‘Rise and shine, sleepyhead.’ Aster wriggled out of my arms and stood beside the bed, his hands on his naked hips. He was slimmer than me, his skin acres of freckled smoothness I wanted to run my calloused fingers over. ‘It’s not usually me who has to get you up in the morning. Is this what being a proper adult is like? If so, I don’t like it.’
He rambled as he wandered through to the bathroom. I allowed myself a minute to breathe deeply from the pillow he’d vacated.
I had impeccable self-control. I might want to cage Aster in my arms for the whole day while I kissed every inch of his body, but I wouldn’t. I would do what I did every day. I wasn’t an animal, and I wouldn’t let my baser instincts overcome me.
I’d never had to fight so hard against them. Watching Aster eat porridge was a specific form of torture. Only Tim headbutting my shin to demand a bottle kept me from hurling myself across the sofa. We kissed long and hard before Aster left, and I had to physically tear myself away from him before I carried him back to the bedroom.
The litany of Aster-centric demands in my head quietened when I spent the day far from him. I didn’t trust myself to share lunch together, unsure whether something hungry and uncontrollable would roar to the surface in hispresence and initiate a more exposed sexual encounter than he was comfortable with.
I wasn’t going to do anything—even if everything in me was screaming to—that might make Aster feel uncomfortable. The full moon was one day and night. It would pass, and I would go back to my normal level of need for my skin on Aster’s.
The orgasms we shared when we got back to the cabin were intense. I didn’t get us over to the sofa, too consumed by being in Aster’s presence. His back pressed to the closed front door, I made sure to listen to his heartbeat as he rutted with me. Elevated, but at no point did he panic at the strength of my need.
Making dinner felt secondary. I couldn’t focus on the TV programme Aster demanded I watch, too distracted by his hand playing across my thigh. Earlier than normal, I shut the lid of his laptop and pulled him on top of me, careless of the strength I was displaying as I hiked him against my chest and carried him through to the bedroom.
I thought my hunger for him would calm once we shared our usual third orgasm of the day, but as Aster fell back temporarily speechless, I felt as ravenous for him as I had all day.
I’d always felt the pull of the moon. On fulls when up here alone, I’d gone on long walks in its bright light, letting my fangs and claws elongate. I felt a certain freedom in being a little less human than every other day.
It had never affected me like this before. The moon filled me with new energy, and all my more animal side wanted to use that energy for was covering the man beneath me in as much of my scent as possible while I pulled orgasm after orgasm from him.
I needed to move from between Aster’s legs. Usually after I finished cleaning us up, I curled into his side. I listened to his heartbeat as we fell asleep and was shocked each morning when I woke fully rested, no nightmares chasing me to awareness.
Aster reached up to thread his hands through my hair. He pulled me into a gentle kiss. The action brought our groins into contact. My unflagging erection pressed into his skin.
‘Woah.’ Aster’s eyes widened as he looked down. ‘Have you heard of a refractory period, Cal? It’s this thing where normal human beings aren’t immediately ready for another round after their brain has been turned to mush by a mind-boggling orgasm.’
His hands slipped from my hair as I sat back on my heels. I tried not to notice how good he looked with his pale legs spread around me. Even when his penis was soft, I wanted to rub my face on it.
‘I’m sorry.’ I cringed, willing my erection to wilt. ‘I can go deal with it.’
Aster’s hands clamped on to my thighs. He wasn’t strong enough to stop me from climbing from the bed, but I let him keep me here.
‘There will be absolutely no dealing with it alone, my sexy pal.’ Aster glared at me until I nodded, then his expression softened. He rubbed his hands up and down my thighs, making the muscles flex. My skin tingled as his fingertips carded through the sparse hair. ‘I’m not going to be ready to go again for a while, but I love seeing how turned on you are, Cal. I want you to come again here, with me, regardless of whether I do as well.’
I nodded tightly, and Aster’s eyes narrowed.
‘And to be clear, since we’ve established transparent conversations are the ultimate form of foreplay, I want you to do what you want. I like it when you do things that turn you on. If you do anything I don’t like, I promise to tell you. But I want you to go for it. That would be really fucking sexy.’
I stared at him. His heart hadn’t missed a beat. In fact, it sped up while his pupils grew large. His penis, soft against his thigh, twitched when I looked down at it.
Aster wasn’t lying. He wanted me to find my pleasure with him, even if he—as an ordinary human unaffected by the full moon—was spent.
I didn’t want anything horrible. I could recognise that under the rampant drive to rut into every crevice Aster would allow, what I really craved was closeness. The incomparable intimacy of being naked with another person.
Not just another person. I was desperate for the man laying lax before me.
I lowered myself on top of him, my chest rumbling with uncontainable growls as his arms and legs lifted to wind around me. Holding my head up, I stared into Aster’s eyes. Something rose in me that I’d struggle to contain once unleashed. I wanted to make absolutely sure he wouldn’t regret allowing me to stay here with him.
Aster’s mouth pulled into a lazy smile. ‘I like you a lot, Cal,’ he whispered. ‘I like everything we do together.’
I hoped he knew I liked him too, that I loved being close to him. I didn’t ever want it to stop.
I buried my face in his neck to hide the pain reflected there. Part of the deal of us being together was that it would end. Aster was on the island for another month and a half, then he would go back to London. I would go back to being alone.
Our time together a memory.
Shaking off the impending loss of the person I wanted to wake up and fall asleep with for the rest of my life, I focused on a more immediate need clamouring for attention.
