Epilogue
SELENE
Ihated waking up early. Key word being hated. Now, I love it. The difference being the warm body in my bed, curled up beside me. Strong hands sliding along my hips, squeezing and massaging. Clawed fingertips scraping my sensitive skin, grazing the underside of my breasts.
My breath hitches.
Almost against my will, I wiggle my hips, savoring the strength behind me. The firmness. Warm muscles press against the softness of my backside. Heated breath ghosts over my skin as lips graze my shoulder and neck.
“You smell so divine.” An almost rumbled purr emanates from Khatak.
I snort at that, replying, “I probably smell like sex and sweat.”
For good reason. He kept me up way too late last night. And that’s ignoring that we skipped dinner. Nearly skipped lunch too. Who knew my shy alien would be a devil in the sheets?
Rolling over, I gaze up at him. A literal devil. His red skin and black, pointy horns add to the equation. The pointed tail that’s sliding beneath the blankets, gliding up between my thighs, really helps set the visual as well.
Khatak presses his face to my neck, lips kissing and teeth nipping.
Each sting of his sharp teeth has shivers traveling through my body, knowing just how much damage he could do and yet he’s so gentle.
But it’s the licking and sucking that has me moaning.
It feels so good, and I know how good it can feel elsewhere too.
“You smell like mine,” Khatak replies, his voice a rough growl.
I whimper when his hand slides beneath the covers, covering one of my breasts. With a possessive touch, he squeezes and tweaks my nipple until I’m left...
Each answering throb between my thighs has me squirming.
I trail my fingers over his muscles as he hovers above me.
Thick biceps and vein-traced forearms are for my viewing pleasure.
I’ve even convinced my shy alien to strip for me before, and it was one hundred percent worth the begging.
Especially when he had me begging in a different way not long after.
I grate my nails down his back, listening to his hissed sound of pleasure. He loves when I get a bit rough, a bit demanding. Khatak might like control just as much as I do, but he loves it even more when I direct him.
“I want you to fuck me, Khatak,” I tell him.
He chuckles, his mouth hovering over my aching bud of a nipple. Breath ghosts it, teasingly. So close. I try to yank his head closer, but he’s too strong and won’t be moved.
“Do you want my mouth on you, or my cock in you?” he asks. “’Cause I can only do one.”
I huff a laugh, knowing that’s a complete lie. But he has this preference for drawing things out, for leaving me wanting until I just can’t anymore.
Gripping his strong jaw, I tilt his face until his gaze meets mine.
“Fine. I want you to make love to me.”
His grin is feral. His eyes practically bleeding to black.
“Now that I can do.”
His leg nudges mine apart, and gratefully I wrap my thighs around him. I have to spread wide as he’s still so much larger than me. His full weight pushing down on me, holding me in place.
It doesn’t bother me at all.
Not even when he takes my hands and guides them to the headboard, instructing me to hold tight and not let go.
“Or else I’ll have to get the cuffs out again.”
I grin. “Maybe I want the cuffs.”
I never thought I’d enjoy them. When he first proposed the idea, it brought up way too many fears. But Khatak’s been patient with me, and shown that trust can be earned. An entire side of me that I never knew existed has since emerged.
A wild side that can’t be tamed.
I might not be able to use my hands, at least according to his instructions, so I buck my hips.
His penis, long, thick and hard, brushes through my slick folds. Each bump on it rubs against my clit, sending delicious thrills through my body.
“Behave.” Khatak laughs. “Else I might not last.”
The admission just heightens my senses and makes me want him more. He’s close, and it’s not for a lack of stamina. This guy can go, and go and go. It’s all because of me. It’s all from how much he wants me.
He reaches down between us, fingers stroking all the right places. He groans. “You’re so wet for me already.”
“Yes,” I gasp as his finger circles that one spot. My eyes close in bliss as my hips rock, matching his rhythm. Soon.
And of course he pulls away. The tease.
I sniff. My fingernails digging into the wood. I really want to shove him onto his back and climb on top. But I want him pounding into me more, to see his face as he completely loses his senses and takes me for his own pleasure.
“So impatient, little one.” Khatak laughs. But thankfully he lines himself up. His eyes flicking up to mine, assessing, as he begins to push.
The pressure is insane as his large member starts to breach me. The stretch is almost to the point of pain. But so much pleasure as well. A burning need that I feel to my core.
And then he slides in, taking me with one long deep thrust.
We both lie there panting. I’m pretty sure Khatak swears, though my translator just beeps.
His hips begin to rock, a slow movement that has me simultaneously praising and cursing him.
Slick heat builds between us as I match his rhythm. Our bodies rub together, the smooth fabric surrounding us gliding against sensitized skin. Tangling in our limbs as our movements become more frenzied.
He’s touching everywhere. I can only hold on; the sensations are too overwhelming. Too much.
I’m so close, but…
“I can’t.”
My body is on fire. The pressure inside is building and building, growing impossibly. Every muscle throbs as I feel him glide in and out, my channel desperately clinging tight.
“Khatak.” A desperate plea leaves me.
“I’ve got you,” he groans into my ear. “Come for me.”
And just like that, I explode. Electricity shoots through my body, lighting up every nerve ending. I scream, though I can’t even hear my own voice over the groan that vibrates in my ear.
Every sense is focused on the way Khatak’s hips grind into my own, his cock deep inside of me as it pulses and swells with his seed. The heat bathing my insides.
And then the almost overbearing warmth of his body as it sinks down on mine. Never enough to smother; he holds himself propped up on one arm, just enough to gaze down at me. His eyes warm. His lips holding a tender smile.
He presses a chaste kiss to my lips, as if he wasn’t just doing dirty things to my insides.
“You definitely smell good,” he remarks. “You smell of me.”
I roll my eyes, barking out a laugh. Aliens and their weird sense of smell. Still… I kind of like how he claims me. It’s the exact same for me. My chest growing warm whenever I claim him. The smile he sends my way just reinforces that we are meant to be together.
“I, one hundred percent, definitely smell of sweat now,” I remark, pushing him off me.
He falls into the covers beside me, laughing.
“It’s not funny. We have to get ready!”
Khatak hums an agreement. “We should nearly be there, actually.”
I scramble out of bed, deftly avoiding Khatak’s reaching hands. With a laugh I grab the first thing within reach—Khatak’s shirt from last night—and pull it on as I pad across the small cabin to the porthole window. My face is a disaster, having never washed off yesterday’s makeup, but I don’t care.
Because there it is.
The Alien Hotel grows larger in the viewport, its sprawling structure backlit by the soft glow of the nearby star.
And unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, those are definitely Christmas decorations wrapped around the entire main tower.
Twinkling lights, what looks like giant ornaments hanging from the entrances, and—is that a massive wreath?
“Excited?” Khatak’s voice rumbles from behind me, and I glance back to see him pulling on his pants. His horns catch the light as he moves, and I have to resist the urge to drag him back to bed.
We’re docking in twenty minutes. I can behave for twenty minutes.
Probably.
“I can’t wait to tell Elana about the floating gardens of Vornath,” I say, turning back to the window. “Floating! I tell you. They were floating.”
“I was there too, you know.” His tone is bone-dry, but I can hear the smile in it.
“Yes, but did you properly appreciate them?” I shoot back. “Because I took approximately three hours of recordings, and you spent most of that time in a diplomatic meeting with very serious Drakoon councilmembers discussing very serious trade agreements.”
“Someone had to handle the boring parts.”
“And someone had to take videos of the magical floating islands. They were literally covered in millions of flowers.” I turn to face him fully. “I’m just saying, I contributed to the mission in my own way.”
He crosses the cabin in three strides, and then his arms are around me, his tail wrapping around my leg in that way that still makes my breath catch. His skin is warm against mine, and he smells like that distinctive spice I’ve come to associate with safety and home and him.
“Should I be worried?” he murmurs against my hair. “You used to need a detailed itinerary just to leave your room. Now I can’t keep up with all the places you want to go.”
I lean back against his chest, letting his warmth seep into me. “Are you complaining?”
“Never.” His arms tighten. “I’m just remembering the female who was terrified to look out a porthole window. Who needed to control every detail just to feel safe. And now you’re running around by yourself and planning our next three destinations before we’ve even landed.”
The observation hits differently than I expect. Because he’s right.
A few months ago, I couldn’t even leave the hotel without my chest tightening.
I organized events because it gave me structure, control, a way to know exactly what was happening at every moment.
The thought of traveling through space, of visiting alien worlds, of not knowing what each day would bring?
Terrifying.