Chapter 56
Chee
His claws were driving her mad.
Trove had always been good with his fingers. He played her body like an instrument, manipulating her nerves like he had been given directions to their operation.
But it was the sort of well-trained, generalized experience of a professional.
He knew how to work her body, because he had studied it so often before.
Because he had spent so much time practicing.
He didn’t do anything wrong for long, because he recognized instantly that it wasn’t working and he changed the technique, even before she realized she didn’t like it as much.
However, his claws were new. He was learning them. He was learning her with them. It was like they were growing, changing, breathing, moving together. And it wasn’t practiced perfection. But it was still Trove, and it was their joining, and it was perfect for that alone.
He had three fingers inside her now. Moving slow.
Massaging her soft, inner walls. And they were joined by his thumb pressing around her clit.
A familiar move, but not actually because joining it was the pressure of his claw.
It landed right over her clit. Catching the throbbing nub of flesh between the tip of his finger and the tip of the claw.
And when he began stroking slow circles around it, combining with his fingers moving in her, it became too much too quickly.
Chee, already driven to the edge, threw back her head, screaming as she came. Her walls clenched around his fingers. The sensitive skin there very aware of his claws. But they didn’t hurt. Trove would never hurt her.
Though he would torture her. What other reason would he have to rip his fingers away? To deprive her of their stretch, their pressure?
But before she could do more than whimper in dismay, her hips jerking, searching for more to replace what was lost, he moved. He took her hips and their offer and jerked her down. Slamming her onto his cock that stood so proudly from his lap. Filling her in an instant.
And the rush of white hot pleasure made her scratch and cling to him, her body thrashing and struggling as he used her hips as a grip, jerking her up and down.
He groaned, dropping onto his back. She struggled to find her own rhythm, her nerves going haywire from the pleasure, but still wanting to ride him. Wanting to feel his length inside her. His claws in the skin of her hips. His abdomen rubbing against her clit.
“Yes,” he growled, looking at her with such raw, undisguised hunger.
She rode him to another climax. This one more devastating than the last. She lost control of herself, flopping forward onto him.
But that didn’t stop Trove. He used the grip on her hips to hold her, to keep her in position, as he pistoned his own hips up. Thrusting into her from below.
She couldn’t take it anymore. She was too sensitive.
She was crying. Scratching at him. But she wouldn’t ask him to let her go.
She never wanted it to end. The sweet agony.
The painful pleasure. The feeling of her nerves all being overridden and exploited until her mind turned to mush, until she was nothing more than a vessel for him to claim. Something to use to pleasure himself.
And she loved it.
It was such a strain on her body, but she bore it as long as possible. When he rolled them over and folded her in half. When he pulled out, tossed her on her belly, and jerked her hips up so he could pound into her from behind.
He would stop every so often, pull out, and use his fingers to torment her with pleasure. Extending his own orgasm. Edging himself at the same time that he ruined her with her own sensitivity.
By the time he came, holding her in his arms, kissing her, deep in missionary position, she nearly sobbed in relief. He grunted and groaned, going tense over her, filling her completely. The heat of his cum, the pressure of his knot, the weight of his body crushing into her.
She continued to twitch and tremble long after he had recovered. But she still didn’t have to think. She didn’t have to worry.
He took care of her. After riding the high of his own orgasm, he then turned his attention to cleaning her up. Getting her settled in the bed, moving aside the clothes he had absolutely ruined and tucking them both in. He held her close, kissing, stroking, adoring her.
It took a long time for her to come down after sex with Trove. He completely overloaded and reset her entire nervous system. Coming back after something like that was a journey in and of itself. And though she wasn’t sleeping, she was dozing.
Relaxing.
Happy.
So unbelievably happy.
The last of her worries, the final shackles weighing down her soul, all of was it taken away. Dealt with. Gone. Eased.
“What is this?” Trove asked softly.
“Hm?”
He started. “Oh. I’m sorry. I thought you were asleep.”
Her eyes were closed, her breathing deep and even, her body limp and unmoving. She could forgive him for thinking she was asleep. She was floating right there on the border, easily able to go over one side or the other depending on whatever she wanted.
The question he asked was a whisper. Barely audible over his heartbeat in her ear. And he clearly hadn’t intended for her to hear it.
But she did hear it, and she was curious.
“What is what?” She asked, snuggling into him, still debating if she was going to go to sleep or wake up. She was okay with either option, really.
Trove didn’t answer immediately. And when he finally did speak, his voice was so quiet, she might not have heard him at all if there was any other sound to drown him out.
“This feeling… I don’t know what it is.”
“Hm… Is it a good one or a bad one?”
“Good,” he answered immediately. “It’s very good. It’s like happiness… but softer. It’s like love… but gentler. When I’m with you, it’s like everything is where it’s supposed to be, and it’s satisfying, but it’s not showy or triumphant.”
“Ah,” she breathed softly, deciding that maybe she wanted sleep after all. “It’s home.”
“That’s not a feeling.”
She yawned, burrowing into his chest. “Sure. A house, a den, a ship – those are places. What makes them homes is that feeling.”
“Home…”
“Mm-hm…”
“I’m home,” he breathed, like he was stunned. And for him, who had never had a place where he was perfectly safe, unselfishly loved, belonged absolutely, and had a purpose that gave him fulfillment, maybe something that simple really was stunning.
“Welcome home,” she greeted, sleep tugging insistently at her conscious.
She didn’t hear Trove’s reply, but she felt his arms tightening around her. And it told her everything she needed to know.
***
Chee never thought this day would come. She still wasn’t even sure that it was real.
Part of her was terrified that she’d wake up any moment and all of this would have just been a fantastical dream.
She’d still be in her small rental home, living alone, with a pantsuit she set aside the night before waiting for her to don and wear to another meaningless day at work.
But even when she pinched her thigh repeatedly until her fingers shook from the pressure, she didn’t wake from the pain.
She was still sitting in this purple colored district in Holotulle, in one of the many tall buildings that acted as landing docks for the multitude of landing shuttles that were coming in.
This entire district did very little else but act as a massive landing area.
It was the same place she had come through when she arrived from Earth.
But back then, she had been overwhelmed and uneasy, too stressed and nervous to pay much attention to her surroundings. San had picked her up, fortunately, so she hadn’t really needed to.
And now, she was still too stressed and nervous to care about her surroundings.
“You’re hurting yourself.”
Trove put his hand over hers, stopping her from pinching her thigh again. She started, whipping her head to look at him before offering a shaky smile that didn’t meet her eyes.
“Sorry,” she breathed.
Trove smiled back, lacing his fingers through hers. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. They’ll be here soon.”
Her parents were about to land.
And Chee was about to throw up. Stress and nerves combined and combatted with excitement and impatience in her belly, making it impossible to stay still.
They were sitting at the base of the landing pad that her parents would be coming to.
Her foot was bouncing nervously. Her eyes tracked through the sky, but there were so many shuttles coming in, she couldn’t figure out which one was theirs.
And every time one came towards their building, she couldn’t breath and her heart skipped.
But they kept landing on different platforms. They weren’t her parents.
Hyde was having them brought on a private shuttle. Just the two of them. So there was no one else waiting in this area but the two of them. But the rest of the docking building was still behind them. Like an airport terminal, loud and big and busy.
But Chee paid it no mind as she continued to stare forward. Waiting. Twitching. Resisting the urge to be sick.
The small shuttle that finally came their way made her freeze. Because she knew somehow, with absolute certainty, even before it touched down, that it was them. That was the one.
Chee didn’t even realize she was standing until the glass wall that led outside was getting closer. She couldn’t push through, however, because the door remained sealed until the shuttle was fully landed and powered down. Only then did it unlock, letting her out.
She was breathless as she walked. Staring at the shuttle. At the door. The small spacecraft was plain, unadorned, but well made and sleek. And unmoving.
It wasn’t opening.
Why wasn’t it opening?
Had something gone wrong? Had something happened?? Had-
The doors slid apart and a ramp extended down.
And there he was.