Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(59)

"The Brion bonds don't promise us love," he said. "They only promise devotion. I need you to know now and forever that we are the lucky ones. The moment I recognized you was only a brilliant relief for me. I knew I loved you long before that."

Aria seemed lost for words, but he didn't need her to answer. The bindings reflected the couple, mirroring back everything they were. What he felt, she was bound to feel as well.

He bent forward to capture her lips in a gentle kiss, nipping at her lips, feeling the sweetness of her mouth. There was no bitterness there, no sign that he could read that would have told him she wanted to stay. He kissed Aria until her eyes were shining.

Ryden ordered the jump some time later, leaving Ilotra behind. Standing beside him and watching the warp drive take the Conqueror to hyperspace, he noticed Aria was not looking back.

She was with him, body and spirit. His and his alone.





EPILOGUE

Aria



Briolina's sunsets were pointedly the wrong color, but Isolde had assured her she'd get used to them. Instead of the Terran dark orange and red, on Briolina there was a hint of green. Or maybe it was the vast forest she saw it through, which lay between her and the horizon.

Aria was standing on the balcony of an enormous residence in a fancy part of Briolina's capital. She was very tempted to call it a suburb, because it fit all the Terran clichés except for the white fences, but a girl couldn't have it all, could she?

She could, actually.

"I didn't think you took vacations," Aria said when she heard her gerion approach and wrap his hands around her as he often did.

He did it much more often now that her belly was growing. Ryden's fingers slid over the bump, as Aria called it, gently caressing her naked skin.

"We don't," the general said, turning her head to claim a kiss from her lips.

Aria chuckled into the kiss, but was caught in it the next second. She opened her lips, allowing Ryden to nip at them, deepening the kiss until she was gasping for air. Only then did the general release her, smiling.

"What is all this then?" Aria asked. "I never imagined you in a house."

Ryden shrugged, walking over to the table to pour them both the sweet drink Aria had taken the time to look up. Turned out, it wasn't alcohol, so she could drink it, but it had all the pleasant effects of a few cocktails.

"All generals have these," Ryden said, gesturing. "We simply never use them. Most of us, at least. I've only been here once before, I think. Faren, I imagine, doesn't even know where his is. The man was born to live on a ship."

Aria nodded, agreeing. Isolde's warning had come in handy when Ryden had introduced her to the Monster of Briolina. She had nearly screamed in fear. Faren had a reputation even bloodier than Diego Grothan, but his gesha was an amazing singer, bright and bubbly. Life was full of surprises on Briolina, it seemed.

The sun was setting over the city, their view was amazing. Aria didn't think she'd ever felt true peace—if that was what she was experiencing. All at once, it seemed they were in the middle of a huge city. She could see the lights of people's homes and the trademark flashes of high-speed transport ships, but on the other hand... it seemed she and Ryden were totally alone, cut off from the rest of Briolina by the vastness of the estate they lived in.

Although lived was a term used loosely. Ryden wasn't made to live on the planet. Like all the other generals, he belonged to the stars, with his ship beneath his feet. Even now, Aria knew it was taking a lot out of him to be there with her. It wasn't even the solid ground, it was the lack of action that irked Ryden. He functioned best in the middle of mayhem.

He'd given in to Aria's pleas when she'd insisted that a pregnant woman needed some luxuries from time to time. Like air that wasn't recycled.

Aria's life had been a blur since they left Ilotra. She'd quickly found that living on a Brion warship wasn't anything close to what she'd thought, but at the same time so much better. It was like Isolde had promised her.

There were things that were odd and those that needed some practice to get used to, but being with Ryden made up for everything. And Aria learned and adapted, to dark hallways and military drills, and the fact that possibly every person on the Conqueror had at some point heard her having sex.

The last one had been the hardest to accept for a private person like her, but after a point it stopped bothering her.#p#分页标题#e#

She'd kept her promise to Isolde too. They met as often as they could, even traveling together when the flagships were close enough to each other. It was there that Aria saw the first signs of what Isolde and Leiya, General Faren's gesha, called the cautious concern.

The term was clearly an understatement, since they both always arrived on the Conqueror with a squadron of guards. It made Ryden growl, asking if his fellow generals didn't trust him to keep their geshas safe.

And then he sent Aria out with twenty armed-to-the-teeth warriors every time she ventured farther than sight distance from the ship. Even more so now that she was pregnant. For the past month, Aria had been treated like she was made out of glass.

It was irritating, in a way, but also nice. Aria couldn't hold it against him when she constantly worried, even if she knew there were very few who could match her gerion. It wasn't supposed to be rational. They were bonded, in love. The unnatural fears were part of the deal.

She was grateful for Isolde and Leiya, but proud of her job. When she'd revealed her plan to design something for the harvest worlds, Aria had been afraid Ryden would not take her seriously, but she'd underestimated the general. Not three days passed before she was sitting with High Senator Eleya, talking through some of her initial ideas.

"The union   will love it, I'm sure," the woman said.

"I don't think the union   wants much to do with me right now," Aria blurted out before wondering if she was being unfair.

Eleya had laughed, nodding.

"The old union  , perhaps," she said, "but the council is no longer led by that idiot Klaen. The Palians are in charge now. They will welcome you with open arms."

That turned out to be more than true. Aria heard that the council had approved of her work immediately, after a personal affirmation by Wellack. As she heard it, the Palian had pretty sharply reminded the council of her designs on Ilotra and revealed the estimate of how much damage could have been avoided if they'd listened to her.

So Aria had spent months working on systems for the harvest worlds now. She was reluctant to create more weapons, so she channeled her creativity into more peaceful means of defense, like shields and covers, repositories, and transportation systems. Leiya in particular supported her vision wholeheartedly.

As a whole, Aria's life was perfect. A part of her—a distinctly human part, she insisted—was waiting for the shoe to drop, for something to go wrong. But every word Isolde had spoken to her the day they met turned out to be true. Nothing faded or got bad with Ryden, only better.

If Aria was being honest, the biggest problem she had was that Briolina's sunset was the wrong color.

Ryden kissing her neck brought her out of her reverie. Aria giggled when he tickled her, sensitive all over with the pregnancy. She let him lead her to the bed, where she lay down on the cool sheets.

Great, she thought, now all of Briolina is going to hear me fuck too.

Ryden wasn't pushing her, mindful of her condition. Aria had to fight back a grin at the weirdness of the idea of a Brion general being overly careful. It simply didn't suit them. And besides, being hormonal made her horny. She let the robe barely covering her slip across her shoulders.

That signal was enough for Ryden, who pushed her to lie back and enjoy his tongue. Aria was squirming under his hands in a matter of seconds. Her gerion had learned her body like a map over the past year, knowing exactly where all her little pleasure points were. He could play her like a finely tuned instrument, Aria joked.

She smiled blissfully, the cool air soothing her skin while everything Ryden was doing was hot, hot, hot. The general gently pushed two fingers inside her, less rash now that they had to control their passion for the sake of their child.

Aria could never have gotten tired of his teasing, but her appetite for fucking was just as insatiable. She rolled to the side, letting her general cradle her into his powerful arms again. As Ryden pushed in, slowly and lovingly, Aria let out a long moan.

She loved his cock, now more than ever, loved the way it seemed to touch every inch of her pussy. Pushing back, Aria let Ryden settle into a maddeningly slow rhythm, feeling his firm chest against her back, the evening breeze blowing over their heated bodies.

She cried out when Ryden hit the spot inside her, and then again and again until she was sobbing in need, pleading at him to never stop. She knew neither one of them could ever keep that promise, as they were too desperate to cum. And they'd only do it all again after a breather.

Aria pulled at the sheets when she came, her body shuddering with the orgasm, as she heard Ryden groan. The general grasped her, pulling her close to his chest as he followed her over that edge, heaving for breath.#p#分页标题#e#

Aria rolled to face him after she'd reminded herself how to breathe again, a smile on her face.

"I think he kicked me," she said, rubbing her belly.

Ryden laughed. Aria felt it through the sheets, the bed rumbling along with the general.