Chapter 29
As Telok stared down at his mate, his chest filled with pride, joy, and desire, with gratitude and tranquility.
Her hair was spread around her head, the dim orange light making it look like fiery threads ran through it.
Her green eyes were half-lidded, still bearing a hint of sleepiness, but they gleamed with happiness as bright as the sun.
And her lips were curved in an affectionate smile just for him.
She looked so soft and warm, so content. So beautiful. Seeing her like this, being with her like this, made him forget the anguish of his past and the potential pain of the future. There was only now. The two of them, alive, their bound hearts beating for one another.
Tomorrow he would worry about the looming threat of the kurghests. But tonight… Tonight nothing mattered but her.
But us.
He wanted to lose himself in his mate.
Telok drew in her scent. Grass and goldcrests warmed by the sun, fragranced with crisp, floral notes of cleanleaf.
But there was something headier beneath those.
Her arousal. He’d smelled it when he’d drawn her into his arms, and it had only strengthened in the time since, blanketing his mind like mist settling over the jungle floor and rousing his need for her.
There was also a hint of his own scent—of his seed.
It wasn’t nearly strong enough for his liking, but he could remedy that.
His slit parted against the press of his stem, which was eager to plunge back into the hot depths of her body.
“Ah, my Lacey.” Telok stroked the back of a claw down her cheek. “Let us learn what clever words you will share when this sweet jerk is buried in your slit.”
Her eyes flared, and her lips parted with a sharp inhalation as his claw trailed down her throat.
His gaze followed the path of his finger as it moved over the fabric of her dress between her breasts.
He needed her, desperately, but he was determined to take his time with his mate and not let the instinctual frenzy seize control of him.
He would savor this. He wanted to learn Lacey’s body, wanted to explore her, to understand what brought her pleasure.
Grasping the blanket covering her lower half, he drew it back.
Her skirt had bunched up around her waist. Hunger blazed through him as he stared at her slit.
Her thighs were slightly parted, revealing the slick petals between them.
His cock throbbed as it extruded fully, the empty air around it only deepening the ache. He shuddered.
Telok took in another breath that was laden with her scent. Her desire was far more potent now.
Hints of a red haze encroached upon his vision. The need to rut, to plant his seed deep inside her, sank its claws into his mind. But he fought it.
No. I will have this.
Meeting her eyes, Telok flicked his claw against the dress over her stomach. “Remove this.”
He would see more of her. All of her.
She smirked and toyed with the loose strap on her shoulder. “You want me to take this off?”
Growling, Telok stretched his legs, planted them on the other side of Lacey, and lifted his body over hers, coming to rest on the joints of his forelegs.
With his arms and legs caging her in, he lowered his face toward hers and fisted the silk at her belly.
“If you do not, I will gladly tear it from your body, vi’jatai. ”
“Wait!” Her hands caught his wrist. “Tempting as that is, I’m going to run out of clothes at this rate, and I don’t want to ruin all the ones Sophia gave me.”
His fingers squeezed the fabric. “Then take. It. Off.”
“Okay,” she breathed, pale skin flushing.
Releasing his hold, Telok pushed his torso upright, easing back onto his hindquarters to stare down at his mate.
He dropped his hands onto his forelegs, and his fingers curled, digging his claws into his hide.
That silk was from another vrix, and it was shielding her body from his sight.
Despite her protest, he wanted to shred it and cast its tatters into the jungle.
Lacey sat up. She grasped the hem of her dress and slowly drew it up. Telok envied the glide of that fabric over her skin. As she peeled the garment off over her head, her hair fell, settling around her shoulders. She tossed the dress aside.
Smiling, she lay down, resting her hands atop the bedding to either side of her head. “Do you like me like this, my luveen? Naked and at your mercy?” She raised her foot and lightly pressed it against his belly, slowly trailing her toes down. “So you can have your wicked way with me.”
Telok grasped her ankle with a lower hand before her foot could reach his cock. His hide tingled in the wake of her touch.
“So eager…” He tugged Lacey closer, making her squeak. “But a huntress must know patience.”
“You pick the worst time for lessons.”
“You will learn, vi’jatai.” Gripping her knees, he spread her thighs wide. His stem twitched with yearning as his eyes dropped to her pussy. “And I will have my pretty mate in all ways.”
That delicate pink flesh glistened with dew beneath its crest of red curls, already anticipating him.
Again, the red mist at the edges of his vision pulsed, pushing in farther, but he clenched his jaw and willed it back.
He would return to her slit soon enough, and then he would take much more than a look.
Telok forced his gaze to move, slowly dragging it over her shapely thighs to her flaring hips, across her soft belly and up to her large breasts and the enticing pink buds at their peaks.
He followed the lengths of her arms to her hands and their dainty, clever fingers, then back to her shoulders and along her graceful neck to her beautiful face and wild hair.
His eyes lingered on every detail during their journey.
He memorized the long, uneven scars she had carried into this world from her past life, recalled the events that had led to the new ones she’d earned in the Tangle.
He studied every mark—every freckle, every stretch mark, every bruise and scratch, including those he’d left upon her during their mating.
“You look upon yourself and see scarred skin,” he rasped, meeting her gaze. “I look upon you and see radiance and life. Life despite sorrow and pain. Life despite a world that seeks death for all things. Nothing is more beautiful than you, Lacey.”
Her eyes gentled and shimmered with gathering tears as she pressed her lips together, the bottom one faintly quivering. She wiped away a falling tear. “Not supposed to make me cry during sexy times.”
Telok leaned over her, bracing his arms on the bedding to either side of her, and lowered his head. “I will make you cry.”
He brushed his mouth over hers, and she returned the kiss, her lips yielding to his hard hide.
“Cry out for more,” he said before nuzzling her cheek, running his mouth along her jaw to her neck. “Cry out my name…”
His mouth trekked down, whispering along her throat, until he found the bitemark he’d left on her shoulder. He purred and languorously traced it with the tip of his tongue, making her shiver as her breath caught. “Cry out because you are coming undone in my arms.”
“Telok,” she whispered, tilting her head to grant him more access.
He opened his mouth wider, grazing her shoulder with his faux fangs, sending another tantalizing tremor through Lacey’s body. That the lightest of his touches could elicit such responses from her…
With a low growl, he licked her bitemark once more, then trailed his tongue along the line of her collarbone to the hollow of her throat. He continued its path down and aside, lapping the swell of her full breast in a slow, upward spiral toward its peak.
When his tongue reached the round, pink flesh of her nipple, he groaned. Somehow, it was even softer than the rest of her skin, with its own unique, subtle texture. He licked around its edges, and Lacey squirmed, lifting her breast toward him.
Telok curled his tongue around the tip of her nipple.
Sighing, Lacey reached up and slipped her fingers into his hair. He felt her pulling his head down even as she raised herself higher.
“More,” she begged.
His stem throbbed, its torturous ache penetrating to his core and resonating in his bones. “Your body sings its reply to every touch, nyleea. And I will never tire of its song.”
He lashed the bud with his tongue. He felt it harden, felt the flesh around it drawing taut, felt her breathing quicken.
When he lifted his head, her hold on him strengthened, trying to return him to his place, but she relented when he moved his tongue to her other breast and, mindful of his sharp teeth, closed his mouth around it.
Telok brought a lower hand to her first breast as he licked the second, squeezing the large, soft mound, thrilling in its weight, its warmth, its feel. His thumb brushed around her nipple. The flesh beneath continued to harden. Growling against her, he pinched her nipple between finger and thumb.
Lacey gasped, arching her back to press her chest into his touch. Telok rolled that bud between his fingers, plucking it, teasing it, coaxing throaty moans from his mate’s throat. With her every reaction, her desirous scent heightened, permeating his every breath.
The ache in his cock echoed through the vast, ravenous hollowness within him. His fingers curled, grasping the bedding as he fought back his roaring instincts. He could end that ache now with a thrust of his pelvis.
But this suffering would only make everything that would follow sweeter.
Relinquishing her breasts, he shifted his body backward and trailed his tongue down to her stomach, with all its tiny, silvery scars. Her belly quivered.
“Telok…” Lacey whispered, fingers caressing one of his mandibles.
He looked up at her. She was watching him through the fringe of her lowered lashes, eyes dark with desire that was softened by the tenderness in their depths.