Page 35 of Leviathan

"Lyrien," she sighed. "I don't want to have to ask to be told things that are important. What if I don't know enough to ask like this? Keeping information from me is never a good idea. I get that you wanted me to choose you for the right reason, but I'm the one who gets to decide why I choose anything in my life, and I can choose it for whatever reason I want. Just because my cake comes with a side of ice cream doesn't mean I don't want to eat the cake."

"I didn't think of things that way," I said, following her reasoning and understanding her point of view. "I didn't realize I was so worried about protecting your choice that I limited it."

"The way you thought about it was sweet," she said. "But in the future, will you default to telling me more rather than trying to protect me because of your ideals?"

"Yes," I said. "I will."

"Good," she said. Then she pursed her lips as her eyes dropped down to my erect member. She was silent for a long moment, just staring at my dick with an intense look.

"Maria?" I asked, feeling exposed and a little bit concerned about that look.

"There is no guarantee you'd knock me up, right away, right?" she said.

"My seed is strong and healthy," I said, feeling the need to defend myself. "I will be able to breed you any time you wish."

"But the research facility tried and failed to work with my eggs," she said as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes flicking up to my face. "So it isn't guaranteed."

"I assure you my kind is highly capable of cross-breeding with other species, just as yours is," I said. "I will make an excellent mate."

She frowned at me.

"I'm saying it is unlikely," she said, emphasizing her words.

"I don't think that statement is based on logical thought," I said.

"Lyrien!" she groaned as she stepped forward, back towards my center. I let go of her rather than extend my filaments further into the room and move them around more than I had. This area hadn't been cleared yet.

Her hand reached out and covered my mouth. I could still speak through my vocal projectors, but I didn't. She wanted me silenced, so silent I would be.

She leaned her face close into mine.

"Say yes if you consent to me fucking you," she said, then she lifted her hand.

"Yes," I said.

THIRTEEN

MARIA

I put my hand back down over his mouth, the fire in his eyes burning hot to match the desire that raged within me. I wanted him. He wanted me. I had spent enough time with him to know that he was an honest, kind, gentle person who, even when he made mistakes, was willing to talk through them and work out solutions. He wasn't emotionally reactive; he was forgiving, and I was more certain than I had been of anything in my life that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him and raise little hybrid babies.

The only problem was that niggling bit of fear that rose up in me, the memory of being strapped down to a table, my thoughts and feelings dismissed in the face of what my body had to offer. That fear didn't get to rule my life or make my decisions.

Right now, I had a leviathan of a man who was willing to hand over all control.

I knew it wouldn't be that way every time we were together. That had been clear many times he had played with me, touching and teasing me. He wanted me, and he wasn't afraid to reach for me. Right now, his surrender was a product of the situation, both a reaction to my trauma and his own need to know that I was choosing him for him. We both knew that he could easily pick me up with his filaments and manipulate my body any way he wanted. I'd never tested their strength, but he used them to hold an entire spaceship together. He could use them just as easily to do whatever he wanted to me, even move me up and down on his dick like a rag doll if he so chose.

But what he chose was to give me the space to make my own choice.

That made me want him even more.

But to have him ran the risk of giving me the family I always wanted but had been made to fear.

I climbed back up on him, sitting myself down on his abs instead of on that glorious rod that I had slid up and down just a short while before. I couldn't bring myself to touch it just yet. My insides ached, my channel twinging with the craving to be filled. All I had to do was set him against me and work myself down onto him, all raw and unprotected, and the thought of that made me think of how much my body hurt when I was returned to my cage, left there to curl up on the floor and wait for the lights to go out.

That particular fear could only be solved with years of therapy, or it could be set aside with a more creative approach.

First things first.