Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BILLIE

F eeling utterly sated and boneless, I relished the comfortable weight of Steve on top of me. He leaned up on his forearms to see me, and he had a stupid giant grin on his face that I couldn't help but return. It was going extraordinarily well for an evening that started with a kidnapping.

Steve stroked down my face gently, running a fingertip along the curve of my jaw. He looked so fucking happy to just to be with me that I couldn't help but start to cry again.

"Hey, hey," he said gently. "What are you thinking?"

"I've always been told I have such a big heart and willingly gave it to too many people only to find it discarded. It is really new for me to be with someone who wants to be with me as much as I want to be with them." She sniffled. "I can't believe you found me and Joey after those idiots took us."

"Well, not only am I one of the best trackers in our tribe, but they are also truly idiots and left a trail an orkling could follow." Steve pulled me into him again, this time turning us so we could side by side.

"I kinda like being stuck to you this way. It makes post-sex cuddling a requirement."

"Is it not normal for humans to lay together for a while after sex?" He raised his brows at me.

"Not if it's a casual thing. And even if it is more serious, the dude usually goes straight to cleanup or falls asleep immediately."

Steve shook his head in disgust."I can't imagine wanting to do anything but lay here and admire you as you come down from your peak." He stroked down the side of my hip, pausing to grab a handful of my ass.

I giggled. It was so fun to experience all of these firsts with Steve. It felt like everything was brand new, with no preconceived notions of what we should or shouldn't do. We lay there, absentmindedly stroking each other, when a flit of concern flashed across Steve's face.

"What is it?" I trailed my fingers down his arm, barely brushing the hairs.

"When you finished the second time when I was inside you, you screamed someone else's name—was that a former partner?"

I cocked a brow at him, bewildered. I hadn't screamed anyone's name. I truly had no names to scream. I scrunched up my face, trying to remember what I'd said then, and came up with a blank.

"What name did I say? I was too lost in you—now I don't remember."

"Someone named Jesus?" He assessed me with a furrowed brow.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to cover the belly laugh that escaped from me. My whole body shook as I laughed, and Steve groaned. Oh, tightening my stomach muscle must have tightened all of my muscles, causing me to clamp down on his still-hard cock. I couldn't help it. This made me laugh even harder.

Steve went from looking confused to affronted. "If this is a joke, I would very much like to be let in on it!"

I gasped for breath as I tried to stop laughing and reached out to Steve, pulling him in for a kiss. He returned but still looked as if he didn't quite believe me.

"Jesus Christ is definitely not a past partner." I tried to keep my laughter at bay as Steve looked at me suspiciously. "He's a god to some people on Earth—and in the religion I was raised in. So it's kind of like saying, oh gods? Or, oh fuck? Jesus fucking Christ happens to be one of my swears."

Steve looked mollified.

"I don't have any exes' names that are worth screaming. This is the best sex I've ever had." I blurted it out without thinking and instantly blushed a deep red.

I hadn't planned on admitting that this early in our relationship. That seemed like a much further down-the-road conversation. Yet, given Steve had nothing to compare to, it wasn't quite the same.

"Well, I know it isn't the same coming from me," he said, "but this is also the best sex I've ever had."

"Oh yeah? I'm better than your hand?" I kissed the bridge of his nose and each of his cheeks as he blushed.

"Definitely better than my hand." He tangled his fingers in my hair at the nape of my neck and kissed me again.

I knew we hadn't agreed on forever. We were in a holding pattern until we decided it was serious, but just for a moment, I let myself think of what life might be like with Steve. We could move in above the bar and run it together. We'd have long nights with drunk orkin, but we'd sleep in late and then wake up and fuck until it was time for the bar to open again. That sounded like a life I could get behind. But I wasn't ready to make that leap yet, and I still wasn't sure I was worth Steve leaving his entire tribe for. I let that thought sink in like a stone and wondered if I was worth that to Steve.

He must have noticed the faraway look in my eyes because he reached out and smoothed the creases across my brow.

"What are you thinking?" he murmured.

I raised my hand to the ceiling, tracing out thatch patterns far beyond my reach. "I'm just thinking about you. Me. What comes next?"

"Well, for now, I am very grateful that tonight's plans involve a towel and a proper way to clean up the mess I've made of you." He pulled out with an audible squelch as his knot had softened, leaving me in a veritable lake of cum. This was definitely going to be an extra blanket situation in the future.

As Steve walked toward my washroom, I admired the toned muscles of his ass and thighs before turning my gaze to his muscled back and shoulders. I gasped as I noticed a long, thin tattoo trailing from the base of his spine almost to his neck. It looked like little ocean waves crawling up his spine. There is no way that had always been there. I would have noticed.

"Steve!" I clambered out of the bed, getting cum literally everywhere. We definitely needed a long-term cum solution. This was insane. He looked back at me, surprised.

He turned back to me, surprised. "I said I would get you a towel." His brows arched in concern as the puddle of cum grew around my feet.

"No, no! Look at your back!" I pulled him into my small washroom. My mirror wasn't large, but it was big enough for me to see myself from my chest up. I pulled Steve in front of the mirror and flipped him around.

"Um, what exactly are you expecting me to see from this position?" Brows raised at me like I'd lost my mind.

"Look over your shoulder, you space cadet!" I commanded.

"Space cadet?"

"Just look over your damn shoulder," I huffed.

Steve craned his neck to see his back in my mirror, and his eyes got big. It was definitely a new tattoo. I wasn't just an idiot. Well, maybe I was an idiot, but I wasn't mistaken about what I saw.

Steve looked back at me and spun me around, exposing my back to him. From his sharp breath, I didn't need to ask. I knew what he saw. His warm finger traced down my spine.

"Elskas," was all he said.

He spun me back around and pulled me into a crushing embrace, cum spatter and all. My head was spinning. I was starting to think about the possibility of forever with Steve and now here it was. Forever. Forever.

I felt like I needed air. We never expected this. We had very little orkin blood between the two of us, and we'd be excluded from the whole Elska bond. Apparently, we were wrong.

"Billie, you look a little pale. Why don't you let me get some warm washrags and a towel for the bed, and we can lay down and discuss what this means for us?" Steve stroked a finger across my cheek before planting a delicate kiss on my lips.

I headed back to the bed, my feet and legs sticky, while I heard Steve running the taps. My head was spinning and my legs were shaking. All I had ever wanted was a forever. And now there was a naked forever in my bathroom getting towels to clean me up. It was a lot.

I hadn't even gotten to the bed, given my state, before Steve was behind me. He laid a large towel over the center of the bed before directing me to lie down, starfish style. Starting at my toes, he used a warm cloth to meticulously clean each of my feet. I giggled.

"Sorry, it tickles." I blushed.

"Don't be sorry," he said before moving slowly up my calves, cleaning every part of me.

As the cloth he was using started to get cold, he went to get a new towel. He came back to me with a new warm towel and resumed cleaning my thighs, gently massaging me as he went. It was hard not to sigh into the warm feeling of aftercare, something I was not used to. As he finished my thighs, he dragged the towel across my hips before dipping between my legs and gently, oh so gently, cleaning my very overstimulated mound and lower lips. He did this all with a level of extreme concentration on his face.

Once he finished, he returned to the restroom, and I could hear the tap running. He must be cleaning up himself. I wasn't the only one covered in cum. I flipped to my side and pulled my blankets up to my chin, waiting for him to return. While the weather was changing, the fire hadn't been lit, and now that our frantic fucking was over, I was getting chilly.

Steve returned, still in all his naked glory. He was muscular without a ridiculously defined six-pack that you only saw on the cover of Sports Illustrated . His shoulders were bulky, and I was reminded of how he easily lifted me. I quirked up my lip, thinking of what that could mean for future options. His smattering of black silky hair across his chest and happy trail made me practically salivate. Though we'd been together multiple times, this was the first time I'd really gotten to see him afterwards. His penis, now soft, was still impressive, and I found myself longing to take it into my mouth to wake it up.

Get it together, Billie. We have a pretty serious conversation to have. You cannot be led by your desire to suck his cock! I shook myself to get my head back into a place to talk about mates and everything it meant.

But Steve had noticed me staring. "Do you like what you see?" he asked, giving me a shy smile.

"Yes. Yes—very much so."

"Well, unfortunately, you have covered up your delicious body and all your soft curves." He fake-pouted.

"Well, there's nothing stopping you from joining me." I lifted the blankets.

He quickly closed the distance between us and crawled into bed with me, pulling me to him with his muscled arms. I melted into him. He was so warm. He trailed his hand down my spine before grabbing a handful of my ass and pulling me in for a kiss. It started as a brief brush of our lips, but it wasn't long before our tongues were tangling together, and I could feel his cock hardening against my stomach. We were insatiable for each other. He was a drug I was happy to be addicted to. But I pulled myself back, disentangling myself.

I propped myself up on my elbow. "We have to discuss this whole Elska thing. I don't think either of us expected it."

Steve, incapable of keeping his hands off of me, traced along my collarbone to the tip of one of my pebbled nipples as he thought about my words.

"Sir. Hands to yourself as we talk about this. It is serious business." I gave him a mock angry face.

"Okay, okay, how about here? Can I put my hand here?" He placed it on the curve of my hip.

"That is acceptable," I replied seriously but followed with a giggle. "So this whole mate thing is forever?"

"Yes. Forever. Once your mate dies, most mates find it hard to go on—as you heard when I explained about my dad. He lived for quite a bit longer, but he was a shell," Steve looked sad, tracing his fingers along the marks on my back.

"What usually happens?" I asked.

"Mates live out their lives together, and when one finally succumbs to old age, the other follows quickly. There are mates that have lived successfully without each other. I believe Astrid would be an example of this, but I wouldn't be surprised if a part of her aches daily for her mate."

I hadn't thought about how long Astrid had lived without her mate. She seemed so strong and in control. Perhaps it was the weight of being jarlin that had kept her going. Or, before her mate died, they produced three orklings to which she was very close. I thought about being tethered to Steve for life. Maybe I was still cock drunk, but that didn't sound bad at all.

"Do you want to be tied to me for the rest of your life?" I asked, skeptical.

"I've wanted forever since our first conversation," Steve said plainly before pulling me in for a kiss.

I kissed him back, unable to help myself, but pulled away quickly.

"Hey, hey, hands and lips where they belong," I chided. "What makes you so certain about me?"

I'd never had someone want more than a casual hookup. Someone wanting forever was exciting but scary.

"You are so full of joy and possibility," Steve said. "You look to the future and see nothing but opportunity ahead. You have a huge heart and give your all to those lucky enough to call your friends. And you have spent a lot of time figuring out what you want from your life—I feel like I want that. I don't want someone to drift along with me. I want someone with a goal, a desire, and a life they want to create. And I wanted to create that life with you. I think that is what I have been missing."

That sent me reeling. Steve wasn't just saying yes to the Elska bond. He was saying yes to me. He saw me in a way I didn't think anyone had ever seen.

I couldn't help the tears starting to well up in my eyes. To have someone see me, for all of me, and want me—it was more than I was prepared for on the same night as a kidnapping.