Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Selik pushed forward slowly, carefully, watching Corinne’s face for any sign of discomfort. The tight heat of her around him was exquisite, everything he’d imagined and more. She felt perfect, her body welcoming him as he sank deeper, inch by careful inch.
This shouldn’t be possible.
The thought struck him with staggering force even as pleasure threatened to overwhelm his control.
Every Cire male knew—had been told repeatedly since the Red Death—that he could only truly mate with a Cire female.
The scholars, the elders, the Council itself had declared it an immutable fact.
A human female, no matter how desirable, should feel pleasant but incomplete.
Except Corinne didn’t feel incomplete. She felt like home.
He stilled when he was fully seated inside her, their bodies joined in the most intimate way possible. She felt impossibly tight, impossibly right, as if she’d been made specifically for him. The nubs along his shaft pressed against her inner walls, creating a friction that made both of them gasp.
“S’kara,” he breathed, the endearment feeling more natural than it ever had before. “Look at me.”
She opened her eyes, and the trust and desire he saw there nearly undid him.
“You feel so good,” she whispered. “I never knew…”
“Neither did I.”
He began to move, slowly at first, finding a rhythm that was both old and new. Every instinct he possessed screamed to claim her, to mark her as his in the most primitive way possible. But he held back, savoring each sensation, each gasp, each arch of her back.
The scent of her arousal filled his office, mingling with his own, creating an intoxicating blend that made him growl with possessive hunger.
His hands explored her body, tracing the curves and hollows, the places that made her shiver and gasp and moan his name.
His tail slipped between them, tugging at the taut peaks of her nipples, and her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him deeper with each thrust.
He shifted his angle slightly, changing the depth and speed of his strokes, and her back arched off the table.
“Selik,” she cried out. “Right there. Don’t stop.”
“Never,” he promised, and drove into her again and again, pushing her higher and higher until she was shaking, her hands clenching against his shoulders. “Come for me, s’kara. Let go.”
Her climax hit with the force of a supernova. Her inner muscles clenched around him, pulling him deeper as her body spasmed with pleasure. She sobbed his name, her expression one of absolute abandon. The sight of her, lost in pleasure, was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
His own release built rapidly, the pressure in his spine intensifying until he thought he might explode.
His knot began to form, a swelling at the base of his cock that would lock them together, binding them in the most intimate way possible.
It should have been impossible to form with a human female.
But it swelled anyway, stretching her impossibly as it locked them together, and her eyes went wide with a mixture of shock and renewed pleasure.
“What is—?” she moaned as another, smaller orgasm shook her body, and he exploded, his release flooding through him in long heated pulses as the knot sent a cascade of pleasure through them both.
They cried out together, their voices mingling in the quiet room, as wave after wave of pleasure washed over them.
He collapsed forward, catching himself on his elbows to avoid crushing her, but unable to move any further away.
He was still locked inside her, the knot ensuring they would remain joined for a while longer.
She was trembling beneath him, her body slick with sweat, her body limp with satisfaction.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead, her cheek, the corner of her mouth, tasting the salt of her tears.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
She blinked slowly, as if surfacing from deep water. “I think I need to redefine ‘all right’. That was…”
“Yes.” He didn’t need her to finish. He felt it too. “I am still inside you.”
“I know.” She shifted experimentally, and a wave of pleasure shot through him. “You’re… bigger now.”
“My knot.” He stroked her hair back from her damp forehead. “It ties us together and marks us as mates.”
“Mates,” she whispered, wonder dawning in her eyes. “Oh, Selik.”
He buried his face in the curve of her neck, breathing in the scent of her, memorizing the feeling of her beneath him. She was soft and warm and alive, and for the first time in twenty years, he felt truly complete.
The knot held for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, keeping them joined long after their mutual release.
He’d expected her to be frightened or overwhelmed, but instead she stroked her hands over his back and shoulders, exploring the muscles and ridges with a gentle curiosity that made him feel cherished.
He pressed a kiss to her temple, marveling at the delicate softness of her skin. “You are my mate, Corinne. My true mate in every way.”
“And you’re mine.” She pulled him down for a lingering kiss. “No matter what the Council or the scholars say, this is real.”
She was right. This bond was as real as anything he’d ever experienced.
More real, perhaps, than his first mating had been.
Kessa had been a good match, a good friend and a suitable partner chosen through family connections and cultural expectations.
What he felt for Corinne transcended all of that.
This was the raw, primal recognition of a soul that complemented his own.
“I love you,” he said, the words emerging with surprising ease. “I know it is too soon, that we have only known each other a short time, but I love you with everything I am.”
Tears gathered in her eyes. “I love you too. God help me, I think I’ve loved you since the moment you caught me on that hillside.”
He kissed her again, but despite his happiness, he knew that their problems were not over.
The Council would not approve of this relationship.
A human mate and a Cire infant who should not exist?
They would consider it their duty to intervene, to separate his family and return Mikoz to Ciresia where he could be raised “properly” among his own kind.
Over my dead body.
“I need to return to the children,” she said reluctantly, making no move to actually leave. “They’ll be waking soon and Anya will panic if I’m not there.”
“I know.” He pulled out carefully, mourning the loss of their connection, and helped her sit up. Her tunic was crumpled on the floor and her panties were beyond repair. He grabbed a blanket from his bunk and wrapped it around her shoulders. “But before you go, I need you to understand something.”
She looked up at him with those expressive eyes, and his heart clenched at how much he’d come to care for this brave, fierce woman.
“The Council will not approve of us,” he said bluntly. “They will see our bond as impossible or false. They will want to take Mikoz to be raised on Ciresia. They will do everything in their power to separate us.”
“Then we don’t tell them.”
“Eventually they will discover the truth. Tarak suspects others on the ship already know about Mikoz.”
“So we leave.” She said it with calm certainty, as if abandoning everything he’d built was a simple solution. “You said you’d been looking for a quiet world where we could settle. We go there, the four of us, and we build a life away from the Council’s interference.”
“You would give up the chance to return to Earth? To bring Anya home to her own people?”
“I would give up anything to keep this family together, and I’m sure that Anya will agree.
” She cupped his face between her hands.
“Earth stopped being home the moment we were taken. You and the children—you’re my home now.
We’ll find somewhere safe where Anya can grow up and Mikoz can be himself and we can just be without constantly looking over our shoulders. ”
The fierce protectiveness in her voice made his chest tighten. She meant every word. She would walk away from her entire world to keep their family intact.
“I will find a way,” he promised. “I will locate a safe haven where we can build a life together without Council interference. It may take time, but I swear to you, I will not let anyone separate us.”
“I trust you.” She kissed him softly. “Now help me find something to wear that isn’t a blanket so I can sneak back to the children without traumatizing anyone who sees me in the corridor.”
He rummaged through his storage locker and found an old training tunic that would dwarf her small frame but at least cover the essentials. She pulled it on, the hem falling to mid-thigh and the shoulders hanging halfway down her arms. She looked absurd and adorable and thoroughly ravished.
“Perfect,” she said with a grin. “Very inconspicuous.”
“Perhaps you should keep the blanket as well.”
She laughed, the sound warming him from the inside. “I’ll risk it. But you owe me new underwear.”
“I will procure an entire wardrobe of undergarments if it pleases you.”
“Just some basic clothes would be fine.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss him one more time. “I love you, Selik dar’Tacharan. Remember that when things get complicated.”
“I love you, Corinne.” He pulled her close, breathing in her scent—now mixed with his own in a way that satisfied something primal inside him. “And I will move worlds to keep you safe.”
She slipped out of his office, checking the corridor first to make sure no one would see her sneaking back to her quarters in the middle of the night. He watched until she disappeared around the corner, then sank onto his desk chair with a groan.
What had he done?