Page 54 of Stars in Halo

Chest heaving, heart racing.

Her face was turned from him, and he used a finger to capture her chin and tug it toward him.

What he tagged when their eyes met shook him to the core.

A vulnerability, an openness that bore to her inner soul.

Without thinking, he leaned forward and grazed her chin.

‘Lips,’ he growled.

She offered them, and he lowered his head into a tender, sweet, and lingering melding, which she returned.

His chest convulsed with feeling as his gut wrenched.

What the everlovinfokk?

Ignoring the panic that threatened to overwhelm him, he kept his lips gentle, working over hers as she burrowed deeper into his heart and soul.

With a small sigh, she pulled away.

He cupped her breast and played with her nipple, and she served him with a soft smile.

Wrecked, his body ravaged, his soul ransacked, he had no urge to speak. Instead, he came down, relishing the freedom of lying in silence with her in his arms.

A strange calm and freakin’ peace washed over him.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long time before he withdrew out and away from her.

He tracked to the sumptuous bathroom and wetted a towel, which he used to clean off his sweat and essence from her skin.

‘You don’t say much, do you?’ he murmured as he swept the cloth over her breast, moving lower to between her thighs.

She gave him a slight shrug even as she tugged on his locks, now free and trailing over his chest. ‘I don’t do chatter. I’m quiet most times.’

‘All up in your head,’ he rasped.

‘It’s a rich tapestry in here,’ she replied, tapping her forehead where the glow of her gems was slowly fading.

He narrowed his eyes at her and raised a brow.

Not at her, but at the sudden, inexplicable urge to understand her, to know everything about her.

It wasn’t his style, so he tamped down the desire with a clenched jaw.

What he said next was also out of character, and he blurted the words without thinking. ‘May I stay one more night, khaliya?’ he rasped. ‘I’m not too proud to beg.’

Her limpid eyes fixed on his, and his jolted, braced, waiting for rejection.

‘Khaliya?’

‘Beautiful in Kwavi,’ he told her, his chest locked in tense anticipation.

She broke into a languorous smile. ‘I suppose that would make you my kodan, my handsome prince. In Iccythrian.’

He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, hiding the wave of pleasure that hit her words. Xion was well aware that the Ccyth were precious in their traditions, one of which was that naming someone outside their culture was frowned upon.

‘Stop fretting, kodan,’ she teased, reaching up to press her lips to the side of his mouth. ‘Of course you can stay.’

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