by Amanda Milo
Putting my hands over his pecs, I go up on my toes and kiss him goodnight. “Thank you for the offer, but I have another idea.”
I believe Vera earned herself a break—and Tiernan?
Tiernan’s mine. I’m going to take Vera’s place.
CHAPTER 29—BETH
BETH
“That machaii better have removed his club glove. It wasn’t like he had her called right from underneath of him, that jackleg!” Tiernan finishes in a heated mutter before he wrenches open the door.
“Hi,” I wave.
Tiernan inhales deeply, and because I know what he was doing before Ekan (and I) interrupted him, it’s obvious to me that he’s in the grip of some intense sexual frustration. The veins along his muscled forearms are standing out, and the pulse point at his throat—pounding when he opened the door—starts hammering.
I find I really want to put him out of his misery. “So I just met Vera.”
He huffs something that isn’t relaxed enough to be laughter. “Leave it to Ekan. That’s audacity.” He crosses his big arms over his very wide chest. “Tell me he didn’t rut the robot right in front—” he breaks off when my hand runs down the part of his chest not blocked by his arms.
“I asked him to,” I tell him, stroking him again.
“Beth,” he says, enough warning in his voice that my heart speeds up, “I need you to know that I would never hurt you, but I’m too hungry for you to pet me.”
“I could take care of that hunger for you,” is my answer—and I feel his whole body go tense(er.) “But I’ll warn you: I’m dirty.”
“Beth!” Tiernan rasps out.
A smile teases around my mouth; but I clamp my lips together, adopting a clear, innocent expression. “And I came here thinking that you’ll have to do all the work, but you know what? Suddenly, I’m feeling pretty rejuvenated. A lot of excitement, you know?”
Tiernan’s hands wrap around my face, and he kisses me. He kisses me stupid.
He also turns us and walks me backwards, steering me to his bed.
Reaching it, he takes me down carefully, and he wastes no time fumbling with my top. Like Qolt, Tiernan snaps right through the front of it—with his teeth.
“Ekan’s going to need to invest in more tinytops,” I warn.
“‘Veker can afford it,” Tiernan shoots back, and leans over me, his beautiful, masculine fingers spreading wide beside my head to brace himself. He stays standing, his height allowing him unobstructed access around my stomach, and his free hand skillfully touches me everywhere. He becomes my master, conquering me with nothing more than the rough texture of his palm stroking so softly over my skin. Under him, I feel beautiful, desired—and needy—with the way he brushes his fingers over my collarbones, and the way he teases the silky skin of my hipbones.
“Tiernan,” I moan—and he bites my thigh. I gasp; he chuckles.
He plants a darting kiss under my right boob before he licks a hot path between my breasts.
I grab his head, my stomach feeling like an ungainly hard ball between us, but Tiernan doesn’t seem to mind. To the contrary, he proves he cares for it very much when he tenderly cups underneath my stomach and plants a kiss above my belly button.
My heart cannot take the sweetness. Like, I might develop instant hyperglycemia from this.
Feeling indescribably reactive towards him, I drag him back up to me and mewl into his mouth.
Tiernan attacks me back, but with shocking, titillating ferocity. Nipping—carefully—with his sharp teeth, sucking, lapping, snarling.
Suddenly, his pelvis bangs into mine and he grinds us together, our clothes feeling like a flimsy but much annoying barrier.
To cure me of my half of the problem, Tiernan flips up my skirt.
I hear ripping, and I bite back a laugh when I learn it isn’t only my clothes that get torn up during sexy times with aliens—Tiernan’s taken the expedient route to undressing. Evidently, he must feel he can afford to replace his wardrobe too.
One of his thick fingers slides to my opening, feeling how slick I am. He growls into my mouth. “Ready?”
“So ready,” I breathe, and Tiernan’s cheek brushes my nose as he tilts his head and takes my lips in another kiss.
When we pull away, we both look down between us.
I know I can’t not watch; I’m too curious and usually, the entry is one of my favorite turn-ons to the action—but when I get brave enough to get a glimpse of Tiernan, I wish I hadn’t.
REALLY BIG DICK. Dammmmmn.
It’s hard, and long, and really, really alien.
Teeth gritted, Tiernan jacks his mating ring back and lines us up.
His mating ring expands, the rim of it touching me first. It clasps onto me, making me jump—and it starts to suck.
THIS IS UNEXPECTED. It’s giving my ladyjunk suction?
The instantaneous, pulsing pressure makes my clit throb and my labia swell. “Tiernan?”
Testing my readiness with what feels even bigger than it looked, Tiernan prods his tip at my opening, making me gasp. He grunts. “Tell me if you start to feel too tight, narra.”
Is this like some common Na’rith equipment complaint during ‘operation?’
Rough fingers caress the side of my throat, making me shudder. An otherworldly-sized thumb glides across my lower lip. Then it pulls down, taking my lip with the movement.
All the while, keeping his movements slow, he advances inside me.
And ow. OW! The pinch and burn is no joke. I feel like I’ve grown my virginity back.
It’s not going to fit!
I make a choked noise and the intrusion backs off.
“Beth? Is that a good sob or a bad sob?” Tiernan whispers. He pulls out of me all the way, but his mating ring stays in place, extending and stretching between us. And he must read something on my face because he soothes, “Shhh, we’ll fix it.” He reaches for his pillow and slides his hand under my butt, lifting me enough to prop my hips. Instead of moving right back to thrusting, his hands smooth over my sides, my thighs, my stomach, and eventually he moves his touch to my shoulders, spreading his fingers out underneath me to reach the tensed muscles of my neck and back.
His ring stays clamped to me. The pulsing, steady suck on my clit makes me want to move. It builds, and builds, until I’m squirming, but only when I try to encourage him to continue does Tiernan’s club start carefully advancing on me again. We sort of dance like this, with him retreating and surging forward a sliver at a time, until his thrust and pull gets smoother, slicker, receiving a wetter, happier welcome, and finally, he’s all the way inside. We’re tight, but it doesn’t hurt.
“Good?” Tiernan asks, eyes searching me.
My heart feels so full as I stare up at him. My lips curve up shyly. “I am. Thank you.”
This earns me a sweet kiss. But his gaze is a little too direct, a little too uncomfortably focused when he growls, “Shouldn’t have to thank me.”
I pull my nose up, making his nose bump my chin. “Well, I want to, so there. And it’s not polite to reject my appreciation for your skills.”
His lip quirks, and he wraps his big hands all the way around my upper arms. “Beth. You’re about to find out that when I rut, I’m anything but polite.”
I feel myself weaken when he draws back his hips—and bangs into me so hard I see stars.
I already knew this; but polite sex is overrated.
Shoulders pinned by his weight, uninhibitedly jolting and squeaking under him, I love the way he grunts as he fucks into me. Tiernan’s delightfully vocal, his bass-pitched growls making me shiver.
Slishy sounds signal that we’re creating quite a bit of wet friction between us, and where his ring encircles our entry point, it’s collecting a shocking amount of wetness. It’s an extra strange sensation, but not an unwelcome one. Braced against me like this, Tiernan works me like I’ve never experienced, and I can’t believe the noises he’s causing me to make. Grunting in a way that’s going t
o embarrass me later, I absorb the hard contact of his body, feeling euphoria climb inside me, higher, and higher and more hungry than I’m ready for.
When my orgasm breaks, I go light-headed.
No, really—I’m instantly dizzy even as my pussy is pulsing and squeezing Tiernan strongly enough to make him growl as he pumps through it.
I gulp. “Tiernan, stop! I’m… I need to sit up!”
A growl tells me I’ve reached him a moment before he pulls out, climbs on the bed, and moves behind me, tugging my shoulders up over his thighs until I’m propped against him. After a moment, he pants, “Better?”
Rather awkwardly, we’re still connected by his extended mating ring. But I sigh in relief. “Yeah!” I put a hand up to my head. “That was weird. I even lost my breath. Probably why I went dizzy,” I muse.
My eyes can’t help but be drawn to the membrane that joins us. It’s stretched across my thigh, slightly damp and super hot to the touch. I pull my finger away when I see his thighs tense and jump in reaction to my curious touch.
Tiernan’s voice is raspy. “Maybe it’s the position affecting you. Want to try a different one? We could lie face to face if we...” he proceeds to adjust me so that I’m propped up on pillows, and he reclines at an angle from me.
This won’t give him the leverage he needs in order to properly (or is that improperly?) bang my brains out, but as he shoves his thickness into me again, my happy sigh rings out—and his groan of satisfaction says he doesn’t consider this a downgrade.
The constant, hot, pressured tug on my slick-feeling clit gets me to O-town again by the time Tiernan reaches his finish. My muscles are tight, keeping me locked in place and shaking with the sensations rolling through me during my climax, when Tiernan throws his head back and empties himself with a resonant, rich groan of contentment.
And then… we’re stuck together. Fused pubically, exactly as I was warned would happen. As we quietly catch our breath, his ring continues to slowly suck on me. Its pressure is gentler now, almost like it’s being mindful of my heightened nerves. Its suction is dragging out my pleasure; I’m experiencing squirm-inducing aftershocks, and I can say for sure that this is the absolute best and strangest encounter I've ever had.
Tiernan nudges me with his chin, trying to get me to pick up my face enough so he can have my lips.
The kiss is nice.
The look in Tiernan’s eyes is even nicer.
Ooooh, my stomach flutters at the fiercely pleased way he’s staring at me. Even my toes curl. I want to hug him—so with my arms limply hanging behind his neck, I do—and I want to wriggle my hips, but my movement is majorly limited on account of our position and his… accoutrement.
But I don’t feel I’m without ways to express how his hot look is making me feel. Since Ekan made such a big deal about Qolt’s hickey, I tuck my face into Tiernan’s neck and go to work on giving Tiernan a really pretty lovebite—and he groans like I’m just slaying him.
I snicker into his skin, but when I start on a second one, he encourages me to bring my kiss to his lips instead, growling, “I couldn’t be happier for your brand on me—but don’t sore your jaw any worse on my account.”
This isn't even how I used to ‘sore’ my jaw for a man, but he's right, I’ll be feeling this tomorrow. Mouth-marking three Na’riths will do that.
I grin when Tiernan moves until he’s the big spoon in our cuddle. He hands me another pillow, saying, “Don’t know if you got a chance to spy around Qolt’s berth, but he had a stash of bedding a light-year high. Said he knew females liked pillows, blankets, that sort comfort, so the moment you came aboard, he began raiding them from everywhere else.”
“I take it you cleaned him out?” I ask, stuffing the pillow under my stomach.
“With no compunction,” Tiernan confirms, offering me another.
I decline it, and instead, I scoot up slightly and rest my head on the hard warmth of Tiernan’s arm. His nose burrows into my hair, and ke keeps it there against the top of my head.
That’s how I fall asleep—sated, safe, and happy in Tiernan’s arms.
CHAPTER 30—TIERNAN
TIERNAN
THE NEXT ROTATION...
“Oh, narra,” I feign a deep feeling of disquietude, passing a playfully shaking hand over my face before I return my attention to her progress, and caution, “You’re supposed to give the plants a drink, not a swim.”
“Oops,” she says—but the apology rings false. “Hey,” she says, setting down the waterer and picking up a pot. “I’ll just go back to planting.”
I eye her actions balefully. “This is almost too awful to watch. You’re spanking those seedlings—not patting them.”
“Oh, I must be getting confused. Patting—spanking,” she says, lifting her shoulders and dropping them just as suddenly, her lashes fluttering as she sends me a coy look. “Maybe I need a lesson on the difference. Maybe it’s the heat… in here.”
“You’re goading me,” I say in wonder.
She flashes me a grin. “I am.” She gestures at her work area where she’s been torturing young plants. “I’ve kind of been hoping that you’ll bend me over this garden bench, but I’m not kidding about it being hot in here—I can’t tell if I’m sweating or just getting coated in humidity, but if it’s the first one, I’m pretty sure I’m going to melt if I get under you.”
I take her by her elbow and begin to draw her with me, taking her past stacks of mulch, heavy-humus soils, fertilizer, and various supplies. “I might have a way to cool you down.”
She gasps when she sees where we’re headed. “Is that a shower? Out here?”
“Handy to rinse off in the rain booth after a planting day,” I confirm, hiding my smile as I nudge her, urging her to enter it. “Let’s get you taken care of, cool you off. And after that narra, you will tap those seedlings properly—I know you have it in you to show our young more care.”
“There’s no question,” she agrees, “I would show our young more care—I will—but this is our food, Tiernan. These aren’t babies.”
I pause, eyeing her to see if she’s joshing. I can’t decide if she is or not. “This is our food, and if we don’t help those young plants grow, we will have no food.”
She angles her head, conceding the point. “True. All right, you need to get naked. Lose the pants, and be quick about it. Or the shirt. Hang on, I can’t decide what I want to watch first,” she bites her lip and looks me up and down in a way that almost gets her mounted with no warning. “Okay, surprise me.”
Creator, she is perfection. I want to keep her all to myself—which certainly won’t happen, but I can’t help against what I instinctively want.
For now, at least, I have her in my arms.
Later, when we’re rinsing off the produce ready for eating, and Beth’s taste-testing the offerings to decide what she wants more of, she steers us onto the topic of luck sources. I’m explaining that luck sources aren’t as common as Na’riths would have the universe believe, when she asks, “So if luck sources are rare, you all are… lucky to have Ekan?”
Feeling pained, I reluctantly nod.
She starts laughing, wiping at her mouth and then brushing off her hands. “What was that?”
When I barely put force behind the words, “That’s… right...”
She laughs harder.
Even if Ekan were a mere mortal, he would—and has—leapt in front of us to take all manner of weapon’s fire and harm. Although it’s rare, luck sources are capable of being gravely injured—but Ekan takes that chance and never hesitates.
I heave an exaggerated, put-upon sigh. “I know I’m not alone when I say Ekan is—”
Behind Beth, I see Ekan strolling in, so I finish, “—the crewmember who doesn’t have the sense the Creator gave a nit, not to mention he’s a massive pain in my ass.”
Undeterred, almost as if he’s well aware of what I sincerely feel, Ekan’s ever-present grin only grows.
Teveking idtr
ek. But after he let Beth come to me last night, I’m feeling pretty cog-damned decent towards him. If I’d known he wanted Vera in trade for Beth, I’d have hand-delivered Vera and happily escorted Beth straight to my door. It’s a good thing one of the others didn’t happen upon her on her way to my room—these jacklegs would have tried to keep her for themselves instead. Thieves, all these ‘vekers!
“Enjoy your night?” Ekan asks with a knowing smile.
I won’t even begrudge him this. I drape my arm around Beth’s shoulders. “Best night of my lifespan.” If I’m not mistaken, Beth’s full-body blush is going to burn my skin, and I don’t mind. I raise plants that treat burns. “How was Vera?”
Ekan’s gaze drops to Beth, and a salacious smirk the likes I’ve never seen takes over his face. “Oh, Vera was phenomenal. I’ve never had such a fine performance.”
“That’s sad,” I say.
His grin widens, staring right at Beth until she slaps her hands over her hot face, only making him grin wider. “No, it wasn’t.”
I hug Beth tighter and draw her body back enough that she’s got no choice but to see me. I know when she does too, because she moans through her fingers, snickering. Sucking back my laughter, I start seriously, “I don’t mean to embarrass you worse, narra, but I’m afraid this sorry sap has actually made me curious. What did you do to earn such a high rating? You see, I’ve reason to know Vera, so satisfy my inquiring mind—what magic are you capable of?” I bend down enough to drag my cheek over her hair. “Or, I should say, what other magic are you capable of? I certainly got the sweetest taste last night, when you worked yours on me.”
“Poor Vera,” Beth chuckles, without true concern. “No one appreciates her.”
“Vera’s not bad,” Ekan is quick to say. “But Vera’s not you.”
“Good answer,” I say.
Ekan bows. “Thank you, thank you.”
Beth eyes the addlepate. “I think, personality wise, he’s starting to settle down,” she informs me sympathetically, like we’ve adopted a doltish, wayward pet and we’re finally seeing improvement.