Chapter 12 #2
His control visibly wavered. His tail tightened around her leg, pulling her closer, and his hand slid down to rest at the curve of her waist.
“Not everything,” he said hoarsely. “Not yet. I want… I need our first time to be when we are free. But we can—”
“Yes,” she whispered, and pulled him down to her.
The second kiss was slower, deeper, and filled with all the unspoken promises they couldn’t make yet. His tail released her leg to slide up the back of her thigh, tracing the sensitive skin with deliberate strokes. She shivered and pressed closer.
What followed was a slow exploration, hands mapping unfamiliar territory, mouths learning the taste of new skin. Becsul touched her like she was made of glass and steel simultaneously—delicate and unbreakable. The slight scrape of his textured hands against her belly made her gasp with sensation.
She learned that the soft skin behind his jaw was exquisitely sensitive, that light kisses there made him shudder and clutch at her hips.
She learned that the base of his tail, where it met his spine, drew a deep groan from him when she dragged her nails across it.
She learned that the rumbling purr he made when aroused vibrated through her whole body and settled, warm and insistent, between her thighs.
He learned that she liked to be held down, her wrists pinned above her head while his mouth traced paths across her collarbone and down to her breasts.
He learned that the curve of her waist was ticklish, but the swell of her hip was not.
He learned that when he growled her name against her throat, she arched into him like a flower seeking the sun.
They kept to their agreement that some lines wouldn’t be crossed until they were free.
But his clever fingers found the heat between her legs and coaxed her over the edge.
She buried her cry against his shoulder and held on tight.
When she finally lay spent and sated against him, his tail still stroking lazy circles on her back, she knew she’d never felt safer or more cherished.
“I didn’t know it could be like that,” she murmured.
“Like what?”
“Intense. But also… safe.” She pressed a kiss to his chest, warm beneath her lips. “I’ve never trusted anyone enough to really let go before. There was always some part of me holding back, waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m lying half-naked in an alien prison cell with a seven-foot reptile who has a tail that won’t stop touching me.” She laughed softly. “The shoes have all dropped. There’s nothing left to be afraid of.”
His arm tightened around her. “I would never hurt you.”
“I know.” And she did. With a certainty that defied logic, that had nothing to do with their circumstances and everything to do with the way he looked at her like she was the most precious thing in the universe.
Silence stretched between them, comfortable and warm. She was just beginning to drift towards sleep when he spoke again.
“I want to be a family,” he said quietly, his voice tentative. “With you and Robbie.”
She went still.
“I know we’ve known each other only a short time.
I know our situation is… complicated. But when I think about the future—any future—I can’t imagine it without you.
” His hand stroked slowly up and down her spine.
“I would love to have a child with you someday. But even if that never happens, even if we escape and go somewhere far away and it’s just the three of us forever…
I would be content. More than content. I would be happy. ”
Her throat tightened. She thought about Vijay, who had proposed marriage like a business proposition and discussed children like line items in a contract.
She thought about her parents, who had been so relieved that someone “suitable” had finally shown interest in their difficult daughter.
She thought about all the years she’d spent believing that wanting passion and partnership was naive and impractical.
And here was this alien warrior, this creature from a dying world, offering her exactly what she’d never dared to hope for.
“I want that too,” she whispered.
His entire body seemed to relax, tension bleeding out of him in a long exhale. His tail curled tighter around her waist, and when she looked up, she saw his eyes shining in the dim light.
“You honor me,” he said, and his voice cracked on the words.
“We honor each other.”
She stretched up to kiss him again, soft and sweet, a promise for the future they would fight to claim. When she finally settled back against his chest, his heartbeat had synchronized into a steady rhythm beneath her ear.
“Six days,” she murmured.
“Less, if I can manage it.”
“And then?”
“And then we find out what kind of life we can build together.” His lips brushed her hair. “Sleep now, Melissa. I’ll keep watch.”
She meant to argue. She wanted to keep touching him, to stay wrapped in this bubble of intimacy a little longer. But her body had other ideas. The stress of the day, the emotional upheaval, and the intense physical release all caught up with her at once.
Just for a little while, she told herself, letting her eyes drift closed. Just a few minutes of rest.
She was asleep before she finished the thought, wrapped in the arms of the male who had somehow, impossibly, become her hope for tomorrow.