by Stephan Knox
“Oh, by Destiny, that helps,” he groveled. He released the hide twisted up in his fists and moved his arms over his head. His heavy breaths becoming steady and the tension slowly began to leave him. “Harder,” he urged.
The stimulation was working. By massaging his back, Tannin’s sym released a flood of endorphins that would finally abate some of the pain. And she hoped it would be enough, so he could rest. She adjusted her weight on her knees, so she could lean over him more and slowly worked at the muscles of his back and along his spine, adding more and more pressure as she went, yet careful to avoid the recent bullet wound in the side of his shoulder.
As she did so for him, she also began to feel a strange wave of pleasure herself. The connection she had missed between her and another Symbiote.
~~ Their touch was different. Comforting like no other touch. ~~
Her fingers stroked over rolls of tempered muscle and heated flesh. His back soaked from the outbreak of sweat, made his skin feel like wet velvet. She knew what velvet was, because her former roommate, Axey, had a dress made of it and Aari had often spent nights just touching it when her roommate wasn’t home. Where Axey had gotten it, Aari had no idea, but it likely had been a gift from one of her many lovers.
Aari spread her fingers out wider, working over more of Tannin’s back and along his sides now. Taking in the details of his body as she did so. Tannin was as big as any man she had ever seen, not just by height, but in the way of muscles too. He reminded her of the stories of great Titan warriors that fought together to prevent the warlords from taking over. The Skaddary men called them barbarians, the women simply dreamed of them like they were lovers. Tannin looked like one of those barbarian Titan dreams— beautiful lines and perfect curves. She could trace the path of every one of his muscles with her fingers. She felt his breath, like a mountain breathing under her palms, and before long, she felt the slight shiver of his Symbiotai just under the skin as it began to purr for her.
The sensation made her smile. For once— perhaps for the first time since the destruction of the temple, she felt happiness come from a sym.
She continued that way, rubbing his back and shoulders, for the same time it took four logs to burn in the fire until finally Tannin was sound asleep, snoring like a hibernating bear, right alongside of his purring sym.
Exhausted herself, Aari laid down beside him, pulling the woven blanket over her to keep out the night air, letting the immense heat radiating from Tannin’s body warm her. She laid her head on her arm, still stroking his back with the soft caresses of her fingertips. The longer she did this, the longer he would be able to rest until the next wave. But for now, his sym would sleep.
GROWING PAINS
Aari drifted in and out of sleep. Not truly wanting to wake. She felt utterly surrounded in blissful safety. Like she was wrapped up in a warm cocoon. The beating of a heart thumped against her ear, and warm strokes of air kissed the side of her neck. She could stay here forever and never go back to the real world— a hungry gargling sound coming from her stomach, erupting her sleepy thoughts— if it weren’t for that, she thought glumly.
The sound of her grumbling stomach was echoed by a chuckle in her ear.
Aari’s eyes shot open, her vision eclipsed by the massive male body that was wrapped over and around her. Tannin was her cocoon.
“Good morning.” Warm words caressed her cheek.
Aari let out a yelp, thrusting her hand forward against Tannin’s chest in a futile attempt to push him off. He didn’t budge.
“Ow.” Tannin wiggled a finger in his ear, his head raising up to give her a puzzled look. His eyes glimmering as bright as the first time she had seen them when he was looking up at her in his cell.
“What are you doing? Get off of me.” She pouted forcibly, before she was enslaved by his eyes.
“What are you talking about? You’re on my bed.” He shot her a wry grin.
“I was only trying to ease your pain,” he defended.
Tannin’s hand grasped the side of her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb, “And how does that work exactly?”
The new influences of arousal already clearly charming his features. They certainly seemed to dope his usual demeanor and very likely his libido. “I don’t know, it just does.” Aari squirmed, trying to find some way to wriggle out from underneath him. It was the last place she wanted to be if she was about to get suckered into talking about Symbiote-masturbation. Tannin didn’t look all too concerned that she might succeed.
“Well it worked, and I want to thank you.”
“Great, you’re welcome. Now, let me go.” She kicked out a leg, trying to create some kind of ballast of weight to roll herself away from the love-sick expression he was ogling her with.
Tannin’s hand shifted so fast that by the time she interpreted the movement it was too late, and her wrists were locked in his hands over her head. Aari’s eye grew wide, “No, don’t do this.”
“Relax, I only want to kiss you.” But when his mouth came over hers, to silence the protest she was certain to have for that, what his lips delivered was anything but just a kiss. His lips sucked in a ravaging need against hers. His tongue slipping out, dragging across her lips, tempting, then pushing their way inside her mouth, and once in, the kiss became pure molestation. Devouring her.
Every nerve ending in her body lit up and tingled in revolving waves. She instantly felt like she was tumbling in a swirl of overwhelming pleasure. It was exquisite and wondrous. And— and— swooning— she was lifting off into unknown territory, hoping and wanting that he would not drop her off any time soon.
Tannin shifted her wrists to one hand so the other could slip under her neck and lifted her head. To just the right angle that let him all the way in. She found her tongue tangled against his in a warm caress as he hooked it, drawing her into his own mouth and suckled over it before releasing it to lick the inside of her mouth, and against her lips again. She didn’t know how to do this and could only let him lead and steer her into the dance of his kiss.
Her head swarmed, and she felt her body melt with each pulse of her beating heart. A whimper tried to escape, but Tannin ate it before releasing her mouth long enough, so they could both catch their breath. His head fell against hers, gasping as his hand released her neck and drifted southward along her body. A thumb grazed the side of her breast then down over her hips until his hand clasped around her thigh and pulled her leg up to wrap around his hips. “Drenn,” he gasped just as he came back up to take her mouth once more.
The fierce strength of his strong hand held her leg and hip against him while his kiss continued to probe her mouth. And then her whole body lit up with a flash of violet energy when Tannin’s hips rolled up, grinding the growing hardness of his manhood against her. Aari let out a harsh groan that not even the likes of Tannin could keep contained between them.
He wrenched himself from her lips, letting out ragged gasps of breathlessness. “I better stop while I still can,” he growled playfully.
“Yes, you need to stop.” Aari struggled to regain a steady breath of her own.
His head lifting to reveal a quizzical expression. “Are you going to say you didn’t enjoy that?”
“No.” She wriggled out from under him. “I’m going to tell you you’re not ready.”
“Not ready? The hell I’m not. I’m waiting on you.” He moved in to kiss her again, but Aari twisted her face away from him.
“I mean, you shouldn’t be doing anything until after your sym is finished growing. Or it won’t just be the pain that becomes too great, you will damage each other.” She really hoped he didn’t ask her what she meant, because she wasn’t quite sure. Nor did she know how she knew such a thing— she just did.
“You mean, it gets worse?” He leaned in, kissing her jaw line and then collapsed into her neck.
Aari’s eyes shifted away. She had spent the last days of her growth submerged in the temple’s p
ool. She had been spared any further agony, so she didn’t know just how bad it was going to get. “I fear it could,” she whispered.
Two more days passed and like Aari said, the pain grew worse.
Each night, Aari tended to him, massaging his back with the touch that appeased the needs of his Symbiotai and eased the pain of their transformation. On the seventh day, his sym’s growth and repositioning had completed the journey. Unseen long tendril, like nerve endings now stretched out the length of Tannin’s body, so it too, could be part of the union it was anticipating, where it then fused into Tannin’s body permanently. The transformation marked by faint lines of faded color in the skin, starting from his spine, around his hips and into the softer skin of his groin, like a design of wavy lines. Markings he discovered when bathing in the pool of water to help break the last of the fever in his back.
That aftnoon was warmer than usual and they both wandered out of the sectioned off space and down to the pond for a much-needed bath and to launder their clothes.
Aari was stretched out of a bed of soft grass she had laid over to suit her. The high sun beaming through the open ceiling, drying her and the wet tunic she still wore while she watched Tannin still wading in the hip-deep water of the pool. Now, the muscle show was displayed in his back as he swished his tunic through the water again for a thorough rinse, then back to wringing it out.
Sparrows flew overhead chattering loudly as they dove after bugs. A nearby tree rodent squealed off a predator alarm until it sufficed they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and it went back to chewing on the tree’s bark.
But Aari was preoccupied only by him. She studied him in silent observation, trying to determine if somehow his body looked different after the growth of his Symbiotai. Did his muscles seem more solidified? Or his skin more tan? When he turned to look at her, would his blue eyes seem bluer or lighter? Her mouth watered, watching as his arms flexed while wringing his tunic dry. Surely, he would not get any better looking than he already was. Watching him now was hard enough.
“I think when this is over you should let me massage your back.” Tannin’s voice was a soft invitation and the deep cadence of it, roughened by his own nameless emotions, skittered over her nerve endings, raising her flesh to dance and awaken the nerve cells in her spine, making her shiver in waves. “Though, I don’t know if I can trust myself to stop at just your back. Once I start touching you, I’m going to want to touch every part of your body.” He looked over his shoulder at her after he spread his freshly washed clothes over a tangle of branches of an overhanging bush, catching her gaze lapping at his skin. A grin broke over his face just then, “You know, if you want me underdressed just say so. I can make it much more enjoyable for your eyes.”
Aari at once was shaking her head, “I— I didn’t say—” she fell speechless, utterly caught by his body, watching as he stepped out, and the water spilled from his skin like liquid lust.
Tannin laughed. A fun jolly type that tossed his head back with a friendly chuckle, “You didn’t have to.” And without another word, he untied his trousers and let them slide off his hips to pool around his ankles.
Aari’s eyes widened, to say nothing of her mouth’s open position. In a sense of shock, she shot her gaze up to his smiling face then back down at the naked body of a titan offered up for her eyes. With all his astounding size, Tannin was as much size proportionate. Even soft, his package was thick, and it hung down low against his thigh. By drenn, she knew full well she shouldn’t be looking. Doing so was inviting trouble, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from him. Especially when he’d been such a good sport about everything else. She had slept safely blanketed by his body night after night. As if his sole destiny in life was to act like a human cave over her as she slept. Now he was going to let her have all the looking she wanted? She chewed longingly on her bottom lip, eyes flickering up occasionally at his, only to blush and look away again.
Tannin, as always, took the initiative of her encounter and stepped it up a notch when he dropped down, stretching out in the grass next to her. His hands purposely tucking behind his head, offering himself up to be touched without the threat of being touched back. “I swear it, I won’t touch. But you can do whatever you like.”
The suggestion amongst threatened to shut down ever gear in her brain. She had never. She wanted to. Wanted to know what men looked like outside of the books. What they felt like. But who had ever heard of a man letting a woman touch without having to go through with the rest of it. She was inexperienced, not naive. Nor was she without desire.
Her body’s needs had been ripening all throughout Tannin’s Symbiote evolution; the back rubs she gave him only stimulated her yearning more. Now here she was, being offered to touch a man in a way she had never been allowed to risk, and she found herself unable to resist. Perhaps it was another step to lessening the fear that gripped her. But in truth she just wanted to touch for once.
Aari rolled up to her knees, she hesitated a moment with one last click of uncertainty, then gave in. The first touch she took was letting her hands drift over his chest. His smile melted at her immediate touch, a slight roll of his lips told her he was respondent to her; perhaps more so than even he expected. And she had to wonder if his self-control would be tested by it. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to withdraw just yet.
Where her eyes went, so did her hands. Warm rolls of muscle like rock and iron ore under a soft blanket of smooth skin. The faint pelt of nano-scopic hairs on his skin caused by the predatory cells from his sym gave him the velvety smoothness that she liked so much. And when she felt the faint purr deep in his chest, it only added to the sensation his body gave over to her fingertips.
“Have you ever touched a man before, Aari?”
Aari’s gaze shot up to his. Despite Tannin’s best efforts, his need and desire shone on his face where she could see them. Her head jerked as she shook her answer for him. Tannin brought an arm free, lowering down to take her hand, and pushed it down to his growing shaft. Using her fingers, he stroked himself, and stirred the blood to gather in his cock.
She heard the deep groan in his chest that overtook the purring.
“Keep touching it,” he whispered. His eyes closed, drifting deep into the pleasure, while his hand fell away.
“Does it feel different than before?” Aari asked softly.
“Everything with you feels different,” he groaned, his head pushing back while he sucked in deeply. His chest rose and fell as her fingers attempted to coil around the stiff flesh and continued to glide up and down its length a few times the way his hand had instructed her. She moved her fingers down around his drawn-up scrotum and back, then traced over the wavy-line markings made by his sym’s new position. Tannin let out a hiss as her fingertips traced the lines with a sybaritic touch.
She couldn’t resist returning to his chest though, and to the dark circles of his nipples. She circled one of them with a grazing finger and then followed the trail of dark hairs that dusted down the center of his belly and returning to the base of his erection.
Tannin let out a soft gasp of air, the riveted muscles of his chest twitched with the passing of her fingers. She loved how they accentuated the quivers in his lower abs, as if making his strength all the more tangible because of them. But she had seen him in action now. There was no doubting his strength or his prowess. And there was no denying how every little feature of his body added to what she knew of him.
She began stroking him with both hands; he was beautiful yet foreboding in his girth and length. How would it feel as he pushed through her tiny opening, inside her untouched body? For he would eventually, just as he assured her she would eventually agree to their union. The thought was unsettling, given the size of him, but this moment was about his offering his body to her and nothing more. So she allowed her mind to ponder and play with not too much fear for her future. She would have plenty of that later.
She switched her hands out
— one working down to his base while the other capped over the red flanged head. She used her fingertips to trace the rim. Tannin hissed. His lips rolling in, sucking in another deep breath only to be lost again with the next slow, excruciating caress of her hands coiled around his hard shaft.
Tannin thrust his hips up, supplementing her unfinessed movements. Still, for all that she lacked in skill, he found himself in the dilemma of keeping his promise. An unfathomable need to rut battled against the dainty touching of her hand and burning to take over. It had been an adjustment to the mating drive of his sym when he first accepted it into his body; however now, it was far stronger. The very contact of her hand on his skin was exclusive, but carnal lust was winning out inside him, and he needed much more to sate the lust in his body. An urgency that was roaring in his body and veins to be answered. Blood rushed in his ears, causing a drumming sound with each heartbeat. He couldn’t hold out any longer. Her light strokes were not enough. He needed relief. He dropped his hand to his cock and stroked it with a full pistoning stroke from base to tip. Over and over, his grip twisting with each pumping movement over his shaft.
A sudden growl cut past gritted teeth and he pressed his head back while his legs and torso locked into a violent shudder, “By Destiny— ahhh— oh drenn.” Tannin tossed his head, his hand faster but the pending orgasm rose painfully in his body, as though the tendrils of his sym were tearing at his flesh once again. “Ohhhhh, fucking drenn—” he cried out, “Aari— I—” his body contorted, “—n-need you.”
Aari knew her hands couldn’t keep the pace of his, but she could add to his sensation by touching the sensitive areas of combined nerves between him and his sym’s newly stretched out tendrils.
“Please— ahh, drenn,” he gasped out a plea, caught in the web of need for release and the pain it was causing.