Page 39 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

Urkot raised a foreleg, blocking Callie from advancing. “Wait.”

She looked up at him beseechingly, sticking out her bottom lip in what the humans called a pout . “But why?”

“It is hot. Maybe too hot.”

She turned those longing eyes toward the steaming water, and her shoulders slumped. “I know you’re right. But God, it might be worth losing a few layers of skin just to feel warm again.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “No, it would not . Bad Callie.”

She laughed and gave his shoulder a playful shove. “Not literally, Urkot. I just mean that I really, really want to get in.”

His mandibles sagged. He’d seen her shivering, had felt it, and had hated his sense of helplessness in those moments. If they had been on the surface, he could’ve made a fire to warm her, but understone, he was limited to his body heat and the luck of finding a place like this.

She’d told him how much she loved going to the hot springs in Kaldarak’s temple, where she’d enjoyed the warmth and the quiet, where her troubles had melted away.

This place was even quieter, even more serene.

No vrix around, no animals, only stone carved by the Shaper himself, touched by none besides the gods.

He knew it could not eliminate their troubles—only the touch of the sun would do that—but this was a much-needed respite.

Urkot swung his leg in front of him and lowered it toward the pool. Pleasant warmth flowed into its tip when it entered the water.

“Urkot!” Callie jolted forward, grabbing his leg and halting it. “What the fuck? So it’s okay for you to risk getting burned but not me?”

He chittered and took her hands, lifting them from his leg. “Yes. My hide is thick. Tough. Yours is soft and thin.” Bringing her hands to his mouth, he nuzzled them. “Calm, female. I will not be harmed.”

She pursed her lips, grabbed his mandible, and tugged his head down. “Better not be.”

Callie pressed her mouth to his before she released him.

“Maybe I will risk more,” he said with a purr. “It is worth it for the kisses.”

She gave him a droll look, but it cracked when the corner of her lips quirked. “If you want a kiss, all you need to do is ask.”

Urkot dropped his mouth over hers, capturing the back of her head with one hand to hold her in place.

He relished the softness of her plump lips and her gentle whimper.

When he opened his jaws and slipped out his tongue, her lips parted to allow it entry.

He swept his tongue inside, curling it around hers, tasting her with a low rumble before he withdrew.

He tipped her head back and stared into her dazed eyes. “Or take.”

“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “Or you can do that too.”

With a trill, he let her go and shifted his attention back to the pool.

He lowered his leg deeper, ensuring that the temperature was safe below the surface.

The water reached partway up the second segment of his foreleg before he touched the bottom.

Though it was hot, it wasn’t scalding; it seemed quite comparable to the water in the temple.

He lifted his leg free and flicked water at her. “It is good, yes?”

Callie laughed, flinching as she raised her hands to ward off his attack. “Jerk. So I take it it’s safe?”

Urkot nodded.

She squealed and swiftly yanked at the ties of her top. Once she’d shrugged that off, she shoved down her skirt, and Urkot’s gaze was immediately drawn to her rounded ass and that tattoo.

Spank me , she said it read.

His fingers twitched. Gods, but he wanted to obey that little command…

Callie swung a leg over the side of the pool and tentatively lowered her foot into the water. She let out a small, pleased hum and stepped in fully.

“Oh, fuck yes,” she said as she sank into the water. Reclining, she leaned back against the stone rim of the pool and closed her eyes. “This feels sooo goooood.”

Urkot’s gaze settled on her breasts, which bobbed gently in the water, their dark brown nipples just peeking over the surface.

He clenched his jaw and absently tapped a foreleg on the floor, grinding it into the stone as desire rekindled within him, flooding him with heat entirely separate from that of the hot springs.

How did Rekosh and Ketahn ever accomplish anything while their mates were around? How did either of them resist this overwhelming need to mate, this driving instinct? Urkot wasn’t sure how he’d restrained himself as much as he had already.

Because neither his exhaustion nor the constant danger had dulled his want at all. Every time he looked upon her, every time they touched even slightly for the briefest instant, every time he smelled her or spoke to her, he wanted to mate with her.

At this rate, he would have permanent indentations across his slit from his claspers pressing down so hard to keep his stem contained.

Callie opened her eyes and turned her face toward him with a grin that displayed those adorable dimples. “Are you going to just stand there or are you going to join me?”

Protector, grant me strength.

“You know I cannot stay away,” Urkot said as pleasantly as he could manage, hoping he did not betray that inner struggle.

After removing his belt and pouch and setting them beside Callie’s belongings, he stepped into the pool and lowered himself beside her, releasing a trill as the warmth enveloped him.

Even with the water covering much of his body, it could not compare to the heat within him.

Despite his raging desire, the water was enjoyable, soothing the many aches in his body.

Well, all of them but one.

“Feels good, huh?” she asked.

“It does,” he replied, stretching out his forelegs and adjusting the others to allow himself to sink deeper into the water.

Callie sighed and closed her eyes. “I can almost imagine we’re back in Kaldarak. Back in the temple.”

“We will get back in small time. And then we will stay in the temple as long as you wish, until we are proonee .”

She chuckled. “I don’t think you get proonee .”

“We will still stay as long as you wish.”

Another type of warmth spread through his chest as her lips curved into a smile.

Comfortable silence stretched between them, interrupted only by gentle drips from elsewhere in the cavern. And though Urkot had to remain alert for any sign of approaching spiritstriders, he felt far more relaxed than he had in a long, long while.

“You know,” she said, gazing at the ceiling, “it’s pretty in here. I mean, if I ignore the fact that all those squiggling glowing things are worms, it’s like staring up at the stars. I can almost forget that we’re stuck in a cave and pretend we’re in some magical hideaway.”

He turned his attention upward. All those worms and their glistening threads truly did resemble the starry night sky, and their reflections upon the water’s surface made it appear as though he and Callie were lounging in a pool of stars.

“I’m glad I’m here with you, Urkot.”

Urkot returned his eyes to Callie to find her looking at him, her expression soft and her gaze gleaming brighter than any star could ever match. He folded his forelegs in the water before him and placed his hands atop them. “I wish I could have shielded you from all this, Callie.”

She drew in a deep breath and released it with the words, “I know.” Tilting her head, she bent a leg, knee poking out of the water, and ran her hand over it and down her thigh. “But even if you couldn’t shield me from it, you are shielding me through it.”

Again, his eyes were drawn to her breasts; the disturbance in the water caused by her movement made them bob anew, and he recalled how soft and pliable they were, how perfectly they fit in his hands.

Callie chuckled softly. “I see you staring at them.”

He chittered but could not bring himself to look away.

She moved her hands up and cupped the undersides of her breasts, lifting them out of the water and pressing them closer together. “Do you like looking at my body, Urkot? Do you enjoy how soft it is? How soft my breasts are?”

Her hands caressed that supple flesh, doing what Urkot longed to do himself.

His claspers flexed, drawing in hard enough to hurt as his stem swelled inside his slit.

He’d never realized just how alluring it would be to see her touching herself this way, but after watching her stroke her clit in the grotto, he wanted more.

He wanted to see her pleasuring herself as she stared at him, wanted to see lustful fires ignite in her eyes.

The only answer he could give her was a ragged, “Yes.”

“When you came upon me bathing in the temple, how long were you watching me?”

“Not long enough.”

Smiling, Callie circled her nipples with her thumbs. They hardened before his eyes, turning into tiny peaks that he craved to flick with his tongue.

“Did you want me then?” she asked. “Did you want to fuck me, Urkot?”

“Yes. I wanted to claim you. To make you mine.”

“Mmm…I wanted you too.” She squeezed her breasts. “I watched you bathe. Watched the way your markings glowed, the way your muscles moved, and when I was rubbing oil into your hide and felt those muscles under my palms…”

Her hands left her breasts, and she stood. Water cascaded down her body. He battled the urge to run his tongue over her skin and lick up every last drop.

Callie closed the distance between them and flattened her hands on his chest. Lightly, she trailed small kisses along his jaw and neck as one of her hands smoothed down his abdomen and dipped under water.

A tremor coursed through him at her touch. Placing his hands on her hips with his fingers and claws curling into her giving flesh, Urkot released a shuddering breath. His claspers eased their grip.

She traced his slit, stroked it, caressed it, coaxing it open wider. “I wanted to know what your cock would feel like inside me.”

“Callie…”

She pushed her fingers into his slit.

His stem burst free, and the tenuous threads that had kept him restrained snapped, severed by the simplest touch from his mate.