I sit up slowly, wincing as I do. D’see fusses, insisting I lie back down, but I ignore that. I sit up and I hold out my hand for hers. She hesitates and then puts her fingers against mine. Our hands clasped, I gaze at her. My mate. The most beautiful creature in this world. It does not matter that the hand in mine is rougher than it was a turn of the moon ago. It does not matter that her hands and arms are still mottled with red scars, or that her cheek bears the same. She is perfection. D’see has a sweet, gentle spirit and a friendly nature. More than that, though, she is determined. It is that determination that makes my heart sing for her, I think. She never gives up on what she wants. She will always look for a solution.
“I am terrified of what this means,” I confess, running my thumb pad over her fingers. “Because I look at your face and I see beauty, but I see vulnerability, too. My heart now exists outside of my chest, and it makes it that much harder to protect. It frightens me, but not as much as the thought of going through life without you.” I pull her hand to my chest, pressing it against my skin so she can feel the way my khui sings for her. “This makes me happy. You make me happy. My heart belongs to you, my D’see. It has since the day you arrived in your strange box from the stars and you smiled at me. I have not looked at another female since.”
Her smile grows broader. “You’re sure?”
“I am positive.” I tug on her hand, pulling her toward me, because I want her in my lap. “I am also positive if I’rec ever touches you again, I will remove his hand.”
She chuckles, sliding into my arms. “All he did was touch my shoulder.”
“My shoulder,” I correct, pressing a kiss to her shoulder as she settles in my lap. “This belongs to me.”
D’see sucks in a breath. “Is that so?”
“It is.” I cup the back of her head and lean in, pressing my mouth to her jaw and then her ear. “Just like this is my ear.”
She moans, tilting her head so I can kiss her there even more. “Your head…”
“It does not hurt,” I lie. The truth is that it does twinge when I move, and there is a dull throb that does not ease up, but it is nothing compared to the hungry need I have for D’see, or the urgency I feel with resonance blazing through my body. My head can wait. “I need to kiss my mate far more than I need to lie down.”
And I nip at her delicate ear with my teeth.
D’see shivers against me, her hand going to my thigh. She sits in the cradle of my crossed legs, as bare as me, and my cock presses up against her hip. I want to bury myself inside her and to fill her with my seed. The mental image of it drives me wild, even as I nibble on her ear and the perfume of her cunt fills the air around us. I slide my other hand to her thighs, moving my fingers up the inside of one. She immediately parts her legs so I can touch her higher, and when my fingers stroke over the folds of her cunt, she is wet and hot and ready.
“My mate,” I breathe, the concept so pleasing that I want to come instantly. But that will not give her my seed, nor will it fulfill resonance, and I must do both. The need to do so gnaws at me, driving me to push her down onto the blankets, push her thighs apart, push into her…but I only hold D’see close and pet her. “My perfect, sweet D’see.”
“I love you,” she whimpers again when I stroke over her clit, teasing her body. “I’ve missed you so much. Even when you were in my hut at night you weren’t mine, and I’ve missed that.” She leans closer to me, pressing against my chest as I work her cunt with my hand. “I’ve tried so hard to be the mate you want. I promise I won’t let you down.”
Her words are like a splash of cold water. She still thinks she is not everything I need? I have done this, I realize. I have made her doubt herself. I am no better off than the J’hani who filled her head with ideas of who and what she should be. “No,” I say. “No, this is wrong.”
“No, it’s not,” she tells me, frantic, her hands grasping at me. “It’s resonance. You can’t—”
“Resonance is not wrong,” I reassure her. “Be calm, my heart.” I stroke her cheek, gazing into her eyes until the frantic worry leaves them. “I am the one that is wrong. I tried to change who you were. To mold you into the mate I thought would be right for me. That is what was wrong. You have always been exactly what I need, D’see. You have always seen me. You have always been perfect. I do not care if you hunt or fish or if you stay at camp all day long and do nothing but suck on shrimp. You are my D’see and nothing else matters. I was wrong to try and change you and I see that now.”