HMS Valediction

Chapter 37.2

The room is cold. It's always cold. Despite the heat from the body beside me, I shiver. The silken sheets brush against the top of my hip as I lie on my side, immense warmth radiating from the other side of the bed. The cool fabric slips farther down, exposing my naked ass to the room. I stretch, relishing the slow pull of my muscles, the quick pop of my bones, and the wonderful aroma of lemony cleanliness after being shut up on the inside of another hellish cell for ten whole sondits.

Don't care. I'm home. I slide my hands under the pillow and bury my face deeper. I nuzzle it and flinch when I stretch my neck too far, ripping the hardening scab of another reprimand. The thick, deep ring burned into my neck is the only part of me that's still searing. It prickles when I slide the pad of my finger over the rough surface. The circle is the fattest I've been branded so far.

Give me a few more, and I'll have as obnoxious a design as Moon's. I snort quietly.

"Stop touching it. It will scar wrong," says my bedmate into the pillow.

I squint through the dark at the sleeping form and grin. "Oh good, you're awake." I slide closer, slipping limbs between limbs. My leg warms the instant its sandwiched between her thighs. I push Nuna's hair aside and kiss a line from her neck down her shoulder. "I've been gone too long." My fingers, removed from my own scars, traverse the curves of her body. Over her plush expanses, the convex between her legs, the softest part I've memorized with my lips. I've kissed this all before. I studied them again last night. Extensively.

When she flips over and holds my gaze with her dark, glassy eyes, I see her scrutinizing the scar, checking it over as the caregiver-part of her likes to fuss over when I drag myself back from another fouled trip. Or get dragged back. Last night, I was glad to be walking home on my own two feet for once.

She lifts a hand and cups my cheek just above the reprimand. "I'm starting to believe you like getting caught."

"Makes coming home pretty fun." I lean in and capture her lips.

My hand slides between us. Her body rolls with pleasure as I glide over all the triggers that make her melt. It didn't take long to figure out Nuna's tough exterior was a brilliant distraction for the puddle of mush she's hiding inside. Only after a girl finds her hard-to-reach buttons, of course. Once we jumped into bed together that first drunken night, it was easy discovery from there.

Her breathing quickens as I find her rhythm. I kiss her open mouth, swallowing her moans. She reaches around to my back to massage the particular spot on my scales that I find most arousing. Two fingers pressed between my shoulder blades has become my new favorite erogenous zone.

Moon never said the scales could do that. Maybe he's never found it because he never lets anyone close enough to test it out on him.

Don't want to think about that idiot now. Not with Nuna's fingers sending me to heaven.

She presses down and the long stretch of blue scales that cover my spine. The scales flip up and I'm sparked to life, charged like a bolt of lightning struck me between the legs. I throw my head back and moan. She pets my scales with one hand, long, languid strokes and divine, brutal pressure while inserting three fingers inside me.

She wants to kiss me, but I can't stop the moan that bursts from my throat as I climax.

I barely register the sound of the door swooshing open.

"You've been fucking all night," Moon says with sharp irritation. "I've had to endure your animalistic coupling since we returned from port. Can you please spare me the horror for one morning?"

"Too late." I trail kisses down Nuna's neck as I pant into her skin.

"Go away," Nuna commands from over my shoulder. She rubs her hands up and down my arms to quell my post-coital shaking.