CHAPTER 44

He had been starvingfor her. The kiss soothed his soul, while inflaming his need to a dangerous inferno. Her lips were so sweet, her body so pliant under his hands. He could swallow her whole.

The last hours of hardship and fear dissolved as he drank the nectar of her body. How could he survive without her vitality, her warmth, her uniqueness? How had he ever thought that making love to a parbot could compare to this conflagration?

After being detained by the commission for much longer than he expected, he arrived at the ruins after dark. They had wanted to run more tests on him, to obtain proof that what he was saying was true.

The idiots. Did they think he would ever make a fool of himself, damage his relationship with the company that had made him rich, and probably wreck his career, by proclaiming his love in the middle of a deposition, without a strong cause? But he had impugned a powerful corporation. That alone warranted solid proof. He had given them what they wanted, but it had taken most of the day to extricate himself. By the time he had arrived at their meeting place, she had been gone, and he thought he had lost her forever. He couldn’t bear to think about it.

Her hands knotted in his hair, pulling his head away. He resisted. He hadn’t had nearly enough of her mouth. Maybe it would never be enough. His cock was hard to the point of aching, but kissing her was such a delicious pleasure he couldn’t bear to break the contact long enough to remove his trousers and sink his aching flesh into her welcoming heaven. God, he was in a bad state.

She pulled his hair again. “Wait,” she groaned in between their mouths.

“Can’t. Need you.” He was reduced to incomplete sentences and was not even ashamed of revealing his desperate need.

Her hands let go of his hair to slide down his chest and abdomen, painting a trail of heat and need wherever they touched him. They came to rest on the waistband of his trousers. Having them so near his aching flesh almost drove him insane. His hips rolled against her, grinding his hardness into her softness.

And then he felt it. The snap as his trousers opened, then excruciating relief. Until her questing little hand dove inside and grabbed his erection. Her touch on his straining flesh galvanized him. Almost made him come on the spot.

“Fuuck, Kalli.” He ground against her lips.

“Shhh, I know. Let me help you.”

If he had been capable of rational thinking, he would have expected her to stroke him to completion. But once again, his sprite surprised him. Bringing her arms back up to twine around his neck, she hoisted herself up and jumped, wrapping her legs around his waist, pressing her hot, wet pussy against his shaft.

The sensation almost made his knees buckle, and he had to brace her against the wall to avoid falling. Breathing hard to regain control, he almost lost it when she reached between their bodies, notched his cock against her entrance, and sank down.

His groan of ecstasy mingled with her moan, trapped between their fused mouths.

“Don’t move,” he implored desperately, grabbing her arse and holding her still. “I don’t want this to end so soon. Being inside you is... I have no words for it, for I’ve never felt it before. Divine? Heavenly? Indescribable. Fuck, you have me almost at the breaking point.”

“It’s fine. We can go over the edge now. Next time we can take it slow,” she said, biting his lower lip.

“No,” he growled, pinning her with his hips against the wall. “I don’t want to come yet. I want to balance on the edge with you, to teeter at the border of the precipice. Drawing out this exquisite torment.”

“I thought you couldn’t wait,” she complained, tightening around him. The vixen. “Please, Dariux.”

He wasn’t cruel but hearing her beg for the pleasure he could bring her brought him unholy satisfaction.

“I’m right here, sprite.” He flexed his hips, an infinitesimal movement, designed not to satisfy, but to impress his presence inside her. She groaned and dropped her head back, proving to be almost his undoing.

“I will always be here. I’m yours. Are you mine?”

“Yes,” she panted.

The heartfelt admission calmed his frantic need. It didn’t make it any less potent, but somehow less urgent. She was his, just as he was hers. They belonged to each other. They were together now. Nothing stood between them. The knowledge was a warm balm on his soul.

He finally understood what love was. This was it. A constant need that was not urgent because it was insatiable. He kissed her, deep and slow, pouring his newfound understanding into the kiss. Telling her without words what was in his heart. When he felt her melt in his arms, he broke the kiss. Looking into her eyes, he tried to put to words what he had expressed with his kiss. She deserved the words, imperfect as they were.

“I love you.” When she opened her mouth to reply, he closed it with a kiss. He needed to get all the words in his chest out.

“I didn’t know what love was, sprite,” he continued. “I thought it was about physical needs and satisfying desires. About pleasure, comfort, and convenience. I had never experienced it. Like a blind person who has never seen colors and cannot, therefore, imagine the transcendental beauty of a sunset.

“When I started falling for you, I told myself it was about physical desire. Yet from the first time we were together, I felt something more. Something different. It terrified me. I thought it would make me weaker. Vulnerable. That’s why I fought it so hard. I thought I could overcome it. But you know what I discovered?” He paused.

She shook her head. “No.”

“The only thing more terrifying than loving you is living without you.”

“Does that mean that loving me still terrifies you?”

“A bit. Love makes one vulnerable. What if I lose you? I’m afraid to disappoint you. I’m afraid of not being the man you need.”

“Dariux.” She pulled at his hair, waiting until he looked into her eyes. “You don’t have to fear any of that. I love you too. And I’m not going anywhere.”

“Oh, sprite. Thank you.”

“What for?”

“For loving me. For being patient and un—”

She took his mouth. Sealing his lips. Distracting him with urgent needs, moist heat and the flavor of her. He lost track of everything. There was nothing but the woman in his arms, taking him into her body, her warmth surrounding him.

“Dariux, are you going to make love to me now?” she asked, squeezing him intimately.

He gasped. Desire had never faded. It simmered beneath the surface, waiting to be acknowledged. To be set free.

“Promise not to move until I tell you to?”

“Hmm, so dominant. I promise.”

He carried her to the bed and laid her down near the edge. Then stood above her, looking down at the place where they joined. She closed her eyes, squirmed and tightened. The minx. He should have known she would not obey his command to stay still.

Putting a hand on her hip, he held her immobile, while the thumb of the other hand teased her clit, circling it slowly, exerting just enough pressure to taunt her, but not enough to allow her to climax.

“You don’t take orders well, do you?” he demanded, veiled menace in his tone.

“You give way too many orders,” she panted, frustrated. “I need to come.”

“I know what you need. And I’ll give it to you.” He gave her a small nudge, making her groan and arch her back. He stopped and held her immobile again. She looked at him with eyes dazed by desire. The sight was almost his undoing, but he was enjoying this too much to let it go.

“Dariux, please,” she begged.

“Yes, say my name. Look at me.”

Her eyes, which had drifted closed, opened and her gaze snapped to his.

“Did your parbot obey your every command?” he demanded.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t reply. He stopped his ministrations to her clit, waiting for her reply. She groaned in frustration.

“Yes! Damn you.”

“Hmm...” He resumed his lazy stroking. “But I am not him. You can’t order me about. I’ll give you what you need, but in my own good time. And you know what, Kalli?” He stopped and waited for her response.

“W-what?”

“You are going to like that even more.”

Her moan, her swallow, the way her muscles clenched around him, told him his little firebrand liked to be dominated. She was a willful handful. She liked to get her way and run things. And he would let her... sometimes. But right now, he needed her to obey him.

He wanted to punish her almost with the same intensity as he wanted to pleasure her. Maybe in atonement for the fear she had made him feel after eluding him for over a month. He needed to impress upon her that she was not to leave him again. Ever. She had made him love her, damn her. She had said she loved him. Now he needed her to prove it.