"Are you going to bite me, Zarek?" she asked, making her throat vibrate under his lips.
He ran his tongue over the vein that throbbed on her neck. "Do you want me to?"
"No. I'm afraid of it. I don't want to be like other women to you."
"Princess, you could never be that. You are unique to me."
"Am I your rose?"
He gave a short laugh as he thought of the little prince's lesson. "Yes, you are my rose. There is only one of you in all the millions of planets and stars."
She answered him with a hug.
That hug pierced him in a way nothing had before. Something inside him seemed to snap and burst, overwhelming him with tenderness and warmth.
He buried himself deep inside her as he came for her.
Astrid bit her lip as she felt his climax. He shuddered in her arms. She smiled as she held him close and kissed his shoulder.
He was so still. So quiet.
Who would have thought that he would be capable of such a thing? He was always so fierce and forceful.
His mere presence made the air around him snap and sizzle.
But not now. Now there was only silence.
Zarek lay on top of her, weak and spent, his body still joined to hers. He didn't want to move.
He couldn't.
Her touch was sublime. But more than that, he felt connected to her. And he had never felt that before.
Was this really a dream? Please gods, no. Please let this be real.
He needed it to be real, desperately.
Astrid closed her eyes as Zarek nuzzled her neck again. For some reason she felt as if she had just tamed some wild, uncontrollable beast.
She ran her legs up and down his, cradling him with her body as she brushed her hand through his ebony hair. He pulled back slightly to stare at her in wonderment.
She was so glad she had done this tonight.
He dipped his head down to kiss her again.
She inhaled his scent, drank from the tenderness of his lips. "Oh, Zarek," she breathed.
Zarek clenched his eyes closed at the sound of his name on her lips. It was such fierce, bittersweet pain and it tore through him.
He nibbled at the delicate skin on her neck, letting his fangs graze her flesh. In real life, he would have bitten her by now.
He would never have taken her body with his.
He would have shared her emotions as he drank from her and he wondered what she would taste like in his dream...
Opening his lips, he felt the pulsing of her blood in her veins against his tongue.
She would be sweet, that much he knew.