His hand was trailing to the laces of the pants she’d altered for herself. They clung to her like a second skin. He mourned that it wasn’t just a tunic. He couldn’t simply lift up the material and sheath himself inside her, where he always wanted to be, but the thick pants shielded her delicate skin from the cold and Jaxor was happy for it.
She caught his hand, turning in his arms, pulling away. But she was smiling when she told him, “Because you said it’s a temple. We are not having sex in a temple.”
His brow rose. Was this another thing about humans he did not understand?
“I am certain orgies took place here at one time,” he told her. “Sex would be most welcome.”
Her eyes bulged at that, but she dodged his hands when he made to reach for her again, laughing. He feinted left, but snagged her around the hips when she went right.
“I can bend you over the pedestal,” he suggested softly in her ear, his heartbeat thundering. She stilled. “It’s a perfect height so I could lick you while you screamed.”
Even under her thick tunic, Jaxor felt the way her nipples pebbled at his words. They’d hardly spent a moment away from each other for the past five spans. Most of that time, they’d been having sex, or lying in each other’s arms, talking. Jaxor felt he was well-versed in his female’s needs, in the things that turned her on.
And she had darker desires, fantasies that he loved to indulge in. And Jaxor had them too.
“I could make youmysacrifice to this place,” he rasped, his hands finally undoing the laces of her pants, his fingers dipping inside the material, finding her sex. “I could punish you too, if you’d like. Bent over the pedestal, you would be at my mercy.”
Erin gasped when his fingers found her swollen clit. It was a breathy gasp, one that made his cock throb against her backside. And just when he was sliding his fingers between her thighs, she grabbed his wrist and twisted away.
Jaxor let her go, watching as she retied the laces, though it was with trembling fingers and flushed cheeks. He grinned even though hot lust still coiled deep in his belly.
When she looked back up at him, she saw his smile and said again, though her voice was shaking and almost unsure, “We are not having sex here.”
“Very well,rixella,” he murmured, deciding it was apparently a human aversion to have sex in places touched by religion.
She bit her lip. “But when we get back home, there is that rock by the cave thatlookslike the pedestal. And we can always pretend.”
Jaxor wanted to laugh and groan and purr in agreement all at the same time. But what struck him the most was that she’d called his base ‘home.’
And that word alone filled him with hope, with longing, and possibility. Was it possible that she was beginning to envision a life with him? A future? On Luxiria?
He’d learned a lot about hisluxivaduring his time with her. He’d learned that she liked quiet mornings, but that she also liked spending her nights by the fire, watching the flames flicker, wrapped in heavy furs. He’d learned she liked something called ‘ice cream’ back on Earth and that she’d kill for ‘coffee.’ He’d learned that she cried whenever she spoke of her memories of her siblings, of Jake and Ellora, and that she missed them. He’d learned that when she looked at him, deep and soft, he felt whole andright, possibly for the first time in his lifespan.
Five spans together felt like rotations and Jaxor couldn’t remember a time he’d been happier or more content. As promised, they were taking it one span at a time.
His voice was guttural as he said, “Tev, we can.”
But as the spans drew on without incident, so did Jaxor’s worries. There was an unease in Jaxor that he couldn’t shake. It wasn’t only that Tavar’s deadline had passed. By now, theMeviraxleader would know of Jaxor’s betrayal. Without the human females in their possession, they had nothing to bargain with the Jetutians, with Po’grak. Would Tavar retaliate?
Jaxor also couldn’t stop thinking about Vaxa’an. Before, he’d thought of his blood brother almost every span, but lately, the thought of him was a constant presence in his mind.
Erin had asked Jaxor if he could mend the broken bond between himself and his brother, would he? Jaxor had replied on instinct.Tev. Of course he would.
And she’d asked why he hadn’t already.
In that moment, a thousand reasons why had flooded his mind. A thousand reasons why Vaxa’an would not wish to see him. A thousand reasons why Jaxor could not return to the Golden City—stealing away Erin and Crystal and the attack on their guards adding to that long list.
In his own mind, bringing the human females to theMevirax, to the Jetutians, would help his people. He would kill the Jetutian leader responsible for the attack on his race and secure the cure for the virus before Tavar could. That had always been the plan.
Now, Jaxor was ashamed to admit that he’d barely given the human females a second thought. Not until one of them turned out to be his fated mate.
Ever since they’d consummated their bond, the guilt was eating him up. How many times had it been on the tip of his tongue to tell her of his deceit? How many times had he wanted to confess that even when he’d first brought her to the base, a part of him was still thinking of giving her up? Of sacrificing her well-being, her future, herlifeto the Jetutians in exchange for his revenge?
Sometimes, he was so ashamed he couldn’t look her in the eye.
And at night, as she slept in his arms, he was plagued by nightmares of darkness, of the dungeons deep below the Caves of thePevrallix. He was plagued by memories of his blood brother.
Jaxor watched as Erin turned back to the crumbling temple. He rubbed at that aching spot in his chest again and followed behind her, navigating through stone and dense foliage and the black trees that surrounded it. Again, he was tempted to confess everything in that quiet, eerie place.
