“Does that thing ever go down?” she joked, sighing as his arms wrapped around her body, shielding her from the breeze that was beginning to grow colder.
It took him a little while to realize what she meant. He chuckled in her ear. “Nix, not since I first saw you.”
“That must be horribly inconvenient,” she commented, tilting her head back to look up at him.
Vaxa’an had seen him perform something called ‘kissing’ with his mate, Kat. It was a human expression of affection and Kirov’s eyes drifted down to Lani’s pink lips, desire tightening his belly.
What would it be like to kiss her? What would it be like to kiss at all? It was not an act that Luxirians performed with one another…at least not on the mouth.
Lani saw him looking and he watched those lips curl a little. In a tone that made him want to growl, she asked, “You want to kiss me, don’t you, Ambassador?”
“Tev,” he rasped.
Her blunt, white teeth flashed with her smile. But then that smile died down a little and she swallowed.
“I’m telling you now, Kirov,” she said, bringing his focus back, “that what happens tonight doesn’t mean that you’ve won me. It doesn’t mean anything like that.”
“Female,” he growled, her words making his Instinct…displeased.
“I can’t…” Lani licked those lips he wanted to devour, seeming at a loss for words.
Her eyes, her expression…they seemed almost frightened, which confused him greatly. She had to know that he would never harm her. Ever. He would ratherdie.
“I’m going home soon. I can’t develop feelings for you, Kirov.”
His muscles tightened, his arms pulled her into him even more.
“I am sorry to disappoint you, female, butyou already have,” he growled in her ear and her breath hitched. “To deny that to me would be a waste of words.”
Lani licked her lips again and Kirov really wished she would stop doing that. It made it hard to think.
“I won’t deny that I’m attracted to you,” she said softly. “You know that I am. And if anything comes from that, I just want to be upfront with you about what it means. Or doesn’t mean.”
Her words irritated him.Vrax, she was…maddening.
She does not yet understand, he knew, calming a bit when he remembered.
Lani didn’t yet understand the power of the Fates, the power of their bond. She didn’t yet understand how closely they would be tied together. She didn’t yet understand how they could be with one another, in and out of the furs.
But he could make her understand.
He hadn’t yet won her mind and soul, but he couldownher body and she could own his. He could give her unfathomable pleasure, make her cry out his name in ecstasy until it was burned into her mind, until she forgot every male that came before him, until shecravedhim.
Vrax, he was a Luxirian warrior, after all. They were known, not only for their expertise in battle, but for their ferocity and thoroughness in the furs.
It wasn’t a question of whether he could please her. It was a question of whether she would let him.
But what she was hinting at was telling him shewould.
“You can think that for now,luxiva,” he growled. “Hold your heart close, for now. In time, you will give it to me willingly.”
There was that spark in her gaze. The one that said she was irritated but delighted at the same time.
His female liked to bare her claws and he would take them gladly, because when she got like this—whether she realized it or not—those walls came down, allowing him access.
Kirov’s hand cupped the nape of her neck and he tilted her face up to his.
“Kiss me, female,” he rasped.
