Ronan (Mate’s Mark #1)

Chapter 20

Ronan

“Ronan.”

Warmth surrounds me and a cool breeze blows over my skin. The part of my brain responsible for language has devolved to primitive times as I grunt and burrow deeper, drifting back to sleep.

“Ronan…”

“Shh…” I mutter, pulling Cameron tighter and kissing the nape of his neck, a satisfied, sleepy smile on my face as he shivers against me.

“I really have to pee,” he whines, and I grumble as I release him. One of my eyes cracks open as he sits up, adjusting his glasses before shuffling into the bathroom. My arms stretch above my head as I roll to my back, arching my spine as the heaviness of deep slumber melts away. Bright morning sun shines outside the window, and I blink the sleep from my eyes as I stare.

When was the last time I slept past sunrise, or slept the entire night uninterrupted by my thoughts ?

During the night, I snuggled against Cam and wrapped him in my arms. The steady rhythm of his breathing and the gentle warmth of his body lulled me into the most peaceful sleep I can ever remember. Out here where safety is the biggest concern, sleeping that heavily is dangerous, but fuck, I feel amazing this morning.

Cameron walks back into the room, only wearing a pair of boxers, and I bite at my lip as my cock takes notice. Lean muscles sit underneath a field of golden skin, his body willowy but not delicate. Never fragile.

Strong in a different way than I am.

His tongue darts out, tracing his lips as his attention drops to the growing bulge in my shorts, the heat of his gaze making it swell further. A smug smirk plays on his mouth as his eyes move to mine, his brow arched.

“Not going to apologize,” I say, my voice thick with sleep.

“Wasn’t planning on complaining.” The mattress sinks as he lowers himself beside me, curling into my side as he traces his fingertips along my chest. Open curiosity lines his face as he explores, outlining the dips in my muscles.

It’s been a few days since everything happened between us, and I’ve given Cam time to process without mentioning it.

From the hungry way he’s looking at me, he’s processed.

“You’re… different from me.”

“We’re separate species. There are lots of differences in anatomy.”

His hand dips along my abs as a thoughtful frown forms on his lips. “You don’t have a belly button. ”

“When we are being formed, we process nutrients differently than humans.”

“Ah, shit, are you hatched from an egg?” he asks, and I chuckle at the grimace that pulls onto his face and the painfully obvious manner he tries to hide it.

“Would that disgust you, knowing I pecked my way from a shell and chirped for my mother?”

He narrows his eyes at me as I grin. “Why does it seem like you’re being sarcastic?”

“Been around you too much, I guess,” I tease as I tug him closer, pressing a kiss to his temple. “No, I’m not hatched from an egg… although there are species that procreate that way. But where a human fetus collects nutrients through the umbilical cord, we absorb them.”

“What else is different?”

“Well, I don’t know if you picked up on this, but I have tails. Three of them, to be exact.”

He snickers, smacking me on the stomach as he laughs. “Now you’re just getting wild with these fibs. I think I would’ve noticed tails.”

“You’ve been too busy ogling my ass to pay attention to my tails.”

“That is probably true,” he mutters, and both of us laugh as his hand starts exploring again. The soft touch skates over my pecs, grazing my nipple and watching as my cock flexes. “Guess that’s something that crosses the biological lines,” he says, doing it a second time.

“Cam,” I warn, and he bites his lip as he moves away from my chest. Lower and lower, his fingers sweep in a downward path, the warmth of his touch sending tremors like tiny earthquakes under my skin. He traces along the waistband of my shorts, and a visible shudder works my spine. “If you aren’t careful, you’re going to start something.”

“Can I look at you?” The uncertainty of his shy question sends an ache through my chest, and when I meet his eyes, there’s heat there, surrounded by an earnest curiosity.

“Like I could deny you anything,” I murmur, voice husky.

“Oh, I’m positive you’d deny me plenty.”

A quiet laugh leaves me as I nod. “Yeah, you’re probably right, but not when your hands are so close to my cock.”

“So that’s the trick to getting what I want, huh?” He grins as I shrug, not denying it.

His smile fades, and he hesitates, continuing the maddening drag along the edge of my shorts. His fingers swipe back and forth, inching further until they dip under the fabric of my shorts. My dick twitches with every swipe, and I’m positive he’s playing a game with me as he watches.

As he rakes through my pubic hair, a choked groan climbs from my throat as my erection throbs, a wet spot forming on my shorts. He pauses, staring, before brushing against the root of my cock, and I mutter a curse as that damp spot spreads.

“What is that?” he asks, cheeks flushed an adorable pink.

“When an Anunian is aroused, we create our own lubricant,” I explain as he touches the damp material, biting back a moan as another warm rush pulses from me. “Last time, you didn’t realize it because we were in the shower, but you had me dripping. ”

“Fuck,” he mutters, his cock that had been at half-mast thickening in his boxers. “Why is that so fucking hot? Can you control it?”

“Usually, but that night I was… out of control.” What I don’t say out loud was I came so hard I saw stars just from sliding my cock between his cheeks, imagining his pretty virgin hole stretching to take me.

“What does it feel like when it happens?”

“Hmm,” I grunt as he teases me again, eyes wide in fascination as I leak through the fabric. “Not nearly as intense as an orgasm, but a similar sensation. Muscles squeezing deep inside me.”

“Does it taste good?”

A bullet of pleasure rips through my body as another heavy throb soaks my clothes, my cock straining against them. I clench my jaw, my core pulsing at the thought of his mouth on me. “You’re trying to kill me,” I grit through my teeth.

He laughs, face glowing in a beautiful peony pink flush, while his pupils are dilated with unrestrained need. His breath comes in a series of ragged inhales and shaky exhales. Lip caught between his teeth, he fiddles with my shorts, and I know he’s too shy to ask for what he wants.

“Cam?” I stare at his mouth as that lip pops free, shiny and swollen. “Whatever you want to do to me, do it.” His flush deepens, and it’s so endearing that for a second, I refuse to even blink because I don’t want to miss it. “Look as much as you’d like, and, for the love of the gods, please feel free to touch. You won’t hear a single complaint from me… in fact, I might reduce myself to begging if you don’t do it soon. ”

A quiet laugh puffs from his nose as he gives me a flush-ridden, lop-sided smile. “What if I have a thousand questions?”

“So, what, a typical Tuesday?” I run my fingers through his hair as he leans into my touch like a cat. “Then I’ll form a thousand answers.”

With one last glance in my direction, as if he expects me to change my mind, he tugs at my shorts and I lift my hips to help. Naked under his inspection, I lie here, eyes glued to his face as that pink tongue darts between his lips again.

“Fuck, you’re so big,” he mutters, reaching for me but hesitating, letting his hand fall on my thigh. “How will it fit?” Another adorable flush flames on his cheeks as he ducks his head.

Slickness coats my cock from his teasing, and I reach down to run my fingertips through it. Clear, sticky strands web between my thumb and finger as I pull them apart, and he’s fascinated as he watches. “This helps, because it gets you nice and slippery, and it also acts as a natural aphrodisiac. It heightens everything you feel and takes away some of the discomfort you might experience at first.”

He stares at my fingers as he processes this information. “Your jizz is an aphrodisiac?”

“This isn’t my jizz , as you so eloquently put it,” I say, trying to hide my amusement, “but the answer to that would also be yes. Everything about my anatomy is designed to bring you pleasure.”

“Why?”

I blink at him, not expecting the question. “Well, in nature it would be so you’d want to carry my young. ”

Wide eyes whip to mine as he goes still. “You can’t… do that , though? With me? Right?”

I bite my lip, but a laugh breaks free at the panicked expression on his face. “No, Cam, your body isn’t designed to bear children, so nothing in my biology would change that.” Relief is a potent thing as he glances back at my eager erection, but then his eyes flare even wider.

“Can you get pregnant?!”

“No,” I say with a chuckle. “In my race, only the females produce offspring. But…” I grab his hand and wait for him to look at me again. “Can I show you something?” He nods, and I watch his expression as I guide our hands towards my cock, giving him ample time to stop me, but there’s no resistance. I wrap his fingers around my length, my eyes closing and an involuntary, needy noise slipping from my throat at the friction. “With penetrative sex, I can use just this part and it’s still incredible… but if you feel lower…” I move us to the swell at the base of my shaft.

Fingers flexing, he moves his hand as he explores, and I groan at the sensation. “That’s huge,” he mutters, running his palm around and squeezing gently as my head falls back and my hips jut forward.

“Very sensitive,” I murmur, but he doesn’t stop even as another rush leaks from my slit, coating my cock and making his hand slipperier as he plays.

“Does this…” Realization hits as he swings his eyes to me, wide as plates. “Does this go inside me?”

“That’s my knot, and yes, it can. When it does, I might… be different.”

“Different how?”

“Evolutionarily, it’s intended for mating, and it joins us together until I’m… finished. ”

“Until you come?” he asks, adorably flustered.

“No, until I’m done . If you allow me to knot you, it puts me into such a state of fixation that it’s almost a trance, and I won’t care about anything other than breeding you. I’ll fuck you until I decide I’m finished—come inside you three, four times, or until my instincts are satisfied that your belly will swell with my babies.”

A noise creeps from his throat, and my eyes dart down to see his cock granite-hard against his boxers. “But you can’t…”

“No, I can’t get you pregnant,” I assure him again. “But I won’t care when I’m in that state. It can last for hours.” His breath is sawing from his nose as his hips shift, pupils enormous. “Oh… and Cam?”

“Yeah?” His voice is shaky as his eyes meet mine.

“You’ll enjoy it just as much as I do, I promise you that.” He makes another pitiful, needy little noise, scooting closer until his cotton-covered erection rubs against my thigh. A slick sound echoes through the quiet room as his hand moves on my cock, wrenching a moan from my lips. He experiments, tightening and loosening his grip and adjusting his speed as he catalogues my reactions.

Determined not to come in minutes like I did the first time, I steady my breathing.

I can do this.

I’m no longer a hot-headed young man who can’t control himself.

He moves his fist to my knot, and I almost blow on the spot. My head thunks to the pillow as I call out, thrusting off the bed. “Hold your hand there,” I say, my fingers digging into his wrist as I grind into his grip with a series of shallow, rough jerks .

Primal instinct takes over as I rut into him like a wild animal, my mind consumed by the thought of his tight hole closing around my knot as I unload inside him.

Cameron whimpers as he rocks against my leg, his abdomen muscles tense as he rolls his lithe body. I want to pin him to the bed and bite his neck. Cover him with my mark as those narrow hips jerk beneath me, milking every drop of cum from my body.

“Do you want that inside you?” My movements shift from quick, ragged thrusts to deeper sweeps of my hips, and Cam whines louder and louder as he grinds against my thigh. My palm lands on the side of his stomach, fingers digging into the soft flesh and feeling the muscles flex every time he rubs himself against me. “You want me to fill you so full that this belly swells?”

“Y-yeah,” he gasps, and a low growl rumbles from the back of my throat, his movements stuttering as his hand stills on my cock.

“Want it to pour out of you when we finally separate? Feel that cum leaking from your pretty, used hole after I’ve bred you until you can’t keep your eyes open?”

He whimpers my name, voice catching as a long, low moan forms in his throat, almost a sob. The frenzy in my mind clears long enough to register the spread of wet warmth against my thigh as his cock jerks beneath his boxers. A beet red flush burns on his face, his eyes wide and panicked as they meet mine.

Fuck that insecurity.

“Look at how amazing you are,” I mutter, reaching to run my fingers through the cum soaking his boxers. My palm drags up his length over the cotton, and more of those glorious noises tumble from his lips as I stroke him. “I love how you react like this to me, Cameron. Nothing could make me happier than you losing control. Did that feel good?”

“Yes,” he gasps, still throbbing under my hand.

“Good… because I’m not done with you yet.”

He yelps in surprise as I grip his hips, flipping him to his belly. “Knees down, love,” I murmur as he scrambles to obey, and I slide his shorts onto his thighs, exposing his ass. “Fuck, look at you,” I groan as the soft, pink skin twitches, clenching with the final pulses of his orgasm.

Grabbing one of his cheeks, I spread him as he moans into the mattress, and I drag my cock along his crease. Slick coats him until it glistens, running in beads down his skin.

“This untouched hole is so pretty, just begging to be filled. Do you want my finger, Cam?” Frantic, he nods as I push my fingertip against it, pulsing as he clenches. “You want me inside you?”

“Please,” he begs, his breath hitching as he pushes back against me, trembling as my finger slides past his tight entrance. “ Please . Please, oh fuck, please.” Knuckles bleaching, he fists the sheets as I work that finger in and out of him, loving the way he whines.

“Beautiful beggar. You take me so well.” Each thrust sinks me deeper, stretching him more as I get lost in the ecstasy of his body. Cameron’s head whips up, arching his spine and spreading himself further.

“Needy hole,” I mutter, pulling my finger back and staring at how he grips me. “Goddamn, what are you doing to me? You’re making me so fucking wet.” Beneath me, a damp spot forms on the blankets, my instincts begging me to take him .

Claim him.

My finger slides back in, and a low, purring growl builds in my chest as he flexes, pulling me in deeper. A raw, desperate sound somewhere between a curse and a prayer rips from my throat, my body pulsing with the urgent, almost animalistic whine he makes as I remove my finger.

Gripping my cock, I frantically drag it between his cheeks and make him even wetter, and when I rub my thumb over his entrance, droplets roll down his glistening, drenched skin. The tip slips inside, and he moans at the stretch as I watch him take me to the first knuckle. “I want to come all over this perfect hole.”

My entire body is on fire, and if I were to even touch myself right now, it’d be game over. “Can I, mo’sziv?” I murmur, pushing my thumb deeper, obsessed with how those tight muscles close around me. “You’ll be so pretty coated in my cum. Need it… I need to see it.”

“Do it,” he begs. “Please, do it.”

“Gods, fucking look at you,” I snarl, sliding my thumb all the way inside him as he whimpers and writhes beneath me. He flexes, causing another moan to tear from my throat. “Such a needy hole.” My cock grinds against his skin, leaving a slick trail on his cheek as he clenches his ass, wanting more. “Wants to be filled, doesn’t it?”

In and out, my thumb thrusts in a patient rhythm, his body yielding as I stretch him. He whines when I pull my hand away, and when my hips drive forward, my cock pushes against his entrance. Thighs shaking, I hold myself there, pressed against him as he tries to shove backward.

I spread his cheeks further, watching as his muscles flex and his rim tightens, the very tip of my cock slipping inside him. It’s too much, and my body doesn’t even give me a warning as I lose control. My head snaps to the ceiling as I shout, heavy streams of hot cum pumping into his hole as my thighs and abs quiver with the strain.

Cam is wild underneath me, the hormones from my release hitting him as he pants and claws at the sheets, and I have to hold his hips so he doesn’t push back and get more than he’s ready to handle. Creamy stripes cover his ass and slide down his skin, coating his balls and thighs as I reach between his legs and grip his cock. With just a few tugs, he’s wailing into the mattress as he jerks in my hand, spilling over my fingers and into the bed.

A final few pulses work through my body as he comes, then I slump over him, resting my forehead on his back as we both pant. I sit on my haunches and stare at his pretty hole, lazily twitching and glazed in my release.

Before my body can get any crazy ideas, I flop onto the bed and tug him with me, avoiding the mess on the sheets. “Was that too much?” I ask, showering his shoulders and neck with kisses, relieved when he shakes his head. We lay there for a minute, allowing our breathing to return to normal as he snuggles into me.

“Hey, Ronan?”

“Hmm?” My lips are too busy charting his skin to speak actual words.

“You answered my questions more thoroughly than I expected,” he says, and I snort a laugh. “You’re an excellent teacher, apparently. But now I’m hungry… like, super starving. And I’m pretty sure Boomerang is scarred for life.” Posture stiff, the dog sits with her ears laid flat, staring pointedly away from us. This time, a full laugh breaks free from my mouth and Cameron’s head bounces on my stomach .

“Fresh clothes are kind of necessary for us both,” I tease, and he mumbles to himself, pulling his hands over his blushing face. When I remember I cooked extra servings last night, I groan in excitement. “Oh, hell, there are leftovers.” Right on cue, his stomach releases a loud warble, and I grin as I put my hand over his belly, making him shudder as I mindlessly trace shapes on his skin. “Time for me to feed you,” I say, nipping his ear before climbing out of bed. “And make sure you drink plenty of water… you lost a lot of fluids.”