Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

HALABY

I had found my mate! What I already knew of him was that he was sexy, determined, possibly stubborn, and definitely knew his own mind. He made me smile. Laugh even. And as he lay with me, petting my fur, I felt such a level of peace that I hardly recognized it. Everything else faded away, unimportant now that I had Tobias.

"How long are you going to be here?" he asked before inhaling as though he liked the way I smelled.

While I appreciated that he was scenting me, his question brought to mind questions about our future. I wasn't prepared to discuss them yet, so I merely answered his. "My leave is for the entire month."

Tobias nodded against my chest and then sighed in a way that seemed contented to me.

I pushed thoughts of the future away, something that became much easier when Tobias undulated his hips. "How are you still hard?" he asked with a moan as he pressed us closer together.

"There is a bone in my cock."

He jerked back to look me in the eye. "Seriously?"

I chuckled at his shock. "Yes. It helps with frequency and longevity during mating." I shrugged one shoulder. "Obviously, procreation is likely the driving force for such things, but we may benefit as well."

"Frequency and longevity," he said as he scooted back so he could look down my body. He giggled. "So you really could go all night?"

"I suppose, though I've never attempted it." Perhaps I would, now that I had a mate.

Tobias reached down and wrapped his fingers around my cock, gently stroking. "These ridges are amazing, too, by the way."

His touch was maddeningly soft, and I shivered as I tried to resist thrusting. "They… They are, uh, designed solely for… For…"

"Procreation?"

I shook my head and sucked in a deep breath as he gripped me more firmly. "Pleasure," I practically moaned.

"Ah. Thought so."

He laughed again when my hips snapped forward, thrusting whether I wanted to or not. And I realized my mate was also a tease. I snatched his hands over his head and rolled us so that I was on top of him. He gasped, clearly startled, and I drew my knees up so that I could rock against him.

"Shall I mate you again?" I nipped at the tip of his nose.

He nodded fast. "Yeah. Yes. Please."

I sat up to reach the lubricant, and he pulled his legs back, baring himself to me. His eagerness and the easy way he gave himself over shot lust straight through me. I'd had committed and casual lovers in the past, but never one that affected me like Tobias did. Mating him wasn't just something I wanted to do—it was an imperative.

He'd kept his hands over his head and now, as he watched me slick my cock, he bit his bottom lip and toyed with locks of his hair. If he couldn't pet me, was he petting himself? No, he was tugging. I smiled as I realized that pulling on his hair was another source of pleasure for him. I could certainly help with that.

Propping his ass on my thighs, I aimed and eased into him in one long stroke that tore a low moan from both of us. He thought the ridges on my cock were amazing, and I did as well. I could feel as each one passed into him, and it made me want to thrust even more. So I did. The wail from Tobias had me grinning with wickedness.

I leaned over him, one hand holding me up and planted beside his, while I sent the other into his hair. I got a good grip, hips pumping away, and pulled on his hair to make his head snap back. Chin pointing at me, he opened his mouth with a gasp and then a moan, his thighs gripping my waist tighter. I was about to relax my hold on his hair when he tilted his head down, making me pull again. Now I was biting my lip as I listened to him whining and moaning his pleasure.

Changing my position slightly, I was able to fuck deeper into him, something that allowed my ridges to tease his rim and also his prostate. I knew I was doing that by the amplified sounds coming out of him. "Hal-uh-bee!" he hollered before he was suddenly coming, his cock shooting between us.

The way his body squeezed me pushed me over the edge with him. I thrust hard and deep, grunting with the pleasure firing through me, hardly able to breathe at all. Then I came with a rush of heat and could gasp a huge breath as I filled him. Trembling, I panted and blinked down at him. He was grinning.

"Hardly anyone," he said, "figures out the hair thing."

I smirked at him, feeling quite smug. I also gave his hair a small tug, just to make him giggle.

Easing back, I savored the sensation of leaving his body and loved the way he moaned as I did. I reached for a cleansing cloth, glad it was warm, and cleaned Tobias first. The act felt so much more intimate than ever before, knowing he was mine and that this was the first of many times to come. I cleaned his belly, cock, and ass, while watching him watch me and listening to his sweet little sounds of pleasure.

When I was done, I disposed of that cloth and reached for another. Tobias sat up and took it from me, rubbing the cloth against the fur of my belly before gently wrapping it around my cock. I couldn't help the moan that left me as he slowly pumped his hand, cleaning but also teasing me. I snatched the cloth from his hand and tossed it away as he giggled before pressing him down into the bed and kissing him.

Kissing had previously been part of foreplay, a thing done to arouse before moving on to better things. But with Tobias… I moaned as his tongue teased mine. Kissing Tobias was necessary. It filled my senses with him as I tasted his mouth and touched every part of him that I could reach. Rolling so he was on top of me let me reach even more of his smooth body. He took control of the kiss then, making me angle this way or that, demanding I open more for him. I could barely draw breath and had to wonder if he could, until he lifted his head with a gasp and laughed.

"How long can you hold your breath?" he asked with a grin.

"Forty-five minutes."

His giggle sounded incredibly wicked, and I couldn't help imagining all the ways he might test that, like sucking him into my throat. But he only sighed and relaxed against me, tucking his nose into my neck. I wrapped him in my arms and sighed as well. Would the rest of my life feel like this?

Those questions I didn't want to address filtered back into my mind. I held tighter to Tobias and tried not to think at all.

Because I was a terrible cook, I had gotten into the habit of going into town for my meals now that I knew they were so accepting of us Norlons. Occasionally, I sat alone, not knowing any of the Norlons around me, but usually, there was someone I knew. This time, I'd planned ahead and asked for Ghosha to meet me.

While he would delight in knowing he'd been right about me finding my mate in Tobias, Ghosha would also be able to help me understand how to proceed with wooing Tobias. Outside of the bedroom. After all, Ghosha hadn't planned on finding his mate in Squire, but they had certainly made it work.

Ghosha popped up out of his seat the moment I entered the restaurant. "Our newest mated member of the delegation," he said with a huge grin and started clapping.

I hurried over to him, waving at him and shushing him. Humans looked on curiously, and the Norlons in the room smiled or chuckled. Embarrassment swamped me for being the center of attention. "Be serious," I whispered at him, "and sit down."

He forced the air from my lungs as he grabbed me into a hug. Alright, that was rather nice. I patted him before moving back and taking a seat. He finally sat as well, his enormous smile remaining.

"I would've thought it would be at least a day or two before anyone heard from you," he said as he picked up the menu. "It was nearly a week with Squire before I was reminded of the outside world."

I shrugged one shoulder, wanting to and not wanting to discuss everything. "Tobias had family obligations."

"Ah."

He perused the menu like it held secrets he needed to suss out, and I realized he was giving me time to speak up.

I sighed, accepting that I had to say what was on my mind. "It's things like that—his family obligations—that have me concerned about courting him. Concerned about our future together. How can I ask him to leave them behind to be with me?"

Ghosha nodded thoughtfully and sat back. "It's true that some of our mates have chosen to escape their families or former lives. I know for a fact that Squire would've done so regardless of finding me—he was already on that path. Discovering our connection made changing his life a little easier and less frightening."

I knew some of Squire's story, mainly that his mother was a member of Humans First and had tried to get him to spy on Ghosha for them. Leaving that behind seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

"But Tobias loves his family," I said as I worried a curled corner of the laminated menu. "There's some contention there, but nothing so terrible that would make him flee. How could I remove him from them?"

"You've discussed his family?"

"Some. Just briefly as he was explaining why he needed to leave." All I really knew was that his father refused to stop fishing despite the law, and Tobias was determined to get through to the man somehow.

Ghosha cocked his head and shrugged. "Perhaps he isn't ready to admit that there is more than mere disagreements between them." He waved that away. "Regardless, even if they were the picture of familial bliss, there's a great deal that you can offer to him that could tempt him away from them."

I couldn't think of a single thing about myself or my life that might make Tobias want to leave his entire world behind. Before I could admit that to Ghosha, the server came over, and we focused on ordering. I noticed that they had scallops, a favorite of mine, and ordered those.

"Adventure," Ghosha said after the server left, "is a point in our favor. Everything about living aboard ship, traveling to Nor, the food, the clothes, the customs… It's all very enticing to our mates."

"I suppose. I had felt that adventure awaited when I first signed up to be a ship's doctor."

"Before the war?"

I met his gaze briefly. "Yes."

"Well," he said brightly, "then there's also the pleasure to be had with our mates. A compatibility of the mind is excellent, of course, but of the body?" He made a loud purring noise and smirked at me.

I couldn't help but chuckle at him. "Yes, that's working out very well."

"There," Ghosha said as though we'd solved everything. "Your Tobias will happily leave Earth behind."

I wasn't so convinced, but I had more to mention once I did manage to bring up the subject of our future together with Tobias. Perhaps the promise of adventure was enough. It wasn't as though we were leaving any time soon, or that we couldn't return to Earth at some point as well. We would be free to do whatever was needed by the delegation.

Or I could quit all of this and start anew.

I flinched in my seat as it suddenly occurred to me that I might be the one to change everything about my life instead of him.