Now we had found our rhythm. He was both tugging me and lifting me up so he could fill me with cock. Sweat slid into my eyes and hair and trickled over my chest. The heat inside meintensified as I said his name and how much he meant to me and why I wanted to be by his side forever.
The anticipation was building as sweat and slick combined as his cock claimed me, and my breaths became ragged pants.
“Larkin, I can’t…” I couldn’t finish the sentence as my orgasm hurtled toward me.
“Let me hear you come, babe.”
I slid over his cock once more and squeezed around him as I was swept away on a wave of pleasure. Cum spurted over Larkin and I clutched onto him while riding it out.
He arched his back, told me he loved me and stiffened as he toppled over the edge and cum surged inside me.
My head tilted to the side, I didn’t have the energy to hold it up and my body was jelly. But Larkin held me tight while his knot swelled inside me. He eased me onto the bed and we lay in each other’s arms as we panted.
“My body claimed you and now I want to mark you as my mate.” He kissed my shoulder.
“Let’s do it.”
Our claws extended, Larkin’s beast’s and mine. He scraped his over my chest so the mark would be hidden by my uniform, while my beast marked his shoulder, close to the base of his throat. His collar would cover the mark at work.
His knot was still swollen so we held one another and our deep, satisfied breaths punctuated the stillness.
TEN
PERCY
I woke up warm, but it wasn’t because of blankets and body heat. Rather it was something inside me that radiated from my chest outward. I pictured a fire in my chest that was burning low and would never go out.
We’d mated last night, and overnight it’d woven itself into me while I slept. I prodded the mark to check if it still hurt. It didn’t, and it was almost healed. It was a reminder that last night had happened, and it wasn’t a dream brought on by a stir-fry and sexual tension.
Larkin was on his stomach beside me with one arm flung across my waist. His face was half-buried in the pillow while the rest of it was covered by his hair. There was a faint mark on his shoulder from my teeth, but it’d be hidden below his collar so no one at the station would notice. I resisted the urge to run my finger over it, not knowing if it was sore. Also I didn’t want to wake him.
Larkin was my mate. The lieutenant from the rival station who built furniture and cooked three dishes and kissed as if he was trying to memorize me. Maybe he was, though he was currently drooling on his pillow.
I could get used to this, though not the drooling. That was a bit meh.
Moving slowly so I wouldn't wake him, I slid out of bed and padded to the kitchen. His apartment in the early morning was quiet, unlike where I lived.
Station 9's housing was above the garage, and even on my days off, there was no way to drown out the engine idling and doors slamming. Here, there was just the hum of the fridge and the light creeping through the windows.
I found coffee in the cabinet and figured out his machine after two failed attempts and one almost flooding the countertop. The thing had more buttons than our engine's pump panel, and I considered that Larkin probably read the manual before using it, because he would do that. But also that was what sensible people did.
“You're supposed to use the left button first.”
Gods, he was here, and I almost didn’t want to turn around because the image in my head was probably not like he appeared. But when I turned, Larkin was leaning against the doorway in sweatpants. He was bare-chested and he had his arms crossed, as he often did.
I wasn’t disappointed because the reality was better than my imagination. But his expression was unfamiliar. Instead of being all angular with sharp corners, he looked more like a rubber band that could be stretched in any direction and not break. Was that what mating did?
“To run your coffee machine, I need a license to operate it.” I jabbed the left button and the machine gurgled. “Who has a fourteen-step coffee process?” That might have been a slight exaggeration.
“People who like good coffee.” He crossed the kitchen and kissed the back of my neck, and I leaned into him without thinking about it. My body already knew his shape, and I lovedit. I rested my head on his shoulder and considered maybe whether we should go back to bed and forget the coffee.
“Toast with your coffee?”
What? We’d mated and had hours-long sex, and he was offering me just toast?
“You're kidding, right? I just had the best night of my life and toast can’t bookmark the end of that.”
He raised both brows. “I also have eggs.”
