But she couldn’t deny that she was curious about what he was implying. Even if she didn’t want to have sex that night, she wasn’t opposed to beginning to explore the pleasure she could find with him.
“I’m open to it,” she whispered and he growled in response, his hands tightening. “But just keep touching me for now. Please.”
“With pleasure, female,” he rasped.
His hands were strong and warm, but the texture was just rough enough to make her shiver. Slowly, he drew circles on her bare back, scraping over the straps of her bra. She held her breath when he dipped his fingertips just beneath the band.
And not once did he ever look away from her. His eyes could almost be considered pretty, but she would never use that word to describe him. He wasn’t pretty. He had strong, raw features, too masculine and rough. The swirling colors seemed to glow as he watched her. It made Eve feel vulnerable…but in the best way possible.
A soft, shuddering sigh escaped her and it was then that she realized her hands were clenching into his shirt. She’d told him the truth when she said she wanted to touch him so, with a courage that surprised her, she started to tug up the soft material covering his torso.
Khiva growled, briefly letting his hands leave her body to pull up his shirt, answering her unspoken request, and tossed it behind her. Immediately, his hands returned to her, this time skimming down her arms.
“Vauk,” he murmured, his eyes burning. “You’re so soft, female.”
But Eve was too busy looking at his now exposed chest to respond. She realized that somehow, his clothes made him seemlessmassive. But without his shirt…
He was ripped. Pure strength and cords of muscles lined his arms, his shoulders, his pectorals, his abdomen. He wasn’t built like a human man. He had the body of a soldier, a warrior, meant for battle and combat because hewasbrute power.
Sitting in his lap, she suddenly felt much, much smaller and again, it aroused her to think that she could be at his mercy. Was it a strange fantasy towantto be overpowered by him?
His skin was mostly that blue-grey, but his arms and part of his chest and sides held the mottling of grey and black, the colors blending together like a dark oil painting. His nipples were black, standing starkly against his bulging pectorals, which shifted as his hands moved over her.
Slowly, she let her fingertips glide down the middle of his chest. Khiva growled again, low in his throat, and his hands stroked down her sides, cupping her hips, gripping her flesh there in an almost appreciative way.
She spreads her palms wide, touching his hard abdomen and when she pulled her hands away, she noticed a slight sheen on them.
“You oil your body?” she whispered.
“Pax,” he said. His voice sounded different, more guttural, darker. “Keriv’i…our skin needs it daily. Especially here. The climate is dry for us.”
Eve’s lips parted, already imagining him doing that in her active imagination…Khiva caressing the amazing body beneath her, his skin glinting in the firelight with shimmering oil.
And he did it daily.
One night, maybe he will let me watch him, she suddenly thought. But then she realized she was getting ahead of herself. Her ‘one night’ with a Krave had already turned into two in her mind, since she wouldn’t be having sex with himthatnight. Now, she was thinking of future visits.
She tuned out her thoughts, choosing instead to focus on the half-naked alien male beneath her splayed thighs. Her shimmering hands returned to his body, liking the smooth glide of her fingertips over him. Eve noticed that the grey and black colors had a different texture, rougher, whereas the rest of his skin felt like suede.
Khiva hissed out a sudden breath when she brushed one of his nipples and Eve snatched her hand back, fearing she’d hurt him.
“Veki,” he rasped. “I liked it.”
“Oh,” she whispered, before returning her hands to him, hesitantly stroking over the black pads of his nipples.
Khiva’s hips bucked in response, his hands moving from her hips, down to her bared thighs. Eve moaned softly as his rough palms dragged upwards, pushing up the silk hem of her dress until Eve felt his body heat caress the front of the black underwear she’d chosen for the night. When she looked down between their bodies, she could see them and Khiva’s thumbs pressed close to their edge before he retreated down her thighs again.
Slowly, he repeated his actions, patiently stroking up her body, making her hands tremble over him. Her breathing was already ragged and unconsciously, her body pressed closer to him.
Suddenly, Khiva tugged her forward until their fronts were flush, her hands trapped between them. Then she gasped when she felt his lips caress the top of her right shoulder. Pleasurable tingles radiated from that spot and zinged down her spine. His breath was hot against her bare skin and she’d never felt anything as intimate as that moment in her life.
And she knew it would only get better.
* * *
Desire and lustravaged Khiva’s body, two emotions he was, ironically, not all that familiar with. Sexual arousal was what he knew best with his clients, but sexual arousal did not necessarily mean that he felt desire or lust. He had practiced enough to be able to control his arousal, regardless of whom he was with.
It would be disastrous, after all, if a Krave couldn’t please their demanding clients.
