Page 54 of Stars in Umbra (The Sable Riders #8)

Powers and Principalities

RINA

T o escape the relentless pressure of the past weeks and the suffocating heat of Eden City, Mo took Rina to his second home on Eden II.

The sleek ship cut through the upper atmosphere in a silken dive toward the peaks of the J’Urg M’hor mountains, as stars blurred into soft streaks of silver behind them.

Below, the jagged, infamous spine of the lunar summit rose from the encroaching darkness, its snow-veined ridges catching threads of pale starlight.

Mid-flight, Mo placed the corvette on autopilot and reached for Rina, putting her on his lap.

She stroked his beard and hair as she nestled in. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing where you escape to time, honey.’

Mo gave his woman a lopsided grin. ‘It’s not often I get out here because of work, but when I do, I relish it. The peace is extraordinary, the views are out of this world.’

‘How long have you owned it?’

‘Zane sold me the land a few years ago for a favorable price, and now it sits along the same ridge as their vacation homes. It has a house bot, and Mirage oversees all cleaning and maintenance as part of the service she confers to the other Riders. It’s also a good investment and has grown in substantial value, which means it can be a nest egg for our little one in the future. ’

He stroked her growing belly as he spoke, and she turned for them to share a long kiss.

When he finally came up for air, he made her stand, patting her behind. ‘Strap in, beautiful, we’re landing soon.’

When she pouted, he gave her one more scorching embrace. ‘You’ll get your sweet later, mi kaya , promise.’

She smirked and slid back into her seat as Mo flew along a craggy ridge.

Until a structure set on boulders emerged from the mountainside.

The cliff-top mansion sat perched at the edge of a sheer drop as if daring gravity to test its resolve.

The mansion rose in sculpted, modern lines, all silvered minerals and sweeping panes, a seamless extension of the rock itself.

Mo brought the corvette down on a shielded landing terrace, the repulsors humming against the boulders beneath.

The security dome over the home protected them from the worst of the wild elements.

Still, a raw, untamed wind whistled through the cliffside crevices, and the roar of the desert mare far under their feet was audible.

Rina took Mo’s hand, stepping through a set of ebony-engraved floor-to-ceiling doors that shut behind them with a hiss.

She caught her breath as she took in the view.

Of an internal garden that should have been impossible here, tiers of lush plants, their leaves glossy with moisture from hidden misters.

Glossy, wide-hued flowers spilled in between giant fern fronds, and the air shimmered with the heady perfume of blooming vines.

It was a jungle bursting from the mountain’s bones.

Her Dunian heart, so attuned to the natural world, recognized a meticulous dedication to the thriving ecosystem.

‘You did this?’ she asked, her voice filled with awe.

Mo shrugged, though a quiet pride was evident in the gesture. ‘Every root, each seed. It took years to coax them to take. They feed the atmosphere with oxygen and cleanse it too.’

Past a corridor lined with mini palms, they walked into the house.

It was a cathedral of glass and stone, its architecture a tribute to the view.

The cliffside wall was transparent, the plex panes so clear that they seemed to dissolve into the night.

Offering an unobstructed panorama of the jagged mountains and Alphetraz twin luminaries floating massive and radiant on the horizon.

The interior was warm and lived-in.

Soft rugs layered the marble floors, velvet couches curved toward a suspended hearth, and the walls were broken up with built-in planters where more greenery thrived.

A thick-leaved ficus arched over one corner, a citrus tree heavy with fruit in another, and trailing flowers lined the stairwell.

‘It’s gorgeous,’ Rina murmured, her fingertips tracing the curve of a broad leaf. ‘This could be a home on Dunia.’

‘That was the point,’ Mo said, his hand resting on the small of her back as he guided her deeper into the space. ‘I grew up on a volcanic planet; we never saw plants. I then moved to Eden II, the same thing. Now I can’t live without them, they make me happy.’

He slowed her, slipping his arms around her waist to rotate her, and held her for a long time. ‘ You feel right in this house, because you too make me happy.’

Later, after a simple dinner, a lunar sand storm rolled in, shaking the cliffs and rattling the windows.

It brought with it Eden City’s oppressive heat.

They switched on the air conditioner to full blast.

Shunning his stunning yet plant-free primary, they decided to sleep in the living room, among the plants and flowers, on a maxi divan Mo made up for them.

It was more than comfortable; it was luxurious.

The view of the zephyr through the soaring plexiglass glazing, a glowing, wild churning of grit, rocks, and wind, set the scene for a night of passionate, raw intimacy.

Rina writhed against Mo, undeterred by the bump of their growing baby.

‘ Fokk , pregnancy makes me so horny,’ she growled as she suckled on Mo’s tongue.

His hands slid from her ass and to the small tee she had on, pulling it up to her nape so he could get at her tits.

‘Damn, your tits are so lush, so beautiful,’ he muttered as his lips fell on her nipple.

He flicked it with his tongue, then sucked it between his lips as he slid his touch to the crux of her thighs.

She parted them with a whimper, panty-free.

For the offending slips of lace had long been lost to the floor, slipped his thick, sinewed fingers along her slit and into her clenching pussy.

She wailed, arching her back, thrusting her hips, squeezing him, needing him.

His mouth moved across her chest, taking hold of her other teat, latching on, and sucking hard.

His mouth sucked deeper, his fingers were a blur.

Seconds later, bliss slammed into her, and she moaned, her pelvis pumping Mo’s digits as he brought her through a shuddering orgasm.

‘Honey,’ was all she could moan as she slumped back, stroking his braids as he kept worshiping her left breast, and caressing her wetness.

‘Please, Mo, I’m going to come again,’ she warned him.

His lips lifted off, rearing back onto his haunches, gazing down at her, heaving on the divan.

‘You cum again, you do it with my cock in you,’ he growled.

She shivered in anticipation as he slid off his sweats.

He loomed over her, his throbbing shaft pulsing with glyphs.

She reached for it, and he stopped her, stroking himself as he gazed down at her.

‘ Nada , your hands on me and I’ll blow mi kaya .’

He stroked his cock from the tip of his beautiful, massive head to its stem.

Fokk, it only turned Rina on more.

‘Baby, please,’ she begged, eyes on him as he glided his grasp over his cockhead while gripping the base of his thickness with the other hand. ‘I can’t wait any more.’

The air around them glowed with his pulsing longing.

His eyes flew open and nailed her, with the same stormy gray gold gaze that had so entranced her from he first day they met.

He growled in Sacran tongue as his hands left his hardness and caressed her belly.

‘So fokkin’ beautiful,’ he rasped, with raw yearning and wonder as her body also pulsed with sigils and radiance.

Bringing his hands under her knees, bent them, lifted them, and parted them.

He moved forward, placing a pillow beneath her ass to elevate it, then leaning over her, his hand wrapped around his cock, he inched in.

She stared at him, loving the stretch, welcoming it, her hunger for him palpable.

Her palms went above her head, her face turned to the side as the impossible girth filled her.

‘You come when I tell you to,’ Mo gritted, and then he was thrusting, driving deep, fast, hard.

He placed a hand on her belly, anchoring her as he pistoned in and out of her, caressing her and her mound, his eyes glazing over with bliss.

It was this unabashed raw desire that got Rina over the edge.

She arched her back and moaned as her second orgasm tore through her.

Her limbs wrapped around his waist, pulling his ass in as he rocked her with love, ecstasy, and incandescence.

‘ Foookkk ,’ Mo groaned as he too combusted, throwing his head back so hard his braids loosened and his dark hair tumbled over his deltoids.

His chest heaving, his sigils pulsing as ropes of heat shot into her pussy.

Still pumping, with less ferocity now, he changed positions, swinging one of her legs to the side and easing to her rear.

He slid onto the bed to lie in a spooning embrace behind her.

His thick thighs wrapped around her, his touch gliding all over her tits, tummy, and nape, his mouth on hers after she twisted her face to his.

She reached for him, stroking his shoulders and upper arms, loving their sinewed, rippling muscle and his slick skin.

His hips pistoned once more, plumbing her deeper, his grunts mingling with her whimpers, and she exploded a third time, moaning into his mouth.

A moment later, he stilled, still planted deep in her.

She fell back to the pillow, every part of her body tingling.

He plumped her breast and flicked her nipples, mouth to her nape. ‘Three times woman, fokk you’re insatiable.’

‘Not so bad yourself, soldier. Twice for you.’

He groaned into her neck. ‘Damn, woman. This pregnancy is making me just as horny.’

‘It’s nature’s way of saying enjoy it while it lasts because when Bubba is here, you might not get as many chances.’

Mo growled. ‘Never, because you give me perpetual fever mi kaya . I can’t keep my hands off you, no matter how much I try. If this baby stands in my way, he’ll meet the wrath of a Sacran god full blast.’

Rina laughed so hard she almost choked until she twisted and sobered at the flaming earnestness in her man’s eyes.