Assigned a Mate(42)

“Tark. Let go.” I used his name on purpose, let him know that he didn’t even have to worry about protecting me in this moment. He could just succumb to the pleasure he found in my body, in the release that I could give to him.

He tilted his head up and looked at me. Sweat dripped onto my breast.

“I can’t lose control. I never lose control.” He ran his hands along my arms and squeezed my wrists. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he replied, his hips shifting and churning.

Bringing my legs up, I pressed my knees into his sides so he could fill me even deeper.

I shook my head. “You won’t. You can’t.”

Perhaps it was my tone, or the look on my face, or the way my inner walls clenched on his cock, but the mask slipped. His face hardened, his jaw clenched tight, and his eyes closed. Hooking the back of my knee in the crook of his elbow, he angled me up and drove into me. I cried out because he’d filled me almost too full, but he didn’t stop.

“Yes,” I cried, letting him know I wanted it. I did. I wanted all of him. If we were so well matched, I could take it. I could handle whatever he gave me, I needed to accept him, all of him. I needed to please him, to make him happy, to submit to his desire. I met him each time he thrust into me; his grip tightened on my leg and my hip and I knew my wild response was pushing him to the edge of his control. The sound of fucking filled the tent—rough, carnal, and wet.

“I want a baby, Tark. Your baby. Give it to me,” I panted. I did. I wanted to give him the baby he desired, the one I’d longed for but never imagined. I’d been appalled by the idea of being bred, that Tark’s main goal for a mate was to find a woman that was fertile and could give him the heir he needed.

But this wasn’t what we were doing. We weren’t fucking over a ceremonial stand. We weren’t being watched or recorded for the bride program processing center. We were just a man and a woman who needed each other and showed our desires, our reason for being by coming together in such a way. I was powerful. I could turn Tark into a rutting animal, eager and desperate for his release, until everything but filling me was cleared from his mind.

“Please, Tark.”

“You want it, gara?” he growled.

“Yes!”

“You want me? Only me? You’ll stay with me and be my mate?”

I opened my eyes and he was gazing at me. My nipples brushed against his chest the way I was arched up, my hands above my head.

I’d barely seen anything of Trion. I only knew that Outpost Nine was primitive and in the middle of the desert. Was the rest of Trion this way? Were all the people like Bertok or Mara? I longed to find out, as long as Tark was with me, by my side.

What did Earth have waiting for me? There was no match. No Tark. The decision was simple.

“Yes.”

Reaching between us, Tark stroked his thumb over my clit, once, twice, and I came.

I arched my back even more and cried out, feeling Tark stiffen above me, filling me full and shouting his own release. Thick seed shot into me, filling me to overflowing. Greedily, my body clenched and milked Tark’s cock, pulling it in deep.

“Yes,” I said.

“Fark, yes,” Tark replied, trying to catch his breath. He lowered his upper body to the side, so his heavy weight was not upon me, but kept his cock buried deep. The endorphins from all the fucking had me feeling euphoric and replete. Feeling Tark above me I felt safe and cherished and very well claimed. He released the tie holding my wrists, stroked a hand over my cheek, wiping away the silent tears that continued to fall.

“I know, gara. I know. You are safe with me.” He cradled me then, and as wild as our fucking had been, he was now a gentle giant holding me safe in the storm of my own emotions. I couldn’t hold anything back, not my desire, my pleasure, or the deepest, darkest corners of my heart and soul. And there, in his arms, I didn’t fight my emotions, because I didn’t have to. The mask society forced me to wear was gone. He’d stripped me bare and held me protected and secure in his arms.

“Promise me, Tark. Never leave me,” I said to him.

“Gara, you’re the one who’s leaving. I will contact our liaison at the program, see if something can be arranged so that I may accompany you to Earth, and bring you safely home.”

I stiffened beneath him. “Really? You can do that?”

“I will whatever must be done to keep you safe. You are mine. I understand that you must do what is honorable and right. You must return to offer your testimony, but I will not allow you to face a brutal killer alone.”

I snuggled into his chest with a happy sigh. How I’d gotten so lucky, I had no idea. But Tark was indeed the only man I could imagine spending the rest of my life with. He was my perfect match.