Maybe if I make myself come, I can get some rest. Lyro’s arm is pinning my waistband shut, but luckily, these new trousers have open sides. I sneak my hand inside, knowing I’m already wet and this will be fast.
It’s kind of exciting, trying to get off without waking him up. I keep my movements tiny and swallow the sounds. But the weird angle means I’m not hitting my usual patterns, so myorgasm doesn’t have a typical build. It’s frustrating but weirdly hot because it feels like someone else is touching me, someone who doesn’t quite know what they’re doing but is completely confident that they’ll figure it out.
Someone arrogant and pushy like the guy whose dick just nudged up against my ass, causing me to instinctively wriggle back against it.
“Rest,” he hisses, sounding and feeling like a boa constrictor when he squeezes me more tightly to stop my movements.
I jerk my hand out of my pants, leaving my parts tingling and begging. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was until you assaulted me with your scent.”
“Sorry.” Guilt dampens my desire a little bit. He’s right, we should be resting so we can give the Turning our best effort tomorrow. I’m sabotaging it for both of us. “I just thought it would help me sleep. I’m pretty wound up after everything that happened earlier. It’s hard to relax once your adrenaline kicks up, you know? And I keep thinking about everything with you and me and how we’re going to work it all out, and—”
“Stop talking,” he snaps, sitting up. I sit up too, but he pushes me back down, holding me firmly in the furs with one hand on my stomach, fingers splayed over my ribs.
With the other hand, he jerks the knot at my waist, loosening my trousers enough that he can pull them down. When he sees panties instead of bare skin, his skin swirls with yellow surprise. But only for the briefest second before he slices through one side with his claws and pulls them open so my pussy is exposed. Then he lowers his face between my legs.
It’s my turn to be surprised. “What are you doing?!”
“Taking care of mypet,” he practically snarls, pushing my legs farther apart. Why would he call me that? Didn’t he say that helpless things disgust him? His tongue dips into my already-sensitized folds, and my eyes roll back in my head. At least I don’t have to be quiet anymore.
He’s annoyingly good at this, teasing and stroking right where it counts, adjusting with my body. “Good?” he asks, pausing.
“Yes, please, perfect,” I moan, arching into him so he’ll keep going. “Right there, that’s it.”
“Good,” he grunts, sounding genuinely happy before he dives back in. Lyro, happy? My mind boggles and my clit rejoices.
And that’s when I realize he’s not using his definition of a pet. He’s usingmine. It makes him happy to make me happy, because he knows he’s doing a good job taking care of me.
Fuck.My whole body clenches and shatters, rocking against him and tightening around him, trying to take him in. Trying to shorten our bond until he’s so close that Iabsorbhim. I want him. He’s mine.
When I finally come back from the stratosphere, he turns away my offer to reciprocate, even though judging by the insistent hardness wedged against the back of my thighs, his dick is begging for it.
“I owe you,” I protest.
His claws dig into my hip. “I will collect on my debt another time.”
I’m so sleepy and sated, I can’t argue with him, not when he brushes a kiss on the back of my head. “I thought that mouth was for praying,” I tease.
He makes a rough sound. “What do you think I was doing?”
Chapter 14
Lyro
If my cock could, it would strangle me. As it is, it ties me in knots with its furious need. I should just sate it. She would let me because she’s that kind of idiot. The kind who gives and gives because they think everyone is soft like them.
Thank Alioth she is, or she’d be done with me already. Thank Alioth she pets and coddles me like her R’Hiza-damned bug, oblivious to my bite.
And Iwantto bite her, sink my teeth into her like a fresh ullave bun. This is what I dream of, restless and too-warm, an alternate life where, like my uncle, I carry my mate off into the grasslands to keep her where no one can call in a debt or yank our leashes. Where I can have her to myself. Where I canbemyself.
But this is merely fantasy. There are no grasslands the Eye cannot see. As long as Zomah has my mother in his maw and war on his mind, I cannot forget that Lena is more liability than anything. She’s a problem, not a pet.
When I wake from a long night of restless sleep, Lena rolls over to snuggle into my chest. My cock is beyond strangling. Now it would like to stab me. I firmly put a handspan between us, and she sighs unhappily.
“You’re probably right. We should get going. Rose expects us early.”
Even though the distance was my idea, her agreement makes me churlish. Half of me wants to grab her and pin her down, keep her occupied until we’re late, show up reeking of each other. But that would not make my pretty pet happy, would it? Even if she tastes like summer rain and the goddess herself, what shereallywants is to turn those eggs, so turn them we will.
