Page 88 of Exquisite Monster
My clothes fell to the grass as he removed them, mouth dragging over the warm whorls of his mark on my shoulder. His hands roamed, smoothing over my skin and leaving nothing but heat behind.
“Is it all right?” I asked. “Without the others.”
I’d only ever been with them together, including the last couple of days. Being alone with Zovai felt important. Significant. Overdue.
“You’re mine,” he whispered into my skin. “And you’re theirs.They’ll be just as jealous as I will be when you’re with them. But they’ll alsoloveit just as much as I will.”
As if he was listening, a flood of love came from Sirrus. Love and jealousy and joy. I never thought jealousy could be a good thing, but the sensation felt… almost playful. Not sinister.
“See?” Zovai asked.
He swept my feet out from under me and laid me on my cloak. Nothing above me but my mate and the open, deep blue sky. Moonlight fell on Zovai, frosting the copper strands of his hair with silver as he leaned over me with glowing, dragon eyes, before they shifted back to his normal color. Brown and gold and orange. A mixture of autumn colors which swept me away.
“What did you think of me?” I asked.
His palm dragged over my skin between my breasts. Down over my ribs, gently gripping my hip. “When?”
“The first time. At the wedding.”
He hummed, bending to follow the path of his mouth with lips and tongue. “The first time I saw you was actually before that. The three of us had flown in the night before, using the storm as cover. We were hiding behind the ridge of the mountains, and I saw you enter the courtyard.”
Surprise rolled through me. “That far away?”
He smirked. “We have very good vision, Princess. And the first thing I saw was that youglittered. My beast wanted to steal you away and hoard the thing that sparkled. And even when I pushed that instinct aside, I felt pulled toward you.
“Then,” his mouth brushed over my hip in a gentle kiss, “when I saw you up close, I hesitated. The moment you touched me, your death became unthinkable to me. But you already knew that.”
I felt his smirk, but when he lifted himself over me once more, there was no trace of it. “I’m sorry for frightening you.”
“There was something,” I told him. “If I hadn’t sensed it, I wouldn’t have begged for my life. I hoped that maybe… maybe it was because I hadn’t been taught to hate you. Maybe you’d senseVaríclinging to me under my dress. But when you took me?” I grasped his shoulders and pulled him down to me. “I smiled as we flew. At least until it got too cold.”
“I’ll never let you be cold again.”
“Especially since I’m fireproof. You can warm me up any time.”
“Tell me what you want,” he murmured.
“You.”
His grin warmed me beneath my skin, and he kissed me gently, teasing my lips with his until I was arching beneath him wordlessly, begging. “More than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not shy, mate. It’s a shield. Remember? We told you we saw through it.”
I did remember. During the few days in Skalisméra when everything felt blissful and beautiful and like nothing in the world could go wrong.
“And you’ve needed your shields. I can feel them. You’ll still need them, I’m sure. But not here. Not now.”
“I don’t?—”
“Pleasure,” he said softly. “Tell me what you want. What you’d like.” His lips brushed over mine. “Tell me how I can serve you, Princess.”
The toe-curling fire they ignited in me rose, aided by the feral desire fed directly to me by my mate. I had plenty of my own, but I didn’t think I’d ever tire of feeling them. And he wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t shy, but I still felt my inexperience.
“I do not know what to ask for. I want you,” I spoke the words pressed to his lips, “and I am not shy, no. I simply don’t know enough.”
“There is no right or wrong with pleasure. No matter what it is, you can always ask.”
