16. CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 16
Aban’s heart imploded when he heard how dejected his mate sounded, even as he carried Nessim back to where they were staying. His sweet, kind and caring mate deserved to be loved inside and out, and Aban planned to make that happen no matter what it took.
“You are mine.” It didn’t matter that his voice was growly. He needed Nessim to believe every single word and if that meant he was a bit more forceful, so be it. “You are my perfect other half. That said, I get we all have a past that we aren’t always proud of. But nothing will ever change how much I love you.”
He prayed Nessim would not just hear him but believe Aban. But even if he didn’t, nothing was going to stop Aban from proving every word.
“You are mine, and I plan to cherish every inch of you,” he promised as he softly kissed those lips he was already addicted to, even as his hands reached up under Nessim’s shirt to touch the treasure trail of hair leading to his groin.
Was it possible to come from just touching skin? He hadn’t thought it could have been true, but he had to admit he wasn’t so certain any longer. That his fingers were barely skimming over Nessim’s abdomen didn’t seem to matter.
“All mine,” he murmured as he kissed along Nessim’s jaw to his ear. “Thank fuck,” he growled out as he nipped the fleshy part of his mate’s lobe.
“Please,” Nessim begged as he arched into his touches. “Make me yours.”
That was easy, because Nessim was already his. But if it took him to the end of time, Aban planned on making it his mission in life to prove it every second of every day.
Intent on making his mate believe with actions more than words, Aban unsnapped Nessim’s jeans a second before he slid his zipper down. The moment his mate’s pants were free, Aban took advantage to slip them down his lithe body to take them all the way off him.
While there, with his mouth inches from his slim cock, Aban took total advantage by opening his mouth to suckle on his thick crown and swallowing the pre-cum that had seeped from its tip. “Delicious,” he muttered just before drawing his mate’s length into his mouth.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to prove how precious Nessim was. No. It wasn’t even that. Aban craved every single inch of his mate. One day, and yeah, he knew it wasn’t at that moment, but still soon, he planned to lick, kiss and nip every fucking inch of Nessim. But first, he planned to show his mate just how much Aban desired him.
Slim fingers that felt like a caress threaded through his hair, not so much guiding him as holding on, and Aban loved the sensation. It meant he was doing exactly what he’d planned on. To love on his mate.
Drawing Nessim’s length even deeper, Aban swallowed around the tip. The sweet cry of pure need as those amazing fingers gripped his hair enough to sting was all he needed to know his mate’s impending release.
The sweet/salty taste that flooded his mouth seconds later was all Aban needed for his own cock to erupt untouched. Not once in his entire life had that ever happened. Yet, if he were honest, Aban wasn’t at all surprised.
Nessim was… Everything.
Just seeing his mate was enough to have caused his cock to get hard. Feeling Nessim come apart in his arms…there were no words to explain what he felt.
That he’d come without a touch to his own dick already was enough proof of how much he craved his mate. He hoped.
“Please,” Nessim begged, even as he tugged on Aban’s hair. “I want a taste.”
Seriously? Like fuck , how was he supposed to survive that request?
In the past, Aban hadn’t thought his dick could get as hard and as quickly as it was at that moment. Don’t get him wrong, he’d fucked several people, but once done, he’d wanted nothing but to leave as quickly as possible. But with Nessim, he only wanted to bury himself inside his mate.
Surging back up to capture those sweet lips, Aban sank onto Nessim. He would have easily infused them together if he could, so they would never have been parted. If only… Okay, yeah, he knew that wasn’t plausible.
But as Nessim’s body became more pliable, Aban had to admit he might have been wrong. Not so much as wrong, but…fallible in his beliefs.
“Mine,” he whispered once again before slipping from their bed to the bathroom. He might wish to never stop holding his mate, but he wasn’t about to not take care of Nessim.
The sweet sigh of pleasure he received as he wiped down Nessim was all Aban needed to know that he was doing everything he was supposed to. He placed a soft kiss on his mate’s abdomen. “I love you.”
He might not have seen it, but he damn well knew Nessim smiled hearing that.
“What the fucking hell?”
Okay, maybe not the best way to enter Edrick’s office, but Aban wasn’t about to apologize after what he’d heard before entering. “I’m not leaving my mate. And trust me, not one word from any of you could change that.”
“I would never have allowed that,” Terrence, who was currently on a video call, said. “Buuutttt, that said, because of the seclusion of this new town, both Saber and Edrick believe it best to move those needing the most…” There was a huge hesitation.
Before Terrence could admit what he’d been about to say, Saber turned to him. “We all know some who mentally, emotionally, and physically need help. Every moment of every damn day, we work to free those who need us. This new town, which is in the middle of fucking nowhere, could help them.”
Edrick even nodded his head as if he agreed with Saber. “I get that everyone should have the chance to live how they want. Even if that is hiding from society or helping us fight the humans, but Saber has a huge point.”
The problem was that Aban wasn’t certain what that point might have been.
What he had known was that there was no way he was about to decide for himself and his mate without discussing it with Nessim first. “Why wasn’t my mate invited to this meeting?” he challenged Saber.
But it was Nole who answered. “We had asked him to come, but he claimed he had a day filled with patients.”
That wasn’t too surprising. Between Nessim making the trip that ultimately found Aban and their profound, even if it had been a short mating, Nessim had been extremely busy. Added to that, the newer shifters that they had brought back from the recent rescue, Aban knew his mate was running himself ragged.
“Actually,” he said in defense of his mate. “From the limited time we’ve been together, Nessim has barely been home even to sleep.”
Every muscle in his body was prepared to do battle for Nessim. “That said, I refuse to decide for either of us, especially when it would affect him.”
Several in the room smiled in agreement, but it was Edrick who challenged him. “I applaud you for considering your mate in this decision, but I also hope you will bring this up to him.”
He had no problem agreeing to that. When it came to their lives, he would always discuss it with Nessim.