Page 74 of Elanie & the Empath
“Portis is mostly ocean, and that’s where we used to live. In the water. It’s why we still have webbed fingers and toes. Some of us still have gills. Some of us still haveotherinteresting features of our lives in the sea.”
“Like…what?” she asked between thrusts, her voice strained in a way that threatened my grip on sanity.
“In the water, we used to”—I bowed to kiss her neck—“communicate with each other”—I kissed her lips—“using rhythmic undulations.”
“Sem, why are you telling me this? Why—” Slowly, she opened her eyes, her gaze catching on mine as I answeredher in my own way. “What is that?” She moaned as my cock pulsed slowly inside her, then a little faster. “Is that you? Are you—Oh. Oh, gods.”
“Do you like it?” Having a vibrating cock, although absolute torture in middle school, before I figured out how to control it, did have its advantages. “Only 6 percent of Portisan males can do this. Just so you know how lucky?—”
She kissed me, shutting me up as the low hum of my cock inside her filled the silence. A low hum that did come with one minor drawback. It made my own orgasm barrel toward me too.
“Whoa, wait. Slow down,” I grunted when she grasped my neck, rocking beneath me. “When you move like that…”
She didn’t slow, didn’t give me a second to catch my breath. She only moaned, “I’m so close. I can feel it coming. Please, Sem. I need it.”
I should have known she’d get the upper hand. She’d always had it anyway. I was lost, completely gone for her the second she’d squared off against me in the hallway outside my office, crossing her arms and staring me down. I had no defenses against her, no protection she couldn’t blow through with a single glance. I was exposed and bare and completely and totally hers.
I’d tell her. I’d tell her exactly how I felt and not regret a single word. But tonight wasn’t about that. Tonight was about her pleasure, and maybe a little about mine. So I angled my hips again, ran a hand down her body to cup her breast, and let myself vibrate low and slow, heavy and deep.
“So fucking good,” I praised, rolling my hips, barely conscious with the way her walls closed around me, so warm and tight. “Everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything.”
I vibrated faster, and she writhed and moaned and cried out my name. And while I thrust into her deeper, harder,losing my rhythm, about to lose myself, her orgasm hit. Her back arched, fingers dug, hips bucked, body clamped down on all sides of me until I was gone.
I came so hard my vision blurred. I came for so long my soul wondered if it was time to leave my body. And somehow, as I spilled into her with every primal, mindless thrust, I heard myself muttering things in her ear. Things I wouldn’t remember saying. Things she probably wouldn’t remember hearing. Things I wanted to say to her over and over again for the rest of our lives. Because that’s what I wanted with her. I didn’t just want now, or tomorrow, or the next day. I wanted forever.
The sensationof her fingers tracing over the webbing between my toes stirred me back to our hut, our bed, our bodies. How she’d ended up with her head at my feet? No clue.
“Did I fall asleep?” I slurred, my eyelids still heavy, limbs still liquid, heart still raw.
“We both did.” There was a dreamy, contented tone to her voice that made my cock give a lazy twitch. “Grover woke me up.”
When I looked up, beady black bird eyes met mine. Grover, perched above me on the headboard, stared at me with a deep suspicion while he flicked his tail.
Pinching a bit of my webbing gently between her fingers, she asked, “Do you miss it? Portis? The oceans?”
“Sometimes,” I admitted as starlight filtered in through the skydome. “I miss my brothers and sister. They still live there.”
“What are their names?”
“My two brothers are Colin and Cain. And my sister is Corryn.”
“Colin, Cain, Corryn, and…Sem? Did your parents not like you as much, or…?”
“Casper,” I said with a laugh. “My first name is Casper. And my parents are Carling and Calliope. It’s a whole thing.”
“Casper. I like that name. But you prefer Sem?”
“More or less. There was apparently some Old Earth cartoon ghost named Casper. I got made fun of a lot in school, so I went by Sem instead.” With an ache that was finally old enough to feel dull instead of sharp, I said, “I guess it’s fitting that I’m not really one of the family C’s, since I’m not really part of the family anymore.”
She sighed as her hand slid up my calf. “Bionics aren’t allowed to have families. No parents, no brothers or sisters. No governing body in the entire Known Universe will acknowledge our marriages. We can’t have children.”
I sat up, flipping my position so I could see her face. So I could kiss away the wrinkle forming between her brows. “I’m sorry, Elanie. It’s not fair.”
Brushing her fingertips along my cheekbone, she said, “These worlds I live in, the beings all around me, even my own programming have always wanted me to be alone. And I’ve been okay with it. I’ve been fine. But now, here, with you…” Her eyes glistened, silver pooling along her lids. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
I cupped her cheek, brushing the worst tear I’d ever seen away with my thumb. “You aren’t alone, sweetheart. You have so many friends who love you back on the ship. You have Sunny and Tig and the twins.” I paused, because it felt like a risk. But if there was ever a risk worth taking, this was it. “You have me.”
“I do?” Her gaze searched my face for something I hoped I was showing her. “Do I really have you?”
