looking down at him in sudden panic. “What are you doing?”

  Wyzak’s dark eyebrows rose. He didn’t move. “I would like you to stay on the Sraibur, with me.”

  “No,” Gemma said. She tried to pull away more, but his arm slid across her lower back and kept her close against his chest. She shook her head and lifted her mech arm. “Why did you…why are you... This is wrong.”

  His forehead wrinkled. “What are you talking about?”

  “You kissed my hand,” she said, her voice dropping. Why didn’t he understand? She wasn’t whole; she was a freak with a faulty cyborg arm. “Why would you do that?”

  He would have looked adorable, being so confused, if she hadn’t been near panic. Wyzak frowned more and adjusted how they lay, keeping her close but sitting up more so he could see her face better. “It is part of you. I enjoy kissing you. It seemed... permissible. Do you not like it?”

  The problem wasn’t that she didn’t like it, the problem was that she did. She’d spent so much of her life trying to ignore the mech arm or pretending it was normal that to have someone just accept it as part of her... it felt too final. If Wyzak was fine with her having a freakish arm, then she had to be fine with it. Maybe. Was she ready for that?

  “It’s just… It’s an awful thing. It’s not normal.”

  “But it’s part of you.” He still looked puzzled. “Is that not enough for it to be normal?”

  She pushed off his chest and moved away, though she felt a sudden loss in the cool rush of air between them. It wasn’t enough to be normal, certainly not. It just meant that the rest of her was abnormal, that all of her was abnormal. Gemma shook her head and dragged the sheet up to cover her breasts when she noticed Wyzak’s attention straying as she moved into the light. “No. It’s not…right.”

  Wyzak sighed and moved the hair out of his eyes, propped up on his side as he watched her. “I do not see the problem.”

  “Of course you don’t,” Gemma said. She held the left arm up so the green-silver code running through the metal was visible. “This is awful. This arm is a terrible thing, and it makes me… It makes me less than normal. I’m a monster. I’m not a true Earther or a real cyborg, I’m some awful hybrid but no one would ever—”

  “Stop,” he said, tone sharp, and Gemma recoiled. Wyzak sat up and loomed in the bed, his expression all hard angles and dark fury. “You will not talk about yourself that way.”

  “But it’s—”

  “No,” he said. Wyzak caught her face in his hands, even when she tried to pull away, and kept her close until their noses almost bumped. “Listen to me, Earther. You are not a monster. You are not awful. I do not know where you got those ideas, but they are wrong.”

  Gemma blinked rapidly as her vision blurred. “You don’t understand.”

  “I understand well enough,” Wyzak said. He still frowned fiercely at her. “I would certainly not share my bed with a monster, nor would I ask a monster to stay on this ship. It is an easy choice, to ask that of you. Because you are perfect exactly as you are.”

  A knot tied up her throat until she almost couldn’t breathe. “You don’t mean that.”

  She wasn’t perfect. She wasn’t even normal.

  “You are perfect,” he repeated firmly, then planted a fierce kiss on her forehead. When he met her gaze again, his silver eyes flashed and boiled like mercury. “Except you do not obey when I tell you what to do. That is the only thing I would change about you.”

  Gemma managed to wipe her cheeks and fix him with a dark look. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Do I not?” Wyzak exhaled in irritation and abruptly nudged her back until she lay on the bed. He knelt beside her and slid his hand across her stomach. “This is lovely.”

  His fingers walked up her sternum toward her breasts. “And I am quite fond of these.”

  His m
outh followed suit and made it clear how much he liked them. Gemma closed her eyes against a surge of emotion. He couldn’t mean it.

  But his low voice went on, gruff enough it made her skin prickle in anticipation, as he kissed her shoulder, right where it joined her neck. “I find this part of you perfect.”

  “That’s a weird place to—”

  “Hush,” Wyzak muttered. He moved on the bed so he could pick up her calf, studying her foot in the dim light, then slowly sucked her big toe into his mouth.

  Gemma groaned at the unexpected pull of lust deep in her core. She gripped double handfuls of the sheets and watched as Wyzak tasted each of her toes, then dragged his teeth across the arch of her foot and around her ankle.

  “So delicate,” he said, as his massive hands swallowed up her ankle and calf. “I do not know how you walk around on these tiny things, and yet you do. A small miracle, perhaps, but a perfect one.”

  She tried to pull away. “You’ve made your point, now can you just—”

  “Are you still arguing with me, Earther?” He maneuvered her leg out so he could kiss the inside of her knee and tease his fingers along her inner thigh.

  Gemma stilled, though her thighs parted automatically at his touch, and flushed when the Xaravian gave her a knowing look. She should have snapped her legs closed on his head and tried to strangle him, but most of her wanted to see what he’d say and do next.

  Wyzak made more of those grumbling noises as he rubbed his chin and jaw against her thigh, though he stroked her hips and ass as well. “All of this... every piece... is perfect.”

  “Well, obviously you think so,” she said under her breath. Her cheeks warmed at having him so... focused while lying there, gazing at her most intimate area. It was different if he was in the middle of screwing her; it was more unnerving to have him just... there. Waiting. Looking. Breathing and talking.

  Watching her, paying too much attention to too many parts of her. She wasn’t ready for that kind of scrutiny. Wyzak was the kind of male who paid attention, who really looked. He saw right through her, he saw every nook and cranny of her soul and got right to the heart of her fears and insecurities. And he still seemed to like her.

  He still thought she was perfect.

  Gemma cleared her throat a few times before she could talk without her voice breaking. “I’ve already slept with you, and I’m happy to go again, so you really don’t have to—”

  Wyzak growled and narrowed his eyes, the silver glinting with irritation. “You are not listening, Gemma. This is not about mating with you. I would say these things even if you never surrendered to me again.”

  She shivered. Mating, surrendering to him... Why did it all sound so appealing, particularly with his broad hands holding her sides and making her feel delicate and small?

  “It is not... easy,” Gemma whispered. “To hear those things.”

  “Well, you should prepare yourself to hear them often,” Wyzak said. His chin rubbed against her, right above where she ached to feel his touch once more. “I’ll repeat it every day until you believe me.”

  She believed him. He would tell her she was perfect over and over, and eventually she might actually believe it. Gemma closed her eyes as he moved back and breathed against her core, his broad tongue exploring territory he’d so recently touched. Wyzak moved her legs until they draped over his shoulders, and held her tightly no matter how much she squirmed and bucked against his mouth.

  Gemma saw stars as he continued to leisurely taste her, nipping and sucking her most sensitive flesh, and narrated all along how perfect he thought every part of her was. She froze against him again and again as waves of ecstasy overtook her, until Gemma was exhausted and limp on the bed, unable to move as Wyzak pushed up on his elbows to survey his handiwork.

  The Xaravian caressed her stomach, watching as she shivered and a ripple of pleasure rolled through her. “Do you believe me yet, Earther?”

  Her mouth was dry and cottony from moaning and panting, even screaming, and made talking difficult. She took a moment and tried to remember how to form words. She managed to pat his head without opening her eyes. “Almost.”

  Wyzak chuckled and moved up her body, the hard heat of his cock bumping against her thighs. “Then I have not done my job. Hold on, Earther. You have a long night ahead of you.”

  Gemma wrapped her arms around his neck as his head descended and his mouth found her breasts again, and exhaled. “Do your worst, pirate.”

  He growled and showed her just how seriously he took doing his job.

  Chapter 32

  Wyzak

  They eventually parted, and Wyzak watched Gemma sleep. He should have rested as well, since he’d done a great deal of the work, but he was too energized. He would convince her to stay. She’d murmured something about it in the middle of clinging to him and moaning how much she enjoyed his touch, how she believed him or would try to believe him, but Wyzak had been too distracted by a star-shattering climax barreling through him to take note of the precise words she’d used.

  She curled up against his side, her arm draped across his middle and one of her soft legs tangled with his. He could watch her sleep for days, though he much preferred her awake and rubbing against him. He smiled faintly and stroked her arm. He still did not understand her reaction to his kiss on her hand, nor her belief that the mech arm somehow made her a monster. He’d have to talk to Violet about it, to see if the lawyer had more insight into what Gemma was thinking.

  Wyzak checked his comms unit as it flashed; Nokx notified him that they were in range of the star where they would jettison Gemma’s partner. He could have woken her and taken her right to the loading bay, but he let her sleep. There were still a few hours of night on the ship, and she would need the rest. He smiled, pleased with himself, and closed his eyes as he pulled her more tightly against his side. Just a few more hours to rest and enjoy her closeness, the quiet peacefulness of his quarters with his female content at his side.

  He woke her several hours later and shooed her into the water closet so she could clean up, though he followed her in to assist. Wyzak made a note to get a larger shower or to search for quarters with a more accommodating floorplan. He lifted Gemma so he could pin her to the wall and bury himself in her warm channel, ignoring when the water cooled. He couldn’t get enough of her. Stroking her body with soapy hands—and watching her touch herself to accomplish the washing he kept forgetting—was his undoing.

  Wyzak groaned as he ground against her, his knees weakening as he jerked and emptied himself, and his forehead fell against her shoulder. Gemma panted and laughed, her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, and rested her head on his shoulder. “You’ve got a one-track mind.”

  He grumbled and carefully put her back on her feet, shielding her from the cool water, and turned it off before wrapping her in a clean towel. He took the somewhat used towel for himself, uncaring so long as she was well taken care of. Wyzak pondered whether to put her in some of his robes, to make it clear to the rest of the crew that she was off-limits, but she dressed quickly while he was still distracted by her bare ass and the smooth expanse of skin across her back.

  Wyzak was less than pleased to walk her through the ship to the loading bay, where Faros, Violet, and Nokx waited. And where the carefully wrapped body of Gemma’s partner also waited, sealed in a clear pod, for the final goodbye.

  He wasn’t a sentimental being; none of the Xaravians were. Warriors fell in battle and while voyaging. It was the way of the world and the universe. They all knew the risks they took when signing up for duty on a pirate ship and traveling through ungoverned space, just as Gemma’s partner knew the risks he took as a bounty hunter chasing prey that did not want to be caught. Wyzak had little sympathy for the dead Earther, but he would stand beside Gemma through anything.

  Faros eyed him, on the verge of grinning and making an off-color joke, but Violet gave her mate a stern look before the captain could do anything to make Gemm
a self-conscious. Faros heaved a long-suffering sigh and folded his arms over his chest, but he remained silent as Gemma moved slowly to the funeral pod.

  Wyzak stayed back, not wanting to interrupt whatever private moment she wanted with her dead partner, but didn’t look away from her as Faros leaned over and muttered, “So you’ve resolved your differences?”

  “What differences?”

  “Whatever differences kept her out of your quarters.”

  Wyzak clenched his jaw against the urge to tell the captain to mind his own damn business. “We have resolved some questions related to our association.”

  Faros snorted, but at least he did so quietly. “Is she your mate or not, brother?”

  “She is.”

  “So she stays aboard the Sraibur,” Faros said. The captain frowned and rubbed his jaw, both of them watching as Violet went to comfort Gemma when the bounty hunter’s shoulders sagged. “We will have to adjust the plan.”

  “So it would seem.” Wyzak did not feel obligated to reveal that Gemma hadn’t quite agreed to stay on the Sraibur. He’d meant to ask after she woke up, but the moment her naked body moved into his view, he lost all ability to think and reason. He tensed as Gemma wiped moisture from her cheeks. “I will not have her placed in danger.”

  The captain grunted, watching his own mate closely. “She still goes to Proxima.”

  “There is another way.”

  “What is it?” Faros glanced at him, eyebrow arched. “Do you have a plan, then?”

  “Not yet.” Wyzak took a deep breath as Gemma turned away from the pod where her dead partner lay, and he moved forward to catch her arm and pull her against his chest. He didn’t like the way her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed with misery, although he enjoyed it very much when she pressed her face against his shoulder and leaned into him.