Page 72 of Shielded Heart

He softened his voice. “You haven’t even touched it with your bare skin, little terran.Howcould you have broken it?”

“I-I don’t know.” Her gaze flicked down to his cock before returning to his. “Why is it…open and…moving?”

“The same reason you get wet when you’re aroused,” he replied. He hissed softly as he closed a hand around the base of his shaft, alleviating a little more of the pressure. The four prehensile tendrils comprising the end half of his cock quivered before squeezing together. “I want you so much ithurts, Samantha. That’s why.”

Samantha eased forward, slowly closing the distance she’d opened between them. Her attention had fallen to his groin the moment he’d grasped himself and hadn’t moved away since. A spark of intrigue, curiosity, anddesirelit within her eyes. She settled on her knees and pressed her lips together. The light in her eyes took on a trepidatious glint.

It was her hesitance that pierced the fog of desire within which Arcanthus was helplessly drifting.

“Look at me, Samantha.”

She dragged her eyes away from his cock and looked up at him.

Though the words were difficult to get out—he wanted her to touch him so badly, wanted her fingers, her lips, her tongue on his flesh—he said, “You have no obligation to me. You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to do.”

He drew his discarded loincloth over his thigh, but Samantha reached forward and caught his wrist.

A tremor coursed through her arm. “No! No. Iwantto do this. I wantyou. I want… I was just…surprised. You don’t look humanat all, so I wasn’t expecting…”

He cupped her chin in his palm and brushed his thumb across her lower lip. “So long as you don’t recoil in horror again, little terran. My ego can only take so much of a beating.”

Samantha’s cheeks turned scarlet. “I’m sorry.”

Arcanthus released her and grinned; the amount of willpower it took to keep himself from displaying his discomfort, from succumbing to his overwhelming desire, was immense. “I’m sure you’ll make it up to me. I amyours.”

Samantha’s gaze dropped again. The determination he’d seen in her eyes before returned tenfold. She settled one of her hands on his knee and extended the other; Arcanthus’s breath caught in his throat.

Her finger touched the tip of his cock and brushed along one of the closed sections.

Arc gritted his teeth and shuddered; he didn’t know if he could withstand this torture. He released his cock and placed his hands on either side of him.

She moved her fingertip to the crease between two of his tendrils and traced it. The tendrils split and writhed, hungry for her touch. Sam’s breath hitched, and her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away.

Thank the fucking stars.

One of his tendrils curled around the tip of her finger as he clutched the bedding.

“What do I do?” Samantha asked.

Just the little bit of contact he’d already had with her was enough to threaten his tenuous control. “Whatever you want, little terran.”

Samantha stroked his open tendrils with her fingers before dropping her hand to the base of his shaft. She grasped it firmly. The tendrils snapped shut, and Arcanthus groaned. Whatever trepidation she’d displayed before vanished.

She stroked her fist up to the tip of his cock, maintaining her solid grip, then back down again, repeating the motions in a steady rhythm. Her palm rasped over the sensitive nodules lining his shaft, and her pale skin was stark against the blue-gray of his cock. Each stroke sent an electric thrill through him; he shuddered against the rapidly building sensation.

Sam moved her face closer, eyes intent. Her warm breath flowed over his skin.

Arcanthus clenched his jaw, breathing heavily through his nostrils as her lips neared his shaft.

Her eyes flicked up to meet his. Dropping her fist to his base, she tightened her hold and parted her lips, taking him into her mouth.

Arcanthus threw his head back and hissed through his fangs. He squeezed his eyes shut, struggling against the onslaught of pleasure and heat, against the delicious torment, turning all his willpower toward holding on; he refused to let this end so soon, refused to spill his seed without first taking as much pleasure as he could withstand.

“Ah, my precious flower,” he rasped. “Don’t stop.”

She tentatively took him farther into her mouth before pulling back slightly. When she drew him in again, she sucked him deeper still. Arcanthus’s chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, and his pounding heart echoed in his ears. His thigh muscles tensed and quivered with exertion in his battle to keep his hips down as she rolled her tongue, teasing the creases between his tendrils.

Samantha moaned, and the vibration amplified the sensations she was causing in him.

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