Page 38 of Needed in the Night (The Fortusian Mates, #2)

ISLA

Midway through Fortusia’s pink atmosphere, the ferry’s viewscreens switched to a forward view.

Several enormous cruisers orbited the planet. Other than its name, I had no idea which was our destination until the ferry’s flight path turned and headed straight for a magnificent luxury cruiser.

“Oh, gods.” I gaped at the screen. “I’ve never been on one of these.”

“Me either.” Mikas cradled my head against his chest. “It is certainly a far cry from military transports and cargo carriers.”

I watched in awe as our ship entered the open docking bay on the side of the cruiser, rotated, and landed precisely on the pad. The viewscreen switched to the cruiser’s logo as the ferry’s engines shut off.

Once we disembarked via a walkway, hosts escorted us into the cruiser and divided passengers by assigned decks and sections. Only then did we discover our cabin was located on a secure level .

Mikas, Brae, and I followed our escort into a private lift accessed by biometric scanners.

It rose smoothly sixteen levels before opening to reveal an enormous multi-level artificial conservatory filled with colorful rain forest flora from a dozen worlds, walkways, small waterfalls, and several pools.

Wide galleries ringed the atrium, providing three hundred and sixty-degree views of the rain forest on the inside. The cabin doors lined the outside of the galleries.

I would have liked to spend a few minutes admiring the atrium, but our host guided us directly to our designated cabin, Epsilon 42. We scanned our wristcomms to open its doors. My mouth fell open.

“There must be a mistake,” I murmured to Mikas. “This is some kind of royal suite.”

“With your pardon, Emissary, it is no mistake,” our young Engareni host warbled. “Your booking agent was quite clear about which suite would be most appropriate for you. This level is reserved for diplomats and others needing secure accommodations.”

“Thank you for escorting us,” Mikas said. “And for the explanation.”

The host dipped his feathered head. “Please contact me via the comm panel in your suite with any and all requests.”

“We will.” With his hand on my lower back, Mikas urged me into our suite.

I’m going to explore the ship while you two get settled , Brae said in my head. Let me know when it’s safe for me to come back .

My face heated. Thank you. Be careful.

Always . His shadow flitted away in the direction of the atrium.

Without warning, Mikas swept me up in his arms in full view of our host and a dozen other passengers and carried me through the doorway into our cabin. The moment the doors slid closed, he kissed me with enough heat and hunger to make my toes curl in my boots.

“What is this?” I asked breathlessly when he drew back.

“You blushed so prettily at whatever Brae said to you that I lost all control,” he said, eyes twinkling. “And you encouraged me to be spontaneous, as I recall. I believe your exact words were, ‘You never know what might happen.’ I await the consequences of my spontaneity.”

“The consequences could be dire,” I warned.

He kissed my forehead. “I very much hope so.”

We stood in a spectacular sitting area with floor-to-ceiling windows offering a breathtaking view of space. Through an open doorway, I saw a bedroom no smaller than this room and beyond that a bathroom. The bed was enormous—larger even than the one in Atlath’s embassy.

Exploring our palatial cabin could wait. After all, we had several days here before we reached Aloris.

“Take me to the window,” I said.

Obediently, he carried me across the sitting area to the windows and their breathtaking view of Fortusia.

“Computer, dim lights,” Mikas said. The suite plunged into near-darkness. He pressed his lips to my temple. “It is a beautiful planet, but it pales in comparison to you.”

I reached up to run my fingers through his hair. He rumbled at my touch. “What did I say about that kind of flattery?”

“I do not recall.” He turned his head to kiss my palm. “I was too captivated by my beautiful mate to make note of it.”

I pulled his head down to mine and kissed him. “You remember offhand comments I made months ago, but you don’t remember me telling you earlier today not to flatter me so much?”

“Selective memory is a regrettable condition,” he said with feigned sorrow. “I hope you do not find it too difficult to live with. ”

“Luckily, my memory is sharp.” I raised my eyebrows. “Remember how I said you might get your wish to make love overlooking Fortusia under certain conditions?”

He pretended to think. “I do recall that, yes. What are these mysterious conditions I must meet in order to give my mate many orgasms at this window?”

My toes curled again at his promise. “Put me down and I’ll tell you.”

With obvious reluctance, he set me on my feet. I found the seam of his shirt and pulled it apart slowly. I slid the palms of my hands over his hot, scaly skin, reveling in how he rumbled and trembled at my touch.

I dragged my nails down his chest and pressed myself against the hard lengths of his cocks, already straining the fabric of his pants. His gaze had gone dark with desire. Slowly, I licked his right nipple before catching the piercing in my teeth. His gasp was ragged.

I let go of the piercing and flicked his nipple with the tip of my tongue. “Show me what you do when you fantasize about me,” I said, my voice husky. “I want to see.”

Mikas cupped my face and ran his thumb over my lower lip. “What do you want to see, my mate?”

“I want to see how you pleasure yourself.” I tugged at the fastening of his waistband until it released, leaving his pants barely clinging to his hips. “I want to see what your face looks like when you think about me with your hand on your cocks.”

He growled, his pupils dilating to turn his eyes fully black.

On my tiptoes, I wrapped my arms around his neck and lifted myself a few inches until he picked me up so we were face to face.

“And I want to see your primal self again,” I murmured against his lips. “The Mikas I saw at the perfume shop when you touched me for the first time. But this time, I don’t want you to hold back. I told you I want all of you just as you are, and I meant it.”

“You do not know what you are asking,” he grated. “I must be as human as possible when I am with you. There is a beast inside me.”

“I know, and I want it inside me .” I slipped my hand into his pants and discovered he wore nothing under them. He growled again, this time from deeper in his chest, but still he held back.

I caressed the area of his lower abdomen where his rougher scaly skin turned soft just above his groin, nudging his pants down his hips as I did so.

His beautiful cocks sprang free, already hard as stone, beaded with lubrication, and dripping.

His entire body vibrated and his chest heaved as I stroked them gently one at a time, from base to tip.

I’d pushed him to the edge until he was clinging to the shreds of his control. He wanted me with every fiber of his being, and yet he didn’t give in. There could only be one reason for that: he worried he would frighten or hurt me.

“I’m not afraid of you,” I said. “The only thing I fear is you feel you can’t be yourself with me. If you can’t be yourself with your mate, when can you be yourself?”

His arms tightened around me. “I do not deserve you,” he rasped.

“Don’t you ever think that.” I took his face in my hands. “Don’t you dare, Mikas Auren. You were meant for me and I was meant for you. Now let me see all of you, the way you’ve seen all of me.”

With a snarl that made me shiver with desire, he kissed me hard. “My mate,” he said, his voice guttural. “Choose a word you can say to let me know you are afraid, to tell me I must stop whatever I am doing because I may go too far. I have to know you are safe with me.”

“All right.” I kissed his jaw. “The word will be trava .”

He rumbled. “Fortusian for stop . Yes, that is perfect. ”

“So,” I said, my hands on his chest. “What did you do first when you fantasized about me? Did you take off all your clothes?”

“Yes.” He set me on my feet next to an oversized chaise lounge with two backrests clearly designed for passengers to relax on as they enjoyed the view out the window.

As I watched, he dropped his shirt to the floor. Moments later, it was joined by his boots and pants and then he was beautiful and naked, his dripping cocks curving enticingly toward his abdomen.

I licked my lips. “And then what did you do?”

“I would lie on my basking stone in my apartment,” he said, his gaze locked on mine. “But for now, this lounge will do.”

He reclined against the pillows on one end of the chaise lounge and gestured at the opposite side. “Please, my mate.”

I took off my boots but left my jumpsuit on and mirrored his pose. I was dripping already. Could he smell my arousal?

“I imagined you onstage, singing,” he continued without being prompted. His hand traveled languidly over his chest, flicking his nipple piercings and gliding over his abdominal muscles. “I heard your voice and imagined your smile.”

He took his cocks in his other hand, slipped a finger between them, and stroked once.

Gods. I let out a shaky breath edged with a moan.

“I thought about how beautiful you were beside the lake.” Another slow, gentle stroke, and twin streams of gleaming precum spilled out to trickle down his fingers.

“The waterfall’s mist on your face, glistening in the lights.

I imagined how your lips would taste.” His tongue slid over his own lips, and his strokes became less gentle and more purposeful.

“I wanted to kiss you. To feel your lips on mine. I wanted to fill your mouth with my cocks.”

His hand slid up and down his cocks. My own fingers twitched, aching with my desire to take over. And my mouth watered thinking about taking his cocks in my mouth.

In desperation, I opened the front of my jumpsuit along its seam and cupped my breasts, pinching my nipples. Oh, delicious pain. “And then what did you imagine?”

His breathing turned ragged. “I imagined my cocks in your pussy and your ass. You were calling my name.”

I couldn’t help it—I slid my hand into my jumpsuit and between my legs, where I was sopping wet. “Mikas,” I whispered.

“Yes.” His eyes blazed with need as he stroked his cocks. “Touch yourself, my mate.”

With a whimper, I slipped my fingertips into my dripping slit.

“Show me,” Mikas growled. “I want to see how wet you are for me.”

Trembling, I withdrew my hand to show him my glistening fingertips.

“Beautiful,” he said, his chest heaving. “Shall we continue?”

I couldn’t imagine saying no to that. “Yes.”

I wriggled out of my jumpsuit and tossed it on the floor next to my boots. I wanted so badly to climb on top of him, but there was something so decadent and satisfying about watching him pleasure himself to me.

So I settled back into the pillows on my end of the lounge, spread my legs, caressed my slit, then dipped my fingertips inside myself. I moaned and cupped my breast with my free hand.

“Gods, Isla,” Mikas groaned, his chest and stomach muscles tightening as he stroked himself harder. “I want to come.”

“No,” I said sharply. “I’m not ready. You have to wait.”

He shuddered hard, almost doubling over, but he slowed his movements. “Gods,” he repeated, and that time it sounded like a prayer .

My fingers slick and dripping and my gaze on Mikas’s face, I circled my swollen clit. “Mikas, what else did you imagine when you thought about me?”

“I cannot say,” he rasped. “You are too beautiful. I am trying…not to come.”

I imagined it for myself: Mikas, on his basking stone just like this, head thrown back and cocks splattering precum over his hand and stomach and legs as he envisioned what I would look like under him or on my hands and knees in front of him.

But I didn’t have to imagine what that felt like because I’d already come with his cocks filling me up and making me scream. My pussy and ass clenched, desperate to feel those overwhelming sensations again.

That sent me over the edge with a wail, eyes closed, one hand on my clit and the other pinching my nipple hard.

A moment later, hot hands pushed my own hand aside and Mikas’s face was between my legs, his tongue spearing me and lapping at my slit.

I cried out, my legs closing instinctively on his head until he pushed them open again and held me against his mouth so he could drink my release.

I ran my fingers through his hair. “Mikas,” I gasped.

With a snarl, he turned his head and bit my inner thigh.

A millisecond of pain—and then the universe exploded.