“Are we friends, then?”
“I make it a point to be friendly with anyone who saves my life,” she said. “Besides, you took on a Collector hive to save your girl. I’m not dumb enough to get between the two of you. Speaking of Penny, she looked like she might need medical attention.”
“Yes, I will take her to the medbay now,” I said, accepting her attempt to end the conversation. My warning had been delivered, the pirate princess would listen or not. Better to spend my time on productive matters.
“Like fun you will,” Penny said. I turned to see her fierce expression and a twinkle in her eye. “I’m fine, and anyway, first things first.”
And she grabbed hold of me, pulling herself up to plant a kiss that ignited every fiber of my being with a divine light. Time stopped. The universe froze. She was all that existed. Us. Our passion and our love.
The kiss was everything, and when we parted for air, I had to fight down an urge to ravish my beloved right there on the yacht’s bridge. It was a near thing, too. My heart pounded loud enough to drown out all other sounds, and the delicious scent of my beloved made me throb with need and desire.
With a snarling roar, I lifted her and carried her into the ship, leaving Amyral to her newly claimed bridge. I knew where I was going, at least vaguely. On luxury ships like theTai’var,the owner’s cabin would be near the bridge. I found it behind the first door I opened.
The large, beautiful, well-appointed room was wasted on us. I had no eyes for it as I carried Penny over the threshold. All I needed was the shower, an ornate fixture screened from the rest of the cabin by a privacy field.
Penny gave a little shriek as I activated it, water striking us from every angle, warm like a summer storm. A clever AI mixed cleaning agents into the water before I thought to ask for it, and in moments we were both clean of the arena’s gore. I hadn’t realized how desperately we both needed to wash until the floral scent of the shower replaced the stink of combat.
Human fingers, nimble and fast, undid my pants. I tore at Penny’s armor with less skill but equal fervor. Straps parted, and I wrenched the armored sleeve away. In moments we stood naked in the wild storm of water and air, our clothing tossed aside.
“You are glorious,” I said, my voice raw and low and hungry. A crimson glow spread across her cheeks, and she bit her lip. But she didn’t pull back or lower her eyes. Instead, she gazed at me with an intensity I’d never seen in her.
Her pounce caught me by surprise, the impact staggering me as she flung her arms around my neck and pulled herself up for a kiss. Turning, I caught my balance and snarled into her, catching her under the thighs and lifting her to me, our wet bodies pressed together with nothing between us.
The sensation was enough to drive me insane, and the way her heart raced told me Penny shared the feeling. Her fingers dug in, scratching hard enough to make me gasp, and I pressed her back against the wall with a roar that broke the kiss.
“Ohgodyes,” she gasped, words too fast to separate but meaning clear. I shifted my grip, lifting her higher, hungrily kissing and biting as I pushed her upward. Her lips first, then her neck. She squirmed and whimpered, panting, and I growled again. Her breath caught as my teeth scraped her neck, and her hands tightened almost painfully on my shoulders.
Higher. Trailing kisses down to the perfect curves of her breasts, biting passionately and flicking my tongue across her pebbled nipples. My beloved threw back her head and howled, so I did it again, swirling my tongue around one, then the other.
I’m not sure whether she cursed me or praised me then. It sounded like both at once, but she did not try to escape my grip, so I continued. Moving from one nipple to the other, I scraped my teeth across them each time. Only when my human’s body shook uncontrollably did I move on, lifting her higher, kissing my way along her stomach.
Definitelycursing me now. I chuckled again, drinking in her need for me. Her passion, her lust. She pulled at my head, gripped my hair, pulled me to her and tried to speed me up.
I refused to hurry. With one hand holding her up, I slid the other beneath her and traced along her eager, quivering lips. She whimpered and squirmed, and I laughed.
“You, Varok, are afucking asshole,”she said with an effort. I barked a laugh, moving my finger back and forth, barely touching her.
“What’s the matter, little one?” I asked. “If you don’t enjoy this, I can always stop?”
“Don’t you dare!” Her fingers tightened in my hair, and I relented. In truth, I didn’t know if I could have stopped then. I was aching hard, my cock a steel rod that almost hurt as Penny drove me wild, and the delay frustrated me almost as much as her.
But I would deny myself a little longer, for her sake. Raising her again, I slid my face between her parted thighs, tongue darting out to taste her, to tease her. The shudder that ran through her made me growl again, and she didn’t have to encourage me to pull her tight against me, licking and kissing and sucking on her clit as hot water ran down our bodies.
Her legs squeezed tight around my face, and her hands pulled at my hair as she writhed against me. Soon, her cries of pleasure merged into an ecstatic howl, and her muscles tensed, thighs squeezing my head.
Her shudders calmed eventually, and she relaxed, hanging limp in my grip. But I wasn’t done devouring the beauty before me, and she whimpered as my tongue lapped at her delicious pussy.
I think she tried to speak, but whatever words she was trying for disappeared as her breathing turned to gasps. Her body vibrated, and I lowered her to the water-lashed floor of the shower, letting her rest against the cool ceramic surface as I tended to her with more care though no less passion.
Her second orgasm came almost immediately, as delicious as the first. A third followed on its heels, rocking her and making her arch her back. I looked up along the length of her wonderful human body, seeing the water and sweat on her trembling curves. I knew I’dnevertire of this sight.
“Stop,” Penny gasped, her voice weak and shaking as she came back from the peak. “Varok, please…ohmygod.”
I lifted my mouth from her and grinned, teasing. “You have a complaint?”
“Oh god no,” she moaned. “Except if you keep this up, I’m going to melt into a puddle. Then I don’t get to return the favor.”
“I don’t mind waiting,” I said, lowering my head again and sucking her clit into my mouth, tongue dancing over it gently.
