Page 79 of Taken to Voraxia
I wonder if she does not feel the stirring of the Xanaxana equally because she meets my gaze, swallows and licks her lips. “Did he tell you that he saved her life?”
“He wishes for me to lash him for his inability to prevent you and Svera from being taken, and for the injuries you each sustained.”
Air jerks into her lungs. “You cannot.”
I plant the kiss on the inside of her wrist and lower onto the pallat beside her, rolling onto my side. My other hand moves from her stomach up and then down, gently stroking her from breast to hip, this beastly fur separating us.Calm yourself. She is injured and has been through much.
“I will not.”
“Good. It’s barbaric.”
“So am I.” My voice deepens. My xora stiffens to the point of pain. I rip the covers from her chest and bare her breasts to the light. As my gaze pours over her darkened peaks, I growl, “Do not have fear. I know you bear injuries still. I just want to look.”
She quiets, except for her rough intake of breath and I feel desire course through my bones, fueling the desperate violet that my ridges are now.
My Miari reaches out and touches my neck. “Are you hurt?”
“Nox.”
“Then I don’t just want you to look.”
“Miari,” I groan. “Do not tempt me.”
“Do you not want me?” She says and I know that she baits me with her words. Her legs begin to shift and very slowly, she pushes the blankets down to her hips. She stops, leaving that one most delicate part of her covered.
I bite down on my tongue, hoping that the pain may be enough to clear my thoughts. It is not. “Miari, how could I not want you? You are my Xiveri mate. The female I care for most in this world. You are my whole universe and now you will bear my youngling. I still cannot believe it.”
She beams up at me, her face radiating light as her laughter floats through my werro tree, making it my home. “You mean that you could get me pregnant without that stupid belt? Itoldyou so.”
“Nox,” I say and I release the pleasure sound too. “That I could deserve such happiness. That I could deserve you.”
She quiets for a moment and I am merely content to let her stroke my face. Until her soft fingers begin moving down over my neck and chest and my xora roars. “So, you aren’t mad at me then?”
“For what?”
“For calling out your name in front of all those people? For shouting Xoran…”
I exhale, leaning over her, unable to stop the madness she has stirred in me. I lean into her mouth, waiting for her to open and I am surprised and bewildered and elated and above all else, pleased, when she does. As I am every time. The taste of her warm wetness, tongue spearing against hers, seeking her jujji berry essence, and the excitement it brings does not diminish with time. It increases. Ten fold. Exponentially.
In between her kiss, I whisper, “Miari, you may call me whatever you like to whomever you want so long as you live. Never leave my side again. I have too much of this love for you. And now I have this love also for our unborn youngling. I worship you, my universe. My Miari…”
She gasps and a sudden lightness dazzles my eyes. I know that my ridges are in full bloom, every inch of the love she inspires in me flowing from them in abandon I cannot control and do not want to. But when I pull back from her, I notice that in her cheeks, Miari now has color too. She hascolors. Every color of the universe. I cannot breathe. I can only stare, shock rendering me numb.
“Comets, am I…” She touches her face, fingers tracing the outline of the color as if she’s trying to capture it and see it for her own. But she can’t. Because her color…right now…it’s only for me. And it will only ever be for me because I am hers and she is mine and she is the greatest gift I could have ever hoped for.
I shift my body between her thighs, spreading them with my knees. She inhales sharply and pulls on my neck, but I resist and hold myself off of her with my arms. “I will mount you, but you will remain still and accepting of the pleasure I give you.”
She grins. “Hexa, my Raku.” I can tell that she teases me, but as my xora lines up with her folds, which are already smeared in wetness I want to taste — and will — I do not care. I hunger too deeply. And I love her even more.
23
Miari
“Xoran, what is this? Where are we going?” I laugh as he leads me blindfolded across the sandy forest floor.
“Shh no more questions now,” he says, voice stern — or as stern as it can be these days. The pregnancy has made him such a softie. Anoverprotectivesoftie.
Since the Niahhorru attack seventeen solars ago, I’ve only been out of the house three of those. And only after insisting that I wanted to see Svera and using both promises and threats to get my way. So far I’ve kept them all.
