by Sonia Nova
The screen blacked out as it created her food and then, in just a couple of minutes, it beeped to signal it was done. She pulled out the plate and looked at the sandwich from every angle. It really did look just right. It looked pretty perfect, even. More perfect than any PB&J she’d ever made herself.
But when she bit into it, she knew what Kraev had meant. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It was good, even. It just wasn’t quite right. It was like you could taste the artificial flavor to it, just a little. She still moaned in appreciation. After the protein bars, this was the best thing in the world.
“If you think that’s good, then come with me,” Kraev said with a smirk, linking his arm through hers and guiding her from the kitchen, plate of sandwich still in her hand.
He led her into the bedroom and her eyes were immediately drawn to the bed. It was huge, almost filling the whole room. It was pretty much the only thing in there, apart from a wardrobe built into the wall.
She suddenly felt nervous. What was Kraev up to? Why had he led her here? Impure thoughts raced through her mind and all the temptation she’d felt when they were cuddled in the cave together came roaring back to the surface.
They were here, alone. Safe and sound.
This was when he’d said he’d claim her.
It should have made her want to argue against the idea when he used that word, but all she felt was turned on.
For a change, though, that didn’t seem to be what Kraev had on his mind. Instead of pushing her down on the bed and ‘claiming’ her like he’d promised, he opened his wardrobe and pulled out a woven twig basket. It was quite large, with a lid on top, and strangely at odds with the rest of the décor. She had no idea what to expect.
“Here,” he said, lifting the lid. Inside, she could see what looked like crystallized fruits. Most of them were various shades of turquoise and blue, just like the Mahdfel she’d seen on the base. They came in many beautifully intricate shapes and sparkled in a wrapper at the bottom of the basket. One of them looked like a flower.
“What are they?” she asked, not wanting to touch one in case she damaged them.
“They’re sweets,” he said, pushing the box closer toward her. “I realize keeping fruit in my closet may not be the most standard thing, but I wanted to keep them close to me. They’re important. I brought them from Raewan when I came here. I wanted to give them to my mate when I was eventually matched. To you.”
Olivia blushed, remembering he’d talked about a gift in the cave. He’d kept them here, waiting for her?
“Thank you,” she said, taking the box from his hands and perching on the side of the bed with it on her lap. “I’m sure they taste wonderful.”
She looked down at the delicious-looking fruits, suddenly having the silly urge to tear up. “I wish I’d brought you something from home… Not that I would’ve wanted to,” she admitted with a laugh. “I thought you were just an alien brute and I was forced into being your match. I didn’t want to bring you anything any more than I wanted to come here. But if I’d known just how wrong I was about you, I might’ve tried to take something with me.”
She looked up at him with a smile. Everything had turned out to be so different from what she had thought. But most of all, Kraev had turned out to be different from what she had imagined. She’d thought being matched to a Mahdfel meant the end of her life, but maybe… maybe it wasn’t so bad after all?
Kraev looked at her, his turquoise eyes suddenly intense. He sat down beside her and took the box from her hand, setting it on the floor beside them. Olivia frowned, but before she could ask him what he was doing, his lips were already pressed onto hers.
The kiss made her gasp because she hadn’t been expecting it. His tail wrapped around her waist and he pulled her close. Her cheeks flushed and her heart leaped in her chest. She wasn’t falling for her alien, was she...?
Despite everything, Olivia found herself leaning into the kiss. His lips were soft and gentle. They seemed so at odds with his rough and dangerous image as a warrior, but hadn’t he already proven to her that he was more than that?
Heat flooded her as he cradled her face in his hands, turning the kiss from a soft peck to an open-mouthed, passionate one. His tail caressed her sides, leaving a tingling sensation behind. She wrapped her arms around his neck and arched into him, pressing her chest against his still bare one. It was only now that she realized his wounds had pretty much disappeared. He really did have incredible healing powers.
Kraev pulled back just a little, crouching over her with passion flaming in his eyes. “I’m glad you weren’t disappointed.”
She laughed, tugging him closer again. “You have no idea how glad I am that I wasn’t disappointed.”
Then, she kissed him again.
She hadn’t in a million years thought that she would be the one to instigate a kiss with her new alien husband. She’d imagined she was going to have to be forced into being intimate with him at all, that he wouldn’t care if she said no.
How wrong she had been.
Now, her body burned under his touch and she couldn’t get enough of him.
Realizing she was falling for Kraev opened up a whole new can of worms that she wasn’t sure she was mentally ready for. Still, she couldn’t stop the feelings. She simply leaned into his embrace, reveling in this moment.
He pushed her back on the bed and Olivia melted into the softness of the sheets. He must have been nearly seven-foot fall and full of muscle, but the bed dwarfed even him. They moved to the middle of the bed where they had all the space in the world to wrap their arms around each other and tangle their legs.
Olivia ran her fingers down Kraev’s back, feeling every contour of the hard muscle cultivated there. His tattoos glowed with an intensity she hadn’t seen until now, lighting up the entire room. For a moment, she was distracted by the thought of lying there with him and going over what every single one of them meant.
She was too impatient for that right now, though.
It appeared that Kraev was just as impatient. He started trying to undo the buttons on her blouse. His fingers were much thicker than the average human’s, and after trying in vain to undo the buttons, he gave in and ripped the blouse open in one button-popping movement.
Olivia couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips. It was such a cliché move, but somehow, because he was so different from how the move was normally envisioned, it didn’t seem as cheesy as it should have. She didn’t even care to miss her blouse, because it had gotten so dirty in the past days, anyway.
Within seconds, all thoughts of dirty blouses and clichés vanished from her mind though, and the smile left her lips. She lost herself in the feel of his fingers running down her bare neck, over her clothed breasts, and back to the bare skin of her stomach. He kissed the curve of her neck and his tail brushed across her hip. A shiver coursed along her spine.
Not sure what the clothes situation was like on R-2841 yet, Olivia decided it was prudent to remove her own bra rather than let Kraev ruin it when he got frustrated with the even more fiddly clips at the back of it.
She pulled the piece of clothing off slowly, making Kraev pause. He stopped kissing her, his eyes devouring her as the bra fell beside them on the bed, exposing her heavy breasts to the cool air of the room.
He took in a deep breath and said words in a husky tone that the translator couldn’t quite catch, moving his lips in a trail down from her neck and toward her breasts.
She gasped when he flicked her nipple with his tongue and then sucked on it gently. A jolt of pleasure went straight to her core and her arm jerked up in what would have been an attempt to lace her fingers through his hair. But his hair didn’t really lend itself to having fingers laced through. The shaved sides and intricate braids were too tight. Instead, her hand went automatically to wrap around one of his horns.
He sucked in a sharp breath at the touch, and when she realized what she’d done, she quickly unwrapped her hand. She
hadn’t realized it might hurt him. She didn’t know what the nerves in his horns were like. Stupidly, she hadn’t even been thinking about it.
“I’m sor–”
Kraev gave her a heated look, his gaze dark with desire. “You can touch them.”
“It doesn’t hurt?”
He closed his eyes, taking in a shuddering breath. “No. It feels good.”
Olivia’s cheeks flushed at the orgasmic expression on his face. Tentatively, she wrapped her hand around his horn again. It felt like it looked: hard and a little ridged. But there was a velvety surface to it too, and as she slid her fingers along it, Kraev let out a guttural moan.
His tail twitched and moved up so that it caressed her left nipple. Then, he leaned down over her right breast. He took it back into his mouth, sucking on the tip and flicking his tongue against it, sending her into a frenzy as his hands roamed her body. Olivia couldn’t hold back the moan that escaped her lips.
Her right hand remained on his horn, stroking it, while her left hand ran fingers across his abs and pecs and her legs wrapped around his hips, wanting to get as close as possible. She could feel his hard cock through his pants, and she tightened her grip so that it was pressing into her core.
Kraev grunted against her nipple and thrust into her. His cock brushed against her clit and Olivia gasped. Her entire body felt heated under his touches, and although they’d barely been kissing for five minutes, she already felt like she’d been teased for a lifetime. Just being in his presence for the past two days and not touching him, not kissing him, had led to a level of frustration she’d never felt in her life.
Now that she finally had her hands on him and was allowed to touch him, it was explosive.
She pushed at his pants with her feet, trying to get them around his ankles so that she could pleasure him too. She wanted to press her lips to every inch of his body, but she was equally as unwilling to move to where his tongue wouldn’t be swirling around the sensitive nub of her nipple and his hands and tail wouldn’t be caressing her.
In the end, her unsuccessful attempts to get his pants off made him pull away from her to remove them anyway. She wanted to pull her own off, but watching him was too arousing. The muscles of his arms and chest bulged as he shimmied his pants off, revealing the powerful legs she’d known would be underneath them.
In the juncture of his thighs, she saw something totally unexpected. His cock was a lighter blue than his skin, nearly the turquoise color of his eyes, but above it, there was a short, two-pronged spur growing out of his skin. It looked like it would press into her clit if he thrust into her at the right angle and she shivered at the prospect.
Her small window of admiration for his gorgeous naked body was cut short when he climbed back on top of her and started pulling at her slacks. Even though he struggled with the clasp, she didn’t take over because his fingers were dipping under the top of her panties and coming dangerously close to brushing sensitive areas, and the almost factor was driving her wild.
Eventually, he gave up trying to negotiate with the clasp and ripped both that and the zip open anyway. She wiggled her hips while he pulled the pants off and then they were both completely naked.
Breathing hard and skin flushed with desire, she raised herself up on her elbows so she could get another look at his body. The blue skin, horns, and glowing tattoos were something she’d have never thought to find attractive, but seeing him there, his chest rising and falling with barely restrained need was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen in her life.
She kissed him hungrily, crushing their lips together and bringing him back down on top of her. She wrapped her legs around his hips tightly and when his cock slid against her slick entrance, a choked moan escaped them both.
Kraev put one hand on her hip and rested his forehead against hers. His other hand cupped the back of her neck and his tail wrapped around her body.
“My mate,” he said softly, his eyes filled with desire, gazing deep into hers as he aligned himself at her entrance.
Olivia gasped as he breached her entrance. He pushed himself into her slowly, stretching her inch by torturous inch. His expression was strained, as if he was scared of hurting her while all he really wanted to do was fuck her senseless.
She wanted that too.
She tightened her legs around his hips again and lifted herself off the bed to take more of him inside her. He groaned in satisfaction and he tightened the grip on her neck, their open mouths brushing against each other but not properly kissing. He was big and she felt completely filled, but she was so slick and wet and turned on that there was no pain.
When he was inside her to the hilt, she felt the advantage of the small, two-pronged spur above his cock. It rubbed against her clit every time he thrust into her, sending her into an entire new world of pleasure that she’d never experienced before. Her breaths were harsh and she moaned with every movement of his hips.
She couldn’t get close enough to him, holding him so tightly that she was worried her fingers were bruising him. Her legs were locked in a vice around his hips and she could feel his tail tense up where it began. Her hands moved on his back and it turned her on that he seemed to want her just as much as she wanted him.
He explored her body as if he didn’t know where he wanted his hands to be, clinging to her everywhere, from her ass, down her leg, and then back to her hip. He squeezed her tightly, causing just the slightest amount of pleasurable pain.
Their passion built together, getting higher and higher, faster and faster until the coil in her stomach tightened and her climax rushed upon her. She gasped, squeezing her eyes shut even though she wanted to look at him as it became too overwhelming, and let the euphoria roll over her. She felt him climaxing above her, coming hard and deep inside her.
He thrust a few more times into her, his body taut, before collapsing on top of her.
They held each other close, less violently now, and tried to catch their breaths. She still absolutely refused to let go of him and they shifted slightly so that they were lying side by side with her curled around him.
His tail came to wrap around her again and she pressed kisses to his neck and face, and then his lips. This time, it was a long and sensual kiss rather than the heated, desperate ones before.
“Leani,” he murmured against her skin.
She glanced up at him. “What does that mean?” It hadn’t translated, and she tried to say the word back to him, but it felt foreign on her tongue.
“It’s a term of endearment,” he said, brushing hair out of her face and running the same finger all the way down the length of her body, making her shiver. Her skin felt so sensitive. “It’s a Raewani word for a life mate. Something akin to beautiful or beloved.”
She tried it on her tongue again, just to try and get the sounds right.
A slow, pleased smile spread on Kraev’s lips. “Perfect,” he said.
Olivia couldn’t help but answer with a smile of her own. “I like it,” she said. She liked that it didn’t translate. It felt unique and special and tied intimately to his culture in a way that it being translated to sweetheart or something similar wouldn’t have.
“Good, because I will be using it often,” he teased.
Olivia giggled. She sunk further into his embrace, feeling the weight of sleep tugging at her eyes. This was the comfiest she’d been… maybe ever, but definitely in the last two days since arriving on R-2841. She wasn’t going to be able to stay awake much longer.
Before she succumbed to sleep, she turned to Kraev, looking at him deep in his turquoise eyes. “I’m glad you were my match.”
Despite everything, it was undeniably true.
CHAPTER 14
KRAEV
When Kraev woke the next morning, the last thing in the world he wanted to do was get out of bed.
Olivia was wrapped around him, her hand slung over his chest and her face buried in his neck. She was breathing peacefully, seemingly at perfect ease, and i
t sent a pang of affection through him. He hugged her tighter against him, cradling the back of her head with his hand.
She was so perfect. He had no idea how he could have been so lucky.
The way she had looked when he’d made love to her the night before… He was already hard just thinking about it and his tattoos glowed with a pleasant warmth at the memory. The temptation to wake her up and have another round of passion like that was overwhelming, but he knew he had to resist.
His ultimate duty would always be to his mate, but part of that meant keeping her safe at all times. Right now, that meant adhering to his other duty as a warrior of his clan. There were Suhlik on the surface of the planet, and that threatened not just his mate, but everyone else’s too. He knew he had to do everything he could to keep the base safe.
He checked the small computer on his bedside table and saw that the Warlord had called him to a strategic meeting. Since he didn’t have a functioning wristband at the moment, he had missed the message and was already a bit late. He prayed the Warlord would grant him a reprieve, since his mate had only just arrived.
Reluctantly, he slipped out of bed, leaving Olivia to wake up alone despite how physically painful doing so was. He dressed quietly, trying his best not to wake her, and kissed her on the forehead before slipping out of the room and into the kitchen. He quickly ate a nourishing, but far too bland, meal from the food replicator and then left his quarters.
Olivia would be able to get out of his quarters without her fingerprint being registered to the system, but she wouldn’t be able to get back inside again. He left a note to that effect on the kitchen counter for her.
His trip down to the planet’s security headquarters didn’t take him long and the Warlord was there waiting for him, talking to another group of warriors. He lifted a hand of acknowledgment to Kraev when he saw him and gestured him over.
“You’ll be flying for this team,” he said, pulling up a map on his tablet. “You’ll be in the next shift, protecting the teleport base. It’s our most important asset and we can’t afford to lose it. You’ll need to fly low to make sure that no stray Suhlik manage to find their way into the building. They’ve launched another attack in the outer layers of the atmosphere, and I’m worried it’s supposed to be a distraction. Your role is crucial here.”
