For a moment, I tried to imagine what it would be like if the devourer didn’t leave my life once this mission of ours was over. Could he really be a boyfriend, despite what I’d said to Vivi? Sharing an apartment with him, introducing him to all the other mortal pleasures like my favorite movies and music and—of course—food. Going out on the town with him, sharing in his wonder. Meeting up with friends…
How would I explain our relationship to anyone from the Fund? I wasn’t sure even Vivi could manage not to be weird about it.
Would I get tired of his awe once I’d been around him for a while? Would he end up irritated by my many flaws as the initial glow of attraction faded? I’d had enough trouble making any kind of ongoing relationship work with actual human dudes. My track record suggested this would be the longest of longshots.
There was no point in saying that to Snap, though. It’d only ruin what we had right now. When we didn’t know if we’d even survive to the end of the mission, it hardly mattered anyway. If we both got to have a future, one where maniacal organizations weren’t attempting to eradicate his entire species, then we could worry about the practicalities—if we hadn’t already determined that we were headed nowhere fast.
Right now, I wanted him as badly as he clearly wanted me. That was the only answer I needed.
Instead of talking, I drew his mouth to mine. He leaned into the kiss with all the eager passion I adored in him. As he deepened it, his tongue slipped between my lips, twining around mine with that skillful forked tip.
Mmm, yes, I definitely wasn’t in any hurry to give this up.
The first time, days ago, we’d taken things slow while Snap explored his desire, and had gotten each other off with only our hands. The devourer had gathered confidence since then. As he kissed me again, ardently enough to coax a whimper from my throat, he was already tugging my undershirt up, placing his hands to avoid the silver-and-iron badge I left pinned to it out of habit.
The moment I eased back to pull it the rest of the way off, he palmed my breasts. In a matter of seconds, his long, lithe fingers had tweaked both my nipples into hardened nubs. Quivers of bliss flooded my chest, drowning out the twinge of my injured shoulder as I tossed the undershirt aside.
I yanked Snap into another kiss, but he didn’t linger in it long before making good on his wish to taste me. He slicked his tongue over the peak of one breast and then the other, the forked end teasing my nipples even stiffer with the most incredible sensation.
I groped at his shirt, wanting to feel his naked chest against mine. Snap reached for the hem and then paused with a neon glitter passing through his eyes. He grinned with an unusual slyness, blinked—and the shirt simply disappeared.
Scratch that—all of his clothes had disappeared. I gazed down his sinewy frame to the erection jutting from between his thighs, and a fresh flush of desire washed through me. I’d known the shadowkind constructed the clothes they wore separately from their bodies when they emerged into the physical space, but I’d never seen that fact put to use to quite such enjoyable effect. Two thumbs up for instantaneous nudity.
“Very smooth,” I said, and Snap looked even more pleased with himself for the second it took before he was kissing me again. He continued fondling one of my breasts to blissful effect while his other hand trailed heat down my side all the way to my hip. I arched to meet him automatically, and his knee slipped between my legs. His thigh pressed against my sex with the most delectable friction. I shivered in delight, unable to stop myself from rocking into that contact.
Snap smiled against my mouth and shifted his leg, his erection rubbing against my hip, moving with me until I moaned. Pleasure surged from my core. My fingers clenched where I was grasping his shoulder and his hair, my desire taking on an urgent edge.
The same urgency appeared to have gripped Snap. His breath stuttered over my lips. He kissed me again, hard, and then said in a voice so strained with need it rocketed my own hunger even higher, “Maybe more tasting can wait. I want to be inside you—that’s how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it? That’s what feels right.”
My own breath was coming shaky. “Yes,” I managed to say, never so grateful that shadowkind didn’t reproduce the same way mortals did, because I sure as hell hadn’t gotten a chance to stock up on condoms. “I mean, there are all kinds of ways that are totally right, but that’s the one—that’s what most people like best.”
The devourer made a wordless sound of acknowledgement and yanked at my panties, which I couldn’t conveniently will out of existence with a blink, more’s the pity. I squirmed out of them and splayed my legs, reaching down to help guide him. As my fingers stroked the hot, silky length of his cock, Snap groaned, but his instincts led him well. Without any further direction, he teased the head of his erection over my slit and in, in, in with a deliberate care that had me burning for more.
When he’d pushed all the way to the hilt, pleasure radiated from where we were joined all through the rest of my body. He went perfectly still, his eyes locked on mine through the darkness, wide with a delighted sort of wonder. A short, breathless laugh escaped him. His rapturous expression choked me up all over again. I resisted the urge to buck against him and propel this union toward its climax faster than he seemed to intend.
“This,” he murmured. “This is the best. With you.”
“Snap…” I didn’t know whether I was going to return that tender sentiment or beg him to drive me on to further satisfaction, but then it didn’t matter, because, thank all that was taut and tingly, he started to move. Pulling back and pressing forward, gently and then with more forceful thrusts, watching my face with avid attention.
With each whimper that fell from my lips and each rush of bliss that sent my eyes rolling back, he adjusted his rhythm, his angle, his speed, until every plunge of his cock inside me set off rising waves of ecstasy. The bunk bed squeaked as our hips smacked together, and a giggle just as breathless as his laugh tumbled out of me. The realms really ought to thank me for waking up this potential in him, because he was fucking brilliant at fucking.
“If you get there before me, it’s okay,” I said around another gasp, but he shook his head. His features had tensed against his release even as he held the same rapt attention on my reactions.
He ran his fingers over my hair and across my thigh, fitting us even more tightly together. One thrust, and another, and another, each searing a headier pleasure through me.
With a little cry, I careened over the edge in a burst of bliss. Snap’s groan and the clutch of my hair told me he’d followed.
His body slackened, but he held his muscles tensed enough to stop his full weight from squashing me into the mattress. He lowered his head to claim one more kiss. I reveled in it, my limbs gone boneless with release.
“There isn’t much room,” he said after, and I understood the question he was asking. He was a cuddler, as much as he enjoyed other activities too. Tonight, I could embrace that part of his nature. Maybe a small part of me could even believe I deserved this devotion.
“You can stay.” I scooted over so my back leaned against the wall. Snap settled onto the mattress beside me, pulling the sheet back up to cover both of us. It was a tight squeeze, but our bodies interlocked as if they’d been meant to fit together. I nestled my head beneath the devourer’s chin and brushed my lips to his chest. Snap’s arm tucked around me, holding me there, secure.