“What is job?”
He chuckles. “Like your people have hunters. I am a mechanic. Well, that and security. I do both.”
It makes no sense for him to lose his position in his small tribe because he touches me, but perhaps their customs are harsh…or he has a mate. I suck in a breath. What if he has a mate and that is why he has not resonated to me? I grab his horns with both of my hands and hold his face against mine, my brow pressing to his as if this will give me the answers faster. “Mardok,” I say quickly. “Do you have a mate?”
“A what?”
“A female? A mate? A family? Kits?”
“What? No. I told you, I’m a soldier.Wasa soldier.” I can feel his heavy sigh in the air between us. “It keffed my head up good. Can’t bring a family into that. Never wanted to.”
I am relieved. “Good.”
“Why good?” He sounds amused.
“Because you are my mate and no one else’s.”
There’s a long pause. “What?”
I put my hand to his chest. Still covered in his silly, thin leathers. He should be naked with me. “You are my mate and I am yours. We have resonated.”
5
MARDOK
Mate?
I wonder if this is one of the language gaps and I’m not hearing her right. Or maybe it’s hard to concentrate when her gorgeous, supple body is pressing up against mine and she’s completely naked, her skin scorchingly hot and slightly damp. It makes me picture what she looks like in the light, all blue curves, skin gleaming, her thick hair wild over her shoulders, those bare horns…I have to suppress a shudder or I’m going to take myself in hand, right here. I need to focus on what she’s saying. “You say resonance. What does that mean?”
Her nose brushes against mine, and I think she’s going to put her lips on me again. I’ve never experienced anything like her mouth-on-mouth kiss before. I’ve seen it in the kind of vids that no decent woman ever watches. And I’ve read about it, but I’ve never actually done it. All of the women I’ve had relationships with in the past have beenbrought up by modern society, concerned more with hygiene and disease control than the intimacy of putting her mouth on me. I’ve rarely even touched bare skin. But Farli? She is unafraid and unashamed of who she is, and she revels in caresses and the touches that everyone else I know would eschew.
It makes touching her have a forbidden feel to it, even more so given the captain’s longstanding ship orders. I know if we’re caught together, I’ll be dumped at the nearest port and given severance. That doesn’t mean I can stop stroking her soft skin or that I can push her away when she rubs up against me like a nilu cat seeking attention.
“Resonance?” she murmurs, her voice sweet and soft. Her hand glides over my arm and down my chest, and she presses her palm against the cartilage plates there. “It begins here. The khui sings a song to let me know when I have met my mate.”
“Singing?” I press my hand between her breasts, to the same place she’s touching me. “Here? When you purr?” Even now, I can feel the vibrations in her chest. It doesn’t sound like a song to me, more of a low-pitched, steady thrumming. It does sound a little musical, now that I think about it. “So what do you mean by mated?”
She chuckles, and I feel her tongue flick along my jaw, tracing the lines of it. Gods above, but she’s sensual. “What do you think it means?”
“Sex,” I say bluntly, and the stub of my tail tightens its obsessive grip around hers. “Lots and lots of sex. But I’m guessing there is more than that.”
“I will tell you if we can kiss again,” she teases, and nuzzles my nose again. Her hand moves up my shirt, fingers sneaking into my collar so she can touch my skin. I don’t think she can figure out the fastenings, because she tugs at the front of my clothing and then gives up. I should push her away,but everything in me wants more of her innocent touches, more exploring and caressing. I pull my shirt open, and she responds with a happy sigh, her hands moving over my chest, exploring me.
“You want kisses?” I ask, brushing my hand over her hair. I move my body slightly, until she’s under me and I’m over her, leaning on an elbow. The primal male in me wants her under me. Doesn’t matter how wrong it is. I want to claim her innocence, even if only for a moment. I take the lead on the kiss this time, tasting her luscious mouth, and when she opens for me, I drag my tongue against hers. She makes a soft mewling noise of pleasure, and I feel it all the way down to my cock.
Mine. She’s mine.
I can fight it all I want, but I know that she belongs to me. My kiss grows more possessive, my mouth more aggressive as she responds under me. She arches, pressing her breasts to my chest, and her hard little nipples scrape against my shirt. I nearly come at that smallest of touches. I keep my hands respectfully on her arm and in her hair, though I want nothing more than to slide my fingers over her pussy and see if it’s soaking wet for me. I bet it is.
I abandon her mouth with one final, suggestive lick, and she pants, dazed. “You are very good at that, Mardok.”
“I had a good teacher.”
“Who?”
I nip at her lower lip, drawing another shudder from her. “You.”
“Oh,” she says, shy. “Am I your first, too?”
