Her voice was light and breathless. “I-I saw a painting today.”
“Of what?” he rasped, carrying her easily over to the armchair he’d dragged near the fire. He sat and pulled her onto his lap, sliding her dress up around her hips so that her legs straddled his thighs. His hands caressed her smooth skin, his thumbs edging upwards until he caught himself.
Evelyn took a deep breath, linking her arms behind his neck. His gaze was drawn again to her breasts and he cursed softly when he saw the peaked points of her nipples straining against the material.
Demav, how he needed to sate her!
“It…it was, um, of a creature,” she said, obviously trying to shake herself from the desire, as Khiva was attempting to do. “Like the one you told me about on Kerivu last week.”
It was hard to think through the fog of lust but Khiva managed to say, “Akikuru?”
“Yes,” she said. “Akikuru.”
It drove Khiva crazy any time she said something in his language. It was her accent, he reasoned. It was soft and lyrical, though his language was neither of those things. It made him want to bury himself deep inside her body as she moaned Keriv’i words to him.
“It had wings,” she said lightly. “It was bright blue with large eyes and talons.”
“Kikuruswere what humans refer to as red,” he told her, nuzzling just behind her ear, which made her shiver. He grinned. It was one her sensitive spots. No matter what, it would arouse her if he so much as breathed on it.
He heard her swallow thickly. “I—I know, but it was just how I imagined it in my mind. If it was red, it would have been a splitting image.”
Affectionate amusement burst in his chest and he trilled. He pulled away from her ear to look at her, a pleasing warmth pulsing through his body. “I am sure it would have been,leeldra.”
“You’re teasing me,” she accused.
“I am,” he murmured. “You like it when I tease you.”
“I do.”
Slowly, she leaned forward and caught his lips in a gentle kiss. Khiva breathed it in, but told himself to take it slow. He kissed her as if he was in no rush, as if they had all the time in the universe.
When they pulled back, Evelyn sighed and ran the pad of her fingertip over his lips. “Hello, Khiva.”
“Hello, Evelyn,” he murmured back, catching her fingertip between his teeth and giving it a gentle nibble.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
“I missed you more.”
“I doubt that,” she said smiling. Her smile faded slightly. “How was your week?”
“As any other week,” he murmured, trying to hedge around the question. “How was yours?”
Evelyn sighed but shook it off. He knew that her discomfort was about his clients. She’d admitted it to him during the last visit.
“As any other week,” she told him, flashing him a small smile which made him relax. Truthfully, a part of him liked her jealousy in a purely male way. It signaled to him that she was as possessive of him as he was her. But he also had to be careful, since he knew that the knowledge of his other clients hurt her as well.
But she understood. She had to. She’d always known what he was: a Krave.
With Evelyn, however, he was only Khiva. He knew that fact made it easier for her to accept, knowing that he was someone else entirely with the other human females. He played a role for a specific purpose, but never with her.
The fire crackled in the hearth with a sharp sound, making Evelyn jump a fraction in his lap. When he trilled, she pushed his shoulder.
“Nervous?” he questioned, catching her wrists and bringing them to his lips where he kissed the soft flesh.
“No,” she whispered, smiling. “Surprisingly no. Not with you.”
The knowledge pleased him. Over the past two visits, she’d opened up more about her life, of her childhood and the shyness and anxiety that had followed her into adulthood. He didn’t see evidence of any of those traits in the human female sitting on his lap right then, happily accepting his kisses.
