Page 21 of Defiance
“Wouldn’t a bed be more comfortable? We can go back to mine,” I offered.
Novak froze from the lungs out. They pumped desperately, trying to take a breath, but he wouldn’t let them. He drew back with wide eyes and shuddered back to life.
“To—”
“Yes,” I cut him off impatiently.
“Absolutely not,” he hissed, thatshinkof scales cascading down his spine. “I can’t.”
“Imani’s already had a word with me about it. I’ve no problem as long as the bite doesn’t hurt too bad.” I glanced at his mouth with a spike of pleasurable fear. “Nearly certain you have solenoglyphous fangs, so I’m actually easier about it now than I was befo—”
“Srac!”he swore, sliding off the boulder to pace the ground. His tail refused to give up my ankles, dragging me towards the edge with a yelp. Those scales of his rose like hackles, exposing a bright orange interior like the markings on his face. “She hadnoright to speak to you about something neither of you can understand.”
I blinked, caught off guard by his mood swing. Hot one minute, frigid the next. “I trust Imani. I trust Vindilus. And they trustyou.Isn’t this what we both agreed to?”
“You’ll become pregnant,” he snapped, a raging animal pacing a cage. His tail was like a leash, still knotted around my legs even if Novak looked like he wanted to flee.
I reared back. “Uh, no. I won’t.”
“Advenans are chimaeri. Our seed is potent with any species. It’s a certainty,” he said, coming to an abrupt halt to pull on his ears and curl over himself with a desperate snarl. “Fuck! I can’t burn here. I need to go.” He tried to walk away, but his tail cinched tighter.
With a growl he turned back around and started prying it away from my skin with his bare hands.
“Novak,” I said calmly, letting him wrestle with his tail over my ankles. I pushed through my shattered pride and took a deep breath. “If we could, would you want to?”
He paused, swallowing hard, breathing in shallow spurts with his scales tamped down tight.
“Novak—”
“Yes,” he rasped angrily.
I lifted up my skirt, exposing plain black panties to show him the three scars on my abdomen that had marked me as a failed woman in the eyes of my family and ex-husband. “I had a hysterectomy six years ago. Doesn’t matter how potent your swimmers are. No uterus, no babies.”
His eyes went wide, the red slits blown open so I could see specks of black like strawberry seeds. He pressed a shaking claw to the marks, splaying his fingers across my belly. Hiscolearaswelled slightly as he breathed me in.
“You have no womb,” he murmured in a daze.
“Right. So.” I licked my lips. “Unless you have a lover somewhere or an STI, there’s no reason two adults can’t just… do this.”
“No reason?” Novak chuckled darkly. “There are plenty of reasons.” His tail slipped out of his other hand as he stared at the crux of my legs, winding around my ankles once more. It tugged on me until I was holding myself up from falling over the edge of the boulder, frock tumbling back into place over my panties. He slid his claws along my thighs until they disappeared beneath my skirt and pricked my hips.
“Say it to me one more time, Charlie,” he growled, rubbing his cheek against my frock. “I don’t want permission, I want you to fucking demand it.”
My arms gave out and he held my weight, trapping me with his groin pressed against my knees, my ankles between histhighs. I balanced my palms on his shoulders, overwhelmed with ragged breath.
“Have sex with me, Novak,” I said with wide eyes and a tremor in my voice. “Find me anywhere.”
Novak groaned at my last words, forehead pressed against my sternum.
“All in, right, Charlie?”
He glanced up at me and I nodded with a crease in my brow.
“Yes,” I breathed.
Novak snarled at himself, then ripped me from the boulder in rough claws and slung me over his shoulder.
08
