Chapter 23
ELAINA
I can’t move…can’t breathe. My heart is pounding so hard I’m sure it’s trying to escape my chest.
I’m standing in the center of Xaren’s enormous bedchamber—towel barely clinging to me, heart pounding—and he’s kneeling between my legs with his mouth near my most private place like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“What…what are you going to do to me?” I ask, my voice coming out high and breathless. “I mean, I don’t really need any more, er, healing.”
He looks up at me, his eyes lazy with lust.
“I want to taste you, little dove. I want to slip my tongue deep in your soft little pussy and taste your juices right from the source.”
My breath catches in my throat.
“You…I mean, really?”
“Really.” He gives me a slow smile. “But we can take things slowly if you want—we can start with kissing. Would you like that?”
I’m not sure what to say—I never expected him to offer to kiss me between my legs. But just imagining his mouth on me there has my heart pounding and my nipples feeling tight and achy. Also, I’m definitely getting hot and wet.
“I guess so,” I say at last, not wanting to sound too eager.
“Good.” He takes my hips and draws me forward. “Been wanting to do this from the first minute you slipped into my bed.”
He has? Before I can ask more, he’s already pressing his hot mouth to my mound and my thoughts all fly away.
His mouth is warm…skilled…and utterly devoted. He’s not tentative, not cautious—no, he kisses me like a starving man savoring the first drop of honey after a long, cold winter.
Oh Goddess of Mercy…
My knees threaten to buckle but his hands are firm on my hips, steadying me, encouraging me. His big body dwarfs mine and yet he handles me with such gentleness I feel perfectly safe with him—even in this intimate situation.
He presses a long, hot kiss to the outer lips of my sex and I shiver all over.
It feels so good…but also—wrong? No, not wrong, just…
forbidden. Shocking. None of my married sisters have ever described a man doing this to them.
If anything, they’ve made jokes behind fans about the indignities women endure to pleasure their husbands.
But never the other way around. A man using his mouth like this?
It’s unheard of.
And yet, Xaren does it like it’s his birthright. As though he was made to kneel before me, mouth pressed to my heat, tongue slipping just a little deeper—ah!
I moan, fingers flying to his broad shoulders, clutching the hard muscle as if I can anchor myself to reality.
His tongue dips deeper, teasing my aching clit.
“Oh, Goddess!” I gasp, my hips bucking.
He looks up at me through a fall of black silk hair, eyes glowing like twin suns behind his heavy lashes.
“Mmm, little dove, you’re so sweet inside.” His deep voice is full of hunger—all dark velvet and heat. “I need to taste you deeper.”
He stands in one smooth motion, powerful arms sweeping under my thighs, lifting me effortlessly.
I barely manage to clutch my towel to my chest as he carries me across the marble floors. His big strides are purposeful, but not rushed—he’s clearly savoring this…savoring me.
He places me in the center of his enormous bed, sinking me into the lush sea of deep charcoal sheets and golden linens. Then he props a plush pillow beneath my hips, tilting me up just so.
Oh Goddess—he’s really going to do this! My heart is racing and my thighs are trembling. I’ve never felt so bare, so open… so exposed.
And yet… I don’t feel ashamed—not with him.
Xaren kneels at the foot of the bed and settles between my legs like a man about to enjoy a feast—only the feast is me.
Me and my pleasure…my surrender to him…to his mouth on my pussy.
“You…” My voice wobbles as I look down at him, hair fanned out on the pillows. “You’re sure you want to do this? I mean…you really want to taste me there?”
He lifts a brow, golden eyes dark with desire.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he growls. “Doesn’t it feel good, little dove?”
I nod helplessly.
“Yes, it feels… really good. But I just didn’t think…I mean, most men—”
“I’m not most men, or haven’t you noticed?” His lips curl into a wicked smile. “Besides… I want to taste you. And my Drake wants to taste you, too—through me.”
My eyes widen. “He… he does?”
“Of course.” He presses a kiss to the inside of my thigh. “Drakes always love to taste their mates. So relax, little dove. Let me taste you. Let me make you feel good.”
He doesn’t wait for permission—he knows he has it. No doubt he can tell by the way my thighs part for him, spreading open almost of their own accord.
His big hands slide up my legs, spreading me even wider, exposing my pussy, which by this time is getting quite wet. But instead of shame, I feel…a thrill—like lightning trapped beneath my skin. His thumbs spread my lips gently and then—
“Oh!” I gasp.
He leans in and kisses me. There.
A hot, open-mouthed kiss, right on my clit, which is aching and throbbing by now.
Then he licks me—slow and deliberate—from the mouth of my pussy all the way up to my clit again.
My back arches and my fingers find their way into his thick, black hair. I need something to hold on to!
He licks me again, savoring me as he drags his tongue slowly over my inner pussy, making me moan and writhe under him.
Oh Goddess—it’s almost too much!
I clutch his hair tighter, fingers tangling in the thick, silky strands, tugging by instinct, pulling him even closer to my aching sex.
He growls against my pussy and does it again…and again…and again until I’m gasping and moaning and arching against him.
His tongue teases my clit, flicking lightly, then circling. Then sucking.
I moan his name like a prayer—I’m getting so close!
“Oh Goddess—Xaren!”
“Fuck, little dove,” he groans, looking up at me, his lips glistening with my juices. “You taste so fucking good. I could eat your soft little pussy all damn day.”
My breath catches in my throat. No one has ever spoken to me like this before. No one has touched me like this before. And certainly no one has ever tasted me.
But it occurs to me that I’m pulling too hard on his hair—I must be hurting him. Somehow I unclench my fingers but then he’s at it again.
“Goddess have mercy,” I whisper, clutching his shoulders, twisting in the sheets as he goes down on me once more.
His tongue works in slow, devastating circles. Then he flattens it and presses—long and firm—lapping at the aching bud of my clit like he’s trying to drive me mad with pleasure.
Then suddenly he pauses.
I blink, panting.
“Why…why did you stop?”
He looks up, brows furrowed.
“Why did you stop pulling my hair?”
“I… I didn’t want to hurt you,” I pant.
A devilish grin spreads across his face.
“Hurt me, sweetheart.” He licks his lips. “I fucking love it.”
And with that, he dives back in.
His tongue licks harder…deeper. I feel it slip inside me briefly and then he goes back to teasing my clit.
He growls like a beast feasting on his mate and I answer the sound with a cry of my own.
I’m writhing, begging, crying out his name, pulling his hair again and again as he devours me like he can never get enough. His tongue flicks over my clit until my whole body is shaking, my thighs squeezing his head and I’m moaning because I’m so close…so close.
“Xaren, oh Goddess of Mercy, please don’t stop! There…right there.”
He slides two thick fingers inside me, curling them just right. Somehow he finds some inner spot inside me I didn’t even know existed, but it sends spikes of pleasure through me.
“Come for me, little dove,” he growls, his mouth still working my clit. “Let me taste it—come all over my tongue.”
Suddenly my orgasm hits me and pleasure rushes through me like a wildfire. I gasp, arching my back off the bed as sensations tear through me—hot and bright and endless.
I’ve never felt anything like this—never imagined anything so good could be real. I’m seeing lights exploding behind my eyelids as my hips buck and my whole-body clenches with pleasure.
And through it all, Xaren is there—holding me, tasting me, claiming me with his mouth and fingers and tongue.
He makes me feel worshipped…healed…desired.
Loved.
I never want it to end.