Ice Planet Honeymoon (Four Novellas of HEA)

I don’t want to know. If avoiding her means I can prolong the inevitable, I’m going to hide in this stupid cave for the next few days and beg Aehako to take me home early. I can’t handle bad news about my baby. I can’t.

I put my hands on my stomach and cradle it gently, too terrified to even cry. Under my hands, the little one kicks my bladder and spins, and I’ve never been so glad to have to pee in my life.

* * *

I must drift off to sleep at some point, because I wake up when Aehako slides into the blankets beside me, and the fire is out. The cave is chilly and he puts his hands on my warm body, rubbing them up and down against my bare arms. “I thought you were going to come and get me when you went to see the healer,” Aehako murmurs against my ear, spooning my body with his bigger one. “What did she say?”

I can hear the hurt in his tone. Does he think I would go without him? He doesn’t realize that I’m in here, hiding from the world. “I haven’t seen her yet. I’ll go in the morning.”

He leans over and kisses my cheek, holding me tight against his chest. “Are you feeling well? Is everything all right?”

You tell me, I want to scream. But I don’t. I can’t be mad at him. If he’s talking to Rokan behind my back, it’s because he’s afraid of upsetting me. He wants to try and “fix” whatever he can without alarming me. It’s sweet, and it makes me love him all the more.

I’m everything to him, just like he’s everything to me. Him…and the baby.

I roll over and face him, studying his handsome, broad features. He doesn’t look devastated or stressed—at least, no more so than usual. Is he trying to hide it from me in all ways? My heart aches with such love for him. I don’t know how I managed to end up here, planets and planets away from my own, to land in the arms of this man, but I’ll be forever thankful for it.

Whatever happens in the future, we face it together.

I cup his face and kiss his mouth fiercely.

Aehako groans in surprise at my initiative. He licks at the inside of my mouth, the ridges of his tongue sending hot flutters through my body. His tail wraps around my ankle, and he slides his big hands over my ass, kneading my muscles. “On your knees, my pretty mate,” he murmurs between kisses. “Let your male take care of you.”

“Yes,” I whisper. I want that. I want him to take care of me. I need it. His touch is like a drug, and I want it to send me spiraling. I bite his lower lip hungrily, and then turn, getting on all fours. With my belly growing, this is becoming our position of choice, and just putting my palms on the blankets makes me get all hot and bothered. Maybe Marlene isn’t the only insatiable one lately.

“Love how needy you are,” he murmurs, tugging my leather leggings down and pushing my tunic up to expose me.

Am I needy? Maybe I am. I need to connect with my mate. I need to feel his touch. I need him to make me forget all my worries.

A little gasp escapes me as he glides his hot, aching length through my folds from behind. I’m wet already, but that erotic touch makes me even wetter. I love the drag of his ridges through my pussy, love how big he feels, how invasive against my spread folds. I lean forward a bit more, pressing my cheek to the furs and arching my back.

“So beautiful,” Aehako murmurs, lightly raking his fingers up and down the backs of my thighs and my buttocks. The touch sends little frissons of shock through me, my nipples tightening. So good. How does he always know how to make it so good?

Then he’s pushing inside me, so big and thick that I can’t stifle my moan of pleasure. He grunts as he sinks deeper, his hands tight on my hips, and I know what’s coming next, but I’m still not entirely prepared for when his spur pushes into my back entrance, pressing in the most exquisite and deliciously unnatural sort of way. It shouldn’t be nearly as amazing as it is, but making love like this makes me completely and utterly crazed with need. “Move,” I whisper, my fingers curling in the furs. “Please, please move.”

He does as I ask, retreating slowly, and then in the next moment, his hips slam into mine. His spur invades me again, and it just makes everything ratchet up to eleven. I gasp with every thrust, whimper every time he pulls back, and within minutes, my toes are curling and my calves feel tight with the onset of an orgasm.