Page 21 of Champion (The Outlander Book Club… in Space! #6)

Willa raised her head, gazing at me thoughtfully.

“I’m okay.” She made a face as though pondering the idea for a moment, and then her expression relaxed.

“I thought killing a sentient being might bother me more, but I’m strangely okay with it.

He tried to kill both of us after all, and God knows who else he would have killed if Nansar’s plan worked. ”

Goddess, this female was perfect.

“What did you do with the body?” I hated the idea of her dealing with it alone.

“Adtovar hid both Malakal and the Zarpazian in the tunnels.”

I relaxed further with the knowledge that our friend had escaped harm. “Good. The longer we can keep Nansar from realizing his assassin is dead, the better.”

“That’s what Adtovar said,” she grinned. “Great minds, huh?”

“What?”

“It’s an Earth saying… great minds think alike.”

“You think Adtovar has a great mind?” I teased, feigning disbelief.

Willa laughed, but only for a moment. Our eyes met, and something shifted in her expression. She burst into tears, burying her face against my shoulder.

“What’s the matter, my little warrior?” I ran my hand along her spine, heartened by the ease of the motion.

“I almost lost you.” She eked out amid sobs.

“I’m here,” I promised, stroking my fingertips through her hair, trying to remain consoling despite the sudden reemergence of feeling in my cock.

Willa took my vow with a faint nod, but her sobs did not subside. “You can’t leave me. Everyone I’ve ever loved has left me.”

The hand I ran through her hair twitched slightly as her words settled in my brain.

Love.

I knew the concept—a strong feeling of affection, attachment, and care towards another person, often characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment.

While we Vaktaire had different notions for the many types of relationships the term love might cover, I knew that for humans, love encompassed everything it meant to mate.

It perhaps wasn’t the time to ask. But I had to know.

“Does this mean you love me?”

Willa stilled, her sobs slowly dying. When she raised her head to gaze at me, despite her red and puffy face, she was still the most beautiful creature I’d ever known.

“I still don’t know if I believe all this fated mate shit.

I don’t know if I ever will.” She sniffled and wiped her cheeks.

“But I know that when I’m around you, I feel safe and content and happy…

happier than I’ve been in a long time. And when I thought the Zarpazian…

.” Her expression clouded. “When I thought you were gone… I never want to feel like that again."

I cradled her perfect, precious face between my palms. “For a Vaktaire, there is no greater bliss than having our mate by our side. No greater honor than to protect and care for her. No burden is too great to bear, no sacrifice too great to ensure her happiness. No place more perfect than the circle of her embrace.”

“That sounds perfect to me,” my mate smiled and pressed her lips to mine.

As her trembling lips parted, my heart ached at the sight of her still vulnerable expression.

I pulled Willa closer, tangling my fingers in her hair and murmuring words of adoration against her mouth.

Our breaths mingled as our kiss deepened, intense and passionate.

I felt the urgency in her touch, the desperation for reassurance.

The passion between us burned brightly as we devoured each other, lost in the moment.

And when I rolled Willa onto her back, every inch of her body writhing beneath me, I knew that this was where I belonged—with her.

Nothing else mattered, but the two of us, together.

Willa still wore her thin, gray shift and she impatiently tugged at the ties, desperate to shed the garments.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her antics.

I also couldn’t help feeling a surge of desire as she discarded the piece of clothing, her bare skin pressing eagerly against mine, aching for the intimate contact as much as I did.

Goddess, she was perfect. I lightly pinched her already erect nipples, eliciting a sharp gasp from her lips.

She responded eagerly, arching towards me as I teasingly brushed my fingers over her sensitive skin and trailed kisses down her neck, over her collarbone, and onto the curve of her chest. With each kiss, Willa squirmed, growing more and more desperate for my touch, her hips lifting against me, with soft, needy grunts falling from her lips.

I took my time. Suckling her breasts until each peak was firm and rosy.

I let my fingertips trail over her flat stomach and the smooth curve of her hips in a featherlight caress.

Finally, I slid my hand between her thighs, feeling the heat and wetness radiating from her core.

As soon as my finger entered her, she cried out with pleasure and bucked against me, unable to control her body’s response.

“Charick, you’re injured,” she protested in a rasp, even as she ground against my hand.

“I could be dead, and I’d revive for a taste of you,” I muttered before kissing her soundly as I slid a second finger inside her.

My body hummed with anticipation; any prior weakness forgotten with the need of my mate. My cock certainly wasn’t suffering. It throbbed along with the beat of my heart. Beads of slick pre cum gathered at the tip, but I focused on Willa and her pleasure.

My body trembled as I leaned down, my lips brushing against the smooth skin of her stomach while my fingers thrust in and out of her in a steady pace.

A shudder ran through her as I traced a line of kisses down the line from her belly button to the small patch of dark brown hair covering her core.

Small mewls of pleasure rolled from her lips, and she arched her back, pressing herself against my mouth.

My free hand gripped her hips to keep her from squirming as I dragged my tongue over her hot, soaking slit.

The taste of her was sweet with just a hint of spice and so addictive.

I couldn’t resist savoring every moment as my tongue danced over her most sensitive areas.

“Charick,” Willa moaned, her fingers winding in my hair as she ground against my mouth. “I need… I need….”

“I know what you need, my heart,” I promised, lavishing attention on the little bundle of nerves that made her jerk and moan, as my fingers continued the rhythmic foray into her wet heat.

“No,” my mate protested and, with a kick of her heel against the mattress, slid upward in the bed and away from my ministrations.

For a moment, my heart stuttered with disappointment, but then Willa’s hands were on my shoulders, pulling me over her.

“I want you… I need you inside me.” Her cheeks were flushed, and her breath came in ragged gasps.

“Are you sure, my heart?” I asked, my voice trembling as I shifted between her legs.

The warmth of her thighs against mine and the anticipation of being inside her sent shivers undulating through my body.

She moaned softly, her hips lifting to meet me as I positioned myself at her entrance.

Despite her eagerness, she was still so delicate and tiny under me.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” Willa promised with a gentle smile, trailing her fingertips along my cheek and jaw.

Trembling with restraint, I guided myself inch by inch into her warmth, feeling her walls clench around me.

She shifted her hips, and I pushed in deeper until our bodies pressed together in perfect alignment.

Willa moaned and tightened her legs around my waist, urging me to go further.

With a final thrust, I seated fully inside her.

In that exquisite moment, we both let out a deep sigh of relief and pleasure.

The sensation was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

.. or even imagined. Being inside her, with her warmth and tightness consuming me completely. .. nothing in the universe compared.

“Are you alright, my heart?” I asked when she moaned softly and shifted beneath me.

Dark blue eyes gazed at me from a face so beautiful it took my breath away.

“Perfect,” she whispered. “It feels like my entire body is filled with you.”

I forced myself to stay still, to let her small body get used to my girth.

The way she tightened around me was both a pleasure and a torment.

Slowly, unable to prolong the moment any longer, I began to thrust. As Willa's moans grew louder, I increased the pace, feeling her body arch and writhe beneath mine.

Every time I pulled her hips towards me; she pushed back with equal force, our bodies moving together in a primal rhythm.

Her breathless moans grew louder with each thrust, her body arching and convulsing, nails digging into my shoulders as I moved faster and harder against her.

My hand found its way between us, fingers expertly stroking the swollen nub of her clit.

Willa screamed my name as she reached her peak, her hands clinging to me as her lips pressed frantic kisses over my skin.

The sight, sound, feel, and scent of Willa reaching her peak was intoxicating, and I lost all control, pounding into her, giving her everything she craved.

My own climax roared closer, and I thrust even harder, determined to push us both over the edge together.

“Charick,” she sobbed my name as another wave of ecstasy shuddered through her.

My breath hitched as I reached my climax, my body tensing and releasing in a fiery rush. She moaned beneath me, the walls of her channel gripping my cock with each thrust until we were both spent. Nothing remaining but a tangled mess of sheets, heavy breath, and damp skin.

“My mate,” I grunted out amid heavy pants, knowing it was the only thing that mattered at that moment.

Reluctantly, I pulled my cock from the haven of her body and collapsed onto the bed.

I couldn’t bear to let her go, so I slid her on top of me, cradling her against my chest. We stayed silent, catching our breath, as our hearts beat in unison.

Willa leaned her cheek against my shoulder, issuing a soft purr, and I felt the warmth of her breath on my skin.

“You make me feel soft.”

“You are soft,” I murmured, my fingertips trailing over the silky skin of her shoulders and back.

“I don’t mean like that,” my mate chuckled, propping her chin on my chest in order to gaze at me. “I mean soft on the inside.”

“You are soft on the inside, too,” I told her with a smugly possessive grin.

Willa giggled, then gave a contented sigh, her cheek resting against my shoulder. “Did I ever tell you that my dad was career military… a warrior like your father?”

She sighed again, and the tone of her voice wasn’t as light when she spoke.

“He was the kind of guy who dreams of a son to carry on his name and legacy, but he only had me and my two sisters. I was the oldest. I tried to be what he wanted. I did my best to be a good soldier. My sisters got to take music and dance lessons, not me. I got firearms training, martial arts, and survival school.” Willa laughed, but there was no amusement in the sound.

“The weekend of my senior prom, I was on a thirty-mile trek in the jungles outside Okinawa, participating in a survival camp.” She issued a small sound of disgust. “My dad never considered that I might want to go to prom.”

“This prom. It is important to females?” I guessed.

“Yeah,” Willa huffed. I felt a chill of wetness against my skin from her silent tears.

“I finished survival camp in the top ten percent, but my dad never knew I snuck into the bushes at night and cried because I really wanted to go to prom. My dad never knew that all those times he criticized me for not being a boy—all those times, he let me know in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t good enough, it didn’t make me stronger like he thought.

In a way, it made me much, much weaker—only he never saw that. ”

I shifted Willa in my arms, but only slightly, not yet ready to lose the connection of being pressed against her warm, damp skin, but wanting to see her face. “I am sorry anyone made you feel other than the beautiful, courageous, wonderful female that you are.”

Willa issued another heavy sigh, but her eyes were bright. “When I say you make me feel soft, it’s because you make me feel feminine and pretty. You make me feel like it’s okay not to be the toughest or the strongest.”

My fingertips ran along her cheeks, brushing back strands of her lustrous brown hair. Humans might use the word love . Vaktaire used the word mate . Yet at this moment, I knew there was no word or language in existence that described what I felt for this female.

“You are the toughest and strongest, as well as being feminine and pretty,’ I murmured, watching her lips curve upward at my words. “You are everything.”

“So are you,” Willa whispered and kissed me.

We lay there in silence. The warmth of the sun streaming through the windows, followed by the faintest tickle of a cool breeze, relaxed me into a stupor. I could feel Willa inching toward sleep, but there was one more thing I needed to say.

“Willa.”

“Yes?”

“If I had been on Earth, I would have taken you to this prom event.”

Her cheek lay against my chest, so I felt the curve of her smile.

“I know.”