Chapter 20

Ican't seem to help myself. I know sex is a bad idea, but why not have some fun? Why not fool around? I'm wet already, even though all he's done is touch my leg, try to relax my poor sprained ankle.

And when I decide that sounds like a really good way to fall asleep, blissed out, I can't seem to pull back from that plan.

I lift the dress up, higher, higher still.

Lesath's gaze burns like a brand across my skin, ratcheting my desire higher still.

"Where?" he repeats.

My heart squeezes with sudden, surprising affection. Here I am, naked from the waist down, on display for him, and he's waiting for me to give him the go ahead. A man that wants me to tell him what I want? This is gonna be good. Anticipation sends a flurry of butterflies through my stomach.

"Everywhere," I whisper.

"Ali," He groans, eyes half-closing, palming his cock through his towel before fixing me with a heavy-lidded stare that sends my heart racing.

I'm doing this. I'm really doing this.

His hand slides higher up my knee, to my inner thigh. A whimper escapes from my mouth.

"Here?" he asks, moving closer, crawling towards me.

"Yes," I say. My head falls back as his hand trails across the flesh of one thigh, then the other. He moves over me, one hand on my thigh, keeping my legs open, the other on one side of my waist.

I open my eyes to find his dark eyes scouring my face, his mouth hovering just over mine. I lick my lips, needing to know what his mouth will feel like against mine.

"Here?" he asks, his fingers trailing higher still, on the vee between my leg and core.

"Yes, Lesath," I moan.

Everything in me winds tighter and tighter, working to a near frenzy by his touch alone. He makes slow, languid strokes on the apex of my thighs. My legs shudder under his touch, so close to where I need pressure. I raise my hips up, trying to find his hands, but he teases me, his dark gaze pinning me.

"Lesath," I plead.

"Where?" His hand leaves my legs, tracing my jawline, his thumb running over my lower lip. "Here?" His eyes blaze as I suck his thumb into my mouth, a low moan tearing from him. Slowly, achingly slow, he lowers his body onto mine, the towel standing in the way of what I want most. His head dips, and I squirm beneath him, pressing my hips up, up, trying to stoke the pleasure higher.

"I'm going to kiss you now," he says, his gaze searching my face. My heart does that funny little squeeze again, because he's waiting for me to say yes. He isn't taking, he isn't stealing. He's standing by all the things he's told me.

That the Starbound only take what is freely given.

I'm in charge here, and I love it.

"Yes," I breathe.

When his lips finally meet mine, his kiss is soft. He sucks gently on my lower lip, a searching, delicate gesture that fills me with yearning for more. Losing whatever was left of my inhibitions, I twist my arms around his neck, stroking one hand up the nape of his neck, into his lush, dark hair.

And then I pull him down to me.

The kiss intensifies, and I know without a doubt this will ruin me. I melt into his body, fitting myself against him. He slants his head, giving himself better access to claim my mouth. Because that's what this is—a claiming. It doesn't matter what we do next, because this kiss… It's everything a kiss should be. His hand on my face, his huge muscled body against mine.

The way I trust him, the way he's earned that trust. I moan into his mouth, and his tongue slicks against mine, driving me wild.

Heat spools tight around my core, delicious and exhilarating.

I moan again, needing more. Needing everything.

Why did I put this off for so long?

He slows the kiss, returning to the teasing caresses of his mouth against mine, before pulling back, his hand cupping my chin, his thumb running against my cheek.

"Ali," he shakes his head, eyes heavy-lidded, reflecting the lust I feel so keenly right back at me. "We should not. You are wounded."

"So are you," I argue, pointing at the jagged cuts from the harbinger's claws.

"Pah, those are nothing. Scratches."

I shrug one shoulder, and his gaze dips down to my breast. "Then what's the problem?"

He runs his hand over my shoulder, moving slightly against me. My whole body shudders with anticipation. "Ali, I will not force the mate bond with you."

The urge to scream in frustration grips me, and I clamp my mouth shut, because the tiny rational part of my brain still working knows angry screaming in a man's face is not good foreplay. At least for me, anyway.

"Why not?" It might sound a bit whiny, but at least I didn't manage to yell. Good for me!

"Ali, I will not put my control in your hands. I do not want you to do this out of guilt or for any other reason than you want to be mine. That you want me to be yours… forever."

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying not to argue with him. Really, it's sweet and lovely that he's thinking like that. Unfortunately, it's so sweet it makes me want him more.

"Touch me." On an impulse, I wrap my fingers around his wrist, placing his free hand on my breast.

His eyes flutter shut, and he lets out a low groan as he palms my breast. I arch off the floor as his fingers work my nipple through the fabric.

"I'm so wet," I tell him, completely desperate and not caring in the slightest.

"I will not seal our bond until I have the tattoos, Ali. I will not place this burden on you" he says, moving his hand to my other breast, causing me to gasp as he tweaks it.

"There are other things we can do, we don't just have to bang it out immediately," I blurt through gritted teeth. I'm grinding against him now, my wet pussy pressing against the towel around his waist.

"I don't know if I have enough control," he murmurs, tearing his eyes away from my breasts and back to my face.

"Fine," I grit out. "I'll do it myself."

I lean my head back, arching slightly as I drag my hand down my stomach, past the hem of the sheath dress. My fingers find my slit, and I gasp as soon as I find my clit. My hand makes slick noises against my skin. I'm wound so tight, I wouldn't be surprised if I could get myself off in five seconds or less.

"Ali, stars above and below," he breathes. "You are beautiful, you are perfect."

I tease my clit, running my fingers around it, and all the while he watches, which only turns me on more. Honestly, I didn't think it was physically possible to be this turned on. Maybe the whole mate bond thing isn't such a downer, after all.

When I dip my fingers into my core, trying to add to the wetness, his fingers circle my wrist, removing it.

"Lesath, don't," I cry out. "I'm so close, don't make me stop."

"Mine," he growls. "That is mine."

When he sucks the moisture off my fingers, my eyes fly open in surprise. He clamps my hand in his, moving his other hand down my body.

He's going to touch me. I squirm, writhing, trying to get him to go faster. His lips find my jaw, and he kisses and sucks along my neck, his fingers slowly stroking down my torso.

He's going to kill me.

"You taste so good. I knew you would, I knew your taste would be my undoing."

He finally dips his fingers into my pussy, and when he pulls them away, and puts them into his mouth, my entire body clenches, already so close to the tipping point.

I close my eyes again, riding the feeling higher. When I open them again, his head's between my legs.

"Lesath," I moan, fisting my hands in his hair. "Please, please."

"You're going to come so hard for me, do you understand?" His breath tickles across my sensitive skin.

I moan, raising my hips, and he finally, finally, puts his mouth on me. With one hand, he cups my ass, tilting my hips to allow him better access. As far as I'm concerned, he can have an all-access pass. Instant year-round VIP ticket holder.

His tongue makes feather light circles around my clit, and my breaths come in ragged pants. His finger slips into me, and I jerk against his face as he strokes me from the inside, his tongue working me all the while.

When he sucks on my clit, slipping a second finger inside me, stars explode behind my eyes, the orgasm hitting me fast and furious. I'm crying out, incoherent with the pleasure he's so expertly wringing from my body.

He keeps sucking, adding a third finger, his other hand crawling up my body to pinch my nipple, and I'm flying, coming apart again, too undone to do anything but take it.

When he finally pulls away, I'm exhausted. Sated. It's like something's clicked inside me, something so right that I'm breathless for a reason entirely unrelated to sex. Everything seems crisper, more alive and vivid somehow, and I could soak up the wild way Lesath stares at me, wonder in his eyes, forever.

I stare up at him, wonder filling me.

I might be a new convert to the whole mates thing.

"Sleep now," he commands, tugging me into his body, pulling my night dress down over me. He finds the blanket and covers us with it, draping one leg over mine in what's got to be the most possessive spooning of my life.

I'm too blissed out to care.