by Pearl Foxx
“Tell me.”
Zayd wanted to bury it down inside, stuff it beneath the surface so he could carry on the way he had for the last five years as if nothing had happened. But when she asked again, he couldn’t deny her. He knew he could never refuse any request she asked of him.
“Sotu’s death was my fault.” His mind flooded with images of their last flight together, the battle they’d waged, the Draqon who had flown off course, and the harrowing fall Sotu had taken. All because he’d been unable to maintain control. He looked into Niva’s eyes and watched as she relived his memories of the girl he’d loved since childhood, who he’d mated with too young and against the advice of the elders, and who had died because of his foolishness.
She gasped as he remembered watching his mate fall through the fire and acid he had spit upon the enemy. And when he dove through his own flames to rescue Sotu, she touched her cheek as if feeling his skin melting away.
When he remembered her body shattering across the stone ground, Niva dropped her hands, tears spilling over her eyes, and the ache in his chest doubled as he felt not only the loss of Sotu, but Niva’s judgment too.
“Zayd,” she breathed out. “I’m so sorry.” She reached back toward him with no hesitation. She pulled him tight and cried. She wept the tears he had never shed—that he never would. And as she cried against him, he wrapped his arms around her waist, nuzzling into her neck and feeling her acceptance and forgiveness.
Not judgment. She would never judge him.
“You couldn’t have stopped that. Nothing you did could have stopped it,” she said as she stroked the back of his neck.
Zayd took a strangled breath. “Most of me knows that. But if she had been my mate, my true mate, she wouldn’t have fallen.”
Niva tilted her head back, looking up at him in confusion. Her green eyes were backlit with a deep understanding, but she needed to hear the words.
“Sotu and I were in love. And we were mated. But a true mate, a mate whose soul is bound to another’s completely, would’ve never fallen. It’s one of the reasons why an unmated pair flying together is so dangerous. They can’t communicate, and they don’t fly as one.”
Niva’s eyebrows drew together. “With Maxsym, I couldn’t anticipate his movements. I couldn’t adjust to his flight the way I did with you. He was erratic, and nothing I did could calm him. It felt completely out of control. It was completely unlike when we flew together.”
Zayd nodded, easily picturing her memories of the flight from their connection. “If a pair’s love is strong enough, sometimes they can cross that bridge. For most pairs, that’s enough to fly into battle safely. The connection isn’t as strong, but the love they share can keep them focused.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to say the words, to tell her the truth. “But when an unmated male rides with a female mated to another, his mind rejects the rider, and it can drive him insane.”
“What happened with Maxsym was my fault?” Niva asked. “I’m not mated to anyone. I’m not…” She met Zayd’s eyes again, and he felt as her understanding began to dawn.
“I knew when we flew together,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want it to be true. Draqons only mate once in a lifetime. And if you’re my true mate, it means Sotu never was. It means that we were never bonded deeply enough for me to have saved her, no matter what I did. It means her death was my fault.”
“You are insufferable,” Niva huffed with exasperation as she walked away from Zayd and poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher on his table. She took a drink and set it back down before turning to him, her gaze sharp and insightful. “You’re so insistent on making everything your fault. Maybe there’s nothing you could have done about Sotu. Maybe you were in love, and you were young, and sometimes that feels like the most important thing in the world. How could you have possibly known anything else?”
She pulled out the tangled strip of leather that had been holding back her hair, letting it cascade down her back. Running a hand through the wind-swept ends, she turned away and continued speaking without looking at him. “And if you knew I was your mate when we flew, why didn’t you say anything? I came in here just yesterday asking you to talk to me about whatever was going on between us, and you said nothing.”
He couldn’t speak. He had no excuse. He should’ve said something. It was cowardly to have avoided the conversation for so long. He put them both in harm’s way all because of his guilt.
“I said a few things.” He smirked, remembering their kiss and the way her body had felt pressed against him.
“Don’t flirt with me. I’m mad at you,” Niva said, color rising up her neck and giving her dark skin a reddish glow.
“You’re right, I should’ve said something. I was going to say something.” He implored her to believe the truth of his words. “I didn’t imagine you would fly with someone else. It didn’t even cross my mind as a possibility. I felt the moment you climbed onto his back, and it was like having part of myself ripped away, like someone had dug out an internal organ with their nails. And then your fear…” His body trembled as he remembered the panic that had rushed through his veins along with the image of her falling from the sky and crashing to the ground.
“So,” she began, her voice hesitant. “What does this mean?”
He made certain his voice was steady before he said, “This is something important, you said so yourself. You’re the only rider I can ever take. Probably the only one I ever should have taken.”
Niva rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Why do you make everything so hard?” she begged before pressing her lips to his.
The kiss was simple and sweet, something tender after the past few years of horror. Zayd pulled her small body against him, lifting her up so he could run his nose along her cheek and down her neck. He set tiny kisses along her jawline and made his way down to her collarbone, where he licked and nibbled, sending shudders of pleasure through her body. She wrapped her legs around his waist and brushed his hair from his face, fisting it and pulling his head back.
“If I’m your rider, then you have to be my Draqon,” she said, and a swelling of peace rose within him.
“Yes.”
Without another word, she kissed him, pulling his lower lip into her mouth. She nibbled on it, sending a groan through his body that would have sent him careening to the ground if he hadn’t been carrying her, desperate to make his way to his bed.
When he got there, he set her down and crawled over her body, pushing her long hair away from her face and tracing the lines of her beautiful features with his fingers. He kissed her again, and their tongues danced together. They no longer explored as if hungry and desperate like their stolen moment on the rocky cliff. Instead, this was a kiss of homecoming. A moment of ecstasy as two halves of a whole came together.
Zayd slid his hands under her halter top and pulled it up, exposing her pert brown breasts. She sat up against him as he whisked it off over her head before lowering his lips to her perfect mound. He sucked a nipple into his mouth, and she exhaled in a rush. Her skin came alive under his fingertips. And every place he touched her, his own body tingled.
As they rolled together on the large bed, chest to chest, their hands and mouths exploring each other’s bodies, their connection overwhelmed him, and when Niva slipped a hand inside his leathers to grip his cock, he reeled back in pleasure.
She pumped him, gripping his erection tightly, rolling the foreskin with her thumb, and pulling his skin along the steel rod within. He ached with the need to be inside her, the painful drive to take her spinning wildly through his mind. He pulled away and grabbed at her pants, jerking them off her hips and legs.
Niva laughed, a sound of pure joy that calmed his heart and soothed his desperation. “You don’t need to rush.” She lounged against the pile of pillows at the head of his bed. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She reached out with both arms, inviting him to share the bed, to share her body, to
share her life.
He made short order of removing his leathers before climbing back onto the bed and situating himself between her legs. He ground up against her, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, running her hands up and down his back. His scales trembled with pleasure. She kissed her way over his shoulder, placing her lips against their brightly hued tips.
“They don’t bother you?” he asked, curious as to how a human saw his Draqon self.
“They’re beautiful.” She ran her fingertips across his shoulder and down his arm, making the scales tremble. “They’re so sensitive. You’d think they would be hard or sharp, but they feel more like feathers than scales. I just want to touch all of you.”
She shifted her hips, rolling them over so that she straddled his lap. She moved softly, her slick center sliding along his hardness. She threw her head back, long black hair tumbling down her back like a waterfall as she lost herself in the feeling of their bodies moving together.
Zayd placed his hands on her hips and pushed up against her, eliciting a cry of pleasure as his cock ground up against her clit.
Niva leaned forward, placing her hands on his shoulders and holding him still. She kissed him, undulating her hips, moving her body against his in an erotic dance that would never lead to the fulfillment he longed for.
He groaned, tightening his grip on her hips and moving his hands down to grasp her thighs. He panted against her mouth as she hovered above him.
“Are you trying to kill me?” he pleaded, trying to maneuver his body into position so he could enter her.
“Is it working?” She smiled with a glint of the devil before lifting her hips up, allowing his cock to spring upright before lowering herself onto him and pulling him inside her fully.
She cried out and sat up, widening her knees so her body sank deeper against his hips. For a moment, they were perfectly positioned. Zayd couldn’t imagine a single thing in the world more right or beautiful than her face as she began to move, taking pleasure from his body. She twisted her hips, moving up and down slowly at first before building to a frantic pace.
He gripped her waist and thrust his hips up to meet each movement, slamming his cock deep inside her.
She moaned and placed a hand on his chest. Pulling one of her knees up next to his side as leverage, she increased her pace and rode him with abandon. Her eyes glazed over, lost in the pursuit of her own release.
Zayd gasped, panting as he tried to hold back. He wanted to watch her for as long as he could, letting her take the lead, the way a true rider would. His body longed to flip them over and hold her tight against him, to pound himself deep inside her until they both screamed in ecstasy.
But he held back, letting her drive them further into passion. No matter how many times he’d had sex before, he realized this was the first time he’d ever felt so wholly owned. His body pulsed with his impending orgasm and sparks flew across his vision. He reached up and grabbed her neck, pulling her down against him.
They kissed frantically with a hunger that consumed him. Their mouths and hips moved together until they were one creature, one body vibrating apart into stardust.
When she came, he swallowed her scream in his mouth. He thrust into her, hard and frantic. Her core clamped down around his cock, and he spiraled out of control with his own orgasm.
They panted, arms and legs haphazardly wrapped around each other, but unable to stop the tiny kisses they spread over each other’s lips and faces.
“I have to say, I really do enjoy riding you.” Niva giggled, sending shivers across his skin.
He shot her a grin. “And I think you’re spending too much time with Maxsym.”
“We’ve already been over this. I’m never going to ride anyone but you ever again.”
At her words, his cock stirred again. This time, he flipped her over onto her back, rising above her as she laughed.
“Prove it,” he growled.
Chapter Seventeen
Niva
Niva laid comfortably on her side, waking slowly as Zayd’s hand caressed her hip. His fingertips roamed along her skin, light touches trailing from shoulder to waist to hip and then back again. The motion was soothing and made her think of summer days spent lying in the sun with nothing to do as a child. But she was no longer a child, and his touch inspired a growing desire within her womanly body.
She stretched languidly and rolled slightly onto her back. When he pulled his hand away, she kept her eyes closed and wiggled, encouraging him to continue his exploration of her flesh.
With a chuckle, he placed his hand on her belly and traced circles, spiraling out from her navel.
“So, you like to be pet?” Zayd’s voice hummed low with the gravelly scratch of early morning.
“Hmm.” Niva shifted her hips and rolled closer, her eyes still closed.
His hand made its way slowly up her body, tracing invisible patterns only he could see until he reached her breasts. There, instead of feathery touches, the palm of his large hand massaged her sensitive mounds.
“Are you going to sleep through me making love to you this morning?”
“Maybe,” Niva whispered, a crooked smile on her lips.
“I wonder if there’s anything I can do to convince you to open your eyes for me.” His voice was close, and his breath tickled the back of her neck. He placed kisses along the muscle connecting her neck to her shoulder, trailing down until he found her waiting nipple.
Niva arched up into him and moaned, loving the warmth of his greedy mouth as he sucked on her breast, his hand kneading the other.
“I don’t think that’s going to wake me up all the way.” She shimmied her hips against his naked body, his hard morning cock pressed against her thigh. She moved her legs, giving him something to rub against until his need for her grew into a fiery rod.
He moved up her body, licking and kissing his way until he reached her lips.
“You’re going to keep those eyes closed?”
Niva nodded with a goofy smile.
“I wouldn’t have guessed you for one who liked playing games.” Zayd moved his mouth back down her body, his tongue running slowly from her breasts down her middle until he reached her waist. His hands gripped her hip bones as his tongue danced around her navel, dipping in before licking his way lower. When he reached the top of her soft curly hair, he used his hands to spread her thighs.
Niva moaned in anticipation, rolling her head to the side and stretching her hands above her head.
“You’re like a lazy Katu sleeping on one of the rocks looking out over the sea.” Zayd kissed behind her knee, sending shivers through Niva’s body before making his way slowly up the inside of her thigh. He kissed and sucked, nibbled and licked. When he reached her entrance, he passed it over, trailing his hot breath against her growing need. Instead, he lavished his attention on the crease between her thigh and hip, sucking and nibbling on her hipbone.
“Zayd,” Niva moaned. His name fell from her mouth easily like it was always meant to be whispered in desire. The long sound of her moan stretched out his name until it became a plea.
“Are you going to open your eyes?”
Niva shook her head, her smile growing wider.
“What if I do this?” Zayd placed his tongue on top of her pussy and moved it deftly through the slit of her folds in long, delicious movements.
Niva shivered, lifting her hips up toward his mouth, begging for more.
“Would that convince you to open your eyes?”
“Maybe.”
Zayd chuckled again, his breath a hot staccato against her throbbing core. He dipped his mouth, breathing against her as his tongue opened her folds. He slowly licked from her opening to the top of her slit, where the bundle of nerves that cried out desperately to be touched lived. When he reached it, he placed his tongue flat against her clit without moving. The soft pressure, hot and warm, drove Niva insane.
She threw her head back and pushed her hips up, but his hold on her ke
pt her still. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders, writhing and thrusting. The longer his heated mouth lay against her, the more frenzied she became. When she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, he pressed harder and flicked at her clit with the tip of his tongue.
Niva screamed, sitting up, her entire body shuddering as her orgasm began but remained incomplete. She hovered on the edge, desperately on the precipice of ecstasy.
From between her legs, Zayd looked up, his stubble brushing along her oversensitive pussy. “Your eyes are open.”
Niva laughed and fell back on the feather-stuffed pillows. “They’re open, and you win. You win everything. Just please don’t stop.” She panted with desire, and her hips moved without her direction.
At her plea, Zayd dove back in, his tongue and lips massaging her wet folds until she jerked against him, her screams mounting in intensity.
She felt his chuckling breath at her abandoned enjoyment, but she couldn’t care. She reached down and dug her nails into his shoulders as her body condensed only to the place where his tongue met her most intimate spot, and the world exploded into flashes of bright light, sending electric shocks through her entire existence.
She fell back, exhausted and sated.
Zayd moved up next to her and pulled her tightly into his arms.
She wiped his mouth with her hand, loving the lingering smell of her desire.
“Are you awake now?” Zayd asked, nuzzling into her neck, a habit he’d develop over the last twelve hours now that he had finally allowed himself to relax around her.
“I think that could officially be the best way to wake up in the entire universe. I speak from experience, seeing as how I have lived on two planets and one space station. As the intergalactic expert, I declare this to be the best way to wake up.” Niva sprawled next to him, arms and legs languid and relaxed.
“I’ll have to remember that,” he said, his hands still roaming over her body, sending aftershocks of pleasure through her.