Chapter 17
Rose
O ur love has cost him much more than it has cost me. Oljin has given up his home planet for me—his family, his friends, his throne—whereas I have only gained from meeting him. Our tight quarters on the Frathik spaceship aren’t a peaceful valith in the Irran grasslands, but they’re a palace compared to my former cage. I tell him as much when we’re lying together in the hard Frathik bunk that night in the form of an apology.
“I would pay the price a thousand times over to have you in my arms,” he says, pulling me even tighter against him.
I sigh. “I just wish I could give you more. As much as you’ve given me.”
Shock bursts over him in shades of yellow. “You’ve given me so much! Your trust. Your affection. Your friendship. Your beautiful body and scholar’s mind. Your heart. There’s nothing else to give.”
“You gave me my life,” I remind him, watching his pigment recede and shift to green and lavender, matching mine. “You gave me love and safety. I’ll never be able to pay you back for that.”
“All I have, I’d give to you. Even my breath and bones.”
My heart stutters. “You don’t regret it? If you’d left me in that circus ring, you’d still have everything.”
“I would have nothing ,” he says harshly. “What is a family without loyalty? What is a religion without faith? What is a crown if it is bloodstained? That is what it would mean to rule without you. Nothing . Stop saying what we have now is less than that, Rose, or you will break my heart. Look at us. We have friends and allies. We have each other. We have Alioth’s blessing. We have years ahead of us to make things right, so that someday, we can return to Irra and walk in the grasslands again without fear or pain.”
“I love you,” I choke out, too overwhelmed with emotion to say anything else. He’s so good , it’s hard to believe I deserve him. He could have given up on me. He could have taken the easy way out and turned me over to the priests. When we escaped, he could have used his strength to hurt people, but instead he used it to protect me so we can work toward a better future. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too. Everything about you. Your blunt little claws when they dig into my skin. The way your pigment blooms when I kiss you like this.” He brushes a line of soft kisses along my jaw and down my neck, raising goosebumps on my skin. “Your curiosity and how you collect every scrap of information around you. How deeply you consider new ideas. How much you care about others, even those you’ve just met. How you’re guided by gratitude for even the smallest favors.”
I guess he didn’t miss that I tried to speak with the Frathik delegation in their language when they kneeled to me. I’m sure I pronounced it all wrong, but I could see the appreciation that I tried in their craggy, alien faces. That tiny little repayment made them feel valued. It made them feel seen . That was the first time in this whole unlikely adventure that I felt like a queen.
“We should do something to thank the Frathiks for helping us escape,” I say absentmindedly. “I don’t even have any paper to write them a thank you note.”
“I’m sorry you lost your precious scrolls,” Oljin murmurs, kissing across my collarbone and down between my breasts, stealing all my thoughts. “I’ll find you more tomorrow, Blossom. For now, let’s celebrate our freedom. I want to make you sing for me.”
His fingers trail between my legs, gently levering them apart. I gasp when his thumb finds my clit, massaging it in slow circles. “Can’t sing here. Walls in this ship are thin.”
“We should have stayed in the grasslands where your pretty voice would get lost in the wind,” he grumbles, but he doesn’t let up. If anything he doubles down, sliding two curved fingers inside me, moving them in tandem with the dizzying pressure of his thumb.
“Ahh, slow down,” I hiss, writhing away from his hand. “Can’t be quiet if you touch me like that.”
“Good.” He pins me so I can’t escape, working my body like he knows it better than I do. I can’t stifle the sighs and moans that he pulls out of me, even as I shoot panicked looks at the door, anticipating an interruption any minute. “Relax. Make all the noise you want. I promise I’ll swallow your songs.”
He dips his head to cover my mouth with his, stroking the seam of my lips until they part for him. Our tongues meet hungrily as my thighs clamp around his hand. I can feel the pigment flowering under my skin, even though I can’t see it with my eyes squeezed shut.
The intensity of the mixed sensations is overwhelming, destroying any control I thought I had. My inhibitions evaporate until my body is operating on pleasure-chasing instinct alone. But Oljin’s so in tune with me that every time I get close, he knows just when to back off. He takes me to the edge over and over until I claw at him, growling and begging like a wild thing to let me come.
He keeps his promise to silence every one of my sounds with his mouth, feasting on them. And when he finally breaks and pulls me on top of him so he can slide his thick, dripping cock inside me, I get to return the favor, smothering his gasps with greedy, sucking kisses.
His groan vibrates through me as his hips snap up, driving into me. I match his rhythm beat for beat, thrust for thrust, until we both fall apart, shaking and kissing with our limbs twined and our hearts pressed together.
Later, when the afterglow is still warming us in the cold metal bunk, Oljin raises up on one elbow to trace my features. “Thank Alioth you’re my queen, Rose, and no one else. I’m so grateful to call you my Alara, even though the title means less now that we have nothing to rule.”
I smile at him, feeling giddy and well-loved. “Jara and Alara mean the same to me as they always have. Oljin and Rose together, beautiful, forever.”