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It was bizarre, how well we slotted together mentally. “Yup. I’m not being a manipulative shit at all. Now get down here and cuddle me.”
And he did. Which of course, once again reminded me how well we fit together physically. His cock had felt huge against my ass, but I bet I could take it. I mean, it was what everyone wanted, right? A giant cock?
I’d never cared all that much, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn it down.
So I flipped around until he was spooned up behind me, snuggling into him and pressing my ass into his definitely interested groin. But sex wasn’t the only reason I chose that position.
In high school, I’d had a boyfriend whose parents had raised him to be sort of Thorzi. Emotions were bad, and him having them was unacceptable—strength was the lot of men, and it was necessary to maintain that facade at all times. It had always been easier for him to express emotions when no one was looking at him, so I was hoping that maybe it would help Jax too.
When we snuggled up, and the silence fell over us like another blanket, I decided it was time to pounce. “You want to talk about it? No, silly question, of course you don’t.Shouldwe talk about it?”
For a moment, the silence continued, and I thought he would dodge the conversation altogether. Finally, he heaved a great sigh and leaned in closer, his mouth against my ear, so I could feel his hot breath. When he spoke, it was a whisper, like he was afraid saying it loudly would break something. “I owe the Zathki my very existence.”
Ouch. And he wasn’t even wrong, exactly. Except—“I doubt they would say that.”
“You think those worms would not take credit for anything they possibly could?” His voice was stronger, but still not full volume—a blessing, since his mouth was still next to my ear.
I reached back and grabbed his hand, pulling it around me and holding it tight. “I would say the Zathki do think you owe them. Not you personally, and not your life, but the Thorzi, who owe them what Crux promised in exchange for the technology they gave.”
His fingers stretched and spread territorially across my bare belly, and he pulled me even closer. “But I do owe them my existence. My human father cannot bear children. Without them, I would not exist. Kaelum’s mother carried him. He—”
“Still owes the Zathki payment for the technology they traded to your people. Technology that’s still helping your people, because kidnapping countless human women wasn’t an answer to your problem, either. This way, with the donations, if they werewilling donations, works so much better.” Jax gave an irritated little grunt of agreement at that, squeezing my stomach lightly, like he needed to protect me from the thought of Crux. “Even a human woman can only have, like, one baby a year max. And most of them can’t just have baby after baby their whole lives. All Thorzi gained by the trade. They just have to follow through and give the Zathki their due, and it’ll be even. Nobody owing anybody their life.”
“But I—”
“You are what the Thorzi were trading for, Jax.” I dragged his hand away from my stomach and up to my lips, to kiss each fingertip, one by one, speaking between kisses. “You’re not the person who gained by it, that’s Crux. Your people are giving him adoration he hasn’t earned because of technology that he stole from the Zathki. You weren’t the one who made the trade, you were what they gained by trading.” Finishing with a kiss to the center of his enormous palm, I whispered, “You were the treasure he stole. Just like us humans.”
For a moment, Jax buried his face against the back of my neck, body trembling with what felt like tension and anxiety, and I worried that I’d gone too far, or been way off the mark, but then he just... released.
A second later, I felt his lips brush against the back of my neck, and he whispered, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
He snorted, a tiny bit of his usual devil-may-care attitude, and I relaxed too. “For being Wesley. For being clever and strong and handling this when I struggled. Kaelum was right. You humans may be soft, but that isn’t the opposite of being a warrior at all.”
CHAPTER20
JAX
The skin at the back of Wesley’s neck was warm and faintly salty. I mouthed it wetly, dragging my ridged tongue behind his ear, sucking his earlobe between my lips for a nibble.
He gasped, tilting his head back into the warm spot against my shoulder. I grinned against the sharp edge of his jaw.
Humans were slight, to be sure, but Wesley’s skin was softer than any I had ever felt, so thin that I could feel the thrum of his pulse when I ran my fingertips down the inside of his arm.
When I lifted it, he curled all too readily around the back of my neck, stretching out his body against my front. His fingers threaded through my hair. He tugged, and I moaned against his skin.
“Are you plenty warm?” I asked him, spreading my fingers across his stomach, tracing them back in a light touch just to feel his breath catch.
“Yup. Yeah. Warm enough.”
I felt the bob of his swallow against my cheek. Already, he was drifting, less interested in the practicalities of staying warm and more in getting closer.
That became perfectly apparent when I dragged my hand down his front and gripped his cock. He twitched, rising in my palm with a throb. His skin was silk, but warm, a tuft of coarse hair between his legs when I ran my loose grip down his shaft and to his balls.
The sound he made then was worth our having to curl up together in the cold. Part of me thought if we never got back to Thorzan, if the Zathki just left us alone here, I would be perfectly content with nothing more than this human and some travel rations.
It was like sitting in the light of Lyr, knowing I was in danger but waiting for that thrill of magic to cut through me, leaving its mark on my body, gifting me something that would change the rest of my life.
