Kraving Dravka by Zoey Draven

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Valerie sat perched on the edge of the bed, her fingers thumbing over the soft fabric that covered it, her eyes looking out the small, rectangular window that overlooked part of Nimida’s main depot and the main street below.

A part of her could scarcely believe that she was there. Sitting in an unfamiliar place. The air smelled pleasant, though artificial. Something sweet mingled with the engine fuels that seemed to permeate Nimida.

The room at the inn was surprisingly spacious, a large bed pushed against a corner, its headboard smooth and silver and modern-looking. A small table was pushed against another corner and the dresser drawers were hidden in the walls. They popped open with the slightest wave of her hand. The washroom door was still slid open, steam from her shower billowing out, though she’d been careful not to get her shoulder too wet.

It ached something fierce and the bone felt like it was throbbing. Dravka had told her she’d been bleeding a lot, that they’d had to hurry to close it. A part of her was uncomfortable that the tracker hadn’t been removed entirely—though she understood why. Dravka had told her it had been fused to her bone. They couldn’t take it out without seriously injuring her shoulder.

Once we’re on Dumera, she thought, I’ll look into having it removed.

A part of her knew she wouldn’t feel right until it was. A permanent severing from her aunt, from the control and abuse that had plagued her for five years.

Though she winced, Valerie stood from the bed, standing at the window, peering down at the narrow corridor below for any signs of a Keriv’i male. Tavak and Ravu were staying down the hall. They’d been lucky enough to snag two of the last rooms available for the night. The male at the desk—whose species she didn’t know though Dravka had told her he was a Laoti—informed them Nimida was always busy this time of the week. Dravka had passed over the credits that Khiva had given them to pay for the rooms.

There was movement at the door and she tensed. A moment later, it slid open to reveal Dravka. Dangling from his hand was a satchel and in his other was a platter of food.

When he closed and locked the door behind him, Valerie sighed and went to him. She was wearing one of the tunics he’d packed, the material dangling down to her mid-thighs.

“How do you feel?” he rumbled down to her, depositing the food on the table, which he’d gone out in search of with Tavak.

“A little sore,” she admitted, letting him guide her back to the bed.

“Tired?”

“Not really,” she said. She joked, “I think meeting with the customs agent burned away whatever sedative was left. I was a little nervous.”

“It didn’t show,” he assured her, smoothing his palm over her cheek before he turned to the satchel. “There was a shop still open. I got you something to numb your shoulder and this for the pain.”

He held up a vial of blue liquid, which he passed off to her.

“Only take half,” Dravka said, watching as she uncapped it. “The male said humans only need that amount. You can take the rest in the morning.”

Valerie nodded and tipped the vial back. It didn’t taste like anything, though once she swallowed, there was an acrid bitterness at the back of her tongue.

Dravka took the vial from her, setting it down on the table, and then took out the numbing injection from the satchel.

“Take off your shirt,” he murmured, making her eyes dart up to his.

Despite her pain, she felt her nipples pebble underneath his tunic. Something flickered in his eyes, his nostrils flaring a bit.

“Mellkia,” he said, a slight warning in his voice, which, strangely, made her want to smile.

Valerie dropped her gaze though it suddenly felt much warmer in the small room. It had just occurred to her that…they were alone. On Nimida. In a cozy little run-down inn.

Her fingers went to the hem and she tugged off the tunic, draping it over her lap to conceal some of her nudity. For Dravka’s sake. Especially since she could actually feel some of the tension in the room.

Turning, she bared her back to him, the only person she’d ever willingly and easily do that to. Because she trusted him. He’d already seen her scars—hell, he’d tended to those wounds himself.

He’d been there for her. For a long, long time.

There was a prick from the numbing injection and as Dravka pressed down on the cap, a hissing sound released the liquid into her.

Immediately, Valerie sighed in relief, both the pain medication and the injection working quickly. Until she could barely feel anything. Next, she heard rustling and felt Dravka press a soft bandage to her shoulder, adhering it neatly to the skin she’d carefully cleaned.

“Thank you,” she whispered to him, feeling something pull at her chest at his gentleness. The moment they were in the room after the innkeeper had shown them to it, he’d gone off in search of supplies for her. Always looking out for her, taking care of her.

Valerie felt his fingers trail up the back of her neck, stroking the column, and her breath hitched, her head tilting slightly. He touched her hair, still damp from when she’d washed it, and that single, almost innocent touch made her feel dizzy.

Dravka’s swallow echoed in the room. Then a soft curse escaped him and he said, “I’ll go bathe. Eat while I do, mellkia. Pax?”

Before she could say another word, he left her, quickly striding to the washroom door and sliding it shut—firmly—behind him. She heard the shower tube start, heard his clothes dropping to the floor.

Valerie licked her lips, exhaling a long breath, still sitting naked on the edge of the bed.

Now that her pain was at bay, now that she couldn’t feel the throbbing bone in her shoulder, it was easier to think. To want.

She smoothed a hand through her damp hair.

Did he want…did he want her that night?

Because she sure as hell wanted him. Now that they were off Everton, the realization that they’d actually done it—that they’d actually escaped and Valerie had gone with them—was staggering. She didn’t know what to do with herself.

But she was in a little room with Dravka. He’d called her his mate to the customs agent and that was what Valerie wanted to be to him. She’d never felt anything more right than Dravka calling her that.

Then again, he’d also just escaped Everton, a place where he’d been exploited by human women for almost ten years. Not only that, but the journey to Nimida couldn’t have been easy for him. There had been a strain in his eyes when she’d woken. From having to cut into her?

Valerie sat there for so long, debating, that she heard the shower turn off. In fact, she was still sitting on the bed, still naked, when he emerged from the washroom. His brow furrowed, his eyes flickering to the table, to the platter still full of food she didn’t recognize. He was naked too when he stepped out, though that wasn’t anything new. She’d seen him naked more times than she could count over the years.

“You should eat something, mellkia,” he murmured, closing the washroom door behind him, the light automatically shutting off on the inside. It darkened the bedroom slightly but there was enough light streaming in through the window—a red-hued light—to illuminate him clearly enough. “Are you not hungry?”

Quiet stretched between them. Dravka stayed near the washroom door though he was watching her. Carefully. Those dark eyes trying to read her, no doubt.

Taking in a deep breath, Valerie rose from the bed, the tunic she’d taken off sliding to the floor. Dravka’s nostrils flared again, his gaze flickering down her body, completely exposed to him.

“Val,” he bit out as she approached him.

His cock had been hard since the moment he stepped from the washroom. But she watched it twitch as she stepped closer, watched it bob when she placed her hands on Dravka’s chest.

She stroked the strong, shifting muscles there, heard his audible swallow.

“Dravka,” she started softly. “I don’t want to wait anymore.”

“You’re still healing,” he rasped, his voice husky. He was warm from the shower and smelled like he always did. Clean. Like pine, like the trees in the Lake District.

Again, a jolt went through her, realizing she’d never see it again. She’d never see Everton again.

“I don’t feel any pain,” she whispered up to him, reassuring him. “And I’m not tired. But I understand if you are. If you’d rather just go to bed and…”

She could feel his hearts pounding underneath her fingertips. And when she had stepped close enough? The tip of his cock dragged across her belly and he hissed out a small word she didn’t catch.

Valerie licked her lips and murmured, “It’s just that…well, we aren’t on Everton anymore, Dravka. And I’ve wanted you for so long.”

His eyes flared, his body tensing.

“But if you don’t want to, of course—”

For a moment, she thought she’d said the wrong thing. That her words had upset him in some way.

But in the next moment?

Dravka had her up in his arms and she gasped, twining her legs around his waist in response.

Which made his cock settle against the warm junction of her thighs, making them both groan.

Then his lips were on hers and Valerie felt sharp relief, followed quickly by rising want and need. His hands were on her. All over her, stroking down her back, squeezing the flesh of her ass, his grip possessive. But it was his lips that she focused on, his tongue.

The way it stroked hers, lapping and tangling with her own. The way his kiss made shivers run down her spine until his touch felt pleasurably electrified across her skin. Her head began to swim. Her sex throbbed.

“How could you ever think I don’t want you?” he growled against her. “I always will.”

That was when she felt his pre-cum, slick and wet, soaking into her skin. And when it did?

For a moment, Valerie had forgotten. Forgotten that the male she loved was a Keriv’i.

His pre-cum reacted with her body, just slicked across her flesh. It was that powerful. And tingles burst through her. Her clit began to feel like it was fluttering and throbbing.

Like…like…

She was just hovering on the edge of orgasm.

Like one little touch would be all it took to get her there.

“Dravka,” she gasped.

He made a rumbling, trilling sound in the back of his throat and then he was moving them. Valerie sensed him sinking down onto the edge of the bed until she sat in his lap, her legs straddled around his waist.

Valerie’s hands petted over his strong chest, his wide shoulders. His indigo skin was like suede under her touch.

“Demav, I can scent you, mellkia,” he rasped, briefly breaking away from her lips to suckle the skin on her neck. She moaned, arching into him. His pre-cum made it feel like his lips were all over her body.

She didn’t want to wait. Not any longer. Valerie needed him right then with a desperation that had been five years in the making.

“You need me, Val?” he rumbled against her neck, as if he could read her thoughts.

“Yes,” she whispered, panting, squirming against him.

“You want everything?”

“Yes!”

If he was intent on teasing her, she didn’t have the patience. Her hands reached underneath her, fisting his cock, making his hips buck and a hoarse cry escape his throat.

A growl came from him, his dark eyes narrowing on her in a way that made her belly burn.

“I can’t wait anymore, love,” she told him. “Please!”

Valerie shifted her hips, maneuvering the head of his slick cock until it was poised at the entrance of her sex.

She pressed down just as Dravka bucked up.

Valerie moaned, biting her lip, never taking her eyes off his. A few inches of him were wedged inside. She was wet enough that he could slip in easily, aroused enough that she stretched around his heat, especially when he pulled out and then thrust back in.

But damn. He was still large. Impossibly thick and long. Valerie wasn’t a virgin—she’d lost her virginity when she was a teenager on Genesis, when she’d been carefree and young—but it had been a long time since she’d had sex. Over seven years.

It had been so long that she felt like she was relearning it again with Dravka, though he was no stranger to sex himself.

His hands spanned around her waist, his strength evident when he brought her down on him harder, and Valerie moaned, wiggling her way down his shaft until he was…there. So deep. And she was so full of him. Her lips were parted in disbelief, her widened eyes on him.

“Demav, you feel…” He groaned, his hips hitching again, sliding in even deeper. “Vauking incredible.”

She knew what he meant. She’d had sex before—so had he, obviously—but this…this felt different. This felt like everything. All those moments leading up to this—all those lingering looks, innocent-enough touches, the way the air had always felt thick between them, especially when Dravka looked at her a certain way—culminated in that very moment.

Dravka pulled her up, shifting her body so that he could thrust upwards in one fluid, smooth, mind-numbing motion.

“Uhhh,” she cried out, that cock seeming to hit every sensitive and glorious place inside her. And his pre-cum? It coated her inner walls, making those tingles explode across her body tenfold.

She would come like this. She would come in another moment. Maybe not even that long, she realized, panicked and desperate and wanting it so much.

Leaning forward, she caught his lips in another kiss as he began to build up a steady rhythm between her thighs. Her legs were tensed and tight, wrapped around his body, allowing him to sink as deep as possible inside her.

“Oh god,” she whispered, his lips trailing across her jaw. Then she felt his hands stroke up from her waist, his fingers going to her nipples, caressing the hardened buds almost lazily.

“You’re gonna come for me, mellkia?” Dravka rasped in the tiny amount of space between them.

“Yes,” she breathed, trying to hold it back, closing her eyes when she felt the beginnings of her orgasm.

“Veki, look at me,” he growled.

Valerie opened her eyes, half-lidded and heavy. Her back arched, her hands gripping his shoulders.

Those opal eyes pinned her in place, anchoring her. And the love she felt for him?

God, it was beautiful.

“You’re mine,” she whispered. His pupils dilated, his hips snapping against her, that cock sliding deep. “And I’m yours.”

“Pax,” he growled. “Always!”

“Is this real?” she whispered, her abdomen beginning to clench with her orgasm.

It felt like too much. It felt too wonderful. Surely this couldn’t be real. Surely, his heat, his scent, his kiss, this reality—a reality where he was hers and only hers—couldn’t be real. Any moment now she’d wake up in her bed, alone, on Everton.

But Dravka brought her back. Anchored her to that moment as he slid deep inside her body, a place he’d always been meant to be.

“Pax, this is vauking real, Valerie. My Valerie,” he rasped, pressing his forehead against her own, those dark opal eyes connecting with hers deep, just as her orgasm crested and she felt it explode within her.

Stars burst in her vision but she never looked away from him. She wanted him to see what he did to her. She wanted him to see it all as the most beautiful pleasure swam through her very veins.

Against her lips, he said, “This is real and it always has been.”