Текст книги "The bride contract"

Автор книги: Melissa Emerald

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

22

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Chapter 22 – Niska

“Come, sit,” Kiahn tells me, and even though his mind had conjured seating – seating that looks exactly like the leather booth back at Star Pleasures, where we’d met – he takes up the entirety of the new space, and doesn’t indicate where he’d like for me to sit. That is, until after a moment or two of me just staring at him, Kiahn’s eyes quickly dart down to his lap as he shifts his hips.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I ask, crossing my arms. “I thought you were a big, dangerous brute with an uncontrollable urge to bite me?”

Kiahn smirks up at me and holds out his hand. “I am,” he says as I take his offered palm. He uses his other large hand on my hip to turn me, guiding me to sit on his lap with my back to him. “But someone once said I should learn to trust myself.”

I can’t help but smirking at that. “That someone sounds very smart.”

“She is,” Kiahn says with such finality, that it brokers no argument, and I find myself smiling even wider, though he can’t see it. That smile is tempered however, when his big body shifts beneath me, moving his butt down the seat, taking me with him. In this position, his upper half is almost horizontal behind me. “Lean back against me,” he commands, gently guiding me by my upper arms until it’s like I’m using him as my own personal sun lounger. “Take your undergarments off.”

I stiffen, and almost shoot back up again, but I don’t. I trust Kiahn – I do. Just like he’s trying to trust himself right now. Besides, by this point I’ve been in all different states of undress with him.

And we’ll be doing this for real pretty soon, anyway.

My breathing sounds loud in my ears as I prop my feet up on his powerful thighs and push down, lifting my hips so I can shuffle down the silky short-like underwear I’d been given. I plop the dark plum fabric on the stark white floor of the simulator room and lay back against Kiahn, rearranging his shirt I’m wearing so I’m still covered. His chin fits perfectly over the top of my head, and I can feel him swallow thickly at the back of my skull, my head practically bobbing with the movement.

“Make my permission appear, Niska,” he tells me, his voice quiet and scratchy.

It takes a moment of concentration, but the holographic Kiahn appears in front of us. Fully naked again. Fully erect.

“What do you want him to do to you?” The real Kiahn asks, his words a low rumble I can feel at my back.

“I-”

God, what don’t I want him to do to me?

The naked Kiahn towers over us as his eyes rake down my form, pausing at the hem of the shirt I’m wearing.

“You want him to explore you, my Niska?” Kiahn husks at my back. “We can allow that, don’t you think?” His huge, warm hands skim down my thighs before they hook beneath them. Never have my legs felt slim, but held in his large mitts? I feel almost dainty. “You can tell me no, you can just think stop, and he will stop, you understand this?”

I try to say yes, but my voice doesn’t come. Instead, I find myself wetting my lips and nodding as the real Kiahn lifts my legs, parting them obscenely like he were opening me up and offering me to his double like a gift. My breaths start to become ragged as I stare up at the way the hologram fixes his heated gaze between my legs. I seem to be as frozen as he is.

“If you want to see me lick your cunt, you have to will it in your mind, little bride.”

I let out a weak laugh on a breath, and then jolt in Kiahn’s hold at the suddenness in which the hologram glitches out of existence, only to reappear, kneeling before me, his face mere inches from my pussy. “Oh, God,” I squeak, my voice caught in my throat before I manage to whisper, “I can feel his breath on me there.”

“Do you like that?” Kiahn asks, his big hands flexing where they’re hooked around the backs of my knees, holding me open.

The hologram looks up at us from his place, hovering over me, and, maintaining a very intense form of eye-contact. Then, he parts his lips and slowly exhales a hot breath that fans all over my most intimate areas, rousing tingles wherever it touches.

I squirm. “It-it feels so real.”

Kiahn grunts beneath me, shifting his hips, making his sizable bulge more known. His voice is low and hoarse as he almost begs, “use him to show me what you like, Niska… Please.”

And it doesn’t take my mind half a second to command his clone to cover me with his mouth, the heat and sensation so damn real that my toes curl and a groan echos around me. It takes my mind a couple of seconds to realize that I’d made that noise. Shit, it’s been so long since someone else made me feel anywhere near this good. And none of this is even real – well, except for the huge man holding my legs open.

Kiahn’s permission licks at me, letting out an appreciative groan of his own – a noise that I feel vibrate into my core. Glancing down, I see he’s watching me, too, as his focus shifts from licking up the length of me with long, appreciative swipes with the flat of his large tongue, to concentrating all his efforts on my clit. And just as I’m thinking about how hot it is that Kiahn wants to learn how best to please me, his holographic self speaks, his words murmured into my pussy, and punctuated by the obscene, sloppy noises of someone enthusiastically going to town on his meal. “She likes her clit to be licked, kissed, and gently sucked on,” the hologram says so nonchalantly, it’s like he’s reeling off a shopping list as I squirm beneath his mouth.

I can feel the real Kiahn nod jerkily, his head resting on top of mine. “Noted,” he grunts, pulling my thighs even wider apart, opening me up like it were nothing at all. “I will-” he pauses to shift his hips beneath me, “-if you permit me to ready you for breeding this way, I will gladly use my mouth, my hands, my… whatever you need.”

“Fingers,” the permission lifts his head to say. “She wants your fingers inside her. And she wants them now. She feels empty.”

I whimper and turn my head as his mouth goes back to work, covering my clit with a delicious-sounding groan. Had I wanted him to say that? I don’t know. Is it true, though? Do I want the real Kiahn to start touching me that way? Absolutely. But, it’s all too much happening all at once. I can’t seem to keep control of the hologram’s big mouth, but Oh, God, is that really a problem right now since it all feels so damn good? My head is swimming in confusion and pleasure at the same time. I feel kind of dizzy as I start panting, letting the hologram’s tongue wind me up, up, up.

“Is this true, little bride?” Kiahn asks above me. “You trust me to do this and not claim you?”

At this point in time, with the way my body is lit up with tingles of pleasure shooting up my spine and radiating out from where the other Kiahn is so expertly devouring me, all I can do is whine and nod. In fact, my brain can’t even decipher whether he means claim me with his bite, or his cock, and quite frankly, I don’t really care. I just want to come. I want him to make me come. The real Kiahn. “Please,” is all I manage to whimper out. “Please, please, please.”

With a growl, Kiahn shifts me up his big body, maneuvering me so that my head is now next to his instead of under it. I let it fall back on his shoulder before I turn into him, feeling his jaw tense against my forehead. Kiahn continues to reposition me like I was nothing but a ragdoll on his lap. He shifts me so that my body is laid slightly more diagonally than it had been before, the movement making the clone Kiahn lose contact with that sweet spot. And just as my mind protests the loss of his mouth, the hologram growls up at his real counterpart before seeking out my clit again. A low chuckle rumbles at my back. “He can stay where you want him, little bride, don’t worry,” Kiahn tells me, “but keep as still as you can with your legs spread wide open for me while I play with you. Can you do that, Niska?” One of his hands lets go of my leg, only to trail feather-light, and tortuously slow fingertips down the inside of my thigh while his double continues to make gentle pulse-like sucking motions directly over my clit.

“Mm-hm,” I respond, nodding my head, agreeing to everything – anything, just so long as he touches me. Just so long as that aching emptiness gets filled.

His soft touch almost makes it to the seam of my thigh before I can’t help it, the desperation and anticipation – the feeling of a warm mouth on me. The delicious build of an oncoming orgasm brought on by two huge men – two Kiahns. It all has me rolling my hips, practically begging for more.

Suddenly, his other hand clamps on my throat, pinning me in place making me freeze in his hold. And, all at once, I’m very aware how I can feel Kiahn’s heartbeat thudding at my back. Even his permission stops his licking and raises his head to watch us both, like the hologram is waiting for my mental command to continue. “You must remain still for me, Niska,” Kiahn reminds me sharply. “You do not know what a temptation you are when you allow me to touch you.” He nuzzles into the side of my head, taking some of the sting from his reprimand away. I swallow beneath his grip and feel his hand flex around my neck. “You have to understand, Xaviann females do not offer themselves up like this. And you moving like that? Like you’re ready, and begging to be bred?” Kiahn chuckles darkly, one of his protruding fangs lightly brushing the curve of my ear. “Have mercy on me, little human. Can you do that? I may be a prince, but I am only a male. I can withstand only so much torture before I will claim you.”

I nod my head a little, the sturdy yet gentle grip he has on my throat restricting my movement.

“Good girl.”

Oh, God, I’m going to be a melted puddle of a woman.

“She likes that,” Kiahn’s permission informs him. “She likes when you talk to her, and praise her.” I hadn’t meant for him to say it out loud, but my mind obviously doesn’t have a firm grip on the hologram Kiahn at the moment – or on anything else for that matter. Not with the way he’s talking to me right now, or how his fingertips are so gently brushing up and down the inside of my thigh, sending promises along with his touch.

Kiahn lets out a pleased-sounding rumble. “Is that so?” He then proceeds to bury his face into my hair and take in a large drag of air, somehow sending a cascade of tingles down my body from the small gesture. “Fuck, you smell good,” he says, his hand not missing a beat as it continues to glide, feather-like up and down the inside of my thigh, not quite reaching the desired destination between my legs.

“Kiahn,” I whine. “Please.”

“Can you be still for me?”

I nod, desperate.

Achingly slowly, Kiahn’s thick fingers brush down my leg, cross the border of the crease of my thigh into what seems to be ‘forbidden territory’ for the huge guy at my back. We both shudder a little as he carefully, gently explores my pussy, tracing the shape of me and making me want to writhe with madness.

But I won’t.

He wants me still. I can be still.

I hope.

“I’ve never touched a real female this way,” he admits, his voice sounding almost reverent. “You are so wet.”

If my mind wasn’t so clouded by desperation right now, I might have the decency to be embarrassed. But I’m not.

“Look at you, you’re positively soaked,” he says, his touch getting more bold, more firm, more sure. “Is this all for me, Niska? Is this mine to play with?”

“Yes,” I breathe out, my hips undulating in a shallow shadow of a rhythm, my movements minute, but desperate – so desperate, it feels like my hairline is dotted with sweat.

Kiahn places his mouth right beside my ear and growls, “be a good girl and stay still for me, Niska.”

I whimper, but stop my movements, and I’m rewarded instantly by the intrusion of one of Kiahn’s thick fingers.

“Goddess, fuck me, you are perfect,” Kiahn groans. “Look at how needy your soft little cunt is for me,” he rasps, while adding another finger and slowly fucking me with them, the movement causing obscene slick sounds of my arousal to meet my ears.

“Kiahn,” I moan.

I feel him jerk his head beside mine. “Use my permission’s mouth, little bride.”

I’d practically forgotten about his hologram. He’d been standing, watching us, but as soon as I think it, he kneels again, this time at my hip, approaching the action from the side so that the real Kiahn can position his hand so that his thumb rests above my clit, framing it for his clone to get to work while his other fingers are lower, curling inside me in a maddening rhythm.

As soon as I feel the sensation of a hot, wet – albeit holographic – mouth on my clit, I let out a long, luxurious moan, my arm reaching back to hold on tight to the base of the real Kiahn’s right horn.

“Oh, fuck,” Kiahn groans, seeming to enjoy the contact. His fingers had paused momentarily, but they resumed quickly with a growl. “That’s it, hold onto me, little bride. You’re going to let me pamper this perfect cunt aren’t you?” I try to keep the rest of my body still, but nod my head a little, feeling his hand flex around my throat like a warning. “You get so nice and wet for me, don’t you, Niska?” He turns his head into mine, nuzzling behind my ear, making me want to shudder in pleasure for so many reasons. “I’ll take care of you. I’ll give you anything you want, and you’re going to take me in this little cunt, aren’t you?” I nod again, my breathing a little shaky. “That’s my good little bride. Look at you staying so still for me. Do you think we can fit all of me in? You feel so tight.”

“Yes.”

God, yes. I want him now.

Although I’m not even sure the sensations I’m feeling in this moment could ever be topped. Kiahn continues to fuck me with his thick fingers, while his permission licks and sucks on my clit.

My thighs begin to shake as I feel the build up of an orgasm rushing toward me like a flood of tingly pleasure.

“Kiahn!”

“That’s it, beautiful. Just let it happen. Let me take care of you. Gonna make you come, aren’t we?…. That’s it… good girl… let it happen.”

His fingers move faster, curling and rhythmically stroking over a spot inside me that is driving me crazy in the best way possible. No man has ever touched me like this before. They always go too fast and aggressive, their digits straight and rigid. I don’t know if it’s the angle, or what, but Kiahn’s fingers are practically magic in comparison.

“Ohh,” I moan, my grip on his horn tightening.

“Fu-Uuck.”

Kiahn’s big body jerks beneath me, and he puts more pressure on that special spot, rubbing and rubbing as his permission clamps his hot mouth over my clit and sucks.

And when I come, it’s not like falling – it’s like being catapulted. Like being flung into the stars and every bit of air that whooshes past my skin leaves tingles of pleasure in my wake. I’m sure I cry something out, but I don’t know what. My vision is patchy and my limbs feel locked up. I must have jerked as I rode that high, but I don’t realize that maybe the movement had pushed him over the edge until I come back down again to realize that Kiahn is licking, kissing and murmuring feverishly into the side of my neck.

“Fuck, I wanna bite you so bad,” he whispers into my skin before his tongue swipes over the spot again. “You’re such a beautiful little creature. Please. Please let me make you mine.”

His permission has disappeared again. Presumably because my mind realized my clit is too sensitive for his attention now, and I no longer have any use for him. I almost start to feel sorry for the guy before I remind myself – he’s not real. But the big guy I’m still sprawled on top of is. And now it’s just me and him left in this stark, white room. His thick fingers are still playing with my entrance, though the movements are now slow and languid as he gently pushes in and then drags back out again almost as if he’s doing it subconsciously.

“It’s just a little bite,” he whispers deliriously, lightly scraping a fang up the arch of my neck. “Please, Niska. I will give you everything. You will be my queen… just a little bite… it won’t hurt… never hurt you… just let me have you… please.”

He sounds desperate and totally lost in the sauce.

And maybe a little crazy.

I clear my throat and give his horn a little shake. “Kiahn?”

It takes a second or two, but I can pinpoint the exact moment he seems to come to his senses by the way he stiffens at my back.

“Shit,” he curses, swiftly removing his fingers from my pussy before he just as swiftly stands up, unceremoniously dumping me on the ground at his feet in the process.

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23

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Chapter 23 – Kiahn

“Shit!” I repeat, like a fucking geliklik. Not only had my little stunt put her in danger, but she’s now on the floor after I’d dropped her. “Niska, I’m so sorry, I-” I don’t know how to finish that sentence as I reach to help her up. I lost control of myself? You letting me touch you like that drove me insane? I got wound up to the point that I was begging – begging – to bite you?

I suddenly fight the urge to cover my mouth. It would be no use of course, Niska already knows my fangs are out. This isn’t like when I went through the awkward stage of maturing into adulthood and my fangs would protrude at the first hint of a female being in the vicinity.

I’m a fucking prince.

I’m a responsible grown male.

I should have known better.

“I-”

“It’s ok,” Niska says before I get a chance to apologize again. “We both got a little carried away there.”

I wince at that as I watch her straighten my shirt she’s wearing. Her pretty, golden brown skin is flushed and I try to convince myself that I only like the sight so much because it’s so different from the gray of Xaviann skin. It makes no difference, though. I can’t take my eyes off of her. “Yes, but as my breeding bride, I’m responsible for your safety.” I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have just shown her the basics of using a permission and left her to figure the rest out. I was so fucking close to bonding this gorgeous little creature to me, and we don’t even know what that would have done to her.

Niska finally looks up at me, her gaze raking over my form before she seems to pause and linger on my crotch. Her brows furrow. “Did you-”

I glance down at myself and then back up to her. Did I come all over myself? Is that what she’s asking? “Yes.”

“But…” she loosely gestures toward me with a pointed finger. “But I didn’t even touch you.”

“Yes,” I say slowly, not quite sure where the confusion is coming from as I distinctly recall her gripping my horn while she allowed me the honor of playing with her cunt. “But you let me touch you.”

“Yeah, sorry, I just-” she babbles, her head shaking and her hands making strange, back and forth gestures between the two of us. “No-one’s ever-”

“Niska,” I say, taking her flapping hands in mine, covering them to make her look at me. “You trusted me enough to let me take you to your peak. As a result, I reached my own. I do not understand why this puzzles you.” She stares up at me with those big brown eyes and I cannot help that my gaze drops to her slightly parted lips. “And-” I pause, huffing and tipping my head back, “-and you probably should not have given me that trust.”

“You’re ridiculous, do you know that?”

My gaze snaps to hers instantly. I… I am not used to being spoken to like this if it’s not coming from my own family. No-one else in my Principality would dare.

So why is cock starting to harden again? For fuck’s sake, Kiahn, get control of yourself.

I growl to myself and avert my gaze to the ground, my eyes snagging on the puddle of Niska’s undergarments and for more than I second, I wonder if she’ll let me keep them. Fuck, Kiahn, get a grip! “I know, and I apologize for almost losing control,” I say, absently rubbing at my horn.

“That’s not what I’m talking about, Kiahn.”

Goddess, but I do love hearing her say my name. “It’s not?” I ask, glancing back up at her.

“No! I’m talking about you beating yourself up over not even hurting me. You didn’t do anything Kiahn.”

I groan. She doesn’t get it. She doesn’t understand how much I wanted to make her mine – how close I was to clamping down on her neck with my fangs and fucking her hard to stake my claim. A million times with her permission would still not be enough for me to overcome this urge I have for her.

“You didn’t do anything,” she repeats, her voice a little softer.

I close my eyes, and take a breath before doing my best to level her with an even stare, trying to remind myself that she is just a contract bride. This shouldn’t be so difficult. “But I could have, Niska. So easily. You were so vulnerable for me… and…”

“And?”

Ah, shit.

My shoulders sag. “And… I liked it.”

Her lips quirk up on one side – a minute gesture that I find so infuriatingly attractive, that I start to think this little human is going to ruin me for all future breeding contracts. Honestly, it’s a startling question to ask myself, but I genuinely wonder if I’ll ever be able to get my cock erect for a female that isn’t her? Will I have to imagine Niska when I’m mounting my next bride?

I shake my head, trying to knock loose the wildly inappropriate and disrespectful thought.

“What’s so bad about liking it?”

I sigh. “Maybe we need to rethink this contract.” Even as I say the words out loud, I want to stuff them back into my mouth with my fists and swallow them back down like a mad-male. “Let me walk you back to your rooms.”

Niska crosses her arms and cocks a brow at me, and I know right then and there that I’m actually already ruined for all other females. Why is my heart racing right now?

“Actually, I think I’m going to stay right here for the night.”

“In my simulator?” I ask, feeling caught off-guard, and genuinely puzzled.

Niska scoffs and playfully slaps my bare chest as she walks straight past me and out into my bedchambers, delicately peeling off the patches at her temples as she goes. “No, I thought we could have a little sleepover.”

“I… do not understand.”

“You keep beating yourself up over nothing,” she says, handing me the simulator patches back. “And I’m going to prove to you that it doesn’t matter how vulnerable I am with you. You’re not going to hurt me. I trust you. So I’m going to spend the night here, with you,” she pauses and puts her hand up, “just sleeping. No more funny business.”

“Funny… business.” I stare at her after repeating her words, not quite seeing the humor in all of this. “That was funny to you?” I ask, hooking my thumb over my shoulder to indicate back at my simulator. If this is true, then I have a lot more research to do on human culture and what they find amusing.

“No, I mean, we’re not going to do anything sexual. We’ll just share a bed. We can lay down together… talk… and cuddle maybe.”

She says all these words as she’s climbing up onto my bed. The Xaviann-size piece of furniture somehow making her look even smaller as she has to heft herself up onto the mattress. Momentarily, my focus is caught on the way my shirt rides up on her soft thighs, and I remember that she’d left her undergarments back in my simulator room. She is bare.

She is on my bed, and she is bare.

“Kiahn?” Niska asks, her voice coming through the fog of distraction like she were far away. She’s peering at me from over her shoulder, and that look in her eye tells me I’ve been caught staring. “Are you coming to bed?” she giggles as she peels back my blankets and starts to tuck herself in.

Fuck, if that’s not a sight to behold.

I rub at my horn and then drop my hand so that I can palm the back of my neck. “Xaviann’s… don’t really… share bedchambers, let alone beds. And especially not with their breeding brides.”

“Really? Never?”

I shake my head.

She looks around, the certainty and playfulness gone from her expression. “Should I go? Is it disrespectful for me to be here?”

I can’t help it, my feet take me a step closer and I reach out as if I were about to physically stop her from leaving. “No!”

Judging by the way her head whips my way, I may have startled her with the ferocity of my reaction. I’d never considered sharing my bed with someone. I know Zann sometimes falls asleep in other people’s quarters after mating in the flesh, but he has always been one to go against the grain, and personally, I’ve never seen the appeal.

I do now, though.

“No,” I repeat more softly now, my arms out in front of me, palms down as I approach the side of my bed. “Please stay. That sounds…” fucking amazing and agonizing at the same time? Like both torture and a gift? “…nice.”

The word doesn’t seem enough, but I stop analyzing words and their worthiness when Niska smiles at me. “Yeah, nice,” she murmurs, her features beaming like there’s a light-source somehow inside her.

In a daze, I watch her eyes trace down my body, and I try not to make it too obvious that I’m trying to square my shoulders, and puff out my chest under her inspection. But then her gaze snags on my pants and her smile changes as she bites on her bottom lip.

I follow her line of vision.

Ah.

Right.

I should probably go and wash my seed off myself and change into clean clothing.

“I’m just going to…” my words trail off as I hook a thumb over in the direction of my washrooms. Niska grins and nods her head as I walk backward, not wanting to turn away from the sight of her sitting against my pillows until the very last moment.

Once inside my bathing chambers, I take a moment to close my eyes and take a deep, fortifying breath before going to my basin and bracing myself over it. There is a reflection glass hung above and I find myself staring intently at my image. Alright, do not spook this female, Kiahn. You came so fucking close to bonding her to you, and you can’t afford to slip up like that again. After my brief pep-talk, I ask the ship’s command for cool waters. The basin starts to fill up instantly, but before I can scoop some up to splash on my heated face, a slight glisten to two of my fingers on my right hand catches my eye.

Lifting my hand, my mind is promptly flooded with memories of mere moments ago, where those two fingers had been hooked inside the welcoming cunt of that beautiful little creature out there while she used my permission to suck on her sensitive little clit. Without thought or protest, I put my fingers into my mouth to savor the taste of her. My eyelids fall, and I can’t help the low, animalistic groan that comes out of me.

“Are you ok in there?”

Shit! My eyes fly open again. “Yes!” I call out, the answer almost mumbled from around my fingers. I’m not done sucking them clean yet. “I’m fine!”

I glare at my reflection again, as if this was all his fault.

Just… be normal. For fuck’s sake!

After a shower of cool waters, I re-enter the bedchamber wearing my softest, sand-colored pants. I normally sleep naked, but I don’t think that would be wise in this ‘sleep-over’ situation my Niska is asking for. She smiles at me and pats the space beside her, inviting me to my own bed.

Never have I slid between my sheets with my heart pumping the way it is right now.

And now I lay here, on my back, staring straight up to my bedchamber ceiling like I have a million times before whenever we travel on this ship. Except this time, I am obsessively aware of the presence beside me.

Niska giggles, and I turn my head to look at her. “Are you holding your breath?”

“No.”

Was I?

Maybe.

The smile she has on her face could rival every sunset I have ever seen.

She’s laying on her side, her head propped on her hand, elbow bent and digging into the pillow – my pillow. The blankets covering her from chest to toe do nothing to hide the form of her. I can clearly see the valley of her waist and the crest of her hip. There’s just something about that shape that is so inviting. The Earth Goddesses knew what they were doing when they made human women this way.

“What do we do now?” I ask, prying my gaze away from the landscape of her body.

Niska laughs lightly again. “We can talk. What do you want to talk about, Prince Kiahn?”

I give her a look. She’d said my title correctly, but the tone had been teasing.

I let it slide, of course.

I think there are a lot of things that I would let slide for this female.

“What is… cuddle?”

Niska raises her brows at my question. I wet my lips before continuing.

“Before, you said that we could lay together, talk, and maybe cuddle. What is it?”

The grin she gives me is eclipsed by the way she scoots her body forward, pressing herself to my side. She then lifts my arm and settles it over her shoulder, molding herself to me. “This is a cuddle,” she explains, laying her head on my chest as one of her legs hooks over mine.

I am frozen to the spot, but I can feel my fangs start to slowly slide from my gums. “Oh.”

“Breathe, Kiahn,” Niska laughs, lightly tapping my chest. “It’s meant to be nice.”

“It is nice… It’s very nice… Really, really nice.”

“But your heart sounds like it’s trying to burst out of your chest right now,” she leans up to look down at me. “Are you sure you’re ok with this?”

I shake my head, my arm tightening on her in case she tries to move away. “It is just my first time participating in a cuddle. I’m sure I’ll calm down once the novelty wears off,” I lie through my fangs.

Niska chuckles, but lays her head back down on my chest, her hand coming up to draw nonsensical patterns on my pectoral with her fingertip. I’d never considered embracing someone in bed before. It’s thrilling, and yet cozy at the same time. I can feel every breath my little Niska is taking, her chest pressed into my side. How do humans do this and not immediately start mating with each other?

Then she says in a quiet voice, “tell me more about your family,” and suddenly all thoughts of mating flee my mind and my fangs practically disappear in their hasty retreat.

“My… family?”

“Yes,” she says, her finger making swirls on my chest. “I just want to talk to you like a normal person. Not two people with a contract. Not a prince and the human he bought-”

“Technically, my Aunt purchased you for me, so…”

She barks out a musical laugh and playfully slaps my chest. “So nothing. That’s still weird as hell!”