The skies would never be the same, and neither wouldthey.
When Ved could finally pull out of her, he cleaned her delicately, deposited her into his bed, and discarded the rest of his clothes. She watched him move around the small room for several minutes as he gave instructions to Exxo.
She was mesmerized by all the muscles that made up his form and how they shifted beneath the expanse of his flesh.
She had the sudden and filthy urge to trace them all with her tongue.
“Isobel?” he said, peering at her.
The way his mouth formed around her name, the way his long canines peeked from between his lips as he said it, was a spell that bewitched her. She was certain she could watch his expressions for a lifetime and never tire of them.
“Hm?” she hummed sleepily.
“Do you need anything?”
“Just you,” she said before a yawn overtook her.
His gaze darkened as he took in her naked form, his body already reacting to her again. Stalking forward, he said, “Exxo, dim the lights and open the viewport. Only alert me if we are in imminent danger. I intend to sleep deeply with my mate.”
“Only sleep?”
Ved growled in annoyance—a sound she had heard him make dozens of times before. Now she knew it had been in response to Exxo.
“I would have thought being happily tethered and with tensions adequately … released, you would be less snarly. I see it has only made you more ill-tempered.”
Isobel laughed softly.
Ved climbed into the bed, collecting her up as he did. “Don’t encourage him,” he grumbled.
“I find him endearing,” she said as he pulled her onto his chest and lay back. He was so warm that she snuggled into him before he even fully settled. A low buzzing sound that she’d come to associate with the mechanisms of his ship filled the room as the passing galaxy beyond was revealed on one side.
“What was that, by the way with your—” she gestured to his manhood. “You called it locking.”
His hands rubbed down her back, kneading her backside with each pass. “When a Xaal is deeply connected with another, the base of our cock swells when we are about to climax, locking us inside our mate. All Xaal have some aspect of this, regardless of sex. I didn’t consider that this may not be what you humans do. Did I hurt you?”
“Did it seem like I was hurt?” she asked, looking up at him.
His smile was devilish.
And despite returning it, something nagged at her. “Have you ever…lockedinside anyone else before?” The thought of him doing so made her stomach twist into knots.
He pulled her up his body until they were face to face. His expression was so intense, she understood then why she could always feel his gaze upon her before. Mask or not, his eyes held all the emotion he didn’t let show elsewhere. “Only you,kyreni. Only you have that part of me. Only you have my hearts. It almost happened my first time having you and if I had let myself lose control then, I don’t think I’d have been able to let you go.”
“Youshouldn’thave let me go,” she said primly. “But I’m glad you came to your senses. I feared I was going to have to use my fork against you.”
He tucked her head beneath his chin again and wrapped her in his thick arms. “A terrifyingprospect.”
“I, for one, think he still deserves the pointy end of a fork or two,”Exxo said.
Isobel smiled and fell asleep on her mate as the two of them bickered.
Chapter 41
Isobel
Ved held Isobel in his lap as they descended to the earth below, passing through stars and void and then clouds.
“Are we cloaked, then?” she asked, peering at the world beneath, trying to pinpoint a recognizable landscape. But from where they were, the world merely looked like a patchwork quilt of browns and greens.
