I cut my thoughts off before they took me somewhere I didn’t want to go, a place that made it hard to be gentle when Iwantedto be for Vienne.
Growling, I took my hand from between her thighs and turned her until she was facing me, straddling my hips. Gripping my cock, I slowly fed my length inside her and I groaned as she wiggled down over me. She was still so fucking tight that every time I entered her, I needed to be careful. But eventually, she relaxed around me, letting me in, letting me stretch and fill her.
Her arms looped around my neck and I guided her hips over me, rocking against her, fucking her with short thrusts that got medeeper.
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to my brow. Then they trailed over my eyelids…down my cheek. My scarred cheek. My chest felt tight as she kissed me there and panic and warmth and desperation filled me—all those emotions pulling me in different directions—and above all, I thought that she was just sodamnedsweet. That I didn’t deserve to be with her, that I didn’t deserve her touches or kisses, that I didn’t deserve to be inside her body, or feel the peace that she brought me.
Butvok, I wanted to deserve her.
It was a dangerous thing…theseemotionsthat were beginning to build in my chest, stacking and filling all the empty spaces inside me. For the first time, Iwonderedif I could be whole again.
We came together in a dizzying rush, our cries and groans filling thevolikiuntil she collapsed against me, keeping our lips pressed together, and I could feel the rapid thud of her heartbeat against my flesh.
She didn’t kiss me so much as breathe into me. And I was breathing into her, trying to calm the thundering boom in my own chest.
Afterwards, she pulled back, gave me that small, shy smile that made my cock twitch inside her, and I groaned.
She was playing with my hair, threading her fingers through it. Then her eyes drifted down and her lips thinned, her jaw clenching.
“Neffar?” I asked, my voice lazy. “What is it?”
She snatched her arms back from where they were resting on my shoulders.
“Nothing,” she whispered, placing her hands against my chest. I frowned but didn’t press. Then her stomach growled and her cheeks flushed, though I didn’t know why.
“Why are you embarrassed?”
“I—I don’t know,” she replied. “I’ve been so hungry lately. I feel like I’ve been eating so much.”
I wasn’t surprised. “You needed it.”
It had been almost two weeks since I’d first seen her inDothikand even in that small amount of time, she looked healthier. Her frame would always be lithe and lean, but her ribs weren’t as prominent, her hips were softened…even her breasts appeared fuller.
I grunted, my gaze drawing down to them, my mouth watering for the peaked nipples, wanting to suckle and nibble and stroke them with my tongue. I felt just as insatiable with Vienne as I’d been when I was younger—tupping females in forests or in private places almost daily, wherever and however. Most Dakkari males went through some sort of awakening, when the need to mate became too strong.
Though I was tempted, mykallesneeded food, so more play would have to wait. Quickly, though I was still wedged inside her, I washed with the discarded cloth and then pulled her off me gently, washing my seed away between her thighs, making her breath hitch and my eyes flare with want.
I dried us off and handed her a fresh, clean tunic, knowing she wouldn’t want to eat naked, my peculiar littlevekkiri. I, on the other hand, had no such qualms about it and pulled her into my bare lap at the low table, feeding her bites of braisedungira, the meat soft and flavorful. Only once she was full did I finish off the rest of the meal, aware that she watched me intently as I did.
“Neffar?”
“Nothing,” she whispered, her cheeks flushed again. “I just like looking at you.”
I bit back a grin and my tail flicked to her outer thigh, dragging across her skin. Her eyes went down to it and she reached out. I watched as she touched it, feeling that touch at the base of my spine.
Then I froze, frowning.
Grabbing her arm, I pulled it towards me, turning it so that her wrist was exposed.
“What is this?” I asked, certain the black webbing of her veins underneath her pale skin hadn’t been like this before.
She went still in my lap as I traced them. They started at her wrist and had begun to crawl up her forearm.
“It’s nothing,” came her quiet voice. When I met her eyes, I frowned. “It’s—it’s an after-effect of my gift. Sometimes. When I use it too much.”
My frown deepened at her words. “Does it hurt?”
“No,” she said quickly. “But it stays a long time before it goes away. It’s nothing.”
