by Erin Raegan
Kil scowled and pushed off from the desk. “It’s handled.”
“Have you even been to your warship in the last few weeks?” I pushed. He had been abandoning his Kilbus buddies more and more. My dad had even been worried about a weird tension between them before I left.
Kil shook his head, smiling grimly. “I know all your little secrets, honey bunny.” He tapped his head. “Stop picking on me.” He winked at Chyn. Kil was joking but it was more forced. I looked to my dad nervously.
My father looked at me expectantly, and I mouthed a vile curse to Kil. He could read minds and, more freakishly, control them. Honestly, Chyn shouldn’t have shocked me as much as he did. Where Chyn’s abilities were scary in their impossibility to the human understanding, Kil’s were just straight-up scary.
We talked for a few more minutes before Michael, a member of my father’s army and a good friend, came into the office, looking for my father. He gasped at the sight of me and pulled me into a tight hug.
Chyn decided that was the moment to remind my father of how close we had been standing when we popped into his office by shoving Michael off me and wrapping himself around me from behind. “Time to go.”
“We just got here,” I said with a frown.
My father blinked. “So soon?”
“I’ve been gone from Juldoris too long,” he said low in my ear, almost apologetically.
I sighed. “I’m sorry, Pop.”
“I don’t like this,” he said as I walked to him. “I don’t know how to let you go.”
“I know.” What else could I say? A deal was a deal. And I didn’t want to fight with Chyn and give my father something more to worry about right before I left. “But I’ll be fine.”
He kissed my cheek and walked behind me to Chyn. My dad was a few inches taller than me at about five-foot-ten, but Chyn towered over him. Still, my father looked up at him, crossing his arms. “She is the single greatest thing in my life.”
Chyn regarded him coolly.
“I may be just a human, but I assure you nothing in the universe would stop me from hunting you down if you hurt my daughter.”
I’d told my father a version of what we’d heard had happened with the women mated to the Dahk. My pop had gotten red in the face and had to leave the room for a few seconds, but he hadn’t attacked Chyn. Instead he’d asked me if I was happy with my mate.
It had caused me physical pain to lie to him. But he had bought my lie. Barely.
Chyn nodded and held his hand out to my father. Pop sighed, clenching his jaw, and shook Chyn’s hand, his knuckles bleaching white. Chyn showed no sign my father’s grip was affecting him.
I hugged Pop again, watching Kil whisper to Chyn.
“I expect a call,” my dad rumbled. “One of those videos or hologram things.”
“Um…” I looked at Chyn warily. “I don’t know…”
“She will contact you.” Chyn didn’t even look our way as he answered my father.
I had to look away from my father’s watery gaze as Chyn pulled me to him. I hid my face in Chyn’s chest as he whispered his usual warning.
When I opened my eyes, we were back in his room on Juldoris and I was stumbling away from him, climbing into the bed and curling into a ball.
“You need to eat,” Chyn whispered, waking me.
“I don’t want to,” I mumbled, turning my face into the pillow I was clutching.
Chyn sighed. “Eat or I’ll be forced to feed you myself.”
I groaned, rolling onto my back. Chyn had a tray in his hand of the usual alien fare, none of which I wanted to overanalyze. But it smelled great and my stomach grumbled.
“Is it poisoned?” I asked snidely.
Chyn smirked and held up a cut of meat to my mouth. I snapped my teeth around it and glared, sitting up. Once the juices of the meat hit my tongue, I chewed fast and continued eating from the tray on my own.
Once the tray and jug of water were wiped clean, I flopped back down and rolled to my side, curling back around my pillow.
“Are you going to sleep the eve away?”
“Go away.”
Chyn sighed. “This mood doesn’t suit you.”
“Nagging doesn’t suit you.”
Chyn huffed a laugh. I felt the bed depress behind me. His arms came around from behind, his hands pulling me back into his chest. “I have a gift for you.”
I blinked at the bed, picking at a loose thread. “What is it?”
“Hmmm.”
I growled. “I know that hmmm. A gift is just that. A gift. I won’t trade you for it.”
“Very well.” He dropped a flat square piece of glass on the bed. It was smooth.
I looked at it. “Is that what I think it is?”
“To call your father.”
My hands left the bed and curled around the glass. “It’s mine?”
“Yours,” he confirmed.
I wrapped the device in my arms and smiled softly. Chyn leaned up on one elbow and turned my face so he could press his thumb against my smile.
“Now I’ll take your gratitude,” he said expectantly.
“No way,” I grumbled, scowling at his lifted brows. “You were trying to trade me for it.”
“Nothing is given freely. If you desire something, you take it.” He dipped down and nipped at my lip. “Now I’ll take your gratitude.”
I sighed in annoyance, and he used the opening to dip his tongue back into my mouth. I was too tired to fight him, and if I was honest with myself, I liked this side of him, craved it even. It was miles better than his other moods. My breath was labored and I tingled all over as he rolled on top of me, pressing me deeper into the bed.
“My apologies if I’m not performing to your expectations,” he said into my mouth, startling me. “It has been a long time since I touched another.”
I backed away. His face was grave and earnest. “How long?” My eyes narrowed as he tried to distract me with his mouth again. “How long, Chyn?”
He growled and scraped his fingers through his short, messy black hair. “Too long.”
“Like a month?” I watched as he avoided my eyes. “A year?”
He looked at me warily, hovering over me on his forearms. “Just after I left Latari for the first time.”
I gaped at him, flabbergasted. “That would mean—that long?”
Chyn nodded. “My brothers and I searched for females compatible and able to pair. I did not enjoy it.”
“Wow,” I whispered, shocked. “That’s… I can’t even imagine that.”
He dipped down to my neck and ran his tongue along the line of it. “You will show me what you enjoy and I will stop at nothing to hone my skill.” He grabbed my thighs and spread them for his hips.
“Chyn, this is—” He sucked behind my ear and I gasped. “I don’t think this a good idea.”
“You’re mine,” he rumbled, biting at my chin. “I’m yours.” He curled his hands high on my thighs and dropped his hips, putting pressure against me with something very hard and very thick. “You are female and females desire a physical connection. No male will give this to you but me.”
I shuddered as he moved his hips up then back down. “I’m not yours,” was all I could think to say.
Chyn chuckled wickedly into my collarbone. “Wrong.” He shoved his hand under my spine and dragged me farther up the bed, scooting down until his face was level with my belly button. “I like this.”
He dipped his tongue there and I sucked in a breath, gripping his hair. His fingers gripped my bottoms and peeled them down my legs before tossing them aside. I tried to snap my legs closed, but he was too fast and I wound up trapping his head there. His dark eyes met mine as he dragged his warm tongue along the crease of my thigh.
“Wait. I don’t like you.” I groaned as he used his thumbs to spread me open to the cool air.
“No?” He rubbed his mouth on the most sensitive part of me, chuckling as I shuddered. “Tell me to stop and I shall.” His
tongue flattened and dragged up and I shuddered again, my back dropping to the bed.
I groaned, twisting my fingers into the bedding.
He backed away with his brows raised and I cried out in distress, pulling him back. He huffed a laugh and then flattened his tongue. My toes curled in the air and I couldn’t restrain myself as I pushed up into his mouth for more.
“Joining in this way is the most natural act of a pair. I will have this with you above all else.”
With that, he stopped listening to my half-hearted protests and made good on his promise. He honed his skill for a long, long time. He did not once let up. I was a whimpering mess of shouts and curses by the time I stopped my lying to him and myself and quit complaining and instead started begging. His tongue was working magic down there, but he was completely avoiding the best place and it was driving me insane.
“Please. Please, please, please.” My chest was tight and my thighs were burning and I had torn several chunks of his hair from his head, but he wouldn’t relent.
“Take it from me, milvira,” he snarled. “Take it.”
I sobbed, trying to get him to roll over. He wouldn’t budge at first, not until I whining and rolling my hips to the side. He growled a curse and backed away long enough for me flip him to his back. My knees dropped into the bed above his head and I gripped his hair, keeping him still as I dropped my hips. I groaned in agony as I undulated on his chin and lips.
His hands curled around my hips and forced me down harder, and I dropped my fingers above his nose, circling and circling that place that had been violently ignored. He growled and shoved me down, tearing my hand away, and sucked the tight spot. My lower belly cramped and I dropped face first onto the bed above his head to scream into the sheets as I rode his face faster and faster until I crested, a wave of white-hot fire burning me from the tips of my fingers to my toes.
Chyn carefully rolled my shuddering body. He knelt between my legs, lightly playing with that throbbing nub. “This then?”
I nodded weakly, tears streaming. He hummed, pushing my weak hands away as I tried to stop him. He dipped back down and licked around it, humming and chuckling when I cursed him breathlessly. He easily restrained my hands and worked back up, paying nothing else attention but that one spot.
“God,” I groaned. Dragging myself up to sitting, I shifted my hips back and forth, tracing his tongue. “Inside. Inside me.”
He dragged his tongue down and pushed inside, and I dug my nails deep into the skin of his hand.
“More.”
He growled impatiently. “Show me.”
He released my fingers and I dropped them, pressing one inside, then two. My head dropped back and my hips pushed up closer to him. Chyn panted in front of me, watching from my hand to my face, his eyes rapt. I grabbed his head and dragged his mouth to mine as I pushed my fingers deeper.
“I want your fingers,” I panted into his mouth.
He rasped a curse and pulled me onto his folded thighs. “Too sharp.”
He dragged the tips of his claws down my spine and I whined into his mouth. I couldn’t get there on my own with him looking so like him and—I’d always struggled to let go when it was just me. I needed something more. I never missed my collection of vibrating boyfriends more than I did in this moment. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and bit deep into his shoulder, whining and crying out in frustration.
I was a split second away from tearing his pants off him. I knew deep down I should have been terrified of that, but the only thing that stopped me was that he had been so careful to not draw much attention to what he had hiding under there. And that in turn kept me from jumping headlong into something I was already fully immersed in. it was too late to back out now, and having him in front of me, looking at me the way he was, I was starting to realize I didn’t want to.
“Wait here,” he rasped.
I shouted in surprise when he disappeared from beneath me. My eyes shut as my drop to the bed forced my fingers deeper inside me. I should have been embarrassed, kneeling on his bed by myself with my fingers deep inside, but I was so tense and I needed to find that amazing relief so much, I just kept reaching for it.
He was back in seconds, then he was pushing his hand into my chest and flattening me to the bed. He held a long crystal cylinder with a wide angular tip. The base was nearly twice the size of the tip, and the entire underside was layered in smooth bumps.
“What is that?” I cried with wide eyes.
“Xixin,” he mumbled. “A replica.”
“A what?” I asked when he tore my fingers away. “Where did you get it?”
“Their brothels sell them to their patrons.” He spread my legs and ran the tip of the glass cylinder between my legs, coating it.
“Y-you just went there?” I asked, shivering violently from the chilled glass.
Chyn nodded absently and pushed the head of it against my opening.
“Y-you bought it?” I asked. “Just now?”
“No. I stole it.”
“You s—” I huffed a sharp breath as he slowly pushed it inside. “Shit. It’s too big.”
Chyn smiled grimly. “I am larger. This will prepare you.”
“Larger?” I gaped at him, snapping my knees shut and accidentally forcing the glass toy further inside. I moaned long and loud and his eyes flared.
He forced my legs back open and hunched over me, pulling it out then pushing it in slightly farther than before. He was gentle and soft and watching me raptly.
“Take a deep breath,” he purred in my ear, petting my thigh.
“If I wasn’t so worked up right now, I’d slap you,” I growled, then moaned when he pressed it farther.
Chyn grinned then nipped my lips. He crawled back down my body and spread my legs with his shoulders. “I admire your restraint.”
He sucked between my legs and pressed the toy deep inside me. I exploded like a bottle rocket, shouting and tearing out another chunk of his hair.
20
Chyn
She slept soundly beside him.
The assassin could not take his eyes from her.
Though she had slept for so long after her brief visit to her father, she slept deeper now.
He had not been able to restrain himself throughout the long night. He’d given her a brief reprieve before he woke her with his mouth once more. And then again.
This most recent time, he had become incensed with the Xixin plaything he’d retrieved from their depraved stores. She stretched beautifully around the crystal, crying and begging for him. He could not look at it a moment more and shattered it against the wall. That made the assassin’s female furious. She was on the brink, so he bit his claws clean off—a foolish act that would cost him in battle, but he’d needed to feel her himself.
Chyn shuddered. She was unlike anything he’d experienced with any other. She had writhed on his fingers, calling his name in rapture.
He pressed down on his cock, urging it to calm. But it was no use. Her lower half was open to him, her thigh up and straddling the bedclothes. Her feminine heat taunted him. It would be nothing to free himself and claim her as his Latari brothers and sisters once did.
But he had wronged her already. He could not bring himself to do it again. No matter how selfish he was, he could not take her properly until she accepted the bond that had saved his long miserable life.
He had intended to never lay with her. If he kept himself from her in that way, there would be no need to confess to her his greatest sins and ultimately lose all chance of her faith in him. She claimed not to trust him. Not to care for him. But he knew she slept so peacefully because he was close, and he longed for her whispered calls of his name. Even in sleep, she reached for him, and for the first time in his pathetic existence, he wished he were more than the unfeeling weapon he had been born to be. He wished he were Latari and Latari alone and that he’d been born without the curse of the gods.
She would be sickened if she knew what h
e’d done to his brethren. What he had almost done to her. Chyn moved from her side reluctantly and hunched over.
He’d never been interested in lying with a female. The Juldo demon had far too much of a hold on him. But when he finally could not avoid what was happening to him and his brethren, they went off in seek of a solution.
None were compatible with Latari. He did not enjoy them and didn’t particularly remember them now.
But he knew he would never forget the feel of London. She was seared into his mind’s eye.
He held himself away from her physically, intent on learning her mating needs. He may not allow himself the privilege of sating himself, but he would not allow her to live without that connection. He would learn every other way he could to please her.
His restraint was already thin. He did not know if he could live their long lives together and never feel her warmth around himself.
But he would wait. He would earn her affection another way. And when he felt she was ready, he would take her pleasure for his own, then she would never be free of him.
21
London
Two weeks.
Two weeks of Chyn’s mouth.
Two weeks of his tongue.
Two weeks of his teeth.
Two weeks of his filed fingers.
His thumb. His knuckles.
Two weeks of Chyn spending every waking moment trying to hunt down every single hot button on my body. Two weeks of never-ending orgasms.
Two weeks of mood swings. Arguments. And feelings.
Two weeks of bittersweet conversations with my father and even harder visits.
Two weeks of Chyn worming his way inside me with his brooding, his attentive fumbles. His hits and his misses. Two weeks of wanting to spend every second with him but also wanting to dump him off the tallest building on Juldoris.
Two weeks of building our bond. Falling in love with Juldoris—your surprised. I was too.
Two weeks watching the Juldo adapt to their new master and his radical changes. Their fails and accomplishments.
