by Roxie Ray
You could try the crying thing, the little voice in my head suggested. It might be fun!
“It feels…different from normal, definitely.” Slowly, I wound my fingers around his hand and moved it to my stomach, just below my belly button. “Right here, there’s this gentle, almost stabbing sensation. Tightness. It aches a little.” I clenched my jaw, trying my best to translate waves of temptation that flickered through my core all the way down to my pussy into something a little more…medically sound. “The lining of my uterus is thickening, and my ovaries are releasing an egg. If it becomes, um…fertilized, then it attaches to the uterine walls and…bam. Pregnant.”
“And your body wishes for the egg to be fertilized?”
I swallowed. Hard.
“It does, yeah,” I admitted. “But…it’s weird, this time. I didn’t think I’d ever enjoy sex again after…you know. After Var-arak.”
“You wish to enjoy it again, though.”
My whole body tensed. This was a dangerous line of questioning. I wondered if Nion had any idea exactly how dangerous it really was.
I took a deep breath and let my shoulders relax against Nion’s chest. He wasn’t Var-arak, after all. He was just…Nion. Handsome. Fierce. Stubborn. A little awkward, sure, but protective, too. The way his hand was folded over my womb made me feel safer just then than I’d felt in a long, long time.
“I do,” I told him. “But…I’m afraid I won’t be able to. After…after the Rutharian ship, it might not be easy. My body is really confused right now. I don’t think it remembers what actual pleasure really feels like.” It made me sad to say the words, but they were true. “I’d like it to, though. To remember. To feel good about… sex again.”
“Do you wish for me to help?”
My eyes grew wide at Nion’s offer. I wished I could see his face. Was he smirking in that sexy way he did sometimes when he was especially pleased with himself? His eyes—were they that dark, deep, sensual blue that I was always secretly hoping to see flash through them when he looked at me?
“I…I don’t know if I’m ready to have sex again yet, Nion,” I stammered.
Liar, the little voice in my head called out. You want him. He wants you. Can’t you feel his cock pressing up against your ass, dummy? You two should have started fucking ages ago, if you ask me.
I clenched my jaw. I did not ask the little voice in my head for exactly that reason.
I wanted him. And it was right…when I shifted back against him, I could feel his cock pressing against my ass cheeks. Stiff and thick and…
Oh, wow.
And throbbing.
Nion’s hand shifted from my stomach to my hip. His fingers danced against the fabric of my robe deliciously.
“We do not have to mate, Alyse. But if I could give you pleasure…perhaps, it could alleviate some of this tightness in your body. Perhaps…it could help you heal.”
I took a breath and held it in. If I let him do this—let him do what I so desperately wanted him to—then things would change between us. They always did. The first boy I had sex with—a fumbling experience in the coat closet at a charity ball—had never spoken to me again after. The second had spent months all but stalking me, sending me flowers and cards and chocolates, begging for me to let him have me again.
And the third…
Var-arak. I gritted my teeth and banished his name from my brain.
I didn’t want to think about that bastard. Not ever again.
And certainly not tonight.
“Please.” My lips breathed the word, but it felt like that little voice that had been bouncing around my head all these weeks was the one doing the talking. “Please, Nion. Touch me.”
A low growl left Nion’s throat. By the time he moved his fingers down over the folds of my robe, just between my thighs, that growl had turned into soft, gentle purr.
“Beautiful,” he breathed as he pulled the robe away from my thighs. Beneath it, I wore nothing. He ran his fingers over the soft skin of my mound, flattening them out to keep his claws away from my skin. At his every touch, I shivered. “But…”
“Is something wrong?” My heart skipped a beat in sudden anxiousness.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
“Not at all. It is just…” Nion chuckled and pressed his lips to my neck. “Kloran and Haelian…they suggested, perhaps inappropriately, that there would be hair.”
“I had it lasered off when I turned eighteen. My leg hair, and under my arms, too—so I never have to shave.” Nion’s lips on my neck were hot and hard to take my mind off of, but I was still a little worried. “Do you not like it?”
“Vringna. I love it.” He slipped his fingers lower and I parted my thighs with a relieved sigh. “Just like a Lunarian female. Your skin is soft and…mm.” He pulled his fingers back. They glistened with my honey. “You are slick with want.”
“Have you been with Lunarian females before? I thought…” I blushed hot pink. I was stalling. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to ask while the tips of his claws were tracing up and down my pussy lips, but my curiosity got the better of me. “I thought there weren’t many women on your planet.”
“There are not. But there was a female in my village, the same age as me. Valia. We shared a few nights together before her parents arranged her marriage to a high lord.” Nion continued to trail his fingers up and down my folds, sometimes delving just deep enough to make my hips buck up. Sometimes, just skirting the edges of my slit. Teasing me, maybe—or giving me a chance to tell him to stop. “And two noble ladies, after that.”
“At the same time?”
Nion laughed. “No. One, then another. They had heard from Valia of my, ah…prowess, I suppose. There is nothing, one told me, like enjoying a bit of rough before becoming a bride.”
“But you’re not married yourself…” I stiffened as Nion’s fingers flickered upward, threatening to catch my clit beneath them. “Are you?”
“Would you want me less if I were?”
No, the little voice inside me said. Not at all.
“Nion,” I said in warning. “Don’t tease me.”
“I am not teasing you, Alyse. Do not worry. I am not a married man—nor will I ever be.” His lips pressed against my neck again. This time, his fangs scraped, just barely, against my skin. “I am simply making conversation. If this is what you want, then I wish to help ease you into it. If you wish for me to cease, I will at your word.” He pulled away again. “Do you? Wish me to stop, I mean.”
“No.” This time, the little voice in my head spoke as one. “No, not at all.”
I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the feel of Nion’s fingers against my clit. I wanted it. Badly.
And with my words, I was sure he was going to give it to me, too.
But this time, it was Nion who hesitated. Just for a second.
“I am not some virginal cub, Alyse, but trust that I am free and willing,” he purred into my ear. “Suffice to say that I am experienced enough to know how to please you—and to know exactly how I want to do it, too.”
Then, his fingers took the plunge.
He moved his fingertips up and down my slit slowly. They slipped between my folds, gathering up my honey and bringing it up to my clit. When he trapped it beneath his fingers, he put just enough pressure on it to make me gasp and arch with need.
“Shh. It is all right.” His voice poured over me, warm and sensual. “Spread your legs a little wider for me, zahvinya. This will not hurt.”
He didn’t have to tell me that. His fingers moved with just the right amount of pressure. My clit was a hot pink bud of pleasure as he rolled it beneath his touch. He worked it gently at first, slowly, but as he built up speed, his every movement sent blasts of pleasure up through me. If my clit was a flower, its roots sprawled out deep within me. And Nion’s touch—it was like sunshine. Heat and light lavished on my petals, only to unfurl inside me and radiate all the way to my core.
“Yes,” he breath
ed when I whimpered for him again. “Let me hear you. Give me your little sighs, your moans. Show me your need.”
I bit down on my lip for just a moment. His touch felt incredible. Better than good. My body was ringing with how bad I wanted him—not just his hand between my legs, but all of him. I wanted his cock in my mouth, his muscles beneath my hands. I wanted his body on top of mine, hard and thick and relentless.
I didn’t want him to finger me. I wanted him to fuck me.
“Give yourself over to me, Alyse.” His voice was a little louder now. With his free hand, the one that was hooked beneath me, he cupped my breast then pulled my robe aside to roll one of my achingly hard nipples beneath his thumb. “I will not hurt you. I will not force you. You pleasure is a gift that only you can give.”
I sank my teeth into my lip a little harder. When I opened my eyes, my vision was blurry. The room was soft and dark as it spun around me. But when I closed my eyes, the darkness behind my eyelids erupted into a world of color and light.
Like fireworks across the night’s sky.
Fireworks…and the dark, delicious purr of Nion’s voice in my ear.
“Give it to me, Alyse. You are not fighting me. You are fighting only yourself. You want this. You need this. Give in.”
My teeth left my lip as my jaw dropped to release a gasp. My pussy was pulsating, clenching and releasing in a crescendo of excitement that I couldn’t deny. Behind me, Nion’s cock was hard as steel. His arms were wrapped around me, holding me tight.
Not a cage. A robe of red velvet pleasure.
Var-arak had spent every night telling me he would make me his bride, but only now, in Nion’s arms, did I feel like anything close to a queen.
“Come for me, Alyse,” he growled in my ear, suddenly commanding. Vicious. Feral. “Come! Now. Come!”
“Nion!” I cried out as something exploded inside me. My body tensed and spasmed violently against his hold. My pussy gushed with honey, and that little ball of need inside my core finally unknotted itself and burst in a glimmering rocket of sparkles and confetti.
After what Var-arak had put me through, I’d feared that I’d never feel pleasure like that again. But there, in Nion’s arms…
He’d just given me the best orgasm of my life.
A little sob left my lips as the orgasm subsided. The rush of hormones my brain was swimming in was too much to bear. I couldn’t help it. I was crying.
Nion didn’t seem to mind, though. He turned me over in his arms and let me bury my face in his chest. He smoothed my curls down over the back of my head and held me close, even as my body was wracked with tears.
“And you said you would not beg and sob.” He sounded pleased with himself. Pleased…and incredibly sweet, too. “I think you have much to learn about yourself yet, zahvinya. Almost as much as I do.”
“I’m s-sorry,” I whimpered against his skin. “I’m not m-meaning to…”
“Shh. You are fine, Alyse. You came hard, and you have no need to apologize. It was a pleasure for me. Though…” I could hear a smirk in his voice. “I think, for once, you may have enjoyed it slightly more. But your body is tired now. You must rest.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. He was right—my entire body felt heavy and exhausted. “Thank you so much, Nion.”
“Nonsense, Alyse. On second thought…” A little chuckle left his lips as he pulled me even closer to him. “I think the pleasure may have been all mine.”
16
Nion
It had been a long time since I’d fallen asleep with a woman in my arms. As Alyse’s head grew heavier against my chest, I found myself nodding off as well.
But no matter how perfectly I slept with her small, warm body curled there next to me and the scent of her sex still on my fingers, when I woke the next morning I told myself the same thing I had reminded myself of before crawling into bed with her.
Like Valia and all the others, Alyse was mine in the moment.
But she was not mine to keep.
Still, it was difficult not to smile. Lying in bed with her, feeling the weight of her on my chest and listening to her breathe in peaceful slumber all brought me a particular joy.
It would not be easy to leave this bed this morning, though I knew I must.
“Are you leaving me?” Alyse stirred as I slipped my arm out from beneath her and rose from the bed. Her curls were in complete disarray and her eyes were only open just a crack, but somehow, she was even more beautiful in the morning than she had been last night. Her cheeks, I was pleased to see, were still flushed from the orgasm I had given her. Good. “If I did something wrong last night…”
“You did nothing wrong, zahvinya. I promise.” I tucked the blankets up around her and moved to lay a kiss on her soft pink cheek—but she turned her head the last second and drew me into a long, deep kiss instead.
When her lips finally withdrew from mine again, she left me breathless.
“I’m glad.” Her own lips were flushed now too. The curled into a smile, just the slightest bit smug. “Come back to bed, then? It’s warmer in here with you next to me.”
It was a tempting notion—but one I could not take her up on.
“I must seek out Haelian and Kloran,” I told her regretfully. “We are awaiting word from one of our intelligence agents. When we have it, we will have a better idea about your safety as we arrange to make for Lunaria—that is, if you do not want to return to Earth.”
“Are you kidding? After last night…” Alyse closed her eyes and hugged herself. “I’ve told you before, Nion. There’s nothing left for me on Earth. Not really. Besides…I’m kind of excited to see your home.”
It warmed my heart to hear that, though I knew I must temper that warmth with reality.
Not yours, I reminded myself yet again. Yours for now, but not yours to keep.
“I will return to you when we are finished,” I promised her. “For now, rest a little longer. You look too comfortable there in bed—you must get a little more sleep for us both.”
“If you insist,” she said with a tiny yawn. “I’ll miss you, though.”
“Yes.” I could not stop myself from smiling at her. “I will miss you too.”
I found Kloran and Haelian out on one of the embassy’s verandas. With them was Apex—finally—and, to my confusion, Coplan.
Apex, I was pleased to see. The dark-haired specter would surely have updates for us that our new intelligence agent could not be trusted to supply. Coplan, on the other hand, was a mystery.
Did we really need a healer’s opinions as we formed our next plans of attack?
Still, it was hard to remove the spring form my step. I did not enjoy the way Coplan seemed to flock to Alyse’s side at the slightest chance, but on this morning, it was hard to perceive him as a rival any longer.
Not when Alyse had woken up in my arms. Not when she had asked me to share her bed—her bed, and so much more.
“Nion. You look… jaunty today.” Haelian quirked an eyebrow.
“Suspiciously jaunty,” Kloran agreed. He narrowed his eyes at me. “Did something happen last—”
Apex groaned impatiently. “Yes, how insightful. He has obviously recently lain with a female. Well done, all of you.” His eyes rolled upward to the green skies above us as though asking the far-away Lunarian moons for patience. “Can we please attend to the matter at hand now?”
“He has done what?” Coplan furrowed his brow at me in bewilderment. “Nion…surely not—”
Kloran held up his hand. “Apex is right. We have larger problems to deal with right now.”
Our problems, as it turned out, were threefold.
Firstly, as Apex was quick to point out, our new intelligence officer was most certainly withholding information from us. The assault on the Rutharian king’s ship could have been planned better, had we known that the king was aboard it. The other warriors and I could have been briefed to capture, not kill.
Not that it would have mattered. Not
to me. Each time I tried to imagine finding King Var-arak nude and reaching for Alyse’s perfect, tear-streaked face, I could not fathom an alternate ending to the encounter. No matter what my orders had been, walking into the scene I found laid out before me in the cell Alyse had been held captive in could only have ended in one way: with my knife drawing itself across the Rutharian king’s throat.
The issue of our new intelligence officer was a delicate one, nonetheless. Lady Idria controlled the specters with an iron fist. The fact that Apex could even be trusted when we so greatly suspected Idria was working against us was the exception that proved the rule. He had fought with us at the palace against Idria’s command. Now, judging by the new scars I spotted on his neck, since he had been reassigned, he had begun to pay the price for that disobedience. But our new specter was obviously loyal to Idria. And without her say-so, he could not be removed from our ship.
“If he would withhold information that could lead to the murder of a king, what else might he conceal from us?” Haelian mused grimly.
“Everything that benefits him.” Apex’s answer was as simple as it was terrible. “Anything that Lady Idria tells him to.”
The fact that the Rutharian king was dead was yet another concern. As Apex told it, the only reason the Rutharians had not yet retaliated for the murder of their leader was largely due to infighting on who Var-arak’s successor should be.
“But as soon as the dust settles and an heir to the throne emerges, it will not be a matter of if they will retaliate. Only a matter of when,” Apex assured us. “They are not simply a ruthless race. They are a vengeful one too. They know that it was Nion who killed their king, either through the Avant Lupinia’s new specter or from another source. They will want retribution—and they will take it in blood.”
“Then we must be on high alert for battles and ambushes as soon as we leave Newthelia—if not sooner.” Kloran cast a glance to Coplan. For a moment, I thought I spotted an orange glimmer of anxiety in Kloran’s eyes. “Not just for Nion’s sake, but for the human, Alyse’s, as well.”