“What does that mean?Leeldra?” she finally asked him.
His gaze flickered in response to her question. “It is…there is no translation for English. It is a soft name.”
“A… soft name?” she asked, confused.
“For female lovers,” he said next and Evelyn’s stomach went warm. He purred in her ear, “Or mates.”
“Oh,” she whispered.
But then she realized he’d been calling herleeldrasince their first night together. She wasn’t foolish enough to believe that she was the only one he calledleeldra. Some of his clients, he must have retained foryears. Though she tried to stop it, a streak of jealousy went through her.
“Your other clients,” she started slowly, trying to keep her tone light, “must like it too.”
Khiva’s gaze connected with hers. Softly, he asked, “My other clients?”
“Yes.”
He huffed out a short breath through his nostrils and his arm slid from her thigh to the smallest part of her waist. “Evelyn, when I first called youleeldra, it took even me by surprise.”
Her brow furrowed. “What?”
“I have never called a femaleleeldrain my life. Not even on Kerivu, though I had taken lovers.”
Eve’s lips parted, liking that entirely too much.
“So you understand,” Khiva continued, drawing her tighter into the heat of his body, “that even on our first meeting, I recognized something in you that I have never recognized before.”
Her belly fluttered.
“You…” she started but then trailed off. Now she understood why Genni always got so crazy over the men in her life. Because if they made her feel even a fraction of the way Khiva made her feel…it was completely justified. So, she pressed a kiss to his shoulder and whispered, “I’m so glad I came back to you.”
Chapter Twenty
“Khiva,” Evelyn moaned softly.
He purred. Even though her tone hedged on a warning, her hands were clenched into his forearms, gripping him as if she never intended to let him go.
“Just one more moment,leeldra,” Khiva rasped, nibbling at the sensitive skin of her neck, feeling the primitive urge to mark her in any way he could, if he couldn’t use histeelato do so.
He’d missed her. Craved her. It had been a week since he’d last seen her and while she always took his next available booking, it was always too long. This night marked her fifth visit to him, her third since returning to him a few weeks ago. They’d yet to have sex again and Khiva knew that they wouldn’t that night either.
A part of him knew that they’d never again have sex in that room. Half of him was relieved. It seemed strange to take her body where he took all the others, when she meant more to him than he’d thought possible. The other half of him ached at that knowledge because it had been over six weeks since he’d taken her virginity, over six weeks since he’d last mated her.
As a Keriv’i male in the presence of hisleeldra, this was almost unfathomable. The Keriv’i male in himneededto mate her. And he knew that that need would only grow, since his Rut was fast approaching. Another week and it would be full-fledged.
Khiva inhaled her scent, branding her into his mind. She wore a thin white shift dress that night, as if knowing how much it would drive him mad and fuel his wicked fantasies. If he peered hard enough, he could see the subtle darkness of her nipples underneath, since she wore no undergarments. He couldn’t help but think that he’d be able to see them fully if he suckled on the fabric long enough.
Madness.
His cock had been aching all day. He’d known she was coming that night, since Valerie kept him informed of her appointments now. Though he’d brought himself to manual release a couple times throughout the afternoon, it had felt like he hadn’t orgasmed in over a year by how aroused he was. He was pawing at her like an untried youth but his enthusiasm seemed to make the scent of her arousal all the more potent.
A never-ending cycle.
Khiva couldn’t help but grip the flesh of her lush backside hard and Evelyn gasped at his touch. It was a message. It saidsoon.
Because Khiva didn’t know how much more of this erotic torture he could take.
“Tell me something,” he gruffly ordered, as had become their routine. It was meant as a distraction, a distraction away from his wicked imaginings of stripping her bare and fucking her right where they stood, of fantasies of emptying histeelainside her and watching her writhe and beg as orgasm after orgasm crashed over her body. “Anything.”
