Chapter Twenty-Seven #3
As I came down from my high, Thexan continued his gentle ministrations, lapping at me with the thoroughness that was so essentially him.
Only when I had completely recovered—when he knew from the slackening of my thighs and the slowing of my breath—did he raise his head, his golden eyes dark with satisfaction and something softer.
“Now,” he murmured, positioning himself above me with the ease of repetition, “I will take you.”
His cock extruded from its sheath, the mushroom-like head with its nubs and ridges glistening. The base already showed the beginning of the swelling that would later lock us together—the knot that had startled me our first time and that I now craved with an intensity that still surprised me.
He entered me slowly, giving me time to adjust, knowing exactly the angle I needed. The stretch was exquisite, the fullness overwhelming in the best way. When he was fully seated inside me, we both paused, eyes locked, breathing together in the rhythm we'd found over months of nights like this.
“Forever,” I whispered, reaching up to trace the line of his jaw, feeling the familiar texture of his skin.
“Forever,” he agreed, and then he began to move.
His rhythm was deliberate and unhurried, each thrust a statement of possession, of commitment, of home. The unique texture of his cock stimulated nerves that he had taught me to feel, sending waves of pleasure through me with every withdrawal and advance.
I met his movements, my body responding instinctively to his alien rhythm because it was ours now, not just his.
I relished the texture of scales against my smooth skin, his reptilian form finding perfect harmony with my human responses because we had learned each other, shaped each other, and made a language of touch that belonged only to us.
My hands roamed his body automatically—tracing the ridges along his spine that I knew made him groan, feeling the subtle scales that shimmered a coppery hue in the lamplight.
“Look at me,” I demanded, my voice breathy with passion.
His gaze locked with mine, golden and blazing, need etched into every line of his face but also love, also recognition. “I have you,” he rasped. “Only you. Always you.”
The pleasure crested fast, coiling tighter and tighter until it broke all at once, wringing a cry out of me that he caught in his mouth. Thexan came apart right behind me, a rough, half-human sound tearing loose from his throat that I knew meant he was lost to me, only to me.
His whole body shook against mine as he emptied into me, hot and endless.
I felt the change begin low in him—a swelling at the base of his shaft that locked us together, intimate and inescapable, the Mesaarkan mating tie that had become my favorite part of these nights because it meant we couldn't rush, couldn't separate, and could only be together.
Thexan immediately shifted his weight, bracing himself on his forearms in the way he'd learned didn't crush me, as he stared into my eyes. “Brynn,” he panted. “Are you—?”
“I'm more than good,” I breathed, tracing the ridges along his head with unsteady fingers. “I don't think I've ever felt this whole.”
He raised his head, and the look he gave me was something close to reverence, but also simple contentment. “Three months, and you still undo me completely, meora.”
“Six months next week,” I corrected softly, pulling him down for another kiss. “And you still forget to check the irrigation schedule.”
“I, too, enjoy it,” he replied, his thumb tracing my cheekbone with maddening gentleness. “Even when you remind me of my failures.”
I laughed, the movement making us both gasp at the sensation of him locked inside me. “Holding you like this is no hardship at all.”
We lay tangled together afterward, our breathing slowly returning to normal as his knot gradually diminished.
The silence that returned was comfortable, companionable—the silence of two people who had found their home in each other, who knew each other's stories, and who had built a life in the spaces between moments like this.
The pleasure crested fast, coiling tighter and tighter until it broke all at once, wringing a cry out of me that echoed off the stone walls. Thexan came apart right behind me, a rough, half-human sound tearing loose from his throat.
His whole body shook against mine as he emptied into me, hot and endless. I felt the change begin low in him—a swelling at the base of his shaft that locked us together, intimate and inescapable.
Thexan immediately shifted his weight, bracing himself on his forearms as he stared into my eyes. “Brynn,” he panted. “Are you—?”
“I’m more than good,” I breathed, tracing the ridges along his head with unsteady fingers. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this whole.”
He raised his head, and the look he gave me was something close to reverence. “Three months, and you still undo me completely, meora.”
“So are you,” I whispered, pulling him down for another kiss. “Holding you like this is no hardship at all.”
“I, too, enjoy it,” he replied, his thumb tracing my cheekbone.
I was content to have him in my arms for as long as it took, to feel his weight pressing me into the bed, and to be connected in this most elemental way.
We lay tangled together afterward, our breathing slowly returning to normal as his knot gradually diminished. The silence that returned was comfortable, companionable—the silence of two people who had found their home in each other.
When he finally withdrew, the emptiness lasted only a heartbeat before he pulled me against him, his scales warm from the heat we’d made together.
“I am yours, always,” he murmured in his native tongue, and I never got tired of him reminding me.
“And I am yours,” I said again, resting my palm over the steady beat of his heart. “For every one of those years.”
As we lay back together, naked in each other’s arms, I knew that this was where I was meant to be. The human healer and the Mesaarkan outsider, two beings who had found their counterpart in each other.
The mountain hummed around us, patient and warm.
I closed my eyes, anchored by the weight of him, and let the world narrow to this one.