Page 18 of Fog of War
“I know,” she said, then laughed at herself, glancing at the ceiling with a self-deprecating smile. “I know what convergence is and what it means. My best friend is a venandi, remember? I… I know.” Her brows drew together and she growled the cutest, most ineffectual growl I’d ever heard. “I hope that Tetradijerkgot his butt kicked.”
I surprised myself with a purr of amusement and took a few steps closer, gesturing to the blood on my plates. “I’d say I kicked it pretty thoroughly.”
Her eyes lingered on the remnants of her palm print and mine, smeared together from the bloodiest, most satisfying fight I’d ever had, and swallowed hard. “I’m sorry about all this.”
“I’m not,” I admitted. “You saved me from a future I would have hated.” I didn’t add that I was now thoroughly and forever obsessed with her. That I’d see her every time I closed my eyes. Every time I pumped my cock. Every moment of every day would belong to her, and it wasn’t just because her scent was now laced with the traces of my own DNA. Gabbie and I didn’t know each other well, but from the moment she slapped me, ithad felt as if she’d tied a rope around my spine and pulled me along in her wake.
She took a deep breath and held out her hand to shake, just like we had at the opening ceremony. “My name’s Gabriella Rubens. Everyone just calls me Gabbie, though. I work in a university study away office. It’s nice to officially meet you and I hope we can be good… partners.”
Her introduction sounded more like we were colleagues than mates. I slid my talons across her palm and wrist, letting her know that my idea of good partners wasnot at allplatonic.
“Paladus Ferulis. My close friends call me Ladi.” I leaned in, pulling Gabbie towards me slowly, testing how comfortable she felt, watching the pulse in her neckthump, thump, thump, tempting me to bury my face in the scent of her blood rushing beneath the surface. “But most people just call me ‘sir,’ since I train MOUT teams.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away. I brushed my mandibles against her cheek, leaning into her ear to murmur, “Military Operations, Urban Terrain.”
Gabbie swallowed, breath puffing from her lips in short bursts. She squeezed my hand a little harder, and I grinned.
“What are you thinking about?” Ihrummedbeneath my words, just enough to drive home the fact I wasn’t disappointed with our predicament. Despite the intense pleasure I felt in scratching that itch, I reined it back when her hand twitched in mine.
“Just… I’m really glad I came,” she breathed. Her eyes went wide and her knees slammed together beneath the blanket. “T-to to, ah, to come to the festival.”
I stood up straight, puffing out my chest, taking her hand with me. She held onto me for support as she stood from the bed, her five-toed feet bare on the stone floor. Her hand and breath both trembled, face so red that her ears had turned pink.
Her slip of the tongue, while encouraging to me, hadn’t felt the same to her. She couldn’t look me in the eye, and if I chewed on the inside of my cheek like she was, I’d have left bloody gashes already.
“Gabbie,” I said, taking her shoulders in my palms. I dipped my head to catch her eye and she looked at me with reluctance. A lump formed in my throat, staring at those prismatic orbs. “Do I scare you?”
She huffed an exhale. “No.”
“Why are you shaking?”
“Well, uh… I guess I just realized that…”
I raised one brow plate, recalling the human word forvir.“I’m your husband?”
Jackpot.
Gabbie covered her face with both hands and groaned. “I can’t tell people I eloped with a venandi at a sex festival.”
I laughed, unable to contain the bubbles of amusement in my chest.“Vira,”I said, tilting her face up until she had to look me in the eye. “Youdidelope with a venandi at a sex festival.”
Her palm smacked my chest with a sharpwhackand we both smiled.
“I’mnotapologizing this time,” she quipped.
I rubbed the tingle into my chest and purred in affirmation. “Good.”
Then her smile fell. She chewed on her lip, glancing at the restroom. “Have I started changing?”
I gestured towards the open doorway, clacking my mandibles together with a human nod. “Yes. Do you want to see?”
The light glowed to life above us as we entered, me at Gabbie’s back, looming in the doorway like a grim reaper. I was covered in gore and glowing neon colors, and she was my silvery spirit, so sweet and reserved. She gasped, poking and proddingher features, rubbing the misty sheen on her skin. No matter how she scrubbed, it would never come off.
I felt a sense of erotic pride at that.
I swallowed another purr and crossed my arms as she worried over herself. “Would you like me tohrumfor you?”Say yes, say yes, say yes.I adjusted my mouthparts as she looked at me in her reflection, suddenly unsure. “It isn’t always like convergence. I can affect your mood now. Help soothe you.”
When she gave me a thin-lipped nod, I eased into thehrumI’d been holding back for turns. Her flesh pebbled, and then her heart rate slowed. The tremor in her lungs evened out, and the tension in her shoulders softened. Miraculously, mine did too, calm because she was calm.
