Page 16 of The Last Hunt

They both sat up and stripped quickly until there was nothing between them. They took a moment to look at each other. Aethon dragged his gaze over her body in a way that made Maeve slick between her thighs. He lifted a hand and rubbed one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger, teasing it to a stiff peak. She reached forward, her fingers curling around his cock, which stood up proud and full. He felt decadent beneath her touch. Firm and velvety. He swallowed hard as she stroked him, learning this new part of his body. Lust was thick between them. What she wouldn’t give to have Aethon spread out on a real bed before her. Clean, comfortable, and all hers. She would have him every way she could think of. But that was never meant to be. This was all they had. And this was all they should have. Death and desperation brought them together. That was all.

Aethon’s tattoos wound all the way down his sides and then curved forward over his hips, ending at the tops of his thighs. Maeve leaned down and pressed a kiss to a swirl of black on his hip. She wanted to trace them all with her mouth.

He pulled her head up and kissed her again, desperate this time. Maeve allowed him to bear her down to the deck, and he was heartbreakingly careful with her. He arranged her head so that she would be comfortable within their makeshift bed. Then he sat up between her legs, his hands smoothing up and down her thighs.

“Tell me what you like, chrissah,” he murmured. “Order me around. I know you like that, at least.”

Maeve had laughed, and Aethon grinned, a remnant of the big smile she’d seen so many times before.

“Put your mouth on me,” she whispered.

“Mmm,” he murmured. “Yes, ma’am.”

Aethon leaned forward and kissed her again, before moving slowly down her body. He traced her collarbone with his tongue, his big hands braced on either side of her. Maeve couldn’t stop touching him. She threaded her fingers through his hair, and ran her hands up and down his sides and back.

He teased her breasts with his mouth, his tongue flicking over her nipples sending spikes of pleasure down to her core. He took his time. Maeve thought he was savoring her. Savoring this limited time they had together. She was savoring it too. She let herself release everything else for the moment. She sank into the feel of Aethon’s mouth on her.

He spent a long time kissing and biting at her hips and stomach, teasing her until she was pulsing with need.

“Aethon,” she huffed. She clenched her hands in his hair and tried to push him lower. “Please.”

He chuckled against her skin and then moved lower at her insistence. At the first swipe of his tongue on her, Maeve arched toward him with a moan. She hadn’t been touched like this in so long. She didn’t know how much she wanted it. How much she needed it.

“Yes, god, right there -”

Aethon groaned against her, his hands spreading her wider for his mouth. Maeve had never met anyone who liked to eat pussy as much as Aethon appeared to. He went at it with the same determination she’d seen from him in every other aspect of his life. With precision and ferocity. Maeve gave him a few breathless instructions - higher - harder - faster - and he responded to her with eagerness. Tension began to curl in Maeve’s lower stomach, and her muscles felt tight. Her face was flushed and she felt hot for the first time in a week.

When Aethon pushed one curling finger inside her and pressed the flat of his tongue hard against her clit, Maeve couldn’t hold herself back. She came with a moan, her back arching, the wave of pleasure tightening her whole body. Her mind went white with bliss. There was nothing except the feel of Aethon’s mouth on her. Nothing except the power of the pleasure riding through her. Nothing except them, their bodies gilded in Jupiter’s neverending light.

He crawled up her body, wiping her slickness off his face. He leaned over her, grinning with pure, male satisfaction. “That was the most gorgeous thing,” he murmured.

“I - I don’t want you to - get a big head, Aethon,” Maeve stuttered between breaths. “But you are really, really fucking good at that.”

“Thank you,” he said. Then he pressed a kiss to her lips. “See? That’s how you accept a compliment.”

“You’re insufferable,” Maeve groaned.

“I know.” Aethon paused and his brow furrowed. “Maeve, I want to have sex with you but -”

“No ‘buts’,” Maeve interrupted. “Why would there be a ‘but’?”

“I don’t have any kind of protection,” he said, raising his brows.

The reality of their situation hit Maeve again fully in the chest. They couldn’t just run out to a store and get contraceptives. They weren’t on Brix-9 or in the Archer or the Menace, or anywhere safe. There was no one coming for them. They were going to die.

“Hey - hey,” Aethon said, smoothing a hand up her body to her cheek. Whatever expression was on her face had alarmed him. “What’s wrong? We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“That’s not it,” Maeve replied. She wrapped her arms around his back, pulling his head down to hers. “I want to. And -” She swallowed, nervous about what she was about to reveal to him. “And I can’t have children,” she said quickly. “Had a procedure when I joined Two Roses. I never wanted them.”

He just looked at her with that same raw openness. “Ok. But that doesn’t mean you might not still want me to wear a condom or something. I was tested recently but -”

“I’m clean too,” Maeve said. “It doesn’t matter to me, Aethon. I just want you. I don’t care about anything else.”

Aethon’s expression shifted from concern to determination. His jaw hardened, his whisky eyes going narrow. “Don’t be defeatist, chrissah. I want to fuck you. I want to feel you come as hard as you just did around my cock. But I don’t want you to do this because you think we’re going to die.”

“What does my motive matter at this point?” Maeve demanded. She scraped her nails up his back and she felt his cock twitch against her. He hissed. “God - I’ve never had to convince someone who was lying on top of me naked to fuck me.”

She watched Aethon’s face morph before her eyes. Anger, confusion, resignation, until finally he stared down at her with pure primal hunger. He shifted back and grabbed her thighs, wrenching them apart and lifting her ass so that he could prop the backs of her knees on his forearms. He held her there, motionless, his hands squeezing her ass.