FOURTEEN
Beks woke up many times throughout the night. Even though Lihvan was warm and his steady, heavy breaths caressed her neck, she would still check on him, running her hands down his chest, inspecting his gauze to make sure it hadn’t seeped too much.
He’d shaken her up. To the core.
The flash of panic she’d felt when she’d seen his blood had been like a lance, spearing straight through her. The only other time she’d felt like that had been when Kate had gone missing. It was like grief and desperation all mixed into one.
And that was when she knew she was falling for her big, horned, selfless, gruff alien.
It had happened so fast, she realized this. But Beks had never done anything half way. When she wanted something, she threw every part of herself into it, whether it was a new hobby or a project at work or comforting her best friend after her bastard of an ex had cheated on her. Beks had slashed his tires, which Kate hadn’t known about, and written—in paint—‘cheating scum’ on the back windshield. She’d signed her name right below it.
So yes, maybe some things she took a little too far, but Beks liked to think she was passionate. She was passionate for those few people that she really, truly cared about in her life. Even though she hadn’t known Lihvan for very long, he’d just made the list. Hell, he had a top position.
That was why she woke up every half hour it seemed to check on him, to fuss over his wound. She tortured herself all night, wondering if she’d mended it tight enough, what would they do if it became infected, if she hadn’t cleaned it out properly.
Needless to say, she didn’t get much sleep that night, but Lihvan slept like a log.
It did, however, make her feel better to feel his constant erection against her backside all night. She rationalized that if he had one, he was probably feeling A-okay, so she eventually drifted off into a restless sleep.
By the time she awoke for good the next morning, Lihvan was gone, but a piece of the animal that they’d cut up last night—after she’d patched Lihvan up—was roasting over the fire. They’d placed the butchered meat out in the cold so it would keep overnight and the chunk cooking would be more than enough to feed them both for the day.
He came back inside the cave a short while later and Beks let out a relieved sigh once she saw him. She hated acting like a clingy girlfriend, but she was genuinely worried about him and he didn’t seem to mind her fussing. In fact, she suspected he liked it.
“How are you feeling?” Beks asked, going up to greet him, pressing her body into his slightly sweaty one. It must have been warm outside already but she didn’t mind the sweat. She needed the contact with him; it helped ease her. Every day, it seemed like she needed more from him. Again, she wondered if this was her own Instinct acting up, responding to his.
He leaned down to touch his forehead with her and Beks absolutely melted into a puddle of goo whenever he did that. “I am fine, female. I do not like to see you worry.”
“I can’t help it,” she confessed.
“No more tears,” he said, frowning. He hadn’t liked to see her cry last night, that much had been obvious. “Are you hungry? Let me feed you.”
“Let me feed you first, Lihvan. You need your strength for your body to heal.”
He protested for a bit, but eventually she got her way and every bite of the meat that he swallowed made Beks feel a little better. And she took nibbles between every one of his bites, which made him feel better.
“See?” she murmured. “I can compromise.”
Lihvan only arched his brow in response, his amusement at her words obvious.
She bit back a small smile and asked, “Can I see your wound? I should clean it.”
“Nix,” he replied, making her frown. “I already cleaned it this morning. It is healing.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. She trusted him when he said Luxirians healed fast. And when she eyed the gauze, it was clean with no signs of seepage. She blew out a breath and untangled a strand of his hair from his chipped horn. “Let me bathe you at least. You look warm from being outside.”
That drew an interested purr from her alien and she laughed, grabbing one of the black tubes they had hanging over one of the cave walls. She poured the cool, fresh water into their empty stone pot and grabbed a wad of moss, dipping it inside.
When she knelt in front of him again, he eyed her from his position, lounging against the cave wall. Gently, lightly, she trailed the water-soaked moss over his skin, beginning at the tops of his shoulders and running it down his chest. Lihvan closed his eyes, purring, and Beks dipped the moss back into the water before soothing it over his skin again.
She did that for quite some time, pressing closer and closer with every dip. Lihvan tilted his head back and watched her, a continuous purr echoing in their cave. She gently swiped over raised scars, wondering how he’d gotten each one, in which battle against which alien and how old he’d been when he received them. He’d told her he was a warrior, had been raised to be one, and the word fit him like a glove. That word was stamped in every harsh, disciplined line of his body and engraved in the hardened muscles and quiet stealth of this male.
He was deadly, dangerous, and he treated her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him, protecting her, nourishing her, making sure her needs were met before his own.
For once, she wanted to return the favor.
When she gently brushed his flat nipples, he gave a little groan and Beks knelt between his outstretched legs, bringing her lips to his as she trailed the moss lower…and lower.
“Female,” he growled into their kiss, in warning.
“Shhh,” she whispered, pulling back so she could see his eyes. “Let me take care of you.”
She dropped the moss back into the pot to free her hands and then ran both of them up his thick, muscular thighs, coming to rest on the waistband of his leather pants. Whenever he’d been aroused before, he’d literally grown stronger. Beks had felt it happen. Arousal strengthened his body and perhaps it would help speed up his healing too.
But really…she just wanted to give him pleasure. That was her main motivation. He’d been so generous with her that she wanted to be generous with him too.
* * *
When Beks pushed the edge of his leg coverings over his hips, his throbbing cock burst out to meet her. Bobbing against his taut abdomen, it pulsed and pulsed and he groaned when her hand circled his shaft.
Lihvan felt only an awing sense of pleasure. Her touch was light and hot, but she soon tightened her grip until he gave an involuntarily buck of his hips. His Instinct roared inside him, wanting him to take his mate, to throw her onto her hands and knees and mate her from behind until he couldn’t remember a time before her.
His blood rushed in his ears, but all of his senses became heightened. Power. This was why most Luxirians mated before battle. It helped boost their strength. Now, Lihvan understood just how much.
“Let me see you,” he growled, eyes half-lidded. He clenched his fists at his sides, feeling pain shoot up with left arm as he did. He wouldn’t worry about that now, however. His female was before him, his cock in her hand, and nothing was more important than this moment.
Her scent hit him hard in the gut, arousal growing at his words. She understood his meaning and quickly slipped off his tunic she wore, exposing her nude, lush body. Her breasts swayed as she leaned forward to lick his nipples, her hands returning to his cock, sliding them up and down, increasing her pressure at the base. Lihvan’s back arched towards her, wondering how something could feel so good.
Luxirians had a high sex drive. Most males, if they were mated or possessed a mating or Breeding partner, needed sex three times a span, at minimum. And now, Lihvan could finally understand why. Once would never be enough, not with a mate as fine as his Beks.
He palmed her heavy breasts, making her gasp, and plucked her nipples, which he’d learned she liked. But just as he reached for her dripping cunt, she scooted back, shaking her head. “This is for you. Not me.” Lihvan growled, about to protest, but whispered, “Lie back.”
They were blurring a very dangerous line, he realized. He had hoped to avoid a situation like this, but how could he resist?
“Don’t worry,” she said, raking her nails lightly up and down his thighs. “We won’t have sex. I just want to make you feel good.”
“You already do,” he grunted.
She tried to hide her smile and failed. “Let me make you feel even better then.”
He groaned at her implication and did as she asked, lying back against the moss they’d piled into a sleeping platform the night before. It was much more comfortable than lying on rock anyways.
His cock was resting on his belly and his testicles felt heavy, loaded with hot seed that had been building and building since the moment he’d met her. He hadn’t given himself the release he needed lately and he wondered if he had enough control around her.
“Oh my,” she whispered, peeling his leg coverings down his legs before tossing them in a corner. Gently, she reached under him and cradled his sac, eliciting a full body jerk from Lihvan. He gnashed his teeth together, fighting not to shame himself and orgasm that very moment. “This looks like a lot to handle. Poor baby,” she cooed and then she tormented him, stroking the sensitive flesh which made the beginnings of his seed pool at the tip of his cock and drip onto his abdomen.
She let his varx drop and Lihvan’s harsh pants filled the air. Her hair tickled his belly as she dragged her warm, flat tongue across his stomach, tasting his precum.
“Female,” he growled. His control was slipping. His eyes tracked over her wildly, straying from her eyes and lips to her breasts and cunt, wanting to focus on all of her at once.
She licked her lips and knelt between his legs, bringing her head down to rest on his hip. The position made her ass rise in the air and Lihvan imagined taking her from behind. He would be merciless. He would punish her for her teasings and fuck her until she begged him to stop.
Lihvan’s back bowed and he roared towards the ceiling of the cave when she leaned down…and took his cock between her lips.
Pleasure blinded him, making his body jerk, and he heard his heartbeat pound heavily in his ears. When he looked back down between his legs, his female was watching him, licking up the sides of his ridged cock, a small, knowing smile on her lips.
“Feel good?” she purred, dropping kisses around his crown.
He couldn’t speak, but sounds were being torn from his throat, rough groans and growls.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’” she teased. And then she resumed. Lihvan watched, almost in disbelief, as she wrapped her lips around him…and sucked, her cheeks hollowing. Fates, the pleasure of it. He couldn’t think of anything but the pleasure of it.
He groaned helplessly, panting and gasping, as she wedged her tongue against the slit on his crown and wiggled it there. He felt that tongue sizzle all the way up his spine and burst in his brain. She lapped at the precum that followed, his wicked, wicked female.
On and on, she tortured him. She couldn’t fit a lot of his cock in her mouth, but she sure tried. Lust and desire pooled in his belly as he hungrily watched her stretched lips over his thickness. Every now and again, she’d gasp for air and release him, but she’d smile at him and lick up the sides as she recovered, using her hands to stroke him up and down, up and down.
He was purring continuously now and his cock vibrated in her mouth. Her arousal perfumed the air, driving him even more wild than her touch.
“Come here, luxiva,” he growled. “You are wanting your male.”
He wanted to lick that dripping cunt the way she was worshipping his cock.
“Not until you cum,” she purred, reaching under to fondle his testicles. Lihvan gritted his teeth, his pleasure bordering on pain. How could something feel this way?
He groaned in frustration, his hips accidentally jerking in her mouth. “Female…I need to…I need to feel you.”
For a brief moment more, she ignored him, swiping her tongue on the underside of his cock. His seed was beginning to climb and Lihvan thrashed his head, knowing that any second, he would cum.
Just when he thought he was undone, she released him, giving one last, sweet kiss to his crown. He sat up immediately, reaching for her, but she climbed up his lap and straddled his hips.
Between them, her cunt was swollen and pink and dripping. Her cheeks and lips were flushed an enticing red and her nipples were tightened into stiff little peaks.
He almost released his seed at the sight of her.
She reached down and positioned his cock against her. His breath hitched, thinking she was going to feed him inside her, but she murmured, “No sex. But this will feel good for both of us.”
She wedged the underside of his cock against her slick lips, his crown just resting below the little nub of hardened flesh that he loved to suck on.
Then she snapped her hips down…and Lihvan roared again.
Moaning little breathy sighs, his female pumped her hips up and down, flexing her thighs around his waist, making his ridged cock slide against her engorged lips and over her clit. In a daze, he watched her breasts bounce in front of him and felt the wicked slide of their bodies, as close to actual mating as Lihvan would probably ever get.
Her cunt was hot and warm against him, growing even more so as the moments passed.
He knew he wouldn’t last long. Not when his female was riding his body like this, so lost in her pleasure.
Sweat gleamed on her flesh and the cave was filled with sounds of abandon and lust and animalistic groans. They found a rhythm and Lihvan fucked his hips up as she came down and the friction became almost too intense.
“L-Lihvan,” she gasped, her lips parted. “I’m gonna…oh my God!”
He reached around to grab her ass, using it as leverage to drive up against her harder. With a little shuttered scream, his female’s back bent, thrusting her breasts towards the ceiling, and her body convulsed in waves of pleasure. When Lihvan felt a gush of wetness between them, her cum bathing his cock, that sensation triggered his own release.
Jerking his hips in abandon, Lihvan’s entire body tensed up, his heavy sac drawing up tight against his body. He was suspended, right on the edge…and then his orgasm crashed down on him, pulling him under.
Jets and jets of hot seed rose up his shaft and spurted out between them, coating their bodies. It was never-ending and Lihvan roared his release, surprised that he didn’t bring the entire cave down with the noise.
Eventually, finally, the arcs of cum gently subsided and his cock twitched helplessly, making him groan.
When he opened his eyes, panting, Beks was watching him. Her belly and cunt was painted in his seed and the sight was the most natural thing in the world. It was how it should be, always.
And even though Lihvan had just shared that intimate moment with his female, he knew that that was all it would ever be. The sense of loss hit him hard, even as a smile crossed her features.
She dragged her finger across her skin, scooping up his seed, before bringing it to her lips, tasting him. A rumble built in his chest.
“That was…” she purred. “Impressive.”
He didn’t think he was capable of words, so he grunted.
His response drew a small, exhausted giggle from her and he’d never heard a better sound.
“Maybe we should get cleaned up,” she murmured, leaning forward to nibble on his lips. Lihvan took her mouth, kissing her with a desperation and wildness that was so unlike him, and when they pulled away, her gaze was hazy and heavy-lidded.
“Leave it,” he rumbled, nibbling on her neck, wanting to mark her as his. He reached between them and rubbed his seed into her skin, making her gasp.
“You’re…you’re just so…male, aren’t you?” she murmured. But arousal tightened her nipples. He purred in approval. His female liked him marking her as his.
“Tev,” he rasped. “Your male.”