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“He could do that?” Anger deepened York’s voice. “I would never abandon a child.”
She hesitated. “I wasn’t sure what my mom would do. He made good money and had a respectable job. She’d have had an easier life without me. Any child is a huge burden to a single parent, where I come from. Anyway, it scared me bad enough that I implied there were three more kids she’d hidden from him, my siblings, and that she was only dating him to fool him into marriage. He stopped seeing her right after.”
She tensed, watching his expression, hoping he didn’t think she was a horrible person.
He nodded. “That was smart.”
The tension in her body eased slightly. “I felt bad. My mom was depending on him to make our lives easier. I was more afraid of losing her, though, to be honest. She was the only person I had to depend on and who loved me. I don’t think I’d have survived long on the streets on my own as a child. It was hard enough as an adult. We lived together until the day she died, sharing an apartment and bills. On Earth, most people need to team up with someone to have a decent home and three meals a day.”
York leaned closer and held out his hand. “You will never be alone again, Sara. I’m here now.”
Tears threatened to rise but she blinked them back, deeply touched. She took his hand. “Thank you.”
“Bond mates are forever. I will spend the rest of our lives showing you how much you matter to me. You’ll never grow hungry or know struggle. I promise you that. Cathian said if he ever retires, the crew is welcome to make a home on his planet. I doubt he will, though, for a very long time. He’s the first Tryleskian to not step down from his ambassador duties after taking a mate. The Vorge is our home.” He motioning to the room. “If we are ever blessed with children, we’ll expand into other cabins near us for bedrooms. Cathian did that already, when he life-locked to Nara. They plan to have a litter when he goes into his next heat cycle.”
“A litter? I think you mentioned that before, but I didn’t fully understand.”
“Tryleskians usually have more than one infant at a time. I’ve only heard of a single birth happening once. That’s Raff, another crew member. He and Cathian are cousins. Cathian is from a litter of three. He has two brothers who were born with him.”
It didn’t shock her that some aliens had multiple babies. Humans sometimes had twins or triplets. She’d just wondered how many made up a litter. “What about Parri?”
“Single births. Two infants are rare for our kind.”
She felt a bit of relief. To birth one of his babies would probably be difficult enough. “He’d let us expand our cabin if I ever get pregnant?”
“Of course. Cathian has told all of us that if we decide to have children, we can expand, and that he hoped we’d stay on The Vorge. The crew is family. We stick together.”
“That’s really great. Most bosses hate when a worker gets pregnant.”
“Cathian is more than a boss. We’re a band of outcasts. Some emotionally and a few literally.”
“Can you explain?”
“My planet had to be evacuated because it was dying. The surface could no longer support life, so I have no home to return to. Dovis’s people were cruel to him, and he fled to live in space. He never wants to return. Midgel was seen only as a breeder by her people, to birth more of her race. She allowed it to happen twice but refuses to do it again. She just wants to live alone in peace. The Vorge allows her to do so. Marrow was born on a planet where the females are subservient to males. She fled to avoid an arranged marriage to a controlling shaft-head. Her words. On her planet, females aren’t allowed to work or given a say in what they do with their lives. Now she has freedom. And Raff grew up on a hostile planet he hated, abandoned by his Tryleskian father, and survived by having to kill or be killed. He was alone after his mother died, but now he has us.”
“That’s so sad.” She felt bad for the crew members. It seemed like all of them had endured rough upbringings and circumstances that had led them to The Vorge.
“Nara left Earth to be the captain of a shuttle for trade. She had reasons for leaving Earth, but I don’t know them. She doesn’t ever want to return there, now that she’s fallen in love with Cathian. Her place is by his side. And Mari was sold into slavery by her parents. She was raised working on a repair station, and this ship is her first and only true home. She wants to be with Dovis, and seems very happy now. Cathian himself left his home to avoid being forced into a loveless marriage to breed the next generation for his family. He would have hated that. Instead, he met Nara and fell in love. As for the Pods, they were sold by their own people as well, and they feel it would never be safe to return to their planet.
“We’re all like you, Sara. The Vorge is our sanctuary. The crew is our family. It’s where we all belong and are happiest together. Did I explain that well?”
“Yes, very well.”
“And now you’re a part of this family.”
The tears threatened to flow again, and she had to blink once more. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for offering to be my bond mate.”
She grinned. “I’m much better than Nagway.”
He chuckled. “In every way.”
She made a decision in that very moment. York had offered her time to get to know him better before they became intimate…but why put it off? He was incredibly respectful, and she liked him. He was sexy—for a big blue guy with fangs—and she’d committed to him for life. There was no sense in waiting.
She stood and locked her gaze with his.
“York…I’m nervous about bonding, but…let’s get naked.” She smiled.
His eyes widened and his mouth parted.
It was clear that was the last thing he’d expected her to say.
“We don’t have to rush things, Sara.”
She hadn’t considered that he might not be ready to have sex yet. “Do you not want me?” She wasn’t overly tall at five foot seven, or blue like the Parri, and certainly less muscular than Nodo.
Oh God. Maybe he thought humans were hideous, too.
“Do you find me unattractive?”
He stood and motioned to the front of his pants. “What do you think?”
She glanced down and saw the tight uniform outlining a thick, large cock. He was definitely hard.
The picture the Relon instructor had shown her on the pad flashed in her memory. It seemed to be accurate. York was much bigger than a human.
“I am definitely attracted to you, and I find you beautiful, Sara. I just don’t want you to feel rushed or think you must quickly bond to me. Only the two of us will know if you need more time. And when the time comes, I want you to want me as much as I do you.”
She tore her attention from the front of his pants and met his gaze. He had to be the only man she’d ever met who was that considerate. Most guys would have been all over her if she’d said “get naked” to anyone else. And York was worried about her feeling rushed into being with him.
It only strengthened her resolve to get him into bed.
“I want you, York. Am I still nervous? Yes. Of course. You’re bigger than me.” She glanced down at the front of his pants. “That’s a bit scary…but we’ll go slow.” It would be a problem if his cock was too large to fit inside her without pain. She backed up and smiled again. “We can at least fool around. You owe me a kiss, remember? I heard Parri like skin-to-skin contact.”
He stepped around the table. “We need it,” he corrected, his voice turning huskier. “Will that bother you? I’ll want to hold you when we sleep, without anything between us.”
She backed her way to the bed and began to strip. “I’ve always wanted a man who likes to cuddle.”
“I’ll be that man.”
She found that sexy. Everything about York was sexy. Her mind flashed to the few boyfriends she’d had. There hadn’t been many. Most men had been jerks to her, since she wasn’t exactly gorgeous. She’d also had to deal with a few bosses who’d implied she
might get more hours and better pay if she dropped to her knees and blew them. The only physical contact she’d wanted with those assholes involved punching them in their mouths or kicking them in the balls.
The three men she’d dated had turned into disasters. Each of them had implied they had feelings for her but, in the end, she’d just been a body to use for as long as they could fool her into believing their lies. All three had been sleeping with other women, who they were lying to as well.
York wasn’t the type to play mind games or see how many women he could string along to gain bragging rights over to his buddies. The more she thought about it, the more she liked that he was an alien. Human men had never been good to her.
She just hoped the sex was better with York. Her boyfriends had been nothing for her to brag about.
New life, new experiences. She was up for that.
Sara pushed the thoughts of her past away and climbed naked onto the bed, rolled to her back, and worked up the courage to gaze at York. He was her future.
She swallowed hard. He had stripped out of his clothes, too, and stood at the edge of his massive bed. His skin was blue everywhere, which she was starting to love. It was an attractive shade that she found soothing. He had tons of muscles and the best physique she’d ever seen. So big…but that didn’t scare her. She already knew he could be gentle.
Her focus lowered down his flat stomach to appreciate the ripples of muscles there as well. Her eyes widened a bit when she studied his cock. It was a slightly darker shade than the rest of his skin. He was long and wide. The shape of it was slightly different from the few human dicks she’d seen. The tip reminded her of a bulb, slightly rounder than the shaft, but not by much.
What surprised her were the bumps that ran along the top of his shaft all the way to the root. That wasn’t something she’d noticed in the picture of the naked Parri the instructor had shown her.
“Am I frightening to you?”
His husky voice drew her gaze to his face. “We’re going to have to go slow. You’re big, that’s for sure.”
“My friends have had lots of sex with their humans. They’d have warned me if there was a problem. I won’t hurt you, Sara.”
“I take it that you’ve never done this before? Sex with my kind, I mean.”
He shook his head. “I did research on humans when Nara was brought onboard. I like to help Dovis with security. It was important to know if she’d be a danger to Cathian in any way while he was vulnerable in heat. He’s much bigger and stronger than her, but he wasn’t thinking clearly. Part of that research included anatomy.” He licked his lips. “I was curious, and I read up on everything in our ship’s database about sex with a female of your race. You have a button that is very sensitive.”
Button? She quickly realized what he meant…and decided to be brazen.
She bent her legs up and spread them apart to give him a clear view. “You mean my clit?” She slid her hand down her stomach to point it out. “This. It’s very sensitive.”
She couldn’t miss the way his hard cock jerked, giving her a tiny wave. A low rumble of a growl escaped from him, and he put his knee on the bed, coming at her slowly. He bent forward, bracing himself on his hands, and stared at her sex.
“You’re very small and pink.” His nostrils flared. “You smell so good…”
Butterflies fluttered in her belly and her heart rate increased as he lowered even more, getting his face up close and personal with her girl parts. “I’ll stretch a bit. Women do that. You know, to fit you inside me.”
With his longer hair falling forward and his head dipped, she could no longer see his cock. It was probably for the best, since she wanted to focus on other things besides how it would work out when they got to that point.
She reached up and brushed her fingers over his shoulders, before running them down his biceps. His skin was warm and soft, but hard at the same time. Firm.
“Can I touch you here, Sara?”
“Yes.” He seemed fascinated with her pussy. At least he hadn’t made some kind of displeased expression or averted his gaze. She wondered if she was very different from a Parri female. At some point, she’d try to look up that information if it was available.
York made another low growling noise, and she tensed when his warm breath fanned her slit.
An instant later, a thick, wet tongue licked at her clit.
She sucked in a sharp breath. His tongue felt a little raspy, and as he licked her again, she realized his cock wasn’t the only thing that had bumps. She could feel them as he ran his tongue along her clit.
The pleasure flooded her.
“That feels so good,” she encouraged.
He did it again and again, growing a bit more aggressive. Sara moaned and let her fingers slide into his silky hair. He growled, adding some vibrations, and she moaned louder.
He adjusted his body a little, the bed shifting slightly, and his hand lightly caressed her inner thigh, inching higher.
Sara threw back her head and whispered his name when he slid one of his fingers inside her pussy.
She was wet, obviously, since his thick digit pushed inside her without trouble, going deep. He had good-sized fingers, and just one felt pretty amazing. He slowly began to fuck her with his finger, moving in and out.
She wiggled her hips, knowing she was about to come.
“Don’t stop! I’m almost there,” she panted.
He grew even more aggressive with his licks, occasionally sucking on her clit with his hot mouth. His finger drove in and out of her faster.
That was it.
Sara cried out his name, her eyes squeezing shut as her world imploded in ecstasy.
A loud snarl came from York. She heard him, but it took her seconds to even try to open her eyes. The bed moved again and his finger withdrew, then he pulled his mouth away from her clit.
“You’re very wet. Are you ready for me, bond mate?”
She nodded, finally opening her eyes. “Yes.”
He came down on top of her body, making certain he didn’t crush her. He had to weigh a lot more than her, but he braced his arms and held himself up easily. She adjusted her legs, wrapping them loosely around his waist as he positioned his hips.
Their gazes locked. He had incredibly beautiful eyes, and she noticed for the first time that there were some yellow flecks of color in his irises, reminding her of streaks of golden sunshine reflecting on a blue sea.
“I’ll be gentle and slow.”
His voice had grown so deep, it gave her the good kind of chills. She let her fingers slide through his hair then cupped his face, lifting her head. He glanced at her lips and leaned closer.
She closed her eyes as their mouths touched. His lips were full and velvety soft. But firm. Everything about York was firm. She licked his lower lip, and then sucked on it a little. He groaned, opening his mouth to her. She kissed him deeper.
He hesitated when her tongue met his, and Sara could taste herself on him, but then he met her move for move.
York could kiss.
He adjusted his lower body and she spread her legs wider to accommodate his hips. The head of his cock pressed against her pussy. She wiggled a little, getting him right where she ached, and then tightened her hold around his hips.
He pushed forward slowly.
His cock felt incredibly thick, but she was wet enough that he eased inside her sex. She felt her body stretching to take him.
He broke the kiss, growling low, and froze above her.
She opened her eyes, staring into his.
“You’re so tight…hot. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I can take you. You feel incredible.”
He surged forward, entering her all the way, and stilled again.
Sara’s body adjusted to his large size, and she’d never felt so full. A slight smile curved her lips. “Told you we’d make this work. Now move, baby.”
He hesitated for only a second before withdrawing slightly, an
d then he started to rock.
Those bumps along the top of his cock suddenly took on new meaning.
Sara threw her head back again, having to close her eyes at how good each one of those bumps felt, hitting all the places inside her that she didn’t even realize she had. One bump in particular made her clit throb harder, and as he fucked her faster, she had to cling to him.
Her second climax struck hard and fast.
York watched Sara’s face and clenched his teeth together. He wanted to bite her so much, his fangs ached. She was so tight, and when she screamed out his name, her pussy clamped hard around his shaft. It nearly hurt. It was too good.
He lost it, feeling his seed leave his balls, and then white-hot rapture took all thought away.
He buried his face against her shoulder and bit. Not hard enough to hurt, but he wanted to leave his mark. Sara was his.
He remembered not to collapse on his small bond mate and crush her. She was fragile. Then he caught his breath and smiled when she looked at him.
Luck had been with him when he’d met Sara, and especially when she’d saved him from Nodo. He couldn’t see feeling this kind of rightness if the Parri female were under him.
Sara was special. Perfect to him.
“Forever,” he swore. “I will make sure you are always as happy as I am at this moment.”
Sara reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. It felt good. No one had ever done that to him before. She trailed her hands down the strands to his shoulders, before caressing him there. Her touches were soft and soothing.
He gently eased his softening shaft from her tight pleasure spot, rolling back and taking her with him until she curled up to his side. It felt perfect when she rested her cheek on his chest.
“Our sex life is going to be fantastic.”
He chuckled at her panted words. “Yes. It will be.” He touched her skin, exploring her. She was so soft and silky. The sight of his blue body against her pale one appealed to him. She didn’t feel alien to him anymore. Only…his.