Page 64 of Fathom

My cockhead found her opening, and I didn't wait.

I also didn't rush.

I sank into her slowly, inch by inch, reveling in her seductive heat, watching her lips part into an o as her head tilted back and her eyelids fluttered, and she looked at me as if I had made her entire world come undone and put it back together again.

I was all the way in, seated deep as her thighs pressed against mine, and my lower abdomen rubbed against her wet slit.

"Come with me," she whispered, and I felt her inner muscles clamp down around me, nearly making me spill myself right then and there.

I held myself, my eyes closed, not moving until the urge faded and I felt I could slide inside her without losing myself to the intensity of her.

She didn't hold still.

She shifted her hips, rocking herself on my length in small, deep strokes, rubbing herself against me as she continued to clamp down inside, gripping me in sleek velvet, destroying my self-control as she took her pleasure from me, taunting me with how desperately I needed to fill her with my seed.

There was only one answer I could give her, and she was destroying my ability to speak.

"Come with me," she repeated again, the shifting of her hips, the rocking of the ocean, the slide of her body against mine, the feel of her small, rounded claws pressing into my back, her heels digging into me, urging me deeper.

"Anywhere," I growled as I grabbed her hip with my hand, anchoring her as I gave into her. She was the rock I crashed upon, steady against the relentlessly pounding of my need, of my desire, of my craving. I followed the cries of her pleasure with rabid fascination, drawing them out and chasing them down, changing my angle and velocity until she was screaming out my name and my knot was thickening within her, tying us together in ways I could never have imagined. She milked me of my essence, and I spent every part of myself in her.

We came apart together.

Afterward, I didn't focus on releasing my knot as I had done in the hurry of our marriage joining. This time I stayed thick and hard inside her, locking us together as I lay down to the side of her, holding her against my body as we breathed hard. Oncewe left, everything would happen quickly, and I wanted to stay in this moment a little bit longer.

"I fell in love with you the moment I saw you," I said.

"You fell in love with me when I was naked and running for my life?" she asked, one brow arching.

"Then again, when you seized me in your hand, drawing me from my madness and into your grip," I said.

"When I grabbed your dick," she said, her tone flat. "That's when you fell in love with me."

"Then again, when I saw how determined you were to learn," I continued, rushing the next part before she could twistthatone. "And then again, when you braved my self-imposed isolation to take care of me, and then again, when you took me into you as your mate. I have fallen in love with you so many times, I will fall in love with you so many times that one day I will lose count and all that will exist in every moment is how much my heart yearns to forever be yours."

"Good," she said. "Because I'm never letting it go."

I laughed, the sound ripped from me before I could stop it. She always caught me off guard, in the best ways. I’d fallen for her when we had no words to share. And now that we did, now that she could parry with me in language and in soul, now that she could talk me down from the ledge of my own self-doubt, I was falling all over again. The future opened before me, bright and wild and unspeakably full, of her. Of us. Of mornings tangled in sheets and nights tangled in laughter. Of shared battles and quiet glances and soft hands reaching for mine in the dark.

She had become my everything.

"A few more moments," I said, pressing my forehead to hers. "Then we go."

"Good," she murmured. Then she lifted her arm, admiring how the gems on her bracelets caught the light. "But we're taking the family jewels with us."

TWENTY-ONE

LEIJA

The spaceport smelled bad and was way too bright.

I winced as I looked around, wishing I had a visor or sunglasses to protect me from the artificial lights that glared from every corner, blocking out the night sky with their sheen, illuminating the huge hulking shapes of metal that were parked in large designated squares, spaced out with alleyways in between their forms. Each shuttle or small ship had a ramp that opened down into the main walkway that was filled with aliens I recognized and those I didn't. I wrinkled my nose at the smell. It reeked of chemicals, tart and astringent. I wished I had a mask I could wear to filter the air and keep whatever that was from getting into my lungs.

We'd gotten through the spaceport entry checkpoint without much issue, other than a sideways glance from the small rabbit-sized alien who asked me three times if I was sure I wanted to travel off planet with Eun. I thought there wouldbe some sort of terminal or place where we could purchase tickets, like in an airport, but there wasn't. Instead, there were long rows of ships docked in their individual spaces, with no rhyme or reason for what was docked where, only that there were a lot of them. When a ship would take off, a transparent screen would appear around it, catching most of the heat or exhaust from the ships that had such a thing and funneling it away from the bustling pedestrian walkway through the ships.

The walkway itself was filled with market stalls, with ships unloading goods and setting up booths right outside. Some were selling small goods directly to consumers walking by, while others were showcasing samples of what people could buy in bulk. There were handcrafted goods, fabrics, food, everything I would have expected from a sprawling farmers' market in a huge city, but instead of buildings, there were ships and shuttles, large clunky forms made out of metal and other materials. Those ships had aliens I hadn't seen before, but I didn't have much time to gawk at them.

Eun was leading me through the spaceport on a mission, his hand warm on my waist as he kept his arm around me, his tail curling around me as well, reaching out to physically push away an alien that got too close to me. That resulted in a few growls and grumbles, but most moved out of the way of the tail before it got near them. A few aliens did a double-take at the gems glittering around my neck. After the second glance, I stripped my jewelry off and tucked it into one of the voluminous pockets of the silver dress.