Page 42 of Secretly Abducted
"Shh, I've got you." I kiss him to muffle any sounds, my hand working faster. "Just feel. Stop thinking and just feel."
He breaks with a muffled cry against my mouth, his whole body going supernova bright, colors I don't even have names for racing across his skin. I stroke him through it, gentle now, watching in awe as the lights slowly calm to gentle pulses.
And in that moment, I feel it again—stronger this time. That spark of connection flaring bright, his pleasure echoing through me like a feedback loop, making me groan against his neck.
"Did you—" he starts, eyes wide.
"Feel that? Yeah." I carefully remove my hand, holding him steady as he recovers. "That's new."
He looks at me with something like wonder. "Is that... is that normal? For humans?"
"No." I brush wet hair back from his face. "That's definitely not normal. That's something else. Something just us."
He kisses me then, soft and sweet, and I can taste his amazement, his satisfaction, maybe a little bit of fear at this thing building between us.
"Your turn?" he asks when we part, hand drifting toward my obvious arousal.
"Nope." I catch his wrist gently. "Today was about you. About showing you that physical can be fun, not scary. Not too fast if we take it at your pace."
"But you're—"
"Very hard and will definitely be taking care of it later while thinking about the gorgeous lights you just made." I grin at his embarrassed flush. "Unless you want to watch?"
His colors pulse with interest even as he looks scandalized. "Watch?"
"Tonight, maybe? If you're feeling brave?" I kiss him once more, quick and light. "But right now, we should actuallywork before someone does come by and wonder why the water's glowing."
We float there for a moment, catching our breath, his bioluminescence still pulsing in gentle waves. He looks dazed, soft in a way I haven't seen before. When a strand of dark hair falls across his face, I push it back gently, and he leans into the touch.
"That was..." he starts, then stops, colors shifting to gold mixed with that pale green of embarrassment.
"Amazing? Incredible? Worth doing again as soon as possible?"
A laugh escapes him—bright and unexpected. "Intense."
"Good intense?"
"Very good intense." He looks down at my obvious arousal. "But you're—"
"Will be fine. Promise." I kiss him once more, soft and quick. "Come on, we actually do need to work or the whole section will die."
We return to the zhik'ra, but everything's different now. Charged. I try to focus on cutting away dead growth, but I keep getting distracted by watching Vel'aan work. The way his body moves through the water with perfect grace. The way his bioluminescence hasn't quite returned to normal, little sparks of purple-gold flickering across his skin whenever our eyes meet.
"You're not concentrating," he says after I cut the wrong piece for the third time.
"Can you blame me? I can still feel you in my hand."
His colors flare bright. "Alex."
"What? It's true." I swim closer, not touching but close enough to feel the cool emanating from his skin. "And tonight, when you're thinking about this, touching yourself, I'll feel it, won't I? Through that connection."
"You can't know that."
"I think that spark goes both ways. I think last night when I was coming for the third time, you felt it. That's why you couldn't sleep."
His silence is admission enough.
We work for another two hours, though 'work' is generous. It's more like attempting to work while hyperaware of each other. Every time we surface together, we end up closer than necessary. When I get tangled in a particularly stubborn cluster, he helps free me, his hands lingering on my arms. When he can't reach a tangled section, I dive down to handle it, very aware of how he watches me surface.
