by Poppy Rhys
“Val’Zun,” she tugged his tail enough to catch his attention. “Stop walking away from me.”
She felt ridiculous with him trying to escape her so eagerly. Was she that repulsive? She was tempted to sniff her pits to see if it was more than pheromones hurting his sensitive nose. Why did he even take her here if he didn’t want to be near her? Another two steps forward, and Val’Zun moved a foot backward as if he was going to back up again, but he thought better of it and stood still.
His breathing was shallow, like he was fearful. The closer she got, the shorter his breaths were. His pupils had fully dilated, and his obsidian gaze kept flicking over her and then looking away like it was horrible to glance upon her. Lucia just couldn’t understand.
“Hey,” she whispered as if she were trying to coax a cornered animal. Her hands tentatively lay upon one of his arms and when he flinched, she let go of his tail to lay her other hand upon his stomach. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
He wouldn’t look at her.
She pulled upon his robe, forcing him to bend down, and she knew he did it to satisfy her and not because she was strong enough to make him do anything he didn’t want to do. Her palms lay upon his face and he exhaled raggedly, shutting his eyes as she brought his face closer to hers. “Zun?”
Finally he opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Loo-Sha,” he breathed, his nostrils flaring. All of a sudden, he pulled from her grasp and took several steps backward, bending over and resting his hands on his knees as he gasped for lungful’s of air. “I cannot take it,” he rasped. “Please, just, stay there.”
Lucia’s brows furrowed and her blood coursed with anger and embarrassment. “Am I really that vile? I have apologized about my actions yesterday, and I am truly sorry, but I don’t think it warrants treating me like this.”
She curled her fingers and then turned to walk away. She found a spot near the water’s edge and sat down. The air brushing over the water was just a little bit cooler, and it felt good against her hot skin while she chanted her calming mantra in her head, grasping at some kind of harmony.
****
Val’Zun groaned as he tried to control his body once more. Lucia thought he viewed her as vile and apologized for what she’d done yesterday twice now. He wanted to tell her how much he enjoyed what she had done, even if it nearly broke his resolve.
I must control myself.
I am losing my fucking mind.
He wanted Lucia.
He was on the verge of begging her to accept him, but he needed to bridle his body first. If he lost control he could snap her delicate neck, snuffing out her precious life before he even realized what was happening.
He could not lose himself like his brothers did during mating. Val’Zun was too volatile. Once he lost control, it was extremely difficult to rein himself in, and that was why only strong females had been able to couple with him in the past, though he had not been with one since before he met Lucia.
It has been too long.
His throat was dry with exhaustion and he tried to gulp, but it was too painful. Even the thought of snapping Lucia’s neck wasn’t helping his frenzied state.
Slowly, he made his way to the pool and then he sunk to his knees, cupping the cold water and splashing it against his face. He did this repeatedly, and drank as well. He closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply.
A’Drast help him, he’d never been so strongly affected by a female.
Once he felt he was in complete control again, he made his way to Lucia, sitting beside her but far enough away so she wasn’t touching him and her pheromones weren’t all he could smell.
“I apologize,” he whispered sincerely. “It is me, not you. I do not want to hurt you, Loo-Sha.”
He grimaced and looked out over the water.
“Hurt me? Why would you hurt me?”
Val’Zun’s throat worked, as it was suddenly dry again.
****
Lucia didn’t try to touch him again. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. She hated to admit it chipped away at her pride that she was being jilted by someone who had previously wanted her, and now that she finally wanted him too, he couldn’t stand her nearness.
“In our culture, some males are less suitable mates.” She watched Zun say this like he was embarrassed and ashamed of himself, which made her chest pang with pity. “I am already a less suitable male because it is hard for me to control myself during mating. I cannot think past my baser self if I let it pull me under. Females do not like this in a mate, and very few Melier females are strong enough to withstand mating with a less suitable male.”
A whine in his throat eked from him and he couldn’t meet her eyes as he stared at the ground and then back out onto the water.
“It has taken much work to master my body around you, and I am fearful to lose my control and kill you.”
A tremor zipped up Lucia’s spine. She realized then that her actions of the past two days had probably caused Val’Zun pain, and she felt a wave of guilt. But she knew, she just knew deep down that Zun would not lose control with her. He might be afraid, but she was certain the thought of hurting her would keep him in his right mind.
Hopefully.
Lucia needed to prove this to him, and to herself, if she was being honest.
Val’Zun had to see he could dominate his passion.
“Zun?”
His gaze hesitantly swept to meet her eyes. She swallowed.
“You won’t hurt me.”
“Loo-Sha-”
“You can control it,” she interrupted his protest. “You are too stubborn and strong willed to let your primitive self hurt me.”
His brow sunk low with concentration and confusion at her words.
“Now, touch me.”
His hands fisted.
“Touch me,” she repeated coaxingly.
The seconds ticked by and then… the soft fur of his tail flicked slowly, teasingly back and forth along her neck only to slink lower and brush across her exposed clavicle. It felt good, and her lips parted slightly as a breath slipped from her.
Zun’s butter colored gaze had long disappeared, and all that was left was a black, consuming void that hypnotized her. The tail traced along her jaw, tiny hairs swiping her bottom lip and pulling forth another sigh, and a welcome, heavy weight began to form in the pit of her stomach. His face inched closer to hers at a snail-like pace and she stayed still, refusing to pull herself away.
“Loo-Sha,” he whispered reverently when his nose slid along the angle of her jaw, slowly scenting her and tracing the warmth of his lips against her skin.
Her eyes drooped and slid shut as gooseflesh spread along her arms, and her blood began to simmer with warmth. A groan vibrated through his lips onto her skin, and Lucia shivered visibly. One of his hands gently lay upon the nape of her neck and tilted her head back. He whispered her name again, scenting and feeling her skin against his mouth and nose.
When his warm, long tongue began to taste her, she couldn’t contain the whimper that eked from her lungs, and the shaky inhale following it. Its pleasantly rough texture against her soft skin lit sparks behind her eyelids, making her want more.
“Val’Zun,” she sighed, barely audible while she rode the waves of sensations taking her under. Her mind was one jumbled mess while her body kept telling her this was right.
A hand rested upon her chest and urged her to the ground. There was little resistance as her body obeyed and the soft blades of burnt orange grass cushioned her, forming around her body in a customized bed meant just for her.
Lucia’s eyes opened then and she watched as Zun lowered himself over her, noticing that he was visibly shaking like a leaf while he hovered there. His expression was one of pain and longing, causing her heart to flip over for him. When her hand reached up to lay upon his cheek, he squeezed his eyes shut while another tremor raked through his body.
“Zun?” she whispered.
“Loo-Sha,” his stra
ined voice said as his eyes opened once more, pleading as they bore down into hers. “I...” Again, her heart flipped and she felt it might choke her throat. Her thighs opened slowly and she untied her sash, pulling the dress up and over her head.
“I know…” She lifted her face up to kiss the underside of his jaw, which made him shudder and exhale. He didn’t move, he just hovered there, shaking. “Zun,” she whispered again.
Her eyes drifted down his exposed chest that was visible from the opening of the robe he was wearing. Fingers lightly skimmed down his lean, lightly rippled stomach and she slowly unbuckled the silver belt. It fell to the grass with a tinkling sound, and she pushed the robe from his shoulders, allowing him to quickly shrug it off.
One might think his frame was too skinny, too thin, to be attractive, but Lucia had witnessed the strength he possessed. He may lack the bulk of muscle Ren and Soren carried, though it didn’t make him lesser in her eyes; only different.
Lucia liked different.
When her exploring fingertips found the three buttons of his pants, she deftly popped them, and her hands pushed along his slim hips, moving the fabric down enough to free his cock. When it hit the air, it leapt, and a thin stream of the green sap squirted across her inner thigh. Zun’s lungs exhaled thickly before he groaned again, his black gaze imploring as he looked at Lucia. She had never seen him like that; almost begging for her to understand and want him too.
Lucia did.
She wanted him, and it scared her and felt exhilarating all at once.
Her hands pulled on his hips until they slowly, cautiously lowered to her core. He was very careful and deliberate, his fear of losing control and hurting her ruling every slow movement he made. Every maneuver was heavy, as if he was moving through the weight of water.
His troubled gaze never left hers as the tip of his cock slid through her slick folds, and he panted and tremored something awful while he gradually pressed into her. It was decidedly slow, waiting for her to change her mind, and she had no desire to stop him, but quite the opposite.
She wanted to touch him, pull him and feel with every part of her body. But she didn’t. He looked too much like he was just struggling not to rip her to pieces in his controlled state.
Lu’s lips parted, and her eyelids grew lazy for a moment as Zun stretched her. His cock had girth, almost too large for a human, and she felt filled. She released a breath as she tilted her head upward to watch him as he watched her.
Val’Zun didn’t fuck her, he made love.
It was strange and intoxicating all at once, and the way he stared at her while his quaking body looked like it was going to shake apart at any moment, caused something to twist in her chest. She whispered his name again and he trembled. Their bodies continued to touch and sway against each other.
“Loo-Sha,” he gasped devotedly, rocking against her. Her desire rose, and twisted, and bunched until every breath, every pant, and every visible shudder of his skin was connected to every nerve in her body. They whispered each other’s names back and forth, worshiping.
The sounds of nature and the crashing waterfall around them took the background and submerged Lucia deeper and deeper into the moment while her mind and body urged her hips to fall into that familiar, instinctive rhythm.
Her body rose higher and higher and she got lost in the black orbs devouring her. When her womb quivered and her muscles tightened around Zun’s cock, she didn’t cry out or moan, she simply gasped and let the electrifying tempest arch her spine, pull her legs further apart, and shake her body while she stared into his eyes and gushed around him.
The squeeze of her body encasing and massaging him sent him into a new set of tremors. He bared his teeth and grimaced with mixed pleasure and discomfort while he mastered his control over his body.
Zun closed his eyes then and withdrew from her. He arched over her to compensate for their height difference and buried his face into her neck as his fist clenched the base of his cock, and he came.
His tortured cry was half roar, half whine around his gasping lungs as his first eruption happened. The fluid hit the skin of her stomach so forcefully, it almost stung. It felt like she was getting hosed, and it splashed up off her skin, webbing across the grass underneath them.
Again he gasped for air in an aching cry and sucked in through his teeth as another deluge beat down in a thick, long blast. A third and final time he tensed his jumping muscles, and a searing stream discharged. It flooded around her until she was lying in warm goo.
Zun collapse atop her and she took his weight as he continued to shake and gasp.
“A’Drast’s mane, that fucking hurt,” he exhaled roughly like he’d been punched in the gut. His lips found her shoulder and kissed before he buried his face in her hair, panting. “And felt amazing.”
Her lips curved into a half smile while she closed her eyes and felt sated, blissful, and intimately connected to him in a new way.
Here she was, cradling a spent Zun with her body, and feeling a sense of completeness. Her arms lifted from the grass and slowly they draped around his neck and shoulders as best they could, while her legs wrapped around his torso after he scooted down. His jittery muscles continued to jump and spaz, but it began to recede more and more as her soft fingertips stroked the scales and skin of his neck and shoulders, comforting and calming him.
Zun lifted his body to look down at her and she did the same, noticing the ejaculate oozing over her body was a mix of the normal green and a dark, almost black green. Tentatively she dipped her finger in it and rubbed, trying to figure out why it was darker.
Her eyes noticed his cock that was still erect, dribbling the dark stuff and the slit was open. From it protruded a pale blue stem that matched the color of his bulging veins. “What’s…” she trailed off.
“My root,” Zun watched her as she watched his root begin to curl in on itself like a vine, and retreat through the slit that closed back to normal. His cock began to gradually deflate at that point. “You are fertile again. I did not think it wise to implant.” He lowered himself back against her body as he continued to look down at her with his black gaze.
Lucia’s eyes bugged. She tried to put it all together. She had wondered why Soren hadn’t tried to implant aside from that first time they’d been together and now it made sense. His egg had begun taking life and she wasn’t fertile any longer.
The entire situation was strange, along with the Melier anatomy. “Good idea,” she replied and a small grin tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Imagine the hot flashes I’d have on this roasting planet.”
Zun mirrored this half smile, and his chest quaked with quiet laughter that vibrated through her skin and bones. She lifted her head to hesitantly plant a kiss on his thin lips. Warm, smooth. She sighed against them and he kissed her back with restrained tenderness. The kiss only heightened that feeling she was settling into with him, and it was on her mind as they both drifted into a nap.
Chapter 10
When Lucia came to sometime later, her body ached. She felt crushed and for a little while, she panicked that she couldn’t move. When her eyes popped open, she realized Val’Zun was still sleeping atop her.
Her heart rate slowed and she turned her face into his neck, breathing in his scent. He was warm and he smelled like sweet, fresh rain with a tinge of musk from their joining. When she rubbed her lips along his scales, he began purring, and she smiled against him.
“Val’Zun,” she whispered, pressing her palms against his shoulders to try and shake him awake.
He woke with a start and lifted himself to look around for the threat. Confusion lit his features, and when he realized there was nothing to attack, he relaxed once more. She smiled up at him, her palms rubbing his chest. He lowered himself and rolled to his side so he wasn’t crushing her any longer.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, some unknown emotion lacing his tone. She rolled to her side too, with some effort.
“Pleasantly exercise
d,” she giggled and kissed along his clavicle, her fingertips splaying against his warm skin. “You were very gentle.”
Her lips trailed up his throat and against the underside of his jaw. His breath hitched and his pupils danced while she watched him try to once again dominate himself. She couldn’t imagine what that might feel like; always being on the edge of slipping into a lustful obscurity during arousal, unable to master your body and actions. Then again, being able to just let go and drown in euphoria… it sounded nice. And dangerous, for someone with the amount of strength and natural weapons a Melier possessed. A zip of terror stung her skin and her hand brushed along his cheek gingerly. “I knew you could do it.”
“Loo-Sha,” he frowned and his warm breath fanned her damp face. “You are too trusting.”
She snorted.
“Many things make sense now,” she smiled up at him teasingly, thinking about his insanely sensitive reaction to her pheromones when they were back on Dor Nye. “It’s not every day a male comes all over the floor in front of a girl’s family, ya know.”
Val’Zun groaned and his arousal died. Lucia chortled her amusement at his expense, rubbing her palm against his cheek and kissing his chin.
“Come,” he got to his feet and stripped his pants the rest of the way from his body. “I will bathe you.”
She took his offered hands and grimaced at the sweaty, messy state of her body. She really couldn’t go back to the palace in such a way, but she eyed the beautiful water warily. She wasn’t sure how deep it was, or what was in it.
“Are you sure it’s safe?”
“There are no creatures within that can hurt you, if that is what you are asking.”
Zun led her to the water, stepping in first and she followed. The bed of smooth, tiny pebbles pressed into her feet and she was glad it wasn’t slimy goop, like some of the swimming holes in Curra. It always gave her the creeps thinking about what the slime between her toes might actually be.
The water was nice and cool, immediately comforting her hot skin, and once she waded to her hips, she stopped but Zun continued to pull her along.