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HE WANTS ME AS HIS plaything.
She should close her legs. She should walk out. Forget about this entire encounter. But when his tongue touched her clit, she lost all rational thought.
God. She fell against the desk. Melis laved her, taking his time to lick her. He didn’t do anything special, just licked. The roughness of his tongue stroked her clit and innermost folds. But that was all she needed him to do. He moaned into her. She arched her back and tightened her thighs around his head.
He scooped her thighs with a growl, pinning them in his arms. His tongue moved down to her vagina. No, the derogatory term was pussy. She’d never thought to use that term, ever, but right now felt like the perfect time for such words.
His tongue delved inside her pussy, his nose on her clit and her hips grinded against his face. Yes, this was the perfect time to use derogatory terms. “Oh, yes! Melis, fuck me.”
Melis ripped himself from her pussy and stood. With a grunt he pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the side. She’d dreamed of what his naked body would look like. Dark skin spread taut over defined muscles. She wasn’t disappointed.
He pushed down his pants and stepped out of them. His cocks were hard and throbbing. A smaller one, hooked upward, sat above the larger, much larger, one. He was glorious. The epitome of an Alpha male and, for this moment, he was hers. She wanted him. All of him. Lanta let her knees fall to the sides, but he had other plans.
“Mine.” Melis grabbed the underside of her knees and pulled her forward roughly. Her butt hung off the edge of the desk. He angled her and pressed his larger cock against her pussy. The heat of it breached her. His tail curled around his body to lie against her stomach. The bushy end rubbed against one of her nipples. She couldn’t breathe. She wanted this so badly.
“Do it,” she commanded.
Melis plunged into her and Lanta caught her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Big, so big,” she strained to say. It filled her completely. Overwhelmed her. She curled her fingers into fists.
He stilled. “Does it hurt? I’m sorry, according to the file we should fit.”
“Did the files account for size?” she said tightly, trying to will away the pain of being stretched.
Was he growing bigger within her? Expanding? Hardening?
She craned her neck. Oh, God.
Lanta groaned. How could this hurt and feel good at the same time?
“I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll pull out.”
“What? No.” She moved her body, trying to position herself at a better angle.
“Lanta,” Melis warned. His claws bit into her skin.
As she repositioned herself it started to feel...better...good. There was a spot...inside her...that his cock rubbed and pressed. The smaller cock parted her folds to lay slick against her clit.
Her eyes rolled back. “Oh, God. Melis.”
The sound he let out was guttural. Feral. Animalistic.
She couldn’t stop herself. She had to keep moving. Pressing. Pressing. Pressing.
Her eyes watered. Something built within her. What she’d thought of as an orgasm before happened, but it wasn’t enough. There was more. So much more. She kept moving, bucking. Her movements frantic. She wanted what came next. She needed it.
A real orgasm crashed through her. Lanta screamed. She shook violently. She thought she was falling, but there was nowhere for her to go. Melis’s grip on her tightened. She wasn’t falling. He had her. She was safe.
Melis moved, thrusting into her, each stroke deeper and harder. His pace was steady, not slow and not fast. Just right. Just right for her.
Lanta watched him through half-lidded eyes. His muscles flexed with each pump into her. He was so powerful.
His smaller cock continued to rub against her clit relentlessly, awakening every nerve. Her stomach tightened, knotted.
“Yes,” she breathed out.
She reached for his smaller cock and wrapped her hand around it.
“Lanta,” he groaned.
She stroked him in rhythm to his thrusts. Melis roared and thrust harder, faster. His claws breached a layer of her skin. Another wave of ecstasy crashed through her. Melis roared and spasmed. His seed shot inside of her. After a few struggling thrusts he fell on top of her.
* * *
THEY HAD SOMEHOW ENDED up on the floor of his office, sprawled across his plush rug. Melis pulled her closer and Lanta snuggled her bottom against his cocks. “Careful now. I might not need that break.”
“But I do,” she said sleepily. “Three times was tiring.”
His hand cupped one of her heavy breasts and he nudged her ear with his nose. “Rest, little human. I have more things I would like to do to your body”
She slapped at him. “I’m not so little.”
“No. These aren’t little at all,” he said while gripping her breast.
“You like them?”
“Like doesn’t do justice to the feelings I have for them. Do I dare say I love them? Yes, I think I might.”
Lanta chuckled.
Melis loved more than her breasts. He nuzzled his face against the side of her head. A jewel fell off and stuck to his nose. He pushed up to an elbow and picked the glittering blue gem from his skin. “I believe this belongs to you?”
Lanta rolled onto her back and groaned. She opened her palm and Melis dropped the jewel into it. “I thought I had a few more weeks before I had to set these again.”
“They’re held onto your skin with an adhesive?”
She nodded and pressed the jewel back into place. “It’s cumbersome, but something I have to do.”
“Why do you wear them?”
“Because it’s my right. I earned it.”
Melis lay next to her, side-by-side, so their shoulders touched. “I don’t know much about the Oncuns. They keep to themselves mostly. Only a few visit off-world. I’ve seen some with the facial jewels and some without. What’s the significance?”
“It’s a rite of passage. Oncuns, when they are of age, are given the opportunity to prove themselves as someone of worth. It’s not a requirement of adulthood, so not everyone participates. It depends mostly on the village or region. But for those of us who do, we’re seen...recognized as elite. We go on to become elders.”
“I easily can see you rising to this challenge.”
“For me. It wasn’t a choice. I had to do it.”
“You just said it wasn’t a requirement.”
“For an Oncun maybe, but not for someone like me. An off-worlder. Human. If I didn’t do it, they would’ve forever looked upon me as lesser. Weak.”
Melis moved his arm, positioning it under her head. Lanta cuddled into the crook. “I would never use those words to describe you.”
Her fingers found his free hand and she laced hers together with his, resting against his chest. He gripped her tightly. He could hold her for a lifetime.
“What did you have to do?”
“I had to find a thax beast, kill it, and present the head to the elders.”
That didn’t sound too bad. Many species marked adulthood with a rite of passage involving a beast hunting expedition.
“I’ve never heard of such an animal. What does it look like?”
She released his hand and touched her comlink. When the search bar projected, she typed out the name.
“They live on one of Luur’s moons. They’ve overpopulated so there’s no fear of hunting them to extinction.”
A picture of the beast was displayed. Seriously? “You hunted that?” Melis yelled.
The beast had six legs. Its massive body hunched over. Spikes grew along its spine and there were three larger spikes poking out from both sides of its body. Each foot had three deadly claws. Its mouth didn’t cover its teeth. They protruded out, long and sharp.
The thax had two sets of eyes; a set to see what was in front of it and another set to see objects on the sides. It was a beast he hoped to never encounter, but Lanta had hunted and killed one. The jewels on her face were a testament to her accomplishment.
Pride swelled in his chest. “How old were you?”
“Thirteen.”
“A thirteen-year-old child was sent off to hunt that?”
Melis wouldn’t send some of his best warriors to fight anything that gruesome. He read the description under the picture.
“The thax hunt and travel in packs. They hunt by surrounding their prey and closing in. They prefer to eat their food alive and become disinterested once it is dead.” He turned to glare at her. “Who allowed you to do this?”
“My Aunt Varlah. Elkah, her own daughter, went to the moon as well. There were one hundred of us in all.”
“And how many returned?”
“Fifty-eight.”
“And of those, how many returned with the head of the beast?”
“Eight.”
Melis grunted. “It makes me proud you were able to conquer the beast.” No one could accuse his true lifemate as being weak! “And angry because you had to risk your life in order to fit in. Was this after your mother died?”
Lanta nodded. “If she had been alive, she wouldn’t have let me do it. She didn’t like that I worked so hard to blend with the Oncuns. She used to encourage me to be different. Myself.”
“She sounds very smart.”
“Sometimes I don’t think she was very smart at all,” Lanta mumbled.
He angled his head to look at her. “Why would you say that?”
“Humans and Oncuns have a low birth compatibility rate and my mother still decided to take an Oncun mate and bear his child. She thought having a half-Oncun child would allow us to fit in. She’d always given me talks about being unique and different, but, in the end, she’d tried to fit in too. She didn’t take her own advice and it killed her.”
“She died during the birth?”
She sniffled. “My brother took a few breaths after the birth, but his lungs were all wrong. His chest cavity was too thick and rigid, like Oncuns, and didn’t accommodate for the expansion of his human lungs. He suffocated to death.”
Melis cursed under his breath. Her mom might not have understood the implications of mating with someone incompatible, but the Oncuns should have. They weren’t as technologically advanced as their neighbors, but they weren’t a Class 20-ii world either. The information regarding compatibility should’ve been at their fingertips.
“And your mother?”
“She needed off-planet medical intervention, but we couldn’t afford it.”
“Why couldn’t a medic on Luur attend to her?”
Lanta buried her face in his side. Her hand cupped the side of his face and stroked his whiskers. Melis gathered her into his arms. He wanted to take all her hurt and pain away.
“The medic came to our house, but my mom was in so much pain; crying, screaming, that she...she couldn’t stay. My aunt and the elders told my mom over and over again that she had to contain her emotions for the medic. My mother couldn’t. The medic tried to work through her discomfort, but she just couldn’t... It wasn’t the medic’s fault.”
“Don’t make excuses for the medic,” Melis said through clenched teeth. The Oncuns had failed her mother. They shouldn’t have let such a birth progress and they should’ve given her proper medical attention. Her death had been avoidable. “It was her job to help your mother and she failed.”
“But Oncuns have a hard time dealing with feelings—”
“Then the medic should’ve taken another profession!” he snapped.
Lanta curled against him, her body wracking with each sob that tore through her.
Melis nuzzled his face on top of her head. “Lanta, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
She sniffled back her tears. “It was a long time ago and I learned a valuable lesson from it.”
“What did you learn?”
“That fitting in on Luur was a matter of life or death.”
They lay in silence; Melis holding Lanta, never wanting to let her go, and Lanta crying until finally her body stilled and relaxed.
“My mom never registered us into the protective services of the Okuthyu. But sometimes I wonder whether our lives might’ve been better if she had. I hate to even think about it, because thinking about all the mistakes my mom made somehow tarnishes her memory and negates the help Aunt Varlah extended to us.”
“Your mom was allowed to make mistakes, Lanta. No one is perfect. She was abducted from Earth and used for research. She was able to escape and get you to safety. Luur was safe and she had someone willing to take her in. She made a choice based on the information she knew and at the time she thought it was the right choice.”
“But I can’t help but wonder whether, if she’d registered us with the Okuthyu, we would have struggled as we did. I wouldn’t know what hunger felt like. I wouldn’t have spent most of my childhood trying to fit in with people who ignored me at any hint of emotion. I could’ve had more than one friend. And, most importantly, my mom might still be alive.”
He laid his cheek against her hair. “I also wish you hadn’t gone through what you had. But persevering through hardships made you who you are today—strong, independent and respected. Your mother stayed away from the Okuthyu for a reason. They would’ve trapped you on a protected planet that wasn’t Earth, and you wouldn’t have seen or experienced the galaxy as you have.”
A chime sounded, indicating someone was at his door.
“Who’s that?” Lanta asked, her voice groggy. “Should I leave now?”
“No. Stay. It’s our food.” He’d ordered it after the second round of their lovemaking. He got up and went to the door, not bothering to cover himself. He opened the door a crack and peered out. It was one of his favorite waiters, someone he’d played with when he was younger. “Davi.”
“Melis.” He raised his eyebrows. “Am I to come in and set this up for you or try to somehow slip the tray to you between the small opening?”
Melis glanced behind him. He could let Davi in, but keeping Lanta a secret was imperative. She had her position to think about.
He’d jeopardized her job and, even though he’d righted it, he’d jeopardized it again by forcing her here. She’d been right. He was privileged. He’d never felt so guilty of the fact until now. Nothing would happen to him if it was found that he’d sought out one of his guests’ personal guards. No one would reprimand him. None of his business endeavors would be affected and he wouldn’t lose his position because of it.
But Lanta?
She could lose everything because of him.
“My arm is tiring,” Davi said.
Melis turned back to Davi and rolled his eyes. “The last time we trained together you bested me. Don’t pretend a tray of fruits and desserts is tiring you.” Melis reached out and Davi gave him the tray. “Be gone with you.”
Davi turned, a smirk on his face. “Tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow, you weakling.”
Lanta started to rise when she saw him returning. Her eyes were red and puffy.
“No, stay there.” He set the food at her side and she didn’t waste any time in digging in. He sat behind her and undid her bun.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Later. I want to fix your hair.”
“My hair? Really?”
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this.”
Soft. Just like he’d imagined.
When he undid the pins she’d used to secure her hair in place, he extended his claws and used them to comb her tight curls. She ate her food, oblivious to the joy he experienced with each pass of his fingers.
When he had her hair combed out, he used one claw to separate it into sections and began braiding it in one of the designs he preferred.
“I wouldn’t think you knew how to comb and braid hair.”
“Have you not been paying attention to us? Everyone in the palace has their hair braided in some style or another, even Payton.”
“I know that. But I assumed you had staff to do this.”
“And let them take away the only part of my morning grooming routine I actually enjoy? Never.”
She giggled. “This feels nice. My mom used to comb my hair.”
Melis could play in her hair for hours.
Lanta moaned and danced a little as she ate. She was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. Now he knew why true lifemates made some Ngonyamas addle-brained. Melis wanted to forget about all the plans he’d made. And all of the discussions he’d had at length with Themba and Mxolisi, strategizing their future.
It seemed a lifetime ago.
Melis could see himself forgetting all that just to have her sit between his legs, forever, as he braided her hair, and he would be content.
“What are these?” She held up one of the sweets.
“According to my brother, humans like to eat sugary sweets off each other during sex.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Really? Why didn’t I know that?”
He finished the last braid. “I ordered it because I thought we could give it a try.”
Lanta giggled. “I’m willing to try all human customs.”
He laid her back, with her head resting on his lap, and picked up one of the treats to smear across her breasts. She moaned and smiled wickedly.
Yes. He could see himself forgetting all duties to stay with her.