Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Jacaranda

W hen I woke up, Deacon had spooned me, while I spooned Sarah. It was the best way to wake up, so I snuggled against them both and fell back to sleep.

Until I remembered it was the last time I would ever get to do this.

Then, my eyes were wide open. I breathed her in, absorbing Sarah’s essence as much as I could, while I still had her in my arms. She smelled and tasted differently when she was a Ladrian. Not better—just different. I adored both her forms, but it was nice to not hold back with her anymore. Her human form was too fragile to do what I wanted to do to her.

All this time, I thought we might get the chance to do it as humans together…

I pushed the longing out of my mind and focused on what was next. Taking Sarah home. Gently, I elbowed Deacon to rouse him. He snorted awake, and we crept from the bed, dressed, and went into the hall.

The silence was heavy between us, because we both knew it was time. “You want me to take her home, don’t you?”

Deacon nodded, looking as miserable as I felt. “If you do not mind. I need to sort out what happens next with my father, and that will take some time. I am uncertain of what to do about the conduits, now that she is going back.”

“We can stick with my original plan. I will go to Volatile and ask him about his other children. We will go from there. If that sounds—”

“Very likely,” Deacon cut in wryly. “But I need to speak to my father first, to ensure Volatile would be agreeable to such a thing.”

I sighed and dragged my fingers through my loose hair. “I hate saying goodbye to her,” I said, my tone gruff.

He nodded solemnly. “As do I, but I cannot and will not force her to stay.”

I met Deacon’s gaze, wondering where that left the two of us. “Does her leaving change things between us?”

Deacon glanced down at our shoes and said, “I hope not.”

“Same here.” I took his handsome face in my hands and kissed him. But it wasn’t as passionate as our other kisses we’d recently come to enjoy. We were both too depressed for that. Still, it was a good kiss. A comforting one.

When I finally lifted my head from his, I took a deep breath and said, “We should wake her and get on with it, don’t you think?”

He nodded in agreement. “The sooner, the better for these kinds of things, I suppose. I have never had a relationship end quite like this, so I am unfamiliar with the protocol.”

“Me, too.”

We walked back into the room, and Sarah was already awake, but still in her Ladrian form.

“Hey, guys,” she said softly, her eyes lacking their normal luster. “When should we head back to Earth?”

“Soon. If we can,” I said, knowing it made no sense to put off the inevitable. “If that’s okay.”

A half-hearted smile lifted her lips. “I was thinking soon, too. Can I borrow your mogging belt, Jac? Going home like this would lead to a lot of questions.”

I chuckled and passed it to her. She de-mogged back into her beautiful human physique and dressed.

Her voice was thick with emotion when she met my gaze and asked, “Can I have a private moment with Deacon to say goodbye?”

“Of course,” I said gruffly.

I stepped out and closed the door behind me. I was glad to not be there for their final farewell. It was going to be difficult enough when the two of us eventually parted ways. If I had to watch Deacon’s heart break, too, I was going to lose it.

A few minutes later, she emerged from the infirmary, her eyes red. I gulped to stop myself from tearing up, too.

“Can we go now?” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I can’t say goodbye to anyone else.”

I nodded in understanding, and the two of us absconded with Sovereign privately. It wasn’t a long trip back to Earth, but I wasn’t looking forward to the journey, no matter the duration.

I set the autopilot to take over, in case she needed to speak to me. Sarah sat with me in the cockpit, her knees folded up to her chest beneath the dress she had worn when I had taken her what felt like eons ago.

I cleared my throat, and she glanced my way. “Sarah, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about all of this.”

She tipped her head to the side. “What do you have to be sorry for, Jac?”

“For taking you against your will on Deacon’s orders. Being rude to you when I tried to get a rise out of you—”

“Stop, please, just stop. There’s no need for all of that now. I understand why you did those things…” she looked away and very quietly added, “if I loved Deacon the way you do, I couldn’t have refused him, either.”

I took a deep breath and let it out carefully. My heart raced, and I realized this was my one and only chance to tell her everything. “He’s not the only one that I love, Sarah.” If I was being honest, I’d fallen in love with her before I’d abducted her from Earth.

Her body tensed and her eyes widened. She licked her lips, before she confessed, “Same.”

Everything seemed to stop in that moment. I turned to her, and she faced me, too. I reached for her, and she leapt into my arms. But before we kissed, I held up a finger for her to wait. I hit my mog belt and became a human for her.

She smiled, studying my face and new masculine features before lightly skimming her fingers over my shaved head. Then, she kissed me.

Feeling her simple tongue against my own, I was lost in her mouth. I wanted to explore every part of her. I pulled at her dress, until it dropped to the floor. We took turns tugging at the fabric between us, licking the skin we rediscovered under the cumbersome layers. Once we were both nude, Sarah straddled my lap, taking my human cock inside of her.

The sensation was so different from Ladrian feeling—more cerebral than animal. Human sex was gentler, sweeter, and a part of me reveled in it because it was with her.

But once she was filled by my shaft, Sarah bit my shoulder like a Ladrian woman. Hard, wild, and full of need. I grabbed her ass and pushed and pulled her up and down on my cock, working her body with my own. She was just as tight and wet, Ladrian or human. She growled for me with my flesh trapped in her teeth. I loved hearing that erotic sound from her.

I picked her up, setting her onto the dash. Behind her, the stars whizzed by in a blur. I shoved her legs wide apart and pumped into her body, every stroke more intense than the last. I loved Sarah Hollinger with all my might, and my body was compelled to show her in every way I knew how.

I reached between us to rub her clit, but she grabbed my hands and leaned back, making me pin her to the dash. It couldn’t have been comfortable—between the buttons, switches, and levers, I wasn’t sure how she wasn’t complaining yet—but she didn’t seem to notice it at all. But then, she got a sinful look in those sensual brown eyes of hers and I knew something had shifted.

Sarah slipped her hands away from mine and around the back of my neck, before she wrapped her legs around my waist. I picked her up like that, and she groaned, “Lay down.”

I laid back on the floor, not caring about anything but the woman on top of me. Once she was in position with her knees at my sides, she rode me hard. Her tits jiggled and her long, lustrous hair fell forward. The sight of her was captivating, until she stopped.

Her eyes told me something new. The soft look in her eyes made my heart swell. She laid on top of me, flattening her body to mine, with my cock just barely inside of her.

She groaned, her internal muscles clenching around my dick. “Jac, you feel so good.”

“So do you,” I panted, skimming my palms down her back until I gripped her ass in my hands.

“I hate that I’m leaving—”

“Not now,” I gasped, my heart already frayed at the edges at the thought of losing her. “Not now.”

She nodded and kissed me. I tasted the salt of her tears as she rolled her hips down onto me again. Our kisses became slow and intimate. I stroked her long hair and held her close to me. I wanted to keep her there on my body forever.

I rolled her onto her back, burying myself deep inside her pussy as I resumed fucking her. Each thrust was something I instantly cherished and tried to memorize. The textures and contours of her luscious body, the way her back arched beneath me. Her sounds, those delectable songs she sang when she came on my cock. The way her body throbbed as her own orgasm consumed her, and me. Everything about her was something else to savor.

Something else to miss when she is gone .

I wrapped my arms beneath her, keeping her as close as I could while my cock lost all control inside of her. Our mouths fused to each other, neither one of us giving ground. The orgasm that tore through me was relentless, like a bomb made of purest ecstasy. It scorched me from the inside out, leaving nothing but mindless rubble in its wake.

As the torrents of bliss slowed and ebbed, our kisses did, too. Sarah touched my face and smiled. “You’re very handsome as a human, too.”

I smiled at her. “I’m not—”

“You are !” she insisted, and passed her hand over my shaved head. “And for the record, I like the bald thing on muscular guys. It’s hot.”

I chuckled and kissed her again, before I pulled out. We cleaned up and dressed, and I checked the autopilot to make sure we didn’t fuck anything up. We were still on course for Earth.

As we resettled into our seats, I glanced over at her. “So, you like the bad boy look on your humans?”

“Not normally,” she admitted, then grinned. “I’ve always tended to go for the more refined kind of guy, but I think my taste has changed.”

Which made me think of the man waiting for her back on Earth. “After you return, will you go back to Ryan?” I asked, sick with the thought, but I needed to know.

“Oof, there’s something I haven’t even thought about,” she said, then sighed. “I have no idea what my future will be, Jac. Like, none. I know he’s been cheating on me, and I hate him for it, but he’s also the only real way I have to support myself right now until I figure things out.”

“You could sell the ring Deacon gave you.” I hated myself for even pointing it out, but I wanted her to be taken care of and not dependent on some cheating asshole who didn’t appreciate her at all.

She touched the diamond on her finger and shook her head vehemently. “Never in a million years. If I die penniless in a ditch somewhere, it will be with this ring on.”

“Neither of us want that for you,” I said. “If it’s between eating and that ring, pick eating.”

She tried to give me a reassuring smile. “I’ll figure it out as I go.” Then, she sat back and stared at the stars and I did the same. Her voice was small when she said, “I can’t believe I’m going back to Earth.”

“You almost sound like you don’t want to.”

“I don’t,” she said softly. “But I’m terrified of Halla, Jac. And the conduits and the powers I have…It’s too much—”

“I know. You don’t have to explain it to me. The five days you were in a coma were the scariest days of my life. I don’t want you to…” I huffed and tried to take stock. “I don’t want to lose you like that. If I have to lose you like this by taking you back to Earth, then so be it. At least this way, I know you’re safe and still stand a chance.”

She took my hand in hers, swallowed hard, and said, “Please know, you are always in my heart. You and Deacon both are.”

I knew the ache in my own heart would not dissipate anytime soon. “So are you.”