Chapter 23
YIRI
Nerus met us on the dock with Cora’s team in tow, both of them wide-eyed, cleaned up, and even standing straighter than normal. The extra effort wasn’t for me. Was it possible to be both proud and and jealously pissed off?
“Welcome to Eissoi, Miss Keaton,” Nerus said, grinning at Cora.
“Thanks,” she said, glancing at me. “But I guess it’s Mrs. Ahlon, now, isn’t it?”
I exchanged confused looks with Nerus.
“Is that different here?” Cora’s face fell a little. “On Earth, most women take their husband’s family name when they marry. It’s just a thing we do.”
I made a mental note to discuss that with her later, and introduced her to the soldiers I’d chosen for her.
“This is Zoddi,” I said, gesturing to the older of the two. “He’s been part of our organization for over a decade. Up until now, he’s been on my team, working under Nerus.”
“It’s an honor to serve you, Miss…” he paused, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Cora,” my mate interjected. “Please call me Cora.”
“Cora,” Zoddi said, grinning. “It’s an honor.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and moved on to the second, and youngest. “Xokat hasn’t been with us as long,” I said. “Only two years, but I had a hand in his training, and I know he’ll protect you just as well.”
Xokat stood at attention, his forehead beaded with sweat. “Miss Cora, I promise I won’t let you down.”
Cora laughed. “Wow. Um. I’m sure you’ll be great at… whatever you’re going to be doing for me.”
“They’re your security team, Aneah,” I explained. “When you leave my estate or the cruiser, at least one of them will be with you at all times.”
“Well, we’ll have to be fast friends, then,” she said to her team. “I’m happy to meet you both.”
After the introductions, I took her home, introduced her to Takka, my head of staff, and gave her a tour of the house. Her team brought her things to her suite from the cruiser, but before I could offer to help her settle in, Nerus was already muttering in my ear about Zacal wanting a word.
Sighing, I approached Cora in her room. “I’m sorry to do this,” I said, “but Zacal needs me. Will you be alright here for a while? You can rest, and I’ll be back in time for dinner.”
Her shoulders slumped, but she nodded. “Okay. You said we’re going somewhere for dinner?”
I nodded. “We have an engagement. I asked a friend of mine to order a few things for you to wear. You’ll find them in your changing room. Tomorrow I’ll take you to pick out some things for yourself.”
“I’d like that,” she said, giving me a small smile. Ibar was strange, giving me this tender female. I was bound to ruin her. And yet, I’d seen a spark in her more than once that hinted at a kindred spirit waiting to be revealed. Maybe I was meant to ruin her.
“You look like shit,” Nerus observed as we left. “Mated life not treating you well?”
I grimaced. “She’s going to kill me,” I said.
He laughed. “That sweet little thing?”
I glanced around, making sure we were alone. “She wanted me to sleep in the bed with her, but she hasn’t asked me to mate her.”
Nerus grunted in sympathy. “And she’s your Aneah? You’re sure now?”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I said with a humorless laugh. “If I don’t look any better tomorrow, start planning my funeral, because I’m going to die if I can’t fuck her soon. Nearly three months since I found her, Nerus!”
He clapped me on the back as we neared Zacal’s estate. “She’s your Aneah. She’ll ask for it sooner rather than later. Most males aren’t so lucky. A mate who isn’t Ibar chosen might only ask for you once or twice a year.”
I groaned because he was probably right. Ibar brought us together, and that never meant a passionless match. I’d give her all the time she needed. In the meantime, I’d suffer like I’d never suffered before, and be ready to make sure the experience was one she wanted to repeat often.
“I don’t want to take her to this dinner tonight,” I said through my teeth.
“Good luck getting out of it,” Nerus chuckled. “The Cendaquans are already grumbling about getting second best. They’re worried you’ll have your own heirs, cutting Evik and his heirs out.”
“Evik have heirs?” I scoffed. But he was right. I had to take her, make an appearance, and make it known that Cora was my Ibar chosen mate. But I didn’t have to like it.
I spent the afternoon fighting fires. First, promising Zacal I would make my mating and marriage to Cora the hottest news on Venastea by the end of the week, then meeting with Te’ve to discuss the trouble he had with the Agollan fruit vendor.
And then, I had to introduce the Agollan fruit vendor to my beloved cekets out on the reef.
That took forever since I’d kept the bastard frozen in my cruiser cargo the whole way from Muria, and we had to wait for him to thaw and come around.
I didn’t like having him on board with Cora, but Te’ve would never have gotten him out of the Transport Station after the vendor reported him to customs. It was the guy’s own fault he got frozen.
In the end, he saw the error of his ways, and we let him hop a cargo vessel back to Muria with one less tentacle and a better understanding of how to do business with Ahlon Exports.
By the time I made it back to the estate, I was running late.
Our reservations would hold, but my need to see Cora again wouldn’t.
Now that I’d had her in my arms, I didn’t know how I’d get through a full day’s work ever again without running home to her and leaving everything to Nerus.
I’d be taking fewer lunch meetings going forward.
Why do business over midday meals when I could come home and have my fill of zibe nectar?
I just had to get her invitation, and then I’d show my little mate what she’d been denying herself.
I headed straight for her rooms, yelling for Takka.
“Yes, sir?” the older male appeared in the hallway ahead of me.
“Bring me something to wear to dinner,” I said. “I’ll be with my mate.”
Cora was curled in her bed, reading on her frame with Mr. Darcy guarding her feet.
“Hello, wife,” I said, striding in.
Cora’s face lit up, and she tossed her frame into the pillows. “Yiri.”
I approached the side of the bed, and she rose onto her knees, reaching for me. Fuck dinner, if she wanted—
“Is this blood?” she gasped, plucking at my shirt.
“Must have got on me when I was throwing chum to my cekets,” I said. “Nothing to worry about.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You and the cekets,” she muttered.
I thumbed her chin, smiling down at her. “I’ll introduce you to them soon,” I promised. “Can you swim?”
“No.”
“I’ll teach you.”
“No, I mean, I can swim,” she said, “but not with sharks! Are you crazy?”
“I’ll tell you about them at dinner,” I said. “I’m sorry I’m running late. I need to clean up.”
She nodded, eyeing the blood on my shirt. “I’ve already bathed, but I guess I should get dressed.”
A few minutes later, I stepped out of her shower and wrapped a towel around my waist before heading back to Cora’s bedroom.
“Did Takka bring my clothes?” I asked, drying my hair with a second towel.
“They’re on the bed,” she called from her dressing room. “Should I wear the shoes in here or my heels?”
A crisp tap tap tap sounded on the stone floor as she entered the bedroom and stopped halfway to me muttering, “Holy shit.” Her lips parted in surprise as her eyes skimmed my body.
Holy shit was right. She was wearing the same clothing she’d worn in her profile image on BMM, complete with the makeup she called cat eyes, and the pretty little shoes that made her feet arch and lifted her a few inches closer to my hungry mouth.
“There are some things in there,” she gestured over her shoulder at the dressing room, “and if I look ridiculous in this, I’ll wear one of the… uh… dresses? But they’re so skimpy, Yiri. On Earth, they would make good swimsuit cover-ups for supermodels.”
“This is young,” I said, shaking my head. “Her idea of fashion is… questionable.”
“I haven’t seen any other women, yet,” Cora said, picking at her clothes. “Am I going to look stupid wearing Earth clothes to dinner?”
“You don’t look stupid, Aneah,” I said, crossing the distance to her. “You look….” I swallowed again before I found the right word. “Dangerous.”
Her lashes fluttered against her cheek as her hand rose to my chest, her fingers tracing over the ceket marked on my skin. “Then we match?”
My hands tightened in a bold, uninvited grip on her hips, but my little mate liked it. Her sweet nectar filled the air, and her lips parted in a surprised little O.
“I can’t wait to show you how perfectly matched we are,” I said, my voice rough with need.
I pulled her close, my cock pressing hard into her belly, the towel around my hips not doing the job when it came to modesty.
Her cheeks flushed with pretty color, her fingertips sending a ripple through my abdomen as they slid downward, edging under the towel.
“Yiri.” My name sounded like music on her lips.
This was it. She was going to ask me to mate with her.
Should I bend her over the foot of her bed and pound her little cunt good and hard for making us wait so long?
Or should I take it slow and make it sweet for her?
I’d get around to both eventually, but being gentle wouldn’t come easily at first. My teeth ached to bite into her.
The back of her neck, the hard little buds on her breasts, the curve of her thigh.
My mouth pooled with saliva just thinking about it.
Come on, Aneah. Ask me to to fuck you until you see stars.
A knock at the door startled Cora and doused my fervor like a bowl of ice water.
“Boss, you ready?” Nerus called. “You’re late!” He gave the door another pound with his fist before his footsteps retreated.
Cora backed away from me, her shoulders slumping.
Just ask me, Aneah. Forget dinner. I’ll blow it off to bed you if you just ask me to.
But she didn’t. She went to the bed and picked up my clothes.
Bringing them to me, she didn’t shy away from my nudity as I put them on.
My eyes barely left hers, and her eyes didn’t leave my body.
She had the whole suite smelling like a zibe grove at the end of season, lush and sweet. She was going to kill me.
“Which shoes should I wear?” she asked, finally turning when I was almost done, and producing two pairs of shoes. One set was gold, obviously picked out by Thisa. They were flat wedges dripping with gold chains. Cora could burn them for all I cared.
“Wear yours,” I said, cock twitching in my pants at the prospect of seeing her in them all night. If she wore them when I bent her over the bed, her feet wouldn’t dangle.
Cora smirked like she knew what I was thinking as she tossed the gold shoes on a chair and headed for the door. Her cat gave me a squinty-eyed glare from the pillows on Cora’s bed where he’d curled up like a little king. I thought he might be onto me, too, and he did not approve.