Page 32 of Collision!
With her thighs clamped around his skull, he felt the violence of her release reverberate through his bones.Closing his eyes, he reveled in the flavor of her ecstasy flooding his mouth.
This was better than dreaming.
As the aftershocks rocked her, he gentled his touch, keeping only the lightest contact with his tongue against the easing throb of her flesh.He stroked the quivering muscles of her inner thighs until she finally relaxed with a deep sigh, all her limbs going lax on the couch, her head lolling to one side.
He ached, not only with a ferocious desire for his own release, but at the soft bliss that radiated from her on wavelengths he felt even through his quill-scales.
His spines… A jolt of alarm raised his head.
She’d grabbed him when she orgasmed.Had she stung herself?What if she’d become sensitized to his venom after the first exposure and was decompensating right under him…
“That”—she sighed, shifting her lazy gaze back to him, though she didn’t lift her head—“was amazing.”
So, not dying.
He propped himself on one elbow beside her, watchful of all her bare skin.“Give me your hands.”
“And all the other parts, happily,” she purred, as he grabbed first one wrist then the other.
He grunted as he inspected her palms and fingertips.No punctures or even scratches.He pressed her knuckles to his lips.
Her lambent stare was fixed on his face.“You feel like satin under the thorns.”
“Don’t tell anyone else.”
With a smile both sweet and sly, she brushed her thumb over his lips.“Our secret.”
She stretched luxuriously against him, and he couldn’t help but stroke their still joined hands down her body.When he paused to tangle their fingers in her thatch of midline hair, she shuddered.
“You are hot as plasma,” he whispered.“You crushed my tongue like a collapsing star.And yet you say you’ve never found release with another?Why not?”
“I guess I never felt they took the time or cared about the trust.”She nudged her pubic bone against him.“Or maybe they didn’t have the tongue…”
She caught her breath on a gasp when he eased one finger into her.The smallest spines on his largest knuckle brushed against her nerve bud.“Suvan.”
“You climaxed without my venom.What would happen if I pierced you here?”
With a moan, she arched toward his hand.
But he rode the motion, teasing her, his fingers seeking the other hidden nerve endings that had met his questing tongue.
When she came apart in his arms again, he kissed her, hard and deep, capturing her ragged cry, never to let it go.
In the end, the couch was too narrow to stay there forever.Curse the Cosmic Connections Cruise remodeling specs; they should’ve anticipated all the possibilities for various horizontal and reasonably accessible vertical surfaces.
He would file a professional suggestion.
Later.
For now, he swung to his feet, lifting a sleepy Mariah with him.
She let out a little laughing gasp, snuggling down into his grasp.“So strong,” she murmured.“So spiny.”She kicked her dangling legs lightly against his forearms.
“Too trusting,” he warned her.
“I see you, remember?”She rested her head against his bare shoulder.Luckily, the absolute chaos of her hair protected her from punctures.
Gritting his teeth, which helped him constrict his quill-scales somewhat, he carried her to the bed.He’d have to master autonomic control of the involuntary muscles beneath the spines if he wanted…
