Page 35 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Margot

Two weeks later

Two weeks, and not a single word from Aiken. It’s as if he’s fled the galaxy, or like he was never here at all.

As I’m out shopping for groceries for Emily, who’s been too exhausted from staying by Xavian’s side at the hospital, my holodeck rings to life. My heart skips a beat until I realize it’s only my doctor’s office. I swipe my hand through the air, dismissing the call and focusing instead on a display of oozoo berry extract. The only thing keeping me going these days.

I throw a couple of cans into my basket and continue down the aisle. I’m about to go through the self-checkout when my holodeck rings again. Frustrated, I swipe on the call and frown.

Aiken’s face appears inches from mine. My breath catches in my throat. He looks the same as he did two weeks ago, although there’s a brand new scar beneath his right eye.

“Little wife,” Aiken’s deep voice rumbles. “You’re at the bodega, aren’t you?”

I blink, slide up to the self-checkout machine, and quickly place the basket onto the silver pedestal. It makes a cha-ching! sound, letting me know that my bank card has been charged and I can take my things and go. I grab my bags and hurry out onto the street, my heart beating a mile a minute.

“You look well,” Aiken says. “A little flustered. I call at a bad time?”

I shake my head. “N-No. But … dammit, Aiken. Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you. Especially Xavian.”

Aiken’s brows pinch together. “Is he still at the hospital?”

I nod. “Yes,” I say carefully. “And he needs you here. He needs his best friend.”

“His best friend is already there,” he says.

He means Emily. Okay. Not that I can argue with that, but…

“Besides, I only just finished up the job today,” he continues.

Now it’s my turn to furrow my brow. I move out of the way of a few people walking past on the sidewalk. Toronto in springtime is a far cry from Zeno, that’s for sure, and I’m still not used to the chill in the air.

“What job? Aiken, where are you?” I ask, lowering my voice.

“I’ll tell you if you can tell me something first, little wife,” he rumbles again. His voice makes my skin pebble and my breasts tighten. “Did you miss me?”

I sigh. It figures he’d ask that. “I already said everyone’s been worried sick about you.”

“That doesn’t answer the damn question,” he says. “Now, tell me. Yes or no. Did you miss me?”

After chewing on my bottom lip for ages, I finally murmur a timid, “Yes.”

He chuckles, and I would give anything to reach through the holodeck to smack him right about now. But I can’t. So instead, I give him my deepest scowl, which only makes him laugh harder.

“Why do you insist on calling me ‘little wife,’ anyway? What’s up with that? I thought I was ‘little snake’ to you.” The question’s been gnawing at me ever since he first said those words. Honestly, I don’t hate the way it sounds coming from him. Though I’m hardly what anyone could consider “wife material.”

His gaze darkens, and he leans closer to his holodeck as though he’s about to tell me a deliciously dark secret. “Because … that is what I intend on making you once I’m home.”

A shiver runs down my spine and into my toes, and it has nothing to do with the chill in the air.

“Don’t tease me,” I say as an acrid flavor fills my mouth. “Just don’t.”

“Have I ever teased you, Margot?”

I shoot him a look. He laughs again.

“I’ve only ever told you the truth. I’ll be home tomorrow morning. Come to Docking Bay five and wait for me, or else,” he says with an edge in his voice.

I arch an eyebrow and smirk. “Or else, what?”

“Or else I’ll have to punish you,” he says, and then ends the call abruptly.

I lean against the bodega’s brick wall and sigh. “Looking forward to it, big guy,” I whisper to myself.

I meet Aiken at Docking Bay 5, and he gives everyone around us a fright when he charges me. We get strange looks from the Terrans around us as the Gorcian gathers me in a spinning embrace.

“I missed you,” I say out loud, finally admitting it to both myself and him.

He bunts my forehead and grins. “I missed you, too, little wife. Were you a good girl while I was away?”

“Nope,” I say.

He sets me down on the ground and nips at my throat. A few people trying to catch their flight stop and stare at us, and Aiken answers with a menacing glare. When he takes my hand into his, I’m acutely aware of our size difference. I gulp down the lump in my throat as we walk hand in hand back to his and Xavian’s apartment.

Once we’re back, I make a pot of coffee while Aiken takes a hot shower. When he steps into the kitchen, I realize he’s only wearing a white towel slung around his waist. My cheeks blossom with heat at the sight, and I do my best to look anywhere but down there .

“Okay, spill it. Where were you?” I ask, and pour a mug of Tim Hortons coffee for him. I’ve never had it before, but evidently, it’s got a cult following that survived the invasion of the Terrans hundreds of years ago. Even the race of fae aliens liked it enough to keep it, apparently. I lean against the counter and frown. “Like I said, we were all worried sick about you, and you didn’t leave a note.”

Aiken strides forward, brushing past me, and takes the cup of coffee. “I … was dealing with some loose ends,” he says in a quiet tone that suggests he doesn’t want to get into it, but too bad.

I arch a brow. “Go on.”

“With my connections, I was able to track down the remaining Denorrans who worked for General Arcadia,” he says. The hairs on my arms stand on end at the mention of the Denorrans. “Took out their little clusterfuck of cronies so they won’t pop up like weeds again.”

I expel a sigh of relief. “Are you serious? Aiken … thank you. You … you didn’t have to go to all that trouble.”

He sets his coffee mug down, then presses me into the kitchen counter. I can feel his hardness underneath the towel. And not just one, either. “Yes, I did,” he murmurs, and he brushes his lips against the shell of my ear. My body liquifies against his rock-hard abdomen. “Because I have to protect what’s mine. My family, yes, but most importantly…” He lifts me onto the counter, and I instinctively wrap my thighs around his waist. His forked tongue brushes against my lips, and I tremble. “You, Margot.”

My heart slams against my bones as my thighs turn to jelly. They open like flower petals unfurling to take in as much sunlight as possible. Only in this case, Aiken is my sunlight, and I’m helpless against him.

“Take me to the bedroom,” I say between pants. “Now.”

“Bossy,” he says, then lifts me from under my thighs to carry me off to his room. “I like it. But don’t think you’re calling the shots in there.”

Aiken lowers me gently onto the mattress. His bedroom looks exactly how I imagined it would, with a pile of laundry shoved in one of the corners and posters for retro metal bands all over the walls. A true bachelor pad. I’m surprised his mattress isn’t on the floor.

Normally, I’d insist we move our date over to a hotel, but my body aches for him. I need him inside me. Now.

Aiken lowers himself on top of me and peppers my neck with rough kisses. I let out a squeal of delight again, and he licks the sensitive spot in the crook of my neck. Instant chills.

“To be honest, I’m surprised you’re even letting me touch you. I thought you hated me,” he mutters into my ear before biting it. His hand roves underneath my dress, hiking the fabric up past my thighs to expose the black thong underneath. “You’ve certainly told me as much,” he says, followed by a throaty chuckle.

I glare at him as he looms over me. When he grins, my cheeks sting with heat. “Oh, shut up. I do not .”

“No? So, you just have an attitude with everyone, then. I’m not special.” Aiken’s claws fiddle with the elastic band of my thong, and I inhale sharply. “You like this. You must be starving. It’s obvious no one else is fucking you, little wife.”

I push him away, then lean back on my forearms. “Excuse me? That’s fucking rude, and also none of your business.”

“But am I right?” he asks with a gleam in his eye, and it’s then that I notice the four large bulges pressing against his towel.

Wait, what? Four ? Okay, I knew that Gorcians were well endowed. Everyone knows that. You’d have to be living on an uninhabited planet not to. But four? Isn’t that the limit?

Not every Gorcian is born with multiple cocks. Some only have one, while others have two. A Gorcian’s status in their community is directly tied to the number of cocks they have. So … if Aiken has four, then…

“My eyes are up here,” he rumbles.

I lick my lips and jerk my gaze up to his as heat creeps across my cheeks and chest.

“Yes, there are four of them. All ready and eager to explore every inch of you, too.”

When I don’t say anything, Aiken studies my face for a long while and then says, “You aren’t enjoying this. Tell me to stop, and we will. We got carried away in the heat of the moment, but I’m not a brute, Margot. You don’t want this? You don’t want this. You’re free to leave. No harm, no foul.”

But I don’t want to leave. The weeks spent agonizing over vendors, venues, catering, and musicians was torture. Everyone was right. I worked too damn hard, and now the stress is finally catching up with me. We had a lot of fun sexting over the year, but now that we’re here together in the same room, ready to rip each other’s clothes off, I’m not sure about anything anymore.

“Little wife,” he rumbles. His eyes narrow into slits. “Say something.”

“I—” I look back to his face, and my heart softens. “I don’t hate you, Aiken. And I don’t think I ever have.”

He blinks. “Okay. Is that a yes or a no for continuing, then? Because I’m not following.”

Of course he isn’t. Mixed signals aren’t usually my style. “How do you feel about me? Truly? Because you’re right. No one else is fucking me. But I think that might be because I’ve been … I’ve been waiting?” I must sound like a hot fucking mess right now.

Aiken’s lips peel back into a thin line. Is he trying to smile? “Waiting. For me?”

I gum my lips and nod wordlessly. Aiken moves forward, covering my body with his again, but he takes care not to put too much of his weight on me. Like he’s afraid he might crush me. He says nothing as his cocks brush against my thighs from underneath the fabric of his towel, and I bite my lower lip.

“In case I wasn’t clear before,” he says, then kisses my temple, “I do not tease you, Margot. You are my little wife because I love you.” Aiken kisses my other temple with such tenderness there’s a very real danger of me melting into the blankets. “And I love you because you are exactly my type. Fierce. Loyal. And maybe just a little crazy.”

My mouth goes bone dry, and I become vaguely aware of the fact that my nipples are as hard as rocks right now.

“I … I love you, too,” I whisper. “I must’ve loved you for a while now. But it was hard to notice underneath all the anger. It was buried pretty deep down, but I see it now.”

Aiken’s throat makes a soft trilling sound that sounds suspiciously like purring. Seriously? Not what I was expecting, but here we are. I wrap my arms around his neck, and he pulls me up into his lap so I can straddle him.

“Tell me something,” Aiken says as he pulls my thighs around his waist. “Why can’t you ever let yourself go? Relax, woman. You’re wound tighter than a Slitheron’s tail, and I worry about you.” His mouth crashes against mine, and I release a deep moan. It’s as if I’m no longer in control of my body when he’s touching me. My hips buck against his pelvis helplessly in a grinding motion. He kisses my throat, my temples, even my eyes. “I don’t like worrying about you, but I accept it as my duty. As your mate. As your husband.”

My eyes dart open. “Is that a proposal?”

“Maybe,” he grinds out. “I know you Lunan women prefer jewelry.”

“We do,” I say, my voice turning raspy as he peppers me with more kisses. “But I’ll accept the corpses of our enemies in lieu of a ring.”

Aiken pulls his face back to blink at me. I was making a crass joke, but judging from the way he’s looking at me right now, he’s taken my request very seriously. “I left them back on Nocturne. I can go back and get them, if you want.”

I shake my head. “That won’t be necessary. I’m afraid I’ve run out of room in my apartment for Denorran trophies. But I accept your proposal anyway.”

Aiken brushes one of his claws against my throat, sending shivers throughout my body and straight into my clit. “Oh, I’m going to have fun loosening you up. I know you’re going to be a wild little thing once I do,” he murmurs.

Life has a strange way of putting you back on the right path. After years of tormenting myself, of telling myself I’m not worthy of being loved … here I am, in bed with the biggest, fiercest, and most attractive alien I’ve ever met. And he wants me. Me .

Aiken pulls away from my mouth, and I frown.

“Dammit, woman. Shut your brain off for ten seconds while I kiss you, at least,” he growls.My brows lift, and I open my mouth to argue with him, but he continues before I have a chance to get a word in edgewise. “Yeah. I can tell you’re ruminating,” he says.

“Ooh, big word for you. I’m impressed.” I suck my lower lip in between my teeth, and he kisses me again and again.

“I told you, I’ve been studying hard.” Then he moves to my neck to kiss there, too. “For you.”

With a single, fluid motion, Aiken scoops me up and lowers me back onto the bed, then leans down between my legs. His tongue slithers between his lips and flicks back and forth as he looks up at me, lust glazing his eyes.“I’m going to devour you, wife.”

He pauses for a moment, waiting for me to object, and when I don’t, he slides his claws under the bands of my thong to pull it down. I shimmy out of my thong the rest of the way, and he tosses it onto the floor to join the rest of the laundry. Without hesitation, he dives between my legs. His tongue buries itself deep inside of me, and I squirm against his mouth.

Aiken lifts my thighs and drapes them over his shoulders, pinning me in place.

“Stay put,” he murmurs against my cunt. His tongue flicks in and out of me, teasing out my pleasure with practiced precision. Thick rumbles of satisfaction emanate from his throat in a trill, and I can’t help but giggle at the purr-like sound again. His eyes lift to mine as his tongue goes deeper into me, and I meet his gaze.

“Oh, fuck,” I moan, and grab one of the pillows to cover my mouth. Aiken grabs the pillow out of my hands and chucks it against the wall with a soft thud.

His mouth leaves my cunt so he can growl at me. “No. Be a good girl and let me see your face. I want to hear you scream my name when you come.”

I bite my bottom lip in amusement and murmur, “Yes, sir.”It’s meant to be a cheeky taunt, but I like the way the word sounds on my tongue. Relinquishing some of my control to him feels good enough that I could get used to submitting to him, maybe.

The pleasure building in my core tightens like a coil dying to spring. Aiken sucks on my clit, reading my mind once again, and the first tidal wave of pleasure crashes over me without warning. I can’t hold back the overwhelming spasm that makes me clench my thighs around his neck like I’m holding on for dear life.

“Aiken!” I scream up at the ceiling, and he drags one of his claws down my pelvis, scratching my delicate skin gently. His tongue darts in and out of me, lapping at my sex as I convulse.

My mind goes blissfully blank, as if I’ve been plunged into a warm bathtub. Gods … when was the last time my mind was so utterly silent?

He wipes his mouth clean with the back of his hand and hovers over my body again.“Good,” he murmurs, then presses his lips to my forehead. “That was perfect, my good girl. But that was just a warmup. I hope you’re ready for the main event, because I definitely am.”

My eyes rove from his face down to his taut abdomen, and then to where his claws are resting on the top of his towel. He carefully unwraps the fabric, like it’s a Christmas present, and all four of his ridged cocks spring free My jaw hits the floor.