Page 41 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

I paused for a heartbeat, trying to figure out how to answer that question.

“I’m not hurt, if that’s what you mean,” I finally managed to say.

Ivrael pulled me in close, his hand curving up along my back.

His scent washed over me, spicy vanilla over ice, going straight to my core, bypassing my brain entirely. His body was warmer than I had expected, almost too hot to touch, as if he emanated heat from a fire within. If I had not been so terrified, I would’ve moaned at the warmth and the scent.

The arm still curved around my waist tightened, and I looked up to find him staring at me with an intensity that stole my breath. For a long moment, he stared at me as if waiting for something. I thought Ifelt his cock harden against me, but then he shifted and I couldn’t be sure—and I didn’t have time to process it, anyway.

Those ice-blue eyes went molten, flecked with swirling gold. He shifted his stance again suddenly, and this time I was sure I felt his cock stir against me before he subtly adjusted his hold.

He pulled off one glove with his teeth and tucked it into his pocket, then brushed his thumb across my lip. Without conscious thought, my gaze dropped to his mouth.

That was all it took. He bent his head and captured my lips with his.

His kiss wasn’t gentle. It held all the fierce energy of our battle with the undead, all the tension that had been building between us since the market—and it was hard, possessive, nothing like other kisses I had experienced before. Then again, Ivrael was like no other man I’d ever known.

His lips, like the rest of his body, were surprisingly warm, and I found myself responding before I could think better of it.

His hand pressed against my lower back, holding me closer. A small sound escaped me as his tongue traced my bottom lip, seeking entry. I gasped at the sensation, and he took advantage, deepening the kiss until I was dizzy with it.

For a moment, I forgot everything—that he’d bought me, that I was his prisoner, that seconds ago we’d been fighting for our lives. There was only the heat of his mouth, the strength in his arms, the way my entire body hummed wherever we touched.

Then reality came crashing back. I wrenched away from him, stumbling as my feet hit the ground. “No—I can’t?—”

His eyes had gone completely gold now, but as I watched, they shifted back to their usual shade of ice. His expression closed off, becoming the remote mask I was more familiar with.

“Who let them out?” he demanded.

I stared at him mutely, not knowing what he was talking about, but he didn’t wait for an answer.

“What are you doing here?”

I cringed away from his rough, gravelly voiceand his harsh tone.

“Well?”

Apparently, these were not rhetorical questions.

“Tell me.”

“I was going home.” I knew I sounded sulky—but to be fair, that’s what I was. “I don’t want to be here.”

“That makes two of us.”

I jerked back, this time staring at him in surprise. Had I heard that right?

Before I could ask, he continued his barrage of questions. “But why did you stop here, in the graveyard?”

“How the hell was I supposed to know you keep monsters in your cemetery?”

This time he snorted, the sound somewhere between irritation and laughter. “Sometimes I forget where you spent your childhood.”

I shook my head, unable to reconcile this angry man—this passionate, expressive Ivrael—with the cold, cruel, remote man who had bought me in the Trasqo Market.

Which Ivrael was he? The remote Lord of the Manor? Or this one?

Or hell, the one who’d just kissed me…

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