“If we do this...” I started.
“We're doing this.” Her hands came up to frame my face, fingers tracing the edge of my jaw. “Unless you're about to tell me you don't want...”
I kissed her to stop the words. She couldn't think I didn't want her. I wanted her so badly my fangs ached with it. My cock had been hard since she'd licked that sauce from her thumb in the market. Since before that. Since I'd watched her take my ship through a war zone and land us here alive.
The kiss was different from our desperate collision in the station. This was slower, deliberate. I took my time tasting her, learning the shape of her mouth again, the way she gasped when I nipped her lower lip. Her tongue met mine, and she moaned into my mouth. That same sound she'd made eating the honey-fruit.
My hands found the fasteners of her ruined uniform. Each one opened slowly, revealing skin I'd touched before but never like this. Never knowing what came next. The hollow of her throat where her pulse raced. The delicate wings of her collarbones. The soft swell of her breasts still hidden by utilitarian undergarments.
“You're wearing too much,” she said against my mouth, her own hands pulling at my shirt.
I let her undress me, standing still while she worked. Her fingers traced the silver scar on my shoulder where the pulse wound had healed. Then lower, following the lines of muscle down my chest. When she reached the waistband of my pants, she paused, looking up at me through dark lashes.
“Second thoughts?” My voice came out rougher than intended.
“Never.” She unfastened my pants with the same precision she used to deal cards.
The pants hit the floor. Her eyes tracked down, and even though she'd seen me before, even though she'd taken me in that private room days ago, her intake of breath was gratifying. My cock was already hard, the broad triangular head and soft flanges clearly visible in the dim light.
“Even after last time...” She swallowed, eyes on the triangular head, the soft flanges along the shaft. “I still can't quite believe...”
“That you took all of it?” I pulled her against me, letting her feel the length of me against her stomach. “You did. Beautifully.”
Her uniform top joined my clothes on the floor. The practical undergarment followed. She stood before me in only her bottom undergarments, and I had to close my eyes for a moment to maintain control. I'd seen this before. Touched this before. But knowing what came next, knowing this time was permanent, made everything sharper.
I dropped to my knees.
“Varrick, what...”
“Let me.” I hooked my fingers in the waistband of her undergarments, pulling them down slowly. “I need to taste you again.”
She stepped out of them, now completely bare. I could smell her arousal. Sweet and musky and uniquely her. I remembered this. How she tasted. How she'd come apart on my tongue in that private room. But this was different. This was permanent.
I pressed my face to her stomach, breathing her in, feeling her muscles flutter under my lips.
“The bed,” she gasped.
“Here first.” I spread her thighs wider, looking up at her. “Hold onto my shoulders.”
Her hands gripped me as I leaned in, running my tongue along her slit. She cried out, her nails digging into my skin. The taste of her exploded across my senses. Salt and sweet and perfect. I found her clit with my tongue, circling slowly, relearning what made her gasp, what made her moan, what made her legs shake.
Every nerve ending I touched became hypersensitive, electric. She was dripping, coating my tongue, my lips, my chin. I slid one finger inside her, careful of my claws, and she clenched around me immediately.
“Oh fuck, oh...” Her words dissolved into wordless sounds as I worked her.
I brought her to the edge three times, pulling back each time. She sobbed my name, hands fisting in my hair.
“Please, please, I need...”
“Not yet.” I went back to slow, lazy strokes. Building her up again.
The third time I denied her, she actually growled. The fourth time, she was begging, tears streaming down her face, her whole body shaking.
“Please, Varrick, please, I can't... I need...”
I sucked her clit into my mouth and pressed two fingers deep, curling them to find that spot that made her see stars. She shattered, screaming my name, her whole body convulsing. I worked her through it, drawing it out until she was sobbing, pushing at my head.
I stood, catching her as her legs gave out, and carried her the few steps to the bed. She lay there panting, skin flushed and gleaming with sweat, looking at me with wonder.
