Page 29

Zorn

After Zoriss and Lumina leave, ready to put Lumina’s plan into action, Annora turns in my lap so her hip brushes my abdomen. Her palm skims my cheek as her gaze pierces mine.

“Worried, Love?” I ask.

“I’ll admit I’d rather stay here than go back to Draal with you. That’s terrible to admit, isn’t it, because I’m asking you to give up everything you’ve ever known to stay here with me.”

“Not terrible. I’m not giving up a lot. The only important things in my life are you and Zoriss.

My mother and father are both dead. I haven’t lived on Draal in over a decade.

The military? I did well there, rose in the ranks, but I’ll find something here on Earth.

There are worse things than starting over, especially when I’ll be starting over with you. ”

I smile at her. Dread had been swirling in my belly since I realized I loved her and wondered if I’d be able to keep her. That fear can now be laid to rest.

“The download they put into my brain explained your marriage ceremonies to me. What do you know about Draalian mating ceremonies?”

“Nothing.”

“Yours are public. Ours are private. Very private.”

“Ohhh. Sounds good,” she says with a naughty smile as she quirks an eyebrow.

“When do you think you’ll be ready to fully commit? To have the ceremony? I love you and know I want to cherish you and be with you forever, but I’ll understand if you’re not ready.”

“I’m ready, Zorn. After I stormed that house in Prosperity, breached the door, asked where you were, and that bitch said you were dead? The loss and pain that swamped me told me everything I needed to know about the depth and breadth of my love for you.”

I tuck her against my chest, set my chin on top of her head, and rock her.

It’s not sexual at all, it’s meant to convey a cascade of my heartfelt emotion.

After kissing her soft brown hair, I pull away so I can look into her eyes as I tell her, “Annora, I will love and cherish you forever. If you’ll have me, I’d like to mate soon, but,” I glance around the shabby room, “not here.”

“Okay.”

“I love that you trust me on this. Let’s take showers, catch a few more hours of sleep, and get on the road.

Those days in your guest cottage, when I slept on the couch and you were in your bed, even then I lost countless hours of sleep as I imagined joining you there.

Let’s hover back, lock the doors from the inside this time, and conduct our sacred mating ritual there. ”

“Sounds wonderful.”

~.~

We’re back in the cottage outside Windy City.

Grace was true to her word. The cage is gone and the locks respond to Annora’s fingerprint.

Although I found it claustrophobic and confining a week ago, I find it cozy and charming now.

We’ve dined on a ritual meal. Well, it was a ritual meal for me, consisting of raw bovine steak and a new delicacy Annora bought for me—oysters.

She had cooked bovine and joined me in slurping the raw oysters.

Things got purposely messy and we wound up licking the juices off each other’s chins.

Luckily, the ritual requires a bath, so now we’re clean and dressed in white clothes we bought on the trip.

She’s in a filmy dress, I’m in a white thigh-length tunic and slacks.

“You’re beautiful, Love,” I tell her, unable to hide my smile.

“You’re handsome.”

She looks shy.

I’ve turned on Draalian drum music in the background, and marvel at how well our two cultures can blend as we create a new family together. We’ll pick and choose the best of both worlds. I certainly hope what happens next in this room will please my new mate.

“You’ll be wearing your white gown for only a short moment, love. I’ll soon be peeling it off you. But for now . . .” I bring us both to the foot of the bed and hold her hands in mine, “let me pledge my love to you.”

Her eyes are large and luminous as she looks up at me with complete trust. I guess that’s where I should start.

“I promise to always be worthy of your love and the trust you place in me. I will protect you to the best of my ability, support you in all endeavors, and love you with all my heart.”

Mated Draalians don’t ever stray from their mating vows, but I know enough from the download I received on the trip here to say, “I will be forever faithful to you, always be mindful of your needs, and strive to make you endlessly happy.”

I search deep inside myself and know I could write her a book about all the love I have for her and all the ways I want to care for her, but I think I just said everything I need.

“I vow,” she says, “to help you in all ways possible, to make you glad every day that you gave up your life on Draal to stay here with me, to ease your burdens, soothe your soul, and love you with all my heart.”

She reaches to kiss me. Cupping my palm to the back of her neck, I return the kiss.

Soft and close-mouthed at first, we then fully dive into each other.

I stroke her tongue with mine. This beautifully highlights our contrasts.

Her tongue, thick and pink, mine thin and facile and blue.

I enjoy our differences as much as she does.

I feel the moment her shyness disappears. She leans closer, dragging the hard points of her nipples against my chest and pulling me against her, her hands gripping my shoulders.

The thin weave of my trousers does nothing to hide the evidence of my arousal, both cocks pulsing in anticipation.

I’ve pleasured myself hundreds of times since I reached adolescence.

I’ve never salivated like this before, never felt my jaw tighten in anticipation of the final act that will make her mine.

I’m torn between racing to complete the mating ceremony and wanting to draw out the pleasure of finally having the woman I love, naked and ready, in my arms.

Annora

A moment ago, I was transported by his beautiful words and the warm look of love in his gorgeous blue eyes. Now, though, my body is on fire for him. My nipples are hard pebbles, and I already feel the tight clench of desire between my legs.

The entire ride from Amity I asked in a dozen different ways what the mating ceremony entailed. He kept mum and requested I not look it up just as I was cueing up the Internet to do just that. It made me a bit anxious as I wondered what it entailed, but I’m not worried right now. I’m impatient.

He pulls my dress over my head as if I’m made of delicate glass and he doesn’t want to break me.

I’m completely naked, as he instructed. The way his gaze flicks from my head to my toes and back again, as if he can’t wait to pounce on me, tells me everything I need to know about how much he appreciates my body just the way it is.

After lifting me up and setting me down on the middle of the bed, he prowls between my legs and attacks one breast with his mouth, the other with his deft fingers.

Between the two halves of his tongue twining around one hardened bud and his fingers plucking the other, my arousal ratchets up another ten notches.

Gripping the hem of his tunic, I manage to pull it over his head, but can’t make headway on pulling down his trousers because he’s dragging his fangs across my skin from one breast to the other and I simply can’t pay attention to anything other than the dangerous pleasure as his teeth rasp against my flesh.

I want to tell him not to forget that move, but by the way I suck in my breath and writhe beneath him, I have a feeling he might have noticed.

He works his way down my body, his knees lodged between my thighs. After painting a line with his tongue to my clit, he sucks my little bundle of nerves into his mouth and hisses with pleasure. The noise creates a vibration that would rival some of my best toys.

He enters me with one finger and then two as he sucks and licks and uses the two halves of his tongue to pluck my clit until I fly over the edge into an appetizer orgasm that was delicious, but just makes me hungry for more.

And this guy delivers, mouthing me to two more increasingly intense releases that make me ravenous for the main course.

“Ready for me, Annora?” he husks from his position between my legs, his eyes peering up at me across the length of my body.

“I’ve been ready since Yellowstone, babe.”

He rises onto his knees, moving forward until he is as close as he can get.

Then he lifts my feet so they rest on his pecs, and places his hands under my thighs to keep me there.

He places his secondary at my entrance then holds me in his gaze as he pulses into me in little presses.

He makes a noise, a cross between a moan and a hiss as our eyes flicker closed.

This is nothing, absolutely nothing like any toy in my factory. It’s sweet and tight and the tiniest bit painful and less about the physical and completely emotional. My eyes well with tears as the importance of this moment bowls over me.

“My Zorn,” I whisper. This is all about him and me and our amazing connection that surmounted a million miles and abduction and repulsion and wound up here bathing us in an ocean of love.

He’s entering me so slowly I can memorize every inch of him. I give myself over to the emotions cascading through me. The sheer joy of finding love, of finding him should be the highlight of my life. But this? Our joining? It’s overwhelmingly beautiful and more than I’d ever hoped for.

He stops when he’s all the way inside me, then gives an extra thrust to make certain he can’t go any farther. He cocks his head in question when he looks at me. I’m sure he noticed my eyes are shining too brightly.

“It’s all good, Zorn. My love is just . . . too big to be contained.” I smile at him, then dive into the sensual yearnings swirling through me. The love? The love will be there later. This? This physical joining, I want to be fully present. “Mate me, big guy.”

“That’s next, Love. This? This is for fun.”