Chapter 8 #2
He was baring himself for me emotionally, letting me see more than any physical nakedness could show, and I was so damn close to crying again.
People never did that. Or at least, they’d never done it with me.
And yet, Inkiri opened himself so easily.
That was trust. As far as I understood the concept, it was love.
“I… Stay with me. Don’t ever leave me, okay? Please?”
“I won’t leave you, sweet thing, not unless force or magic or death make me.”
That did it. He had me in tears again. “Can you not mention death? Like, what good ever comes of jinxing something? No more talk of death.”
He clicked. “The truth doesn’t jinx this oath I give you, Rory. My precious mate. I’ll be at your side until a force I cannot overcome prevents me, and even then, if I can, I will return. Happy tears?”
I leaned against him. “Sort of, yeah. I’m not good with romantic gestures, I guess.”
He chuckled and ran his fingers over my back, this time noticeably stopping where the shirt was tied to tease those knots. His fingers slipped beneath the fabric and brushed my heated skin.
“People will think I abuse you.”
I snorted. “People don’t know anything.” I wiped my face before looking up into Inkiri’s ink-dark eyes.
The slit pupils were wide, and this close, I felt the reason for that pressing against my belly.
“What do you want from me? I mean, if we’re basically entering into a marriage here, it’s give and take, right?
I’ll be honest and tell you upfront that I don’t know how to make a marriage work, because all I ever saw was my parents going and doing their own thing.
It’s funny really. They never argued all that much and just basically agreed to ‘split their assets sooner rather than later.’ That’s what they called getting divorced. ”
“With a true mate, that isn’t how it works.
Assets…that’s of some relevance, since the benefits of them are shared here on Aer, though never things themselves.
Dividing things when people don’t want to be together anymore has become more of an issue with fewer and fewer true mates finding each other, that is true.
“Tell me, Sadir, you said you have a certainty inside of you about you and I being mates?”
“Yes. It’s like…when I was out, after the stupid Stone, there wasn’t any doubt at all.
I still feel that way. I can’t make sense of it.
It’s not like a crush or like I think you’re hot—although you are.
You’re mine, and I’m yours, and that all sounds like absolute truth to me. Even when I say it out loud.”
He nodded. “It’s the same for me. It has been the same since the moment I felt the mate call in my bones, even if I had no idea who you were back then. Why did your parents get divorced?”
I thought back to when I was a kid. Or a teenager. It wasn’t like either of my parents had been at home a ton, and the people most present in my life had always been the au pairs if they were good, and of course Gran.
Mom had just brought up the asset thing over dinner one night, one of the few meals everyone had been there for, and Dad had said it was probably for the best. They had both turned to me and asked where I wanted to stay, but then Mom had added that she was moving across the country for a promotion, and to please keep that in mind when making my decision, just in case I was attached to my school.
All things considered, it had been pretty amicable.
“My parents… You know, I’m not even sure. I think their lives drifted apart.”
Inkiri nodded. “That can happen, but I haven’t heard about it being an issue for true mates. Are there any other things that worry you about being with someone?”
I thought back to my friends. When their parents divorced, it was for the usual reasons. For Cat, it had been her dad going for a younger coworker, and Jacob’s mom had decided she liked her fitness coach better. The two of them had bonded over that.
I bit my lip. “I guess cheating. Also hating one another, but that probably comes after cheating.”
Inkiri hummed. “Donna has explained more about the cheating and about what she calls ‘the boring cishet monogamy.’ Here, polycules are by far the norm. Usually, the hangu or hangua decide the size of the intimate family.
“An intimate family is called a senfesmen. It’s not like a sentenmen, which we are—you and me, Fellisse, Noki, Lissir, and Vergis. Donna called us a found family, and that might be a good term.
“With true mates, it’s rare for anyone not mated to both or either of the first pair to join, but it happens.
From what people say, it’s been happening more often in the recent past with mate calls getting very faint.
But true mates, it is said, cannot and do not feel the way they do for their mate for anyone else. Not in their body, nor in their mind.”
My eyebrows crept up my forehead. “Wait. Are you telling me there might be other people we’re both mated to?”
Inkiri pushed my scarf aside and licked my throat. “It is possible, but I feel like it’s just you and me. Although, I will say, the mate call started for me two years ago. Maybe there will be another for me, or maybe for you. But a second mate call never drowns the first. It just adds more.”
That was…magic. I couldn’t help but wonder how my parents would deal with something like that, or how differently they would have managed their lives if they’d felt a mate call for each other.
I nodded. “Wow. Okay. I understand the found family, and that makes sense. But there’s something Lissir said. Uh. Don’t be mad at him, please. He said you guys were…together?”
Inkiri looked confused. “Why would I be mad at him for telling you that? He was always satisfied, so there is nothing to hide. He and I had what I think is like your friends with benefits arrangement. It worked out well because neither of us wanted more and we could separate family and fucking.” He shrugged.
“But then the mate call happened. He understood, of course.”
My mouth fell open. “Are you saying—you haven’t been with anyone since you felt the mate call for me?”
He looked surprised. “Of course not. I can’t explain, but…I simply didn’t want to.”
I swallowed. “I wasn’t with anyone either.” The religious group had had a wife lined up for me, but she’d not even been fifteen, and my new husband did not need to know about that.
He chuckled. “Yes, you told me. You never knew pleasure.”
I teared up again, not quite sure why, but this all felt very romantic. We were having a really good relationship talk. “You were loyal to me even before you knew who I was. It makes sense that you were horny. Back in the changing room, I mean.”
He stopped my blabbering by tilting my chin up.
“I wasn’t in the changing room with you; you tumbled out of it and landed right at my feet.
You were so pretty. But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m always horny.
” He sounded dead serious, then tilted his head so his right horn almost brushed my forehead.
I giggled. “You’re so silly. Horned and horny aren’t the same.” Probably. I wasn’t sure.
He clicked. “What? You don’t want a humorous mate? Are humorous mates not prized among humans?”
“Puns are not funny. I’ve never punned. I never pun.”
“Is that so? Well, I could always tickle you all over.” He let his fingers wander beneath my shirt and tickled me just underneath my ribs.
I giggled. “Stop.” Though I wouldn’t have minded if he kept going. “Please.”
“Since you ask so nicely, sweet thing.” Inkiri let his warm fingers drop from my heated skin.
He cupped my cheeks and tilted my head up for another tender kiss.
“But in seriousness, you asked what I wanted of you. What I want is an old-fashioned thing. Lissir would be mad with me for asking, but I have always thought how nice it would be to have a mate who enjoys me doting on them, protecting them, and caring for them. Maybe even spoiling them. And…Sadir, you are so very soft. I want soft things for you. I want others to see and hear you happy and marvel at the skill it takes to make you so. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to be doting toward you. Very doting.”
I licked my bottom lip. “I think that’s fine. I wouldn’t mind. I can be super high-maintenance, especially if you like that. I really definitely need you to ravish me now though. Dotingly.”
“I will, but one more thing.” He lifted my right hand and dangled it in front of my face. “You talked about a wedding ring earlier today. Is that something you want?”
I considered it. “You know, I don’t think so, actually.
Don’t get me wrong, I like jewelry as much as the next guy, but I don’t love rings.
They always get in the way. But look.” I showed him my pierced ears.
The commune had asked me to take my studs out, and I’d lost them and hadn’t gotten new ones.
“I have pierced ears, which means earrings are a go.” I waved my friendship bracelet at him.
“I also really like this. Oh, do you think Nokim can make the coin and stone into a necklace for me?” I patted his pants pocket, where he was carrying my stuff for me.
“He will be beside himself with happiness if you task him with it,” Inkiri said. Then he ran his hands all over my body, once more pausing at the ties at the back of my shirt. “Sadir, I want to see you. I want to see you naked.”
This tie he didn’t just skim the bows at my back, but pulled them open, slowly, so slowly I heard the tantalizing slide of fabric against fabric and felt the humid air of the bath against my skin as the shirt parted.
He pulled the garment off and tossed it on a bench by the door, managing to get it right into one of several baskets that sat there.
Then he started touching my chest, running his fingers over my skin and letting them catch on my nipples, making me suck in a sharp breath through my teeth.
I moaned. “Ink…”