over him, soothing while every nerve in his body pulsed in tune to his lust. His hand worked up and down his cock with practiced moves, feeling himself teeter closer to his orgasm, trying to prolong the high when he reached it.
The image of Urenya appeared, as he’d known it would, smiling. Naked. Her hair let loose from the high ponytail she wore, her light blue eyes clouded with lust, her legs spread open for his pleasure on his bed… He growled in frustration. The image was nothing compared to what he truly ached for, but even that was good enough to make his fingers twist his cock so hard he thought he might end up hurting himself. It felt so good, his wet fingers, slick with the first lotion his wandering hands found, sliding over his hard flesh.
He let out a low growl as he came, shivering despite the warm water against his skin, his nails dragging along the shower wall where he supported himself. His breath came in short, desperate bursts as his body came down from the rush of pleasure. He didn’t even finish washing himself before he was hard again, thinking of the little healer.
The ache didn’t disappear after he tried again, and then again. Eventually, he lay exhausted on his bed, appreciating the irony in the fact that usually he would have asked a healer how to handle a desire like that.
CHAPTER THREE
Urenya
After a week of wincing every time someone came to the med bay, Urenya concluded her strange and surprising desire wasn’t going to pass on its own.
It baffled her, honestly. There were few things that didn’t make sense to her in the world as she was quite smart. Sure, she couldn’t build a ship from scratch, but with the Brion people she was pretty sure she knew where they stood. Maybe Seleya had been right after all, and the only one she couldn’t properly diagnose was herself.
What she was feeling was very obvious to her. Less so why.
After Patren, she’d sort of lost her desire for a while. She’d notice handsome men, and since the Brions were quite sexual by nature anyway, even had a few flings as was proper for a Brion youth. They all found practice useful before meeting their fated and putting all they’d learned to true use. But it had always been more of a chore or a very brief infatuation gone the next morning. By now, she knew it had been so because in her mind she still hadn’t let go of her gerion and was viewing all she was doing as cheating – a concept, which barely existed for the Brions as no one really did that. The fated couples didn’t, at least. (She’d asked Seleya, and of course they did; only they felt infinite times more worse afterward and almost never repeated it.)
She’d honestly gotten used to that desire-less state of being after a while. Theoretically, she knew there was a chance she’d bond again someday, but until it happened, she was focused on her work. Sure, she occasionally saw the commander fight shirtless, and it was a very pretty sight, but that happened to most of the women on board.
So why now? Why Narath?
Her healer-educated mind provided her with a quick array of embarrassing answers making her grin a bit and nearly drop two bottles of highly acidic liquids she was using to make a painkiller, ironically.
First of all, he’s built like a god. A huge god.
Alright, she could agree with that. Narath was what the word “huge” was probably invented to describe. He had nearly filled the little med bay when he’d visited, standing as tall as the commander, but where Diego was lean and quick, Narath was a formidable powerhouse with arms so thick she would have struggled to encircle one with both palms even at the narrowest. She’d seen him shirtless too, unknown to him. A healer was often required to stand guard in case something went really wrong during practice with the huge machines that probably didn’t even have a safety function. There was a lot to see, for example how many muscle groups a warrior could have. So yes, there