Page 36 of Sloane

"Do you think he can actually do it?" I ask Jovi when Alik leaves the kitchen, and the door closes behind him.

Jovi holds me a bit tighter like he's never going to see me again. I roll my eyes a bit because we both know he's about to be in his room all the time, anyway. I need to be guarded twenty-four-seven. He doesn't have to leave me.

Sure, they make it sound like they can't be around each other with me there, too, but that has to be an exaggeration. It's part of the rules, but surely it's just them being a little overdramatic about all of it. They managed to be in the kitchen with me together, and only tried to show me a good time for like maybe a few minutes.

"I think he's going to make some hard choices, but they'll be the right ones." Jovi gives such a nonanswer that I can't help but laugh. He fingers the pendant on my chest as it shakes with each laugh. "We'll need to turn this off and put it away."

"Oh?" I cock a brow at him as I look up. "So, no more sex, or now we just do it like normal people?"

Jovi unchains the pendant from my neck and tucks it into his pocket. He spins me around, grabbing my hips in his lower arms and pulling me close to him so I can feel his erection pressed against me. His forehead tips against mine, his eyes searching me. I beam up at him, realizing he still wants to know if we can have a good time without the pendant to give him the okay.

"Fuck me, Jovi." I barely get the words out before his lips are closing in on mine.

He lifts me onto the kitchen counter while I wrap my legs around his waist and let him pull my shirt from my body. We're working on removing our pants when the kitchen door slides open to reveal a frowning Essa.

"No fucking in the kitchen," Essa looks between the two of us, her frown deepening. "You still have a time limit, too."

I laugh as I push at Jovi's chest, grabbing my shirt from him and sliding it back on. "Come on," I tug on his hand as I jump from the counter. "We can do it one last time in my room before I move all my stuff."

Essa punches Jovi in the chest as we walk past and then threatens him with a hand on her dagger. "No funny shit, Jovi."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Essa," Jovi laughs.

He spins me around, bends down to wrap me in his arms, and then throws me over his shoulder. I let out a very unladylike squeal and then a curse, but he only laughs as he half walks, half runs back to my bedroom. He swats my ass when I wiggle around too much and then finally throws me on the bed when we get to the room.

"I'm on the clock," he says with a smile as he strips me down. "Have to make sure I make my ten minutes worth it."

"Oh, we'll have plenty more," I moan as he pushes inside of me. "So many more."

"You think?" Jovi asks, pulling his face away from my chest. He likes to nip and suckle my tits when he fucks me since he's not allowed to be at my neck anymore. "You think we'll be doing this same thing for a while?"

I feel my face heat with embarrassment, not knowing if I've said too much about how I feel about them. A part of me wants to tell him I hope to keep doing this forever because what if he doesn't feel the same? I'm just a part of their job, and once the job is over, will they even want me anymore?

So, instead of answering, I throw my head back, arch my back, and moan as he continues to thrust inside of me. Jovi either doesn't want to push the question or is back to being fully focused on fucking me. His face goes back to my chest, and hespends the rest of his time drawing out our pleasure until his ten minutes are up.

fifteen

Jovi

Something hits the side of my head, and I frown over at Phial and Holoth, who are both pretending like neither one of them threw the fork. I grab it, set it next to the two spoons that they've already thrown at me, and return to refreshing the feed on the comm tablet used to talk with the smugglers.

They haven't messaged us since we told them we were at the rendezvous spot thirty minutes ago, but that could mean they just haven't checked their comm tablet yet. Normally, a mission like this requires patience and a lot of waiting for the other party to get back to us before meeting. Right now, I'm tired of waiting, have no patience, and I want Sloane safe.

Something moving catches my eye, and I turn just quick enough to see Phial throwing a cup at me. His eyes go wide, and his feathers stand up on his head and down his back, where they try to lift his shirt from his body. It's too late for him to stop the throw. His fingers have already released it, and I'm much too slow to stop it as it thwacks me right in the nose.

Holoth, who was finding enjoyment in Phial annoying me, watches through his peripheral to find out if I'm about to kill one or both of them now. I try to keep a straight face, but the absurdity of all of it has me throwing my head back in a deep laugh.

"Oh, thank the mother." Phial puts a hand on his chest and relaxes in his seat. His feathers stay up, his adrenaline still bursting through him. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't already camouflaged with how scared he looked for a second.

"You threw everything at me except for the food synthesizer." I throw my hands around at the eating utensils and the cup that's now joined them. "You had to have known at some point I was going to catch you in the act."

Phial rubs his chin with one of his talons and gives me the dumb answer he gives any question he doesn't have an answer for. "Sometimes the mother wants us to do things, and we don't get to know why."

"My mother would've beat my ass for throwing her dishes around," Holoth adds under his breath, a smile creeping onto his lips when Phial shoots him a dirty look.

I swear, every time Phial blames the mother for why he does something, Holoth is always there to tell him that his own mother would've never allowed something like that. It's sort of a ritual at this point, one we all get to laugh at Phial for.

"The mother and your mother are two very different beings," Phial says, always getting up in arms when his species' deity is blasphemed against.

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