Between her legs, my spend still lingers, coating her inner thighs.

She surprised me…

I did not expect her to want to take me—had decided I would hold back because it was a surety that she wouldn’t.

But…she did.

Memory of the tight heat of her suu’ci makes me groan and my sazi throbs again.

Tipping my nose to her head, I inhale deeply.

My Adee’ra.

I came across the stars, seeking revenge, seeking to change the inevitable and through all that time, not once had I thought I would find…you.

She moans in my arms and turns to face me. I expect her eyes to open but the only thing open is her mouth.

A soft grating sound comes from her throat and my ears twitch as I listen.

She is still fast asleep.

How can something so vulnerable rest so unaware and so loudly?

I move my hands across her back, pulling her closer, and I can feel the column of symbiotes resting there.

She is even controlling them while she rests.

I do not believe she realizes just how integrated with her they have become…

She’s not so vulnerable anymore.

The ba’clan pulse against my hand and I feel the connection I once had with them.

“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”

They pulse again.

I know they did.

“—ro?”

Adee’ra’s brow crinkles and so does her nose as her eyes squeeze tight.

She stretches a little and then as suddenly as she spoke, she bolts upright.

“I fell asleep.”

My gaze moves over her.

Her hairs are pointing every which way and there is a line of fluid that leaked from her mouth. It runs toward her chin and she wipes it away with the back of her hand.

I stare at her, transfixed.

She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen across the stars.

“Shit.” She runs a hand through her hair. “We should go. The others must be so worried.”

Her gaze moves down me, hesitating for a second at where my sazi hides, and her cheeks warm.

My sazi throbs again, enjoying the attention, and I have to force my thoughts away from it.

Adee’ra would not be ready again so soon.

But that sweet spicy scent is growing around us and my ears perk at attention.

Adee’ra pulls her gaze back up to my face and then she leans forward.

We’re so close now, her breaths brush against my skin.

When she leans lower this time, I am not surprised when her lips brush against mine.

I am hungry for her and I thrum immediately.

Laying with her in my arms had been the sweetest torture. I had been aching, and now, here she is.

She moans against me as I rub the tip of my tongue against hers and then she is pulling away far too quickly.

I don’t let her.

I move with her until she is falling backward.

Her head hits the soft feathers and I am over her once more.

Adee’ra shudders a little, her gaze moving up my torso and higher. That sweet spicy scent of hers fills the air.

But…she can’t be ready to take me again so soon…can she?

I open my nostrils and pull in as much air as I can, filling my chest with her scent.

I’ve never smelled something more intoxicating.

“Fer’ro,” she whispers my name so softly, it tickles my ears. “Do the Vullan mate for life?”

“We used to.” The words come out as a growl as I try to control the insistent thrum of my sazi.

It wants to bury itself inside this soft being beneath me. Memory of how good she feels is still far too fresh.

“Used to? So you don’t anymore?”

I force myself to focus on her words. To not open her legs and bury some part of myself inside her.

My fangs drip. I want to taste her.

“There hasn’t been a soul-tie in many, many moons.” I bring my head down and brush my nose against the side of her face. “Until now.” Her skin isn’t as red as it was earlier but I’m still careful not to irritate her more.

“What do you mean, until now?”

I pause a little and close my eyes, relishing in the feel of my female beneath me.

If she decides to run away now…life will have no meaning.

But I have to tell her the truth.

Maybe, she feels it too.

“Until you,” I whisper.

For a few long moments, Adee’ra doesn’t speak, and then, her small arms are stretching across my back, pulling me closer.

I did not know every muscle in my being was frozen until I melt into her at that moment.

“So that’s what He’rox meant,” she whispers. “The ba’clan…”

I ease up and look down at her, searching those strange white and brown eyes of hers.

“I figured something was strange. Sam and Mina didn’t get any ba’clan…only I did, and…”

I wait for her to continue, my blood organ constricting in my chest.

“And I think I know why.”

Adee’ra’s hand caresses my cheek as her other hand slides down my torso toward my fold.

Her finger slips over the opening and I groan.

A shudder goes through me.

“I can feel you,” she says. “It’s like I can feel how horny you are for me right now.” Her cheeks get rosy and she darts her eyes away as her hand stills against me. “I can feel other things too.” She glances at me. “I can’t explain it.”

“It’s the ba’clan,” I manage to rasp. “They are a part of you now, as they are a part of me.”

“Does that mean…” She glances at me again before looking away. “Is that why you said I was yours?”

I growl a little and her gaze finally snaps back to mine.

“Even without the ba’clan, you would be mine. I cannot bear the thought of you with another.”

My womb mate, Ga’Var jumps to my mind, and I growl again but my mind is quickly taken away from jealous anger when I feel Adee’ra’s soft hand cup right over my sazi.

I inhale deeply as my sazi throbs against her hand.

“You’re hard,” she whispers and that sweet, spicy scent intensifies, filling the room.

“I always am,” I growl. “I am here whenever you want me. Whenever you need me.”

My sazi throbs again as her hand moves over it, threatening to extrude.

“And if I want you now?”

I’m unable to give her warning as my sazi extrudes right into her palm.

There’s a gasp from Adee’ra as her eyes widen, but then her lids lower and she takes her bottom lip into her mouth.

She shuffles underneath me, spreading her legs open and I stare at her in wonder.

But…I cannot move.

There is nothing I want more than to surge deep inside her right now, and my sazi throbs insistently, jerking against her hand, pre-spill forming at its tip.

I want to taste her with my tongue, to inhale her intoxicating scent, to make her ready for me, but Adee’ra releases my jaw and grasps my sazi with both hands.

Words vacate my mind, thoughts disappear, and a deep thrum fills me as she moves both hands down my length.

“Fuck,” she mutters.

Translation: rek.

Fuh’k indeed.

I want to fuh’k her.

I want to fuh’k her so bad.

“I’m sorry,” she says, and I’m swiftly taken away from my trance.

She is apologizing.

I force myself to still, the muscles in my arms bunching on either sides of her as I resist the urges building within me.

I can stop now.

It will be hard, but I can pull away.

“I can’t wait,” she whispers as she brings my sazi toward her sweet entrance.

A strangled groan escapes me as she rubs my tip against her folds.

So. Soft.

Her mouth opens with a moan and I grit my teeth, my lips pulling back as my fangs bare above her.

Adee’ra looks up. There is no fear in her eyes.

She wants me, and she guides me over her softness, her juices coating my tip.

It is a fight for me to remain still, to not take control, but I do not want to trade the beauty I am seeing before me for anything else.

Adee’ra’s face constricts as my tip rubs over that small nub in her center—the one that made her cry out on my tongue.