She set the bottle on the counter — ignoring the fact that she missed it by almost a foot on her first attempt — and stepped closer to him, pressing her chest against his abdomen. Smiling, she toyed with the lapels of his overcoat with her fingers as she looked into his eyes. She wanted him to remove it. “How about you look around down here and join me upstairs in about thirty minutes?”
“I’m not very accustomed to your reckoning of time,” he replied, voice lower, raspier. One of his hands settled on the underside of her arm, just above her elbow.
“Hmm…then just come up after you lock the doors.” She rubbed a finger at the base of his throat. He had a sexy neck; thick, corded, strong. Who cared if it had scales? Scales were sexy, too. “I’ll check upstairs for a place we can sleep.”
His nostrils flared with a heavy inhalation, and his hand trailed farther up her arm. He nodded. “Yes. Good. I will see you soon.” But he made no move to pull away; instead, his head tipped toward her.
Zoey’s lifted her lashes and settled her gaze on his mouth. It should’ve been illegal for a man to have such defined lips. They were sinful, offering teasing flashes of his fangs.
She lifted her hand and trailed a finger over his bottom lip; his lips were firm, but softer than they appeared. What would they taste like?
What would they feel like against her own?
Rendash stared down at Zoey, unable to break away as he’d meant to. He’d seen that light in her eyes before, but never so strongly, so openly. Her gaze blazed like fire, spreading heat through his veins. His lips tingled beneath her bold but gentle touch. She’d leaned her body against his, and it seemed only natural to place his lower hands on her waist and draw her a little closer.
“I want to kiss you,” she murmured.
Though the light in her eyes didn’t explain what she meant, it was enough to make his cock ache with want for her.
“What does kiss mean?” he asked.
Her brows furrowed. “Kiss?” She laughed. “Did I say that out loud?”
He raised his only free hand and pressed it to her flushed cheek. “Are you sure you—”
Zoey slipped a hand behind his neck, wrapped her fingers around one of his crest locks, and rose up on her toes as she yanked his head down. She pressed her mouth against his.
Rendash’s eyes widened. He was rarely surprised, but her action caught him completely off-guard; it was overwhelming, foreign, and incredibly intimate. Her lips moved over his with unexpected pliability; their touch began light and soothing but grew increasingly bolder and insistent. He groaned as he slipped his lower arms around the small of her back and embraced her fully.
Zoey moaned. The sound vibrated into him and rippled through his body. Her mouth opened, and her tongue flicked against his lips. It sent a bolt of pleasure straight to his cock, causing his hips to jerk forward.
“You taste so good,” Zoey rasped, then moved her mouth from his to brush her lips along his chin and jaw and down his neck. When his coat stopped her downward progress, she growled. Rendash’s fingers flexed.
Deep within his mind — a mind hazy with desire and need — those old lessons struggled to reassert themselves.
Control.
He dropped his lower hands to Zoey’s rounded backside, cupping her soft flesh, and lifted her off her feet. She yelped and threw her arms around his neck. Turning, he set her down on the edge of the freestanding counter and guided her legs around his sides. With one hand flat on the counter to brace himself, he leaned forward, shifting another arm up along Zoey’s spine to support her and twine his fingers in her hair.
“Ren,” she breathed, squeezing her legs around him. She crossed her ankles behind his back and pulled him closer to her core.
Tantalizing heat radiated from between her thighs. He inhaled deeply. It was that same smell he’d picked up before, the same fragrance, even more enticing now. Every time they’d gotten close, every time lust had lit her eyes, she produced that scent.
And it was for him.
Instinct.
Rendash lowered his mouth and kissed her neck, sampling the taste of her skin with flicks of his tongue. She released a heavy sigh. He brushed his lips over the base of her throat and up, along her jaw, and finally back to her mouth. She responded ravenously, her tongue slipping past his lips to stroke his. It was a new, erotic experience, and it elicited the most exquisite sensations.
Now that he knew what a kiss was, he would master it.
Having learned the motions of the sensual dance between their tongues, he took the lead, grasping her hair and angling her mouth to delve deeper.
Her hands slid from his shoulder to fight with his clothing, shoving his coat down his arms until it caught on his elbows before yanking his shirt up. She pressed her palms to his abdomen and trailed them upward until her arms caught on his clothing.
“Take them off,” Zoey begged, kissing the side of his mouth and nipping his lower lip.
She propped herself on her elbows as Rendash straightened. He shrugged off the coat, thrusting it behind him, and grabbed the bottoms of his hoodie and shirt to peel them up over his head simultaneously. While his vision was obscured by the cloth, he felt Zoey sit up. He tugged the clothing off to see her remove her own shirt and cast it aside. Her dark hair cascaded around her shoulders.
He trailed his hungry gaze over her bared torso.
Her flesh was pale with a soft pink undertone, and there was nothing to hide the enticing flare of her hips. Her lush breasts were contained only by a small, lacy, purple harness, wholly unlike any clothing he’d ever seen — the only functions he could imagine for such a thing were to tease and arouse.
Zoey reached for him, cupped his face, and kissed him again. He wrapped his lower arms around her, palms flattened against the scalding skin of her back.
Her hands fell away to smooth down his abdomen and chest, fingers tracing the contours of his muscles. His scales tingled in the wake of her touch. When she trailed her fingertips over the sensitive scales of his lower stomach, the sensation was too much. His hips bucked, and his straining cock — confined painfully within his pants — pressed between her legs.
Zoey gasped against his mouth and undulated her pelvis, creating such exquisite friction that tremors coursed through his body.
She tore her lips away; they were pink, swollen, and utterly enticing. “Touch me, Ren.” She ran a single finger down the center of his chest, pulled back, and looked up at him. “Where do you want to touch me first?”
“Everywhere,” he rasped, sliding his palms up her back.
His instincts were nearly too much to ignore. He needed to have her now, to taste her fully, to claim her, but another part of him wanted to savor their coupling — to prolong it and allow them both time to reach new heights of pleasure. Heights he hadn’t known existed until recently.
His gaze fell on her chest.
Zoey chuckled. “Everywhere, but you’re staring at my breasts.”
She sat up straighter and reached behind her. The action thrust her chest toward him, forcing the mounds to strain against the fabric of her harness. Rendash’s mouth watered. He suddenly understood why the man in the porn had put his mouth on the female’s body.
Rendash wanted to put his mouth on Zoey, and he knew exactly where he wanted to taste her the most. His gaze dipped to the spot between her legs, the source of that enticing scent.
She loosened her harness, slipped it off, and flung it away. Grinning, she leaned back and braced herself with her hands flat on the counter behind her.
Rendash gripped the edge of the counter as his desire grew as hot as a supernova. His self-control, which had been tenuous at best, threatened to shatter. Her breasts were large and soft, tipped with pink nipples. He didn’t await further invitation. Rendash leaned over her and placed a hand on each of her breasts, palming their yielding flesh. Apart from her hardened nipples, they were the softest things he’d ever touched.
Zoey moaned, dropping h
er head back.
His eyes shifted to her bared throat. Lowering his head, he brushed his lips over the sensitive skin there, grazing it lightly with his teeth. She cried out and grabbed a fistful of his crest. Her pelvis rocked, sliding over his erection through their clothes.
“Zoey,” he growled against her flesh as a shudder rippled through him. The aligarii females he’d been with had never acted this way, had never pushed him to the point of such overwhelming need that he could scarce control his impulses before their bodies were even connected.
She lay back and raised her knees higher. “More, Ren. Please. Please touch me more.”
Selflessness.
This was not about his pleasure, it was about Zoey. About her needs. She’d done so much for him, risked so much, and he’d given so little in return. He knew this wasn’t true selflessness — her pleasure was a joy to him, and he would take from it greedily — but it was the best he could do to control himself.
He trailed kisses down her throat, along her shoulder, and finally to her breast. Moving his hand to cradle the soft mound from beneath, he took the nub of her nipple in his mouth and flicked his tongue over it.
Zoey moaned, her fingers tightening around his locks. Ren glanced up. Her lower lip was caught between her teeth, and her eyes were closed. He sucked on the little bud, and she sighed her pleasure.
He watched her reactions, listened to her breathy sounds, and focused on every little movement of her body, learning everything he could about what she enjoyed. Learning how to please her.
Rendash moved to her other breast and closed his eyes as he lavished the same attention upon it as he had the first.
Finally, he could no longer resist the lure of her scent. He trailed his lips between her breasts and lower, toward the hem of her pants. Zoey’s hand fell from the locks of his crest to rest upon the counter, and her legs sagged. As he moved his fingers to her belt, he realized her sounds had stopped.
“Zoey?”
He looked up to see her head turned to the side. Rising over her, Rendash frowned; her eyes were closed, her breathing deep. He gently grasped her wrist and lifted her arm off the counter. When he released it, it dropped limply to rest over her stomach.
His eyes shifted to the bottle from which she’d been drinking. It was nearly empty. Had the liquid had some effect on her, or was it simply the culmination of stress over the last few days?
He shook his head and smiled ruefully; he was sure that she’d appreciate the humor of the situation, but the ache in his groin was not amusing. His blood was hot, and his limbs trembled as he pushed himself up.
Control. Detachment.
Rendash closed his eyes and forced his breathing to slow. It didn’t help that her scent clung to him, that her arousal perfumed the air.
It is for the best, he told himself. She was not of her right mind because of that drink.
He looked at her again. She was naked from the waist up, nipples hard, skin pinkened from his ravenous kisses, her hair a tousled, chaotic mess around her. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
I was so close to tasting her.
His cock twitched. Rendash gritted his teeth.
“Ah, Zoey,” he said quietly before gathering her carefully in his arms. She inhaled deeply and nuzzled her face against his bare chest. “What am I to do with you?”
There were several rooms beyond the kitchen; fortunately, one of them contained a bed and an adjoining bathroom. Holding her with three arms, he pulled back the bedding. She stirred again when he laid her down but didn’t wake.
He stared at her leg coverings. He found such pants — jeans, she’d called them — uncomfortable, and doubted she would want to sleep in them. After a brief debate, he unbuckled her belt, opened her pants, and slid them off her legs, leaving only the little bit of cloth she wore around her pelvis and backside. It was the same color as her breast harness.
And it was damp with her slick.
Rendash clenched his fists as the heavy scent of her arousal washed over him again, stronger than before. His body stiffened, primed and ready to mate, and his throbbing cock ached for release. All that stood between him and taking his woman was an insignificant shred of cloth. He could tear it off effortlessly with his teeth and run his tongue over her sex to taste her. The sensation would undoubtedly wake her up, and then they could connect their bodies and fulfill their desires.
A low growl emanated from his chest as he strained against the temptation, against instinct, against everything he’d come to want so desperately.
Finally, he turned his head away and drew the blankets over her body. For several moments, all he could do was sit on the edge of the bed with his eyes closed. To do anything more now — no matter how willing she’d been after their meal — was wrong.
“Would that I could bring you with me when I go,” he said softly. Opening his eyes, he looked at her and brushed a lock of hair from her face.
Humans had been so strange when he’d first encountered them. So soft and weak, seemingly incomplete for their lack of limbs and eyes. He would never have believed that a human would become the most beautiful thing in his universe.
Rendash stood up and walked out of the room, not allowing himself to look at her as he paused to turn off the light. She needed rest, and he needed distance, if only to master his desires.
Chapter Eleven
Zoey moaned. It sounded different to her ears than it had in her dreams; this wasn’t a sound of ecstasy, it was one of agony. But then, her dreams usually weren’t accompanied by an intense throbbing in her skull, either.
“Zoey?” Ren’s voice, though soft, rolled through her head like a peal of thunder.
The mattress dipped, and her body slid toward the newly opened valley to stop against Ren. His hand settled on her side. Strange, but it felt as though his palm was touching her bare skin. Her nightshirt must have ridden up in her sleep. Right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
She brought her hands to her head and clenched her temples. It would be less painful if her head were cracked open — at least that would stand a chance of releasing some of the pressure.
“I’m dying, Ren,” she rasped. Each word was a unique pain in her throat, scraping like sandpaper on the way out, and her mouth was so dry that she wouldn’t have been surprised to see dust billowing from her lips as she spoke.
He sat up abruptly, making the mattress bounce. Zoey’s stomach lurched.
“What can I do to help?” he asked hurriedly.
Zoey cringed. “You can lower your voice, for starters.”
“I do not see how the volume of my voice has any effect on your condition,” he whispered.
“Because my head is going to explode if you don’t.” She moaned again, rolling onto her back.
His silence told her he’d taken her words literally.
Zoey cracked open her eyes and winced, shutting them again. Part of her brain understood that the room wasn’t brightly lit by any standards, but the glow from outside pierced her brain like a shard of glass.
“I need water,” she said. “And aspirin. An entire bottle of aspirin.”
“I will get you water,” he said gently, “but I do not know aspirin.”
The bed creaked and wobbled again as he got up.
“Hold up,” she said, opening her eyes and scrambling off the bed. She clamped a hand over her mouth to contain the bile climbing her throat and stumbled across the floor until her vision adjusted to the light enough to identify the nearby bathroom. She was vaguely aware of Ren calling her name as she raced through the doorway and dropped to her knees in front of the toilet.
This was a new kind of hell. She gripped the edges of the bowl and retched, emptying her stomach of everything she’d eaten the night before. Agony clawed through her with each gag. Stars burst across her vision, blinding her with flashes of light that were blurred by the tears in her eyes, and her head really felt as though it would explode.
Sh
e became suddenly aware of Ren’s presence. Somehow, he folded himself into the small space without crowding her, pulled back her hair, and placed a comforting hand on her back. At that moment, it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. She was utterly embarrassed to be in such a state around him.
“I want to die,” Zoey cried.
“You are not allowed to,” he said firmly.
“You can’t stop me.”
“Watch me.”
Zoey heaved. It strained every muscle in her chest, neck, and face, and burned, and suffocated, and she hated it and really did want to die.
“Don’t argue with me when I’m sick,” she muttered weakly after it passed.
“Don’t argue with me when you’re sick,” he replied. He turned on the sink and handed her a little paper cup of water a moment later.
She used it to rinse her mouth. She was thirsty enough that she considered swallowing, but the thought made her shudder and threatened another bout of puking. Her mouth absorbed some moisture from it, at least.
Ren took the cup back and refilled it. “You need to drink, Zoey.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You need to try.”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He held the water under her face. “Just drink.”
Pouting, she accepted the cup. She took a tiny sip.
Ugh.
“Good. Now drink some more, human.”
“You’re extra bossy this morning.” She took another drink. A shiver ran through her. The water was foul, tainted by the taste in her mouth.
“I told you, you’re not allowed to die.” Rendash placed a finger beneath the cup and tipped it to her lips. “Keep going. A little at a time.”
She drank small sips until the cup was empty. When she was done, she rested her head on her arm and closed her eyes.
Ren remained in place beside her, slowly stroking her back.
Which was still bare.
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