As he moved his hand upward over his six-pack to one of his pecs, he looked down at her softly rounded belly. "I think you're perfect just as you are."
Her voice grew serious. "And I feel the same about you."
Rehv dragged in a breath. "Yeah?"
"You are very sexy to me. Just looking at you...makes me ache."
Well...there you go. And yet it still took a strange kind of courage to slip his thumbs back into the waistband of his boxers and slowly draw them down his thighs.
As he stretched out next to her, his body was shaking, and he knew it because he could see his muscles tremble.
He cared what she thought about him. About his body. About what was going to happen on this bed. With the princess? He didn't give a rat's ass whether she enjoyed what he did to her. And those few times he'd been with his working girls, he hadn't wanted to hurt them, of course, but it had been a transaction of sex for money.
Xhex and he had simply been a mistake. Neither good or bad. Just was and never would be again.
Ehlena ran her hands up his arms and over his shoulders. "Kiss me."
Rehv locked eyes with her and did just that, bringing his lips to hers and stroking, then extending his tongue and licking over her mouth. He kept kissing her until she undulated on the bed and closed her hands on him so tightly that the strange echo of sensation flared in him again. The feeling made him pause and open his eyes to check his vision, but all was normal, untainted by red.
He went back to what he was enjoying, being careful because he couldn't mediate the pressure of the contact, letting her come to him so he didn't crush her with his mouth.
He wanted to go so much further...and she read his mind.
Ehlena was the one who undid her bra, releasing the front clasp and baring herself. Oh...fuck, yeah. Her br**sts were perfectly proportioned and tipped with tight pink ni**les-which he promptly sucked into his mouth one after the other.
The sound of her moans flared up his body, replacing the cold with life and energy, warmth and need.
"I want to go down on you," he growled.
Her, "Please," was more groan than voice, and her body gave him an even clearer answer. Now her thighs parted, her legs falling open, all the invitation he could ever have asked for.
Those stocking of hers had to come off before he chewed through them.
Rehv was as slow and deliberate as he could stand to be, stripping her flesh free of its thin binding, nuzzling her all the way down to her ankles, breathing in deep as he went.
He left the panties in place.
Rehvenge's gentleness was what surprised Ehlena the most.
In spite of his great size, he was as careful with her as he could be, moving gently over her body, giving her every chance to tell him no or divert him or stop things altogether.
She had no intention of doing any of those.
Especially as his big hand drifted up the inside of her bare leg and subtly, inexorably inched her thigh out even farther. As his fingers brushed her panties, a shot of electricity sizzled in her sex, the miniorgasm leaving her gasping.
Rehvenge pushed himself up and spoke into her ear on a growl. "I like that sound."
He took her mouth and stroked her sex over the top of the modest cotton that covered her. Deep tongue thrusts contrasted with butterfly brushes, and she threw her head back, getting utterly lost in him. Tilting her hips, she wanted him to go underneath the panties, and prayed he took the hint, as she was too breathless and desperate to talk.
"What do you want?" he said into her ear. "You want nothing between us?"
As she nodded, his middle finger slipped under the elastic, and then it was skin against skin and-
"Oh...God," she moaned as a release pounded through her.
Rehvenge smiled like a tiger as he stroked her while she orgasmed, helping her ride out the pulses. When she finally stilled, she felt embarrassed. She hadn't been with someone in so long, and never someone like him.
"You're incredibly beautiful," he whispered before she could say something.
Ehlena turned her face into his biceps and kissed the smooth skin over the tight muscle. "It's been a while for me."
A quiet glow came into his face.
"I like that. A lot." He dropped his head to her breast and kissed her nipple. "I like that you respect your body. Not everyone does. Oh, and by the way, I'm not finished yet."
Ehlena dug her nails into the back of his neck as he tugged her panties down her thighs. The sight of his pink tongue teasing her breast arrested her, especially as his amethyst eyes met hers while he circled her nipple and flicked at it-like he was giving her a sneak peak at the attention she could expect down below.
She came again. Hard.
This time Ehlena let herself go with it completely, and it was a relief to just be in her skin and with him. As she recovered from the pleasure, she didn't even flinch as he started to kiss his way down past her stomach and to her-
She groaned so loudly there was an echo.
As with his fingers, the feel of his mouth on her sex was all the more vivid because he barely touched her. Soft strokes hovered over that vulnerable, hot place on her body, making her strain to feel him, turning each pass of his lips and his tongue into a source of both pleasure and frustration.
"More," she demanded, pushing her hips up.
His amethyst eyes lifted. "I don't want to be too rough."
"You won't be. Please...it's killing me..."
With a growl, he dove down and sealed her sex with his mouth, sucking her, pulling her into him. She came again, this time in hard, shattering blows, but he did her right. He kept going, riding out her jerks and arches, the sound of lips against lips rising up with her guttural cries as he worked her and made her climax over and over again.
When God only knew how many times she released, she stilled and so did he. They were both panting, his glossy mouth on the inside of her thigh, his three fingers buried tight in her, their scents mingling in the heated air of the-
She frowned. Part of the heady fragrance in the room was...dark spices. And as she sniffed deeply, his eyes lifted to hers.
Her shocked expression must have shown exactly the conclusion she came to.
"Yeah, I'm catching the scent as well," he said roughly.
Except he couldn't have bonded with her, could he? Did it really happen that fast?
"For some males it does," he said. "Evidently."
Abruptly she realized he was reading her mind, but she didn't care. Considering where he'd been, getting into her brain didn't seem half as intimate.
"I didn't expect this," she said.
"Wasn't on my list either." Rehvenge withdrew his fingers from her and licked them clean with deliberate strokes of his tongue.
Which naturally teed her up all over again.
Her eyes stayed on his as he repositioned himself upon the pillows she had thrashed around on.
"If you have no clue what to say, join the club."
"We don't have to say anything," she murmured. "It just is."
"Yeah."
Rehvenge rolled over onto his back, and as they lay in the dark with about six inches between them, she missed him as if he'd left the country.
Turning on her side, she rested her head on the inside of her arm and stared at him as he stared at the ceiling.
"I wish I could give you something," she said, leaving the whole bonding thing for a later time. Too much talk was going to ruin what they'd just shared, and she wanted to keep it going for a little longer.
He glanced over. "Are you crazy? Do I need to remind you what we just did?"
"I want to give you something like that." She winced. "I don't mean to make it sound like something was missing...I mean...Crap."
He smiled and brushed her cheek. "It's sweet of you, don't feel awkward about it. And don't underestimate how much all that pleased me."
"I want you to know something. No one could have made me feel any better or more beautiful than you just did."
He turned to her and mirrored her position, resting his head on his thick biceps. "See why it was good for me?"
She took his hand in hers and kissed his palm, only to frown. "You're growing cold. I can feel it."
She sat up and pulled the duvet over his body, wrapping him up first, then cuddling into him, while lying on top of the covers.
They stayed like that for a century.
"Rehvenge?"
"Yes."
"Take my vein."
She could tell she'd shocked the shit out of him by the way his breath caught. "Excuse...Wh-what?"