by Zoey Draven
Valerie chuckled, relieved, slightly breathless with her tiredness.
“Still, I should not have pushed you so far,” he murmured after a brief silence. “I forgot myself.”
Valerie sighed. She brought her fingers up, traced them over his lips and pressed a small kiss to his bottom one. She recognized the heat flaring in his eyes, felt his cock twitch against her belly.
“You’re impossible,” she whispered.
“You make me crazy,” he countered.
She chuckled again and his eyes went all warm and molten, that look enough to steal her breath entirely.
God, she loved him.
How could she not?
“It’s weird being here,” she murmured quietly. “It’s weird feeling this happy.”
Dravka swallowed, reaching up to stroke a hand through her hair.
“You’ll get used to it,” he told her, his lips quirking. “And then, you won’t remember what it’s like to feel unhappy, pax? I’ll make sure of it.”
Another small laugh left her throat.
She heard some laughter coming from outside their window, echoing up and around. Drunken laughter by the sound of it, and not human in the slightest. Their room was situated on the third floor of the inn so it sounded close, yet far away, given the way the colony was structured.
“What’s it like out there?” Valerie asked him. She’d barely been able to see Nimida. It was made up of long corridors, like streets on Everton, but they all seemed to be in a circular shape, one big lap around the colony, all ending in the very center, which was where she knew the transport depot was.
“It’s surprisingly clean,” was what Dravka replied with.
She frowned. “Clean?”
She wouldn’t have even thought to look at the surroundings for cleanliness. Then again, she’d grown up on the New Earth colonies her entire life.
Dravka, on the other hand…
“Jrika was filthy,” he rasped, his arms tightening around her ever so slightly at his admission. “Filth and disease and greed. Everywhere.”
Jrika was the colony Madame Allegria had found him on. It was the colony she’d found all of them on, actually. Desperate and jaded. No wonder they’d agreed to come to Everton.
“I never told you,” he murmured, something in his voice making her look up at him, “but on Jrika, I had just started to sell myself.”
Her heart ached at the thought.
“Really?” she asked quietly.
She’d known that Tavak had already been selling himself for credits before Everton. He’d needed to, for his and his brother’s sake.
But she hadn’t known that Dravka had.
She didn’t judge him for it. From what little he’d told her of his life before Everton over the years, she knew that Jrika had been hell. He’d been hungry. Homeless for a time before he could find shelter. He couldn’t find steady work and so he didn’t have savings for passage off Jrika to find better work.
Valerie didn’t fault him for his decision.
“It was only twice by the time your aunt found me,” Dravka said. “And it had been surprisingly…easy. The money was good. But I should’ve told you. A long time ago.”
Valerie frowned. “It doesn’t change anything, Dravka. You thought it would change how I felt about you?”
His sharp inhale told her that he feared it might have.
“You did what you had to do to survive. The same thing you did on Everton,” Valerie whispered, stroking his cheek, the knowledge of what he’d had to endure on Jrika making her throat feel tight. Her kind, strong, confident Dravka. “I would never judge you for it. Ever.”
“The others feel it too, I think,” Dravka murmured.
“Feel what?”
“The uncertainty. The fear,” he murmured, swallowing. “We don’t want Dumera to be like Jrika. That was what we feared when Khiva first asked us all to go with him. But now…”
“Everything’s different,” Valerie whispered. “You know Dumera’s not like that now. Thanks to them.”
Dravka inhaled sharply. “Pax. So when I look around Nimida now, all I can think is how clean it is. How clean it feels. The shopkeeper tonight was kind to me. He helped me pick out your medicine. I didn’t feel threatened. I didn’t feel like he would rob me. It’s different.”
Valerie swallowed hard.
It was tragic to her that a small bit of kindness felt different to him, but it only showed her why the Keriv’i had been so hesitant to leave the brothel before. Because this was unknown territory. There had been a level of safety on Everton. A familiarity.
“You’ve been through so much,” she said. “You all have.”
“You too,” he murmured.
She sighed, nuzzling deeper into him, pressing closer.
“I think, for once, we should try being optimistic,” she said. “For once, I think we should actually expect that good things will happen to us now, instead of always fearing the worst.”
Especially her.
Just twelve hours ago, she was certain that she’d be marrying Gabriel Larchmont and that she’d have to say goodbye to Dravka forever, that she’d never see him again.
“Because good things are in our future,” she whispered, smiling. And maybe it was just feeling a little drunk on sex, on him, or lying in the safety and warmth of his arms, but she said, with unwavering certainty, “I can feel it. I know it.”
Dravka pressed a kiss to her lips, lingering a bit.
“I love you, Val,” he murmured. “Have I ever told you how much before?”
Her throat tightened and she blinked away the glassy tears that had begun to form in her eyes.
“You never needed to,” she whispered.
Dravka chuckled softly, the sound warm and making her shiver with pleasure. She loved his laugh. He didn’t do it nearly enough but she promised that she’d make him laugh every moment she possibly could.
“Sleep, my little mate,” he murmured to her, brushing his lips over the shell of her ear. “We have all day tomorrow to spend in this bed and I intend to take full advantage.”
Meaning…she’d need her rest.
Valerie fell asleep that night with a smile on her face.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The next morning, Dravka woke to heat and throbbing desire. He felt a tug and groaned, scenting Valerie all over him, all over his skin and the blankets they’d slept on.
As for Valerie…
His little mate was between his thighs, all the blankets kicked to the floor.
A rough growl escaped his throat, his nostrils flaring when he met her eyes. There was a playful expression illuminated in them, especially when she licked a slow line from the base of his cock, all the way to the very tip.
“Demav,” he groaned, his voice husky and guttural with sleep. “The best vauking way to wake, mellkia.”
She laughed, her hot breath floating across his sensitive tip, which was weeping with his pre-cum. The clear substance coated her palms, her lips parting when she felt it sink into her skin.
Then, he bellowed out a roughened cry, his body tensing with pleasure, as she lowered her head, sucking the head of his cock between her lips. Hard. Her cheeks hollowed and when she straightened, a loud, sinful-sounding pop filled the room.
“Vauk,” he cursed, his chest heaving. His taxxa were already boiling with seed. He wondered how long she’d been teasing him as he slept. Or if she’d just begun…
But judging by the mess of his pre-cum, Dravka guessed she’d been down there for a little while.
Dravka swallowed hard when she lowered her head again. His cock hadn’t been sucked in years. He’d had a client once who enjoyed the act, but most of the women who had come to the brothel had only come for his teela.
But doing this with Valerie…
His Valerie pleasuring him this way? Because she wanted to…because she liked to?
It was something entirely different.
Something magical and va
uking incredible.
She sucked him hard, moving her head over his shaft in a way that almost made him jealous—because he couldn’t help but wonder how she’d learned to do this. Because he couldn’t help but wonder who she’d perfected this on.
Dravka was lying to himself. He was vauking jealous.
But quickly, she chased the feeling away when she released his cock and gave him a wicked smile that wiped his mind entirely of thought.
Vellka.
So beautiful.
“You’re going to make me come,” he warned, “if you keep looking at me like that.”
“Just by looking at you?” she whispered. “Not even when I do this…?”
Dravka’s stunned whimper turned into a roar when she fisted his cock with both of her hands, when she jerked him while also lowering her head. She suckled hard on his tip, her little tongue lapping at the sensitive place underneath the head, while her fists twisted down his length, his pre-cum making her grip slippery and mind-numbingly wicked.
“Vauk pax!” he hissed, his hips jerking.
He didn’t even have time to warn her.
But vauk, she made him crazy. She drove him beyond reason.
“Val,” he bit out, the muscles in his throat tensing, his whole body stiffening. His hot seed was starting to rise in his shaft, pushing, pushing, pushing.
When he came, Valerie’s surprised sound turned into a moan and Dravka writhed on the bed, feeling her hot grip on him, feeling the way her tongue stimulated the bottom of his cock as she swallowed. As she swallowed the hot pumps of his teela, taking it inside her body, drinking it down…
And when she couldn’t take anymore? When she leaned back, catching her breath, her hands never stopped moving on him and the last spurts of his seed landed on her cheek, dripping down her jaw.
The sight almost made him come again.
But vauk, the Keriv’i male in him responded to that sight. Of her marked in his teela. Especially when drops of it slid from her jaw and landed on her full, exposed breasts, her pink nipples upturned and peaked, begging to be sucked.
As Dravka caught his breath, he traced his finger across her jaw, catching the teela. He purred and trilled when she immediately sucked that finger between her lips. The pressure, the wicked gleam in her gaze, the way her tongue lapped at the seed, made his cock ready again…mere moments after she’d drained his taxxa.
More was taking its place. More that he would give her.
And they had all day.
Tavak was taking care of their seats for tomorrow’s departure. Dravka and Valerie wouldn’t even need to leave this bed.
And I don’t intend to, he thought, hearing her gasp as his teela started to warm in her belly. It wouldn’t affect her the way it would had it been inside her cunt but it would keep her on edge. He could gently nudge her little clit right now and it would be enough to make her come.
Dravka grinned.
In fact, he’d do just that.
“Come up here,” he growled. “Get my cock inside you now.”
Valerie’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes were luminous with desire and want. On trembling limbs, she slid up his body until she straddled his hips. Her hands came to rest on his wide chest as he reached between them and lined his cock up with her entrance.
She moaned when his fingers brushed her clit, a sharp inhale following, her whole body tensing as he smirked. She was right on the edge.
And when Dravka thrust inside with one deep, powerful, quick motion?
She immediately began to come, her desperate cries filling his ears, the room, as he pounded into her mercilessly.
He leaned up to suckle her nipples, tasting a few drops of his teela there from where it’d dripped down her jaw. She stared at him through a half-lidded gaze, her lips parted, brows furrowed in her pleasure as she orgasmed.
“We’re not leaving this bed today,” he growled, his hips thrusting up more quickly, harder, their flesh slapping together. “Pax?”
“Oh yes!” she cried out. “Dravka!”
He grinned.
A perfect day.
Dravka had never thought such a thing had existed.
But he’d found perfection in that little room, with his beautiful mate, and her moans and smiles and looks of disbelief as he did all the things he’d fantasized about doing to her for five vauking years.
Her taste was all over his tongue. Her come was all over his skin and his teela was all over hers. In between their bouts of sex—the most intense and primal and real of his entire life—they rested and talked and kissed and touched. His hearts went all melty anytime he heard her laugh, musical and light, and he loved to see the blush across her cheeks whenever he teased her.
The sunlight on Nimida was artificial just like on Everton, but Dravka told her everything he wanted her to feel on Dumera. A fresh breeze. A sunrise and a sunset. Natural air, natural gravity, though it might feel heavy to her at first.
And as he told her the things he’d loved most about Kerivu—which had had the most beautiful sunsets he’d ever experienced and the kikiru creatures had crooned and sang towards the sky as the last bits of sun disappeared—she’d absorbed his words like she was starved for them.
Dravka had always known that Valerie was his.
But even then, Dravka had never known he could feel like this about another being. He’d never known that every part of himself could love this deeply, for another being that was not of his blood.
It was humbling. It scared him and delighted him and made him silently vow that he would spend the rest of his life protecting her, making her happy.
He felt like he had a new purpose in life.
Though…hadn’t she always been his purpose?
From the very first moment he’d seen her, she’d been his purpose in life.
A knock late in the afternoon interrupted them, but it was only Tavak.
When Dravka opened the door to their room, keeping it slivered so Tavak wouldn’t see Valerie in the bed, the other Keriv’i male had knowing eyes as he regarded him.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” Tavak said in their language, “but I know Valerie needs to eat every day. I knew you probably wouldn’t want to be away from her to get her some food.”
In his hand was a brown satchel of food he must’ve purchased from a shop.
Dravka swallowed, feeling a pang of doubt spreading through him. Vauk, he’d nearly forgotten that she hadn’t eaten the food he’d brought the night before. She must be ravenous but she hadn’t said anything.
Because unlike humans, Keriv’i could go a long time without eating, though their meals tended to be very large in portion when they did break their fasts.
“Thank you, my friend,” he murmured, clasping Tavak on the wrist before taking the satchel.
Tavak nodded, embarrassed by Dravka’s gratitude.
“I purchased our seats to Nzonito,” Tavak told him next. “The transport leaves tomorrow morning. Time is strange here but I believe the bells we’ve heard track the hours. The sixth ring is when our flight departs.”
Dravka hadn’t heard any bells, so he frowned for a brief moment. Then again, he’d been so wrapped up in Valerie, in her touch, in her kiss, that the whole universe could’ve ended outside these walls and he wouldn’t have noticed.
“We’ll be ready,” he promised Tavak.
A small smirk crossed his friend’s face. “Get it all out now. The flight to Nzonito is a two-day stretch, or so the Luxirian female at the kiosk told me.”
Dravka grimaced, already feeling that thought pang in his gut. Two days without her? When they’d just begun to explore sex between them?
Unfathomable.
Tavak’s gaze strayed past him briefly and Dravka pictured Valerie on the bed, waiting for him to return.
“I’ll let you get back to her,” Tavak said. “See you in the morning.”
“Before the sixth bell,” Dravka said, inclining his head.
Tavak retreat
ed down the dark and narrow corridor of the inn, back to his own room. Dravka wondered if it was strange for him too…to be able to leave and roam freely. The thought had occurred to Dravka last night when he’d been speaking to the shopkeeper about Valerie’s medicine. That, for the first time in ten years, he’d had free will to go wherever he wanted.
It was a strange sensation.
But one he would get used to once again. One he looked forward to getting used to again.
When Dravka had shut the door and locked it, he turned back to his mate, lounging naked on the bed, her knee drawn up, her hair fanned out across the pillow, watching him.
“What did Tavak say?” Valerie asked, her voice husky and soft. After all the screams and cries he’d wrung from her that day, he was surprised she hadn’t lost it entirely.
“He brought you food,” Dravka said, holding up the satchel for her inspection. “I’m sorry, mellkia. The thought slipped my mind. I should’ve—”
“How could I be hungry?” she started, crawling over to him at the end of the bed, going up to her knees to twine her arms around his body. “How could I be hungry when I’ve been feasting on you all day?”
A startled laugh escaped him, mingling with her own.
“Regardless,” she said sheepishly, “I am a little hungry. It was nice of him to bring something by. Did he book the seats all right?”
“Pax,” he told her, watching her sink back onto the bed, opening the satchel. Inside was a kind of fruit—at least what he thought was fruit—along with a wrapped skewer of meat—at least what he thought was meat. He watched her inspect it before nibbling a piece, her face lighting up in delight. “Good?”
“Yes, very good,” she said. “Wanna try?”
She held it out for him and he leaned forward, chewing off a small piece…only because she made it so appetizing.
Keriv’i preferred their meats spicier, but he could see why his little human enjoyed it.
“Good?” she asked.
“Very good,” he murmured, smiling, not wanting to disappoint her. “Now eat, little mate, so you can recover your energy. Because Tavak told me the flight to Nzonito is two days long. Which means…”
