He released her nipple from his mouth and took it between his forefinger and thumb, continuing to stroke the sensitive flesh. “You deserve adoration. Deserve to be worshipped. Deserve to be pleasured in ways no human or faloran has ever dreamed.” He pinched her nipple, making her breath hitch. “Your body was made for pleasure, Tabitha. Made to be pleasured by me.”
He took her other nipple into his mouth and sucked, hard enough to make her moan and scrape her nails against his scalp.
Zevris growled against her breast, and his fangs pricked her skin, but he did not bite. For an instant, she wanted him to. She wanted him to claim her in that way, wanted him to mark her, wanted him to do whatever he pleased to her.
He lifted his head, releasing her nipple with a wet pop, and pressed a kiss between her breasts before drawing back to trail more kisses down her belly. His hands followed the shape of her body, tracing her waist and the flare of her hips. They paused there as his thumbs brushed over the silvery stretch marks on her thighs. There was no disgust in his eyes as he looked up at her—only that same hunger.
“You are beautiful, Tabitha. And your scent…” He lowered his head until his nose brushed the dark blonde curls over her sex, closed his eyes, and drew in a deep breath. His lips drew back in a snarl. When he opened his eyes again, they were feral and ravening. “It’s fucking divine.”
He placed his hands on her knees and pushed her legs apart, baring her pussy to his lustful gaze. A low sound reverberated in his chest, a blend of a growl and a groan, as he spread her thighs wider and positioned his body between them, not looking away from her sex for even an instant.
A shiver crept along Tabitha’s spine, sending little tingles out through her limbs. The heat of his gaze made the air in the room feel so much cooler, so much colder, so unbearable. She needed his touch to soothe it away. She needed his warmth to suffuse her skin.
His hands slid to her inner thighs, and he absently kneaded her flesh, his fingertips occasionally tracing her stretch marks, as he stared. Tabitha’s heartbeat grew steadily faster and louder. Impossibly, the ache between her legs deepened. She raked her nails over the sheet, struggling to keep from squirming, struggling to ignore the tightness low in her belly.
Why wasn’t he doing anything? Was he hesitating now because he realized that he’d made some mistake?
That old, embarrassed heat flared in her chest and raced up to her cheeks. She couldn’t fight it anymore; she squeezed her thighs together.
“No,” Zevris growled, forcing her legs apart so wide that they were flat on the bed. He lifted his gaze to meet hers. There was a hardness in his blazing eyes now, a commanding gleam, as unwavering as his strength, as deep as a canyon.
She couldn’t have disobeyed if she’d wanted to.
“I am barely holding myself back, Nykasha.” His eyes dropped as he lifted his hand from her leg, leaving only the pads of his fingers in contact with her flesh, and trailed it toward her pussy. Her thigh quivered. Jolting thrills sparked beneath his fingertips, enhanced by the soft scrape of his claws.
Tabitha clamped her teeth over her lower lip and watched, barely breathing, as his fingers inched closer to the source of her discomfort, toward the blazing furnace at her core.
Zevris brushed his fingers along her sex, his touch light, delicate, reverent.
Tabitha gasped, stomach clenching against a flare of pleasure.
“So beautiful,” he rumbled. “There’s nothing in the universe so lovely.”
She only realized after he’d spoken that he’d been looking up at her again.
This was really happening. He really wanted her.
And God, she wanted him, too.
He lowered his gaze, fingers trailing up and down her pussy in a slow, tender caress. After a few moments, he positioned one finger to either side and spread her open. Somehow, that hunger in his eyes sharpened. His jaw tensed; it was her only warning before he dropped his mouth to her pussy, sucked her clit between his lips, and lapped at it with his tongue.
“Zevris!” Tabitha’s hand flew out, and she grasped his hair as her head tilted back. Her lips parted in a silent cry. It was like an electric current lighting up every nerve in her body with pleasure. She whimpered, curling her toes into the bedding, conscious thought fading against the overpowering sensations. It was almost too much, too fast.
Zevris released her clit and soothed it with his tongue, which swirled with gentle, slow strokes. She flattened her back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, stunned. His fingers clutched her thighs, again pricking her with those claws, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was what he was doing with his mouth.
Panting, Tabitha looked down. Her eyes locked with his. Zevris between her thighs, with his inhuman expression and his alien eyes casting a soft blue glow upon her skin as he licked her was the most erotic sight she’d ever seen. Her pussy clenched as the sensations within her intensified, and her awareness of everything but Zevris faded further with each wave of pleasure.
Soon, her body was moving of its own accord, undulating against his mouth, seeking more, needing more.
He lifted his face suddenly, turned it, and brought his fingers to his mouth. In one quick motion, he snapped his teeth down on the claws of his index and middle fingers, biting off the sharp tips. He spat the pieces aside.
When he dropped his mouth to her pussy, he dragged his tongue over her from bottom to top in one wide swipe. He groaned and lapped at her again and again, licking up her essence, flicking her clit with each pass, and making her thighs tremble.
He moved his tongue to her opening and thrust it inside. A moment later, he replaced his tongue with a finger, pumping it in and out of her in slow, bold thrusts.
Her pussy clenched around that digit, and Tabitha moaned, rocking against him.
“You’re so hot and wet, Nykasha,” Zevris said huskily. “Your body wants this. Wants me. It yearns for what only I can give you.”
He inserted a second finger and thrust them deep inside her. Tabitha nearly leapt out of her skin as he stroked that spot. He pumped his fingers again and again, each time harder and faster than the last, wringing soft, breathy cries from her. She dropped her hand from his head to gather the bedding in her fists. Liquid heat flooded her, enhancing the pleasure that was coiling at her center.
Zevris grinned. “Ah, my mate, you are beautiful in your pleasure. You were made for it.” He kissed her clit, then flicked it with his tongue.
“Nngh,” Tabitha cried, eyes squeezing shut, hips bucking. “Zevris, please!”
“You were made to be mine, Tabitha.” Zevris pressed his mouth over her clit, sucked it between his lips, and lavished it with his tongue, while his fingers continued to piston ruthlessly.
She writhed, head thrashing from side to side, back arching, but he held her firmly in place, refusing to let her escape, forcing her to accept everything he had to give. She could not control the passionate sounds that came from her any more than she could control her body’s response.
The ecstasy gathering at her core wound so tight that it stole her breath. For an instant, the pressure was immense, crushing, torturous. Then it burst outward, suffusing her with indescribable pleasure. She came violently, crying his name, as she was swept up in the maelstrom of sensation.
Heat consumed Tabitha, and her pussy clamped down on his fingers, but he did not stop their motion, and his mouth continued its merciless assault. Her cries escalated as he made her come again and again.
It wasn’t until her final climax faded and she lay there with her chest heaving that Zevris slowed his fingers. After a few moments, he withdrew them entirely and replaced them with his tongue. He growled as he drank from her, lapping greedily, as though she were the most decadent treat and he refused to miss a drop.
Tabitha trembled, still feeling the echoes of her orgasms. Every time Zevris’s tongue flicked her clit, her breath hitched, and her belly fluttered. When she finally gathered the willpower to open her eyes, sh
e looked down to find him watching her, his gaze darkened by fiery, possessive need.
Her lips stretched into a pleased smile, and she sighed contently.
Zevris chuckled. He lifted his head, and that wicked tongue slipped out to lick his lips clean. He turned his face and kissed her inner thigh before smoothing his palms to her hips and drawing himself up.
She had no idea what to say. Thank you sounded too much like he’d done her a service, and she refused to look at it that way. That was amazing just sounded cliché. You just rocked my freaking world was too embarrassing. But they all would’ve fit what she felt. Her first and only time receiving oral had been from her ex-boyfriend, Cody, and he’d made her feel disgusting in the process—he had been so disgusted that he hadn’t continued. But this… Tabitha had no words for what this had felt like.
“What thoughts are running through your mind, Tabitha?” Zevris asked as he ran his hands up her sides, pausing at her breasts to caress her nipples with his thumbs.
Tabitha’s mind went static for a moment, and she could have kicked herself for the words that spilled out. “My ex hated doing that.”
Zevris snarled, expression hardening, and his lips peeled back to display fangs that had only minutes before been teasingly grazing her skin. He moved to lie beside her, wrapped his strong arms around her, and tugged her body against his. His tail swept along her leg to coil around her ankle.
Her wide eyes met his, and she flattened her palms on his chest. “Sorry! That was…so stupid to say. Especially after…after…” She buried her face against his neck, heat flooding her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to ruin the moment.”
“You did not ruin the moment, Nykasha,” he said, settling his cheek on her hair as he smoothed a hand along her arm. “My anger is only for the way you’ve been mistreated. He ruined something for you, something precious. And if I were ever to encounter him”—his muscles tensed, a growl sounded in his chest, and his claws pressed against her skin—“I would ruin him.”
It shouldn’t have—it really, really shouldn’t have—but Zevris’s threat to her ex-boyfriend pleased her immensely.
Tabitha smiled to herself and traced her fingertip in a circle around his nipple and over the silver bar piercing it. Zevris shuddered and groaned, grinding his hard cock against her belly.
She stilled her hand. “Sorry.”
Of course he was aroused. He’d just given to her without receiving anything in return.
“I could…help you with that?” she offered.
He exhaled heavily, his hot breath flowing over her hair, and his chest rumbled. “No. Tonight was for you, Tabitha. Your pleasure is what I craved most.”
Part of her was disappointed that he hadn’t accepted her offer, while another part of her warmed at his words.
Taking things slow, Tabby. Remember?
Zevris drew back, curled a finger beneath her chin, and lifted her face, forcing her to meet his gaze. “If you want to help me, Tabitha, sleep. For come tomorrow, I will drink from you again.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead and drew her head back down. He reached behind him, turned off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness, and pulled the covers over them.
She’d never been so eager for morning to come.
Eighteen
A grin stretched across Zevris’s lips as he scrubbed the pan; his mind was far away from the breakfast he and Tabitha had just shared and the dishes he was cleaning. Today had been the second day upon which he’d awoken with his mate in his arms, and it had been the sweetest of the two by far.
Of course, some portion of that sweetness must have come from the hint of flavor that had been lingering on his tongue—Tabitha’s essence.
Seeing Tabitha naked and lost in pleasure, her inhibitions shattered, had defied description. She’d been more dazzling than a comet with a glittering tail, more radiant than the brightest star, more entrancing than the most vibrant, sparkling nebula.
As he rinsed the pan, his cock ached and throbbed, torturously restrained by his jeans. His craving had only strengthened since last night.
It would have been easy to curse himself as a fool for declining her offer of help—and he had cursed himself, over and over again, especially this morning while his cock had remained hard enough to have whisked the eggs he had cooked for breakfast. But he’d made the right decision. Pleasing her last night hadn’t been a transaction, and he would have done it even if there was no chance of ever winning her over.
The question of trust had loomed over him, also—specifically his lack of trust in himself. Had he given in, there was no telling whether he would’ve maintained self-control, whether he could have stopped himself at tasting and touching.
Pleasing Tabitha had brought him no relief, but plenty of satisfaction. The taste he’d had of her was more than worth the torture.
Waking up with her body, so warm and soft, tucked against him had instilled Zevris with a bliss he’d never imagined possible. He knew the circumstances were far from ideal, knew she hadn’t slept with him entirely of her own free will, but he knew also that he wanted to wake with Tabitha in his arms every morning for the rest of his life.
And she seemed to want it, too, even if she wasn’t yet at the point of admitting as much.
He placed the pan in the drainboard and moved on to the spatula.
Zevris hadn’t had a place to call home for more than half his life. He’d not even had the luxury of sleeping in a bed during many of his assignments, and every one of the beds in which he had slept had been empty. There’d been no one to hold, no one to hold him, and even when he’d had comrades in the field…he’d been alone. He’d accepted that as normal for so long because it was. He’d suppressed his yearning for more, for someone to hold in his empty arms, for someone to…love.
For Tabitha.
Even if he’d not known of her existence until a week ago, he knew, somehow, that she was the one he’d always awaited. She was the one he’d always been meant to find.
This small taste of something more, of life with Tabitha, had been so spectacular that he wasn’t sure he could go back to the loneliness.
Using his thumb, he scrubbed at the egg clinging to the spatula. He paused when he caught sight of his trimmed claws. Unbidden, his tongue slipped out and ran across his lips.
Though he had brushed his teeth and eaten since last night, he swore he still tasted a trace of Tabitha’s essence on his lips. His cock twitched, and the denim of his jeans was suddenly far too tight, crushingly restrictive, and so abrasive that even the fabric of his boxers offered no protection. Tabitha was the sweetest thing he’d ever smelled, and her taste was even more sublime. No flavor on any of the planets to which he’d ever journeyed compare to hers.
Karak’duun, it had been so difficult to stop himself from waking Tabitha this morning by burying his face between her thighs. Even with as much as he’d drunk from her last night, his thirst was not quenched, his hunger was not sated; he would never have his fill when it came to his female. He would always want more.
But he hadn’t wanted to startle her, hadn’t wanted to scare her, hadn’t wanted to push the boundaries they were still determining and experimenting with. She’d agreed to his offer of pleasure last night. That did not mean she’d want it this morning. Even if he knew Tabitha was his, even if his body recognized it, even if it was a fact emblazoned on his heart, she’d not come to that understanding yet. Pushing too hard would scare her away.
Knowing all that, it had still been an immense struggle to stop himself. Somehow, he’d managed to simply lie there, holding her as she slept, relishing her warmth as he fought to ignore his arousal.
His discomfort had proven worthwhile when she’d roused in the morning and gifted him with the brightest, sexiest, most endearing smile in all existence.
Zevris clenched his jaw and took the soapy scrub brush to the spatula, battling back the urge to press his pelvis against the counter. It wouldn’t alleviate the pressure.
Only one thing could do that.
Only one person could do that.
“I could get used to this,” Tabitha said from the table behind him.
A flare of hope shone bright within Zevris; dangerous as it might’ve been, he didn’t try to extinguish it. As he rinsed the spatula, he asked, “Used to what?”
“A man doing all the cooking and cleaning. If you want to woo a woman, this right here is how you do it.”
He placed the spatula in the drainboard, turned off the water, and glanced over his shoulder while he dried his hands on a dishtowel.
Tabitha was sitting with an elbow on the table, chin in hand, and the fingers of her other hand wrapped around her steaming mug of tea. Though she’d been awake for at least an hour, her eyes were still half-lidded, shining with a contented, dreamlike gleam.
They were also very clearly fixated upon Zevris’s backside.
He grinned and arched a brow. “My eyes are up here, female.”
Her lips stretched into a slow smile. “I know. Just enjoying the view.”
Zevris’s tail twitched, and he lifted it higher. “Oh?”
Tabitha laughed, finally looking up to meet his gaze. “Have I mentioned that I really like tails?”
With a snicker, Zevris turned to face her, leaning back against the counter’s edge—but making sure to keep his tail in motion. There were already several ideas drifting through his mind on how to take advantage of the information she’d just shared, and each of them only made his grin widen.
“Noted, Nykasha. I look forward to helping you like them even more.”
Her eyes dipped to his groin, and the deepening red on her cheeks told Zevris that she knew very well what was on his mind. Tilting her chin down, she looked at her mug; her smile didn’t fade.
Dexter, currently lying on the kitchen floor, abruptly lifted his head. He turned toward the living room with his ears perked. A moment later, he got to his feet and made his way into the other room, lured by the sound of another dog barking somewhere outside.
Taken By The Alien Next Door Page 20