Page 96 of Decadence

His skin was slightly cool to the touch. His chest rose up and down in a steady rhythm. He grasped her wrist and threaded his claw-tipped fingers through hers, leaning forward so that his body was oh-so close to pressing against hers.

His claws were quite obviously lethal, but not once did he hurt her.

His intoxicating male musk surrounded her.

With her other hand, she touched the side of his face, brushing away long strands of moonlight-colored hair, tucking them behind one silver pointed ear.

“This is how you should be,” she whispered at last, her voice thick with emotion. “I don’t know why your kind don’t all have the horns. They… suit you well.”

He pressed a finger to her lips, stealing away her wild, rambling thoughts. “The story of the horns is long and… complicated.” The words came out strained and hoarse. “But these are mine, and only you get to touch them.”

“C-can I?”

“Please.” He leaned forward, dipping his head.

Oh, she liked it when he said please like that.

Sienna reached up and gingerly curled her fingers around his left horn. It was surprisingly warm to the touch, and softer than it looked; the surface actually felt velvety beneath her fingertips.

Fascinated, she stroked her fingers up and down its curved length.

Ikriss stiffened. Pale eyelashes fluttered. His eyes rolled back a little.

A soft, shuddering gasp escaped his lips.

Huh.

Not in a million years had she expected that kind of a reaction.

“Are they… sensitive?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Me… doing this…” she slid her fingers back and forth. “It gives you… pleasure?”

“Yes.”

Wow. Holy moly.

Unable to help herself, she stroked his other horn, eliciting a soft, anguished cry from him. She began to move her fingers back and forth; up and down, a little faster…

Ikriss’s cries of pleasure became deeper and deeper, but just as she started to get the hang of it, he seized her wrists in his powerful hands. “Enough,” he growled. His eyes snapped open. Pure molten amber burned right through her. His fangs were completely bared. Suddenly, he looked wild and primal and perfectly alien. “They manipulated the Fever inside me, Sienna. This is… too much.” He took another deep, shuddering breath. “I am… not my usual self right now. I fear I might…”

He cupped her chin with his claw-tipped fingers, grazing her skin with razor sharpness. If everything they’d told her about the Mating Fever was true, then right now, he was more dangerous than ever. She sensed something inside him was going to break, like a dam about to collapse.

But she wasn’t afraid.

He would never hurt her.

And everything about this just felt so damn right.

How the fuck could she possibly resist a fully naked, horned, long-haired, silver-skinned alien male, who possessed the body of an adonis and stared at her with eyes that held all the intensity of the sun?

He was going to devour her, and she didn’t care.

She tipped her head, leaning into his caress. “No, Ikriss. This is you. The way nature intended you to be. I don’t… I don’t want you to hold back anymore. There’s no reason for you to do that now, is there?”

A soft growl erupted from deep within him.

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