Alien Conquest (Fated Mates of Xaensskar #2) - Jude Gray Page 0,31

and the savage force of pride. Relief. Passion. Adoration, even. And yes, there were still sparks of dread and confusion behind the heat.

I couldn’t blame him for being messed up. Neither of us would have ever in a million years believed people such as us were supposed to be together.

“Your name,” he murmured, his voice rough and hoarse. “What is your name?”

“Kreia,” I said. “Can I explain why I—?”

“No. Not yet.”

So I lay back on his bed and let him take his time and look his fill. He had a lot to come to terms with and I didn’t mind his stare on my body at all. I eagerly awaited his touch.

As I lay naked and warm, the crackling fire the only sound and light in the room, I watched him watching me, and my body began to heat.

“Kreia,” he muttered. “You made me fucking crazy.”

I shivered but said nothing. My body was both cold and hot, and his lingering, possessive gaze was like a physical touch.

“I’m going to touch you, Drimuti,” he told me, both frustrated and aroused. A breath eased from between his lips and he closed his eyes for a moment as he pressed his palm against the bulge at the front of his pants. “Fate says you’re mine.”

I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my belly. “Fuck fate, Craeshen. I say I’m yours. All you need to do is claim me.”

He shuddered almost violently, groaning as he kicked off his boots and began tearing off his clothes like a wild man pushed too far.

Spots danced in front of my eyes and I thought the extreme stress, excitement, arousal, and yes, fear, there was definitely fear, might cause me to faint. My heart slammed against my ribs and I began to pant, and my body responded to his imminent “claiming” with forceful and overwhelming elation.

It was right.

He put his hands on either side of my face and leaned over me, inhaling gently, pulling in my scent. I no longer felt like I knew him, really. He was a ferocious, feral animal working solely on instinct and need.

I was freezing. And burning up. His breath wafted across my throat and I cried out, because that breath sank into my flesh and slid down my body, rushed through my bloodstream, and gathered between my legs.

This. This was what happened when two fated mates accepted their pairing. This was what happened when a gorgeous, powerful male Craeshen gave in and claimed his female. This was what happened when love was true.

It was perfection, and it was magic.

Finally, without touching any other part of me, he lowered his lips to mine. And just before he kissed me, he whispered, “I claim my lifemate.”

“And I,” I said fiercely my lips moving against his, “claim mine.”

Chapter Seventeen

DEXX

Gods. Gods.

I did not move as she slipped from her clothes, revealing much too slowly the body I’d needed to see. She stood naked and let her hair out of its knot, and I swore to myself I would throw the ugly cap into the fire. Her hair was too beautiful to hide. She was too beautiful to hide.

After I saw her naked, I couldn’t imagine how I could have thought there was a boy under her bulky clothes. She’d bound her small breasts, but her bones were delicate, her face and body so obviously feminine that I knew the only reason I could have mistaken her for a boy was because I’d been too afraid to really look at her.

It didn’t even matter to me that she was Drimuti. Not while I was standing in the shadows like a perverted asshole spying on her in her bath. But I couldn’t have moved if the cabin had been on fire.

Her back was a piece of silky art with wings that never formed birthmarked onto her pale flesh. Her hips were not the wide, womanly hips I generally favored, but they curved gently over perfect, firm legs.

She turned slightly and ran the wet washcloth over her breasts, causing her nipples to pucker, and my mouth went dry. I needed to taste her. All of her.

She spread her feet and thrust the wet, soapy cloth between her thighs, and my cock jerked painfully, throbbing and hard. I’d never needed to fuck anyone as much as I needed to fuck her. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She was mine. And she was…

She.

I stalked her, my jaw clenched, full of lust and the need to take her. To chase