She sighed and pressed closer, running her lips over his bare chest, feeling the heat of him on her sensitive flesh. Underneath her lips, she felt his heart pumping, steady and strong.
When she looked up into his eyes again, she saw his intensity, his realization. Finally, at some point, perhaps when he woke to her beside him, he knew that she’d returned to him. That it wasn’t a dream.
“This is real,” she whispered against his flesh.
His eyes flashed.
His hand ran down from her hair to brush over her lips and Crystal felt the sizzle of desire race through her.
“Remember when you gave me your shirt?” she whispered, smiling. “That first morning when we were traveling toKroratax?”
“Tev,” he rumbled.
“And you could scent my arousal when I saw you bare-chested for the first time,” she said, her breath hitching. She smoothed her hand over his warm skin, her fingertips brushing over his dusky nipples.
“Tev,” he purred, his voice dropping deeper, which made her shiver.
“What I didn’t tell you was that I was surprised that morning by my reaction,” she confessed.
“Why?”
“Because I hadn’t felt desire in a really long time,” she said, looking up at him. He stilled. “Over the years, I thought that maybe I was…broken. That that was why I hadn’t wanted anyone. But that morning, all I felt was desire. For you.”
She looked into his eyes.
“I wasn’t broken,” she said softly, stroking down his chest, her hand curving over his hip. He still had his pants on from the night before. He’d been too tired to change from them. “I think I was just waiting for you. I think I was just waiting for you to teach me about desire and need and love all over again. The right way.”
“Luxiva,” he rasped.
Her hand trailed over his hip and came to the laces of his leg coverings. She felt him hard beneath the material and her fingers trembled only a little as she undid the knots.
He stilled her hand, tilting her chin so she met his eyes.
“I want this,” she whispered, anticipation racing through her blood. “I wantyou. I don’t want to wait anymore. I need to feel youeverywhere.”
“You are certain?” he rasped, his voice husky.
“Tev,” she teased, using his language. “I am.”
She worked the last of the knots away, pulling the laces through, and Cruxan hissed, his eyes squeezing shut, his body tensing, when she pushed his pants down and gripped his cock.
Her breath hitched at how hot his flesh was, howhard. He was just as big as she’d remembered and she knew that they would have to go slowly the first few times, until she got used to his size.
If I ever do, she thought, looking between them, running her fist up and down his length, squeezing at the head. She felt his muscles pull and tighten,grow. The other women had told her that during sex and intense sexual arousal, a Luxirian’s strength could double. She was certainly seeing the beginnings of that now. It should frighten her, but not with Cruxan. She knew that he would never use his strength to hurt her.
He’d never let her pleasure him before, even though he’d gone down on her more times than she could count. But she wanted to. She wanted to give him the pleasure that he’d given her. Over and over again.
Because she loved him. And she wanted to show him, in every possible way, how much.
So, determination sizzled in her belly alongside need.
“Luxiva,” he growled when she pushed off the fur covers to the end of the bed and knelt beside him.
“Take these off,” she said, briefly removing her hand from his cock to tug at his pants. “Please.”
Cruxan groaned but helped her, ripping them off with one hard tug until he lay naked before her, looking up at her kneeling over him, his gaze half-lidded, his cock bobbing against his taut abdomen.
Crystal’s mouth went dry, her eyes feasting on the image he made. She bit her lip, memorizing him this way, though she knew there was no need for it. She would see him this way…always.
