I scoff. “How can that be true?”
“Because you do everything with absolute focus. You’ve been focused so much on pleasing me that you haven’t paid attention to what your dick is doing. When you put your mind to it, you’ll have amazing stamina.”
“Alioth willing.” I wish I had as much faith in my cock as she seems to. So far, it has not proved obedient. If anything, the opposite. “I want to be the best for you.”
“You will be. You’ll see. It’s not all about the physical parts, how big you are or how long you last or whatever. I guess for some people it is, but for me, I need more. There’s a reason I didn’t hook up with anyone on Olethia.” I growl under my breath, and she rolls her eyes. “Stop. I had plenty of offers, but I turned them down. I just didn’tfeel itwith anybody, and for me, that’s what makes it good. The connection. When you have that, everything is better.”
“Connection,” I repeat, wondering what it means to her. I feel tethered to her, soul-to-soul. But perhaps she does not.
She nods. “Maybe that should be Lesson Three.”
I scoop off her feet, lifting her until her face is level with mine, and pin her back against the door again. She wraps her legs around my lower ribs and her arms around my neck. I steal kisses until my cock threatens betrayal. “When do we get to the lesson where I get to be inside you?”
Her laugh is breathy and her scent swarms my nares. “Soon, I promise. I just want it to be as good as it can be for you. No skipping steps.”
“I’ll take all the steps. Just tell me what they are. I might die if I have to wait another day.”
“There’s no one as dramatic as a man who needs to come,” she says, giggling. “Put me down. I have an idea. Does the door lock?”
I already like this idea. Reaching behind her, I flip the mechanism on the handle. “No one will disturb us.”
When her feet hit the floor, she takes my hand and, with a flirtatious look over her shoulder, tugs me over to the comm station. “Sit.”
I slide into the seat of the leather chair, hoping she’ll straddle my lap. Frix, I know she told me not to think of ugly things, but I need to think of something other than her hot core rubbing against my cock, or else I’ll be washing another pair of trousers today.
I’ll think of Frathiks. Their species, with their thick, wrinkled hides, isn’t appealing to our kind. I focus on the face of the Frathik general, gray and somber, and thankfully my cock retreats. But it’s for nothing, because Delphie gently pries my knees apart so she can kneel between them. Even strapped, my cock tries to salute the ceiling in response, even though she cannot intend what it hopes.
“The floor is too hard.” I try to lift her up into my lap, but she resists.
“I’m wearing three pairs of fur-lined trousers. My knees have plenty of cushion, don’t worry.” Her eyes sparkle as she gazes up at me from under her bright blue headscarf. I would unwind it from her brow if it weren’t so cold, but in some ways it’s even more erotic to imagine her bare scalp underneath. She runs her hands up the inside of my thighs, pausing just short of where my cock is pulsing against its strap, threatening to spill.
My breath stutters out. “This will be over before it begins if you continue.”
“No, it won’t. This is Lesson Three, connection. Plus some extra credit if you can control yourself. Here’s the deal. I’m going to suck you off—”
“R’Hiza take me!” I yank my thigh strap so it strangles my cockhead, narrowly preventing disaster.
She continues as though nothing has happened. “And you’re going to distract yourself from coming by telling me about your life.”
“You know about my life,” I say tersely. “You’ve seen it.”
“Your inner life,” she says gently, undoing my belt. “This way we’re not associating pleasure with guilt or shame. We’re associating it with connection. With a little bit of vulnerability. May I?” She gestures to the sagging waistband of my trousers. I jerk a nod, tipping my head back to stare at the ceiling.
I’m doomed if I watch. Seeing her face, whether it registers disappointment or anticipation, will be too much for me. Fabric slides over my hips and thighs, and I hear her intake of breath. My cock jerks in response, and she makes a sympathetic noise.
“Doesn’t it hurt being squeezed like that?”
“You get used to it,” I grit out through my teeth. Her hand feathers over my shaft, and I curse. “Alara.Please. I can’t do this. It’s just an exercise in failure.”
“Look at me, Nik.” When I hesitate, she tugs on my thigh strap, mimicking my earlier motion. “Lesson Three, connection.Look at me.”
Reluctantly, I lift my head, and the sight of her gazing up at me, her eyes bright and lips curved in a smile and hands so near my cock, nearly does me in.
“Tell me about what you like to do for fun,” she says as she begins unbuckling the strap.
“Fun?” I repeat, because I’m a frixing idiot.
“Your hobbies. How you spend your free time. Activities you enjoy. I want to know what makes you happy.” The strap cinches slightly and then falls free, and blood surges down my shaft, swelling it. Delphie wraps her hand around the base, though she’s unable to circle its girth entirely, and gives a tentative squeeze.
