Page 17 of The Last Hunt

“You want this?” Aethon growled. He dragged the head of his cock against her folds, still tender from his ministrations. She shivered at the feel.

“Yes,” she said.

“You want me inside you - nothing between us?” he said. He notched himself at her entrance but didn’t move further. Maeve braced herself against the wall behind her head.

“Fuck, yes.”

“Good,” he snapped.

He pushed into her with one, slow, almost unending thrust. Maeve’s whole body shuddered at the hot, thick, hardness of him. She could feel every inch of him like this.

“Aethon -” she whimpered. She scrabbled at his arms, trying to pull him closer, deeper.

“Fuck, Maeve,” he hissed. “You feel so good.”

He slid out and then slammed back in hard. The feel of him was almost too much. It was all too much. And yet it wasn’t enough.

“Can’t hold you up like this,” he grimaced, his arms trembling. “Need a damn pillow - or a few decent meals. Overestimated my strength.” He put her gently back down on the deck, his cock slipping from her in the motion.

Maeve spread her legs and urged him forward. “Come here.”

Aethon fit himself between her thighs and pressed in again before resting himself over her. She arched toward him as he sheathed himself fully inside her.

“I like this better,” Maeve said, tracing her hands up his back. “I can touch you too.”

Aethon smiled and kissed her, his hips starting to move in a slow rhythm. Maeve raised her legs around him, squeezing him tightly, pressing her heels into his firm ass. She lost all sense of time as they moved together. Their fear and anger at their predicament had changed into something else. This wasn’t the desperate sex of two people who knew they were going to die. This was more. This was a joining of two people who wanted to live while they still could. The difference was important to Maeve.

“Chrissah,” Aethon said again. He murmured the word like it was a prayer. Maeve wondered if he really meant it. How could she be that to him? Vital? Precious? They had always competed with each other, irritated each other. What did he see in her now? Maeve didn’t know. But she knew that Aethon was more than just an asshole bounty hunter. Part of her wished she was going to live to find out everything there was to know about him.

Aethon ground his hips into her, his hand snaking down between them to press against her clit. It sent a shock straight through her, her back arching as her muscles began to tense. “Come for me, Bladesy,” Aethon murmured against her lips. “Come for me now.”

It wasn’t hard. Aethon seemed to instinctively know how to draw pleasure from her. Once again, tension was building in Maeve’s body, aching for release. She wrapped her arms around Aethon’s neck, bringing his mouth to hers as she came. She sobbed against him, the orgasm bringing both intense pleasure, and an overflow of emotion. Aethon held her through it, and she felt it when his hips began to jerk less gracefully. He pulled out of her, spilling onto her stomach with a groan.

“Aethon,” Maeve said. Tears were falling down her face and Maeve threw her arm over her eyes. It was all too much. She rarely cried, and she never cried in front of people. She felt like a dam holding back her emotions had been broken.

“It’s ok,” he said. He fell to her side and grabbed his shirt, ripped off a sleeve, and wiped her clean. “It’s ok, chrissah. Everything is ok.” The care he showed her made a fresh wave of tears come to Maeve’s eyes.

“How can you say that when we’re going to die?” she whispered. The cold of the escape pod felt icy against her bare skin again. She looked out the window at Jupiter. It looked back, judgmental and uncaring. She put her arm back over her face, hiding her tears.

“I don’t believe that,” he growled. He grabbed her chin and forced her arm away from her eyes. “Look at me.”

She did. His gaze blazed with purpose. “We’ll figure something out,” he said. “We’ll sleep for a while now, and then we’ll figure something out.”

Maeve nodded. She didn’t believe him, but she no longer had the strength to argue. They curled up against each other under the blanket again.

Aethon pressed a kiss to her hair as she was dropping off to sleep. “Chrissah,” he murmured once more.

It was the last time he would ever call her that.

Maeve and Aethon awoke to a beeping from the pod’s comm system.

They untangled and jumped over to the dash, still naked.

“It’s a signal from a passing freighter,” Aethon said. His hair was mussed, the skin under his eyes dark with lack of sleep. “They’re coming for us.” He looked up at Maeve, his eyes wide. She rubbed a hand over her face, not quite believing what she’d just heard.

“Someone is… coming for us,” she repeated.

“A freighter,” Aethon replied with a nod.