VERONICA

Just because Ashtar doesn't want to go all the way with full-on penetrative sex doesn't mean the man isn't interested in sex, of course. After dinner, he pulls me into his lap and kisses me, his hand going between my thighs until he makes me come all over again. He does this twice more before bedtime, and then he reluctantly changes to his dragon form and curls around me to keep me warm. I fall asleep cuddled against his scales, and then wake up in the middle of the night, cold everywhere except between my thighs, because Ashtar has changed back to his human form and is between them again, licking me until I come. Once I do, he changes back, nuzzles me, and then it's bedtime once more. In a daze, I drift back to sleep…

Only to wake up at dawn with him tugging at my leggings again.

"Ashtar?" I murmur, rubbing a hand over my eyes. I'm still barely awake, struggling to shake off the exhaustion in my body.

"Shh," he whispers, pushing my tunic up and kissing my belly. It sends tickles through my body, especially when he dips his tongue into my belly button. "I need to taste you, my Veronica."

"Oh, but," I begin, and then moan when he tugs my leggings down, exposing my pussy and immediately burying his mouth there. Whatever sleepy protest I had dies when his tongue flicks over my clit. I've never met a man who loves eating pussy so dang much, but Ashtar acts like he's addicted. I think if it was up to him, he'd have his face between my thighs a dozen times a day.

Honestly? I'm kind of addicted, too. For a guy that has no experience pleasuring a woman prior to this, he learns like a damn champ. He knows to immediately go for my clit, and those slow, steady motions make me utterly crazy, and when he starts teasing my opening, it's all over. Last night, I came at least twice—hard—and he seemed thrilled at the thought of making me come more than once. I suspect that's going to be the new normal.

I moan as he pushes his face deeper between my thighs, rubbing his mouth and nose against my folds. Just the suggestion of him going down on me makes me so wet, and I'm already soaking with need. He pushes my leggings down to my knees, then just hauls both of my legs forward, pressed against my chest so he can explore my wide-open pussy at his leisure.

"You are my morning meal, I think," he tells me between long, teasing strokes of his tongue over my pussy. "I want this every morning. Be ready for that, my mate."

Oh god. This could wake a girl up better than any cup of coffee. "Ashtar," I moan, because it's hard to think about anything but him when he's tonguing me like that.

"Say my name louder," he demands, and then flicks the tip of his tongue against the base of my clit. "I want to hear you scream it when you come."

I shudder at such a demand, because I'm normally the girl that's dead-quiet during sex. Of course, I'm also normally the girl that fakes an orgasm just to please her partner. There's no faking anything with Ashtar. There's no chance, because the moment I make a noise that sounds remotely like I'm in the mood, he's going down on me as if his life depends on it, and I'd have to be made of stone to ignore just how well he teases my body. For a man with claws, he's always gentle, too. They lightly dance over my skin and graze over sensitive parts, but he never hurts me with them. Last night, he pushed into me with something hard and thick, and I realized when he licked his hands clean after the fact that it was a knuckle. Which…works. Really damn well.

This morning, he has me on my back. Last night, I was on my knees. He's starting to experiment, my lover, and the moment he realizes I can sit on his face, it's going to be all over, I think.

Maybe I'll tell him all about that…later. Then his tongue strokes over my clit and I forget about everything but him and his mouth. My hands go to Ashtar's hair, and I hit those horns jutting out of his thick mane and stroke them to make him as crazy as he's making me.

"Say it," he growls, and his breath against my pussy is maddening.

"Ashtar."

He gives his head a little shake, his tongue moving back and forth against my clit in a way that makes me arch up in surprise. "Louder."

"Ashtar!" When he growls again, I can feel his knuckle press against my core, and I can tell I'm already about to come once more. "Ashtar!" I cry out, and then he's fucking me with one finger while he tongues my clit and I'm shouting his name to the cloudy morning sky above. "Oh, god! Ashtar! Ashtar!"

"Ho," calls a distant voice that is…not Ashtar.

I scream, an orgasm quaking through me even as my dragon-man lifts his head, his eyes flooding with black. His mouth and face are gleaming wet with my juices, and he bares his fangs, furious at being interrupted.

"No," I begin, panting, trying to come down from the orgasm. "Wait—"

Too late. Ashtar flings himself forward, and then I see a flash of golden scales and I nearly get pummeled by the sweep of a long golden tail as he races out of camp, in dragon form and clearly, clearly in a really bad mood.

"Damn it," I mutter, trying to haul my stupid pants back up my thighs. "We're coming," I yell out, getting to my feet and hopping to pull my pants up over my butt. Ashtar's messed up the laces and I can't get them undone and I topple into the snow the moment they finally give a little. "Fuck!"

I get back to my feet and then scramble up the ridge, chasing after my dragon. I'm mortified over the fact that someone heard me screaming Ashtar's name. I mean, sure, we are out in the wide-open air, but some things are supposed to be private. I really thought we were alone, but I guess we're not far enough away from the others. Ashtar's not going to be happy.

That thought makes me race forward even faster, because the last thing I need is Ashtar eating one of the blue guys. They were really nice and that doesn't seem fair. "Ashtar!" I bellow, climbing up one of the gently sloping cliffs to the land above, and then promptly twisting my ankle. "Ow! Damn it!"

I'm worried he's going to lose his shit on whoever was brave enough—or dumb enough—to come after us. The timing is terrible. One thing I've noticed about Ashtar is that he's very possessive, and never more so than when we're fooling around. When his emotions get the better of him, his eyes get deeper in color. When he flew off just now? They were black.

He's definitely going to eat someone.

I stumble in the deep snow again, planting face first into the ground again. I can see the dragon's golden scales in the distance, but I can't make out who else is nearby. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I decide. I sit up in the snow and bellow, "Ashtar! I need you!"

The dragon lifts his head. He immediately turns and races back to me.

It's not my finest moment, but he'll understand, I hope, once he's come to his senses. The dragon barrels back toward me, an enormous golden blur of claw and scale, but I'm not afraid. I lift my arms like a helpless toddler and wait for him. Sure enough, he arrives back at my side, his car-sized head swinging low to nuzzle at me and make sure that I'm all right. His eyes are black, black, black, and that worries me.

"Stay with me, Ashtar," I say softly, caressing the enormous nose. I can feel heat in his muzzle, and I'd bet money he's inches away from turning whoever decided to come visit us into a charcoal brick. "I know what you're thinking right now," I tell him. "And no, you are not allowed to eat whoever just showed up."

He growls at me.

"I know, I'm not thrilled about their timing either." I grab at his face when he tries to turn away, and it's absurd how small my hand is against that enormous snout. "But I'm sure whoever it is has the best of intentions and means well. Can you please change back to your human form so we can discuss this properly?" When he hesitates, I bite back my sigh. "For me?"

The dragon's eyes remain pitch-black for a long moment, and then they slowly begin to bleed back to cootie-blue. He nuzzles me one more time, and then in the next instant, two-legged Ashtar is there in a crouch, his jaw set in an angry scowl. He's clearly not in a good mood. He moves to my side and helps me to my feet, dusting snow off of my leathers and completely oblivious to the fact that he's barefoot and naked in the snow.

"Thank you," I tell him softly.

"It is Zolaya," Ashtar says, practically spitting the name. "I do not like him. He is constantly bothering me about you."

"He is?" That surprises me. "In what way?"

"Telling me not to push you. To let you come to the idea of mating me on your own." His lip curls, revealing sharp white fangs. "As if I do not know how to treat my mate."

Aw. I rub a hand on Ashtar's big arm. "He's just being a dad, Ashtar. He probably misses his family and is doing what he can to help out. I think it's kind of sweet." When his eyes immediately go black again, I add, "That he thinks of me like a daughter."

His eyes fade back to blue and he heaves a deep sigh. "So I do not get to eat him?"

"No."

"Can I scare him away?"

"I would really prefer if you didn't," I tell him, stroking his arm once more. "While it wasn't great timing, I'm not sad to see him. Can you please tolerate the visit for me?" He hesitates, and I take his hand in mine, then press my mouth to his knuckles. "We can fool around when he's gone and I'll do whatever you like."

His eyes flare with interest. "You will let me lick your cunt until you scream my name thrice?"

God, I am the luckiest woman ever if 'we can do whatever you want' involves me getting oral, oral, and more oral. "If that's what you want."

"It is." Now he looks pleased, his mouth curling in a sexy smile.

"Then that's what we'll do. But company first, of course."

Ashtar sighs heavily, and in that moment, he's every put-upon husband in the world, which strikes me as hilariously funny. "Fine. But I will not be pleasant about it."

"You don't have to be. You just have to let me be pleasant and not scare him away. He's just being friendly. And maybe he has news of the others."

"Ho," a voice calls again in the distance, and when we look over, I see a blue figure standing on a cliff a good ways away from us. He raises a hand in the air in a greeting and waits.

I look over at my dragon.

Ashtar's lip curls. "Invite him, then."

I move forward and give my surly dragon a peck on the mouth. "You're the best, you know that?"

He looks surprised—and pleased—at my kiss. When I take his hand and pull him toward Zolaya, he adds, "I have changed my mind. I want three screams from you and kisses, too."

"We can add kisses," I tell him with a grin, trying to make my way through the snow without falling over. It's not easy, because the weather sucked overnight and dumped a foot of new snow on the ground, which means that everything's deeper and impossible to walk through. I'm relieved when Zolaya starts forward, determined to meet us halfway.

The alien approaches, his long hair in the world's ugliest braid. His spear is strapped to his back and he has a leather backpack slung over one shoulder. Other than that, he wears a furry vest, several utilitarian-looking belts, and a leather loincloth. He glances over at Ashtar's nudity and then raises his chin in greeting at me. "I am glad I found you both. How do you fare, Ron-ka and Ashtar?"

I can feel myself blushing, because I imagine he's judging us. Heck, I'd judge us, too, considering that we're out here hiding from the tribe and Ashtar's buck-ass naked. It looks like we've been playing hide-the-sausage. I'm sure he heard me screaming, and that just adds to my horrifying humiliation. Everyone's going to know what we were doing. Of course, our cooties have been singing at each other for days. They're bound to guess anyhow, but that doesn't make things any better. "We're great," I tell him.

He eyes us both, studying first Ashtar and then me. "You do not look great, Ron-ka. You look tired and dirty." He peers over my shoulder. "Where is your tent?"

"Um." I look at Ashtar, not sure if I should say that we don't have one. It feels disloyal.

My dragon-man only scowls at Zolaya. He steps in front of me as if to block Zolaya's view. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to look for you both. My chief is worried that you might be in danger since you are both new to this world. I told him I would track you and speak to you myself."

"You are not taking my mate away," Ashtar says in a low, deadly voice.

"Um," I begin, tugging on his arm. I can tell without looking that his eyes have gone black again. It's evident by his tone and the way he's bristling at the sight of Zolaya.

"I did not say I was here to take her away," the hunter says mildly, moving past us. "I simply wished to check on you. Stealing one's female away from the tribe for resonance has become something of a tradition amongst our people. You can come back when you're ready. I just want to make sure you will both survive until then." He saunters through the snow as if it's nothing, heading for the gorge that's been our campsite for the last while. "Is this where you are staying?"

Ashtar is stock still, his hands clenched in fists. His cootie is purring, making mine act up, and I wonder if this is something deeper or if it's just pure jealousy because we haven't totally mated yet. "Give us a few, will you?" I tell Zolaya, and take one of Ashtar's clenched fists. I step in front of him to get his full attention, and his gaze flicks to me. Sure enough, it's dark as night. "What's wrong?"

His eyes narrow and he breathes out, and I can see little puffs of smoke billow out of his nostrils. "Why is he here?"

"I'm sure it's just as he said—he's checking on us. Making sure we aren't dead."

"I do not want him here."

"Well, I have to admit his timing's not my favorite, either," I say, my cheeks hot. "But I don't mind the company." When Ashtar shoots me a betrayed look, I continue. "As long as he's not staying, that is. I love being with you, Ashtar, but if he's got a tent and a blanket, I'm willing to take them off his hands."

My drakoni's eyes fade to a deep blue, then turn the color of the ocean. Almost normal. Almost. "It would be good to get more items to help you sleep comfortably. I do not like seeing you struggle." His hands uncurl from their fists and he cups my face. "I just…when I see another arrive, I think they will take you away from me. That all I have been given on this world will be ripped from my arms."

"You're breaking my heart," I tell him softly. "No one's going to separate us. I won't let them."

"Sometimes you do not have a choice."

Did I think my heart was broken before? It feels like it's cracking open all over again. He's so very sad, as if he expects the world to come to an end now that Zolaya has shown up. "You are mine and I am yours, okay? Nothing is going to change that. It's just a visitor. I promise. And besides, it's not like we can stay out here alone forever, right?" When he doesn't answer, I feel a twinge of worry. "Right?" I prompt a second time. "This is a vacation from the others, but it's not a home."

His mouth sets in a mulish line. "I do not care where I am as long as I am with you."

"Great. Then we can go back to the tribe tomorrow, right?" When he hesitates, I sigh. "That's what I thought. Ashtar, I like being with you, too. I love it. I love that it's just the two of us. But we can't survive like this forever. I'm already sick of fish. I can't drink from your hands for the rest of my life. I want a freaking bath. I want a blanket and a jacket. I want a bed for the two of us." I slide my hands down the front of his scorchingly hot, delicious chest. "And later on, I'm going to want a safe place for our baby."

Ashtar's expression softens. "You think of the future with me?"

"Well, yeah." My cootie begins to purr even louder. I don't point out that I don't really have a choice in the matter, that the cootie's already decided. None of that seems relevant at the moment. Ashtar's liked me since we first set foot on this planet, and I adore him. He's protective, and sweet, and thoughtful, and so good-looking that it makes all my girl parts ache…all the girl parts that he loves to spend endless hours licking until I come like a madwoman. He's gorgeous, too. I feel like I won the Ice Planet Lottery when it comes to him. "I think you're wonderful. And when I picture my life, I picture it with you at my side. But I don't picture it out here alone in the wilderness, just the two of us. Can't we be happy in a tent on the beach with the others just like we're happy here?"

He takes a deep breath. "I know it is what you want, my fires. But…I do not trust them not to pry me from your side. That is my only experience with others."

I shake my head. "These are good people. I promise."

"It will take time to believe such a thing," he admits. "Until then, you will have to keep reminding me."

"Of course I will. I'll be at your side every moment," I reassure him. I take his hand in mine again and press a kiss to the palm. "Nothing bad is going to happen. All the bad is behind us. It's just you and me moving forward."

"I want that more than anything."

"Then trust me." I smile up at him. "I trust you."

For some reason he doesn't look thrilled with that admission. "Do you?"

"Of course."