by Zoey Draven
“Tev. The lunar celebration approaches. Musicians play then and it is a lively occasion with dancing and feasting. Among other things.”
Lani shook her head, chuckling. “You’re incorrigible, Kirov.”
“Nix, I am determined, luxiva,” he returned quickly.
“You really won’t tell me about the instruments?” she asked, her eyes dancing with amusement.
“Nix, you will see for yourself.”
Lani asked, surprising him, “What does luxiva mean?”
Kirov swallowed but he saw no reason to hold the truth from her. He’d already told her what happened between them, about his Instinct awakening, whether she wanted to believe it or not.
“It means ‘fated one.’”
Lani said softly, “I figured it was something like that.”
“Does this mean you have accepted it?” he asked, reaching over to touch a stray lock of her beautiful red hair, feeling how soft it was between his roughened fingers.
She bit her lip and replied, “I don’t know.”
It was progress, he supposed. Before, she’d denied it completely.
Silence dropped between them again.
In a low voice, Kirov said, “Is that why you move your fingers over surfaces? You are playing your instrument in your mind, tev?”
“Yes,” she murmured softly, looking over at him with a soft, almost sad smile that tugged at his chest. “I stopped playing piano for a couple years, once I moved away from home, from my parents. I thought not playing might make me happier because for so long I had attributed playing it with unhappiness.”
Kirov’s brow furrowed and he watched his female’s profile when she turned to look over the meadow.
“Not playing the piano was like…losing an arm. Or like losing a sense, like my hearing or my sight,” Lani said softly. “Maybe not as dramatic as that, but I felt it all the same. But I was rebellious and stubborn. I still am,” she amended when he leveled her a look and her lips quirked in a sheepish smile.
“But you began playing again,” he said, wanting to ask her so many questions, not fully understanding some of the meanings, some of the societal concepts behind her words.
“Yes,” she said. “One day, I was walking passed a music shop with my friend, Nadine. I walked passed it almost every day, but that day, Nadine suddenly stopped me and asked me to play a song for her. Nadine was my best friend and she begged me to and I couldn’t say no, even though I felt sick in my stomach to touch a piano again. Sick, but wanting to at the same time, needing to.”
Kirov listened silently, listened to Lani’s words flow from her, like she was confessing something. She spoke in a way that made Kirov think she was lost in the memory, until she was somewhere else entirely and not sitting right next to him, with her small feet drawing invisible patterns in the stream.
“I went in the shop with her. It was completely empty and I saw a small, cheap keyboard piano in the back. I sat down, put my fingers on the keys,” she whispered. Then she blinked and looked over at him, her eyes slightly wet with moisture, the sight making him restless because he knew that humans leaked from their eyes when they were sad. “And I played for two hours straight that day. My fingers remembered everything, how could they not? Music poured out from me because it had been locked away for so long. And Nadine sat there and let me play on that cheap keyboard. Even the shop owner let me stay, said I could come play whenever I wanted. And I did. I went back the next day, and the next, and the next, until I finally just bought a piano for myself. Since then, I played every day…until the abduction, that is.”
Kirov heard the longing in her voice, felt it reach into him until he could feel it with her.
“I was good, you know,” she said quietly, looking over at him.
“Tev, female?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I was classically trained. Some called me a prodigy. I was playing in grand concert halls for hundreds of people by the time I was thirteen. I had a future and then I threw it all away.”
“You said it made you unhappy,” he murmured, trying to understand. He was trying to figure his female out, but Kirov knew it might never be possible and that both frustrated and delighted him.
“No, not playing the piano. It was everything else surrounding it. It took me a long time to figure that out.”
“Tell me,” he murmured.
She smiled and looked up at him underneath her eyelashes. “Maybe another time. You’re not the only one allowed secrets.”
Maddening female, he thought, awed.
“That is fair,” he rasped. When he saw her suddenly shiver, little bumps spreading over her arms, he dragged her to him, her feet lifting from the water momentarily until she was settled between his splayed thighs. He positioned her so that her back was to his front, her lush backside settled against his hard cock.
“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 rather die.
“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, but you 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 could own her 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 she craved him.
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 she would.
“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.
Her breathing went ragged at the command and Kirov knew she was torn between tearing into him for ordering her to do anything or…she was about to do much more than kiss him.
This constant ebb and flow between them, this constant grappling, the push and pull…it drove him crazy. But she was perfect. Perfect for him.
Perhaps she didn’t realize it yet, but he was perfect for her too.
Her body trembled and he squeezed the back of her neck, running the pad of his thumb up and down, softly scraping his claw against her skin.
Lani licked her lips again. Drew in a breath.
Then she kissed him.
Chapter Thirteen
Lainey had never suspected she was easy.
Not by any means.
And yeah okay, she’d gotten a little frisky in a car a time or two on a third date, but it wasn’t like she had sex with them. No, sex for her, came with a solid commitment.
But with Kirov, she had a feeling he could have everything on the first date. Anything he wanted and she would offer it to him with eager, open legs and more.
Lainey could never resist a dare. And she’d seen the look in Kirov’s eyes when he’d practically dared her to kiss him, as if a part of him thought she wouldn’t.
Ooohhh, this alien got under her skin in the worst and best possible way.
So, Lainey kissed him, just to prove she would. And she poured everything into that kiss…her frustration, her desire, her fear, her delight. His strong, warm hand had tightened on the back of her neck when their lips met and she’d felt her belly tighten in a similar way.
Lainey thought she would be teaching him a lesson.
Instead, she found herself never wanting that kiss to end. Because Kirov…goddamn, the alien male could kiss.
Lainey made a sound in the back of her throat when he angled her head so he could delve deeper. It had been her that started it, but it was definitely him that was leading it. When she realized that, she grabbed his shoulders, shifting position so that she could straddle his lap.
She rose to her knees so that they were the same height and threaded her hands through his silky, thick hair. Taking back control of the kiss, she stroked her tongue between his lips, deep.
Kirov growled, his tongue vibrating briefly, as she licked it. Ridges. He had ridges on his tongue, similar to the ones she knew lined the top and bottom of his cock.
The Luxirian let her have control of the kiss, but only for a brief while. Soon, he commandeered it again, stroking every part of her mouth before nibbling on her bottom lip, making her eyes roll into the back of her head as her spine tingled.
It went on like that. Lainey would fight him for that precious control again, he would allow it for a moment, and then seize it back, becoming more and more irresistible, more and more dominant with every turn she took from him.
Her pussy quivered, her fingers shook as arousal coursed through her body, pebbling her nipples under her suddenly very heavy tunic. He knew what he was doing. He was kissing all the fight out of her.
And he was so damn patient about it.
Lainey didn’t know why, but that bothered her. There she was, slowly losing her goddamn mind, and he was holding himself in complete control.
We’ll see about that, the little devil on her shoulder whispered.
If only to see how he would react, Lainey slid her hand to his cock, squeezing the length through the material of his pants.
Kirov inhaled a rough breath in surprise, making Lainey smile against his lips before she took back control of the kiss, feeling a bit smug.
Her fingers found the lacings that kept his cock from her and she tugged. Kirov caught her wrist, pulling away from her lips, to look at her.
“What?” she whispered, feeling drugged off his kiss, off his scent and taste and heat. “It isn’t anything I haven’t seen before, remember?”
He growled, seemingly at a loss for words, when she referred to the night she’d watched him jerk off.
Lainey’s fingers resumed untying the laces and though his hand was still wrapped around her wrist, he didn’t stop her.
“I just want a peek,” she said, almost to herself.
Then I’ll stop this madness, she added silently. It had already gone a lot farther than she’d originally intended.
But she was burning up with need so potent that she felt feverish. She feared she wouldn’t be able to stop, even if she told herself she should.
Kirov groaned, low in his throat, the sound further weakening her resolve. It was a purely masculine sound, one that lit her blood on fire, that made her want to see what other sounds she could wring from him.
When the lacings finally gave way, Lainey reached inside for her reward.
Kirov hissed, his hips jerking, when she wrapped a hand around his hot, thick, pulsing cock.
Oh my God.
When she pulled it free, she looked down between them with widened eyes. She licked her lips as she stared down at him, all thought gone, her mind blank.
“Fates, do not lick those lips when you look at my cock, luxiva,” he grated, his voice deepening with every word. “Or else I will think you want a taste.”
God help her, but she did.
She tried to squeeze her thighs together, but remembered she was straddling his hips. Unless she rocked against him, there would be no relief for the heat building in her pussy, threatening to consume her.
Pre-cum pushed from the slit at the head of his cock as Lainey gently ran her fingers over the knobs that ran directly along the top, tracing them from the base, all the way to the rounded tip.
He would feel amazing inside her.
If he fits, she couldn’t help but add.
Because he was huge. Not just his length, but his girth. She couldn’t even wrap her hand all the way around him and if she gave him a blowjob, she highly doubted she’d be able to take more than a few inches.
Look at you thinking about the logistics, girl, her mind whispered. You said you only wanted a peek and now you’re wondering how best to fit him inside your mouth.
Kirov’s hips jerked again, that low groan sounding like he was in pain, when she circled the slit of his cock, soaking the pad of her finger in his pre-cum. It was iridescent in the moonlight, shimmering.
She felt a drop of her arousal leak down her thigh the same moment his hands moved. Lainey gasped as they slid up her bare legs, up past her tunic. He clenched them around her hips, kneading her flesh there, his claws pricking into her skin. Not enough to hurt, but enough to keep her on edge.
She was burning up. Everywhere.
“Take it off,” she gasped, gripping his cock harder, when he shifted her tunic up.
It certainly didn’t take him long to do just that. In the next moment, her tunic was ripped off over her head, making her release his thick cock for a moment, and she was sitting in his lap, completely naked.
How’s this for escalation? she couldn’t help but think.
She didn’t care. Now right then. Tomorrow, she would curse herself for why she’d allowed this to happen, especially when she was growing a little bit obsessed with the alien currently looking at her like she was the goddamn moon, all bright and lovely.
A rough sound tore from his throat and Lainey cried out in surprise when he flipped them over, moving so quickly she didn’t even have to blink before she was on her back on the river bank. The blue mo
ss underneath her felt like velvet and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of pink. A firefly had come closer.
Dirty little voyeurs.
“You are…” he growled, his blue eyes roving over her, his fully clothed body hovering over hers. Lainey pushed her breasts up a little, allowing him to look his fill. She was proud of her tits, even though one was slightly smaller than the other. It had bothered her when she’d been younger, but now…they were fucking great.
When Kirov seemed to lose his train of thought, she grinned. Apparently, he thought they were pretty fucking great too. They had the genius Luxirian tongue-tied.
“Yes?” she whispered, shamelessly fishing for his compliments. She felt his cock bob on her abdomen between them and her lips parted when she felt it throb on her skin.
Gently, he slid his fingers from her collarbone, to between her breasts—making her breath hitch—to circle her belly button, before curling around her left hip. It was like he’d trailed a path of fire over her skin. He watched as her nipples puckered even further and he thumbed over one peak suddenly, making her back arch, a desperate moan tumbling from her throat.
“Vrax,” he cursed, lowering his head to silence her with a kiss so intense their teeth clattered together. She gasped, her head spinning when he sucked on her tongue.
Wicked alien.
“Vellixa,” he said, his voice a hushed rasp. Lainey stilled, remembering that word, remembering how she’d freaked out on him the first time he’d called her it.
Beautiful.
Lainey struggled with that word. All her life, she’d been told she was beautiful. She’d been a beautiful girl who played beautiful music. A part of her knew that she wouldn’t have been as successful during her concert days if she hadn’t been beautiful, a fact that had always grated on her, even when she got a strange thrill seeing her face plastered in magazines.
It was inner beauty that she struggled with. Because most days, Lainey felt ugly on the inside. She had allowed bitterness and anger to make her ugly.
But Kirov had seen the way she lashed out sometimes, had witnessed a bit of that ugly, and he still called her beautiful.
