“You’renot,” he says. “And if you need to talk about it, please tell me. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you by my side.”
That makes my heart ache–just a little. A knot stops up my throat and I swallow it down, letting out a breath. “I’ll tell you if I need to talk,” I concede.
I know he won’t leave me alone until I admit defeat.
He gives me a satisfied smile. “In that case, I should get back to the crew so we can prepare for launch.”
“Wait a second,” I tell him. “You weren’t just going to come in here and tell me to talk about my feelings, were you…?”
Nereus quirks an eyebrow. “Did you have something else in mind?”
I pull him into my lap, settling his legs on either side of my hips. He’s not wearing anything under the tunic, and I can feel his gorgeous, technicolor cock already swelling at the sensation of our hips grinding together. Nereus’ jaw drops and his eyes slide shut, and I reach under his tunic to palm him with my vibrating hand.
There aresomeperks to being a freak.
“You can’t just distract me like this every time I ask how you’re feeling,” Nereus murmurs, but he doesn’t protest when I press my lips to his throat, stroking his shaft up to the strange, starfish head of him.
“Funny,” I growl. “You don’t seem to mind.”
He gasps, blood surging to his cock. I’m so fucking hard I’m sure he can feel me pressing against him through the fabric of my pants. I was just inside him a few hours ago as dawn crept through the window, but I’m ready to do it all over again. “Launch is in five minutes,” he whines.
“You don’t think I can make you come in five minutes?”
He laughs–a gorgeous, loud laugh that rings in the ceiling of the cockpit. And then he’s kissing me, and his hands are on the button of my pants, scrambling to free my growing erection as I continue to jerk him off. I didn’t expect him to go all the way–I would have been satisfied to stroke him to completion without getting anything in return–but I’m not going to complain.
And I like that he doesn’t mind the prospect of someone seeing us.
Because we’re owning this. We belong to each other.
I would be crazy to leave him when this is all over.
I groan into Ner’s mouth when he pulls me loose, his skin already shimmering with amphoria. It’s one of the pluses of having a Merati lover: the natural production of sparkling pheromones that also, helpfully, do the trick when it comes to easing entry. He shifts his hips to rub his ass over my cock, and I throw my head back to let him trail kisses over my throat.
He has to be close to coming himself.
“Three minutes,” he says, his voice deep and rumbling against my pulse, a strand of long hair tickling my collarbone.
“Better hurry,” I breathe.
He sinks down onto me, and I find him ready and comfortable. The tight clench of his ass around my cock feels incredible–so incredible that I almost forget to keep jerking him off, which Nereus quickly reminds me of with a nip to my throat. I let out a throaty laugh as he starts to ride me, more auburn hair flying free from his braids.
“You feel amazing,” he says with a choked gasp.
“I can feel even better,” I mutter.
I start my limbs vibrating, glad I learned this trick so long ago. The sheen of amphoria on Nereus’s skin glistens in the light from the window, the wetlands of Alamancia stretching out beyond the ship. The water is the same lagoon green as Nereus’s eyes, which lock onto mine as our fucking grows more fervent, feverish, needy.
I want to tell him I’m not going anywhere.
I almost do.
But I’ve said a lot of stupid things during sex, and I don’t yet know what my answer is to his question.
So I say, “You’re fucking gorgeous, Ner. I love you so fucking much.”
And we come together, groaning in the silence of the cockpit as the Wrath of Triton hums to life.
It isn’t until after he’s left that I manage to wrap my head around what’s stopping me from staying with him. Because in moments like this, in the afterglow of incredible sex with someone I love, I want to tell him everything about how I feel—about how Homeworld was my prison for a long time, how Fiona has betrayed us one too many times, how Ijust don’t know if I can ever stay in one place again.