Chapter Thirty-One
Serenya
His mouth slotted over mine, and all other thoughts ceased. The bond was a warm current beneath my skin, tugging at the center of my chest. His emotions brushed mine like a tide, tenderness laced with desire, and that underlying pulse of protective instinct that never left him.
The room still smelled like us, rich and heady with a mixture of my slick and his seed. I knew the bedding probably needed changed after days of him seeing me through my heat, but part of me wanted to keep that scent.
He lifted his mouth from mine as he fumbled with the back of my bra. He couldn’t seem to figure out the closure, and I let out a laugh as I reached back and popped open the hooks in seconds.
“I think that thing should be sacrificed to the winds.”
I laughed again as I let the straps slide down my arms.
“But I need its support.”
He made a quiet sort of growl as he dropped to his knees, hands wrapping around each of my breasts. Sticking his tongue out, he licked a line up from the bottom to my nipple, twisting the twin tips around the tight peak before doing the same to the other.
My core clenched, need flooding through me. His desire filled my veins, but his was focused on pleasing me.
“I am your support.”
He spoke before wrapping his mouth around my nipple, his sharp teeth threatening to pierce my flesh, sending zaps of lightning to my clit.
My head tipped back as my fingers slid over the ridges crowning his skull, and he let out a groan that was half growl, making slick soak through my underwear as my legs trembled.
He stood and nuzzled into the crook of my neck and I wrapped my arms around him.
“My ridges are sensitive, veyrari. Touching them makes me want to do things to you.”
I tipped my head to the side, offering him more of my neck. His lips pressed to the scabs where he’d bitten me, then parted to suck on the flesh around the mark.
I shivered at the sensation, raising one hand to stroke his ridge from temple to crown. He let out a pleased sound that reverberated from his chest into mine, wrapping his tail around me. His kethra pulsed, slow and steady like his heartbeat, and mine matched his rhythm.
His mouth moved up my neck and along my jaw before covering mine. His tongue pressed between my lips, licking along mine as he reached down and curled his hands around my thighs.
I wrapped my legs around his hips when he lifted me, gasping as his hard length pressed against my center. I’d soaked through my pants, the fabric of my underwear clinging to me as I rocked against him, making me wish he’d just rip it away.
Then I was on my back in the bed, staring up at him. He covered me with his bulk, looking at me like I was made of something precious.
“I need you, tavehn. Tell me I can have you.”
His eyes searched mine, and the link between us pulled tighter, heating with every breath. His desire fed into mine, an ache rising between us.
“Always.”
It was the only word I could find. I wanted Kael to have me. I wanted to be his, and him to be mine.
Always.
I reached for the closures of his pants, fingers brushing the length of him through the fabric. He groaned but didn’t stop me, watching in silence as I worked the ties loose and then pushed his pants down until his shaft was freed.
He kicked them off the rest of the way, rising to his knees. His body was a tapestry of shadows, muscles, and darkened scars, lit by the crescents of his kethra. He was breathtaking, and my bitemark glowing on his neck had satisfaction flooding through me.
I’d claimed this powerful male. The only person to have ever supported me, who always seemed to know what I needed.
I leaned forward to press a kiss to his abdomen. I wanted to place a kiss on my mark, but kneeling over my legs, he was too tall for me to even reach his nipples.
He inhaled sharply, his thick shaft twitching where it pressed between my breasts when I leaned forward. Grinning, I brought my elbows in to tighten them around his length, then let my head drop so I could place a kiss on his tip.
I felt the shift in him, his restraint slipping. His fingers ran through my hair, tightening in the back and pressing my mouth to his length again before pulling me away with a hiss.
Lowering me to the mattress, he kissed me again until I panting.
“You’re sure?”
I nodded, already breathless.
“I want you.”
Kael growled low in his throat and grabbed my pants, his claws ripping through the fabric with a sound that sent shivers down my spine. It shouldn’t have been arousing to watch him destroy my clothing, but my core pulsed anyway, my kethra flaring as he fulfilled my earlier wish.
He smirked, tossing the ruined pants aside before lowering himself over me. Every inch of him radiated heat, and even though the room was warm, I still loved it.
His hands slid beneath my thighs, spreading me wider and drawing my legs around his hips. I arched into him, nipples brushing against the rough texture of his skin, seeking more contact. My body ached, not with urgency, but with anticipation.
Kael didn’t rush. His lips wandered from my mouth to my jaw, then down to the hollow of my throat. When he reached the swell of my breasts, he paused, breath ghosting over my skin as his fingers pushed aside the last barrier of fabric keeping him from my center.
I cried out when he sucked my nipple into his mouth again as his fingers thrust into me. My hands moved to his head and held him there, fingers curled around his ridges, the flick of his tongue against the sensitive peak making my spine bow as slick seeped from where he pressed inside me.
His arousal surged, mingling with satisfaction. He knew I wanted him. That I trusted him with my body and heart. That I welcomed him into every part of me.
He gave equal attention to my other breast, suckling until I was squirming beneath him, channel clenching with need.
And then I felt the brush of his tail.
It trailed along my calf, barely a whisper of sensation. Then higher, curling around the back of my knee, teasing, stroking.
I gasped, the added sensation winding the ache between my thighs even tighter.
“Kael…”
He kissed a path down my stomach, his tail curling more firmly around my thigh, coaxing it to spread wider. I complied, breathless, anticipation crackling along my nerves. His tongue flicked into my belly button, then over my mound, until his breath brushed against my most sensitive flesh.
When he licked my folds with slow, languid strokes of his tongue, I cried his name again.
The pleasure built slowly, each pass of his tongue drawing a new wave of need from me. His tail caressed my hip, my thigh, brushing over the places he couldn’t reach with his mouth. I was wide open to him, the bond between us burning brighter with every sound I made.
“You’re so wet for me.”
I whimpered as he growled into me. He circled my clit with his tongue as his tail tip pressed against my entrance, stretching me alongside his fingers before pulling out to dip lower.
I shivered at the pressure against my other opening, but I already knew the pleasure it could bring. He’d used it on me during my heat, and though part of me still thought it was taboo, the rest of me didn’t care.
The moment it breached me, I cried out again from the sheer intensity. He curled it inside me, mimicking the rhythm of his fingers as he licked up the proof of my arousal.
My hands clawed at the bedding, thighs shaking as pleasure mounted. I was unraveling, and I could feel every moment of his pleasure in the way I fell apart for him.
I tugged on his ridges, needing more. Needing all of him in me.
“Please!”
That was all it took.
Kael moved up my body, kissing my belly, my sternum, then his mark. His fingers withdrew and I sobbed at the loss, but he was already replacing them with the weight of his cock pressing against my opening.
Broad, hot, perfectly ridged.
He entered me with slow, careful pressure, watching my face the entire time. I was sore from the number of times he’d knotted me during my heat, but not sore enough to want him to stop. I craved the connection.
The stretch burned, my core throbbing from the fullness of his cock and tail impaling me. I felt every inch as he pushed inside, our link flaring with his pleasure.
He took my lips with his again, my taste thick on his tongue. He filled every opening, every empty place in me. He wasn’t just inside me, he was part of me, his care wrapping around my heart like the red silk that had covered me for the ceremony.
We moved together, a rhythm born of instinct and need. He rocked into me slowly, deeply, every thrust dragging pleasure throughout my body.
I tightened my legs around him, drawing him closer, urging him faster. He groaned into my mouth and began snapping his hips forward, losing his tight control.
“You’re mine, veyrari. I’m never letting you go.”
Arching as my orgasm built, I dug my nails into his back, gasping.
“I don’t want you to.”
His knot began to swell, tugging at my lower lips each time he withdrew. I didn’t know where my pleasure ended and his began, the bond sharing everything between us.
When I came, it was with a cry that ripped from my throat, my body shuddering.
Kael followed with a roar, knot locking us together as he pulsed deep inside me.
Each time the intensity started to taper off, a subtle shift from one of us would start it over again, until I was sobbing and begging for a break.
We laid still for a long time, his weight anchoring me to the bed, our connection reassuring me this was real as I traced the kethra on his shoulders.
He stroked my hair, our breaths syncing, the twitching of his muscles as if I was tickling him making me smile.
His purr was a soft, steady vibration that spread through me, chasing away the aches and making me wish we could stay in bed forever and forget anything else existed.
I felt his peace. His acceptance, no matter what came. It was going to be rough, but I trusted him to navigate it with me.