"This place." He gestured around us, to the walls that both sheltered and held us. “This isn't where we should be free with one another. When we give ourselves, it should be without restraints.”

I took a breath, the image and feel of his hand on my thigh still burned into my senses. He was right. The passion was there, along with the reality of our captivity. "We could... wait?"

"Wait," he agreed.

There was honor in his decision, a respect that made my heart ache with a longing beyond the physical. It was a strange thing to feel grateful for a pause when every fiber of my body screamed for things to progress. Yet here, with Aurik, it felt right.

"I can’t lie. Waiting seems almost cruel," I confessed, my breath catching as his fingers traced an invisible line up my arm.

"We agreed to be patient to bond.” Aurik’s eyes held a telltale naughty gleam. “I never said we couldn't indulge in a little pleasure.”

With a surge of boldness, I leaned into him, our mouths meeting in a kiss that seared straight to my soul. The connection was immediate, electric, igniting a firestorm of desire that burned through me. His lips were firm yet yielding, moving over mine with a passion.

His thick Yronian skin was like velvet beneath my fingertips, soft yet resilient. A wild thought sent a jolt of arousal plunging to my core. If his skin felt like this, what about other parts of him?

An image flashed through my mind of his form pressed intimately against mine, hot and unyielding. A wave of wetness flooded me at the thought. Would his cock feel the same velvety texture? My cheeks flamed with heat as the thought stayed with me, teasing at my senses.

"Sonya," Aurik murmured against my lips. "You're trembling."

"Your fault," I accused weakly, though it was no real accusation at all. This connection, it's something fierce and delicate all at once, a fire waiting to consume us both.

He pressed his mouth against the tender skin under my jaw. “Then let me provide a remedy.”

The intensity of the moment was overwhelming. Every brush of his lips, every contact of his skin against mine, made the flames higher. Aurik’s hand ventured beneath the hem of my dress, slipping past the barrier of fabric to my thigh, where his touch blazed a path higher still. My breath caught in my chest as I wanted him to explore my secret and intimate place.

The heat of his hand paused at the edge of my panties.

"Keep going," I pleaded.

His fingers drifted beneath the elastic. He brushed me so lightly it was a whisper of contact, yet it ignited every nerve ending. His eyes never left mine. A silent question seemed to remain in them. Do you trust me?

"Gods, Aurik," I breathed out as his fingers came away, glistening faintly in the dim light of his room. He brought them to his lips, his tongue darting out to taste me, and the groan that escaped him was a sound of pure hunger.

I saw his body react, the outline of his cock pressing against his pants. The sight sent a surge of something wild and uncontrolled spiraling within me.

"Come here.” He lifted me effortlessly, my legs instinctively wrapping around his waist before he lowered me on the bed cushion.

"Slowly," I reminded him, or perhaps myself, as his hands reached for the zipper of my dress. The slide of the metal was deliberate, the sound magnifying in the silence that stretched between us. He peeled the fabric away, exposing inch by inch of my skin to the cool air and his burning gaze.

"Beautiful," he said, not just with his words but with every touch that followed. His mouth trailed over my collarbone, descending and unhurried. Each kiss was a promise.

I savored the feel of his bare chest, rough velvet skin with scars that spoke of battles and hard-won survival. His weight pressed down on me, solid and real, anchoring me to the moment.

"Your skin," I gasped as he kissed down my stomach. “It’s...” Words failed me. They were inadequate to describe his sheer presence.

"Like this?" he asked, his tongue drawing a wet line. "Or perhaps this?" He blows gently over the damp trail, sending shivers coursing through me.

"Exactly like that," I managed, my voice coming out husky. His laugh, low and rich, resonated against my skin.

I traced the seams of his pants, where the fabric strained against the powerful shape beneath. My fingers fumbled as I worked the zipper down, freeing him. The sight before me was startling and utterly alien, a thick, blue shaft pulsing with a heat that seemed to beat in time with my own racing heart.

"Sonya," Aurik breathed out, almost a question, as if seeking permission by just uttering my name.

My hand wrapped around him, and the warmth was potent. His hot alien flesh contrasted with the cool air of the room, and the tip—god, the tip was so wide. It was an expanse of nearly four of my fingers. A clear liquid beaded at the very top. I heard his breath hitch as I brushed my thumb over the slick surface.

Tremors of pleasure rippled through us both. He supported himself on his hands and slid his cock along the valley between my breasts, leaving a gleaming trail, a sensation more remarkable than any caress I've ever known. The slickness tingled upon my skin, opening pathways of new arousal that I didn’t realize existed.

Aurik's voice was tight with restraint, "The liquid—it's...it has properties. For bonding."