Chapter Six: The First Taste
For once, it was quiet on the ship. Alaran and Temos were on one of the lower levels, sparring, and it was far enough down that Nat and Az couldn't hear them from where they were.
Az was flying the ship manually, guiding them through a tricky stretch of air space.
He’d explained to her why it was so difficult to navigate, but none of it had made much sense to her.
She didn’t want to say she was bored, because she was on a spaceship, flying through space of all places, but the lack of having something to do currently was definitely weighing on her. They hadn’t landed anywhere since the backwater weapons deal, and while she loved the ship (and had affectionately nicknamed her Bertha), she wanted to get off of it and see stuff.
Az’s lips twitched in a smile, and he glanced over at her, clearly amused. “If you would like something to do, you could go down and watch Temos and Alaran spar,” he said. “It would be good for you to see how weapons are used before you start learning to use your own.”
The three of them had insisted that she carry her dagger with her everywhere, and it hung from the belt loop of her jeans now, a weight she was getting used to the more she carried around, which was probably the point.
“I don’t want to just abandon you, though,” Nat said.
“I am flattered, but I have never minded flying alone. And this is not going to get any more interesting the longer you sit here.”
That was enough for her, and she was up and out of her seat in a second. “Well, if you insist,” she said, smiling.
“I do. I want you to have fun.” Az gave her directions to the training room, and she headed that way. The closer she got, the louder the sounds of swords clashing and playful teasing became.
The door was shut, but she pressed her hand to the sensor beside it and was surprised to have it slide open. Surprised, and pleased.
The first thing she saw when she stepped inside was Temos go flying across the room and Alaran smirking. It was a good look for him, and she didn’t think she’d seen him look so calm and in control since she’d met him.
Temos picked himself up and grabbed for his sword, a grin on his face. “You caught me off guard,” he said. “Good work.”
“Don’t patronize me, Temos,” Alaran said. “You are not my teacher.”
“But there is so much you could learn from me,” Temos replied.
Alaran just rolled his eyes, and then he looked over and saw Natasha standing there. “I thought you were sitting with Az,” he said.
“I was, but it got boring. He suggested I come watch you two.”
“Of course he did,” Alaran replied, sighing. “We are training.”
“I know,” Natasha said. “I’ll be quiet.”
“It will be good for her,” Temos said, stretching and then saluting her with his sword. “After all, she needs to learn how to handle a weapon.”
“Very well, then. But do not think I will go easy on you just because we have an audience, Temos.”
Temos laughed, and it was good natured and hearty. “I would never expect that.”
Natasha found a corner to sit in that seemed like it would be far enough back that she wouldn’t be in the way. The training room was shaped like all the other rooms on this long, bus-like ship. It was rectangular, but it was one of the inner rooms, so it had no windows. The floor was covered in hard packed dirt and sand, and there were racks and racks of weapons on the wall to one side.
One corner had been turned into a portable medical station, just in case.
When Temos and Alaran resumed their sparring, she could see that the medical station was a good idea.
The two of them weren’t giving each other any quarter. Alaran attacked hard and fast with his longsword, forcing Temos to defend himself. Temos’ weapon was broader, more like a great sword, and he wielded it two handed while Alaran’s hilt fit in one of his hands.
Alaran was faster than Temos, moving around the blows Temos tried to land. When he struck out with his sword, he forced Temos back, and it was clear, even to Natasha’s untrained eyes, that he knew how to use those openings to his advantage.
His strategy seemed to revolve around not giving Temos the space or time to use his strength against him.
It was fascinating to watch, honestly. More like a dance than battle, the back and forth of it was almost artistic. And then, when the exertion had caused them to start to sweat, they took their shirts off.
It became a little less like art and more like...something dirtier after that.
Because they were built.
That made sense, considering they were warriors and they fought like this for fun and practice or whatever. But jesus. Temos was more muscular, where Alaran was leaner and built for speed, but they were both so tall that it made them seem bigger than they were.
Natasha found she was still very impressed by their skills with their weapons, but her eyes weren’t tracking the weapons as much anymore.
Was it hot in there? She was warm, and her mind flashed back to what she had been doing when she was alone on the ship, touching herself and imagining that it was one or all of them doing it to her.
She was such an idiot. When she’d decided coming with them was a good idea, Natasha had never stopped to consider that she would be sharing close quarters with three incredibly gorgeous men who she could never have.
Forethought was clearly not her specialty.
At some point while she was lost in thought, the two of them had stopped sparring. It looked like their bout was being called a draw, and when she started paying attention again, they were both staring at her like they had already said her name a few times.
Natasha fought the urge to blush. “That was impressive,” she said, hoping they wouldn’t say anything. “You’re both really good.”
Temos looked pleased, and Alaran looked away. So pretty par for the course there. At some point, she was going to have to figure out what she had done to make Alaran dislike her so much. Every time she thought they were making progress, it always ended up like this.
Before she could get too deep into thinking about that, Temos held a hand out to her.
"What?" she asked, startled.
"Would you like to learn with your weapon?" he asked her.
"Are you sure you're not too tired?"
Temos just laughed. "I do believe I can manage. Do you have it with you?"
She nodded and pulled it from her belt.
"Very good," he praised, and something about that went straight to places that had nothing to do with learning how to use a dagger. At least she was pretty sure they didn't.
"Now," he continued. "The first thing that you need to learn is how to hold it. A dagger is not a sword. It is also not a very short sword. You cannot think of it like a sword or you won't use it effectively. A dagger is a dagger, a weapon of its own kind. And you hold it like this."
He came forward and curled her fingers around the hilt of the dagger, showing her the right way to hold it out from her body.
Natasha tried hard not to blush and to pay attention to what he was saying. Learning this well could save her life someday, and she needed to pay attention and not spend her time marveling at how big Temos' hands were compared to hers and wondering how they would feel in other places.
"Good," he said as she showed him her grip, and she smiled.
They went through the basics for a while, him showing her how to hold it for different kinds of attacks, and how to hold it to try to fend off an attack. Daggers, she learned, could be thrown in a pinch, but it sounded less impressive than the movies and stuff made it look because then you were down a weapon, and unless you managed to kill your opponent by throwing it, you were going to be screwed.
It was more of a close range weapon, meant for well-placed stabs and cuts when you were already in harm's way.
By the time Temos declared the lesson over, her brain was full of new information, and she had a handle on the growing crush.
So. Progress all around.
Az must have said something to the other two about her boredom because the next day they called her into the command console just in time to see that they had already landed somewhere.
"We are here," Temos said, turning to grin at Natasha over his shoulder.
She looked out the window, but from what she could tell they were just in a black space. "Where's here?" she asked. "The Void?"
The three of them shuddered when she turned to look back at them. "No, not the Void," Temos confirmed. "You cheeky thing. We are on Galinderon."
"Temos, you're going to have to give me more than that. I don't know what that means."
Alaran looked pained. "Humans know nothing of the worlds beyond their skies."
"Nope. I mean, we learn about the other planets in our solar system and all, but other than that, nothing. There being life on other planets is still being heavily debated."
"And while humans debate, we are thriving out here without their notice," Az pointed out. "Not exactly a tragedy."
"Fair," Alaran conceded.
"If we're done now." Temos looked impatient. He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, and it was amusing how he looked like a seven foot tall seven year old in that moment. "Galinderon awaits. You'll like this, Nat," he said.
"I will?"
Temos nodded. "Come on."
They disembarked, and the three of them waved away her questions about being able to breathe and all. "You'll be fine," Az told her. "They keep it regulated for people who breathe oxygen and anything similar to it. Can't have a place this big and have people suffocating all over the place."
"Right," she said, still having no idea where they were. This was the second place they had touched down on, and as long as it was different from the first, with its murder and people who wanted to enslave her, she would be happy.
Once they stepped off the ship, it was clear why everything was so dark. They were in a sort of...intergalactic parking garage. It looked just like a parking garage that you'd find in the city, only it was massive and full of space ships of different shapes and sizes.
Their ship wasn't even one of the biggest ones, and they wove their way between a huge dome shaped craft and a smaller shuttle, heading for what she assumed was the exit.
"Delta Nine," Alaran said. "That's where we've parked. Everyone remember Delta Nine."
"I'll do my best," Natasha said.
He smiled down at her. "Not you. You just focus on taking this all in."
Now she was really curious about where they were. As they walked out of the garage, she could hear the sound of hundreds and hundreds of people. Aliens. Beings.
It sounded a stadium or a packed arena or...
"Oh my god, it's a mall!" She burst into delighted laughter once they had stepped out of the tunnel from the garage and into the building proper.
It was, in fact, a giant mall. They were on the top floor, it seemed, and the rest of it stretched down in more floors than she could count. It was built in a cylindrical design with shops and stalls around the outer edge, a glass barrier on the inside and the center was just empty space.
As she peered down, Nat could see some kind of fountain that stretched up at least five floors.
And everywhere there were people.
But these were people like she had never seen before. In the weeks that she had been traveling with the dragon three, she'd gotten more than used to them, but these people...creatures were different in every way from her dragon men.
For one thing, there were some that didn't even look like they were people. There were droids and fish looking creature. There were child sized people covered in fur, and massive scaled things that seemed to have a floor of their own. Where they mixed in with the others, they were given a wide berth.
There were a few creatures that looked like glittery jelly fish with too many legs in tanks, floating in a thick, transparent, purple ooze that Natasha didn't even want to contemplate.
"It's their life fluid," Az leaned down to whisper to her. "As long as there's liquid in the tank, they live, but they also consume it as their food source, so once it runs out, they die."
"How long does that take?" Nat whispered back, following his lead, even though she wasn't even sure that a hundred legged jellyfish in a tank could even hear her, let alone understand her language.
"About six hundred years, give or take," he replied, and she laughed, surprised.
It was overwhelming to say the least. Everything was bright and loud and different. Vendors were crying out in a thousand different languages, waving around things that she'd never seen before.
This was such a far cry from the cities she had been to, such an alien experience to be having, and it was wonderful.
She was really out here, out in the galaxy, seeing things. Being among the people.
It was thrilling.
"What do you want to see first?" Temos asked, giving her a warm smile.
"Temos, you're going to have to guide me because I can't even understand what's happening here." But she was still grinning, still so excited.
Her excitement seemed to make the others excited too. "Here," Alaran said, pulling something from his bag. "You'll need this."
It was a small, golden ear piece. "What's that for?"
"You don't have the gift of tongues, so you'll need a translator if you want to understand anything that's happening here. I don't think anyone is going to be speaking Earth English."
"You know, that's fair." She stood still while Alaran put the earpiece in her ear and then smoothed her hair back down. The look he gave her was surprisingly warm, so she smiled back and leaned into him for a moment.
"Alright," he said, clearing his throat. "Let us go and find a map."
Finding the map was the easy part. On every floor there was what Nat could only describe as a 'You Are Here' kiosk that was holographic and had the person who was looking at it displayed as a glowing lavender dot. All you had to do was say where you were trying to go, and the map would shift and change to show you the way and then you could beam the route to any comm devices that you had.
Az looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded. "I have an idea," he said. "Something we should have done already, honestly. Maybe even before the dagger. Follow me."
He led the way to a circular patch of green light on the floor and motioned for them all to stand in it with him. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the light flared and rose around them, becoming like a vertical light tunnel.
Natasha wanted to reach out and touch it, but that seemed foolish, so she kept her hands to herself. Just as she had resolved that thought, the light under their feet became a platform and it began to lift them up, like an elevator.
Az tapped something on his comm device, and once they had risen three levels, the light stopped and let them off.
"That was so cool," Natasha gushed.
This level was slightly less crowded than the one they'd been on before. The stalls were selling things that looked like technology, and Nat peered around Temos to get a better look.
Az laughed and took her hand for a second, leading them over to one stall. Behind the counter was...for lack of a better word, a giant polar bear.
He or she had the furry white face of a polar bear, and the rest of their body seemed to be the same, though the tunic they were wearing covered most of it.
The eyes were more intelligent, though, and when they stepped up, the muzzle like mouth stretched into a grin.
"Welcome," the bear said in a deep voice. He probably wasn't speaking English, but the ear piece translated perfectly. "What can I get for you today?"
"Our friend here is new to the area, and she needs a comm device," Az said.
Excitement welled in her. It seemed like everyone out here had one, and since her phone didn't work out in space, and there was no way to charge it even if it had, she'd been feeling cut off and left out. She'd thought about asking to borrow one of theirs, but they seemed like personal things.
"Of course," the bear man replied, inclining his large head. "Standard or extended range?"
The three of them looked at each other and as one said "Extended."
The bear man just looked amused. "Very well. One moment." He rummaged behind him for a bit and then pulled out a sleek device. It was matte black with a screen set in the center, and it looked just like a tablet or a large cell phone.
When one clawed finger swiped across the screen, it flared with light. "What language?" he asked.
"English," Nat said. "Please."
He looked surprised, but he swiped a few more times and then handed the device out to her. "Place your finger here," he said.
She did so, and for a moment nothing happened. But then the screen pulsed with both heat and light, and the pictures changed to words she could read.
"Now it will be keyed only to you," he said. "That will be seven hundred credits."
Nat looked up, because that sounded like a lot of money. She had some money that she'd brought with her from Earth, but unless there was some sort of exchange system, it wouldn't be helpful. And she was pretty sure she didn't have seven hundred credits worth, anyway.
But Az was already brandishing his comm device and holding it out. The bear man ran a long, thin rod over it, and there was a beeping sound and a disembodied voice said "Transaction complete".
And then it was hers. She had her very own comm device, and she felt more like she was supposed to be here than she maybe ever had.
"Play with it later," Temos said. "There is so much to see."
She nodded and tucked the device into her bag. He was right. There would be time to see what all it could do later.
He was also right that there was so much to see. This place was like several malls packed into one another, and there was no way that they were going to get to everything.
Instead they did their best to hit all the things that seemed interesting. There was a stall selling shawls made from the softest material Natasha had ever felt. One was manned by a mantis looking creature who was selling skewers of something that looked alarmingly like grilled mantis. Still others had jewelry and baubles, and they called out as they walked by that she would look very pretty with a chaos stone around her neck.
Temos urged her to keep walking.
Another stall had simpler items, necklaces that seemed to be made of leather cords and bright stones polished and shaped into pendants.
Temos stopped there and considered for a moment before purchasing a necklace with a shiny stone the same color as his skin.
Nat expected him to wear it himself, but instead he offered it to her with a smile.
"Oh," she breathed. "For me?"
"Yes. If you'd like it."
"Thank you." She lifted her hair out of the way, and he put it around her neck. The stone settled right above the valley of her breasts, and she couldn't help but touch it, still so surprised that it had been bought for her.
They stopped to eat something that she couldn’t pronounce but that was kind of like giant raviolis filled with meat and cheese and covered in a cheesy sauce, and then Alaran bought them all fried dough covered in sugar.
By the time they were heading back to the ship, it had been several hours, and Natasha was tired, sore, but so happy.
“That was amazing,” she said, smiling as they headed back. “Is this the only place like this around?”
“It’s the only one in this system,” Alaran said. “There are probably many more out there.”
“But people prefer this one,” Az chimed in.
“I can see why.”
“You enjoyed it, then?” Temos asked.
“Very much.” She smiled up at him, and her fingers found the pendant, the shiny oval stone warm from her skin.
All she wanted to do when she got back to the ship was sleep, but her mind was spinning with questions.
Natasha gave herself the gift of sleeping in the next morning.
She played around with her comm device, learning what the menus meant and messing around with the applications. Apparently the ship had its own network, and she connected to that easily enough. There was plenty of news to read and there were weather options for a dizzying array of planets. Maybe 'extended' meant she'd be able to contact Earth, which was exciting to think about.
By the time she emerged from her room, it was closing in on noon, and she was hungry.
When she turned the corner, Temos was standing right there, eyes intent. She jumped, surprised, but it seemed like he had been waiting for her.
"Temos, you startled me," she said, half chiding. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you," he replied. "Will you walk with me?"
There weren't very many places to walk on the ship, and whenever one of them wanted a private word, either with her or with each other, the observation deck seemed to be the place to go.
It certainly had the best view, and the others, and even she, had the understanding that it was a space for privacy unless otherwise indicated.
Temos certainly seemed like he wanted privacy for whatever it was he wanted to say to her, so Natasha fell into step with him as they headed for the deck.
When he didn't speak for a long moment, she cleared her throat. It was beyond strange to see Temos of all people this quiet.
Maybe he was kicking her off the ship. Maybe...oh god, maybe they were just going to leave her on the next planet, and no one knew how to tell her, so they'd nominated Temos to do it since he was the one who had been so into the idea of her coming along in the first place.
"Is...something wrong?" she asked finally, heart pounding in her chest.
"No," Temos said. "I do not think so, anyway. But then, I have never had this happen, so I'm unsure."
That didn't bode well.
"Did I....do something wrong?" Natasha asked, her voice soft with worry.
Temos' eyes flashed to her as they made it to the stairs that led to the deck. "No," he said, sounding much more sure of himself this time. "You have done nothing wrong. The opposite, in fact."
"Oh." That was certainly good news, but she had no idea what to expect, then. If he was happy with her, then why did he seem so grave? "You may as well just tell me whatever it is, Temos," she said. "It seems like it's bothering you."
"Perhaps it is. I'm just...confused."
"About what?"
"You."
"Me?"
"You." A smile curved over his full lips. "You see, its things like this that make me confused. You're a human woman, by all rights, you should not be that special."
Natasha rolled her eyes at that. She had no idea what humans had done to become the vermin of the universe, but very few people that she had met so far had seemed to show any respect at all for her kind, and it irritated her just a bit.
"Gee, thanks," she said, deadpan. "So nice to feel appreciated."
"But I do appreciate you!" Temos rushed to say. "We all do. That is the thing. The three of us, we have found that we feel more...complete when you're here. Even Alaran, though I’m not sure he’s realized it yet. Seeing things has taken on a whole new light when we see them with you. We've been traveling for cycles now, just the three of us, but somehow when you're here, it just makes it all better."
Her face was flushing; she could feel it from the heat rushing to her cheeks. No one had ever said things like that to her before, and especially not a very handsome dragon man that she had been eying for weeks now.
Honestly, the three of them were enough to drive her to distraction.
Before she could respond to Temos' sudden outpouring, he was standing right in front of her, not much space between them. He took her hand in both of his, and it felt impossibly small.
God, but there was something so hot about him being so big. If he wanted to, he could sling her over his shoulder without even breaking a sweat, and the thought of that made her throb in places that she had been doing her best to ignore while she was on this ship with three handsome men, who probably had no interest in humans whatsoever.
Except, Temos wasn’t looking at her like he didn’t have any interest. In fact, unless she was much mistaken, his eyes were flaring with something dark and new that looked very much like interest from where she was standing.
It took her breath away to see it, directed at her, no less, and as if he’d sensed that she knew what he was thinking, Temos squeezed her hand lightly with his. “You are extraordinary,” he said, reaching up with one hand to cup the side of her face, fingers brushing hair back behind her ear. “And I would be honored if you’d consider allowing me to court you.”
Natasha blinked, practically turned to jelly where she stood. Honestly, it was a wonder she was even still standing at all with him talking to her like that, touching her like that.
His hand was warm and calloused from holding weapons, and there was so much experience in this man who was touching her so casually, looking at her with hope in his eyes.
“I don’t know what that means,” she said, finally. “I mean, I know what it means in the context of like stories and stuff. There’s a suitor and a princess or something, and usually he’s just saved her from a dragon, and asks for her favor and permission to court her.”
“Why would you want to be saved from a dragon instead of by a dragon?” Temos asked, looking confused.
“Remind me to tell you the dragon stories from my planet,” Natasha said. “But first, could you explain…”
“Oh. Yes. Courting just means that I want you to be my mate.”
He said it like it was so simple. Like it was a matter of fact, and clearly it was for him. He wanted her to be his mate and was asking her permission to court her.
“Oh my god,” Nat said. She stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I dunno, because you’re a seven foot tall, gorgeous dragon man from another planet who could probably have any woman from any species he wanted, and it doesn’t make much sense for you to want me, especially since you just said that I’m only a human and everyone around here seems to have an issue with humans, so—”
Whatever her point was at the end of that tirade, it was lost when Temos leaned forward and kissed her.
Well.
Leaned down and kissed. Down and down and down to her level, and pressed his mouth to hers.
It was a chaste kiss, all things considered, but it took her breath away. She was frozen and she was burning all at the same time. It seemed impossible to move, but heat licked over and under her skin, and that feeling of something was in the air.
It was entirely possible that this was a dream. And if it were, then that was all the more reason why she was kissing Temos back.
Unsure, at first, but when he responded eagerly, she responded right back, grabbing ahold of the front of his tunic and keeping him where he was so she could kiss him like her life depended on it.
The spark was incredible, and it just kept building. Every time one of them pulled back for breath, needing a moment, the other would pull them back in, and it would begin all over again.
Natasha had no complaints about that. Not when it felt this good.
Finally, they parted, mouths kiss bruised, and her heart racing for a completely different reason this time. All the apprehension she’d been feeling before had evaporated, leaving her feeling almost buoyant after that kiss.
Temos was grinning his cocky grin, which had never seemed more attractive to her than it did right then. “May I take that as you agreeing to my courtship?” he asked.
Natasha licked her lips, and god, she could still taste him there, sweet and a little sharp. Bold and heady, like the man himself. Before her brain could go back to overthinking, she let her body do the deciding. “Yes,” she said. “You can.”
Courtship for Temos was nothing like the courtship in the stories.
In the stories, the woman got flowers or notes or poetry. The man would come and take her for a long, romantic walk and then chance a kiss before he saw her home.
For Temos, courtship meant that one evening they’d been kissing on the observation deck, and the next, Natasha was in his room on the ship, in his lap with her shirt off and his hands roaming her body.
Not that she was complaining. If there was an official record somewhere, she wanted to go down on it as definitely not complaining.
Temos had applied that clever mouth to her neck, and he was undoing her little by little. Her shirt had been tossed somewhere over her shoulder, and she was in just her bottoms and her bra, which Temos didn’t seem to be able to stop touching.
“Have you never seen a bra before?” she asked when she could make words come out of her mouth instead of just incoherent moans.
“Mm, no,” Temos said. “Our women don’t wear them, and I’ve never seen anyone else with one. There is quite a lot of this material…” He rubbed the lacy bit that rested between her breasts.
“It’s called lace,” she said.
“And what is lace for?”
She thought of something to say to that and ended up just laughing. “Pretty much just this. Looking nice.”
“It does look nice,” he admitted. “But I want it off.”
It would have been very funny to have her alien lover try to figure out how to undo her bra, only Nat could imagine that Temos’ short patience would run out with the garment and then he’d just rip it off of her, and it wasn’t like she could just go to a shop somewhere and get a new one.
So she undid the clasps in the back and let it fall forward, leaning back just a bit so she could draw it off and toss it in the same direction as her shirt.
And then she was bare chested for him.
Judging by the sudden rush of heat in those eyes, Temos liked that.
Those large hands came around, and almost hesitantly, they touched her. His touch was nice, but nowhere near what she wanted when she was sitting in his lap and already keyed up.
"You can do more than that," Natasha said. "I won't break."
Temos, true to form, seemed to take that as a challenge. He cupped one of her tits in one large hand, testing the weight of it before he was lowering his head and kissing the nipple.
It was a light touch, but she was sensitive, and it made her gasp softly as electric sensation went straight to her core.
Clearly it had been long enough since someone had touched her like this that it wasn't going to take long at all for her to get even more aroused than she already was.
The light kiss turned into a gentle suck which turned into a sharp bite that made a deep, pleased moan fall from her lips.
He explored her chest with hands and mouth, and Natasha was surprised to find that she was already wet and getting close, just from this.
Maybe it was because it had been so long since she'd been with another person, or maybe Temos was just good. It felt like he was playing her body like an instrument, finding all the right places to make her sing.
She was enjoying herself, but it was all very one sided, and she grinned before planting her hands on Temos's chest and pushing him back so he was flat on the bed and she was practically straddling him.
He was fully dressed, and that just wouldn't do at all.
"Off," she said, tugging the hem of his shirt up and over the muscles of his stomach.
And good lord, was he toned. He wasn't overly muscular in that gross way that some body builders in the magazines and on TV were, but it was clear that he took care of himself and that he'd been doing so for a long time.
Natasha wanted to lick those abs, so she gave into temptation for a moment before peeling his shirt off with his help.
His chest was just as well defined, and the markings that ran over his arms were there too, thick lines that stretched over his shoulders and down his pectorals.
His skin all over was the same as what she'd seen, and there were more shimmering scales at his collarbones.
Her mouth watered at the sight.
Honestly, how was he so attractive? She ran her hands over all that skin and muscle and then followed it up with her mouth, just exploring the bounty that was on display in front of her.
There was so much of it, and she had no idea what to do with all of him.
Luckily, Temos didn't seem to have any issue with taking charge.
Her being on top was short lived, and in a matter of seconds, Temos had her flat on her back on the bed, her arms pinned above her.
She knew it was pointless to struggle. Temos had probably a hundred pounds or more on her, and she could feel the strength in the one hand that he was using to hold her down.
Still, something about how helpless she was under his hand turned her on something fierce, and she bucked and twisted and tried to get away.
Temos just waited patiently for her to tire herself out, a smirk on his face that was just as hot as it was infuriating. His confidence in himself and his strength was one of the most attractive things about him, if she were being honest.
"Ready to give up?" he asked her, grinning.
"I dunno," she panted. "What do I get if I submit?"
He leaned down and captured her mouth in a fierce kiss, teeth nipping at her bottom lip.
She was helpless to that, too. The way he kissed her was all consuming and sent fire racing up and down her spine.
Already she was wet for him, and her mind flashed back to the time when she had been alone on the ship, touching herself to the thought of him taking her.
So far, this was much, much better than she would have imagined.
"Okay," she panted when he finally let her breathe. "That's a pretty good deal."
He laughed and kept her in place with one hand while he reached down with the other, freeing his cock from the confines of his pants.
Natasha lifted her head to get a good look at it, and her mouth dropped open.
Holy sweet lord.
She'd known, of course, that someone that big would have to have a cock to match, and she'd used her biggest dildo when fantasizing about the dragons and what they might be hiding under their clothes.
But somehow imagining it and seeing it were different enough that she was blown away.
His cock was beautiful, for one thing. It was the same color as the rest of him, and while there were no scales on it, the markings that ran over his arms and chest were replicated at the base of his length, almost like a cock ring.
It was already hard, standing out proudly and aimed right for her entrance. Her clit practically throbbed at the thought of being stuffed with that.
Temos let her look her fill, and grinned smugly down at her. "Do you think you can handle it?"
"I can handle anything you want to give me," she fired back, determined.
That was the thing about Temos, he made you want to rise to meet his level, to take on his challenge head on, and that apparently applied in bed, as well.
Temos just smirked at her and then got to work.
And god, what good work he did. He kissed her, making it impossible for her to focus on anything else while his lips and teeth and tongue were working her up, so when his fingers found their way between her legs, she was definitely not expecting it.
She cried out into the kiss as those thick digits pushed into her, eased by how slick she already was.
Her toes curled and she bucked her hips, practically humping his hand as he worked her up.
"I need you to be all nice and ready for me," he murmured against her lips. "You've seen how big I am, and you're so tight."
Her face flamed at that, and she moaned softly, already going even tighter around his fingers. He pumped in with them once, twice, three more times, and that was enough to have her falling apart for the first time that evening, gasping his name as she made a mess on his hand.
He just grinned at her.
His cock was dripping onto her belly from where he was on top of her, and she swallowed hard when he gripped the base and moved it down, rubbing the head against the silky wet of her entrance.
"Do you want it?" he teased, fingers tightening where they held her wrists down.
"Yes," Natasha gasped, breathless and bordering on desperate.
"Beg me for it."
Her face was so red, and she opened her mouth to say that she couldn't. It would be too embarrassing. But what came out was "Please, Temos. Please, I want your cock so bad. Please, please, please." Well. Alright, then.
He grinned once more and then started slowly inching his way inside of her.
And god. Good lord. Good god in heaven. It was nothing like her dildo now that it was inside of her.
For one thing, it was much, much thicker. Only the head and a little of the shaft were inside of her, and already she felt full and stuffed.
Her mouth dropped open as he pushed the rest in, and once he had bottomed out inside of her, she was already spasming around him, writhing on the bed as she came on his cock the same way she had just come on his fingers.
Her body was trembling with sensation, hovering on the edge of being too sensitive, and Temos hadn't even started to move yet.
When he did, it was all Natasha could do to hold on. Luckily he was holding her down because she felt like her body might spin apart and fly off into space at this rate.
She burned hot, and the heat spread from her core out to the rest of her, setting her on fire with pleasure.
Temos didn't hold anything back, either. He thrust into her at a demanding pace, taking her as he wanted her, grunting with pleasure.
"You're so wet," he groaned. "So tight. So good."
The praise helped, and before she knew it, she was coming again, going rigid and arching sharply as she was flooded with orgasm.
Temos made her come another time before he even showed signs that he was close. His stamina was impressive, to say the least, and when he finally started thrusting faster and swearing under his breath, Natasha was exhausted and she couldn't come again.
Temos found his release with a long, satisfied groan of her name, and then he was flopping on top of her, releasing her wrists and kissing her softly.
The thing that was amazing about Temos, aside from his physical prowess and the fact that he had just made her come more times than she had in the last year probably, was how he seemed to be made of contrasts sometimes.
He'd just pinned her down to the bed and taken what he wanted from her, and now he was cuddling her like she was a stuffed animal, one large hand stroking her hair soothingly.
It was so comfortable, and so relaxing, and Natasha was nearly asleep before Temos spoke softly to her.
"Tell me something," he murmured.
"Hm? Something like what?"
"Anything. Tell me a secret."
She blinked and yawned, snuggling closer to his warmth. A secret. There were all sorts of things that she'd never told anyone before. Things that she didn't want people to know, things that she barely admitted to herself. But here in this bed with Temos' arms around her, she felt safer than she had in a long while.
"I was really scared to come with you," she whispered after a moment. "I didn't think I'd be useful at all, and I didn't want you to regret letting me come."
It was a smaller secret, but still something she hadn't planned on telling any of them. Especially Temos who had been so excited about her coming with them in the first place.
He was quiet for long enough that Natasha was starting to get worried that she had hit the nail on the head and they were all disappointed in her. But then Temos smiled and kissed the top of her head.
"We love having you here," he said. "You bring something I think we all needed."
"A feminine touch?" she teased, relieved.
"No. Well, yes, I guess. But. You make things better. I said that already, and I don't really know how to say what I really feel, just. I'm really glad you came with us."
"Me, too," Natasha murmured.
And especially in this moment, she was.