by Zoey Draven
All because of his female, his luxiva, the wicked rixella that had spun him under her spell.
Jaxor caught her near the waterfall.
He bellowed and launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around her waist, hauling her against him, and down they went. Jaxor made sure to turn so she landed on him, but the moment he had her, he reversed their positions until she lay beneath him.
“You think to run?” he rasped, hardly recognizing his own voice. His breaths were ragged, harsh things. His throat felt closed tight as his hands gripped her beneath him. He hardly felt the cool rain sliding over his bare chest. “From me? Never from me, luxiva.”
Looking down, he believed he would find fear on her features. Fear of him, of the beast inside, never more apparent than it was now. She would fear what was to come because he’d spoken the truth before: there was no going back.
Not anymore.
But it wasn’t fear he saw on her face.
Jaxor hovered over her as she stretched her arms over her head, cool droplets of rain sliding from her wrists. The position was vulnerable, sensual.
An offering.
His eyes went wide when he realized it.
“I only ran so you would catch me,” she murmured up to him, looking him directly in the eye. “So you would make good on your promise when you did.”
He shook his head, his Instinct processing her words more quickly than he was able to. “Rebax?”
“Maybe you need a little push. Maybe I do too.”
A push?
She leaned up, trailing her lips across his neck before biting, making him grunt in surprise and desire, making his arms flex around her.
“Enough of this,” she said, the words floating over the flesh she’d just marked for herself. “I want you.”
“You…” he shook his head, fighting his Instinct, growling when it sank its claws deep into him. “You know what this means.”
He said it even as he tore her tunic away from her body like it was made of parchment, tossing it to the side, leaving her naked beneath him. Droplets from the rain ran over her budded nipples, little trails that ran and slid, that mapped out her body for him, as if he needed them to. He’d already memorized her body for himself.
“I know what this is,” she said, a little breathless, when he traced a trail of the rain with his tongue, starting at her collarbones and ending at one breast, which he sucked and nipped and laved.
Her hands were already pushing at the material of his pants. He shuddered and then cut through the laces with his claws, only releasing her breast to drag the pants off his legs, leaving him as naked as she.
This is happening. The thought cut through his mind like a clear flash of realization, like he hadn’t dreamed up this moment, and his Instinct purred its approval. For once, he felt the Instinct retreat slightly, letting Jaxor take control once more.
And when it did, there was a frenzied need in his movements. He worried that he gripped his female too hard, kissed her too hard. But she seemed to like it, arching into his touch and sucking on his tongue in a way that made shivers race through his bones.
Vrax, the things she made him feel!
He couldn’t get close enough. Even pressed against her body, feeling the wet slide of the rain between them and his cock resting on her thighs wasn’t enough.
Her legs widened, wrapping around his waist. His cock nudged her sex and he hissed when she moved against him, squirming.
Jaxor could hardly think with the blood rushing in his ears, with the sound of the waterfall growing louder from the rain, with his female’s scent wrapped around him, with the lingering rage and fear and want that simmered in his belly.
It was too much. It was too much all at once.
But when he met Erin’s eyes, when he felt her hands sliding over his skin, he felt pieced back together again.
“Luxiva,” he growled.
“Yes,” she whispered. Droplets of rain clung to her lashes and she blinked them away, her lips parting in invitation.
“Mine.”
“Yes,” she whispered again, nudging her hips again. Jaxor reached down, his cock throbbing, shifting her until he was positioned at her entrance. Something possessive lit in her eyes. “And you’re mine.”
Relief and something that felt like joy burst in his chest. He closed his eyes at the sensation of it, a lump lodged in his throat.
Belonging. This was belonging, wasn’t it?
Erin thrust her hips down, making his eyes shoot open, stunned pleasure making his vision hazy.
“Rixella,” he growled, looking between them, his breath heaving.
“Yes?” she asked, her voice throaty and strangely…vulnerable.
Jaxor was inside her heat. Only an inch or two inside. Enough, and then again, not enough.
“Please,” she pleaded quietly. Jaxor watched as a raindrop landed on her pink lips and he leaned down to lick it away. He heard her gasp.
“Mine,” he rasped against her mouth, meeting her eyes. They widened at whatever she saw in his gaze, but then they heated with desire. “Tev?”
“Yes,” she whispered, sliding her arms tighter around his neck, bringing their slick, warm bodies closer.
Jaxor bellowed with relief as he thrust his hips powerfully forward, sheathing the length of his cock inside his female.
Claimed, his Instinct purred, finally content.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The pain was manageable, but even still, she squeezed Jaxor’s shoulder.
His pupils were dark and so reflective that she saw herself in them. His eyes had never left her, so he caught the wince and immediately stilled. Erin was still in disbelief that somehow their bodies had fit together, and at first, she hadn’t noticed the concern on his face.
“Luxiva,” he whispered down to her, his big palm coming to cup her cheek.
“I’m okay,” she replied. It took a moment for the dull pinching to fade, but when it did, she said, “Try.”
When he slid out and slowly thrust back inside, she felt her muscles clench tight but eventually relax around him. There was only a dull ache, which faded in a few moments…and then all she felt was him.
“Tev?” he rumbled down to her, petting her, nuzzling the sharp edge of his nose across her temple and jaw. Jaxor was incredibly affectionate, she was realizing, and the thought made her smile.
In response, she bucked her hips against him, making him give out a sharp, surprised groan.
He seemed to act on instinct when he pulled from her and gave another powerful thrust, one that made her moan out loud this time. But she was so full of him. The circular knobs and the ridges lining the top and bottom of his cock slid and caressed and stimulated nerve endings inside her that she didn’t even know existed. And it felt divine, now that most of the pain had passed.
“More,” she urged, her fingernails curling into his wide, broad shoulders. He made a deep purring sound that made her sex clench around him and his pace quickened, his strokes deepened.
Every thrust made goosebumps break out over her skin that had nothing to do with the rain sliding over their bodies. Her scalp tingled and her belly burned with the pleasure.
Oh my God, she thought, her eyes widening. He was already building the orgasm up inside her, stroking it, tending to it, feeding it. Again, she had the stray thought that she should be jealous of his skill as a lover. How many females had he perfected this with?
But then she moaned and she bit into the ball of his strong shoulder before kissing and laving the bite away.
“Wicked rixella,” he grunted, his hands planted on both sides of her face, those eyes searing her. “Open wider for your male.”
Her lips would’ve curled in delight at his request had she not felt the overwhelming need to do as he said. And quickly. She unclasped her legs from around his taut waist—not even remembering when she’d wrapped them around him in the first place—and let them fall wide.
Jaxor hissed and Erin cried
out when he used the position to drive into her deeper. As deep as he could possibly be.
“Tev, brixav ta, luxiva,” he groaned, the tendons in his neck straining. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the way the muscles in his arms trembled and flexed with his pleasure. “Vellixa.”
She didn’t know the Luxirian words that he spoke, but she heard the reverence in his tone. Bringing their bodies closer, he ground his pelvis into her clit with every lingering thrust and when she looked up at him in surprise, his gaze was knowing and challenging.
Like he was daring her to orgasm first.
The nerve of this male, she thought, delighted.
“You drive me mad,” she hissed.
“You like it,” he rasped, those dark eyes never leaving hers, that voice caressing her like crushed velvet.
“I do,” she whispered, her lips parting, feeling the orgasm he was so expertly trying to wring from her beginning to rise. “Oh God.”
His eyes were victorious even as his head lowered to her breasts. He nudged the tip of his sharp horn against one of her nipples and she froze, hardly daring to breathe, even when she felt the heat in her belly explode from the erotic sight.
Had he guessed that she might like this?
Of course he did, she thought, breathless.
His horn pricked her a little, gently, just enough pain for her before his mouth was soothing it, his wet, warm tongue taking away the sting.
“Bite me,” she challenged softly, her fingernails leaving half-moon crescents in his back. She wanted to explore this with him. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t too afraid or self-conscious to ask for these things of a sexual partner. “Mark me as yours.”
He growled against her flesh, perhaps liking that idea entirely too much too. He sucked hard on her nipple, his sharp teeth grazing it, but he pulled away. Instead, he nibbled at the fleshy underside of her breast, applying just enough pressure that she knew it would leave a mark, a bruise, just enough pressure that it made her hips buck and her toes curl before he released her.
Then he buried his head into her neck, biting her there too, adding to the collection of hickeys on the column of her throat. Erin wished she had a mirror there on Luxiria, if only to look at them whenever she pleased.
“Like this?” he rasped in her ear when he finished. “You like my mark on you?”
“Yes,” she whispered, gasping when he thrust into her harder, her breasts bobbing with the power of it. “Just as much as you like seeing it on me,” she challenged.
He groaned, feeling her muscles beginning to clench around him with her impending orgasm. “Soon, I will mark you in the most permanent way, rixella. But not here. The blood bond is only performed in sacred places.”
Blood bond.
Erin’s lips parted, looking up at him. She’d heard of it, of course, from the other mated women.
“Now, come for me,” he growled, pulling back. He changed their positions. He went to his knees between her splayed thighs, lifting her hips, wrapping his arms around her back. “Put your arms over your head and keep them there.”
She felt a rush of wetness at his command.
“You want me tied up?” she huffed out, thinking back to when he’d first taken her from the Golden City, of him keeping her wrists tied up.
He didn’t say anything, but she saw the way his eyes burned with the thought. So, it seemed her alien lover had kinks of his own. Her lips curled in delight and she did as he demanded, mirroring the position she’d assumed when he’d first caught her by the waterfall.
It was a position of vulnerability, of surrender. But Erin didn’t feel weak in that position. She felt unbelievably powerful. Jaxor looked down at her, never ceasing his thrusts into her body. With her hips raised, he used his kneeling position as leverage to fuck her thoroughly. With every teeth-chattering, mind-numbing, spine-tingling thrust of that glorious cock, her breasts bounced and their bodies slapped together, primal and invigorating and right.
Feminine power coursed through her. She’d never felt as desired or wanted or beautiful or sensual as she did in that moment, with Jaxor’s eyes on hers. She knew what this was. He was claiming her as his. But what Erin hadn’t expected was to feel like she was claiming him too.
His claws pricked into her hips. She felt her clit flutter once, felt the deep, delicious slide of his cock inside her—
Jaxor tensed, leaning forward, sensing she was on the edge.
And then Erin was crying out, her back arching on the cold, wet stone of the base. Pleasure ripped through her, tearing her apart until it built her back up. She never tore her gaze away from Jaxor, even as her breathing went ragged, even as her body thrashed. Her skin grew so sensitive that she could feel every drop of rain on her skin, sliding down her body like little caresses.
“Vrax,” he murmured, his tone desperate, feeling her body tighten like a vise around him. “I feel you, luxiva. Following you—”
He broke off his strained words, his hips quickening between her thighs. Then he was roaring to the dark sky, his head thrown back, the column of his thick neck strained.
Erin’s breath hitched, feeling his seed shoot into her body, warmth coating her inner walls, lash after lash, impossibly hot. It filled her as he shook over her, continuing and continuing.
She’d never seen anything so erotic as watching Jaxor lose himself between her thighs.
And she received every last drop from him.
When it was over, he sank down next to her, spent. He never left her body. In fact, even after that orgasm, his cock was still hard, still pulsing inside her.
Jaxor pulled her into his arms, his breathing ragged, hers too. Now that it was over, she felt the way she trembled. She felt his mark on her neck, on her breast. She felt the heat leaking from between her legs, running down between them.
She felt high on sex. She’d expected that she might feel dread or fear over what they’d just done, but…she didn’t. She only felt the warmth of his skin and the way his breath fanned out heavily on her skin.
She whispered, “Why haven’t we been doing this from the beginning?”
Erin felt him press a kiss into her soaked hair, felt his palm glide over her arm, her breasts, her waist, until it settled on her hip. She swore she felt tingling sparks follow in his hand’s wake.
“It is done now,” he murmured.
But as Erin settled in his arms, she realized he sounded almost sad as he said it.
Chapter Thirty
Later that evening, Erin was tugging on Jaxor’s stiffened horns, trying to pull him from between her thighs.
“Jaxor, please!” she begged.
He growled, but finally did as she wanted, releasing her clit, which he’d been gently lapping and suckling with that long, warm tongue.
They’d moved into the cave sometime after the first mating and Erin’s palms found the stone of the floor when Jaxor flipped her onto her hands and knees, pulling her hips back so he could thrust inside her.
A moan tumbled from her lips, low and throaty. Her voice felt scratchy, well-used, considering she’d been crying out and screaming her pleasure for the better part of the day.
They’d hardly taken a break since that morning. Jaxor had been insatiable. And so had she. It was like this driving need to mate, no matter what. No matter how sore or tired she was, she needed him inside her.
Those feelings were alarming, admittedly, but Erin had decided to give in to this, into him, and see where it led. Which was why she arched her back, why her head tilted to the side when he began fucking her from behind, why she moaned and whispered his name like a prayer.
Erin didn’t know how much longer her body would hold out, but she met him thrust for thrust. Every one of his growls met one of her moans. And when she sensed that he was near, she began to come on his cock—her seventh, eighth, ninth orgasm of the day, she couldn’t be certain—and he shortly followed, releasing himself into her body until nothing was left.
“I need to r-rest,” she whispered to him, panting, feeling him maneuver her down to the furs, which had bunched up a little during their mating. He smoothed them out before cradling her in his arms. “Just for a little while.”
“Tev, rixella,” he rasped, his own voice changed. “I promise I will give you reprieve.”
For now went unspoken, but they both heard it.
She gave an exhausted sigh, her eyes fluttering closed. Then she felt his kiss and her lips quirked up, meeting it. His tongue stroked hers, soft and slow and wonderful. It made the back of her throat tingle, like she’d had too much sugar.
They’d hardly spoken since he’d found her on the hovercraft. Their mating had happened so quickly, the result of a quick decision and heightened emotions. Erin didn’t regret what she’d done, though. She didn’t regret this, though she remembered Jaxor’s soft words.
It is done now.
Was a part of him still angry with her after finding her in the hovercraft?
Erin lay in silence in his arms, listening as his thundering heartbeat finally slowed and returned to normal. They were both slick with sweat and she was fairly certain that the cave smelled of sex, but she never wanted to leave his arms. She felt happy and sated. When she reached up to stroke his jaw once he was done kissing her senseless, he caught the tip of her thumb between his teeth. She froze, watching with parted lips as he sucked and nibbled on it lightly.
A shiver raced down her spine, already feeling her clit throb and her sex begin to the stir.
“You promised,” she whispered.
He gave a small grunt and released her thumb. She stroked his lips with it, marveling at their softness, feeling his eyes burn into her as she did it.
This little ball of warmth and affection had taken up residence in her chest. Her hand pressed into his chest, feeling the strong vibration of his heartbeat.