25. Chapter 25

The first thing I noticed the next morning was his breath against my neck. It felt comfortable, nice and natural. During the night I must have turned on my side and he with me. My head rested on the hard muscle of his bicep, my back was curved into his chest.

His other arm was lazily slung around my waist, his hand pressed against my stomach. Our legs were intertwined as if both of us wanted to keep the other close or captured.

There was something else though, his hard erection, pressing against my ass.

I wasn’t sure if he was awake or asleep, but I needed a moment to come to terms with the turn our relationship had taken. If there even was a relationship, beyond the sex we both had obviously enjoyed.

I forced my breathing to keep even and not to wiggle my butt against the hardness pressing into me. My body remembered all the things his cock had done to me all too well, attested by a flaring inside my pussy, yearning for him to return.

Before my body’s needs and desires took over though, I had to ask myself what I wanted. Did I want a relationship ?

Our world was different from that of our ancestors who came fresh from Earth. Even from Leandars.

Survival was our foremost intend and making a living on Leandar, growing our families and by extend our towns. Some marriages were arranged by convenience, mostly in the upper classes, of us humans. Neighboring towns made deals with others, intermarried to cement the deal. It wasn’t unheard of in the lower classes either, to honor a new trade agreement for example.

At least that’s what I had heard happening in other settlements all over the fourteen planets of Leandar. Oceanus, because of its environment was a bit different. There were only three larger human settlements, floating cities like Horn, besides smaller trading vessels usually manned by one or two people.

Because of that it had never occurred to me to enter a political arranged marriage, both rulers of the other settlements were married with young children. Conrad and I… had been drawn by a mutual attraction, that in time might have grown into something larger, but after last night, I was convinced that what Myles and I had was different.

I wasn’t saying I wouldn’t have been happy with Conrad, I might have been, had I never experienced Myles. Drawing comparisons wasn’t fair, Conrad was just a human man, while Myles was… a force of nature, besides the obvious of being a vissigroth.

Just looking at it from a practical point of view Myles was so much more than Conrad, had so much more to offer.

And, unfortunately, from an emotional point of view it wasn’t any different. Conrad drew the short straw at every end. Even if Myles and I went our separate ways, I was certain I could never settle for Conrad.

You’re being a coward , my mind whispered, rightly so. I was being a coward. This had nothing to do with Conrad.

I had asked myself what I wanted and the answer was clear. I wanted Myles. I wanted all of him.

Then get it , my heart whispered.

The problem was I didn’t know how. As I mentioned, all my life had been focused on keeping Horn afloat. First by being a baron’s daughter, then by being a baron’s sister. Conrad had been an attraction and a convenience. A practical solution. Sooner or later I wanted a family and Conrad would have given that to me. We would have raised wonderful children and lived our lives like all the others, by furthering our family and Horn.

I didn’t even have to think about how a marriage to Myles would further Horn, that was a given. Even forgetting the fact, that Myles hadn’t mentioned anything like that.

My point was I didn’t know what to do, how to ensnare him, how to make him want me more, how to entice him, how to keep his interest in me, how to make him want me the way I wanted him.

At some point my mother had tried to entice me into reading one of the romance books she liked and now I kicked myself for having shunned those as a waste of time . A waste of time had been the time I hadn’t spent with her, taking her presence for granted until she died way too young.

Other girls had talked about boys of course, but I had never listened, thinking of them as silly, wasting their time.

And so here I was. Having been with Conrad for over a year—without ever going further than kissing—had given me no reason to explore the finer works of a relationship. We had been a given.

I was utterly clueless on how to make Myles and me work .

For Conrad I had been a step up, the baron’s sister! For Myles I was… a hostage. A human. A nothing.

Why do you always have to analyze everything, Niara ? my heart questioned. Why can’t you just enjoy the moment, what you have and see where it goes ?

Since that was the only advise I had and Myles’s lips were brushing against my neck, I decided it was sound advice and go with it. I closed my eyes, sent a prayer to the gods and surrendered myself.

Which was easy, because his lips were trailing down my neck and back, sending shivers of yearning through me. As if in answer, I pushed my ass against his hard erection. A deep moan from him encouraged me to gyrate my hips.

“Ah, seffy, do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?”

None , I thought, but let’s find out where it goes .