9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Utharium

Utharium stood outside Palathum's cabin door, debating about requesting entrance. The information he had could easily be relayed through a message. He didn't need to be there.

He wanted to be.

Every moment in her presence was precious. Creating those moments had become an obsession with him. He'd find any excuse to seek out Palathum even when his guarding skills weren't needed.

Palathum's voice sounded from the display next to the cabin's door. "Do you wish entrance, or have you forgotten where you were going?"

Rumbling out an amused sound, he pressed the display to request entrance. The door slid open to reveal Palathum sitting at a desk looking up at him. She must have her door display set to flash when someone stood outside for too long. She was such a powerful female that it must be common for hesitant crew members to linger as they gathered the courage to seek her attention.

"I was worried my visit was too late in the evening," he explained, stepping inside and letting the door slide shut behind him. The cabin was saturated in her scent, making him breathe in deeply.

Palathum nodded her head at a chair. "Your visits are always welcome, no matter the mark or strike."

Settling into the chair, he tried not to let her innocent comment affect him. He was an important member of her staff, nothing more.

"I've heard back from Dandilow II. As we suspected, they won't give me any information," he said.

She sounded an inquisitive rumble. "Not even when you offered a bribe?"

"The official responded with an unnecessary level of outrage," he explained. "I think it was for show and any bribes will need to be done in person and not over a monitored channel."

"This makes it only a little harder. I planned to visit Dandilow II even if they told us there were no humans on the planet. Nothing we get from official channels can be trusted."

Getting up, she opened the hidden cubby behind her and pulled out a bottle of rare Malvia wine. She poured some into two of the plain, serviceable drinking containers used on the ship. Picking them up, she came around the desk and offered him one.

"This wine is wasted on my uneducated palette," he warned her even as he accepted the drink.

Sounding a rumble of amusement, she leaned back against the desk. "Then think of this as the first lesson in your education."

She sounded playful, but not in the way she was with Mia. It was almost as if she was…no, that wasn't possible.

Clearing his throat, he held up his glass to shift her intense focus from his face to the drink. "What's the best way to sample this?"

"The only thing you need to do is take a sip and let it glide over your tongue. Our instincts are to experience everything in our world with curiosity and propensity for pleasure, despite our culture's determination to suppress us. Your body will tell you how to think about the wine, you don't need me to explain it."

She spoke with such sensuality he had to check the strength of his grip; he almost broke the glass in his hand.

He watched her take a small drink, the glass gently pressed against her lower lip. He sucked in a breath when her tongue darted out to catch a drip of wine flowing down the side of the glass before lowering it and looking at him.

It was the first time he'd ever wanted to be a drinking glass!

Only then did he realize he was still holding his glass up as if presenting it to her for inspection. With a clumsiness he hadn't experienced since childhood, he brought the drink to his mouth and accidentally clicked the glass against his teeth. He hurried to drink and ended up tipping the glass too much and dumping almost all the wine into his mouth.

Choking, he leaned over and tried to figure out some way to fake his death so he wouldn't need to look up at Palathum.

Embarrassment wasn't fatal, but one could wish it was!

"Apparently your body has decided wine isn't a pleasure or joy," Palathum said as a canister of drinking water appeared in his lowered field of vision. She plucked the wine from his loose grip and pressed the canister into his hand instead.

Grateful for her kindness in the face of his abominable lack of poise, he was more careful this time when drinking. Between some swallows of water and clearing his throat a few times, he was able to stop coughing.

"I don't think it was your wine," he admitted, trying for an amused rumble. "My life hasn't been one of refinement. I don't have a reference for nice things."

She hadn't moved after handing him the water, so when he sat up, she was standing over him. Tilting his head back, he found they were separated by only a hand span of distance. He could see the small strip of exposed flesh at the base of her neck, the arteries under the skin throbbing in time with his own heartbeat.

His rapid heartbeat.

"Consuming expensive things only means I have money," she whispered. "Nothing else."

He wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he remained quiet, letting her closeness tempt him. He wanted so badly to toss her down on the desk and—

She leaned in closer, driving all thoughts out of his head. Her smell filled his nose, and he could've sworn he saw a shine on her cheeks.

"I'm worth a great deal of wealth, and I'm rare," she whispered. "Would you like to sample me? I think you'll find me more palatable than the wine."

That was a clear and unmistakable invitation!

If he was a better male, he'd leave. Palathum was too good for him. She was a member of a powerful family with an immense amount of wealth. She shouldn't be sullied by his low status or rough manners.

But he wasn't a better male; he was a male tempted beyond endurance.

Standing up, he tossed the drink canister aside and grabbed Palathum by the hips. She sounded a startled rattle as he tossed her on to the mostly empty desk. Stepping between her legs, he placed his hands on the desk's smooth surface on either side of her torso, pressing his hips against hers.

He had her trapped under him, but honestly, she'd trapped him first. Her smell, confidence, and kindness had caught him in a trap of longing only a few rotations after she'd employed him.

"I'm going to consume you," he warned her. "Object now. This is your only chance."

"Why would I object?" she asked, starting a sexual thrumming rumble. "It's already taken too long to get here."

She'd done it all on purpose? Hundreds of little moments flooded through his mind: every time she stood too close to him, brushed him with her body in passing, or spoke in low tones so he'd have to lean close. Those were invitations he'd ignored.

The revelation gave him the freedom to do all the things he'd only allowed himself to fantasize about. Grabbing under her chin, he forced her head to the side and put his mouth to the vulnerable spot of exposed skin at the base of her neck.

"Mine," he growled, then bared his teeth and bit her.

He pressed his sharp teeth down until he almost punctured skin and was rewarded when she gasped. For the average Talin male, that spot was sensitive and enjoyable, but for most females, it was a major erogenous zone.

"Utharium!" she cried out, writhing under him. She didn't try to get loose or pull her head free from his grip. Her movements pressed her sex harder against his. Both of them were still wearing pants, but he'd make sure they were naked soon enough.

Letting go of the flesh caught between his teeth, he licked the spot before moving his mouth to her earhole.

"You've deliberately teased me for over a hundred rotations!" he growled. "Do you know how many times I had to wear a sankin so my mating shaft wouldn't emerge? Every day! It was so uncomfortable I almost went to the healer for something that would kill my urges. Those garments are only supposed to be worn during combat training, not rotation after rotation."

"It's not my fault you refused to see my subtle advances," Palathum shot back with an amused rumble interrupting her sexual sounds.

"Why the games?" he asked.

"I'm your superior, I could only hint. You had to ask," she said.

He growled. "You break so many rules and taboos already, why couldn't you break that one? By the ancestors, I've suffered chafing!"

Pulling her chin out of his grip, she looked away. "What if you didn't want me?"

He'd never seen her be anything but self-assured. This moment of vulnerability stunned him.

Putting his face close to hers, he rumbled out a soothing sound. "You're the most exquisite female I've ever met. There isn't a Talin alive who wouldn't want you, and last time I checked, I was breathing."

"Truly?"

"Truly," he assured her, then licked over her cheek, tasting the bonding oil there.

She sucked in a breath, then moved so quickly he didn't have time to react. Turning her head, she sank her teeth into the exposed flesh just as he'd done to her.

He moaned at the sensation and almost begged her to bite harder. He wanted her to draw blood, to drink him like she'd sipped at the wine. Pleasure shot down his spine, and his mating shaft thickened. He could already feel the head starting to emerge from the mating pouch. Thank the ancestors this was a rare day he wasn't wearing the sankin.

Putting his hand at the back of her head, he pressed her face harder into his neck. Her teeth punctured his skin, making his entire body spasm from the combination of pain and pleasure.

The rest of the room disappeared as all he could feel was Palathum's teeth in his neck. He'd never been so vulnerable and yet confident at the same time. She could literally kill him in this moment, and he would die happy.

She started to withdraw her teeth, but he sounded a demanding rattle and kept his hand pressing on the back of her head, but not so hard that she couldn't easily break his hold. It was a request for more, not a demand.

"Don't stop," he moaned.

Sounding a deep, thrumming rumble of desire, she bit down harder. Pleasure radiated from her bite, making him gasp.

He'd read somewhere that bonded pairs far in the past would often scar each other with bite marks. Back then he'd scoffed at the idea, but now he understood. Even if he possessed the mind of a scholar and soul of a poet, he'd never find a way to describe how good it felt to have her teeth sunk deep into his flesh.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say he thought he might climax from this alone.

"No!" he whimpered when she started pulling away again. When he tried to press her back down, she resisted so he let go.

"Don't worry, I'm not done," she whispered, her breath hot against his bleeding flesh.

He gasped when she licked eagerly at the small wounds she'd created. Each lick caused another wave of pleasure.

"You're the finest vintage I've ever sampled," she murmured against his neck. "But this isn't the only thing I want to taste."

Putting both hands on his chest, she shoved him hard. He took a half stumbling step back. By the time he regained his balance, she was on her knees in front of him, taking off his belt and flinging it to the side. She ripped his pants in her haste to get them off. As the fabric pooled around his feet, his mating pouch snapped back, and his engorged mating shaft bounced free between them.

"Perfect," she said, taking him in both hands.

This was beyond anything he could've ever hoped for. At best he expected their coupling to be like the ones he'd experienced in the past: perfunctory and swift.

Most Talins experimented a little with sex at the adultlette age. Since a female couldn't get pregnant if they didn't scent bond to a male, accidental pregnancies were rare. Unless the couple was being flagrant, instructors, families, and colleagues ignored the dalliances.

Utharium had accepted the invitation from a fellow trainee, and they'd had sex a handful of times before they were sent to separate facilities for specialty training. It'd been pleasant but not enough to bother pursuing other partners later. Palathum was the first person he'd been with in many solars, and she was going to ruin him for any partner ever again.

As Palathum sucked the tip of his mating shaft into her mouth, he pulled in a sharp breath and tried not to sound a loud war rattle. He didn't feel like fighting, but for some reason the intense sensations of her sucking on him made him want to sound the loudest rattle in his arsenal.

"I…you…this…" Words babbled out of him, making no sense. That wasn't a surprise, Palathum's actions shut off the thinking portion of his brain.

With a soft rumble of amusement, she sucked half his shaft into her mouth, making his whole body shudder. He felt her rumble vibrating his shaft in her mouth. It would've taken his breath away if he had any left.

He wasn't sure how long she held him in her mouth, running her tongue up and down the underside of his shaft and rumbling with pleasure. He was rumbling too, but he was also rattling loudly and couldn't seem to make himself stop.

When she pulled away, letting him fall from her mouth wet and glistening, he whimpered.

"Palathum?"

He dropped his gaze to find her looking up at him, her eyes so bright they looked like they were glowing. She slowly licked her lips, as if getting all the taste of him into her mouth, before speaking.

"It's your turn to put your mouth on me," she demanded.

It was the best order he'd ever been given!