Chapter 31 Xelene #2
He caught her hand as it rose to touch the marks, bringing her knuckles to his lips. “Just scratches,” he said, his voice rough. “Nothing that matters. Nothing that gets to keep me from you.”
The alpha command in his tone, the absolute certainty, sent a fresh wave of heat through her.
His arm hooked behind her knees, lifting her against his chest as if she weighed nothing.
He carried her to the massive bed, the one he’d told her no other woman had ever touched, and laid her down on the dark silks as if she were something precious.
Then he began to worship her.
His mouth was everywhere. He started at the pulse hammering in her throat, his lips branding a path down her neck and across her collarbones.
Then he lavished attention on her breasts, his tongue swirling around one peaked nipple before drawing it deep into the heat of his mouth, his teeth grazing with exquisite care.
She arched beneath him, her fingers tunneling into his golden-blonde hair, holding him to her.
“Lev…” His name was a plea.
He only growled softly in response, the vibration humming against her skin as he continued his descent.
His hands smoothed over her stomach, her hips, a possessive mapping of territory that belonged solely to him.
When he settled between her thighs, the first brush of his breath against her sensitive flesh made her jolt.
But he didn’t rush. This was a savoring. His mouth found her core, and he licked into her with a slow, deliberate rhythm that was pure, exquisite torture. His tongue traced her folds, circled her clit, dipped inside her, learning her taste, her textures, with a reverence that made her heart clench.
The intimacy of it was staggering—not just the physical act, but the flood of sensation through the bond.
She felt his pleasure in the act, a fierce, possessive joy in giving her this.
His love for her, raw and untempered, washed over her own rising need, amplifying it until it was a palpable force in the room, a golden heat that threatened to consume her.
She tried to hold on, to prolong the agonizingly sweet build, to restrain the wild climb. Her hips jerked, but his hands pinned her gently, holding her in place for his leisurely exploration.
“Xelene,” he murmured, the word vibrating against her flesh. “Let go. I want to feel it. I want to see it. Give me everything.”
His words were the final key. The last thread of her control snapped.
A cry tore from her throat as the orgasm crashed over her, a wave of pure, blinding ecstasy that rolled from the center of her being outward.
Her body convulsed, her thighs tightening around his head as he continued to draw out every pulse and every shiver, drinking in her pleasure until she was limp, boneless, and utterly sated.
He lifted his head, his eyes glowing with a feral satisfaction. But as the aftershocks faded, a new, deeper hunger awoke within her. The immediate relief she’d expected was absent. Instead, the fire he’d stoked burned hotter, brighter, an insatiable need that the climax had only intensified.
But the realization didn’t frustrate her.
It thrilled her. This bond, this connection—it wasn’t a finite thing to be satisfied.
It was a living, growing entity, and this desire was its fuel.
Every touch, every shared breath, every peak would only strengthen it and bind them tighter.
The promise of a future where this only got better, stronger, more profound, unfolded in her mind, dazzling and endless.
The mattress dipped as Lev settled beside her, the heat of his body a solid, welcome presence. Xelene turned her head, her limbs still humming with the delicious aftershocks. The primal intensity in his gaze hadn’t dimmed; it had magnified, banked now into something smoldering and expectant.
“Get on top. Take what you need from me. It’s all yours now,” he said, his voice a low rumble.
A thrill shot through her, sharp and electric. This was a different kind of surrender, one of power and choice.
He’s giving me the reins, she thought, the significance not lost on her.
The king, the Alpha, was offering her control in the moment. It was the most profound intimacy he could give.
She rose up, the cool air a whisper against her flushed skin, and swung a leg over his hips to straddle him.
The position put her above him, and the view was devastating—his powerful chest, the corded strength of his abdomen, and the fierce, possessive love burning in his blue eyes.
His arousal pressed heavy and hard against her core, a potent demand that made her ache.
“Look at you,” he murmured, his hands coming to rest on her waist. “My queen, taking her primal throne.”
Xelene’s breath hitched as she reached between them, her fingers wrapping around his cock, hot and velvet-soft in her grip. Guiding him to her slick entrance, she paused for a moment, savoring the sizzling anticipation. Then, with deliberate slowness, she began to sink down.
The sensation was exquisite, a gradual, stretching fullness that stole her breath.
Inch by perfect, aching inch, she took him inside, feeling every ridge and pulse as he filled her completely.
A soft, broken sound escaped her lips when he was fully seated, his body a part of hers in the most fundamental way.
The feeling was overwhelming and so profoundly right it made her heart clench.
“Lev,” she breathed, her hands coming to rest on the solid plane of his chest for balance.
“I’m yours, Xelene. Claim me when you’re ready,” he murmured, his voice thick.
She soon began to rock, a slow, rolling motion that drew a groan from deep in his chest. The friction was maddening, a sweet, building pressure with every slide and retreat. They found a natural rhythm, and with one particular angle, a jolt of pure pleasure sparked through her, making her gasp.
“There,” Lev growled softly, his fingers tightening on her hips. “Right there.”
She obeyed, chasing that perfect spot, each stroke hitting it with more precision.
The pleasure built in a steady, relentless climb.
Through the mate bond, she felt his desire not as a separate thing, but as fuel to her own fire—a feedback loop of escalating need.
Her careful control, the measured pace she’d tried to set, began to unravel.
Too fast, part of her warned, the strategist trying to reassert itself. You’ll fall too soon.
But the rest of her—the woman, the mate—drowned it out. This wasn’t about management. This was about fusion. This was the first time they were joined like this since the bond had sealed, and she wanted to feel all of it, the raw, untamed power of their connection.
So she let go.
Her movements became less calculated and more desperate.
She rode him with wild abandon, her hair tumbling around her shoulders and her moans filling the room.
Lev met her thrust for thrust, driving up into her with a power that shook the bed, his grip on her hips keeping her steady on every deep stroke.
The world narrowed to the points where they were connected: the clutch of his hands on her hips and her hands on his chest, the joining of their bodies, and the golden tether of the mate bond singing between their souls. Pleasure, sharp and bright, coiled tight at her core.
“I can feel it so intensely,” Lev rasped, his eyes locked on hers. “I can feel you coming apart for me. Let it go.”
The coil snapped.
Her orgasm detonated, a supernova of sensation that erupted from her core and radiated outward in violent waves.
Her back arched as a raw, shattered cry tore from her throat, unashamed and echoing in the stone chamber.
Her inner walls clamped around him in rhythmic, desperate pulses, the intensity so profound it blurred her vision into streaks of light.
The tidal wave of her pleasure crashed into him through the bond.
She felt the exact moment it broke his control.
A guttural groan was ripped from him as his own release surged.
He thrust up one final, devastating time, holding her down as he spilled into her, his body convulsing beneath hers.
The heat of his release mingled with the aftershocks still racking her was the perfect, completing moment.
For long minutes afterward, there was only the sound of their ragged breathing. Still intimately connected, Lev’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her down against his sweat-slicked chest. He captured her mouth in a deep kiss that tasted of salt and connection.
When they broke apart, Xelene rested her forehead against his. The bond between them hummed, a harmonious vibration that felt like peace and home.
“I love you,” she whispered, the words as natural as breathing.
“I love you. You’re the queen I spent my whole life dreaming I might find.” He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, his expression fiercely solemn. “I will protect you. I will love you. Every single day of our lives, Xelene. That is my promise.”
She just smiled, her heart so full she thought it might overflow.