by Kate Rudolph
“Is it more complicated than your normal missions?” She wanted to know everything about him: his likes, his dislikes, his history, his hopes and fears, and everything else he was willing to give her.
Her mate grew thoughtful. “Every mission has its complications. Did you know that Kayde and I were briefly detained by the slavers on Fenryr 1?” He asked it like he knew she hadn’t known, and he didn’t sound too traumatized by the event. “They didn’t catch Raze, and he was able to extract us, but that was a more unpleasant day than this one.”
“So today is just unpleasant? I thought it was heart-stoppingly terrifying.” How she could smile when she said that, Iris wasn’t sure. It probably had something to do with the warrior pressed up against her side.
“I am with you, and we’re safe for the moment. Though my heart did threaten to stop when they pointed their blasters at you.” His hand stopped playing with her hair and his body grew tense.
Iris splayed her fingers across his chest and drew a pattern in the soft material of his top. She wanted to tell him that everything would be all right, but they both knew that they were far from safe. “You’re the reason I made it through. I wasn’t going to let them hurt you, not if I could stop it. And I knew that you needed me to be strong, to pull my own weight to get us out of there.”
Toran turned more fully towards her, his eyes briefly blazing red. “I need you alive and with me. If you cannot walk, I will carry you. So long as you live, I will breathe. And I would gladly stand by your side until my dying day.”
Her stomach flipped and Iris’s mouth went dry at that declaration. “New rule. No talking about death and dying days until we’re back on Earth. I don’t want you getting any ideas.” She met his eyes and her tongue darted out to wet her lips as she considered her next words carefully. In a way, opening her heart was far more terrifying than having a blaster pointed at her chest. That kind of pain was only physical; the chance of rejection, however slim, would melt her like las fire. “And I feel the same. About the living, standing by you. All of that.” There was an easier way to express that, but Iris couldn’t make her tongue form the words.
The smile that lit up Toran’s face told her that he didn’t need that word, not yet. He looked young and joyful, full of hope. Not like he was hiding in an unused room on a pleasure station hoping that security forces didn’t figure them out.
They leaned in at the same time and their lips met in a gentle kiss. Iris’s fingers curled in the fabric of Toran’s shirt, but she didn’t pull him forward. They held themselves still, as if leaning any further forward would detonate an unstoppable explosion between them. He tasted like home, his tongue a welcome intruder that she opened under with no resistance. Iris’s body was on fire, the good kind, not the kind in the incinerator, and every move Toran made only heated her up more.
He broke their standoff first, pulling her towards him and rolling them on the soft bed until she was snugly under him and his heavy weight pressed down on her while they kissed. He was a blanket, and while he was huge, he was careful not to crush her. Iris let one hand explore, trailing it along his side and around his back until her fingers could trace the hard lines of his muscles through his top. “Off,” she muttered against his lips. “Off.”
She only realized how that sounded when Toran pulled back, a puzzled look on his face, his eyes red with desire. “Is something wrong?”
Iris tugged at the bottom of his shirt. “Too many clothes. Shirt off.” She wasn’t quite capable of complete sentences anymore, but from the way Toran’s nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed with a predatory intent, he was pleased with the situation.
He tugged off his shirt, exposing all of that glorious golden skin and those markings she still needed to trace with her tongue. No time like the present. She pulled him back down towards her and with a clever move she’d learned in a self-defense class years before, she thrust her hips up and rotated, ending up on top of Toran, straddling his hips. But self-defense was the furthest thing from her mind, and from the hardness she could feel growing in Toran’s pants and pressing against her, his own mind wasn’t on fighting. She leaned down and swiped her lips against Toran’s when he angled his head for a kiss, but she didn’t let herself get caught up, there would be time for that later. Now she had a mission, intent on exploring every bit of him that she could reach. The markings at his neck were the easiest to find and when her tongue found the edge of one, Toran bit out a curse and bucked against her.
Her lips curved. “Sensitive?” Nothing about them looked erogenous, but she loved having this effect on her mate.
“A little,” he gasped. “More than expected.” That was no good, he could still handle sentences.
Iris went back to work, tracing down his neck and working every mark she saw, no matter how small. While her tongue worshiped him, she used her hands to explore his muscles, and flicked her thumbs against his nipples. The cry that tore out of him was somewhere between anguish and ecstasy. And before she knew it, Iris was on her back, with Toran looming over her. The look on his face would’ve been terrifying if she didn’t know how much he wanted her.
“When we get home I’m going to use my claws to tear your clothes off you until you are lying naked beneath me,” he threatened or promised, she wasn’t quite sure which. At least he was keeping his head clear enough to remember their precarious situation. Maybe Iris should have pulled back, should have stopped him from going any further, but she trusted Toran to keep her safe, and for just a few minutes she didn’t want to remember. Okay, she bargained with herself, several minutes, maybe an hour. How much harm could one hour cause?
“I’m going to hold you to that,” she responded. It took a little work, but she wiggled out of her top and Toran tossed it somewhere across the room, leaving her bare from the waist up to him. Somehow his eyes seemed to get even redder, rubies sparkling with a heart of fire. He leaned down and just like she had done, swiped a kiss against her lips before making a path along her chin and down her neck, down to her breasts, where he lavished them with attention until she was squirming under him, panting for more, her fingers curling into the sheets below her. She splayed her legs, wrapping one around his hip and rubbing against him, desperate for more friction. He rutted against her, and it was almost enough, but Iris hovered on the edge of something, not quite able to tip over the crest of pleasure. She needed more. With an almost supernatural sense of Iris’s desires, Toran ventured further south, placing kisses along her stomach and gently opening her trousers and revealing more of her skin for his tongue to explore.
He pulled her pants down over her hips, and for a moment Iris was upset that she had to move her leg to let him maneuver. But when he settled himself between her thighs and placed his lips over the heat of her sex, her hips bucked up and all thoughts of disappointment were quickly replaced with the extremes of pleasure that his tongue brought her. She gasped out his name and arched up, one leg ending up over his shoulder to give him easier access to her.
Toran showed no mercy, playing her like a tightly strung instrument until all she could do was make high-pitched noises while vibrating with pleasure. The orgasm ripped through her like a crescendo, curling her toes and working its way up until she was writhing from side to side and calling out Toran’s name like a supplicant in prayer. He brought her down from the high, placing gentle kisses against her thighs and working his way back up to capture her mouth in a passionate kiss.
She could barely move, could barely think, her entire being attuned to Toran. She expected him to free his length and seat himself at her core, to push into her and claim her and make her come again, but he seemed content just to kiss her pleasure-sated body.
If he wasn’t going to move, Iris would. She snaked a hand between them and worked at the clasp of his pants. “I want you.”
Toran pulled back enough to look at her, his gaze intense. “I will not claim you until we are off the station,” he declared, even as his eyes flared with passi
on.
It took Iris’s pleasure drunk brain a moment to understand what he was saying. “Why?” They were together now, she wanted him, he wanted her, what was the problem?
He placed his hands on the bed at either side of her head, holding himself over her in a planking position. The air was superheated between them, and though she could barely feel his body, his presence laid over her like a ghost. “Because I need time to properly claim you. Not a few stolen moments where we could be discovered at any minute.” He rolled to the side, laying beside her.
Iris turned towards him. “Okay, I can understand that.” And maybe a small, infinitesimal part of her was a little bit relieved that she wasn’t making this decision, this commitment right now. But she could still see Toran’s length straining against his pants and she did not need to be the only one who was laying satisfied in the bed. “At least let me help you with that.”
Toran sucked in a deep breath and for a split second, she thought he would reject her, but to her delight he freed his cock from its confines. Iris’s sex clenched and she was ready for another round, but at this moment it was about Toran. She wrapped her fingers around him and watched his face intently as she stroked the hard heat of his length. He was leaking, and she ran her thumb against his head, using the lubrication while she brought him to the edge.
He gave himself over to it, his head tilting back and hips jerking as she stroked harder and harder. He leaned forward and clasped his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her towards him and capturing her lips with his, ending the embrace with a gasp and a groan as his pleasure exploded between them.
His skin was hot under her, and they couldn’t stop kissing, even as they lay beside one another and recovered from the explosive pleasure they’d given and received. It wasn’t safe to sleep, wasn’t safe to rest, but Iris curled in beside Toran and her eyes grew heavy as the weight of the day and everything they’d done crashed over her.
Toran kissed the side of her neck gently and slung an arm over her. “It’s okay, rest. We have a little time. I’ll make sure you’re safe.” And even in the midst of everything, with danger closing in on them, Iris’s eyes slid shut and she fell asleep with a smile in her mate’s arms.
Chapter Fourteen
TORAN KNEW THAT HE should try to join his denya in sleep, but after several minutes of laying still with his eyes closed and breath steady, it became clear that sleep eluded him. He pulled Iris closer and buried his face in the crook of her neck, breathing her scent deep into his lungs. It wasn’t sleep, but any of the tension he’d been holding close dissolved as her essence filled him.
What would it be like when they were bonded? Already he could barely keep himself from reaching for her every minute of every hour that went by. Would be intense hunger that he felt diminish? Or would his need for her grow until it was an all-consuming thing that defined his existence?
He wished he could ask Raze these questions. He wasn’t close to the other bonded males at Detyen HQ. Many of them were much older than Toran and though they’d been his teachers and mentors throughout his entire life, the things he needed to know now were too personal, too intimate, to ask just anyone. He barely wanted to ask Raze. But if there was something that Raze knew about mating, about keeping his denya satisfied and happy, Toran wanted to know as well.
Iris stirred beside him, shifting slightly before sinking deeper into sleep. Toran’s lips curled into a smile and he tightened his arms around her. They couldn’t stay here long, but he could give his mate these peaceful moments while he set his mind to the next phase of their escape.
He doubted that Yormas or the Oscavian had enough clout to call for a search of each of the rooms. And even if they did, that would take hours. Still, it was better to be ahead of them, gone from the base as quickly as possible before security realized that they’d escaped.
He quickly dismissed any thought of attempting to stowaway on the passenger shuttles. Those were the most highly guarded exit and entry points on the base and the risk was too great. But the passenger shuttles were not the only ways on and off the moon. Despite years of terraforming and the large indoor gardens that had been built in the bases, the majority of the food available here had to be shipped in. It was a massive and expensive effort to feed the thousands of people living on or visiting the lunar surface. It wasn’t just the food, either. All of the shops needed to be able to receive shipments, and though maintenance could use 3D printers to manufacture most of the supplies they needed, some things still needed to come from Earth.
A supply ship could get them home. They only needed to find one, avoid any of its security, evade the station guards, and keep off Yormas’s radar. How difficult could that be?
Toran wasn’t going to answer that.
He went over the logistics in his mind, losing himself to thoughts of what they could do and how things could go wrong. He got so caught up in the planning that time slipped away from him, and before long Iris was stirring and waking beside him. She rolled over and looked at him with a sleepy smile.
“You have intense face going on,” she said.
Toran kissed her nose. “Are you ready to go home?”
IRIS ALMOST FELT GUILTY about the nap. Especially when she woke up and Toran had devised an entire escape plan. But she didn’t let herself dwell on that as they took turns in the showers and cleaned themselves up as best they could. She knew that Toran wouldn’t want her to feel guilty for something as innocent as sleep. He wanted her safe and off this base as much as she wanted that for him. They didn’t need to get into a contest, competing to save each other or come up with brilliant plans to get home. It wasn’t a competition, wasn’t a game, and there was no score.
Even so, next time maybe she would try to stay awake for the planning session. She just wouldn’t tell Toran why she thought she needed to do that.
Her clothes felt dirty, as if she’d been wearing them for several days, and she wished they had access to their room. But dirty clothes were the least of her worries, and she wasn’t about to complain about something as simple as that. She tidied up the room as best she could, but there was no way to disguise that the two of them had spent time there. She only hoped that whatever cleaning bot was responsible for these quarters wasn’t programmed to report that they had been illegally occupied. She didn’t know how cleaning bot programming was supposed to work.
Once they were both clean and ready, she and Toran left the room without a backwards glance. Toran’s hair was still a little wet from the shower and her mind flashed back to their sweat-soaked bodies grinding against one another on the bed. Arousal scorched through her and she had to clench her fists to keep from reaching out and stroking her hand against her mate. She had an insatiable hunger to touch him, and she might’ve been embarrassed about it if it weren’t obvious that Toran felt exactly the same way.
But doubts were creeping up. She’d been ready to do everything with him, to seal the bond he told her held them together. And while she knew he had a point about taking their time and doing it right, that little voice that lived inside her and liked to whisper about how she wasn’t good enough, how she wasn’t worthy of love, and how she couldn’t pick a good man to save her life, was saying some very hurtful things that she was having trouble blocking out. It was saying that Toran didn’t need a weak mate, a woman who couldn’t fight security guards who held her captive. A woman who fell asleep rather than finding an escape route.
Logically she knew that he didn’t think those things. And even if he had reservations, he had every reason to want the bond sealed between them. After all, he would die if he didn’t have sex with her. And wasn’t that an ego killer? Did he only want her as his mate because he didn’t have another option? Would he rather be alone than with a woman who’d been assigned to investigate him as a potential threat to the planet?
She thought she’d been doing well, keeping these doubts at bay. Things had been moving too fast for her to dwell on anything. But it look
ed like this quiet walk through the corridor was exactly the right moment to be freaking out. It didn’t matter that they needed to be on the lookout for security and had to try to keep out of sight of the cameras, her mind had decided that it was safe enough to have a little freak out.
She wanted to reach out and take Toran’s hand, to feel the comforting weight of his presence. But he needed his hands free in case they suddenly came upon someone who meant them harm, and she didn’t want to be the reason that they couldn’t fight back. She’d fallen back a few steps while they walked, and Toran glanced back over his shoulder and offered her that genuine smile that seemed to exist only for her.
The weight lifted from her heart. It wasn’t as good as a caress, but it banished some of the darker thoughts. Not all of them; it would take time for those to go away. Iris caught up and kept pace beside him as he led the way to the hidden parts of Gamma Base.
There was a secret station behind secure doors, one that the tourists and guests never saw. It existed to make their stays pleasant and painless, allowing the staff members, robots, and androids to move about unseen and to allow them to move supplies between different parts of the compound without interrupting anyone. It was a lot like the old theme parks back home with their tunnels and secret passageways that no visitor ever saw.
They came to an unobtrusive door that Iris would have normally passed without a second look. It wasn’t labeled, but there was a keypad on the wall beside it which suggested that it wasn’t meant for guests to enter. Before she could ask how Toran planned to get through, he pulled a thin device out of his pocket and placed it on top of the pad. It looked like a pen, but she didn’t see a pointed end. After a moment, the door unlocked with a click and Toran grabbed the device and hid it away again.
