Chapter 57 #2
“You can redecorate the entire palace. I won't mind,” he laughed. “Since I plan on keeping you pregnant as long as possible, I can't complain when the symptoms of that flare up.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. He took the opportunity to take it into his mouth, kissing her eagerly as he slid his fingers up the back of her shirt, tracing her spine.
She moaned so sweetly as she melted into his arms, her flavor spreading over his tongue. He could easily kiss her for a mark or more, but he pulled back after only indulging for a moment.
“I brought you back a gift,” he said, gently stroking her cheek.
“Oh?” She brightened. “What is it?”
He reached into his pouch and pulled out a small, drawstring bag. Her expression turned thoughtful like she had an idea what was inside, but she wasn't sure if she was right. Atem smiled, pleased with himself, as he dropped the bag into her palm.
She opened it and spilled the twin rings he had bought out onto her hand. Immediately, joyous laughter burst from her throat. These rings, differing only in size, were thick enough to cover an entire joint on their hand and made of carefully braided silver studded with red crystals.
“Atem,” she laughed, closing her hand around them. “Thank you. They're beautiful. But you know, you only have to give me the one ring, right?”
He scoffed, taking the hand she had closed around the rings, the hand she always offered out to him, and kissed the back of it.
“I love you too much to settle on one ring.
If a single ring is enough to pronounce my love, then more rings must declare it louder.
I'll give you so many rings, you'll have enough to match all of your outfits.”
Peony lovingly slid the rings back into the bag before clutching them to her heart. “Thank you, Atem. I love them.”
“Those gems come from the mines near the city I visited. I'll get you ones with green stones later to match your eyes. I know how much you like wearing green and red.”
Peony's face flushed with pleasure. As it usually did when he proved how much attention he paid to the little things she did.
“How was the mission?” She asked, turning to bring the rings to her jewelry cabinet in the closet. “Did anyone get hurt?”
“Yes. A lot of their clan had more than a few broken bones and lacerated skin.”
Peony gave him an amused glance as he leaned against the wall while she lovingly put her new rings into the drawer that held all her other rings. He knew what she meant and had deliberately answered her question incorrectly.
“No,” he said. “No one on our side was hurt badly. It was a good fight though. I enjoyed myself.”
“I'm glad.” She stroked her new rings lovingly before waving her hand over the sensor that closed the drawer for her. “You're actually back sooner than I expected.”
“It was a good fight, but not so good as spending time with my adassi. I was eager to come back to you, vi Peony.”
She chuckled, returning to him, easily sliding her arms round his waist. “You're the best, you know that, Atem?”
“I have to be. My adassi is perfection.”
She giggled, kissing his chest before taking a deep breath of his scent. “I think you give me too much credit, but I'll take the compliment.”
He grunted in displeasure, catching her attention.
“What?” She asked, running her nails gently along his flanks.
“You got mad at me for not believing you when I didn't believe you had no one waiting for you on Earth.”
She blinked, not understanding. So, he continued.
“You think I won't get mad if you don't believe me when I say you're perfect?”
She started in surprise before her face turned its delightful pink shade. She ducked her head, turning her eyes from him. He took hold of her chin and pulled her back.
“You are perfect, vi adassi,” he repeated. “Your beauty, your taste, your heart, your strength, your laugh. Everything. There is no sweeter female in this universe. No other female that has ever given me so much. You are my life. My mate. My everything. Do not ever doubt that again when I say it.”
“Vas, vi Dominani,” she returned, making him growl with approval.
“Come here, vi adassi,” he ordered, grabbing her before she even had a chance to obey the command and lifting her up. Her legs locked automatically around his waist as she clung to his shoulders, laughing with joy at the show of strength.
“We made a lot of decisions about the baby shower,” she said as he walked them back into their room, his hands cupping her butt shamelessly.
“Explain to me why you call a celebration of pregnancy a 'shower'?”
Peony made a face. “Look, my people name things weird things for reasons that I'm sure have some meaning but have become completely lost to time and seem nonsensical when examined without the original context. You're just going to have to accept that.”
He chuckled, resting her onto their bed. She quickly crawled back, making room for him. He covered her body, resting his head on her belly. He kissed the small curve that was the proof of her womb rounding and strengthening for his pup.
Her fingers ran through his hair, playing with the strands as he spoke soft words to his offspring.
A few phrases of love from a parent to their youngling in ancient domini, some stories of his own parents that the pup would never meet and promises in modern Domtri to always protect him and his dam, no matter what would come.
Peony continued to stroke his hair as he spoke. It wasn't the first time he had talked to his pup since she had returned. He enjoyed spending the time with him. The most he would get until Peony finally delivered him into their hands when he was ready to emerge.
He worried, at times, that his hybrid pup would be healthy. What he would look like.
Most problems could be fixed by Donivi. The healer assured him that, thus far, he was seeing no known potential problems in the genome. Those could be fixed, given enough time, so long as the pup survived the gestational process.
That being said, there were still some devastating issues that were so immediately deadly that nothing could be done to save them. They were rare, and Atem didn't know how likely they were to emerge given his hybrid status.
But Peony's adaptable body was handling the alien lifeform exceedingly well. According to Donivi, the pup was developing exactly as a domini should. Maybe the hybrid would inherit his mother's adaptability and adjust to their combined genetics well.
In this, he had to trust in Donivi, in Scarlet, and in Peony most of all.
So, he showed his pup love as often as he could, even if it could only be done through the thin barrier of her skin and the thicker, more impressive, barrier of her womb.
Placing one last kiss over her belly, he continued crawling up her body so he could kiss her lips instead, showing her his devotion this time.
Peony's eyes flashed with joy and love whenever he spoke to their pup. Whenever he showed her just how much he loved her as well. It was his own special pleasure to see how she glowed under his adoration and attention.
His kiss turned intimate, then passionate. She came alive under his touch, purring and undulating her sensual body up against him.
“Atem?” She moaned when he broke the kiss to instead focus on the adorable, rounded shell of her oddly shaped ears. They were sensitive little appendages, and it was always a delight to run his tongue along the whirls and to watch her shiver from the action.
He hummed in response, more focused on her body than her words.
“Don't you owe me the chance to do anything I want with you?”
Atem stilled before lifting himself up over her. She was grinning at him, her gaze wicked. He chuckled, running his fingers down her neck.
“You're right. I do. What is it you want from me, vi Peony?”
“Control.” She hadn't hesitated. The wicked look in her eye gleamed and he was reminded of the way she had teased him during their formal mating.
Chuckling, he took hold of her wrists and pulled, falling back as he did so. The motion ended with him on his back and her straddling his abdomen. She laughed, wiggling her butt against him. He curled his tail up and smacked, then stroked, the skin of those rounded muscles.
Reaching back, Peony took hold of his tail. He wrapped it around her wrist as she stroked the tip, bringing it around to her front. He allowed the hold just as he allowed her to dominate him. Giving her what she wanted, just as he promised.
Though it was a struggle not to move as she, tail still looped around her wrist, started pulling his clothes away from him.
He only lifted his hips and his torso enough to help her remove them, but otherwise stayed mostly motionless as her fingers trailed over his skin, taking her time to tease and torment rather than pleasure.
Just as she had wanted the night they mated, though he had denied her the chance then to make sure their mating progressed as necessary.
He had no reason to stop her now. He also had no ingrained instinct to submit to his adassi for their first true mating anymore. It was much harder now to remain still and not to take control as she satisfied herself.
His entire body was tense. Each muscle jumping with every slow caress of her warm fingers, every brush of her soft lips.
She chuckled a couple times. Amused by how his body reacted her.
His cock was so hard it ached, but she deliberately ignored it as she paid attention to every other part of him she could reach instead.
The sweetest torture.
His mate looked so sweet and innocent, so helpless and sexual, but this hidden ferocity and strength in her was what he loved most. This was the first time he had given her a chance to explore that in bed and it was both wonderful and frustrating.
She didn't know how to fight. She fought anyway. She couldn't protect herself. She protected everyone else. Most important to him, she had nothing to give. She gave everything anyway.