“No,” Terri interrupted with a sharp exhalation of breath. “You are right. I don’t like it, but I am more easily tired lately… a little more…fragile… than normal, as Navesha implied. I am sure taking a few days to laze about and enjoy the foods will be good for me while I am getting settled and adjusting to all of this… all except the versin,” she chuckled.
The smile that accompanied her statement was small but Veral relaxed a little at the genuine warmth that filled it. That was the spark he was accustomed to seeing from his female. Making a pleased rumble, he drew her into his arms, his mandibles threading lightly among her hair as he clutched her close to him.
“Yes, rest well and regain your energy for when I conclude these matters,” he whispered into her ear. “Until then, I have a little time before I must leave. Let me see to your nourishment since your stomach rejected what was previously eaten and then I will take you back to our quarters to see you are appropriately bathed and tended to before I depart.”
Her soft sigh and the erotic tremble of her body against his was all the answer he required. Pulling her close, he brushed his lips against her brow, trailing them down the bridge of her nose until he could brush them against her soft mouth. Her moan brought another surge of lust reminding him to break off while in front of an audience despite how much his body loathed to.
Drawing back, he turned a curt glance toward Navesha, who watched with unabashed interest. The female lifted one spineless feminine shoulder and winked.
“If you are performing in public, do not expect me to look away. I am the oldest unmated female in our line. I have to enjoy all intimacy secondhand… or firsthand as far as my own appendage goes,” she retorted as she lifted her opposite hand and immediately turned her attention to sharpening the claws on that hand.
With a disapproving glare, Veral tucked Terri into his side as he fetched more appropriate food from the cooling unit for his mate and hustled her out of there. He wanted his mate to himself and far away from his cousin’s overly bold behavior. His attention was on far more interesting things.
He was barely able to contain his passion before they tumbled through the doorway to their quarters. Mouths locking and hands working at a frenzied pace, their bodies came together with exultant shouts of passion. His entire focus narrowed in on the wet slaps of their bodies together as his civix plowed into her wet heat. Terri’s small cries urged him on until he was riding her harder to the point of combustion.
His pelvis slick in the apex of her thighs, Veral growled at his increasing lack of self-control around his female. He knew that it was common among mated pairs to engage each other frequently while the female gestated in order to reaffirm and strengthen their bond. For that reason, he knew that it was not abnormal, even though his body was spasming as he held himself deep within her. Content while locked together, he dragged his jaw against hers, enjoying the way she relaxed bonelessly as his mandibles vibrated in the low purr she enjoyed. It was something he made certain to use frequently in their matings to increase her post coital enjoyment. And he admitted that he found it quite enjoyable as well.
He was starting to understand why so many mated as soon as possible, even if it was with pressure from mother-kin. He thought little of what Navesha said about being unmated until hours later as he dragged a wet sponge over Terri’s shoulders.
“Why do you think Navesha isn’t mated?” Terri asked, breaking the soothing silence that had fallen in their room outside of the quiet purr of his mandibles and a distant melody that carried through the corridors from someplace within the compound.
He lifted a shoulder and smoothed the sponge around one breast in leisure strokes.
“I do not know. It is possible that a male she bonded with died before they finalized their mating, or that she could not find a suitable male that she was able to bond to her. It happens. If Featha did not consider it important enough to get the artificial hormones, it could be any number of scenarios.”
“That’s a little sad,” Terri said quietly.
He nodded. “It is. That is one reason I say it is important for us to look beyond our own planet to alien races. Our males and females need it, rather than forcing bonds through hormone injections.”
Terri turned in the tub and looped her arms around his neck, her blue eyes peering intently into his. “Well, this alien feels very lucky to have found you.”
“As I do with you,” he purred.
She bit her lip. “You have to leave soon, don’t you?”
“I do,” he replied.
A sigh shuddered from her. “All right. Just hurry home, okay?”
“Nothing can keep me from your side,” he assured her.
When he left her moments later, dressed in a loose robe as she lay upon their sleeping pallet, tension radiated through him at the impending distance separating them. It was necessary, he reminded himself. Refusing to show weakness and look back, he stepped out of the room, not even faltering in his stride when the door slid shut behind with him a quiet snick.
He would see to his duties and return as soon as possible to his beloved anastha.
11
Terri sat on the padded stone chair in the courtyard garden. For four days, she had hardly seen Veral at all. She woke when he slid into bed next to her, but he never attempted to do anything more than twine his arms around her and hold her close. Come morning, he was gone again with Krono before she woke. It was sheer hell, and not even Navesha’s random appearances made her feel much better. Dreth made an attempt to be good company when he visited to look in on her, but the distance between her and Veral absorbed all of her attention. Although she tried not to be too much of a downer, the anxiety was starting to get to her.
Her fingers squeezed the fruit in her hand hard enough that they wettened from its juices. Sighing, she set it on the plate beside her, unable to stomach the idea of taking a bite. Veral wouldn’t be happy that her appetite recently dropped off, but over the last day it had been difficult to rouse interest in much of anything.
“You know what you need?” Navesha interrupted.
Terri peeled one eye open to look over at her current babysitter. “My mate?”
“Yes, but in this case, incorrect,” the female chuffed. “I believe you need a distraction.”
Terri sucked her lips in thoughtfully. The other female wasn’t wrong. She was so focused on Veral’s absence perhaps a distraction would be helpful, though she was too suspicious to fully trust Navesha. She didn’t know what it was that struck her as off, and it felt unfair to judge her so harshly when Veral’s cousin had done nothing to her.