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“Oh, bite me.”
It was one of Ryder’s favorite expressions, and every time she said it it made Vetra’s mandibles twitch in a barely stifled snort. Liam and Peebee didn’t stifle their laughter, not the first time or the third time or the eighth. It was an odd little quirk—Ryder didn’t hesitate to swear most of the time, colorfully and with wild abandon. Maybe it was a holdover from childhood, or the result of the scolding of a particularly strict C.O. Maybe it began as a joke that slowly lost its irony. Whatever the cause, her muttered, “ Bite me,” when faced with an unforeseen obstacle or new frustration made Vetra laugh.
And swallow hard. Because she wanted to. Spirits, she wanted to.
The spot on Ryder’s neck revealed itself every time she stretched after taking off her helmet. Strong, twisting cords of muscle shifted under soft skin where her neck met her shoulder. Vetra wanted to sink her teeth in. Wanted to feel Ryder stiffen then relax, let out a soft little oh. She wanted to leave a mark there for everyone to see.
She suppressed the urge—in bed and in the field. Her teeth were sharp and Ryder felt so small when she was beneath her. Ryder gasped, though, at her kisses over that junction, arching into her touch, and desperately Vetra wanted to hear her say, “Bite me,” in the dark beneath the sheets, breathy, begging, naked and—
“Vetra?”
Vetra coughed, shaking her head. She’d gotten carried away, far too carried away for their still-precarious and very public situation.
Ryder rubbed her blood-splattered boot in the snow, grumbling to herself, but Cora was watching her with narrowed eyes.
“You okay?“ she asked, like she somehow knew the answer. Vetra nodded. Ryder turned, concern evident in her voice.
“Are you sure?”
Vetra gave a reassuring hum.
“They hardly touched me.”
It was true. The Kett had barely gotten a shot in. Ryder’s “ bite me” had been at mere inconvenience—the viscera of easily-vanquished Kett splattered on her suit.
“Let’s get back to the Nomad,” Cora suggested after a beat of silence, and Ryder nodded. With a little biotic burst she was clean. Back in the vehicle, Cora took the wheel, and Ryder rested her head on Vetra’s shoulder in the back seat as they bumped across the landscape. Her neck was prone, tender skin exposed, and Vetra’s breath caught.
“Love you,” Ryder whispered, running her pinky finger up Vetra’s forearm. Her growing lust melted into warm affection.
“I know. I love you, too.”
“You’re not alone!” Cora reminded them from the front bench, voice raised.
“Babe,” Vetra added anyway, nudging Ryder with her shoulder. Ryder giggled. Vetra tried to forget the spot and her teeth and the longing.
Four nights later they were back on the Tempest and Vetra’s head was between Ryder’s thighs. This was the best part of a successful mission, she thought—victory sex back on the ship: giddy, intense, and impatient. One five-fingered hand twisted in the sheets and the other rested flat on the back of Vetra’s head like she was trying hard not to push. Vetra loved it. Loved the sounds she drew from her with her clever tongue, loved the tingly taste as she lapped at Ryder’s center. She loved the way Ryder quivered and gasped as Vetra drew her closer to the edge.
“Please, please, please,” she was panting now, and a part of Vetra wanted to hold her there, torturously close, pinning her thighs to the bed when she tried to squirm away. “ Don’t stop, Vetra.”
She hummed, voice low, considering. The hand on her head tightened, Ryder’s nails biting in, and she tugged her clit between her mouth plates in response.
“Yes,” Ryder gasped, and the sound was sweet enough that Vetra chose mercy. Her tongue flicked out against Ryder’s clit, circling in a mimicry of suction, and when Ryder begged, “Inside,” she slid a finger in up to the first knuckle. She was so wet as she clenched around the digit, and the feeling of her inner muscles moving always did things to Vetra—strong, wild, alien.
Ryder inhaled as she pushed further, talon curled so she wouldn’t scratch, incidentally pressing up against the spot that Ryder loved. She didn’t slow this time as the pitch of Ryder’s sounds increased, riding the roll of her hips as she writhed.
“Close,” she hissed, and Vetra loved when she had her smart mouth down to one word sentences. “Vetra!”
Her world went beautifully dark for a moment as Ryder’s thighs squeezed around her head and she worked her dutifully through it. Ryder’s hips stuttered, gasps staccato, and Vetra curled her talon against her front wall as she slowly pulled back from Ryder’s clit. Ryder collapsed back against the mattress with a groan.
“You are—“ she managed. “You are too good at that.”
Vetra couldn’t help but feel proud, and the pride settled warm between her own legs. She withdrew her talon, hushing Ryder softly when she whimpered in response, and moved up the bed to join her. Ryder was entirely naked. Sweat beaded the nape of her neck.
Fuck.
Vetra wanted to taste it.
“Mm,” Ryder hummed when Vetra slipped in behind her, eyes closed, and Vetra pushed the impulse down. “One minute,” she said. “Need to recover before I can—can return the favor.”
Her voice was already thick and sleepy. Vetra chuckled and draped an arm over Ryder’s hip. A moment passed. Carefully, she let her tongue flick out against Ryder’s neck, and Ryder pressed her head back into her carapace in response.
So exposed. So trusting. Vetra swore she could feel Ryder’s pulse pick up under her tongue.
“Mmm.”
Ryder’s eyes fluttered shut. Slowly, Vetra slid a hand back down Ryder’s body, tracing ticklish patterns over the soft skin of her stomach. The muscles twitched, and Ryder let out a breathy laugh. Vetra wasn’t done yet. Not when Ryder groaned as she shifted, legs twisting together to seek friction. Vetra was stronger—something she only ever flaunted silently. It came in handy. She spread Ryder’s legs with a firm hand, and Ryder groaned.
“Keep them like that,” Vetra whispered. In the field, Ryder was a headstrong wildcard. In bed, she shivered when she followed Vetra’s gentle orders. It worked for them both. Oh, it worked for them both.
“It’s gonna be too much,” Ryder whispered back, eyes still closed. Vetra’s mandibles flicked out.
“It won’t be. I’ll get you there.”
“Okay.”
So easy. Trust was a funny thing. Vetra held it close. It sent something blooming in her, wild and warm in a way that turned her insides to liquid. She was honored. Protective. So, so in love.
And incredibly turned on. She took a breath.
“Good girl.”
Ryder shuddered.
She liked it when Vetra talked. Sometimes Vetra thought she could get her off on that alone. So she crooned to her, low and harmonic in her ear as she built her back up slowly. She began with one talon, dragging it down her stomach until she was twirling through dark curls, hovering over Ryder’s still-pulsing heat. She paused, letting the anticipation build, and then centimeter by centimeter sunk her talon in. Ryder was so wet, wetter than a Turian, and Vetra loved the heat of it, loved knowing that this was all because of her.
“Shh,” she murmured when Ryder twitched. “Good. There you go.”
Ryder whimpered, and it shot straight to Vetra’s core.
Slowly, she set a pattern, dipping in shallowly up to her first knuckle, pulling out and rubbing up over her clit with the pad of her scaled finger. Ryder’s hips slotted back against hers and Vetra pulled her closer, bending to inhale from the crook of her neck, stray strands of hair tickling her nose.
“That’s it,” she murmured when Ryder pulled her in and her talon sank deeper. “So wet. So hot for me.”
“I’m ready,” Ryder said, reaching down between her own legs, and Vetra batted her hand away with a little growl. She saw Ryder’s grin and risked a tiny nip against her shoulder blade. Ryder jerked then laughed and Vetra’s heart skipped a beat.
“My job,” Vetra told her, nuzzling back close. She withdrew her talon and brought it to Ryder’s clit instead. Her circles were light as Ryder slowly rocked against her hand. She was so slick that Vetra’s fingers slipped when she pressed harder, and Ryder gasped.
“More?” she asked, and Ryder nodded. She kissed her neck as best she could, slowly even as the pace of her finger increased. It always took more the second time; she was on the right path when Ryder’s body jerked, pushing against the precipice of too much and not enough .
“That’s it,” she said when Ryder started to gasp a little with each breath. She wasn’t a quiet lover, and Vetra thanked someone for the soundproofing of the room. The sounds were her favorite—needy, desperate, free.
“More,” Ryder pleaded still, and she sped up, not breaking contact as Ryder groaned. She was so wet that the noise was obscene as she started to ride Vetra’s hand, pulling as much as pushing, and Vetra locked an arm around her waist as she squirmed.
“Still,” she warned, but Ryder didn’t comply. She arched back and up, pressing her neck against Vetra’s mouth. She was lucky it didn’t take focus to keep steady circles, because it took all of her self control to pull back as those cords of muscle twisted, tantalizing.
“Vetra, please.” Vetra was panting too, but Ryder pressed back again, arching at an awkward angle. “More.”
She shook her head, pressing harder, and Ryder’s hand closed over hers around her waist. She was nearing the edge; Vetra could hear it in her breaths and feel it in the clenching of her thighs around her wrist. She took a risk as Ryder cried out, let herself test her teeth against that perfect point, barely grazing, but she could taste her own desire even as she held back, not biting, just holding, hovering—
“I know you want to,” Ryder said, voice shockingly clear, and Vetra’s heart skipped a beat.
“What—“
“Bite me.”
“Ryder.” She froze. Their eyes met. Ryder's pupils were blown, her lips parted, but there was still a flash in her eye.
“Hard.”
Vetra couldn’t say no.
It was exactly what she wanted it to be. Ryder’s skin was soft and hot and she stiffened, gasping as Vetra’s teeth sank in. She whimpered but pressed closer, and Vetra took a risk, letting go just enough to break the skin. Tiny pinpricks of blood bloomed against her tongue and Ryder moaned, long and low, and Vetra had the presence of mind to resume her touch, rubbing back and forth over her clit, and Ryder gasped “Again,” and Vetra had to comply. A second mark bloomed next to the first, and Ryder whined and shook; she was coming, hard, and Vetra nearly was, too, from the image alone.
“Yes,” Ryder gasped. “Yes, yes, yes, fuck, Vetra, here.”
Vetra ran her tongue over the indentations she’d made where Ryder’s neck met her shoulder, head swimming. Her skin was salty and the iron of her blood lingered. She hoped, distantly, that she hadn’t been too rough. She hoped that Ryder would ask for this again.
Ryder twisted in her grasp and managed to pin Vetra back against the bed in her daze. Her lips found the creases of Vetra’s neck as she reached downwards, and Vetra moved against the fingers that she slipped inside, circling her clit, and the noises Vetra made were embarrassing but she didn’t care, higher and higher as Ryder alternated kisses with words:
“Come on, baby. Yes.” Her tongue snaked out between the plates of Vetra’s neck. “ Please. Like this. God, you’re hot. So perfect, so good—“
She broke, came, seizing around Ryder’s fingers, and only then did she realize that Ryder had been riding her thigh. She came too, slick and hot with her head thrown back, crying out, her other hand digging in around Vetra’s waist. Vetra covered it with her own, squeezing as she shuddered with the aftershocks of her orgasm. Ryder rolled over, panting, pressed close.
“God,” Ryder whispered when she finally caught her breath. Vetra laughed softly, turning enough to study Ryder’s neck. Ryder shivered when she ran the back of a talon over the marks she’d left, one light and one already bruising, marked by sharp puncture-marks.
“Was this—“
“Okay?” Ryder managed a laugh. “God, yes. I’ve never come so hard.”
Another little seed of pride bloomed in Vetra’s gut.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve been wanting to do it for weeks,” she admitted, rubbing over the marks again. “Every time you say bite me my mind comes here.”
“If I had known I was winding you up in the field….”
Vetra laughed, falling back onto the sheets. They lay in silence for a while, coming back to themselves.
“Do you need medigel?” she eventually asked. Ryder’s fingers found the marks and Vetra watched carefully.
“Not yet. I kind of like them. I like the reminder.” She grinned, finding and squeezing Vetra’s hand. “Maybe even like everyone knowing that I’m yours.”
“They know already,” Vetra reminded her, because subtlety fled where Ryder went.
“Mm,” Ryder hummed. “You can fix it in the morning.”
“Alright.”
“I love you, you know,” Ryder whispered after she’d closed her eyes.
“I know.” Ryder always smiled when she said it. “I love you, too.”
Ryder nudged her shoulder.
“Babe,” she added.
Vetra laughed.