by Zoey Draven
And it was. That coupled with Haase’s departure, gone as suddenly as he’d arrived, as was the life of a merchant.
Stella moved around the bar, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night, and decided to put her insomnia to good use. She stacked all the chairs up on the table and pulled out her mop, dirty and grey, but sturdy and dependable. She flooded the soft, wood floors with water and sprinkled over a gritty cleaning powder and then took out her frustrations with the mop.
By the time she was done, she was a little sweaty and flushed but the floors were so clean she could eat off them. Sparkling and fresh. It made her feel a little better, at the very least.
She’d just put her mop away in the cellar closet when she heard the bar door creak open and heavy footsteps tread inside, on her newly clean floors.
A tiny jolt of fear went through her—who was coming in this late and why?—but she had her taser under the bar if necessary. She peeked her head out of the cellar, holding her breath…
Which whooshed out of her when she saw none other than Tavak.
“You scared me,” she breathed, her eyes wide, stepping into the bar from the back cellar. “What are you—are you all right?”
Now that she was looking at him…something seemed a little strange. His expression was the same as it always was: a little dark and broody, his ever-present frown in place on those soft, full lips.
His eyes, however, were swirling. Intensely. There was a rigid set to his shoulders. He was holding himself so…tightly. Like if he didn’t, he would fall apart right in front of her.
“Tavak?” she asked again, stepping towards him hesitantly.
When those eyes settled on her, she stilled. For a moment, she had the brief, ridiculous thought that this wasn’t Tavak. That it was a stranger in his body.
But then, those cold eyes seemed to thaw a bit as he looked at her and Stella relaxed.
“I was worried about you,” she murmured softly. “What happened earlier?”
Those pupils dilated. Stella froze, holding her breath, when he ran them up and down her body, lingering on her hips, her breasts, her lips, which parted under his perusal. A sound, one she’d never heard before, emerged from his throat, like a soft growl.
Then he was striding towards her and Stella unconsciously backed up, bewildered, until her back was up against the cellar door. It swung and she almost stumbled, almost fell on her ass on the cool, dark floor, but Tavak was there. He reached out to snag her waist, his arm hard and unyielding around her.
Then he was walking them forward.
“T-Tavak?” Stella whispered.
His head dipped, tracing a line up her throat, inhaling sharply.
Stella’s lips dropped open, goosebumps exploding across her flesh, and just like that, having him near, feeling his warmth and bulk against her, made heat flood between her legs.
“So vauking sensitive, pax?” Tavak growled in her ear, no doubt scenting her sudden and intense arousal.
A sharp gasp escaped her when he backed her into the cellar wall, the one next to the staircase that led up to her room.
Stella was reeling. What was happening?
“Tavak, what…ohh,” she murmured, her eyes sliding closed when his hands gripped her hips hard, as she felt the slide of his full lips drift across the column of her throat. Right over her jugular where he could no doubt feel the throbbing of her heartbeat.
Is this…is this real? she thought hysterically. Or maybe she had fallen asleep after all and this was just another of her dreams about Tavak. He plagued them regularly and she often woke from them hot, aching, frustrated, and rolling her hips into her bed.
“I can’t get you out of my head, vellia,” he rasped. “I can’t do this anymore. I need this. I need this tonight.”
“Need w-what?” she asked, her voice tight, her nipples so hard they stung. His hands were so wide and strong, spanning across her hips. He was touching her. And Stella thought she’d do just about anything to feel his touch across her bare flesh and not over her thick, scratchy clothes.
He didn’t answer her. At least, he didn’t answer that particular question.
Tavak pulled his lips away from her neck. She felt his grip tighten on her hips and then she felt his hot breath graze the outer shell of her ear. Her eyes almost fluttered back into her head, as a pleasurable tingle shot down her spine.
One of his hands slid up to the curve of her waist, her tunic sliding up with it.
In her ear, he growled, “Let’s go fuck.”
Chapter Thirteen
Stella didn’t remember going up the staircase to her small, dark room. But suddenly they were there. Tavak was in her room, making the tiny room seem even tinier with his bulk.
It was like an out of body experience, except he was keeping her grounded with his tight grip.
Tavak looked around briefly, his eyes flickering over her small bed, her dresser—where the stretch of green silk was still draped—the small shelf of her trinkets. Stella always kept her room neat. That had been ingrained in her living on Haase’s ship. The male didn’t tolerate mess, which was ironic considering her mother had always thrived in a cluttered and chaotic environment.
Stop, Stella ordered herself. She was nervous and her thoughts were drifting.
A gasp escaped her because Tavak was on her again—banishing all thoughts of Haase and her mother. His head dipped and then he was sucking on her neck, his hands moving possessively over her, like he alone owned her body. He gripped her ass, squeezing hard enough that a small squeak escaped her throat, followed by a flood of arousal between her thighs. Next, he gripped her waist, her hips, and then his palms were on her breasts and he thumbed her hardened nipples through her tunic, flicking them back and forth before plucking them lightly.
“Ahh,” she whimpered, biting her lip, wiggling closer. “Yes.”
Tavak seemed to stiffen for a brief moment. But then his hands were roving again, leaving her breasts, which almost made her groan in frustration. All the while, his lips never left her throat. His teeth nibbled at her flesh but it only served to arouse Stella more.
She wanted to kiss him. She pulled back a bit, making him glance up at her from his stooped over position. Her eyes flicked to his lips as he straightened and then she leaned forward, making it obvious what she wanted.
Something flashed in his eyes. He tensed, and before Stella could kiss him, he flipped her around, until her back was against his chest.
She couldn’t see him anymore. She was staring at her small bed, a bed that probably wouldn’t fit a Keriv’i male. Then she moaned, feeling his hands drag up her tunic, tearing it up and over her head, leaving her front naked and her breasts exposed.
Her spine tingled when she felt his hands on her bare flesh for the first time. His hand spanned over the soft expanse of her belly. He made a rough sound in the back of his throat and all Stella wanted to do was turn in his arms so she could see him. But it was dark in the room, she hadn’t powered on the glow lights. And that frustrated her.
“Let me turn on the—” she started, breathlessly.
“Veki, keep them off,” he ordered.
She didn’t have time to process those words because all thoughts flew from her mind the moment his hands cupped her breasts.
“Demav,” he growled, palming the weight of them. They were a little small to fill his massive hands but Stella felt the heat of those palms seep into her flesh. Her hips wiggled, making him curse, especially when she felt him, thick and hard, behind her.
Her lips parted, her eyes widening when she felt his size. Stella shouldn’t be surprised, she’d been with a Luxirian male before, after all. Even still, a part of her wondered if Tavak would fit inside her.
A cry escaped her lips when he pinched her nipples gently, plucking them into hardened peaks that begged for his kiss.
“Tavak, please,” she gasped, begging shamelessly as her hips rolled again.
One of his hands dropped from her
breasts, trailing down her bare belly. His fingers began to undo the laces of her pants as he thumbed one of her nipples back and forth.
Then a guttural cry escaped her because his hand shoved her pants down, leaving them encircling her ankles, and then the pad of his thumb came down gently on her clit.
Oh God!
“Is this where you ache, female?” he growled in her ear, fluttering that thumb across the sensitive bud of nerves, seeming to know that he needed to be gentle at first.
“Yes!”
But she was growing more and more frustrated at not being able to see him, or kiss him, or touch him. She liked what he was doing to her but she wanted to do a million things to him too. Things she’d been fantasizing about for the past two months.
When she turned her head, his eyes met hers.
“Kiss me,” she pleaded, her voice nothing more than a breathless gasp, especially when he gently petted her clit, almost lazily. “I’ll beg if I have to. Please.”
His jaw tightened and twitched. A twitch so small that Stella might not have seen it had his face not been illuminated by the moonlight, streaming in through one of her small windows, cutting across his cheekbones, making his features seem even sharper. Deadlier. Fiercer.
The remaining hand that was on her breast slid up to her throat. His hand wrapped around it and maneuvered her head so that Stella looked back at her bed and not at Tavak.
Stella would be lying if she said his possessive grip didn’t arouse her more. Somehow, she’d always known that Tavak would be like this. Dominant. In her fantasies, he’d always taken control.
But this time, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he didn’t kiss her. Not even when she’d begged. Maybe Keriv’i don’t kiss, she thought, strangely disappointed by the thought.
His hand was still on her throat though his grip was light. Keeping his thumb on her clit, his fingers slid down and Stella cried out, a sizzle of pleasure momentarily stunning her, as they found her pussy.
Tavak’s breath hitched.
“Soaked for me,” he rasped, his voice dark and husky in her ear.
“Yes,” Stella whispered, shamelessly trying to roll her hips onto those thick fingers. He had only wedged in one but he was slowly working in another.
“And so vauking tight,” he growled.
“We’ll fit,” she found herself saying, like she was worried he’d pull away because of it. “I promise.”
He made a sound in the back of his throat. “I know we’ll fit, vellia.”
She cried out when he finally got two fingers inside her. When they rubbed so perfectly against her clenching walls, hitting a sensitive spot inside her that made her tingle.
“Oh fuck,” she whispered, her eyes sliding shut. “Right there.”
She heard his swallow, heard a soft rough curse drift across the shell of her ear as he began to fuck his fingers inside her, all the while keeping his thumb poised on her clit.
“I want to feel you come,” he growled. “Just like this.”
Stella laughed, throaty and raw, and it ended in a moan. “It won’t be long,” she assured him.
She gave in to his touch, gave in to the spine-tingling, wonderful sensation of it, focusing her entire mind on the heat blooming between her thighs, on the thick erection pushing into her lower back, on the scent of Tavak all around her, his rough breaths in her ear, his large hand at her throat, squeezing lightly, keeping her trapped right where she’d always wanted to be.
Her legs began to tighten and tense up. Soft, mewing sounds rose from her throat. Her eyes widened, her abdomen beginning to heave.
Tavak’s thumb rolled her clit faster, harder, sensing she was near.
And when she came, pleasure exploded through her body, and she could feel Tavak never letting up. But he was silent as she clenched tightly around his fingers, her body squeezing and pulsing. Stella’s head tilted back, her eyes closed, her face scrunched up in the weightless, bright pleasure.
When it was over, her eyes opened slowly, only to find Tavak looking down at her, an unreadable expression on his face. Her eyes went to his lips again and his fingers suddenly pulled out of her pussy, his thumb leaving her clit.
His head jerked over to the bed, wordlessly gesturing her over to it.
Stella had just had the orgasm of all orgasms but she was still ready for more. However, something about his expression made her pause. He’d always been quiet, but there was a different kind of quiet rolling off him now, one that she couldn’t read.
When Stella didn’t immediately move to the bed, Tavak picked her up himself, dislodging her pants which were still wrapped around her ankles. She bounced on the thin mattress when he deposited her on it, landing on her back, lying across it sideways, completely naked.
She pushed up onto her elbows, watching as Tavak stepped up to the edge, looking down at her. Shadowed in the darkness. His hand went to the laces of his own pants and Stella’s gaze drifted down, eager and curious…but strangely wary.
A voice was pushing forward in her mind, one of warning, but she paid it no mind. Because she sensed that something was…not right? That Tavak didn’t seem like Tavak that night?
When the laces were undone, Tavak’s cock sprung free and Stella’s eyes roved over it, her lips parting. A dark blue-grey like his skin. Thick and hard and wide at the base. The head of his cock was round, not mushroomed like a human male, and clear pre-cum was leaking from his tip.
Stella didn’t hesitate. Eager, she reached forward, leaned forward, and then pressed her lips to the underside of his cock, surprised by how hot it was. Scorching.
Tavak froze. He didn’t move for a long, breathless moment, as Stella dragged her tongue over where she’d kissed him, her gaze flashing up to him. His scent drove her wild, fogging up her brain, the taste of his cock on her tongue. And she hadn’t even gotten near his pre-cum.
“Veki,” he growled out, pushing her back on the bed, her mouth falling away from his cock. “None of that right now.”
She didn’t know what he meant by the words but then he was stepping up to the edge of her bed, pushing her legs open wide. Stella licked the taste of him from her lips, disappointed she hadn’t gotten to pleasure him more. But she watched with a half-lidded gaze as his eyes roved over her body, completely exposed to him, as he stroked his cock, from the very base to his tip, where he squeezed hard just below the head.
More pre-cum leaked out from the tantalizing slit and Stella watched it drip down his length. She bit her lip, wiggling on the bed to get closer.
“Tavak, now,” she begged.
He closed his eyes and her brow furrowed when she saw him take long, deep breaths. He was holding himself still, except for the hand that was stroking over his cock.
“Tavak?”
When his eyes flashed open, Stella noticed that they were swirling again. His expression was dark, almost angry, but focused.
Then he had his hands wrapped around her ankles, pulling her legs around his hips. He was still fully clothed, had only loosened his pants enough to free his cock. The feel of the fabric against her flesh was oddly arousing but Stella would’ve preferred to have him naked, so she could see him, so she could touch him.
Tavak adjusted her hips, pulling them up to accommodate his height, and then, suddenly, his cock was pushing into her. Searing and thick and wide and pulsing.
Stella gasped, feeling the slow stretch as he moved into her body. It was followed by a pinching tightness, one he let her get used to until he felt her begin to relax. He tested her again, thrusting forward.
A jolt hit her and her inner walls began to tingle and warm even more. Her brow furrowed, almost frightened by the sensation because it was something she’d never experienced before.
A moan tumbled from her throat, desperate and throaty.
Tavak was quiet again. And when she looked up at him, she couldn’t help but notice his eyes were closed.
He began to move, deeper and deeper, making her gasp and m
oan. And then…finally, he was as far inside her as he could possibly go and Stella had never felt so full in her life. The sensation made her want to sigh in contentment, made her want to laugh in pleasure.
Yet…Tavak still hadn’t looked at her once, which made some of her delight dim.
“Tavak?” she asked quietly, feeling heat bloom within her, spreading and spreading over her. The pleasure began to grow even though he’d stilled inside her body.
It was odd. Because if anything, Stella was being pulled out of the moment even though her body was very much into it. Her body felt hot. Her need felt ravenous. All she wanted was for Tavak to move.
But Stella had that strange feeling again. Like this was Tavak…and yet it wasn’t. It was like he was a stranger. A stranger trying to detach from this moment, even though he was deep inside her body and had already made her come hard around his fingers that night.
Tavak’s eyes finally flashed open, his brow furrowed, a light sheen of perspiration across his smooth forehead.
And he began to move. Long, tantalizing, satisfying strokes inside her body. Then Stella cried out because his pace began to quicken. His strokes became shorter, more powerful.
Then Tavak was fucking her. Truly fucking her. A growl was rumbling its way up his throat and sounds that Stella didn’t think she’d ever made were tumbling from hers.
Oh God, she thought, feeling like she was on the verge of coming again, even though they’d just begun.
He pounded between her thighs, his fingers digging into her legs. Perfect strokes that kept her poised on the edge of a fucking magnificent orgasm. She could feel it coming. She was almost to the edge of it…just a few more deep strokes and she’d be there…
Stella jumped a little when Tavak’s fingers tightened on her legs, when he got a little rough. He went too deep, making her ache. She breathed through her nostrils because even though it hurt a little, she still felt that deep-rooted pleasure. She thought it was fine.
Then his eyes closed again, his teeth gritting, his jaw tightening above her.