Page 75 of Goldilocks

Sam didn’t want to judge, but honestly? This world didn’t exactly seem particularly advanced. Their ships were all using sails, and there wasn’t a hint of anything electric in this home. “I mean…maybe? I don’t mean this as an insult, but I think my world might be a little more advanced technology-wise.”

Goldilocks didn’t say anything.

Sam cringed, hoping he hadn’t just insulted him. “That doesn’t make you mad at me, does it?”

“I live in the ocean,” Goldilocks pointed out. “And your oceans are the same as mine.”

“Untrue. Yours have scary worms in them.” Sam leaned back, wincing as Goldilocks guided his hand towards the table. “Although, I suppose now ours do too.”

“I will find the rest,” Goldilocks promised. “So that your oceans remain safe.”

There was a knock, and Goldilocks called out in his own language. A woman approached them, pushing a trolley. She bowed her head to Goldilocks and said a few words before she turned on her heel and quickly left.

“Vi is on her way,” Goldilocks answered Sam’s questioning look. “I told her to prepare her materials. There are herbs in here that will disinfect and numb.” He took a cloth from the trolley and dipped it into the steaming water. He wrung out the excess water and gently placed it onto Sam’s palm. Sam winced, the contact stinging, but he held still. Goldilocks leaned in, butting his forehead gently against Sam’s. “You are a brave mate,” he praised.

Sam shut his eyes, Goldilocks’s face too close to focus on. “When have I ever done anything brave?” he questioned.

“Most fear me; you do not.”

Sam chuckled. “Being afraid of you would probably be smart?” At the very least, ‘wary’ would be smart. But that was hard to do. Sam had gotten to know Goldilocks as the impatient creature who would fuss about Sam not paying attention to him, and even though he saw now just how powerful Goldilocks really was, it wasn’t enough to dislodge the first impression already imprinted on Sam’s mind. Seeing for himself what Goldilocks could do didn’t erase the months of company that Goldilocks had given him on the water, especially when Sam had been – and he was willing to admit this now, if only to himself – incredibly lonely. Before Goldilocks, his days had begun to blur together. Not meaningless, but…unremarkable. Flat. Uninteresting.

Goldilocks moved, tilting sideways so he could press his mouth over Sam’s. His hand rose to cup Sam’s cheek, and he stroked his skin with a soothing touch. Sam leaned into the soft kiss, enjoying the caress, the plump lips that sucked gently on his bottom lip. Unbidden, a soft groan hummed from his throat, and Goldilocks swallowed that sound with a pleased hum of his own.

Goldilocks withdrew and Sam followed, wanting to extend the kiss a few moments longer. “We will mate,” Goldilocks stated bluntly, as he’d done many times now. “If Vi says you are well.”

Sam pulled back enough to meet Goldilocks’s eyes. The golden iris shone brightly, and something in the way he stared made Sam’s throat dry and forced him to swallow. Unable to keep eye contact, he averted his gaze toward the larger-than-life bed in the room. Sam had already almost gone along with thismountingthing twice, and both times had been before Goldilocks had joined him at the bar and told Mary matter-of-factly that he was Sam’s boyfriend. And there was the fact that seconds ago, he’d called Sam his mate, and Sam would be an idiot to think he meant it as English slang for friend.

“You want to top, right?” Sam murmured, feeling his skin heating. His lack of boyfriends the past few years meant having a conversation like this made him feel squirmy and uncomfortable inside.

“Top?” Goldilocks repeated.

Sam’s face burned hotter. There would be no vague illusions here to spare himself from actually saying anything embarrassing. “You want to enter me. Put your cock in.” He chanced the quickest of peeks at Goldilocks’s expression. His top lip was doing that thing. That twitch, which meant he wanted to snarl, but despite that usually indicating Goldilocks was somehow irritated, the shape of his eyes was undoubtedly amused.

“Does having seed to spill confuse you?” Goldilocks asked, and that amusement Sam saw in his eyes made it to his voice.

“Don’t be a jerk,” Sam said. “Our species are totally different. You clearly have this whole – dominance thing in yours…that…that…” Sam struggled to find his words.

“Have you tried to mount others before?” Goldilocks asked with mirth. “You are a very sweet mate.” He cupped Sam’s cheek and kissed him again, and midway through the kiss, he began to chuckle. “How amusing. Perhaps you may try to mount me?” Goldilocks kissed Sam’s cheek and then the corner of his jaw. “If you try very hard, I may let you mount my mouth. Would you like that?”

Sam’s awareness of the skin under Goldilocks’s mouth was torturous. Warm prickles spread over his skin, and his cock stirred in his trousers. Breath altered, Sam’s eyelids weighed down to half-lids, and despite the fact that Goldilocks was kind of being a dick, his entire body leaned toward Goldilocks wanting more. Sam could insist that this was a species thing. Another one of their misunderstandings. But a warm hand slid up Sam’s thigh, and his eyes shut entirely.

Sam groaned, lust overwhelming his senses.

Goldilocks chuckled. “And you think you should mount others? You are too sweet for words.”

Irritated and aroused, Sam reached for Goldilocks’s face to pull him into a kiss.

A sudden band of pressure clamped down on his wrist and stopped him dead. Sam reeled back in surprise. Goldilocks’s eyes flashed a warning as Sam retreated enough to meet them, and Sam tore his gaze from that warning to his wrist in a hard grip. He wasn’t hurting Sam, but a small tug showed him that his arm was stuck fast in Goldilocks’s fist.

“What?” Sam asked.

“You forget yourself,” Goldilocks told him. There was a note of censure in his voice, though he lacked any real bite.

Sam frowned. “What?”

Goldilocks moved his gaze from Sam’s eyes to his hand. He grunted. “We will continue later.” His gaze roamed the hand he had locked in his grip, and Sam watched mutely as Goldilocks guided it back to the table. He dipped and wrung out a fresh rag. The one that had been placed over Sam’s injury moments ago was now on the ground, displaced by Sam when he’d moved.

“Oh.” A bolt of understanding shot through Sam. His injury. His hand. That was the reason Goldilocks had caught his wrist just now and stopped him. He’d prevented Sam from grabbing his hair like an idiot and probably prevented him from worsening an already infected cut.