Chapter 199: Soft In All The Right Places

Every time Tera thought Calis was done, he wasn’t.

By the third time, she had been so sure he was finished that she had started to pull away, only for him to grip her hips with a sound that was half growl, half plea, and drag her back to him.

The fourth time, she had genuinely believed that no living creature could possibly have anything left to give, and he had proven her spectacularly wrong.

By the fifth, Tera had simply stopped counting and surrendered to the fact that this male had been celibate for years and his body had apparently decided it was going to make up for every single one of those years in a single period.

Now the rain was pouring down on them, and Tera was sitting on a flat stone near the cave entrance.

Her legs were useless.

They had formally resigned from their duties somewhere around round four and had submitted no timeline for when they planned to return to service.

The cool rain hit her overheated skin and ran in streams down her body, washing away the sweat, the mess, and the remnants of what had been the most physically overwhelming experience of either of her lives.

She should have been cold. But her body was still radiating so much heat that the rain felt soothing rather than chilling.

Calis was on his knees in front of her.

He had cupped water in his palms and was carefully pouring it over her shoulders, letting it cascade down her arms and chest. His large hands followed the water’s path, rubbing gently across her skin to clean away the light sand from the cave floor.

Tera stared at him.

He was washing her so gently.

His crimson eyes were lowered, watching his own hands as they moved across her skin. There was a shyness to his touch that hadn’t been there during any of the rounds inside. Each stroke was deliberate but gentle, as if he was afraid that pressing too hard would break whatever fragile thing had formed between them.

Tera’s chest felt warm in a way that had nothing to do with body temperature.

’He is actually cute when he is not trying to breed me into the ground.’

[This system agrees]

[(..◜ᴗ◝..)]

[The wolf leader’s tenderness is a significant contrast to his earlier behaviour]

’The fuck? I didn’t ask for your commentary.’

[This system is simply observing!]

Tera returned her attention to Calis.

Was this the same male?

His fingers shifted to her waist, and the careful way he cleaned the sand and sweat from her sides made something flutter in her stomach. His touch lingered at the curve of her hip, and his thumb drew a slow line across the soft skin there before he scooped more water.

There was a little extra in his touching that went beyond just cleaning. The way his fingers would slow over a particular spot, pressing just slightly longer than necessary. Then his palm would flatten against her side and just rest there for a breath before moving on.

As if he was admiring her.

Tera wanted to offer to wash him too, but two problems stopped her.

First, she literally could not stand. Her legs had made their position clear, and no amount of willpower was going to override their decision.

Unless she washed him while she was seated like this and he was still on his knees.

Second, if she put her hands on his body right now, there was a real chance he would get hard again, and she was NOT surviving round seven.

She was barely surviving sitting upright.

Tera watched his hands move over her body, and a dry thought drifted through her mind.

’This would be a really funny moment to ask what we are.’

The thought nearly made her smirk. Two naked people in the rain after five rounds of sex, one of them washing the other on her knees like a devoted servant, and neither of them had addressed the massive, pulsing question hanging in the air between them.

What were they?

But the smirk faded as quickly as it came.

She sobered up.

She would need to talk to Xavi and Ermin about this first. Whatever this was, whatever it was becoming, they deserved to know before she defined it. Springing a new mate on them without a conversation was not exactly ideal, especially when they were hardly around to witness it.

It had been different with Ermin and Xavi since they were literally in the same place with her.

Their opinions and feelings mattered to her, and she would not move forward without them.

But for now, there was just the rain, and the wolf on his knees in front of her, washing her body like she was the only thing in the world that mattered.

So instead of asking what they were, Tera leaned forward, cupped Calis’ face in both hands, and kissed him.

His hands froze on her waist, still dripping with rainwater.

He hadn’t expected this.

The kisses before had happened in the heat of the moment, driven by arousal and desperation and bodies that couldn’t stop. This felt a little different. Tera simply felt like kissing him.

Then, slowly, he kissed her back.

His lips moved against hers with a hesitance that made her chest ache. He was learning. Each press of his mouth was a little more certain than the last, a little more willing to follow the shape she was setting.

When his tongue met hers, the coarse texture scraped gently across the sensitive surface, and the contact sent a warm, ticklish shiver cascading down through her chest.

Tera’s fingers curled against his jaw, and she tilted her head to deepen the kiss.

The rain poured down around them, running between their faces and slipping between their lips. His mouth tasted like rain and warmth, and the rough drag of his tongue against hers was becoming something she was rapidly getting addicted to.

Calis kissed like a male who was discovering something for the first time and wanted to understand every part of it before it was taken from him.

A soft sound escaped Tera, muffled against his lips.

Calis’ fingers tightened on her waist, and his breath stuttered against her mouth.

They pulled apart, panting lightly.

His face was so close. Rain streamed down his forehead, catching on his lashes, and his crimson eyes were looking at her with an intensity that made her pulse skip.

Tera’s thumbs stroked his jaw.

’Oh, he is in trouble.’