Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

TOBIAS

I couldn't stop thinking about sex in general as I walked with Halaby toward his cottage for the night, but more specifically my mind kept trying to conjure up an orgy of Norlons and humans. How it didn't have to mean multiple partners but could mean exhibitionism. Why did a suddenly-vocal part of my brain really want the world to see that Halaby was mine?

"Should we run?" Halaby grinned down at me.

"Run?"

"You're rather aroused. Have been for some time, actually."

I huffed a laugh, embarrassed. "Well, Svein and Dyfor are going to have a mating ceremony at the end of the week. We're invited."

Halaby took my hand. "Seeing as how your cousin reminds me quite a lot of my friend Ghosha, I imagine he explained what usually happens after the ceremony."

I nodded up at him and nearly tripped over nothing. "Uh, yeah, he did. I mean, assuming he's right about the, um…"

"Orgy."

"Oh, yeah, okay. He was right then." I resisted the urge to fan myself as I took a deep breath.

Halaby chuckled and put his arm around my shoulders as we walked into the area with the Norlon cottages. "Participation is entirely voluntary and so is the level of one's participation."

I cleared my throat and chose to keep participating in this conversation even though it was making my face burn because I had questions. And that strange new need to claim my mate.

"Yeah, Svein said, um, multiple partners isn't required. Just the, you know, public part of things."

"Exactly. We could simply eat and drink and talk with others. We could watch without joining in." He placed his hand on the panel to unlock his door while smirking at me. "Or I could take you in a way that would make absolutely certain that everyone knows we're mated."

He calmly walked inside, and I hustled after him because now I needed to know everything.

"What way is that?" I asked.

"Well, that depends on you."

"It does?"

A wicked grin spread across his lips. "Do you want to be discreet or obvious?"

"Oh." I had to think about that. "Discreet like maybe people wouldn't know what we were doing?"

"You could wear a tunic like mine, which allows for some cover."

He slipped a hand through the slit on the side of his tunic and… Well, it was very obvious to me that he was massaging his cock, but it might not be so clear while in a room full of people seeing to their own desires.

"And our pants are rather thin, so one claw can see to any seam."

I could hear the fabric tear and gulped to know he'd just slit open his skintight pants, no doubt letting his cock and balls free. I did fan myself then and nodded. "Discreet sounds good."

"Mmm," he said as he stroked his cock behind his tunic. "It does. Why don't you try on one of my tunics? So you can truly get a feel for the experience."

I ran for the stairs against the wall, knowing his clothes were in a wardrobe in the loft. Throwing the doors open, I looked for one that wasn't too fancy and snatched it down from its hanger to toss it on the bed. Halaby was downstairs and sitting on the couch as I quickly undressed, his arms resting on the back of it like a king waiting to be serviced. A shiver snaked through me because I so wanted to service him.

Even though his tunic was too big on me, I smoothed it down and tried to look cool and in control as I walked back down the stairs. My cock was pushing out the light blue material, but of course it would be by now. I assumed that if I'd been wearing Norlon pants I would be way more contained. Bulging but contained. Hardly anyone might notice. Discreet .

When I was standing in front of Halaby, though, all I really wanted to do was toss my tunic up and ride him into the couch. "Now what?" I asked.

"If it was our mating ceremony, we would be on a dais and seated on thrones to better observe our guests as they join in the joys of our coupling." He slowly started unbuttoning the front of his tunic. "We would be far more on display than if we were guests, who are free to move about the room and find a quiet corner."

I'd started panting when he mentioned thrones. "So we might be like this if it was ours?"

He nodded, smirking. "We might."

Yep, I was into it! I dropped to my knees and ducked under the lower half of his tunic. His cock bumped my nose, and I tipped my head up to swallow it down. All those tiny ridges along his hot flesh teased my lips as I bobbed on his cock over and over again. Suddenly, his tunic disappeared from my head, and I looked up to see he'd unbuttoned it entirely, fur-covered chest and abs on display. Not so discreet anymore, but when he put a hand in my hair, I didn't really care. I held my breath and took his cock as deep into my mouth as I could.

In my mind's eye, we were surrounded by people as he moaned above me. Strangers watching us, getting so turned on that they reached for their partners. We would inspire a whole room full of people to fuck each other.

I reached for my cock as I sucked Halaby's only to have him tap my shoulder. "Here," he said, and I realized he was holding a pump bottle of lube.

I was sure he'd meant for me to use it on myself, but seeing it had me longing for something else. I sucked my way off his cock and enjoyed how he shivered before taking two pumps of lube into my palm. Smearing it on his raging erection, I was the one smirking now as he groaned and twitched.

When I stood up and turned around, lifting my tunic in the back, he was right there with a hand on my hip to guide me down to sit on his cock. The little ridges flicked against my rim, and I moaned as I bounced him deeper and deeper inside me. When I was fully sitting on him, I couldn't touch the floor anymore and so gave myself a moment to rest.

Halaby slid his hands up the inside of my spread thighs and nibbled on my neck. The fur of his face was so soft and his whiskers were stiff as he said, "I don't think we're being terribly discreet anymore."

I chuckled and reached up to comb my fingers through the fur of his neck as I tilted my head to give him more room to kiss my skin. "I'm wondering how many people might notice that."

"We could always ask that they not begin until we finish."

I moaned both at that idea and because he started rocking just a tiny bit beneath me.

"Make them watch us before they satisfy themselves."

I tried to move with him, but I had zero leverage in this position. I was completely at his mercy .

"Then we could watch a room of incredibly aroused people fuck each other senseless."

I whined at the image that created. "But fuck me now . Halaby, please."

With a gasp, I flailed some as he suddenly stood up. It was such an odd feeling to be speared on his cock while he picked me up, and then he slid out of me to turn me around so that I was on my knees on the couch. I held onto the back of it, feeling small because it was such a big piece of furniture. He blanked my mind completely when he pushed back into me and started pounding me from behind.

I was still in the room I'd conjured up, on the throne and with my mate fucking me for all to see. They'd have to watch us, hear us, because we'd ordered them to wait. Their entire focus would be on me and Halaby claiming each other where everyone could see us. They would know exactly when I came?—

With a holler, I grabbed my cock through the borrowed tunic and came as Halaby fucked me through it like a demon. When he finally slammed into me and bellowed his own release, I was a shaky, panting wreck just clinging to the back of the couch like a lifeline. But I still managed to imagine all those people now falling on each other in a frenzy to find their own release. It made me smile.

"That's what I would do," he said and wrapped his arms around me.

I chuckled weakly and let him carry me upstairs to bed.

The next morning, Halaby asked me to come with him up to the Norlon ship to tell everyone that he was going to resign as ship's doctor and ask about moving his delegation role to the surface. I could tell he was all up in his head about it, so I kissed him and told him I'd go pack a bag at home and return soon.

While I rode a scooter toward the house, I thought back to our discussion last night about mating ceremonies. I knew I wanted to go to the ceremony portion of Svein and Dyfor's event, but not whether I was okay with the orgy afterward. In theory, yes, I wanted to do every wicked thing we'd played at doing. But in reality? I wasn't sure I could go through with it while surrounded by people I knew. I needed to give it more thought.

When I walked into the house, Pabbi was standing in the kitchen with a murderous look on his face. I didn't even have a chance to take a breath before he said, "Did you go in with the Hansens and Dahls on their aquaculture farm?"

Shit. Apparently, I wasn't going to be able to tell him about it a year from now when the fish were market-ready. I nodded and straightened my spine. "Yes, I did."

"Tobias! What were you thinking? You know how I feel?—"

"What was I thinking? Are you serious? I was thinking I needed to find a way to save our family because you wouldn't!"

He got in my face, pointing a finger. "Everything I've done has been for this family."

"No, it hasn't." I stepped up to him because he wasn't going to intimidate me. "You've kept the boat for your own ego, not for the family. We'd be starving right now if it wasn't for me."

"That's a lie and you?—"

"I know Mamma handles the finances, but haven't you even once wondered how we're paying the bills when we haven't had a proper catch in over a year?" I stormed around him, looking for her to back me up. "We've kept the house, the lights on, the— Where's Mamma?"

I turned around to see him breathing heavy but staring at me with wide eyes. "She knows?"

"Of course, she knows."

He closed his eyes and sagged right there in front of me. I suddenly felt terrible, like I'd broken him. I wanted him to fight back some more, tell me off, but all he did was slump into a chair at the table and put his head in his hands. In all the scenarios I'd imagined for when we'd have it out over this, I'd never thought about him giving up.

"She's getting groceries," he said quietly.

I didn't point out that buying those groceries was also possible because of my investment.

"How did you find out?" I went over to the table and sat down opposite him.

"I was working on the boat and overheard Dahl talking to someone about hydroponics and growing seaweed. I wasn't really listening until he said the seaweed had been your idea."

I didn't like how dead his voice sounded as he talked to the tabletop. "Pabbi, I know how important trawling is for you and how it's been what our family's done for generations. I didn't want to go around you, but I knew you'd fight me on it, and I had to act quickly, or we would've missed out completely."

He nodded and sat back. I gasped because there were tears on his cheeks.

"My stubbornness would've killed us."

"No! Pabbi, we wouldn't have died . We would've had to get jobs like so many others suddenly had to. It was a frenzy of people trying to pivot into new careers for a while there, remember? And we could've left the island, but I knew I didn't want to do that. I couldn't imagine you and Mamma leaving."

"I shut you down," he whispered, looking so despondent. "Every time you tried, I cut you off."

"Yeah, well, I'm stubborn, too."

He huffed a laugh and wiped at his face. "I'm sorry."

"Me, too."

Because I was. Even though I'd had plenty of thoughts about how I'd show him , I'd never wanted to hurt him. And it occurred to me now that I'd basically usurped him as head of the household. That had to be painful.

He inhaled and blew out a heavy breath. "Tell me about the farm."

I spent the next hour explaining everything to him. Only when Mamma came home did I excuse myself to pack so they could talk alone. I had a feeling there was a lot they'd need to say to each other, too, but I left knowing me and Pabbi would be okay now.