I let my pack fall to the floor with a thud. There’s plenty of that carved-out shelving all the way around the walls. With a little effort, this could be downright cozy. Ryle immediately sinks into the largest patch of orange moss. It glows softly around him. He closes his eyes for just a moment, then beckons me to his chest.
I lie down next to him and rest my head on his shoulder. He kisses the top of my head and squeezes me tight against his side. His warmth is a comfort as the adrenaline drains out of me. I can’t stop thinking, we made it, we made it, like I still can’t truly believe it.
“You are thinking much,” he says.
“I’m just glad you’re here with me,” I say. I press my nose to his neck and breathe him in. “I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”
“That is never possible,” he says. “I will knock down the stone walls to reach you.”
“I believe it,” I say with a laugh and a shake of my head. I hook a knee over his leg. Conversation isn’t what I have on my mind. Not right now. Not when I’m feeling so grateful to have my alien here with me. Not when I’m feeling so grateful to be alive.
His fingers trace a path up my spine. “Your work is done, yes?” he asks.
“For now. For today.” I sit up and slide myself over him, seating myself on his pelvis so I can grin down at his face. Surprise crosses his expression. “The mating pulse,” I ask, “Does that happen every time?”
“I do not know,” he says. He shifts his hips beneath me. The bulge of his cock slides between my legs.
“Does it mean...” I swallow. “Does it mean I can get pregnant?”
“It is likely,” he says. His brows crease. “It makes more sense than not.”
“Right.” Scary thought. I can’t imagine what that would involve.
His hands land on my hips. He presses up against me and grunts. Too much fabric between us. For now. “You would not want this? To mate and have a child?”
“It’s complicated.” I bite my lip as the bulge beneath me grows larger, harder. I press myself down and I gasp. What were we talking about again? There’s nothing complicated about this feeling. This is just pure need, pure lust. Just the heat and the wetness between my legs making demands, overriding my thoughts. “Ryle.” Would it be dangerous? To grow and to birth a half-alien baby? Destiny, fate, this planet, it hasn’t led me astray yet. Not when it comes to him.
And the time it could take for us to get off of this planet and find our destination? It could be years. It could be never.
I run my fingers through his soft blue hair. Lightly scratching around the base of his horns earns a groan. A sharp exhale, a shift of his hips. I lean in and I kiss him.
Whatever the risks are, with him? It’s worth it.
I run my tongue over the seam of his lips until I feel him grin. His mouth parts and I dip my tongue in, caressing his. A low rumble grows in his chest. The sound of my name in his language. “Rey lurou.” His mate. He inhales sharply and shifts between my legs again, the delicious hard bulge of him pressing into the hot center of me.
I sit up and unzip my jumpsuit. He reaches between us and frees himself from his kilt. Our eyes never leave each other’s. There’s so much passion here between us, so much love. I’m certain that I’ll burst into either laughter or tears if I dare utter a sound. So instead I strip myself bare and I position myself above him. His erection slides through my folds, and we both groan at the sensation.
There’s so many other things I want to do with him, to show him and to teach him, but for now? I just want him inside me. I reach behind me and position his cock just so, planting my other hand in the center of his chest to prop myself up. His cock pulses in my grip, and when I pause and hold it for a moment, when I concentrate on its rhythm, I realize he was right. It is synced to me. Synced to my heart.
He says that I’m his, but that also means that he’s mine.
“My mate,” I say, and I lower myself slowly. The stretch and the burn made me shudder, and I bite my lip. It feels so good, so right, and I want all of him so badly, but I have to take my time. He’s beyond what I imagined and what I remember from our first time alone.
His hands settle on my hips, then warmly trail up to my shoulders, then down to my breasts. “You tease,” he says, and he pushes up into me with a grunt. My jaw drops. He’s so big. I’m so ready. I’m dripping over him, coating his cock, but he’s so thick and he’s throbbing for me. It’s so overwhelming. I let my head fall back and I lower myself further, taking him, taking all of him. Needing all of him. He bucks beneath me again and finally, he’s filled me completely. I settle onto his pelvis for a moment, savoring the sensation. The heat. The pulse. I can’t stay still and I can’t stay quiet. I rock upon him and I hiss his name.
“You are beautiful to watch,” he says, rocking his hips with me, “But I must bend you over and claim you.”
“You must?” I ask, a note of teasing in my voice. “What if I like it like this best?”
His tail wraps around my waist. A steadying hug. “Then we will do this all night,” he says. He grips my hips tight and moves me, pulling himself out to his very tip and then thrusting inside, hard. Hard enough to make me yelp, then moan and shudder. He does it again and drives nonsense words out of me, begging words, needy words, because holy shit, I’m nearly there, nearly ready to come already. That pulsing, it quickens, and it’s driving me out of my mind. “I can claim you just as well. I can claim you any way you like.”
“Make me come, Ryle,” I say, my lips brushing his neck as I lean forward. He’s taken over now. All I can do is hang on, and barely that. “Make me come and then flip me over and do it again.”
He rumbles low in his throat, a sound of possessive need. His expression darkens. The pulsing becomes a vibration, and then he’s driving up into me, over and over, his fingers leaving near-bruises on my hips and thighs. I dig my fingers into his upper arms and I cry out. I don’t just fall over the edge, I’m hurled over it, my head spinning as I come in blinding, clenching waves.
Heat explodes inside of me, pours from me and pools between us. The pulsing slows, and so does he, settling me above him for just a moment as he catches his breath. “That felt so good, Ryle,” I breathe, “So amazing.”
“I am not done,” he growls.