Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
The corridors were quiet as she returned to her quarters. She paused by her door, looking over at the one next to hers. What was he doing in there? Was he in there?
She placed her hand to his door pad.
“Enter,” was the muffled response, and the door slid open.
She stepped into a space larger than her own, but not spacious.
Battleships were not built for luxury, even for the senior crew.
Niir knelt, knees wide apart, on a thick pillow.
He faced the wide window before him, with his back to her.
His hands rested on his thighs. He was perfectly still.
His long blue tail lay motionless, curled around his bare feet and shins.
“Niir?” she said, creeping closer. He was so quiet, so still.
“Hello, Calinae.” His measured tones were deep and calm.
She peeked around to the front of him to see his eyes closed and his face relaxed. “What are you doing?”
“Meditation,” he replied. “It helps me stay balanced. It settles the primal form.”
“Oh. I’ll leave—”
“No,” he said before she could finish. “Stay.”
“Okay.” She eased around the room, taking in his space.
A large bed sat on the left in a dark nook.
A sofa, table, and a desk with a bank of a dozen screens took up the other corners of the room.
The center was empty aside for a colorful rug and several cushions placed before that wide window.
Except for the vibrant rug, neutral colors and minimal personal items defined the space.
It still felt like Niir, though—thoughtful, deliberate, and practical.
“You spoke to my cousins,” she said. “They said your Rakolin is terrible.”
His eyes remained closed. The ghost of a smile flickered over his lips. “I am nowhere near mastering that language.”
Cali cleared her throat. “It was kind of you to speak to them about what is going on. It took the burden off me.”
“That was the point,” he replied.
She bit her lip, pondering the best way to bring up the next part. “You also told them about us.”
“I did.” Niir remained perfectly still, except for the slight movement of his lips. “Briefly.”
“And what about me?”
His forehead creased the slightest bit. “What about you?”
“When were you planning on telling me how you felt?” She stood with her back to the window, looking down at him. “I would like to know.”
His eyes snapped open, bright and steely. “You do know.”
She held his intense gaze with difficulty. “I would like to hear the words, Niir, if you have them.”
Lightning quick, he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her onto his lap.
His mouth crushed hers in a rough claiming that left her breathless and aching for more.
“You want to hear them?” he growled. “If I give them to you, I will not take them back. I do not speak such things lightly or with any doubt.” His gaze moved over her face with a soft adoration that made her heart clench.
“I love you, Calinae. You may have been intended for someone else, but you were meant to be mine. If you disagree, now would be a good time to say so.”
Cali took in the vulnerability in his darkly lined eyes. His knuckles brushed over her jaw with infinite care. Tingles followed the trail of his touch.
“I think,” she said breathlessly, “that you were meant to be mine, too.” With a shift of her legs, she straddled him, pressing her chest to his and sliding her hands into the short hair at the back of his neck.
“I was yours the moment I laid eyes on you.” His hands roamed her back. “And you are mine, now. I will never let anything happen to you, Calinae.”
“Some things are out of our control,” she reminded him. “We are being pursued and heading to an enemy who has laid claim to me since shortly after I was born. We must face the fact that we may not get through this. If things go wrong…”
He kissed her hard. “Things can always go wrong. The fuel cells could overheat and blow up the ship. A poorly timed supernova could wipe out an entire system. The food replicator could become contaminated and poison us all.”
“This is no random accident,” she said. “This is real. You’re in danger because of us. Because of me.”
“We’re in danger because we accepted this rescue job,” he said roughly. “And if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
She swallowed, moved by his words. “I just want you to know, if we—or I—don’t make it, I love you.” She shrugged when he just looked at her. “That’s it. I just needed to say it.”
His fingers slid through her hair. “I was wondering if you would.”
With a whimper of need, Cali kissed him, putting everything she felt into it.
She sucked his lower lip into her mouth and laved her tongue over it.
He groaned as she fisted her hands in his hair and pulled, tugging his head back.
Her movements turned desperate. There was a distinct ephemeral feeling between them.
Knowing that this was temporary had always been between them, but now the sense that they may be hurtling toward a true end added a sense of urgency.
Cali had always viewed her relationship with Niir as temporary. The irony wasn’t lost on her that only now she truly accepted that nothing about her and Niir was meant to be temporary. It had been a dance that was meant to end in forever.
But forever was not necessarily in the cards.
Her lips moved over his strong jaw to his thick neck. His skin there was warm, surprisingly soft. Those huge hands grasped her hips and seated her fully against his rising erection. She gasped as her tingling pussy rubbed against the hard length of him.
His mouth lowered to her breasts. Teeth gently scraped over one fabric-covered nipple, then the other. Cali arched her back, electrified by the sensations.
His tail came around and slid up her thigh. The barb on the end hooked on the seam at her waist and sliced. Her pants tore to the knee. The fabric fell away. Cool air flowed over her bottom and her sex, which was slick with her arousal.
He took the shirt between his teeth. “Off,” he growled.
Needing no more encouragement, she hooked her thumbs into the neckline and tugged the shirt off, baring her naked breasts to him.
He made a low sound of approval in his throat and pulled one hard nipple into his mouth.
Cali saw stars. His clean, masculine scent flooded her.
Those lips worked their way up to her neck, to the sensitive spot behind her ear.
He worshipped her body with his hands, roving down her spine and testing the dip at her waist, the curve of her belly. By the time he shifted her to the side so he could remove his pants, her legs shook with anticipation.
She looked down as his cock sprang free.
Full and thick, it jutted up between them.
His hot flesh slapped against her belly.
She grasped it between her hands, eliciting a strangled groan from him.
It was the sweetest sound. It wasn’t hard to find his sensitive areas, either.
Her thumb moved over the head and a drop of moisture came from the slit.
Niir shuddered and closed his hands over hers to cease her movement. “Stop,” he gasped. “I cannot…”
But Cali had only begun. Her body was hungry and wet and ready for him.
“Lie down,” she ordered in a husky voice, and he complied, moving the pillow from beneath him and lying back.
His long body unrolled, stretched out before her like a gorgeous, muscled offering.
She gazed down at him, feeling a sweeping sense of power.
She could see the rapid rise and fall of his chest, the sheen of sweat covering his skin, the frantic pulse at his neck.
His hunger, displayed and blatant, shone as he silently locked eyes with her.
He spread his legs slightly, baring her aching sex to the air.
His tail, which had given her pleasure the last time they’d made love, slipped upwards between his legs.
It nestled between her ass cheeks and pressed against the sensitive skin between her holes.
The sharp tip angled well away from her skin, allowing the ridged length to slide over the full, slick folds of her sex.
“Ah,” she moaned, tipping her head back.
She tilted her hips to seat herself more fully.
Her lower lips swelled and clenched around his tail.
Delicious thrills skated over her skin. She could smell her own arousal mixed with his as she rocked on his thick tail in a ride that built and built, sending her high. Higher still.
A possessive hand slid between their bodies and closed over her mound. She gasped. He gazed up at her, eyes glittering with dark heat. He pressed two fingers into her pussy, deep. “Is this what you like?” he asked, thrusting into her.
She bit her bottom lip. The pressure of his fingers was not quite enough.
“More,” she whispered, and he complied, twisting his fingers with expert moves that undid her.
His tail shifted slightly, curling up her taint and through the cleft between her ass.
It pulsed against her, increasing the stimulation.
She rocked against both fingers and tail, mind blanked from sensations she could not even fathom.
Her pussy and ass were being massaged by a master and she was about to shatter into pieces.
Her vision blurred. She gasped out his name and dug her fingers into his scarred abdomen.
“How about this?” His thumb pressed down on her clit and she flew over the edge. Fire shot through her veins. She cried out, slamming down on him, demanding more as she soared and trembled and gasped. She came, drenching his cock with her juices, squeezing his fingers with each pulse of her core.
Her bones went soft. She draped forward over him, her breath coming in pants.
His hard cock still pressed into her belly, enormous and scorching.
His mouth crashed into hers, hard and demanding.
His tail slid all the way up her spine, holding her in place for his ravaging kiss.
Heat immediately flooded her again, despite having just come at his touch.
Something within her knew it wasn’t enough.
Would never be enough.
Huge hands gripped her waist and pressed her upright. “Ride me.”
She wasn’t sure she could manage that. Her legs were still shaky and boneless and languid heat had suffused her limbs.
Instead, she leaned back down and traced his dark nipples with her tongue, reveling in the way they peaked and beaded against her mouth.
She reached behind her and cupped his ball sack, making him suck in a harsh breath through his teeth.
“Calinae, please,” he said in a ragged voice. “Put my cock inside you.”
His plea was her undoing. To cause this big warrior of a male to need her this badly sent her thoughts scattering and fresh moisture surging between her thighs.
Cali rose up on her knees and took him in her hands.
She shifted forward and positioned his huge cock at her slick entrance.
His eyes went narrow and hungry as she bore down on him, just a little.
She grinned down at him, reveling in this, in him, in his glorious body. She teased him, slowly impaling herself on him, then sliding off him.
He began to curse, viciously, in a language that the v-link didn’t translate for her. Finally, he could take no more. He took hold of her hips and slammed her body down onto his, filling her, stretching her wide open with one swift thrust.
Exquisite agony shot through her. He guided her, sending her into a rhythm as old as time. He pumped upwards, bucking her, bringing her down hard on him over and over. Her hands slid over his ridged abdomen, which tightened the lower she moved them.
With an animalistic growl, he scooped her up and switched positions.
She lay on her back, sprawled on that colorful rug, legs spread and body splayed open to him.
He proceeded to pound into her, teeth bared in an expression of tortured bliss.
He held nothing back, ramming into her like a male possessed, which, perhaps he was at the moment.
She wanted to tell him how good this felt, how much she liked it when he was rough, almost out of control.
How it made her feel wild and unrestrained and free, but she was gasping, mouth open, fracturing into a million tiny pieces as she hurtled toward a finish.
He was not careful this time. There was no stopping to ask if he looked red or if he’d sprouted horns.
Pressure built in her core, turning her to liquid, making her dig her fingers into his rock-solid shoulders and hang on as he pummeled into her ever harder, ever deeper.
His cock swelled within her, sending her tumbling over the edge.
Her pussy clenched around him, milking him, drawing out the very essence of him.
Ecstasy sent blooms of colors over her vision as a scream wrenched from her throat.
He gave one more great thrust, then held himself deep within her with a bellow that the whole ship should have heard. His body went tight and rigid and she felt the hot stream of seed shoot deep within her.
He leaned on his arms, which shook with the effort of holding himself off her. Sweat gleamed on him. His breath came in deep gasps. “Calinae,” he said in that low, gravelly voice. “I love you.”
He raised his gaze to hers. Only then did she see the red glow in his eyes.