Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

LYRA

" I 'm not usually like this, you know," I found myself whispering as I tried to reclaim my breath.

I was sucking in air like I'd been under water this whole time but the orgasm that had just ripped through my body had been merciless.

Droxan made a familiar sound, a cross of a growl and a purr. It had been pretty constant rumbling from his chest, like an idling engine. That certainly hadn't been on the Luxirian male's bio at the fertility clinic, but I found that I liked it.

"Mmmm and what are you usually like?" he rasped, his breath hot against my neck as he began to kiss me there.

I felt weightless. Hours of orgasms could do that to a girl, I realized. Boneless. Delirious. Happy. I wanted to laugh, bursting with endorphins.

We still hadn't made it to the bed though it was hours later.

The Pleasure Pit , I decided. This sunken living room area was officially known as The Pleasure Pit from here on out.

Even the storm was beginning to abate. The tumultuous winds had died down. The rain was a steady pelt but no longer a torrential downpour. I thought that the storm alone proved Droxan's talent as a builder. A storm like that would've blown over entire cities. But not a single leak had sprung in the house and I felt totally and completely safe.

"Boring," I told him, in answer to his question.

He laughed, a sharp chuff at my neck. "I don't believe that."

"It's true," I sighed, finally feeling the drag of my eyelids going heavy whenever I blinked. We smelled of sex even though we'd never sealed the deal. But I'd come on Droxan's tongue more times than I could count and I was very intimately acquainted with the feel of his cock in my mouth, all hot and velvety and I knew just the spot that had him spontaneously coming down my throat. I knew that he went insane when I wiggled my tongue there.

My jaw ached from his sheer girth but I didn't care. My voice would be hoarse in the morning from all my sobbing cries of pleasure but all I did right then was give him a sleepy smile.

"I like my routines," I said, my heart finally calming and I turned in his arms, feeling them wrap low, feeling the weight of his still hard cock pressing into my belly, but I'd long ago given up on trying to make him soften. Just because he was hard didn't mean I didn't satisfy him. "I like the predictability of it. And you? This place? Anything but predictable."

"And why is that?" he wanted to know, finally ungluing his lips from my neck to peer into my eyes. My head was in the crook of his strong arm. His other was slung across my hip.

It struck me how comfortable I felt with him.

As if we'd been hooking up for years. As if I hadn't just crash landed onto his planet and into his life yesterday.

"Such a strange thing," I whispered, putting off his question.

"What is?" he rumbled.

"To think I never knew you existed until yesterday."

Those blue eyes gleamed. He went tense for a very brief moment. His lips opened. Then closed. His brow furrowed.

"The Fates rarely work in the way you think they will," was what he finally said. Though I had the odd thought that he was going to say something else entirely.

The Fates. The Luxirians' deities, I knew.

"You didn't answer my question," he reminded me, running his dull claws up my spine, making me shiver.

"Does it matter?" I whispered.

"I want to know everything about you, luxiva ," he told me. "Is that such a bad thing?"

I sighed, snuggling closer. "I learned to like routines. Maybe ‘like' isn't the right word. I think I needed them." His expression was puzzled and I finally admitted, "I was orphaned young. I never knew my birth parents. And so growing up, I never had a stable home. I'd lived in four different places, in two different Quadrants, until I went to live with a family on Brune."

He frowned, coming up to his elbow so he could look down at me, giving me his full attention while my head rolled onto a cushion. "I'm sorry, Lyra. I didn't know."

How could you? I thought silently.

"I didn't have a terrible childhood," I told him, not expecting to talk about this tonight. Not one bit. "I consider myself lucky. I got placed with a human family and I lived there until I came of age. But we were never a family , you know? We were a mishmash group of people. But living there was predictable. They were strict but they were never mean. I came to crave that dependability because nothing in my life had ever been dependable before, moving from place to place like that. It was exactly what I needed, at that time. And I guess…"

I chuffed out a small laugh, making him frown.

"I guess I've just lived that way ever since," I said quietly, turning on him with a small smile. "Because if you met me on Wero, you'd think I was a stick in the mud."

"A stick in the mud?" he repeated slowly, blinking as he processed my words. He shook his head. " Nix , I don't think I'd ever think of you like that."

"I wake up at the same time every day. I have the same thing for breakfast. I commute the same path, work the same job, talk with the same people, and then I come home," I whispered, turning in his arms. There was a desperation rising in my chest as I listed off all these things, like check marks down a list. I realized I never left room in my structured life for anything but those check marks.

Except for a baby , I couldn't help but think.

That was the only thing I allowed myself to want for me .

For a long time.

And the damn vacation cruise , I grumbled mentally, though right then, lying in the arms of a gorgeous Luxirian who literally made me see stars, I couldn't feel all that bad about it.

"So this woman?" I murmured to him, gesturing between us, like our naked bodies would show him what I was trying to highlight. "I don't really recognize her."

"I do," he rasped. Softly. Quietly. He was serious. " I recognize you."

The words sent a wonderful spiral of warmth into my belly.

"Yeah?" I whispered, smiling. "Because I kinda like her."

His low laugh had goosebumps breaking over my flesh. "I do too. But I know I'd like you if I met you on Wero too."

I didn't really believe that but it felt nice to hear him say it regardless.

"I don't think a male like you would've ever stepped foot on Wero," I told him.

He frowned. "Why not?"

"It's a sleepy little colony. Our biggest tourist attraction is this blow hole that shoots out lava during the hot season. That and our local tavern, which one of your beloved Hyrinn racers visited once."

"I love lava blow holes," he rasped in my ear, making a loud giggle burst from me. "Sounds exciting."

I… liked him.

I could understand the sexual attraction. He was a handsome male. Exactly my type…a little broody, but caring.

But I hadn't expected him to make me feel so safe. So wanted.

My last relationship? It had been with a human male five years ago. I'd dated him for six months and not once had he ever made me feel the way Droxan had made me feel in the span of a single day.

The realization was humbling.

"What about you?" I asked. Now I understood why he said he'd wanted to know all about me. Because I found myself eager for any scrap of information I could glean about him .

"What about me?"

"Are you different here?" I wondered out loud, wiggling in his arms so I could face him more fully as his fingers traced over my hip, making a long line from the curve of my outer buttock, dipping down the slope of my waist, and trailing over the side of my breast. "Than you were on Luxiria?"

" Tev ," he said. "And nix . Not at all."

I cocked my head, willing him to continue.

"I had passion for my work once," he grunted. "I'd trained and studied for it nearly my whole life, dedicating myself to Luxirian architecture and design. The quality of it, the beauty of it. That was important to me. When I came here, to Ullima, I felt that again. This blank slate of a place and its endless possibilities."

"You're a creative," I murmured, grinning. "Ullima inspired you."

" Tev ," he said. "And I had lost that inspiration on Luxiria. Not just lost, though. It was taken too. My family…it is a complicated matter. I love them but I learned that I am happier without them. In coming here, I decided to do what was best for me, not them, even if it hurt."

Something ached in my chest at the words, sharp and tugging.

"What happened?"

"I brought my brothers and my mother into my business," he told me, sighing. "I was busy working on a project off-planet a few years ago and they made deals with suppliers that I would've never worked. Behind my back. Cheap suppliers. Ones who cut corners, who lied about materials and their durability. My family authorized plans I told them to refuse. They wanted credits. They wanted them quickly, as if I hadn't already given them enough. In the end, an entire block of a new city on Luxiria was built with those materials, all under the guise that I had approved them. During the first bad storm, the entire block nearly collapsed."

My breath hitched. "Was anyone hurt?"

" Nix , thank the Fates," he breathed. "It was still barricaded off but I have nightmares thinking about if they weren't. The storm was abnormal for that time of year. Had it come at its usual time in the season…the block would've been filled. With families, children. I fear there would have been many killed."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"I cannot only blame my family though," he confessed to me. "I stretched myself too thin, needing to be in too many places at once. If I had been on Luxiria, I would have made those decisions without issue. It wasn't so much the betrayal, it was…realizing that I was just going through the motions of work and not truly feeling fulfilled by it. Not anymore. It made me sick to my stomach."

"So you left," I guessed. "You came here for a fresh start."

" Tev ," he murmured, his eyes knowing as they connected with mine. "A fresh start."

"And you don't ever miss being around people ?" I asked.

"People are greedy," he told me, his tone matter-of-fact. "People always wanted things from me and I guess I got tired of all the taking . So nix , not really."

"And do you think that about me?" I couldn't help but ask.

He tensed, his brow furrowing. " Nix . Not at all."

"I'm imposing on you, don't you think? Sleeping in your bed, eating your food, wearing your clothes," I listed off. My eyes strayed to the jug of wine. "I mean, you just opened up kriviro wine for me."

His hand stroked through my hair and he let out a puff of air, an exasperated sigh. "And you haven't let me forget it," he teased. " Vrax , female, the people I'm speaking of back home would've raided my damn cellar. And I like you in my bed and in my clothes. It pleases me."

My shoulders relaxed, chuckling a bit at the way he nipped at my shoulder with the last words. His long fingers drifted through my hair.

"Would it bother you?" he murmured suddenly. "Not being around people all the time?"

There was a tone in his voice that had me studying him. Carefully.

Does he feel it too? I wondered. This strange connection between us?

Asking me something like that…it made a flurry of butterflies erupt in my belly. As if…as if he was thinking of me here . With him.

This is crazy , I thought. So why wasn't I scared?

"No," I said softly, deliberately. "Though I'd probably miss market days. I'm a very thrifty shopper, you know, and I always like to hunt for the good deals. Nothing is quite as thrilling as that."

My teasing words were meant to lighten the sudden tension thrumming between us. Not that it was bad. It was just noticeable.

It worked. He laughed, the sound deep and gruff.

"Have you ever been to Nikk?" he asked.

I gasped. "No."

"You know it's close to Ullima, right?"

"You lie," I accused, pushing at his unyielding shoulder, making his laugh deepen. "It's here ?"

"A half-day cruiser ride, if that," he informed me. "I got the hydro-flame there."

Nikk was the market day destination. A massive, open-air market with vendors from all over the Quadrants, setting up shop every single day, not just a couple times every moon cycle.

I'd only ever read about it.

"One day," I sighed, dropping back to relax on the cushion again. "One day, I'll go."

With a baby though? I couldn't help but think. When would I find the time? Or the credits for the passage?

His expression was warm and his smile was gentle, making my heart thud.

"Maybe sooner than you think," he told me, making my belly flutter all over again.

Curving my hand around the back of his neck, I tugged, making my need evident. I caught the flash of his teeth when he smiled, but then I was kissing him.

You should tell him , I thought as he groaned, as he stroked his tongue against mine, a tongue that had spent the better part of the night between my legs like he'd been starved for me. You should tell him about the fertility treatments.

I would have to soon. Before we had sex. It was only fair.

But not right then, I decided, as he slid over me, as he settled his weight on top of me, pressing me back into the cushions.

Tomorrow , I vowed and then eagerly returned his kiss.