Chapter 21

For a week, I court Mara. I bring her lunch at work. I meet her afterward and walk her home. And I make her dinner every night. We talk for hours, well, Mara talks for hours. Mostly I listen, trying to learn everything I can about her. I think she's lonely, despite her new friends. She's a hard worker and loves taking care of sick and injured people. She's excited about the baby, but also nervous about the birth.

When she's excited, she talks with her hands, her face lighting with animation. Sometimes, she laughs, and the sound of it fills my chest with bubbles.

She doesn't talk about Aezok and the lab at all. But then, neither do I.

My Wrath is soothed in her presence and riding me harder and harder the long parts of the days where we're apart. I try to come up with excuses to swing by the orphanage to see her, but I don't want to distract her while she's working, and I don't want to develop a bad reputation at the arena as a shirker.

I like the work, training the new paladin recruits. I'm not an arena fighter, but I know a lot of dirty moves, like how to win even when you've lost your weapon, and your back is against the wall. Radeel taught me well, and it feels like I'm keeping his memory alive when I teach a youth a move he once taught me.

Orix is becoming a good friend. He hasn't forgotten how I helped him balance his Wrath in the Citadel when he first met his mate. He knows Mara is my mate but has promised not to tell Olivia.

I don't want to take away her element of choice. I don't want her to know if she rejects me, I will succumb to my Wrath and die.

I think I'm winning her over on my own merits. She smiles at me often and asks interesting questions about my day.

And I think she's waiting for me to initiate physical contact.

At first, I refrained from more than forehead kisses out of not wanting to put any kind of pressure on her. And now, I'm refraining because I want her to make the first move. That way, I'll know it's what she truly wants. She's had so little control over her bodily autonomy, I'm not going to make any assumptions.

Although it's a little amusing to watch her growing frustration with me. I don't think I'll have much longer to wait. Last night, when I walked to the door, I glanced back to see her eyes on my backside, her cheeks as red as pizon berries.

Tonight, as we walk slowly toward her home, I can tell the pregnancy is paining her. There are tight lines at the corners of her mouth, and she keeps cradling a hand under her round abdomen. I planned to make an elaborate meal, but when we step through her entryway, I change my mind.

"Go take a hot bath," I suggest. "I'll make something simple, and you can eat while you soak."

She doesn't protest, just walks wearily down the hall and vanishes from sight. As I cut up fruit and slice some solid dairy cubes, I try not to think about her, naked and slippery only a few feet away.

Her waterdyas scent drifts down the hall, and I swallow hard. I remind myself sternly that I'm a good male. And I will wait until she's ready.

When I've assembled the tray, I carry it to the washroom door and then hesitate. Splashing sounds echo before I clear my throat and announce, "I have your food. Where do you want me to leave it?"

"Bring it in, please."

Inhaling deeply, I will my body not to react and step into the room. Mara's in the tub, most of her body covered in iridescent bubbles, and I let out a small sigh. Her creamy throat is flushed, her eyes heavy-lidded as she watches me approach.

Then she sits up, the water cascading from her full breasts until the tips of her rosy nipples peek out of the bubbles. She's sleek and wet and gleaming. My hands convulse, and I drop the tray. Food flies everywhere.

Instead of looking startled, Mara's mouth creases into a deep, satisfied smile and she murmurs, "You must be sore, too, after teaching fighters all day. Do you want to join me?"

All thoughts of restraint flee my brain in an instant as every drop of blood in my body heads south. Yes, I want to join her. A thousand times, yes.

"Are you sure?"

She crooks a finger, her gaze heated, and the gesture sets my heart banging in my chest.

I strip off my clothes while she leans over her knees, watching me. I know I should say something smooth or romantic, but my mouth is too dry. Instead, I slip into the tub behind her and pull her back so she's leaning against me, all of that mouth-watering skin pressing into my hard edges.

She fits perfectly into the cradle of my thighs. My dark and sensual cravings, building in my mind for days, fight against my desire to go slow.

She sighs, her head lolling on my shoulder, and I reach around to touch the mound of her belly. It fits neatly inside the bowl of my hands. The room is quiet around us, with just the faint clicks of popping bubbles and the rasps of our mingling breaths.

My heart swells in my chest so large I fear it will burst. My mate is in my arms. It's as if every ounce of suffering I endured was worth it, because it led me here.

I drop my head, nuzzling the skin at Mara's nape. It's smooth and soft under my lips, like petals.

She moans, then grasps my hands from her stomach and moves them to the tops of her thighs, pressing them hard. My claws flex as I inhale at her nape, sucking down the scent of her arousal until it swirls through my skull in a heady wave.

"Viz'en." Her voice is a plea.

"Shhh," I soothe as I follow the path she set me on, massaging my fingertips into the flesh of her thighs, alternating my strokes up and down, toward the crux of her sex and away. My teeth nip at the skin of her neck as she writhes, sending water splashing onto the floor.

Slow, you brute, I warn myself again.

I press one hand against her chest, holding her still, and slip the other to stroke through her folds. She's hot here, and I murmur, "Do you want me to make you come? Will that help you relax?"

"Yes," she breathes.

My pulse thuds as she tilts her head to meet my eyes. Hers are smoky pools, the hazel color darkening with her every slow inhale. Without breaking our locked gazes, I kiss her nape. "Good female. Now hold still. Don't strain yourself. I will do everything."

Her sigh stirs across my forearm as I stroke a finger inside. Mindful of my claws, I use the pad of my finger to delve deeper. Her inside flesh is soft, slick. I find the small nub of her clit and circle it lightly, rolling it under my fingertip.

She bucks under my hand until I hold her tighter to my chest.

"Be still, or I'll stop," I warn.

She moans but complies, even as her hips twitch, her core chasing my exploring finger. I leave her clit alone for now and slide one finger in and out of her channel a few times before adding another. She's so responsive in my arms, her scent drenching my senses as my cock grows impossibly hard beneath the globes of her backside. But this isn't about me. I have to show her I can give and not take from her.

With my other hand, I explore the gentle slopes of her breasts, tracing her skin in smaller and smaller circles until I find the tip of her right nipple and stroke it gently. It furls under my touch, tightening and darkening.

"Beautiful," I praise.

"Oh God," Mara gasps. "Please. Again. More."

"Your scent was my undoing, in the beginning," I murmur as she rocks against me. "I couldn't get it out of my head." I inhale deeply, the waterdyas flooding my nostrils. "And then your eyes. They were so sad. I should have known. Those eyes haunted me."

She arches up, taking control of the pressure against her pussy, and I stop my fingers.

Groaning, she falls back against me once more.

When she's still for a long moment, I begin again, circling first her clit and then the nipple of her other breast. I lick the sweat gathering at her nape, my tongue rasping across her smooth skin, and then blow a light breath across the damp spot. She shivers. She tastes delectable, salty and sweet. I can't wait to taste her elsewhere.

"I'm going to make this so good for you," I promise. "I'm going to make you as addicted to me as I am to you."

"Stop talking," she moans as I stroke that second finger inside again. "More touching."

"As you demand."

I focus all of my attention on her pleasure, hunting her sighs and moans like an addict chasing a high. I learn where she's most sensitive, and then I manipulate her flesh until she sings for me.

When her voice has reached a keening wail, her fingernails digging tiny crescent moons into my forearm, I circle the bud of her clit again and again, alternating stroking my fingers inside of her tightening channel. She's so close, she's panting. I'm breathing hard myself, my hips shifting under the water in an unconscious imitation of her rocking movements.

Her cries desperate, she grabs my hand from her breast and presses it against her neck. My fingers encircle her throat, and she comes hard, her hips jolting under the water, her breath stopping for a long moment before she releases a low, sweet moan.

I grin and loosen my hold from her neck before dropping a sucking kiss on her shoulder.

My dick is begging for attention, but I tug on it a few times until the pain douses my ardor. The water stills around us as our breaths settle. My heart sings in my chest until the water begins to cool, and I know I need to get Mara into her bed.

It's hard work, maneuvering my sleepy and slippery mate out of the tub, but I manage to tuck her into her bed with only a few close calls. When I press a kiss against her forehead, preparing to leave, her eyelids crack open.

"Stay," she whispers.

I stare into her eyes, trying to read them in the dim light.

"Stay with me tonight," she repeats before she rolls over, giving me her back. I slip into the bed behind her, cradling her warm, damp body to mine.

I fall asleep inhaling our mixed scents, and the new scent, too. The scent of Mara's replete sex. It's heady and soporific and all mine.

Iwake in the night with a jolt, my thoughts scrambling to hold onto the remnant of a swiftly vanishing dream. For a long second, I don't know where I am.

My night vision kicks in at the moment Mara's hot mouth swallows the tip of my cock, and I groan, tilting my hips to give her better access. The sheet's pooled at my feet, and I kick it loose. This wasn't my plan, but Lyfia's Blood, I can't make myself stop it from happening.

"My turn," she purrs from my hip where she's kneeling, her cheek against my swollen shaft and her eyes glittering as she watches me. "Is that okay?"

I nod.

She licks me from root to tip, her pink tongue soft and wet. It leaves a slick trail on my skin that burns exquisitely in the cool air. With one hand around my base, she sucks on my cockhead, then starts to bob up and down, the hot friction sending my nerve endings into a frisson of restless energy.

I'm hyper-aware of every movement she makes and can't hold back my groan when she closes her eyes, obviously as lost to desire as I am.

I card a hand through her hair, holding it back from her face so I can watch her mouth. The curve of her body, bent over me, is elegant in the dim light.

Heat coils in my belly, sending shivers up and down my skin. My mate is pleasuring me. My mate. She's a goddess of desire. She's my goddess. Sparks pool at the base of my spine. She grips me tighter, and I grunt, my hips punching involuntarily upward. The choking sound that escapes her mouth almost sends me over the edge.

"I'm close," I growl.

She moans and works harder, her hands twisting and stroking as her mouth creates a deep suction at my tip. The sounds coming from her lips are obscene, wet and loud. When she cups my balls and gives them a gentle squeeze, my control splinters. Pleasure rockets through me. With a guttural roar, my cock pulses, sending deep spurts of seed down her throat.

For several moments, she swallows, her cheeks hollowing and her eyes watering, before she sits back on her heels with a pleased expression on her damp, red face.

Still breathing hard, I reach and tug her to my side, tucking her head against my shoulder. I flip the sheet to cover us.

It takes a long time for my racing pulse to slow. I'm blissed out but worry niggles. Did she do that because she wanted to? She couldn't resist me any longer? My ego likes that idea. Or did she think I expected it?

We maybe should have spoken to each other before diving into sexual actions. I know she's my fated mate, but I haven't told her that. I confirmed with Orix that Terrans don't have an equivalent concept on their world.

"I didn't expect that," I say slowly. "I mean, I touched you in the bath so you would—"

Her voice sleepy, Mara says, "Relax. I didn't do anything I haven't been dreaming about doing for months."

That stupefies me. "Really?" I croak.

She snuggles closer, tossing an arm across my chest so her round belly rests more fully against my side. Her sigh is hot on my neck. I stroke my hand up and down her spine, counting her breaths and thinking about her words.

After a few more minutes, just when I think she must be asleep, she murmurs, "I don't think the physical stuff is going to be our problem."

Dread coils in my gut.