Chapter 11 #2
That was too much for me, too tempting; I had to get a taste of her release.
I pulled her up while I slid down, wedging my shoulders between her thighs to the sound of her startled yelp.
Then I had her heels digging into my back as I dug my tongue into her narrow opening.
Licking up every last drop of her desire; still better than Abzeal, my favorite drink.
“Iave,” Kalani groaned, her body clamping down on my tongue when I slipped it into her opening and curled it against an intriguing, slightly rougher spot there.
She came apart a second time, her passage flooding with her delicious release and that was too much, even for me.
My seed erupted from my tips, and with a shout, I ground my hips against the furs, soaking them with my release.
Even if we hadn’t consummated our bond, I knew this was the point of no return for me.
I could never want another after sharing this.
No, who was I kidding? That moment had long ago passed, probably the moment I tasted her scent in the air aboard the broken sky-ship.
My Goddess had captured my heart and soul the moment she arrived.
With that thought filling my head, I moved up the furs to curl my arms around Kalani’s body, tucking her beneath my broken chin horn.
Fear almost paralyzed me when I thought of how easily I could lose her; lose her like I’d lost my family.
Then I clenched my teeth and pushed those thoughts from my head.
No longer was I a scrawny youngling barely out of his third molting, I was a big, strong warrior now. I could protect my mate.
She settled against my chest with a sigh, her arms coming around to curl against my ribs, fingers gently petting my scales.
“That was amazing…” she said quietly, “And I never say that lightly. I’m pretty sure you worked my body better than a human man ever has.
” I really didn’t like the thought of my mate with any other males, but her words made me feel smug at the same time.
She thought I’d pleasured her well, she hadn’t seen anything yet.
When we truly mated… It was going to be even better.
“There’s just one thing…” Kalani murmured, and I heard the sharp edge to her otherwise languid tone.
“You need to tell me everything about how your species mates, right now. I deserve to know.” And she was right, I had hidden the truth at first because I worried about her rejection when she was so upset at losing Naomi.
I hid it when we visited Artek because I feared she’d leave me if she knew…
But Kalani had every right to know, that was true too, and I was no honorable male if I continued to evade this conversation.
With a shudder that I tried hard to suppress, I opened my mouth and in as few words as possible explained to her exactly what she wanted to know.
***
Kalani
I woke a second time in our improvised little nest of furs to discover that Iave had disappeared on me again.
This time I didn’t mind as much, I had a lot of information to mull over and it was better to do that while he wasn’t here.
I didn’t even open my eyes yet, trusting that Iave wouldn’t leave me unprotected.
I was willing to bet he wasn’t far and had his ears and eyes on this room the entire time.
It was nice to realize that I trusted him so completely.
It was a revelation to discover that I could trust a male that much, especially one I hadn’t known for long.
But Iave was unlike any man I’d ever met before.
Big and strong, I knew he was a capable warrior, more than a match for my own skills.
While knowing that he hid a vulnerable heart with a scarred past like my own.
Even if I didn’t know the details, that didn’t make me see him as less.
It made me feel like we were made to understand one another, it made me want to protect him and peel back every layer so I could know everything.
Mates for life, that’s what he told me. That one fated mate; like in the romance novels that my best friend Camila liked to consume by the boatload.
The type of book I’d always teased her about when we were serving on the Praetor together.
I moved my hand to press it against my mouth and muffled the wry chuckle that escaped. “And here I am, living it.”
I knew that Iave had held back during our steamy interlude a little while ago for me.
I was also certain that the next time he wouldn’t, this had already been extremely close to actual intercourse.
When he ‘seeded’ me as he called it, it would bind me to him.
Cementing the spirit connection between us and tying us together for life.
It would also allow us to communicate without needing to touch, allowing us to permanently understand each other’s languages.
Was I ready to see Iave as my mate? I couldn’t deny that I respected him, and saw him as my equal, unlike any previous partners I’d had.
That was a good basis for a relationship, but was it good enough?
If I had to go by the level of chemistry brewing between us, the answer would unequivocally be yes.
But passion faded, I’d seen that more than once.
I’d comforted more than one crying lady friend when a relationship ended, even if I’d never experienced it myself.
Damn it, why was this so difficult? Why did I feel like it was hard to trust how good this seemed between us?
I didn’t like that it might all be biology, chemicals in his brain that drew him to me.
I didn’t want to think that I could lose this down the road when it felt this good.
I had made many temporary families that I’d lost and loved along the way, I didn’t think I could stand it if I lost something as big as what was between Iave and me.
With a groan, I gave up on thinking about all of this and sat up on the furs.
Immediately, my eyes were drawn to the spot next to me, still flattened from the impression of his wide shoulders where he’d lain next to me.
I’d half curled into that spot after he left by the looks of it and I groaned again when I realized I was drawn to him even in my freaking sleep.
Then my eyes landed on the shimmer of something black and shiny lying on the furs next to me.
When I reached over and picked it up I recognized it as a tiny sculpture made entirely of the same obsidian Iave’s ax blade was made of.
Not hard to draw that conclusion when the bit of stone was shaped like an exact, detailed replica of Iave’s ax itself.
Perfect half-moon blades, a slender shaft with several ridges for grip.
An exact replica of his favorite weapon, carved into stone with extreme attention to detail.
Iave was the only one who could have made this and left it here for me, and it felt extremely personal.
A very different kind of gift from the practical flashlights and lighters from before.
I sighed as I wound a piece of leather string around the miniature handle so I could hang it from my neck like a necklace.
Damn it, Iave, why did you have to be such a sweetheart beneath all that grump and snarl?
It felt like putting on an engagement ring when I tied the string with his carved little ax around my neck.
That was his signature, that weapon, and putting it on myself was like marking me his. And I liked it.