I smirk at her.

"Only if you desire so."

She shakes her head and laughs.

"Then do not worry, my vyperix. Our mating will be a private affair."

"Good." She smiles back and returns her attention to the people.

It's not long before we reach my quarters. I help Ayla off the float and walk with her across the bridge toward the inner chamber.

"So, are all rooms connected by such airy bridges?" She looks everywhere around her, admiring the beauty of my planet and the joy in her eyes makes me feel as if I'm seeing it for the first time too.

"We're people in tune with nature so, naturally. These are part of our rooms as much as the inner chamber. We need to breathe and see and feel our home. It's almost as important as eating and drinking."

She smiles at me and the beauty of it reflects in her emotions too.

"Is that why you can't live on another planet?"

"Partly. We could live elsewhere. It's metallic structures we can't live in. Not for long, anyway. It's acceptable for travel."

The float returns to its base and we're finally all alone, just the two of us and the wilderness of Vyperion around us and I can't help but feel as if this is a dream.

"A penny for your thoughts?" she asks and brings my hand up, kissing my knuckles.

"You said yes."

She narrows her gaze on me.

"I did. Does that shock you?"

I nod. "It does, yes. I didn't think you wanted me."

Her eyebrows raise and she pouts her beautiful pink lips.

"Really? After all the times I took care of you back on Earth?"

"My body, yes. But I didn't think you wanted to stay with me and be my wife and queen."

"I wasn't sure myself, but..." She hesitates for a moment then guides my hand over her cheek, my thumb hanging on to her lips and she sucks me in. "The more I kept thinking of going back and never seeing you again, the uglier I felt inside."

I'm forced to take a deep breath when she bites my thumb and her emotions shine through like she's a sun herself. Her light reaches the deepest, darkest parts of me and sets them on fire.

I don't know where she's been hiding that passion, that love, how she's been hiding it, or maybe repressing it, but now that it's here I don't want to be illuminated by anything else ever again.

"Can you feel this?" she whispers, pressing our bodies together.

I nod.

"That's my love for you. Because I do. I love you Lofynyx of Leviathar. I don't know how the hell you managed to make me fall for you so quickly and so deeply, what kind of spell you've put on me, but I love you so much and I couldn't live the rest of my pathetically short life without you."

My cock presses against her stomach and she moans, releasing my thumb so I'm able to grab her by the back of her neck and kiss her.

*I've loved you before I even met you, my vyperix. I don't know what I would have done if you had turned me down. The kind of man I would have become. Thank you for choosing me.

Another moan escapes her but this time I swallow it and it reverberates through me.

"You're such a softie for a king," she says when she pulls away from our kiss and I glance down at my hard cock.