sweet.
Words that I wanted to immediately deny because I was unused to compliments about my appearance.
You are beautiful, he’d said.
And maybe it was the quiet reverence I heard in his voice—or the small part of me that would always trust him, trust that he wouldn’t lie to me about something like this—but I actually believed him.
Kiran of Rath Okkili thought I was beautiful.
When I swallowed, my throat felt tight. Nik, this wasn’t about love or our past or anything that had happened between us.
This was about sex and intimacy and touch—things I’d never experienced but needed to.
I needed to keep them separate in my mind if I ever had a chance of coming out of this whole.
“Touch me,” I ordered him.
Those golden eyes sparked.
He leaned down and I let out two little sighs as he pressed kisses to my neck. Then I gasped when he bit at the sensitive column of my throat, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to leave a mark. My body felt like it was his when he laved at the mark with his dark tongue to soothe it.
Underneath the furs, I felt his tail move, felt it wrap around my thigh and hold it fast. Dakkari tails were strong, almost all muscle, though they were incredibly flexible. I wouldn’t have been able to break his hold even if I wanted to.
He kept me on my side and used his tail to lift my leg—and a ragged moan tore from me when the very tip of his tail stroked the slick cleft between my thighs.
“Here, seffi?” he murmured, that voice like sin and silk. I felt a rush of wetness.
Wicked, wicked male, I thought in disbelief.
“Nik?” he rasped, his tone too rough to be teasing.
“Lysi,” I whispered. “There.”
Kiran’s hands moved in an instant. Those strong, calloused fingers delved beneath the furs, running over my hip from behind before trailing down.
When his touch found my aching sex for the first time, I felt my whole body jolt with the sensation of it. Like a bolt of Drukkar’s purple lightning had zapped through me, from head to toe. Kiran groaned, that delicious sound making my heartrate climb higher and higher.
His fingers stroked my wet slit until I parted for him. I heard slick, small sounds that would’ve embarrassed me had I not been so aroused, had I not been so utterly focused on his dizzying touch.
Kiran had pulled away from my neck to watch my face. When he found my clit, that hidden, sensitive bead, my hips rolled, my body tightening.
Already, I felt on the verge of orgasming and he’d only just begun to touch me.
“There?” he asked.
My clit, he meant.
Lips parting, I realized that Kiran was trying to learn what I liked. Where to touch me. How hard, how soft.
Because he’d never been with a human female before.
“Lysi,” I answered him, feeling his cock grind into my backside harder.
Hot and hard and thick and long, I thought. I wanted to touch him too but I didn’t know what to do.
But he groaned, rolling those hips perfectly against me, as he continued to stroke my clit. And when he explored lower? When he wedged one of his fingers into my sex?
“Vok,” he cursed, his brow furrowing, those eyes registering disbelief. “You’re so tight, seffi.”
I bit my lip, feeling his finger stretch me, which made his thumb put more pressure on my clit. My breaths came quicker, my hips rocking, trying to get him deeper, and I cried out when I felt my body begin to tighten.
“Kiran,” I cried out in a ragged, hoarse voice.
“Lysi,” he breathed as I tightened around him. “Lysi, come for me, Maeva. Let me feel you.”
My orgasm was powerful and hit me hard, stealing my breath and making me freeze.
My back arched as I felt Kiran’s other hand curl around my throat, keeping my head still so he could watch me, so he could see every expression that passed over my face. I felt my heartbeat thrumming against his palm like a drum. I kept his eyes with my own until the pleasure forced me to close them.
The waves felt punishing, rolling through my body violently. Kiran’s touch prolonged them. And I never wanted them to end. I never wanted to leave this bed. I only ever wanted to stay here, in this pleasure.
But all too soon, it began to disappear and I grew too sensitive. I reached down to push his fingers away, my breath ragged.
When I met his eyes, I