20 Sam
In the morning, the first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was the weight of Saleuk’s arm around my waist. I was pressed so perfectly to his chest with his long body fitted against my back.
I didn’t want to move. If he was still sleeping, the urge to keep him there undisturbed was too great. I stared across the room at the opposite wall before gently sliding my fingers down along his arm to his knuckles. He was so soft and yet so incredibly strong. The way we were lying made it feel like nothing could ever touch me. Every inch of my being appreciated every inch of his. Gradually, I wove my fingers through his, smiling lazily at how big his hand was compared to mine. But he’d only ever used his size and strength to be gentle with me.
I brought our intertwined hands to my lips and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles. When I did, I felt him stir, first with a deep intake of breath and then with a hushed moan. His arms pulled me closer and I wriggled into his grip, never wanting to leave.
“I like waking up next to you,” I whispered.
“I usually leave in the mornings to take care of this,” he rasped against my ear, pressing the hard bulge of his cock to my backside.
“I guess that species-wide case of ED doesn’t apply to you anymore,” I giggled.
“I still don’t know what that means.”
“It’s… never mind.”
I rolled over to face him, soaking in every detail of his wonderfully alien features. His high cheekbones. His slanted eyes with large irises that looked like nebulas trapped behind glass. I let my fingers roam lightly across his lips, watching as they parted beneath my touch. His skin faded from that pale, moon-white shade to a soft lavender before my eyes, the color more vivid at the tips of his crown, as always.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Looking at you. I don’t think I really realized how handsome you were before.”
“It was probably because your eyes were itchy and swollen the whole time. My appeal is pretty obvious.”
I tried not to smile, but it happened, whether I wanted it to or not.
“If you say so.”
Biting my lower lip, I scooted closer to him, my hand caressing the column of his throat down to his chest. I could see the faintest ripple of color wherever my skin touched his.
“When should we leave for the mountain?” I asked, venturing lower.
“Soon. The days here are not very long.”
When my fingers dipped beneath the waistband of his pants, his hips rocked forward in anticipation, his jaw muscles pulsing.
“What would you do with this if I was still sleeping?”
“I would take it in my hand and stroke myself to the thought of you.”
The thought made my breath cease. I slid my hand further until I felt the smooth heat of his groin.
“Why are we so alike and so different?” I whispered, wrapping my fingers around his thick shaft.
“We are all from the same maker. We are all children of one race. Your people have called them many names. To us, it is Ak’suk’kaan. One name for one race that spread its DNA across many worlds following the destruction of their own.” I slid my fist lightly up to the tip of his cock and squeezed, making him twitch and tremble.
“And?” I said, enjoying the way I affected him.
“And, we all evolved differently with our environments. As you say, we are the same but different.”
“People of Earth say God created us in his image.”
I slid my fist back down his shaft to the two nodes at the base of his cock and watched Saleuk’s jaw tense. He let out a throaty groan and then chuckled in warning as if what I was doing would get me in trouble. I smiled slyly at him and stroked him again, taking as much pleasure in touching him as I did in touching myself.
“Sam,” he whispered gruffly.
“Yes?”
“Only yesterday you were telling me you were afraid. Is this what you want?”
“I’m afraid of other things. Not of touching you.”
“You are afraid to mate with me.”
“Mating isn’t what we call it on Earth. We call it having sex. Sleeping together.” I took a breath as I stroked him again, brushing my thumb over the pearl of pre-cum at the tip of his cock. “Sometimes we call it making love, but that’s…” I pumped my fist again, delighting in the soft moan he gave me. “For special occasions.”
Saleuk’s eyes fluttered closed and I felt a zap of desire flood through me. I wanted to make him come. The heat between my legs pulsed with every stroke of my hand. When I couldn’t take the teasing anymore, I rolled Saleuk onto his back. He was so compliant in that state and I enjoyed the power. Tugging his pants down so I no longer had the fabric to contend with, I watched his cock spring free, firm and ridged and pulsing with need.
“Ahh, Sam,” he groaned, his chest rising and falling with shuddering breaths.
I watched my hand stroke his length, feeling the slight curve of his shaft. The slightly thicker center and the ridges that ran beneath it. And every time my hand slid down to his nodes, he trembled. I had him at the end of a single thread and I enjoyed the suspense so much it was making me wet. Hungry. I leaned over him, licking over his hard chest and biting lightly on his shoulder. The bite did him in. He bucked into my hand and then slid his grip over mine, squeezing. A flurry of valerian words spilled out of him just before a thick stream of his seed spewed from the tip of his cock and onto his stomach. His feral groan sent erotic chills through me that settled deep in my chest.
“Sjek, Sam,” he panted, becoming boneless under my touch.
I slid my hand from his shaft and smiled victoriously, resting my chin on his chest. Pushing his hand under his head, he looked down at me, his eyes heavy with satisfaction.
“So,” he said, catching his breath. “You are afraid to make love to me.”
The smile flattened on my lips and I sat up, turning to leave the room. “Maybe.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get my clothes on. You said we should leave soon.”
“I have time to—”
“It’s ok,” I said, conjuring a fake smile.
I was so good at them.
I retreated to get into my clothes, including my jumpsuit and boots, but with the humidity, I just tied the sleeves of the jumpsuit around my hips instead of putting them on fully. Even if they were made to help regulate temperatures, I didn’t like the idea of swimming in my own sweat.
I heard Saleuk in my doorway just as I was putting my bag on my back. He was fully dressed in his thermosuit. That damned black suit hugged him like his own skin and it did nothing to calm my desire for him. I swallowed and straightened my shoulders.
“Ready?”
He seemed displeased by the flat look on his face, but I was too nervous to address it.
“I’ve filled our canteens with clean water,” he said. “And we still have some of the roots, but we should not need any of them. We’ll be off this moon very soon. It’s all just precaution.”
“Right,” I nodded, skirting past him to head downstairs.
Just like he said, his canteen as well as mine were sitting full on the table. I picked one up and slid it into my backpack along with two of the little roots. My giant one sat lonely on the table, too large and heavy for me to want to bring it. Finally, I pulled out one of my protein bars and unwrapped it, eating it so fast I hardly tasted it. Saleuk took the other canteen and the comlink he’d been working on and headed for the exit.
“Too bad we don’t have a way to tell what the weather will be like,” I said. “It would be nice to know.”
“Smells like rain.”
“It always smells like rain here.”
“Smells more strongly of rain. It will probably drizzle for most of the trek.”
“I’m going to be so happy to finally dry off completely. My fingers and toes have been pruney for days.”
“There,” Saleuk pointed toward a mountain in the distance with a flat peak. “That’s where we need to get.”
“Seems doable.”
I glanced down at the cuff he’d given me and skimmed over a layout of the land. The mountain was pretty clearly indicated on the moveable image and with a tap of my fingers, I marked the peak where we were headed. I blinked at the way the cuff calculated the fastest root through what it knew of the terrain.
“Whoa,” I said.
“Keep it. You can program it to wherever you are.”
“So I could take this to Earth and program it?”
“Sure,” he shrugged, seeming unenthused by the concept.
He walked forward, starting the journey before I could inquire anymore about the cuff.
We walked on flat ground for a bit before entering the dark shadows of the woods where the giant tree canopies blocked out most of the light. But Saleuk walked as if it had no effect on his sight. I followed closely, watching when he stepped over things in our path so I could step over them, too. Every move he made telegraphed what I had to do next, which actually made the hike quite easy. But then the terrain slowly started to slant upwards.
The sound of water had faded into a breezy silence. It was the first time the water wasn’t within audible range since I’d arrived on the moon. I kept my eyes peeled, despite not being able to see as much detail as Saleuk could, and found myself fantasizing about hot food, a real bath, and a damn bed that didn’t dig into my hip bones. When I nearly tripped over a root, I snapped out of it, quickly catching myself. Saleuk turned, holding out a hand with concern, but I wasn’t ready to resign myself to his help. So far, I’d surprised myself with my own resilience and I wanted to keep going.
When we finally emerged from the woods, I was so pleased to see the light again so I could navigate my own path, but that light faded quickly behind thick storm clouds. The thick smell of rain filled the air, almost stifling. Saleuk and I started walking side by side on black, rocky ground that still slowly inclined upward the further we hiked. I pulled my canteen from my bag and took a big gulp. Before I could get carried away, I put it back, aware that I should conserve it.
“Are you feeling alright?” Saleuk asked.
I nodded. I was breathing hard, but I wasn’t dead.
“Just a little winded in this humidity, but I’m ok.”
“If you want to stop for a moment—”
“No. I want a shower. I want a bed. I want real food, as great as the moon potatoes were to look at.”
A low chuckle rumbled through Saleuk’s chest. “I think I will definitely bathe first.”
“I knew you were the clean type. You guys seem so prim and proper.”
“Cleanliness is a form of respect for yourself and people around you. Of course, we are clean.”
“What else do you miss?”
“Nothing really. It’s only been a few days. Training cycles on primitive planets used to last much longer than a few days.”
“Is that what you call your wilderness training?”
“The military where I’m from must train in a variety of environments that represent different worlds in our territory and outside of it. And yes, we call it primitive training.”
“So, you’ve been in the military your whole life, right?”
“Since I was young, yes. I knew I wanted to pilot. But you cannot pilot without extended training. I enlisted on Sylos first. Then I trained on Syferion for a while. And then…”
He trailed off, but I knew what he meant to say. Syferion was the planet from which the valerians mined syfer crystals as an energy source. I knew the stories. It had been attacked by the gek during one of the peak moments of their war.
“When they started sending people into stasis, I wasn’t going to volunteer. I wanted to fight. I wanted revenge. Most of our military led an attack on two of the biggest gek’tal bases. A lot of people died on both sides. When our people truly began to understand what the virus had done to us, we ceased fighting. The gek, for some reason, stopped attacking our military bases. There were rumors that there was infighting, but no one really knows why they stopped attacking us. We couldn’t afford to lose more men and women to find out for ourselves. So, they started asking people to go into stasis.”
“Then they just started pulling you out?”
“When the gek showed up again, yes. They needed the military. More than that, they needed people who understood the gek. Anyone born after the Thinning has barely ever seen them.”
“That’s wild. I can’t even imagine. Was it weird coming out of stasis?”
“It felt like nothing. I didn’t really know my parents or sister. I had no one. And when you wake from stasis, it is like no time has passed at all. It was… nothing.”
I stopped, staring at Saleuk until he realized I wasn’t walking, and turned around.
“That’s horrible,” I said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
The corner of his lip curled up and he shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. I’m one of the lucky ones, remember?”
“Yeah, but I’m still sorry. I’ve seen darkness, but I’ve never been part of a galactic war. The human population isn’t dwindling.”
“No, you’re overpopulated. Your planet is crowded and the wilderness is depleted. Your people frown on touch. On relationships. On reality, even. That is a darkness of its own kind.”
I wasn’t sure why that particular statement hit me so hard, but it did. I watched him, yearning for his touch. Thinking of going back to Earth where I had no one truly on my side save for Thomas, who could never be anything more than a friend, made me sick almost.
What did I have to return to? I was excited to get off of Phesah, but then what? I wasn’t excited to go back to Earth.
We continued in silence a while longer. I was too out of breath to really carry a conversation, but my thoughts were moving just fine. I kept thinking about the things Saleuk said. The past he had long before I was even born. I wanted to cry for him. Even more, I wanted to do simple things. Hug him. Hold his hand. Experience his presence because he’d become an addiction.
Then I thought about that morning when I had Saleuk in my fist, trembling through an orgasm I’d given him. I’d never done that for a man. Not outside a simulation. Replaying the moment in my head made my sex throb and I really didn’t need that while we were hiking. Especially with a ledge coming up ahead of us. It wasn’t a narrow path by any means, but it was narrow enough to see the edge… and the long, long way down into what looked like a quarry.
When the low rumbling sound of distant thunder shook the air, I shrunk in on myself a little. A light rain started, pelting my cheeks with small, cold droplets.
“We’re hiking higher than I thought,” I panted, glancing at the quarry below and then the dark clouds above.
“We’re making good time.”
“Do you think we’ll make it before the eclipse?”
“We will make it with time to spare.”
“I hope we don’t have to wait too long for your men to pick us up. I might go crazy if we have to sleep here another night.”
“If it makes you feel any better, wildlife here sticks to lower elevations. Except for the leka.”
“What’s that?”
“Birds with fleshy wings. But they only fly during the day to absorb light. Then they dive down beneath the clouds again.”
“They wouldn’t eat us, would they?”
“They are barely the size of your head,” he laughed.
“Well, that’s good. Between the bugs and the spider thing, I’ve seen plenty of Phesah’s dangerous wildlife.”
The rain picked up, turning the land into a wet, chilly landscape.
I was soaked again…
More thunder rolled somewhere in the sky, closer that time.
“The tall creature you talked about before,” Saleuk continued, unphased. “It’s a lepoth’pakri. They are very rare. Very docile. My people used to hunt them hundreds of cycles ago until they were nearly extinct. And then they became a protected species. It’s part of the reason that compound existed. To research them and rehabilitate them. Seeing one is a great honor. A good omen.”
“Maybe that’s why we’re alive. Now I wish I could have seen it better, but—”
The rock beneath my foot shifted, ceasing my movement. I stiffened, glancing down at the ground to see tiny fissures in the obsidian spiderweb out from the sole of my boot. I took another step to distance myself from it only to feel the stone shift again.
“Sam,” Saleuk said.
Whatever else he planned to say was drowned out by the horrifying sound of rocks sliding against rocks. The ground fell from beneath me and I slid downward, screaming as I desperately clawed for purchase.
“Sam!”
The ground was too slick. Any roots I grabbed snapped the moment my weight stretched them. I descended over one ledge and dropped ten feet to another, but I was so disoriented. I hit the ground rolling, unable to stop myself before I careened off the second ledge. That time, I took hold of a root that didn’t break. It was as thick as my arm and protruding just enough from the rocks that I could lock my hand over it. My legs swung violently, hitting the side of the cliff hard.
Over the sound of pebbles falling and rain pounding, I couldn’t hear anything. See anything. Stones rolled over the edge of the cliff in my wake, some of them big enough to hurt me as they spun over the top of my head into the deep quarry below.
I tried to find something to plant my feet on so I could climb up over the ledge, but every groove just broke away. The roots started to give, too, straining against my weight.
“Sam!” Saleuk called out again.
I heard his boots slamming on the ground above me just as the root slid loose from its rocky hold.
I was going to die.
A hand slammed around my wrist and immediately, I grabbed on. Saleuk was lying on his stomach on the ledge with his arm outstretched to me.
“Don’t let me go!” I begged, glancing at the sharp rocks a hundred feet below. Tears welled in my eyes at the thought of falling. It was far enough that I would be completely conscious of my coming death. The freefall would be torture until the ground finished me. “Please, Saleuk,” I sobbed.
“Hang on,” he said, pulling me up with one arm until my other hand could hook the ledge. “I’ve got you.”
With one last tug, I was able to lift my foot onto the cliff and push forward. I stumbled, landing on top of Saleuk. Every breath was a whimper when I realized I was once more on solid ground. I could hear my own heart drumming loudly inside me, but my head was pressed against Saleuk’s chest and the sound of his hearts were so close to drowning mine out.
“Sam,” he said frantically, cupping my face in his hands. “Look at me. Are you hurt?”
I opened my eyes to look at him through the haze of tears and saw his skin slowly fade from a subtle, fiery red to a soft blue. I’d never seen that color on him before. I almost died and my body was still shaking from the adrenaline, but all that pent-up energy coiled in the base of my belly as soon as I fully realized I was alive. Not only alive but in Saleuk’s arms. I was stretched out on top of him, mostly uninjured, and feeling my rational thoughts flea like a rabbit from wolves.
“Sam?” he repeated, eyes wide with concern.
“Yeah,” I panted, my gaze settling on his lips. I braced myself on my hands above him, pulling my knees under me so I was straddling his hips.
A crack of thunder shook the ground and electrified the air. Rain started to pour down in buckets, soaking me to the bone and making everything hard to see.
Saleuk abruptly pushed me off of him and leaped to his feet just as floods of water began to fall off the cliffs above us. Once standing, he reached down and pulled me up, dragging me closer to the cliffside. We skirted along it until a network of roots and branches led into a cave in the rocks just big enough for me to stand, but not Saleuk. He pushed me through a curtain of cold water where the space was mostly dry, a little stuffy, and enclosed. It was still loud. The sound of the storm pounded outside like a damn avalanche was rolling over us.
But I didn’t care about any of it. It barely registered to me that we were in a cave because some huge storm had hit the mountainside. All I knew was that my heart was racing, I’d nearly died, and Saleuk and I were in a cave together. I watched his back as he quickly scanned the structural integrity of the cave and then turned his eyes on me. He slung off his pack and dropped it to the ground. Then he stepped toward me, cupping my face in his hands. I was in a daze, watching him scan over my body. He turned my head from side to side and slid his hands down my shoulders. My waist.
“Are you hurt?” he panted. “Are you ok?”
He was as frantic as I had been, checking me thoroughly for injuries, but I was practically numb. If I had any, I didn’t know it and I didn’t care. I just kept staring at him, my core swelling with need.
“It’s white knight syndrome,” I muttered.
“What?”
I reached up, taking his face between my hands, and pulled him toward me. I pressed my lips to his, lifting on my toes to get as close as I could to his body. His warmth. I ground my hips against him, feeling his cock stiffen against my stomach, and pushed my tongue into his mouth with a moan. Desperation made me drunk with lust and I couldn’t contain it. Near-death experiences seemed to do that.
“Sam,” he said against my mouth. “Tell me you’re not hurt.”
“I’m not hurt.”
I stepped forward, pushing Saleuk against the wall and turning the dial on the front of his suit so the material receded into his harness. Seeing the top of him bare, I turned wild with need. I slid my pack off my shoulders, tossing it carelessly aside before I unhooked his harness and forced it off of him.
I didn’t know who I was at that moment, but death was close by, teasing me about barely escaping him, and I was in a mood to flaunt the fact that I was still alive. That I wasn’t letting anything hold me back from what I wanted.
I pressed my mouth to Saleuk’s throat and dragged my tongue down to his chest. He growled, his fingers biting into my shoulders like he was fighting the idea of pushing me off of him.
“Woman, I am balancing on a thin ledge. If you push me—”
“I just nearly died. I’m trying to push you,” I said, my teeth closing over his skin.
It was a gentle bite, but the way it made him shudder only turned my need to feral passion. I needed him so badly it hurt.
Suddenly, his arms were around my waist and he lifted me off the ground. I hugged his hips with my legs, rubbing myself against the hard bulge of his cock. He groaned as he dropped to his knees and set me down on my back beneath him. Within moments, he’d removed my suit and leggings and shoes, taking them all off faster than I ever could. Before I knew it, his lips were on my stomach, pushing the hem of my shirt up until my breasts were bare. His lips sank over one nipple, sucking it to a hard bud. I arched against his mouth, my body ablaze with desire.
“Saleuk,” I whimpered.
He gave ample attention to my other breast before his tongue glided down between them, over the plain of my stomach, to the small patch of curls at the apex of my thighs. Gentle fingers slid between my lower lips to find me wet for him and he moaned with approval. His lips marked my inner thigh before he surged over me again, bracing his hands on either side of my head as he pressed his mouth to mine once more.
“You nearly fall to your death and you’re suddenly dripping for me,” he growled low with pleasure.
I nodded, squirming beneath him. “I’ve never wanted anything more than I want you right now.”
“Say it again.”
“I want you. No, it’s more than that. I’ll die if you don’t fuck me.”
Another deep rumble rose from his throat and he kissed me again, one hand sinking down to the belt of his pants. I heard the material stress as he moved it and raked my fingers back behind his neck to kiss him deeper.
“Keep talking,” he panted against my mouth, pushing my thighs apart with his knee. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to fill me. I want you to be my reality. I want to feel you. Pain. Pleasure. I don’t care. I want you inside me.”
The blunt head of his cock pressed to my slick entrance and I gasped, my fingers curling against the back of his neck in anticipation.
“Oh, I’ll make you feel me,” he rasped, gently pushing forward.
Once the head of his cock slipped past the barrier, I threw my head back with a moan. He slid further, stretching me with every tiny movement he made, but I dared not stop him. The burn was great as he pushed forward, but it was him and it transformed the pain into something wonderful. Something meaningful. There was no artificial barrier between us. No dumbed-down version of intimacy. Saleuk was changing my body to fit him and I was consumed by the thought of it.
I was holding my breath for a moment when I felt him slowly pull out of me. Lifting my head, I peered down between us to see the full length of his cock notched at my entrance. He was thick and long, the light colors of his skin darkening at the tip of his shaft. The sides were textured with small, swollen knobs at the base. When I watched him re-enter me, every nerve in me lit on fire at the sight of him disappearing between my legs. I dropped my head back again with a long, shuddering moan.
Saleuk reached back, hooking his hand around my knee and pulling my leg high against his hip. The minuscule shift let him sink deeper, increasing the stretch. The burn. The pleasure. Everything. Tears formed in my eyes as he claimed me, testing the limits of my body with every stroke.
Finally, he was inside me completely and I let out a relieved and dazed breath. Saleuk said something I didn’t understand and licked his tongue lightly over my lips before kissing me once. Past the pain, there were so many wonderful feelings. Slowly, he pulled out and then slid back in, speaking again in his valerian language.
“What are you saying?” I muttered, biting my lip when he thrust slowly into me for a third time.
He let out a low chuckle. “Dirty things, al’fira.”
He kissed my neck, sending hot ripples through my whole body.
“I want to hear them. Say them so I can understand.”
He pushed into me as far as my body would allow, hitting me so deep I jolted at the sudden pinch at the back of my channel. I hissed, pressing my nails into his arms and making him groan a throaty, sexy sound.
“You’re tight,” he said lustfully. He licked his tongue over the shell of my ear. “So fucking tight.” He thrust into me again, hitting places inside me that I didn’t even know existed. “You feel so good, Sam.” He began to rock his hips faster, every thrust somehow decisive yet gentle. “You sheath me so well, I can hardly think.”
“I can’t think at all.”
“You don’t need to,” he chuckled, sliding one hand down between us. His fingers found my clit slick and wet and he immediately began massaging circles over it. My back arched at the pleasure, chasing the sensations. “I need to hear you first. I want to hear you come. Stars above, I’ve wanted to hear what you sound like in delirious ecstasy since I met you.”
“Saleuk…”
I didn’t know what I was going to say. I just had to say his name. My body was tense and on the verge of unraveling. Nothing was like I was expecting. The pressure. The way he stretched me. The pain that fed the pleasure. None of it existed in a virtual world. I was in a rapturous daze, discovering things I liked and yet never knew existed.
“Talk to me,” he panted, his fingers expertly torturing my clit while his cock claimed everything inside me. “Tell me what you feel.”
“I feel… oh, God… I feel you so deep.”
He chuckled again and my core fluttered at the handsome sound.
“I am deep,” he said, his mouth barely an inch above mine. He thrust harder, his body rocking against mine with more vigor and desperation. “And you’re taking me so well. Like you were made for me.”
Pulling his fingers from my clit, he reached out to take my wrist, pushing my hand between us. He guided my fingers low until I could feel his thick shaft moving in and out of me, rock hard and thick.
I trembled, peering up into the vibrant depths of his eyes.
“Feel that?” he said. He sunk into me until the swollen base pressed hard against my knuckles. “You’re taking all of me.”
I nodded, wordless and overwhelmed with the cluster of sensations coiling deep inside.
“Saleuk,” I sighed raggedly, the pressure driving me to the brink. I needed release. I needed… something.
“I know, al’fira. I want you to come for me. Don’t hold back.”
“I need…” I swallowed my words, finding it hard to even breathe.
Like he could read my mind, he turned his hand and once more assaulted my clit with his slick, gentle fingers. My nerves sang with pleasure instantly. No… they screamed with pleasure. He continued to rock into me, harder and faster with every thrust. The friction was everything. It was overwhelming and perfect and easy to get lost in.
And I did. I could hear nothing outside of my own sobbing breaths, Saleuk’s heavy, rugged groans, and the crude sound of our joining. When his mouth closed over the bend of my shoulder and his teeth grazed my flesh, the threads binding my self-control snapped and sent me careening over an invisible ledge.
My back bowed. My toes curled. I thought I was going to lose my mind and scream, but instead, I choked out a breathy cry, my nails scouring Saleuk’s arms. He growled, biting harder against my neck. He continued to rock into me again and again, torturing me through my orgasm and giving me no reprieve from his heavenly assault.
Then, finally, I felt his muscles go rigid. He plunged deep, hitting that painful spot deep inside, and stilled. Liquid heat surged inside me, filling me and claiming me. I heard him let out a strained cry, the aftershocks of his release shuddered through every bit of his body. Knowing he’d just come inside me nearly made me climax all over again.
Spent, Saleuk collapsed on top of me, falling slightly to the side so he didn’t crush me beneath his weight. We were both fighting for air, satiated and boneless. We were dirty. Sweaty. I was covered in cuts and bruises I didn’t want Saleuk to know about until we had our heads on straight again. But it was all pure perfection. I blinked tiredly, a smile lazily spreading across my lips.
“Are you alright?” he panted.
“I’m more than alright.”
Tenderly, Saleuk reached down between us, gingerly pulling himself from my body. I hissed, realizing suddenly how raw and sore I was. In the moment, the pain was just a way to heighten the pleasure, but now I was feeling it as pain was meant to be felt.
“You’re bleeding a little,” he said calmly, adjusting his belt to conceal his cock behind his pants again.
I lifted my head to see what he was talking about, but it must have been so little because I saw nothing.
“How much?” I asked.
“Not much. It’s to be expected.”
“I know.” I sat up on my hands and licked my lips. “I only worry at how long it will take to heal. I already want to do it again.”
He took a deep breath of me and let it out on a slow hum.
“Al’fira, I would take you a hundred more times right here. In my bed. On my ship. Anywhere.”