Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
So I do. I graze my fingers up and down her neck and shoulders, brushing my thumb pads over her skin. I let my hands dance over her soft, fragrant skin, marveling at how flawless she is. I am a male obsessed when it comes to this one human female, and as I stroke the line of her spine and then run a finger along her collarbones, Melina shivers. When I circle around her again, her breasts are tightly pointed, her nipples erect.
"You can add a little bit of pressure," she says, her voice strangled.
Obeying her commands, I press my palms harder against her shoulders, and rub with more vigor. I watch her closely, and her eyes close again, her arousal perfume thick in the air. Does she know I can smell her desire? Would she turn me down if I tried to mount her?
But I cannot, because she has not taken my fires. And a Salorian does not take a mate.
It must be about her pleasure only, then. I sweep my hands over her collarbones and down her arms, and when she shivers again, this time, I am there to breathe into her ear. "Now are you cold?"
Melina shakes her head. "Just…feeling things."
"Shall I stop?" I trace a finger up her arm.
"I didn't say that." She turns toward me and gives me a thoughtful look. "You're sure you want to do this, knowing you get nothing out of it?"
I give her a wry grin. "You think I truly get nothing out of it?" Already my cock is throbbing so hard with pleasure I can barely think straight. Even if I do not release inside her, the pleasure I am getting out of touching her will be more than enough to sate me. "You have so little faith in my desire to touch you."
"I just don't know how you'd go for so long without touching anyone, and then you meet me, and now you want to have sex. You said yourself Salorians don't take mates. So why me? Why now?" Even as she speaks, she tilts her head, a silent invitation for my hands. "I'm not special."
"Are you not?" I purr the words. Perhaps in appearance she does not look special compared to other human females, but I do not much notice their looks anyhow. "You saved me when I arrived."
"I was doing my job. I help people. That's what I do."
"I do not see anyone else helping. Surely you are not the only one trained?" When she doesn't answer, I know I am right. It's not that others do not know how, they just do not care. Melina does. I lean in closer. "It is your spirit that entices me, my lovely consort. It is that defiant tilt of your head when you stand up to me. It is how you insist upon having things your way even when you have no control. It is your intelligence, and your wit, and your strength…and even your stubbornness." I lean in closer, unable to resist the expanse of brown skin at her nape. "And your scent is exquisite. So why you? Why now? I do not know, and yet I do at the same time. A Salorian does not take a mate, and yet I find I cannot walk away from you. I cannot leave you alone. If I cannot be as the Salorians deem, then why not enjoy myself as I rule over the kingdom of humans?" I slide a hand around her waist, drawing her back against me. She goes without a fight, her scent everywhere, and I bite back a groan. "If I must stay here, why not indulge myself in the hunger you have stoked in me? Hungers that I have never felt before?"
"Is that all I am to you? A challenge to be won? A prize? And once you get what you want, you'll be done?" Her voice is tight, and yet amused at the same time. "If that's all it is, you can fuck me now and get it over with, and we'll go our separate ways."
"That's not what I want."
I want her. I want her with hot need in her eyes, yearning for me like I yearn for her.
Melina sighs, turning her head to look up at me. "I never do quite grasp what you want."
I know what she means. Some days, I'm not entirely sure what I want, either. My pleasure at ruling this place—at her presence—wars with my Salorian nature. She is all the things I cannot have, and yet here I am, indulging myself anyhow and straining the limits of my control. So I settle upon the immediate. As long as I do not claim her, I can still return home, to my world and resume my life. "Right now, all I want is to taste you."