It seemed a betrayal to tell Madame Allegria that Evelyn was a virgin. Khiva wanted to keep that to himself.
Instead, he told her, “She wished to start slowly with me, to become more comfortable.”
Madame Allegria’s eyes narrowed the slightest amount, the only change in her in reaction to his words. Then, she slowly walked towards him, her slim hips swaying. Khiva made sure not to tense up and he kept his expression neutral.
When she stopped in front of him, so close that the smell of her burned in his nostrils, she placed her red-tipped nails on his chest. Deceivingly gentle, she ran them down until they rested on the waistband of his pants.
Softly, she purred, “The only reason I’m not whipping you senseless right now for letting your client leave an hour into her visit is that she booked another session with you next week.”
Khiva made sure to hold in his relief and excitement that Evelyn had chosen to see him again. Later, when Madame Allegria was gone, when he had returned to the Cluster, where they all slept, he would allow himself to feel it.
He watched as her eyes ran over his face. She was an intelligent woman,highlyintelligent. It was why she had made such a successful businesswoman. But Khiva knew that if she sensed even the slightest change in him, she would know what that meant.
Then her shrewd gaze changed. Khiva recognized that look and his jaw twitched when her eyes left his face to trail down his body, where her fingers rested.
Suddenly, she gripped his soft cock through his pants and he already knew then that his month of reprieve from her attentions was over. Immediately, he urged his body to grow aroused once more, letting his cock fill her gripped palm, knowing that if he remained unresponsive to her touch, he would be punished.
“I’ll take Miss Tesler’s place tonight,” she said softly, stroking his hard cock. “I need a good fucking and you’ve always known how rough I need it. None of the Krave dare to fuck me like you do.”
That was because when she wanted him, Khiva fucked her like he hated her. Because he did.
“Undress, Krave,” Madame Allegria said.
And like an obedient whore, though every strand of him was screaming inside, Khiva did as she ordered.
Chapter Nine
Eve hunched over the book, her eyes straining as she concentrated on the task at hand, not daring to blink as she brushed the wax over the delicate edges of the pages with the smallest brush in her bundle.
It was a quiet night at Wrenton’s Books and Antiques. The shop had long closed, but Mr. Wrenton had asked her to stay behind to work on a book restoration for a collector. Eve had been relieved to stay, anything to occupy her waking thoughts.
She was the best book restorer in all of Everton, even better than Mr. Wrenton…and her employer would be the first to say so. It was why he tasked her with the most expensive and thereby the oldest of the Old Earth books that had been saved and preserved through the years.
The particular book she was rebinding that night was from the year 1988, published in a place called New York City. That was the first thing Eve looked for…the date, the place. She was fascinated with the old books and it was hard for her to comprehend what 1988 looked like in a place called New York City. She’d read about the city, of course, had listened to old music and old films that referenced it regularly. But it still seemed like an unreachable place in an even more unreachable time.
It was nearly silent in the warm shop, except for the gentle buzz of the generators. Sweat rolled down her back, since she’d accidentally left the fire on for too long, but she was so focused on her work that it didn’t bother her.
With one last swipe of wax, she finished securing the loose pages to the spine. The book had come to her in tatters and during her inspection, she noticed a few pages had been missing from what seemed like an old mystery novel. She made a note of it for the buyer. It would lower its value but not by much.
She flipped the pages carefully once the wax dried, making sure that the spine was still pliable. Eve smiled when she was happy with it, straightening from the table, blowing out a breath when her back twinged.
When her eyes focused on the antique clock hanging on the wall of the work room, she saw that the shop had been closed for four hours already and that it would be dark out by then.
She couldn’t help but notice, as she’d been doing the past few days, that she only had to wait 46 more hours until she visited Khiva again.
Eve jumped when her Nu tablet chirped loudly from its docking port. She always brought it to work with her since she read during her breaks.
When she walked over to it, she saw it was Genni.
“Hi,” Eve greeted once she accepted the call. A hologram of her friend’s face appeared just above the screen, the beams of blue light projected from the tablet’s surface. “What are you up to?”
“Seeing what you’re up to,” Genni replied, grinning. “Since you’ve been avoiding me and everything.”
Eve blinked, a flush of guilt flooding her cheeks. Thankfully, Genni wouldn’t be able to see it since the hologram was patchy in places…not to mention blue.
“I’ve just been really busy with work,” she said. It wasn’tuntrue, but it still felt like a small lie. “I’m still here actually, working on a book.”
The truth was that Eve had been avoiding her friend because she knew that the moment they saw each other in person, Genni would know something was up…and that something was that Eve had visited one of the Krave. And Genni would’ve dragged it out of her eventually.
