Page 23 of Needed in the Night (The Fortusian Mates, #2)

Isla was the sole proprietor of my lips, along with every other part of my body—including my chest, which rumbled louder with each passing moment until my entire body vibrated against her.

Her mouth yielded under mine, and the tip of her little tongue licked at my lips.

I followed her lead and discovered an entire new universe of pleasures and tastes.

She even cautiously flicked her tongue along the edges and points of my fangs.

I growled. She shivered—but in desire, not in cold or fear.

The scent of her need overtook everything else.

For several heartsbeats, I knew nothing else but that siren call and my hunger for her. Blood rushed to my cocks. Luckily, I was holding her well above my lap. I did not wish to startle or frighten her with my arousal.

When she broke the kiss and drew back, I did not resist, but I did not want the moment to end. My chest heaved and my hands trembled with the force of my need.

“I liked that,” she said with a wistful smile. Her words were quite unnecessary since her racing heart, rapid breathing, and sweet scent had already told me so.

She rested her head against my shoulder. I held her gently with one arm around her back and the other underneath her, my nose nestled into the crook of her neck and shoulder to drink in her scent.

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have sung ‘Warm Waters’ tonight,” she murmured against my chest. “Or ever joked with you about what people yearn for. Or thought to myself that you weren’t the type to yearn. I’ve never been more wrong.”

“Please do not apologize.” I caressed her back. “I enjoy that song very much. And you did not know what I held in my hearts. I could not show it.”

“Because of Nubo.” She looked up, her eyes fiery in a way that stirred heat within me. “He’s scum. But we only have this room for an hour at most. I don’t want to waste it talking about him .”

I was more than happy to forget our employer for now. “Speaking of this room, who is Madame Ycari?” I asked. “Is she really a perfumer?”

“She is. Credentialed and certified by the Guild on Engaren. The plaques are on display in the shop.” Isla studied me. “She is also more than that.”

“Just like you.” I took a chance and kissed her again, this time gently. “I would like to know how you came to be on Fortusia, Isla, and who is a danger to you.”

“Another time.” She surprised me by running her nose and then her lips along my jaw. The brush of her mouth on my sensitive skin made my cocks harden nearly to the point of pain. “You said my scent tells you a lot about me. Do you like it?”

“ Like is not the correct word.” My voice sounded strained, even to my own ears. “For me, your scent is captivating. It transforms me. I am content in my soul when I smell you.”

“Just content?” She repeated her slow journey along my jaw, and now my rumble took on a desperate, dangerous edge. “I think you might feel more than that.”

I hungered for her so deeply and so intensely that I could think of little else…save the fact I would do nothing unless I knew what precisely she wished me to do. I was no ravening creature like Nubo or the Hardanian I had dumped on the street earlier in the week.

“Isla.” I leaned back, though putting any distance between us made my hearts ache. We had only these few stolen minutes to talk, to touch each other. I knew we had to plan what we would do next, but my body sang of her and my need drowned out nearly everything else.

“Tell me the truth.” Isla touched my lower lip with her fingertips. “What do you yearn for, Mikas? ”

You. Always you.

“What do you yearn for?” I countered. “You know what is in my hearts; I have told you.”

“I want a home,” she said without hesitation, and my hearts broke at the poignant simplicity of her words. “I’m tired of running.”

Despite the ache in my chest created by those words, I recalled something I had heard long ago from a friend who had found his true mate and a piece fell into place.

“You asked what it means to be true mates, beyond biological compatibility,” I said. “I said peace and contentment.”

“And safety.” She tilted her head. “And I suppose I could feel those with you. I suppose I already do,” she amended. “Because I felt them with you as my friend, before this.”

“But there is something else,” I said, and now the words tumbled out in a rush. “I have just realized how I feel in your presence. You are my home. And if you can accept me as your own, I will be yours.”

She stared at me.

“What is a home but a place of safety, contentment, and peace?” I pressed. “It is a place, yes, but it is more than that. It is a feeling. It is the difference between the place you reside and the place where your heart is full.”

“My heart is already full of bad memories and pain.” She swallowed hard. “I’m not sure it has room for much else.”

“Then I will dedicate my life to replacing the hurts of the past with joys and new memories, if you will let me.” I cupped her face with my palm. “I would like a chance to try, but it is your choice.”

She smiled. “Somehow, I knew you’d say that.” She blessed me with a gentle kiss. “I choose to let you try,” she whispered, her lips against mine.

My hearts soared and I found myself speechless.

“We still have some time,” Isla added, her eyes twinkling. “ Will you give me a sample of what kind of new memories you’d like us to make?”

I thought of Nubo’s threats and Kona, who stood outside the shop’s doors waiting for us to emerge and finish our market shopping under her watchful eye. And then she would report everything she had seen to Nubo.

“I do not want to return to our apartments and jobs as if nothing has changed between us,” I said, my voice guttural. “I do not want to live like that anymore. I do not want to live without you.”

Isla’s smile faded. I cursed myself for making her heart heavy, but her disquiet did not last for long.

Her gaze flicked to the blank wall behind me, then returned to my face. She rested her hand on the back of my neck. Her gentle touch drew a rumble from me.

“Do you trust me, Mikas?” she asked.

I did not have to think about my reply. “Yes.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Is there anything in your apartment you can’t leave behind?”

Leave behind? As in, if we were to depart tonight with only the clothes on our backs? My hearts raced, but not in trepidation or disquiet—only in anticipation.

My belongings were few and I had no particular attachment to any of them.

The only thing I possessed that could not be easily replaced was my military medal and that was nothing more than a reminder of years and pain I would rather forget.

Why I still had it, I did not know. There was no better reason to rid myself of it than leaving with Isla.

“No,” I stated. “There is nothing I will miss.”

“Me neither. That used to make me sad, but not anymore.” Isla laced the fingers of her free hand through mine.

No easy trick, as my hand was so much larger.

“We’re leaving tonight, Mikas,” she said.

“You, Brae, and me. Ycari is arranging it. So trust me and forget about Nubo. Only think about you and me. ”

I thought of that strange exchange about flowers when we arrived at the shop tonight.

Isla’s tone when she had said Centenian gregarus and Solani violet and Ycari’s response had made me suspect these phrases were code for something.

So Isla had already planned a departure?

Whatever her plan was, I would follow my beautiful mate.

With her hand on mine, she guided my fingers up her thigh, inching closer to her hip.

Gods, her sweet scent was more intoxicating than any ale or liquor I had ever served and infinitely more precious. My fingertips dug into her skin. I was careful to keep my claws sheathed.

“Yes, hold me like that.” She dipped her head to kiss the corner of my jaw where my skin was thinnest and most sensitive. I growled and trembled with need.

But for all my desire, and despite her obvious arousal, I feared Isla’s reaction to my nonhuman attributes. She had seen me shirtless many times, but never nude.

“My anatomy is not human,” I said before I lost my nerve. “My body may frighten you. Even horrify you.”

Her teeth closed gently on the small ridge that ran down the side of my neck. I nearly lost all control at that delicious combination of pleasure and pain. “I doubt it,” she said, and licked the spot she had bitten.

Gods above, this woman.

“I don’t frighten easily.” Now she was smirking, as if my trembling pleased her. “And I think I’ll find your anatomy very much to my liking.”

She ground herself against me with a moan. Her sweet pussy was so near my cocks, separated only by layers of fabric. A wave of blinding heat rolled through me from the soles of my feet to my scalp.

“Mikas,” she pleaded, her lips against my neck. “I see how much you want me. Don’t hold back. Touch me, please . ”

I would have crawled across a Solani desert carrying trunks full of stones on my back just for the privilege.

My fingers slid higher beneath her dress and found the dampness between her legs that had soaked into her underwear—and a trace of silken liquid that had escaped the material to run down her inner thigh.

This was her response to my touches, my adoration, my own need.

No treasure could be greater, except her heart.

The moment my fingertips touched that sweet liquid, every other thought evaporated but one: my Isla .

In my soul, my primal, beastly hunger for my true mate raised its head and roared.