Page 62 of Unfinished

He started to move faster, and he was breathing hard when he lifted his face. “I want to watch you as you finish,” he said. She could feel the blankets shift as his fists tightened, drawing them taut beneath her.

“Then make me come, R’kash.” She twisted her hands in his necklaces like they were reins. “Give me everything,” she whispered.

He went completely still for a few excruciating seconds as he looked down at her face. Then his hips snapped forward and she learned what it meant for him to lose control. He was everywhere, everything, all at once. He was relentless. Her entire body trembled and tensed around him, every wall she’d constructed to protect herself crumbling down in his wake.

When he thrust one last time with a deep groan, she shuddered as he filled her with his release, but she was already riding out the waves of pleasure that just wouldn’t stop. No one had ever left her this wrecked, this satisfied.

“Sienna,” he whispered against her forehead as his arms weakened. “Sienna, Sienna, Sienna.” Her name passed his lips like a prayer, a chant for forgiveness and absolution, a cry to his goddess, a claim. It was all that and more.

“I love you, R’kash,” she told him.

He was quiet for a moment that stretched long enough to become strained, but then his exhale fluttered against her skin and he spoke. “I love you, Sienna.”

He rolled her with him to their sides, and then he pulled the brightly colored fur over their still joined bodies. His strong arms wrapped around her, holding her safe, granting her the peace she’d always craved. With R’kash, this was only just the beginning.

* * *

Dear R’kash,

This isn’t easy for me. I’m so used to holding back and hiding how I feel, and I’m no writer, but I’m really trying to be honest with you. This thing between us can’t go anywhere if we lie to each other. I really like you, whether or not it’s wise. Your messages are sometimes what get me through the day. I don’t want it to be like that, but I’m not happy with my career. It just all feels so meaningless lately. I want to make a difference. I want to matter to people. Right now, I feel like if I didn’t show up at the office, it’d barely matter at all. I want to have someone love me so much that I’m indispensable, that I’d leave a crater in their heart if I disappeared. That’s selfish, isn’t it?

R’kash readthrough the old message again. He was reading all of their correspondence a third time. Some letters he read over and over again until the words burned into his mind. The longer Sienna remained at Evathi, the more these messages felt like treasures, these unfiltered little glimpses into her thoughts.

Nothing about being with Sienna that night had gone as expected. He hadn’t known it could be like that with a woman, and absolutely nothing had prepared him for the way he’d feel afterwards. He bit his lower lip. His venom had gathered, swelling his gums, but he’d resisted the pull to claim her. He’d kept his control when it mattered, but he’d never taken a woman like that before. His hips had pistoned in and out of her incredible warmth, his sole purpose to bring them both pleasure. There were no ulterior motives, and there was no pressure to act a certain way or let her lead.

She’d told him to give her everything, and he had. He’d given her everything and lost himself in the process, but he’d do it over and over again. He’d been right to wait, to be sure. He’d thought the claiming bite would be what bound him to her irrevocably, but it’d been unnecessary. He was well and thoroughly ensnared, and he had no wish to escape.

“R’kash?”

His hand slid on the tablet and it went blank and dull as he straightened up in his chair.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Sienna pushed herself up on her elbows and squinted as she watched him. Her hair looked sleep-mussed and soft. He could imagine just what it’d feel like to press his face against it and inhale her scent.

“Just entering my daily log. I do this every night. I woke up and couldn’t sleep, so I decided I might as well complete it now,” he explained as he rose from his seat. “Lie down. You should be sleeping,k’lallsa.”

She cocked her head to the side, but he didn’t think she had a question for him. “You should be sleeping, too. Come back. I need you here,” she said as she patted the space beside her.

“You miss me?” The heavy rumble resonating through his voice was unintentional, but he wanted to hear her say it. He wanted to be claimed. How had she described it? He wanted to leave a crater in her heart if she ever decided to leave.

“You know I do.”

R’kash inclined his head and walked back to the bed. Then he slipped beneath the fur and pulled her into his arms. The sky grew pale with morning’s light before he fell back asleep.

25

They spentthe following day cleaning up the mess left behind after the harvest festival. Sienna learned about several handy pieces of Xithilene tech throughout the afternoon, including a self-piloting drone-like device that gathered any items left behind in the fields like some kind of smart outdoor vacuum.

She was observing as Ivekth showed her how to activate a cleaning machine for the courtyard. “This one was especially designed to be used in gardens,” he told her, pointing proudly at the canister-shaped device. He let it go and it started sweeping up the bits and pieces left behind by the hundreds of visitors who’d visited Evathi the previous day—and night.

She and R’kash may have left the celebration relatively early, but according to Ivekth and the other priests, they were still guiding people back to their gliders that morning.

“So was it a good harvest festival?” she asked.

Ivekth’s feathers lifted as he regarded her. “A very good festival,” he confirmed. “Especially for you and R’kash!”

He flitted off down one of the courtyard paths, leaving her behind in a flurry of red, and Sienna shook her head and smiled. Ivekth was the youngest of them, and sometimes he acted like more of a kid than Veesha. Still, he wasn’t wrong. The night she and R’kash had spent together had been incredible. She sighed, not even attempting to relive it in her mind. Some things were just too perfect to replicate, although that wouldn’t stop her from trying again that evening.

Sienna fell into the rhythms of the Evathi over the next several days. She’d worried that not having a specific job there would leave her restless, but there was always something to do around the temple. Deliveries arrived twice a month and needed to be sorted, food needed to be prepared, and items like the small prayer scrolls visitors used had to be set out in baskets every night. It was easy to stay busy at Evathi.

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