Chapter 48
CHAPTER
FORTY-EIGHT
For cycles I hadn’t laid eyes on my planet. I’d forgotten the meaning of the word home, of what it meant to belong, to feel a kinship to the universe around me.
But I found it here, with Juniper in my arms.
Her mouth was soft against mine, pliant in a way she hadn’t been the night I’d barreled into her room, unable to bear her screams from the other side of the door I’d camped in front of.
Energy crackled across my skin, arcing onto hers and forcing a shiver down both our spines.
I tightened my grip in her hair, tilting her head to the side so I could press her lips apart, dipping my tongue into her mouth to taste her.
Juniper’s moan was sweeter than anything I’d ever known.
When her hands curled into my shirt, pulling it up so they could dive beneath it, one of my own moans answered hers.
My mouth moved from her cheek to her temple, placing kisses across her lids, the space between her brows—each one an apology and a thank you, a promise and a plea.
She traced my sides with her fingertips, sliding up my pecs to press her palms against the beating of our hearts beneath my skin.
She didn’t understand what the feeling meant, but she would before the night was over.
I grazed my teeth along her throat, gently biting the junction of her shoulder and neck where I would one day make her mine.
She whimpered, squeezing her thighs together as her head tilted to the side, giving me better access.
A rumble of approval vibrated through my chest and, though I’d only asked for a kiss, I couldn’t stop myself from gripping her around the waist and drawing her up to straddle my lap.
She went willingly, wrapping her fingers around the hem of my shirt and pulling it over my head.
Her attention danced across my face, down my throat, over the markings on my chest that mingled with the cycles’ worth of scars littering my skin.
Each pass of her fingers across my flesh sent another ripple of power down my spine until my cock ached and pressed against her center.
A flush danced across her face, sliding down her neck, and gods, I needed to know how far it went.
I wrapped my hand around her throat, tugging her face closer.
“Tell me what you want, j’ska mahsi.” Pressing my other against her hip, I rocked against her, pulling the most beautiful groan from her lips.
“Because if you don’t, I’m going to take until there’s nothing left.
Until you’re spread out beneath me, begging for what only I can give you.
And June…I said I would take, but I’m also going to give and give and fucking give until there’s nothing left of me either. ”
Juniper nodded frantically, gripping my shoulders to push herself down against my rocking cock as I thrust up against her. “Yes, Maker, yes. I want it, Asher. I need it.”
I slid my hand up higher, thumb pulling down her bottom lip until I could see her teeth. “I won’t bite…not yet.” The words were for me, not her. “Not yet.”
Her tongue flicked out, tasting my skin before she closed her lips around my thumb, sucking.
Her hands curled into the hem of her shirt, tugging it up so I was forced to pull my thumb from her lips.
Her chest heaved with her breaths and I traced the curve of her nose, down to the point of her chin, the hollow of her throat, to the swell of her breasts beneath her band.
The only thing I could do was watch as she pulled at the wrap.
My fingers flexed where they’d dropped to her thighs, forcing myself to stay in place as inch after inch of pale skin littered with faint scars peeked through.
After an eternity, it fell and she tossed it to the side.
I groaned, leaning forward to lick a stripe between her breasts, palms sliding up her torso to cup them.
They fit perfectly, because my hands were made for her body alone.
My control snapped. I flipped us so she landed with her back against the cushions, hair fanning across the dark fabric.
Gripping the hem of her leggings, I drew them off along with her boots in one quick move until she was bare beneath me.
Her eyes glinted in the blue and white light spilling across the room as we jumped quadrants, lifting up onto her elbows.
“Now you,” she breathed.
I took a deep breath to steady myself and rose to my feet, slipped off my boots and shucked my trousers.
But I couldn’t stop looking at her. My gaze traveled the line of her face, to her breasts, to the dip of her belly, across the span of her hipbones, down to the apex of her thighs.
Juniper didn’t try to hide from me, not even when my attention lingered there.
Instead, she widened her legs further, pulling a tortured moan from my chest as my cock throbbed.
Warmth curled around the base of my shaft as she gripped me.
Instinctively my hand shot out, tangling my fingers into her hair as she scooted forward on the couch, tracing the line of the vein on the underside.
She was contemplative as she explored me.
Bright eyes watched my tip leak with shining need before she leaned forward, licking the head once, and hummed at my taste.
“Fuck.” I thrust forward and she grinned wickedly, repeating the movement while she worked my cock, lapping at me over and over until I was a mess above her.
My shoulders shook, stomach flexing, and a few times my knees felt in danger of giving out.
I pressed my tongue to the corner of my mouth, biting down as her lips closed over the crown, sucking harder.
My answering moan was more of a rumble and I pulled back, gripping her by the chin.
“If you keep that up this will be over before we both want it to be,” I murmured, leaning down to press a kiss to her lips.
It was my turn to reduce her to a whimpering mess.
I pressed her back against the couch, falling to my knees between her thighs.
She leaned back, running her fingers through my hair like she was learning the texture of it.
A soft, unguarded look passed across her face and it made my chest ache.
Juniper was always beautiful, even when she was covered in blood, but goddess, this was something else.
I slid my hands beneath her hips, cupping her ass and tilting her pelvis up to meet my face.
This time I didn’t ease her into it—I plunged forward like a male starved, lapping and sucking as if her sweetness was the only sustenance I required.
Her moan was soft, tentative, even as her muscles tensed and fingers tightened in my hair.
“Use me, sweetheart,” I murmured, pulling one hand back. I slid it up her stomach, between her breasts, and pressed my index and middle finger to her mouth. When she opened, I dipped two inside, coating them with her spit before I worked them into her tight cunt.
Goddess, she was aching. I could feel it through our bond.
The devastating need she both feared and revered would have been enough to bring me to my knees if I hadn’t already been there.
As I curled my fingers, sliding them against her front wall, Juniper’s head fell back, hips jumping, and I grinned.
My mouth returned to her center, sucking her clit in time with my hand until she panted, a sheen of sweat dewing across her chest.
“Asher—I—Maker.” Her tight walls contracted around my fingers while she fell apart, body quaking with her release. But it wasn’t enough, wasn’t anywhere close to enough. I slid a third finger inside, her moan this time guttural as I pressed her hips up with my free hand and swirled my tongue.
“I can’t, I can’t,” she panted.
I pumped my fingers, teeth grazing her clit, and she shouted. “You can take it, mahsi, I know you can. Need to make sure I fit—don’t you want that?”
“Goddess,” she groaned and my cock wept at the term she’d pulled from our bond.
Not going to bite, I reminded myself even as my teeth ached.
Her chest flushed and when she lifted her head to watch, her pupils were blown black, mouth slack with her pleasure.
Before me now was a female I’d never seen before and desperately wanted to know more of.
Especially as her hand tightened in my hair and she ground down on my face, chasing her release.
The next time she fell apart, my name echoed through the room with her screams. I gentled my touch, pressing my lips to her thighs and belly. “So perfect for me, j’ska mahsi. My perfect mate. Are you ready?”
She whimpered, body pliant as I lifted her off the couch, carrying her over to the nest of cushions I’d put there ages ago after I’d figured out she’d taken to hiding in here. As I laid her down, she clung to me with a whimper and I shushed her, stroking the hair back from her face.
“I’m not going anywhere, June,” I promised in an attempt to calm the spike of panic flooding her veins. Her answering sigh was soft as I brushed my lips across hers before diving down to suck a bruise on her shoulder.
Slowly, I lined my cock up at her entrance, her recent orgasms easing the way for my length. And though my body was made for her, she keened, head jerking to look down between us as I pressed one of her knees to her chest. “It won’t fit.”
A rumble slipped through my lips, vibrating against her skin where my teeth pressed lightly into her neck. “I’m going to make it fit, sweetheart. I was made for you.”
I rocked in shallow thrusts, fitting my hand between us to circle her clit.
June moaned, hips tilting to receive another inch, curses falling from her lips in pants.
But all I could say was her name, mingled with the promise in my language that she was mine and we would never be parted.
As I finally slid home, she cried out, a sudden orgasm fluttering around my cock, squeezing me until I saw stars and she tilted her head to the side, exposing her throat.
“Bite,” she murmured as the bond rode her harder.
Not here. Though from the outside I’d forsaken my people, in my heart I was still Akahzyrian. There were things we needed to do before I could bite so our mating bond would truly be sealed.
So I pressed a wet kiss to her offered throat and drew up, pressing her thighs to her chest and making her cry out with the change in pressure. My thumb swiped across her clit and I watched raptly as I disappeared into her again and again, her cunt stretched tight to accommodate me.
“Bite, bite, bite,” she chanted.
I closed a hand over her throat using just enough pressure to her in place.
“Not yet, sweetheart. We have to go home first and wash ourselves in the Waters of Khal and—fuck—walk the circle of our goddess three times.” My voice was merely a rasp, heat springing to my eyes as she stared up at me in wonder, her lips parted and cheeks flushed.
“Paint our bodies with her tears. I need to lay you down on our sacred altar. Fill you up with my seed until it’s spilling onto the stones. ”
“Ash,” she moaned while I rocked into her, thighs shaking around my chest.
My cock throbbed, energy skittering down my spine, but I needed her to come again so I could feel her falling apart around me.
I leaned down, releasing her throat in favor of sucking the tip of one breast into my mouth and rolling her other nipple between my fingers.
“Then I’ll sink my teeth so far into you, you won’t know where you end and I begin. ”
“Gods, fuck, I need it.” June gripped my hair, but there was uncertainty there too behind the bond; it was a tang in the back of my throat, a flutter in my heart.
“You feel this?” I grabbed her wrist with my free hand and pressed it to my chest. “You say that you need time, and I’ll give you as much as you need. But that’s your heart beating beside my own. You’re in me, sweetheart. I carry you with me. Because you, Juniper, are my home now.”
And with those final words, she fell apart and took me with her.