Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 85203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Just stand there,” he murmurs, “And open your towel.”
My pulse quickens, but I do as he asks. The towel falls open, and cool air brushes my skin. My nipples tighten at once and I have to stop myself from closing the towel again.
Xaren kneels before me on the marble floor, his dark head bowed as though he’s considering where to start.
The first touch of his mouth is a shock—warm and soft, followed by a shimmer of heat that sinks into me and blooms outward. He’s pressing open-mouthed kisses to my wounds and wherever he kisses, the pain fades. The raw, stinging cuts melt into warmth, replaced by a strange, tingling pleasure that coils low in my belly.
He’s only healing you, I tell myself. That’s all this is—just healing.
But my breath still catches when his cheek brushes the inside of my thigh. The marble beneath my feet feels cold compared to the heat rising inside me.
When he looks up at last, his eyes are half-lidded, both of them golden and glowing. I wonder hazily if his Drake is coming forward somehow—sharing in this experience as Xaren heals me.
“Spread your thighs for me, little dove,” he murmurs. “Let me heal you more.”
The sound of his voice curls through me like smoke and I tremble.
“More?” I look down at my thighs. All the wounds and gouges from the thorns are gone now—my skin is smooth again. “But…I’m already healed.”
“No, you need deeper healing,” he insists and his eyes are half-lidded as he looks up at me. “I can feel your need.”
“I…are you sure you want to…to do that?” I’m still not sure what he intends. I know he doesn’t want to put his mouth on me there—no man would do that, even for his wife. Would he?
“Let me show you how much I want to,” he growls.
Then he sweeps me up into his arms and carries me into the bedchamber.
23
ELAINA
I can’t move…can’t breathe. My heart is pounding so hard I’m sure it’s trying to escape my chest.
I’m standing in the center of Xaren’s enormous bedchamber—towel barely clinging to me, heart pounding—and he’s kneeling between my legs with his mouth near my most private place like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“What…what are you going to do to me?” I ask, my voice coming out high and breathless. “I mean, I don’t really need any more, er, healing.”
He looks up at me, his eyes lazy with lust.
“I want to taste you, little dove. I want to slip my tongue deep in your soft little pussy and taste your juices right from the source.”
My breath catches in my throat.
“You…I mean, really?”
“Really.” He gives me a slow smile. “But we can take things slowly if you want—we can start with kissing. Would you like that?”
I’m not sure what to say—I never expected him to offer to kiss me between my legs. But just imagining his mouth on me there has my heart pounding and my nipples feeling tight and achy. Also, I’m definitely getting hot and wet.
“I guess so,” I say at last, not wanting to sound too eager.
“Good.” He takes my hips and draws me forward. “Been wanting to do this from the first minute you slipped into my bed.”
He has? Before I can ask more, he’s already pressing his hot mouth to my mound and my thoughts all fly away.
His mouth is warm…skilled…and utterly devoted. He’s not tentative, not cautious—no, he kisses me like a starving man savoring the first drop of honey after a long, cold winter.
Oh Goddess of Mercy…
My knees threaten to buckle but his hands are firm on my hips, steadying me, encouraging me. His big body dwarfs mine and yet he handles me with such gentleness I feel perfectly safe with him—even in this intimate situation.
He presses a long, hot kiss to the outer lips of my sex and I shiver all over.
It feels so good…but also—wrong? No, not wrong, just…forbidden. Shocking. None of my married sisters have ever described a man doing this to them. If anything, they’ve made jokes behind fans about the indignities women endure to pleasure their husbands. But never the other way around. A man using his mouth like this?
It’s unheard of.
And yet, Xaren does it like it’s his birthright. As though he was made to kneel before me, mouth pressed to my heat, tongue slipping just a little deeper—ah!
I moan, fingers flying to his broad shoulders, clutching the hard muscle as if I can anchor myself to reality.
His tongue dips deeper, teasing my aching clit.
“Oh, Goddess!” I gasp, my hips bucking.
He looks up at me through a fall of black silk hair, eyes glowing like twin suns behind his heavy lashes.
“Mmm, little dove, you’re so sweet inside.” His deep voice is full of hunger—all dark velvet and heat. “I need to taste you deeper.”