Page 34 of Claim
“Because you were leading your people,” she replied.“I probably could’ve guessed you’d have less than the guest quarters.”
But he didn’t care about any of that, not when he had her here.Finally.At last.At the last.
“May I have you this night?”His voice cracked.
“All yours,” she whispered.
After kissing her again, as if that could replace all the other words he wanted to say, he carried her to his nest cushions.Maybe not luxurious, but big at least, the bed made a backdrop for her that he seared into his senses: the sight of her writhing as he sent a powerful sonoscry through her, the sound of her moans, the scent sweeter than dewdrops as she parted her legs for him, the vibration of her orgasm ripping him apart.
And he did it again, again, until he would never forget the taste of her entrenched in his heart where only cosmic dust had been.
He wanted to leave her utterly sated, but even as she cried out her release, she was reaching for him, echoing that unending yearning back at him.
This was the i’lva, the guiding light in the darkness, that would never leave him.
As they crashed together again and then finally collapsed in an entwined heap upon the cushions, she tucked herself into his side.He wrapped his arms around her, holding her just tight enough that he didn’t reveal his desolation.
“We’ll be all right.”Her whisper was so soft it lacked almost all inflection but he heard the question at its core.
Bracketing his tusks over her crown, he set his lips against her hair.His antennae were saturated with the scent of the two of them together.“Yes.”
She angled her head to peer up at him, her shimmering quartz gaze searching his, but he knew she’d find only truth there.Because he would make sure they were all right.That had always been his place.
She touched his cheek.“Is this the i’lva?This feeling that the shadows are gone.That I can see you, and you can see me?”
He stilled.“Is that what you feel?”
As she nodded, her hand dropped to his chest, pressing lightly.“It comes in pulses, from here.Like each heartbeat is a star being born in the sky.”She touched his belly.“And lower, of course.”
“Of course.”He rolled her onto her back, looming above her with both her wrists captured in one of his hands.When her eyes flared wide, he fitted his body against hers, finding every tender point of contact: her swollen nipples, the paler curves of her inner thighs, that pouting nub of hypersensitive nerves at her core.“Shall we ignite again?”
“All the stars.”She opened wide to him, all of her to all of him, and in return, he had to give her his most vulnerable flesh.He sank deep, but it was she who claimed him, her knees tight around his flanks, her half-lidded gaze a shimmering infinity from which he had no escape.
His final sonoscry made her cry out, a high, breathless sound, so delicate yet it etched him deeper and more searing than any glyph scar.
In the aftermath, she swooned, and he settled her gently into the cushions.
“Mag?”Her exhausted murmur barely stirred his antennae.
“Hush, meebu.”When he kissed her forehead, her sleepy smile left the i’lva in ash.
He rose.Without his weight, she lay high and exposed, like a gemstone beyond price displayed only for his desirous eyes.With a soundless sigh, he tucked a coverlet around her, as if that would cut off his need for her.
It didn’t, but he left her asleep in his bed and stepped out of his quarters.
TheDeepWanderwas silent and dark, even the slymusks gone.He did not indulge his grief but strode directly to the shuttle bay and launched with his apex codes.How convenient that Sil’s recent unauthorized departure had resulted in an overhaul of the security systems that left Mag and Teq with updated protocols that meant a quick and quiet escape.
Luster Station still swarmed with ships.After the revel and auction, other conglomerates and crews were allowed to do their own private business, separate from the Dastard’s.No doubt many of them were making the connections and contracts Mag had hoped to lock in for his ship.
Next time.
His small shuttle was anonymous in the traffic, so hanging in the darkness, he activated his datpad and sent his message.
“The night is over.Come and get me.”
When thePratorimslid into his viewscreen, he opened the comm.“I’m here to pay my debt.”
Szakh appeared on the screen.“Not going to try to blow another hole in us?”
