Essence (Nectar 3)

“Hop on and hang on,” he invited and squeezed her bottom with both hands.

She linked her fingers behind his neck and hopped up, throwing her legs around his waist and he then continued doing the pull ups, Kyla attached to him like a koala bear. She nuzzled his throat, taking in his sweet scent.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning, to you, too, Sunshine. You’re very bright and cheerful today.”

“So are you. I like it. But I have a question.”

“Shoot…”

“Why are you out here and not in bed waking me up with your tongue?”

“I didn’t realize that was a requirement,” he teased, still doing pull ups, effortlessly holding her weight, not even sweating.

She clamped her legs tighter to hang on but let one arm go so that she could stroke his flexing bicep with it.

Yum.

“Well, it’s not, but maybe it should be…” she said.

She felt good about the fact that he wasn’t hovering this morning, that she’d woken up with him feeling good enough to be outside, rather than within arm’s reach, “Maybe it should go in our prenup.”

“Our prenup?” Tristan chuckled.

“Well, yeah. We’re gonna need one.”

“We won’t ever get a divorce, princess. Even if we wanted one, which we won’t.”

“Yeah, but it’s my chance to make my demands. Demands that you’ll agree to. In writing.”

He let go of the branch and grabbed her bottom and squeezed, “If you get to make demands, so do I.”

“Well, we’ll both have to think on that and then let the negotiations begin.”

He jumped back up and did a few more pull-ups.

“How was your chat with Sergey last night?”

“Very good.” He smiled and let go of the branch and wrapped one hand around her bottom, to support her, the other hand went into her hair. He kissed her on the mouth as he walked them over to the swing and sat, keeping Kyla straddling him.

“Yeah? Enlighten me.”

“Well…” he smiled, swinging them back and forth, “You’ll keep gaining strength from my blood and I’ll keep gaining it from yours. That growing physical strength you’re exhibiting will keep growing. You’ll be a formidable opponent, apparently. We’ll keep strengthening each other. A truly symbiotic relationship. We’ll have about the next 20 to 25 years where we can have babies. Sometimes it can be longer but that’s the average among the few other pairs Sergey knows. You won’t ovulate every month but it’ll be frequent. The temper tantrums might get rough if we miss, but I won’t want to kill you during your period. That blood’ll be good for me so I’ll probably make use of it. And I think I can handle you.”

“Oh, you think so?” she dared, trying not to think of him making use of that blood.

Her first instinct was to think ‘ewe, yuck’ but that thought didn’t sink in because blood was what they both needed and if it helped him… have at it.

He put his hands to her hips and squeezed, eyes sparkling, “I know so.”

“Apparently your libido will be difficult to keep up with when you ovulate but I think I am equipped to handle that, too.”

“Mm. You definitely have the equipment for that,” Kyla said against his lips and then nipped at his lower lip, catching it between her teeth and tugging on it, pressing her crotch into his.

He sucked his lip back in, rose, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her inside, straight to the bedroom, where he put her on her back and got his lips about an inch from her mouth.

“I’m so in love with you, delicious girl,” he said.

“I’m so in love with you, delicious man,” she replied.

“I feel really good about all this,” he said.

“Me, too,” she agreed.

“If it sounds strange that I agreed so readily, it is strange but I know he’s being transparent. I know it in my gut. And just because I seemed to come to this conclusion easily doesn’t mean it’ll be an easy road. It could get ugly.”

She swallowed hard and nodded.

“Adrian has to pay. The shit Sergey told me about him? Guy’s a joke. It’s a wonder he wasn’t exterminated years ago by councils on other continents. He didn’t have a lot of the info Sergey gave us because elders in the know didn’t respect him, didn’t trust him.”

She nodded, unsurprised.

“The breeding program they’re dismantling in Europe? They were using stem cells very creatively. There’s a lot we can do to make changes, big changes, help Sasha with her research and she’s got information that can help European doctors with theirs. But despite that, there will be people who really don’t want me making changes. But I have the power to do it. Between influencing others to some of the formulas Adrian had developed that we now have our hands on, to having you, knowing you’re not going to be under threat constantly from me with ovulating or your period? I feel good. But I still have to keep you safe. Above all, above everything else, you are my number one priority.”