“Not your mate and not shy.” She lightly pushed him away, slipping away to retrieve her partially dried clothes. “We just don’t need to advertise what we’re doing. Some things are private.”
“I believe it is best to assume everyone knows.” He took the damp clothes away and wrapped her in a large towel. Tenderly, he tucked the ends in, securing it.
“They don’t know for sure.”
He huffed but did not argue.
A blush rose to her cheeks. Everyone knew. Of course they knew. She and Talen had been eye-fucking each other since she arrived on Corra and he hadn’t been subtle when he told everyone to leave.
She needed to say something. Anything. He was about two seconds from asking her why she blushed, and then she’d stammer out something about this not being a big deal, how it was just sex with no strings, and she’d try to sound convincing even though it would the first time she had sex in over a year and with the only person besides Kevin, so it was a big deal and she refused to freak out.
“The floor is cold,” she said as a weak excuse, shifting from one bare foot to the other.
Gathering up their boots and clothes, his tail wrapped around her wrist and he led her up the stairs.
* * *
Talen
* * *
With the taste of her on his tongue and tantalizing glimpses of her ass peeking out from the towel as she climbed the stairs, Talen would follow his mate to the blackest reaches of deep space and back. The moment they crossed the threshold to her room, he pushed her to the bed. Their clothes lay in a discarded heap on the floor and he couldn’t care less. His mate lifted her hips, presenting her swollen pink cunt to him.
“So perfect,” he said, carefully stroking the globes of her ass. His fingertips itched and burned as his claws demanded to extend. If he was not careful, he would shred his mate’s delicate skin.
“Talen,” she mewled.
He retrieved the claw caps from his nightstand and divested himself of his remaining clothes. Georgia twisted on the bed, watching him as he opened the container. He had hoped to be able to control his reflex to claw, but he did not want to hurt her. He’d happily take a decrease in sensitivity to spare her pain.
“Let me,” she said. Slowly and deliberately, she licked the length of his fingers before placing the caps.
“Your lips will look so pretty around my cock,” he said.
She hummed happily as she finished both hands. He flexed his fingers. “How do they feel?”
“Odd, but not as odd as I expected.” The flexible material warmed to the shape of his body. He would grow used to the sensation in time.
“You’ve never used the caps before? I’m your first human?” She smiled, pleased with herself, and Talen had to confess that the smugness charmed him.
He leaned forward, pushing her back onto the bed, and planted a hand on either side of her. He loomed over her; a hunter fixed on his mark. She licked her kiss-swollen lips. “My mate. My only human,” he said.
“I’m not your mate,” she replied softly.
“But you are my human.”
“Yes.” No hesitation. No denial.
His.
Happiness rumbled in his chest. Enough talk. He flipped her over, stomach down, and climbed onto the bed. His thighs straddled her, and he gripped her ass cheeks, parting enough to push into her warm cunt. He held onto the generous curves of her bottom, pulling her toward him, and he pushed forward.
She bit her lip, trying to hold back her moans even as she lifted her hips with every thrust. He lost his rhythm and fell forward, hands on either side of her, caging her in. With the new angle, he hit the perfect spot. Her moans became outright cries of ecstasy.
His mate. No matter what she said, he claimed her.
He leaned forward; mouth pressed to the shell of her ear. “You feel so good on my cock,” he said. “Tight. Made for me, my lovely human.”
Her entire body shivered at his words and her cunt gripped him tighter. She pulsed around him, squeezing, as she found her climax.
An electric spark coiled at the base of his spine, signaling his own release. With a growl, he pumped deep into her. The feral part of his mind wanted to coat her womb with his seed, to plant a kit in her, sink his claws in and mark his mate. His fingers flexed, digging into her soft, yielding flesh.
No doubt his civilized self would have some pangs of guilt about the bruises tomorrow. A male his size needed to be careful, to be mindful of how he touched his mate, but for the moment he was inordinately pleased. He wanted her to feel him tomorrow, to remember how he possessed her and made her come undone.
As their bodies cooled, sated and relaxed, he held in his arms. His tail curled possessively around her ankle, desperate for any bit of contact.
His human.
His mate.
His heart.
* * *
Georgia
* * *
Talen rubbed his hand up and down her arm, unable to get enough of her. “Why did you come?”
“Angle and position, I imagine. Technique had something to do with it. Plenty of clit stimulation, so thank you for that. Good job. I rate this a satisfactory experience.”
He rolled onto his back, huffing with amusement. Yeah, she knew he meant why did she come to Corra, but found it too hard to give an honest answer when he looked at her with those puppy dog eyes. Wrong turn of phrase. Kitty cat eyes? No. Bedroom eyes, yes. Heavy and hooded and sparking with desire. Eyes that made her brain short circuit and forget the question.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s easier when you’re not looking at me.”
“Yes. I find myself inspecting the floor or the ceiling often in your presence.” He gave a gentle nudge to indicate no hard feelings.
“It’s not that you’re too good-looking, but you're too good-looking,” she started.
“Much obliged. I often worry if I’m too attractive,” he said dryly. Then, he added in a serious tone, “I’m not Quil.”
“Thank heavens for that.” She twisted her fingers in her hair. “I worry about what people think and if I don’t look at you, then I don’t have to worry about what you’re thinking.”
“Fascinating ceiling. Plaster and wood. There’s a damp spot in the corner. Is that new? I’ll check the attic and see if the roof is leaking,” he said.
They lay side-by-side, nearly touching. Wind gusted around the house and whistled down the chimney, but the warmth of the fire—and the company—drove away thoughts of the storm.
“My mom died of cancer,” she blurted out. “That’s why I came to Corra. I mean, that’s why I signed up for the agency. I thought I had cancer too.” She sighed, taking a moment to calm herself. “My mother died of cervical cancer when I was sixteen. I didn’t have any other family, so I went into foster care.”
She took a breath, gathering her thoughts. “Nothing terrible happened in foster care. You hear stories of bad homes and abusive parents, but the worst that ever happened to me was that I was alone. No one cared.” No extended family, aunts or cousins or even a long-lost grandparent, emerged after her mother’s death. Georgia had to learn to take care of herself because no one else could be bothered. That was probably the birth of her obsessive need for the security that having a life plan provided. She couldn’t blame her sixteen-year-old self for finding the adult world intimidating.
“That is too young to be on your own,” he said.
“A little more than a year ago, I fell ill. More than a year, I guess. Being sick sneaks up on you. When you feel lousy for long enough, that just becomes normal. Anyway, the doctors thought it could be cervical cancer, like my mom.”
“Was it?”
“No. I had polyps, a growth in my uterus, but it wasn’t cancer.” She reached up to toy with the ends of her hair again but paused.
Talen covered her hand with his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“It scared me,” she said. “I want a family. Kids. All that. But I had t
his plan, like a timeline. Then I realized that my mom was only a few years older than me when she died, so maybe I needed to accelerate the timeline.” She glanced at Talen, who kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling. “The worst part is I debated how to tell all this to my boyfriend, the man I thought I was going to marry, when I found him fucking someone else.”
His hand squeezed hers, but he said nothing, allowing her to continue speaking at her own pace.
“Playing it safe didn’t work out for me, so I decided to do something wild. Unexpected. That didn’t work out so great for me, either.”
It brought her to him, she wanted to add, but Georgia held her tongue. It didn’t matter. She wanted casual, she said. She wasn’t staying.
Chapter 10
Georgia
Most sentient life in the known universe can consume the cuisine of other planets with no ill effect, excluding specific allergens. Flavor profiles vary by culture and some spices may not be suitable to everyone’s taste, but any food can be consumed without worry.
-Guidebook to Life on an Alien Planet
* * *
“Stop the car!” Georgia flung the door open and took two steps before barfing up her lunch. A soothing hand rubbed her back. She tried to keep her hair from her mouth, but the wind fought her, and tendrils caught the bile on her lips.
So gross.
Stomach finally empty, Bright handed her a bottle of lukewarm water. She rinsed her mouth, trying to wash out the taste of garlic sausage and stomach acid.
“Better?” the older woman asked, watching her with deep consideration.
Georgia took a deep breath, trying to judge the tenderness of her stomach. “I think so.”
“Are you with kit?”
“What? No.” She climbed back into the vehicle, ignoring the older woman’s concerned gaze as she fastened her seatbelt. “I’m not.”
“The way you’ve been carrying on, it’s a natural assumption.”
“I’ve been carrying on? It’s not just me carrying on, but that doesn’t matter, because the answer is still no.” Like what she and Talen got up to was any of Bright’s damn business. They hadn’t started on a discreet note, with Talen practically ordering everyone out of the kitchen so he could bang her on the table. “Besides, I had the birth control shot before I left Earth. That’s good for two years.”
“This is the second day in a row you’ve been sick,” Bright said.
“I think the sausage I had at the market was spoiled or something. It tasted funny.” She assumed the funky taste was due to the unfamiliar blend of spices, not that the sausage had gone bad. She enjoyed wandering the vendor stalls at the weekly farmer’s market in town. The delicious aromas always brought her to a new favorite and she never hesitated to try new food.
Just remembering the savory, pungent smell of the sausage stand made her stomach turn. She covered her mouth and fought back the urge to gag. “It was a bad sausage. That’s all.”
Bright snorted. “Bad sausage. That’s one way to put it.”
Georgia blinked, unsure if she really heard the older woman, the woman who Talen considered his mother, make a dick joke.
“I’m old, not blind. Or deaf,” Bright said. The afternoon light created a silvery crown out of her white hair.
Georgia blushed. “Can we not talk about this? I’m not pregnant.”
The vehicle shifted into motion. For a moment, her stomach tumbled and she almost begged Bright to pull over again.
Everything stayed put. Stupid actual-sausage-and-a-not-a-crude-dick-joke-sausage.
“A kit would be nice, don’t you think? I miss the sounds of little ones,” Bright said.
She’d be lying if she said that the promise of marriage and kids hadn’t prompted her to change her life and come to Corra, so she kept her mouth shut.
“This is a classic of Tal cinema,” Talen said. He settled against the headboard. He propped up a tablet on a pillow and it projected onto the wall.
A Tal male, dressed in a fussy silk military uniform with very tight pants, stood heroically on a—
“Is that a mountain of skulls?” Georgia settled on the bed next to Talen, dragging a blanket over her.
“Mount Penlo. That’s not accurate, though,” he said.
“It’s a metaphor? The giant mountain of skulls is a metaphor for how kick-butt this guy is?”
“No. The actual Mount Penlo is much larger. Prone to collapsing, though. It’s not the most stable mountain of skulls. That’s what happens when you take no pride in craftsmanship.”
Georgia twisted to face Talen, searching for any sign he was serious. His face remained placid, even sincere. The tail twitch gave him away.
“You’re fucking with me,” she said. “No pride in craftsmanship.”
“Your face! You were looking at me like you thought I lost my mind.” He grinned broadly and she couldn’t help but smile too.
“So, what’s this movie about?”
“It’s based on a historical novel. An innocent female gets lost in a forest on a school trip and is rescued by a notorious rogue and scoundrel.”
“How young are we talking? Because I’m not interested in watching some male fantasy about deflowering virgin schoolgirls. It’s gross.”
“Deflowering? Do humans actually say that?”
“Well, it’s a bit prissy and old-fashioned, but yeah,” she said.
“I never suspected you of being prissy.”
“Shut up. Now, what else happens if Lord Creeper isn’t creeping on underage girls?”
“Lord Avarice—”
She snickered at the name.
“Be quiet. Do not mock my culture,” Talen said.
“No, tell me more about the notorious rogue and scoundrel, Lord Avarice.” She pressed the back of her hands to her cheeks. Her face hurt from smiling.
“Lord Avarice is a gentleman. They meet again in two years’ time.”
“When she’s conveniently a legal adult.”
“Yes, because he is not such a gentleman their second night together.”
“Okay, where does the mountain of skulls come in?” she asked.
“No,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “You will have to watch to find out.”
“Come on.”
“No.”
“Come on…” Her fingers brushed the tip of his tail, which jerked away. He regarded her with a look of scandal on his face.
Oh shit.
She was just playing but went too far. Talen never grabbed her boobs or her ass when he teased, so why would she grab his tail? “Too much? I’m sorry. Was that a bad touch?”
He tossed his head back and laughed. It echoed off the bedroom walls and she was certain the entire house could hear him. “Twice! You are too easy.”
“Are you really sitting in my bed and calling me easy?”
He gestured broadly to the room, subtly implying that the situation did point toward her ease and accessibility.
No one had ever accused Georgia of being easy. Uptight. Frigid. A goody two-shoes. Never easy.
Finally.
She couldn’t wait to tell Freema.
“Okay, start the film. I won’t make fun of it if you actually answer my questions without the bullshit,” she said, adjusting the pillow behind her back as she leaned against the headboard.
Talen placed an arm over her shoulder like it belonged there, like they had cuddled and watched a dozen films. “Deal.”
Talen’s claws dug into the wood paneling. Georgia gave a melting moan, grinding back against his hard cock, not caring that they’d have to repair the damage.
Add it to the list.
“I want you, wife,” he said, practically purring into her ear.
“I’m not your wife,” she protested.
This was their game. He made a statement of what he wanted; she denied it but absolutely wanted the same thing. Talen never took more than she would give.
“And I don’t want you.”
I
want you.
They both knew their marriage license wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Soon the courts would dissolve the farce and they’d go their separate ways. Until then, nothing said that two adults couldn’t have fun together. It was just sex, not love. Amazing sex, yes, but not anything to keep her on this backwater planet.
His hands skimmed down her arms and back, pausing to squeeze her butt. He rucked up her skirt, revealing the lacy boy shorts.
“Get your filthy paws off me,” she said.
Touch me.
“These are very pretty. Did you wear them for me?” That voice, smoother than silk and so deep it reverberated through her body, made her ache. Purr didn’t begin to describe the effect Talen’s voice had on her. She shouldn’t want him this badly. He wasn’t her husband, not really, and these games, while fun, would come to an eventual end. But she couldn’t resist him. She was human, after all.
“They’re not for you.” Only for you.
“I think you wore them for your mate and I think you want your mate to take them off.” His fingers hooked under the waistband, the tips of his claws scratching at her. He had claw caps and had even offered to wear them for her protection, but Georgia enjoyed the scrapes and abrasions of his love marks.
“Don’t, please.” Please, please, please.
He tugged the panties down, exposing her to the cool, damp air. He crouched down and paused, drinking in the sight of her. She practically vibrated with need.
She could remove her hands from the wall. She could push him away and stop the game at any time, but she didn’t want to. She wanted her husband-by-a-technicality to do all the filthy things he promised. Besides, it’s not like they were emotionally invested in each other. This was just sex.
His tail brushed up her inner thigh. She shivered and pushed her ass back, hoping he’d get the idea. What was he waiting for? The corridor wasn’t in a high traffic part of the house but with her luck, someone would blunder down the hall soon and see her with her ass on display.
Pulled by the Tail: Celestial Mates Page 13