all. He’d kidnapped her, threatened her, and wouldn’t tell her what he planned for next. But the warmth in her chest told her she would still accept him. That she would love to touch him, that she wanted to hear his laugh again, that she needed his eyes on her and she needed to feel his touch.
When she put her mind and her soul together, when she tried to mix them both and form her wants into something tangible and certain, she failed. Because nothing made sense.
So which one did she listen to? Her mind or her soul?
His fingers brushed between her brows, smoothing out the lines that had formed there. “What are you thinking of?” he murmured, coming even closer still.
She took a deep breath. As if under some kind of trance, her honest answer came easy, “I’m thinking that I want you. And I’m thinking that I shouldn’t.”
A sound rumbled from his throat. One of agreement? As if his thoughts mirrored her own.
“You told me it was a mistake,” she reminded him, feeling oddly panicked but oddly calm. There, in that place, with the darkness at their backs, whatever was going to happen next seemed inevitable. As if his Fates had already written it and they were actors in a play, performing exactly what they were meant to. “That it wouldn’t happen again. Just yesterday morning.”
His jaw ticked, as if he regretted his words.
He drew closer, or maybe she did. All Erin knew was that suddenly her knees were brushing his thighs under the water. All she had to do was part them. All he would have to do was tilt his hips slightly and he could make both of them burn.
Something feral and dark entered his gaze. Something wild. She felt his hands come around her waist, felt him pulling her closer and lifting her, despite the fact that he’d just situated her on the little ledge.
Erin was in his arms now, holding her against him. His head bent. One of his horns tangled in her hair when he ran the angled tip of his nose across her neck, over the hickey he’d given her two nights ago, dragging his nose up until his sharp exhale tickled the sensitive shell of her ear.
He was…scenting her?
She heard his swallow, felt his hands tighten around her waist.
When he inhaled, her lips parted, her eyes fluttered shut. The soft whistling sound of it, knowing he was so close, feeling those strong arms around her, made her head swirl, made a shiver tingle all the way up to her scalp.
“Vellixa,” he groaned in his language. Erin didn’t know what the word meant, but she heard the awe in his voice.
Tentatively, she clasped her arms around his shoulders. Her eyelids felt heavy when she looked at him.
“Jaxor…” she trailed off, unsure of what she was going to say.
“Do you think I could deny you?” he rasped in her ear. “Do you think I have the strength to? It has been mere spans since I first saw you and already, I am weak.”
His head moved again. He shifted her higher in his arms.
Erin’s lips were parted from his words…but then a soft moan escaped them when his lips found her breast.
Her nails dug into the back of his neck as his tongue flicked over her exposed, hard nipple. The warmth of it, the texture of it was amazing. She’d already known it was ridged from when they’d kissed, but feeling it on her skin, on such a sensitive place, was divine.
A breathy sigh was pulled from her lungs as he sucked gently. She wondered if she might come from this. That was how good it felt.
She tried to keep her head, tried to focus even as she held him in place, in fear he would pull away.
Another one of my fears? she couldn’t help but question, adding it to the rest.
“Inevitable,” she whispered, as he switched to her other breast, wetting it with his tongue. He was almost lazily suckling her, as if this was just normal.
And perhaps it was normal between fated mates. This proprietorial, possessive intimacy.
“Rebax?” he rasped against her flesh before sucking again.
“This was always going to happen,” she whispered, realization jolting her, just now discovering the power of the bond, though Jaxor had hinted that he’d felt it before. She felt insignificant in comparison to the inevitability. She wondered if Jaxor felt the same way.
He had told her he was tired of fighting against her. Was this what he