“No, I—”
Drekk kicked him onto his back and moved too quickly for Ryen to argue. He straddled Ryen’s waist and pinned him to the ground, his hands fastened to Ryen’s bloodied wrists.
The attack startled Ryen, and though he tried to fight back, weakened as he was and under Drekk’s imposing strength, he couldn’t move.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m trying to heal you. But I can’t if you won’t let me.”
Ryen lay quiet, staring into Drekk’s eyes. Like Erin’s, Ryen’s eyes were far from normal.
Dark blue centred around an iris of paler blue, surrounding a golden pupil. The effect was mesmerising, and the scent Ryen released in subtle waves nearly made Drekk salivate with lust.
Narrowing his gaze, he released his own scent and watched Ryen’s surprise.
“Yeah, I can do it too. Now are you going to relax and let me help you or what?”
“I thought we were the only ones,” Ryen rasped with a nod to Erin.
“You thought wrong.” Drekk stared, oddly tense as he waited for Ryen’s acceptance.
Ryen looked from Drekk to Erin and focused on her hand petting Rafe’s hair.
“He’s a friend, Ryen. You can trust him. He saved our lives.” Erin smiled and leaned down to kiss Rafe’s cheek again. “And you’d better learn to love Rafe as well, or I’m going to kick your ass as soon as you’re well enough to stand on your own two feet.” Ryen looked back up at Drekk, closed his eyes, then opened them again with a sigh.
“Go ahead and heal me, medic.”
“It’s not medic. And it sure the hell isn’t ‘Sir’. It’s Drekk.” Ryen blinked, his scrutiny as much assessing as curious. “Drekk.” Satisfaction blazed through him, and Drekk fought the urge to smile. “Okay, Erin. Now that you can see I’m not going to eat your brother for breakfast, why don’t you take Rafe into the back room and get him comfortable? We have a few hours before we’ll hit our destination. In the meantime, we need rest. I’ll tend the giant here, then I’ll take him into my quarters down the hall from yours.”
Erin smiled. She let Rafe go, gently putting his head back down. Crossing to Drekk, she leaned down to kiss his cheek when he turned his head and met her mouth, surprising her.
He winked. “And Erin, there’s something else you should know.” He whispered what he thought might interest her. From the way her cheeks pinkened, Drekk knew he’d been right to tell her. He and Ryen watched her haul Rafe to his feet and over her shoulder, then carry him out of the room down the corridor and out of sight.
“What did you say to her?” Ryen asked, his deep voice in keeping with such a large frame. Hell, Drekk was a mere head shorter than Ryen, but he didn’t come close to matching the man in sheer bulk. And Drekk was no lightweight.
“I told her we’re not all sterile. And that if she wanted to produce young, I could help her with that.”
Ryen’s eyes widened, and Drekk laughed.
“Shit, that didn’t sound good, did it? Good thing Rafe didn’t hear me. I meant that I could jump start her reproductive organs, if she wanted. She’s committed to that Mardu, no one else. And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t try fucking with her relationship,” he warned.
Ryen looked unsure of himself, and the expression astonished Drekk. He’d bet his last bek Ryen rarely felt hesitant about anything. He’d been bred not to. “I just want her and Anin to be happy. That’s all.”
“Good.” Drekk took the cloth he’d been holding tight, dipped it into the warm water, and began bathing the blood from Ryen’s bared chest under so much ragged material—what had once been his shirt. “What about you?”
“Me?”
“What do you want?”
Ryen stared up in confusion, then closed his eyes. “I don’t know.” He remained silent as Drekk worked on him, and Drekk felt an instant empathy, seeing himself in the wounded Creation. Get better and I’ll help you find out, he promised, interested in his sudden need to make Ryen’s world right. Then Ryen shifted under him, and wonder of wonders, he felt something hard pressing against his ass. That scent enveloped him again as Ryen fell under a hazy, healing sleep, and Drekk smiled.
“I’ll see to it that you’re happy, Ryen. Just see if I don’t.”
Rafe pretended to sleep while Erin coddled him. She carried him into his bed, and he fought a flush, that his woman carried him. But she put him down gently and began removing his clothes, and his embarrassment faded under the pleasure of her soft touch. He peeked out of the corner of his eye and saw her stripping as well.
In a heartbeat he hardened, unable to maintain an air of indifference any longer. He loved looking at her deliciously sensitive nipples, at her flat belly and long, long legs.
“Always ready, aren’t you?” she whispered and he hurriedly feigned sleep again. “Me too.” She sighed and lifted him over her shoulder again, giving him a perfect view of her delectable ass.
She carried him into the lav and in moments they were clean. To his relief, she wore only a bruise on her belly and one on her face. The others had either faded or she’d healed that quickly. Erin carried him back to bed and laid him down. Then she fitted herself next to him and put her head on his shoulder, and the rightness of their togetherness had stupid tears filling his eyes.
He closed them tight and hugged her to him, uncaring if she knew he’d wakened. To his surprise, she breathed deeper, and he realised she’d fallen asleep.
“I love you,” he murmured and drew her closer, wincing at the slight pull on his back.
But the day’s worries took its toll on him as well, and with a sigh he joined her for a short nap.
What felt like hours later, Rafe woke to an erotic tease. Erin’s hand wrapped around his cock and she was squeezing him and tugging, turning his semi-hardness into a blazing erection. Moisture pooled at his slit, and he gently rolled her onto her back. “Let go, baby.
Let me take care of this.”
She protested but smiled, and Rafe kissed a trail down her neck to her breasts as he rubbed his shaft over her belly. Taking her nipple between his teeth, he toyed with her until the bud flushed red and hard. He gave her other breast as much attention, not aware of anything but Erin as she chanted his name and gripped his hair.
His cock demanded relief, but Rafe couldn’t take her without tasting all of her. Letting go of her breast, he licked his way down her belly, teasing her navel.
“Oh, Rafe.” Erin urged his head lower. “More. ”
“More,” he agreed, and settled between her thighs. With slow, deliberate licks, he found the centre of her heat and feasted. Her spice lit his body from the inside out, and he couldn’t help thrusting against the bed as he imagined fucking her, his mate, until he got her with young. He sucked her clit, feeling it ripe and ready, and she moaned as he played with her.
“Flor, you’re so good. So mine.” Rafe thrust a finger deep into her pussy as he ate her, and when she came, he knew it wasn’t enough. He continued to fuck her with his fingers.
This time he added a smaller finger to her ass, and the scent of loving she let go nearly made him orgasm.
“In me, please, Sir,” she begged, and Rafe groaned.
He mounted her and thrust hard, sighing at the exquisite agony, hovering just outside of orgasm. “Take it, baby. All of me.” He fucked her hard, his pummeling strokes continually rubbing her clit until she came again, squeezing him with her tight inner walls. Erin cried out and pushed him into his own climax, and together they reached wainu and stayed there.