Page 13 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Mary

Kade is careful and gentle as he situates me and straps me in. He takes his time making sure all the harnesses and buckles are secure before he sits and belts himself in.

Even though I’d like to curl up and go to sleep, I try to stay alert while he goes through all his checks and pushes all the buttons. But if I’m affecting his focus right now, he’s doing a marvelous job of hiding it.

Maybe he’s been doing this too long to be distracted by anything.

He exhales and glances at me. “What is this feeling? Concern? I’ve flown this craft a hundred times. You don’t need to worry.”

“But have you flown it with my sex-sleepiness affecting you?”

“No, but…” he unclips himself again, leaning across the distance to kiss me before he resecures himself. “Your sex-sleepiness is a warm feeling. It’s not distraction, it’s a reminder of why I need to be even more alert than I have been before.”

The next button he pushes opens the dome and the walls ease back into themselves.

He flips dozens of switches and depresses several buttons, and after a brief conversation in Sianese with someone in what I can only assume is some sort of air traffic control tower, we taxi out onto the tarmac we crossed to get here.

When we take off, it doesn’t feel like we’re going nearly fast enough.

As we lift away and the planet shrinks, I bite my tongue to keep from asking where we’re going. If he was going to tell me, he already would have.

And there’s a… contentment in the bond… that strange little thread that exists between us now is warm and happy, and excited, too. It’s oddly calming, and I let that calm suffuse through me.

But it doesn’t keep me from wincing at the bright arc of light reflecting off Isia’s atmosphere as we break through into the inky darkness of space. It doesn’t keep me from shivering at the endless darkness and stars. “Wow.”

The feeling in the bond flutters… pride?

“I thought you might enjoy the view.”

He pulls the controls back toward him and we seem to hover over the planet.

“Oh, wow.” repeating wow over and over again certainly isn’t the impression I want to give him of my vocabulary.

Getting to leave the planet certainly wasn’t on the list of activities the Agency advertised.

Even if it had been, access to astronomical information was not the kind of literature the Agency was concerned with providing.

My knowledge of their solar system was rudimentary at best.

That might be the first thing I pull from the library when he’s gone.

“I didn’t really do too much reading on the moons. There are like, twenty, right?”

“Twenty-two and two-thirds.” He points at a purple-ish sphere that is missing a huge chunk… as if an enormous being bit it and left the rest behind.

“We only have one.”

I can feel his laughter through the bond, but he doesn’t tell me he knows before he says, “It makes the landing approach easier.”

He takes the controls again, turning and spinning us so the planet is above us as we zip away.

I’m not terrified… because he’s not terrified. This is like getting on a freeway for him.

I’m not used to the speed or the surroundings, but I know I’m safe.

That immediate connection and surety is one of the Agency’s strongest selling points.

My friends who’d already made the leap across galaxies had spoken about their mates’ anatomy with giggles and smirks, but the bond… that had been described with smiles so content, so pleased , that it was a selling point all on its own.

Having it now, I get to smile like that myself.

I settle in to enjoy the ride, head tipped back, trying to see everything all at once, and knowing I’ve missed more than half of it.

When we spin again, I look over at him and almost ask if he’s showing off, but the view ahead of us fills with an aquamarine sphere and it steals all of my focus.

We pass over a glittering ring of icy debris that is so thin, it doesn’t feel real and I lean forward, holding onto the chest straps, even though there’s no way I’m going to fall out.

Its surface is like every photo and video I’ve seen of Earth’s moon, but in vibrant color.

There’s only one structure visible on the entire moon, and that’s where we’re headed, but as we get closer, a small coil of trepidation bunches in my stomach.

Okay, glass igloos in space were not on the brochure. “Are you sure this is safe?”

“Of course, dajzha. I promise I will never do anything that would put you in harm’s way.”

He must feel my skepticism—how could he possibly promise that—because he adds, “Not intentionally, anyway.”

That doesn’t soothe my fears as much as I’d like.

But the calm I feel in him is grounding enough that I can shove those concerns aside, even if they aren’t gone.

He can feel that anxiety through the bond, even though I try to tamp it down while he lands.

The dome closes overhead and I look all around. There’s nothing in here except an airlock to another dome and a bunch of tanks.

While I peer at the other bubble, trying futilely to see inside, I hear his buckle release and I release mine too.

“What is this place?”

“Our home for the next few days.”

When I look at the dome ceiling—closed now—his soft amusement comes across the bond like feathers on my skin.

“I promise there’s nothing to worry about up here.” He picks me up, holding me close, and points to the other side of this dome. “Those tanks regulate the air in here, so we don’t lose any air when we open the dome. That is the processor that scrubs out anything in the air that we don’t want.”

I believe him, so when he sets me down, I follow him out of the ship.

My shoes’ soles are thin enough, I feel the pea gravel-size rocks beneath my feet as Kade takes my hand and leads me away from the ship. This dome is just a garage.

It’s bigger than the other one and its curved walls are see-through. The other is all reflective panels, but they look like glass, not metal. I can only catch a glimpse of the interior through the small windows of the airlock while it cycles.

When that other door opens, Kade picks me up, carrying me, just over the threshold.

“Some of your traditions are curious.” He says, kissing me before he lets me down again. “But that one was too nice and easy to forego.”

He turns me to face the interior of the dome and I let my eyes wander.

There are dozens of plants surrounding the living space housed here.

From where I stand, I can see a living area, a kitchen and table… and a bed on a raised platform.

Kade takes off his shoes and goes to mess with a panel beside the airlock. I kick mine off too, and wander the room.

The place isn’t decorated like it sees many guests. It looks like someone lives here.

Pictures of two Sians I know were his parents, him and friends… “You own this place?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought it was a hotel or rental…” I laugh uneasily.

He must feel it. “I don’t own the whole moon.”

“Oh good. That is something I would have wanted you to divulge before I got here.”

“There are about fifteen of these, but they plan to build a few more. None will be close enough to see from here.

“They have something similar to this in one of the countries near Earth’s north pole…” He wouldn’t know or care about Scandinavia, so… there’s really no point in nattering on about it now. “They’re smaller and definitely don’t need airlocks.”

It still feels like I’m rambling, so I press my lips together and look up at him a little sheepishly.

“It’s cute,” he says, ducking down to kiss me again. “You are cute.”

He leaves me again, and I don’t like it, but when he turns back from a compartment in the wall—one of the few solid exterior wall panels—he rolls my suitcases to me.

I catch them and look at him curiously as he comes back to me. “How did these get here?”

“Drone delivery.”

It’s all he says before he scoops me up and takes me up the shallow steps to the platform with its bed.

“If you don’t like it here, we can leave,” he says, even as he lays me down on the soft mattress and slides his hands up my sides, under my shirt.

I help him get it off and then send my bra flying after it toward my suitcases. “Right now. I don’t want to be anywhere.”

“You don’t?” His head tips to the side as his hand spreads wide over my stomach.

Kissing him one more time, I say, “Nowhere but here.”

Kade

She’s mine.

She’s mine. She’s mine. She’s mine.

I hadn’t realized how much her laughter would affect me. I didn’t know how easy it would be to elicit that laughter from her. She squirms and giggles as I brush my fingers across her stomach.

I might record that sound, so I can hear it when I’m a galaxy away.

“Mary,” I say her name as she tries to figure out how to remove my flight suit.

“Yeah?” She glares at the fastener, lips twisting.

“I plan to fuck you mercilessly until we make it back to the planet.”

Her smile is tight and she bites her lip before she says, “Yes, please.”

Finally giving up, she smacks the flat of her palm against my chest. “Take this off. You can show me how to do it later.”

Both of those statements feel like commands, and I am happy to obey.

Standing, I get myself undressed as quickly as I can while she peels off her clothes and scoots toward the center of the bed.

But she isn’t running away from me.

As soon as she’s where she wants to be, she reaches for me, legs easing open as if to remind me where I belong.

The Agency documents told me it would be like this.

They said I would be insatiable with need for her until we got used to the way our emotions feed back into each other within the bond.

I had checked the box that I understood, but clearly, I didn’t. How could I have possibly understood that it would feel like this? That the urge to be inside her would be unassailable.

Sheer force of will and the fact that flying is akin to breathing anymore are the only reasons I didn’t change my plans and simply take her to our home in Lasiana.

Knowing I had to keep her safe is the only reason I didn’t put her on the floor the moment the air lock closed behind us. Now that I know the systems are running at optimal levels and we have everything we’ll need for the next few days, there’s no reason to resist anymore.

I need her, and I thank the Saints that she’s mine as I sink into her. I thank the Saints that someone made that vitamin S so that I can sink into her again. I should have taken my time. I should have worked her up to this second coupling, but I crave being inside of her. I crave the euphoria of her pussy tightening around my cock.

And I need… fuck . I need to breed her.

Holding her wrists together in one hand, I put them above her head, and she stretches, arching against me, her breasts brushing my chest.

It would be so easy to drown in the desire flooding through our bond, and I have no intention of fighting that.

“Do you know what I thought when your file came to me?” I ask her as I lick the line of her sternum.

She shakes her head, breath hitching.

“I thought you were the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.”

A flutter of warmth courses across the bond from her and she grips me tight.

“And then, we spoke…” They only let us talk once. “And I knew you were the most beautiful person I would ever meet.”

She chuckles. “You don’t need to flatter me, Kade. I’m yours.”

“You’re right. I don’t need to flatter you, but I did need to tell you that.” I need to drive it into her mind, into her soul, the way that I drive my cock into her now.

With every thrust, I try to force that need and understanding through our bond. With every moan and gasp that escapes her lips, I think I might have managed it.

But that doesn’t mean I plan to stop.

She moves with me, our breath tangling as the pleasure bouncing back and forth between us builds.

Her palm presses against my oxygen regulator and she pulls her hand back as though it burned her, moving her grip to my shoulder instead.

I feel a question start to distract her and I kiss her to keep it from doing so.

I’ll answer any and all of her questions later.

“Kade,” she gasps. “Please, I?—”

She pulls her hand from my grip and slides it between us and I feel her working at her clit. I memorize the pattern she uses and when I think I know what she wants, I push her hand away and take over.

She squeezes so tightly around me, it’s my turn to gasp.

And a moment later, her orgasm pushes me over the edge. It’s my turn to moan. I press my lips to her throat as the sounds leave mine and as my cum spills inside her, my cock aching as it floods her.

But I don’t stop fucking her. I don’t stop working her clit, even though our combined cum has made it a slippery endeavor.

I kiss her through the remains of her orgasm.

I nip and suck at her nipples as her dizziness filters through the bond like static.

And I keep her wrist gripped in my hand, keeping her stretched on our bed as I work to claim her again.

Mine.

Sweet and soft and so fucking sexy. Mary is my mate, and she’s perfect.

Her eyes flutter open and she smiles at me, her lips swollen from my kisses. “What if we stay up here forever?”

“I wish we could, but that’s not possible.”

“ Damn. ” Her eyes close and her body rolls to take me in a new rhythm. “A girl can dream.”

“You are a dream.” My dream.

My dream, my susre, my mate.

Curled over and around her, holding her tightly, I let the rush of frantic need take over.

My body reacts to hers with a ferocity I never imagined possible and my second orgasm builds like a tidal wave inside of me.

A wicked thought worms its way into my mind and as I jerk with the first streams of my orgasm, I pull back and let my cum spill onto her belly, onto her breasts and one streak crosses her face.

I want everything from her and I want to give her everything in return.

Pretty as it is, I press back into her to spill the last of it inside of her.

My dark cum paints her body… she is mine.

I want it to seep into her skin. I want to write “Mine” on her breasts, so she always remembers.

The need to breed her nudges at me again.

Mine .

I need it to be true in every way possible.

It would be ridiculous to tell her I love her. It would be foolish to think it was possible to love her after a single conversation and a mere handful of hours in her presence.

But I might.

I feel it in the bond. She can come again… it will only take the smallest effort. And I want it.

Fingers pressed tight to her clit, I press my other hand to the bed beside her and rise up so I hover over her body, my lips coasting over hers.

“Come for me one more time, Mary,” I tell her. “I want to hear the sounds of your pleasure again.”

Her hand clutches my arm, fingers squeezing.

“Kade, I…”

Whatever she meant to say, it’s swallowed up by the keening cry as her orgasm hits her.

Even though my body is spent, my cock twitches inside of her, wanting to hear her make that sound again and again.

She arches and shakes and the sight of her like this… in my bed, covered in my cum, keening under the work of my fingers and squeezing down on my cock… it’s a heady feeling. It’s a pleasure I plan to repeat as many times as she’ll let me. For the rest of our lives.

When I collapse on top of her, she makes a funny little sound and the flash of panic hits me as I apologize, rolling us to our sides.

Laying there with her, breathing her in and swimming in the satiation of this moment, I would gladly never go back to Isia if it meant spending forever with her like this.

After a few minutes, and despite my continued efforts to distract her with soft kisses, she draws back on a sigh.

And then a different flutter of panic. “I just realized… we’re missing something. Is there a bathroom?”

“It’s downstairs.”

“There’s a downstairs?” She cranes her neck, trying to see. “Where?”

“Below us.”

She smacks my chest with the flat of her palm again, not hard. “Duh.”

I don’t know what that word means, but I will ask her later.

The stairs are hidden from view by the headboard, and when I pick her up, carrying her down them, she makes a pleased little sound.

“I promise you, it’s not that exciting.”

“I’m sorry, what part of ‘basement on the moon’ isn’t exciting.”

The bathing facilities and cleaning mechanics don’t deserve the awe she’s giving them, but I let her enjoy what has become mundane to me.

Setting her down and cleaning myself up quickly, I leave her alone to do what she needs to. Upstairs, I go to the bed and hit the button that automatically changes the sheets and sends the ones covered in both of our cum to the wash. Then, I go to the fridge.

She’s not hungry. I’d feel it if she was, so I don’t worry about feeding her yet.

When she comes back up, she looks at me with a little smile that I don’t completely understand. I hand her a bottle of water as she comes back to me.

“Thank you.” She takes a long drink of it and then lets me draw her back into bed.

I snuggle her close, letting myself feel what she feels through our bond, watching the planet rotate overhead.

“What is this?” she asks, tapping the hard plate beneath the skin on my chest. “It was not in your file.”

She’s sleepy. I can feel the drowsiness in the bond, and I don’t plan on keeping her up any longer… even though I would happily fuck her straight through to morning.

“I’ll tell you a bedtime story,” I say, rolling her over onto her back and brushing her hair out of her face. “Lights off,” I say and the whole dome goes dark.

“Back before we found you, we spent years searching the systems for compatible mates. But sometimes we came across people who were far more interested in fighting than fucking.”

“Strange… did they see you before they took the first shot?”

I laugh and kiss her palm. “They did.”

“There are men… men you will never meet who have whole chest panels of circuitry designed to keep them alive when they find themselves in the wrong aliens’ paths.”

“I’m glad I’m the right alien.”

“I am too.” I brush her hair back over her ear and press a kiss to her collarbone. “Their bodies are stuffed and clotted with mechanisms to keep them alive in the harshest environments.”

“Is that what yours does?”

“Mine is less severe. It just means I can keep breathing longer than others. I had it installed in case I’m exposed to hard vacuum while in the pilot’s chair.”

She grimaces and I don’t need the bond to know she doesn’t like thinking about that, but a yawn wracks her before she says, “It’s like an internal scuba tank.”

It’s not actually a question, which I’m glad of, because, “I don’t know what that is.”

“On Earth, it’s a tank filled with air that you generally wear like a backpack when you want to swim underwater for a long time… and you’re going deep enough you can’t resurface often enough to go without.”

“Scooba. That’s a weird word.” I say it again and it makes my lips feel funny. It makes her laugh too, and that is definitely a reward.

I kiss her and hold her close until her breathing slows and her drowsiness pulls me to sleep along with her.