Page 94 of Needed in the Night
He moved ever so slightly, withdrawing an inch and then pushing back in. His knot was swelling quickly. I shivered hard at the sensation of it bumping against me. I’d come so quickly like this, and then I would take his knot.
I am made for you, Isla, he’d said in Ycari’s back room. I hadn’t believed it then, not really, but I did now. How could I not? We fit together so perfectly, in every way.
“I am made for you, Mikas,” I said, and ground against him so he would shudder and growl. “Fill your mate.”
“I will.” He kissed my back one last time and bent to whisper in my ear, “I obey you in all things.”
Moments later, on his third hard thrust, I came with a scream, squeezing around him and wrenching a rough sound from his chest.
He cooed, then slipped his knot inside my pussy. I groaned. Feeling him swell inside me was so satisfying. He wasmine.
The ship’s engines thrummed, the vibration traveling through the floor, the bed, and the pillows on which I lay. Outside the window, the stars streaked past at hyperspeed. We were on our way to Solan.
And when Mikas came with a roar and filled me completely, I was home.
CHAPTER 32
MIKAS
One YearLater
When my Islatook the stage, all the world stood still—or at least it did for me.
“I do not need to go to any heavens above,” she sang in Tivoran, her rainbow hair and teal dress shimmering in the multicolored lanterns hovering around the stage. Her sparkling violet eyes met mine. “Or see starlight shine or moonlight glow to be happy. I only need to be with you.”
Smiling, I filled a tankard with Bacorian mead and a glass with Terran sake and slid them across the bar to the green-skinned server. She added them to her fully laden tray to deliver.
The weight of the tray was no challenge for a Hardanian female. The servers casually competed nightly to see who could carry the most drinks at once, with the winnerpocketing a modest purse. As long as no drinks were spilled, I pretended I did not know about their wagers.
Unlike most bars along Jakora’s Angel Coast, Silver Sails Tavern did not use service ’bots or drink kiosks. Nor did it have holos or vidscreen entertainment. Instead, our tavern offered live bar service, live entertainment, and a spectacular lavender ocean view as a backdrop. And it had proven an effective business plan, much to the delight of its humble and hard-working owners.
“So, you’re living the dream,” Brae rasped in my ear. In shadow form, he was perched carefully on my bare shoulder, his claws gripping my spines to hold himself steady as I moved around behind the bar. “How does it feel to own the most popular bar on the Angel Coast?”
I chuckled quietly. “All I need is to see Isla happy. If she is happy, then I am happy.” I scanned the packed bar and allowed myself a moment to feel pride in how few empty seats I saw. “But it does feel good,” I admitted. “Damned good.”
My order screen displayed a long list of drink requests awaiting my attention. Our newest bartender, a human woman named Abril, was as busy as I was at the other end of the bar. She seemed to be keeping up without any trouble. Not surprising, given she had been bartending for years.
Abril had jumped at the chance to work at Silver Sails when we posted a job notice. She moved here almost overnight from the central port area. Her explanation for her willingness to relocate more than a thousand kilometers from her previous home to take the job was the very business plan our financing agent had met with extreme skepticism.
It was, that same agent had grudgingly admitted at our last meeting to go over the bar’s finances, a business plan that seemed to be catching on in the area. More bars and resorts advertised live service and entertainment and fewer ’bots and kiosks. Customers were happier, profits rose, and the area haddrawn more interplanetary visitors who before had stayed closer to the planet’s primary port. Isla and I had changed the Angel Coast with our vision.
And it did feel damned good, but what filled me most with warmth and contentment was my Isla’s unending joy.
In the months following our departure from Fortusia, Madame Ycari’s sources reported the Erotovo on Ngara had given up his search for Halena Onsulus. Nubo had run afoul of rivals and fled Fortusia for parts unknown. Soon after, Atlath had purchased Zaa’ga and promptly replaced all the drink kiosks and service ’bots with live bartenders and servers. He had also hired local singers and musicians to perform nightly. Ycari reported the bar rarely had any empty seats. We had promised to visit as soon as we could.
Kona had received a thirty-year sentence in the Ymar II penal colony for attempted murder, with no chance at early parole because she had targeted a diplomat. If Nubo had sent Kona after Isla, she had never mentioned his involvement. Either way, I hoped justice in some form would find him wherever he was hiding.
Isla no longer wished to work as an undercover operative for the Web, but she, Brae, and I had discussed becoming local agents on Jakora in the way Madame Ycari helped those in need on Fortusia. Though the risk was far less than what my mate and her companion used to do, we had many considerations to weigh and would not rush making a decision.
My beautiful mate was happy day and night. She smiled at work and at home, in my arms and swimming in the lavender ocean, and even when she slept. Her heart was at peace here, and so was mine.
Gods above, ours was a good life.
I made four Bacorian fullwells for a pair of six-armed, two-headed Boltanians. Fullwells were not as popular on Jakora as they were on Fortusia, but every so often someone would orderone and I was reminded of my time at Zaa’ga, which now seemed a lifetime ago.
“I’m off to forage,” Brae said, rubbing his round belly. “I’ll see you and Isla back at the house later—unless you’re going to be down on the beach when I get back.”
“We might be,” I said with a smile. “You know Isla likes to sit under the stars with a brandy after our shift.”
