The Clone’s Mate by Susan Trombley

Thirty-Four

I sagged against Nirgal’s body, lifting my hands to close around the nape of his neck. I shifted to the side so I could look over my shoulder at him. He lowered his head and kissed me, and it was far more than the short, perfunctory kisses that were all I’d felt comfortable sharing with my mates while on the Akrellian ships.

I turned in his arms, one of my hands sliding up the back of his head, feeling the softness of the hair that darkened his scalp. It would be a while before it grew out to anywhere near the length it had been when I’d met him, but he already looked almost as healthy and strong as he had been when he’d held me captive.

We’d come a long way since then. Much farther than I could have ever imagined the day I woke up to find myself at his mercy. Now, his kiss made me want to submit to him and beg him to put me back at his mercy. His hands clutched at the back of my jumpsuit, pulling me hard against his lean body. The ridge of his erection already pressed against my soft belly as his lips claimed mine.

My eyes closed as I inhaled his delicious, subtle scent, alien but undeniably masculine. His lips felt warm and yielding as they caressed mine. His tongue tasted of chocolate as it delved into my mouth to tangle with mine. I smiled inwardly at that flavor because it told me he’d been snacking on the candy our liaison had given us as part of a welcome gift. Nirgal had become a huge fan of chocolate ever since cautiously tasting a chocolate bar.

I moaned as his kiss deepened, his hands sliding down my waist to grip my buttocks, grinding his erection against my body.

“I want you naked,” he said in a ragged voice as he broke our kiss. “Strip for me.”

I glanced around before returning my eyes to his face, noting how dark his beautiful blues were with his dilated pupils. “Here? In the living room?”

Evil Ilyan was nowhere to be seen, and I worried about that, but also understood it. I would check on him soon, because we needed to have a frank talk, but it was about things I couldn’t discuss in front of Nirgal.

For now, I had my evil scientist in front of me, demanding I strip naked for him and damned if I didn’t want to, but having sex in the living room felt scandalous to me. It was such a public part of the house, and I’d never felt comfortable doing such a thing with Michael. Not that he’d ever wanted me so badly that we couldn’t make it to the bedroom.

“Rhonda,” he said in a warning growl, his dilated gaze dropping to the collar of my jumpsuit like he debated pulling it open himself.

Fuck it! I wanted him so badly I was practically shaking with need. I lifted my hands to unhook my jumpsuit, then peeled it down my body, eyeing him with hunger. “I want you naked too, Nirgie.”

He didn’t even flinch at the nickname, nor did he hesitate to pull off his jumpsuit, shrugging out of the form-fitting garment that had already left little to the imagination with such eagerness that I worried he’d harm his wings. That was a silly concern, because those beauties were strong as hell, despite their delicate, glasslike appearance.

I admired his lean body, noting with relief that it had filled out with his recovery, his belly no longer concave, his ribs no longer pushing against his skin. I loved the striping that crossed his iridescent orange flesh. It wasn’t exactly like a tiger’s stripes, but the black on orange still reminded me of that beautiful predator.

Besides, now that Nirgal had seen videos of tigers during his Earth research, he loved the comparison.

My gaze lowered from his firm belly to the huge erection that jutted from his groin, the black stripes circling it the way my fingers itched to. His cerci uncoiled from his back, already vibrating with his excitement as we gazed at each other’s naked bodies.

The look of hunger in his eyes made me feel like a goddess, even though I had access to a mirror, and I knew what I truly looked like. By human standards, I wouldn’t even rate a second glance, and no doubt someone would be sure to suggest I should hit the gym more often. By Iriduan standards, I would probably be considered a troll, given how stunning they and their females were and how narrow their beauty standards were.

Yet Nirgal looked at me like he desired nothing more in life than to touch me, and whenever he did touch me, I felt his need in the way his hands caressed me. It turned me on so much that he actually wanted to look at my naked body before making love to me, especially since Michael had insisted on light’s off during our last years together and had neglected to caress my body, even encouraging me to keep my night gown on so I wouldn’t have to bother redressing afterwards.

No wonder we were both so damned miserable in our marriage! I couldn’t believe I’d put up with that shit for so long. Had I really convinced myself that I was happy—or had I feared I couldn’t do better?

Now, my handsome alien mate stared at me with his erection jutting and his cerci vibrating and his eyes dilated until they were almost completely black. When I stepped closer to him, he snatched me up like I was a precious prize he fully intended to claim as his own.

His hands roved all over me, warm palms sliding over my soft flesh, gripping handfuls of it as he kissed a path from my lips down my neck towards my stiff nipple. His cerci also rubbed over my skin, the vibration causing it to tingle as the barbs rippled on the ends of them, occasionally scraping my skin far more gently than Evil Ilyan’s barbs had scraped my inner passage.

I clutched Nirgal’s head as he caught my nipple between his lips, my fingers playing in the short, silky hair that capped his skull. It was growing in black rather than orange, which I found intriguing. Nirgal had mentioned off-handedly that he’d dyed his hair to match his skin color because it was considered more attractive to be color-coordinated.

Despite being trained as a scientist rather than a candidate for a mate, my Nirgal was as vain as any other Iriduan male. I found that oddly endearing about him, even as he defiantly flaunted his “juvenile” stripes. When I’d told him I liked his hair black, he’d vowed never to dye it again.

Now, I moaned in pleasure, my core heating as he suckled my nipple. One hand caressed my other breast as his lips ravished the tender bead. His other hand stroked down my body, slipping to my mound. He made an appreciative sound that vibrated around my nipple when his fingers encountered the wetness of my arousal as he rubbed his fingers along my seam.

My hips rocked as he slipped his fingers inside my aching entrance, fingering me in slow thrusts. Encircling his shaft with my hand, I stroked gently along the impressive length of it, my inner muscles clenching at the thought of taking all of that inside me. I was both eager and hesitant.

He suddenly lifted his head from my nipple, glancing around the living room as if something had just occurred to him. “You said you wanted to do this in a bed the last time we were together.”

My fingers tightened on his shaft as he made to pull away. “Don’t you dare stop! I need you, right now! I don’t think I’ll make it to one of the bedrooms.”

He buried his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply. Then he said some Iriduan curse about rotten silk or some shit before he crowded me back against the side of 34’s tank. Lifting one of my legs up, he fitted the head of his erection at my entrance.

I released his length as he began to slide it in, both of us moaning in pleasure.

“By the Spinner, Rhonda,” he said in a guttural groan, “you squeeze me so tight and yet it feels so incredible!”

“You’re huge, Nirgie,” I said breathlessly, willing my inner muscles not to tighten further so that I didn’t feel any discomfort as he impaled me on his massive shaft. “And you feel so damned good too that I’m already close to coming.”

He stared down at me with his dark eyes, a smirk tilting his lips. “Close, are you?”

I felt one of his cerci stroke over my clit, the barbs thankfully flattened to the side of it. The vibration of it brought me closer to my peak.

“You’re cruel, teasing me like this,” I gasped as he drove his shaft deeper inside me, his cercus caressing my clit while the other moved to play around my entrance, vibrating against the sensitive skin that surrounded his huge girth impaling me.

“Come for me, Rhonda,” he said in a commanding tone, but he really didn’t have to give that order.

My back arched against the cold metal of the cryo tank as I climaxed, and he chose that moment to thrust fully into me, groaning as my inner muscles convulsed around him.

I didn’t get a chance to recover before he begun to pound into me, moving frantically like his control had snapped. His body pinned mine to the cryo tank as he screwed me mercilessly, his knuckles paling to peach as he clutched the tank on either side of my head to give himself more leverage. He buried his length to the hilt over and over again, shoving my body against the tank with almost bruising force as he chased his own climax. His cerci continued to tease my throbbing flesh until I came again, just as his shaft jerked inside me to shoot the first ropes of his seed against my womb.

He leaned his forehead against mine as he slowly withdrew from me, lowering my leg, which trembled in the aftermath. Both of us were panting as I clutched his shoulders.

“You drive me so crazy, Rhonda,” he said, nuzzling my hair and inhaling deep. “I never dreamed being mated was like this! When I think of what I might have missed if you’d never come into my life, I hate the empire for choosing my lonely future for me.”

I lifted my head to kiss him, and he pulled me against his chest, deepening the kiss for a long moment before we had to break apart to suck in breaths.

“I love you, Nirgal.” I caressed his jaw with a fingertip. “I want to make you happy.”

“You already do.” He cupped my face between his hands, and I gazed into his eyes, watching with interest the slow constriction of his pupils as the beautiful blue returned. “Even when you were infuriating me in the very beginning, deliberately needling me to anger me, I felt more alive than I ever have before. More,” he paused as he searched for the right word, “emotional—more passionate about something other than my work.”

I grinned at his words, ignoring the wet slide of his seed down my inner thighs. There would be time to clean up later. Right now, all I could focus on was him. “Are you saying I really got to you, Nirgie?”

He chuckled. “If you don’t wipe that wicked smile off your face, I’ll prove to you again how much you get to me, my queen.”

I was about to goad him into doing just that when the tank at my back released a startling klaxon that had both of us jumping.