Page 23 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

L yall shouldn’t have pounced on Kat, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

Now he was looming over him, panting and more aroused than he had been in years.

He was probably scaring the shit out of him, and he needed to back off.

The young human’s beautiful brown eyes were wide as he stared back at him, the black of his pupils blown.

Then Kat pulled Lyall’s head down into a kiss.

It wasn’t soft or gentle, which Lyall had expected. It was wild, a crash of tongues and teeth that felt like they were both trying to devour each other at the same time.

Lyall reached down to yank up Kat’s shirt as he pushed his tongue into Kat’s mouth. He ran his hands up the smooth skin, his fingers finding Kat’s nipples. He circled them, feeling the nubs harden and pebble under his fingertips.

Kat broke off their kiss with a gasp. “I have too many clothes on.”

Lyall couldn’t agree more. He lifted the shirt up over Kat’s head and tossed it aside before yanking down the human’s pants and briefs in one fluid motion.

Kat took advantage of Lyall’s position and did his own version of a pounce, pushing Lyall onto to his back and kissing him even harder. It was a little like being tackled by a kitten, and Lyall loved it.

“I need to feel you in my mouth.” Kat came up for air. “I want to make sure that’s okay because consent is super important.”

Lyall couldn’t do much more than laugh a yes in response, and Kat began to press kisses along Lyall’s jawline. He kept moving down, sucking hard at the pulse point in his neck, then licking and biting at Lyall’s nipples.

Okay, a very sexy kitten.

Kat nibbled his way down Lyall’s abdomen, his fingers playing with chest hair on the way. Lyall was already hard, and he let out a groan as Kat pulled down the shorts he had loaned him and freed his cock.

“I have been wanting to do this for so long.” Kat peered up at him through his thick black eyelashes, his lips parted and his eyes wide.

Fuck. Lyall might come from that look alone.

Kat took hold of Lyall’s cock and licked a trail up from the base to the tip, his pink tongue darting in and out. Then he mouthed the foreskin and took Lyall into the heat of his mouth.

It was amazing and overwhelming at once. Lyall didn’t know how much of this was the Matchmaker and how much was Kat being unbelievably good at giving head.

His balls drew up, and he knew he wouldn’t last much longer. He wanted—no, needed—for them to be together this first time.

“Come up here with me.” Lyall threaded his fingers through Kat’s hair, so soft and silky, and fought the urge to buck his hips up and drive his cock even deeper into Kat’s throat.

Kat nodded and came off with a saucy pop, then crawled up to lock their mouths together. He tasted bitter and salty at once and so, so good. As Lyall reached out to grab both of their cocks in one hand, Kat let out a soft moan, then rutted into Lyall’s grip.

Neither of them lasted much longer after that.

Kat came first, with a shudder and a gasp. Lyall ran out of Earth and Riftworld languages to say “fuck, yes” in, and his vision whited out with the intensity of the orgasm.

Lyall stroked Kat’s hair as the human rested his head on Lyall’s chest, relishing his soft sigh of contentment.

It was everything Lyall had fantasized about and more. Kat next to him, skin to skin, relaxed, safe, and sated. It should be like this always.

But it wouldn’t be. Kat didn’t want to be trapped by the Matchmaker. He had made that clear.

Lyall had to tell Kat the truth. He should have done it earlier, but after this mind-blowing sex he didn’t have a choice.

“That was amazing.” Kat snuggled closer, his words slurred, as if he was already drowsy.

Lyall wracked his brain for a way to start the conversation instead of blurting it out. There wasn’t an easy way to bring up that Kat had been chosen by an alien intelligence to be Lyall’s partner. Forever.

He took too long to say something.

Kat pushed off him, no longer sleepy. His voice had a little quaver in it, as if Lyall’s silence had hurt him. “Like I said. Contract-free fooling around. I’m going to wash up, and then I need to get some sleep.”

Lyall tried to get a word in, but Kat was already out the door and in the bathroom.

“Fuck me.” Lyall let his head drop back on the pillow. He had totally messed up that opportunity to come clean. Maybe it would be better to bring up the Matchmaker tomorrow.

Tomorrow wasn’t any better.

Last night Kat had returned to bed, curling up on his side of the mattress, and had either fallen off to sleep in a few minutes or did a good job of pretending.

Lyall woke up the next morning alone and had a moment of panic that Kat had left the apartment. The protective wards he had set up would have notified him if anyone had tried to get in, but not if Kat had decided to get out.

“Good morning.” Kat came into the bedroom, fully dressed and far too damn happy given that it wasn’t even dawn yet. “I came in to wake you. I need to leave soon for my shift at the ranch, but you don’t have to come with me. It’s a quick trip, and Kaveh will be there.”

“No, I’m not letting you out of my sight until I hand you over to a drakone who can kick anyone’s ass, including mine.

” Lyall sat up, memories of last night flooding back.

He hadn’t handled that post-sex conversation well, and Kat still didn’t know he was Lyall’s Matchmaker match. “What the hell time is it, anyway?”

“Coffee time.” Kat smiled at him, so he couldn’t be that pissed off. Had his disappointment last night been Lyall’s imagination? Kat had laid out what type of partner his family wanted for him, and it sure as hell wasn’t Lyall. Maybe that casual hook-up was all he wanted.

“You’re grumpy in the morning. Do hellhounds like caffeine?”

“You’re awfully chirpy in the morning, and the answer is yes.” Lyall got out of bed. He hadn’t bothered putting back on any clothes, and Kat’s eyes ran over his body for a moment. For once, the young human didn’t blush. “It’s one of the few benefits of being stuck on this world.”

“I have a fresh travel cup waiting and your clean clothes are in the bathroom.” Kat turned to go back into the living room, and Lyall thought about trying to restart their conversation, then decided to wait until he was less irritable and more caffeinated.

A little less than an hour later, after Kat had picked up two other wranglers who were part of his carpool group and had driven everyone to the ranch, Lyall was cursing himself for waiting to talk to him.

Instead, Kat chatted with a visibly nervous Javier and an oblivious young wrangler who had accepted Lyall’s grunted “security” when asked what he was doing at the ranch.

He didn’t get another chance to get the young human alone. Kat and the other wranglers headed out to their duties, and Lyall was left standing next to Kaveh.

The Azdaha drakone had been waiting for them as they arrived and took a quick moment to put a hand on Kat’s shoulder and murmur a few words to him. Lyall hated the thought of leaving Kat for most of the day, but if he had to turn the human’s safety over to someone, it would be Kaveh.

The ranch’s protections should have been strengthened since the phantom attack several months ago, and even Arimanius wouldn’t take on a drakone who could fry him alive with poisonous fire.

“No further trouble, I take it?” Kaveh turned to him as Kat walked away, and Lyall tried not to transform from frustration and fear for the young human’s safety. “I have some time this morning. Maybe we can go in back and have a cup of coffee.”

That was a polite way of saying that Kaveh wanted to talk to Lyall, now. It was a good idea anyway, as was more caffeine.

They walked into the ranch’s main building, which had a laid-back elegance, with wood panels and beams, along with a large stone fireplace.

A wagon-wheel chandelier hung from the ceiling.

There was plenty of natural light from the floor-to-ceiling solar windows, which Lyall considered a security risk.

On closer inspection, though, there was guardweed draped above each pane, and there was something odd about the delicate crystals dangling from the top of the window frames.

The stones glinted in the early dawn sunlight, casting rainbows across the large patterned rug that covered the floor.

Lyall stopped to take a sniff, and even with the sheep smell coming off the wool carpet, he detected a familiar scent.

“Shield crystals.” Lyall jerked a thumb at the glittering objects. “Looks like you upgraded security.” The living rock could expand rapidly, encasing the walls in a crystalline barrier that was all but impossible to penetrate.

“With help from the guardians, yes.” Kaveh didn’t have to share details of the ranch’s defenses with him, and Lyall was grateful that the drakone trusted him with the intel.

Granted, Lyall had been given permission to visit the ranch and monstertown.

But he was still a hellhound on drakone territory.

Kaveh had as strong a desire to protect Kat as he did to protect Remi, and the drakone knew Lyall shared that goal.

What Kaveh didn’t know was how badly Lyall wanted to protect Kat and why.

It was time to tell him.

“I understand hellhounds use a similar rift organism for defense.” Kaveh paused to reach out and touch one of the crystals, and a gold glow came from the stone, then faded as he took his hand away and walked Lyall into a back-room office off the main space.

“Ours are a hell of a lot less sparkly.” Lyall entered the room and would have waited for Kaveh to take a seat first, but the drakone waved at him to sit in one of the two comfortable-looking chairs at a small table.

On the opposite wall was a large leather-covered desk.

Photos of the ranch owners, Garreth and Chrissie, along with family, guests, and various horses were mounted behind it.