Kraving Dravka by Zoey Draven

Chapter Sixteen

Dravka knew that Valerie was remembering the same thing he was.

The Rut. The things she’d whispered into his ear, naughty things that had made him come in his pants just imagining them.

He remembered that orgasm. Vauk, how could he not? It had been the most powerful one of his life and he hadn’t even touched himself. He’d come like a youth during his very first Rut, fucking the air with his hips, desperate for friction and touch.

After that moment, he thought that maybe, just maybe, she’d given him the sign he’d been looking for all those years. That she was ready to take the next step with him.

Only, she’d flown out of his room so fast, her face leached of color like she’d been horrified by what she’d witnessed.

And afterwards?

“You never brought it up,” he murmured to Valerie. She was still sitting in his lap—almost naked—in his bed, where that life-changing orgasm had happened. “I thought you wanted to forget it ever happened, so I didn’t say anything either. I feared…I feared that I had ruined everything. You barely looked at me for weeks.”

Then Khiva left with Eve. And everything seemed to shift between them again.

“I was surprised by what happened,” she murmured to him, that same flush still coloring her cheeks. “I was surprised by…how I acted, how you acted. I didn’t want to…”

“Want to what?” he rasped.

A look of desperation crossed her face, making him furrow his brow.

“You’re my best friend, Dravka,” she told him. “Besides my mother, you’re the one being in my entire life that I ever allowed myself to get close to. To…to love.”

His hearts filled to the brim at her words.

“You know I love you,” she whispered, those damn tears filling her vision again. “I love you in every way possible.”

“Val,” he murmured, his grip tightening on her.

“And I know you love me too,” she said. “But I didn’t know in what way. And that day, I thought that our friendship would be changed. A part of me couldn’t deal with that because—because...”

Dravka murmured soft words to her in Keriv’i, telling her she was beautiful and perfect, while she shivered in his arms.

Her fingers clutched at his sides and she buried her face into his chest, until he could feel the wetness of her tears.

“So yes, you’re right,” she whispered. “Sex would’ve changed everything. I wasn’t certain I was ready for it.”

She lifted her face.

Her eyes were so vauking beautiful. Though there was a sadness in them that made him want to bellow in frustration.

“So, I’m sorry for pawing at you just now,” she said, trying to smile a bit. “I know I shouldn’t have—”

He cut off her words with a growl and then he was pulling her forward to kiss her, to silence her, to taste her, to feel her.

Valerie let out a shuddering gasp but then her lips were soft and tentative against his own. She shifted in his lap, making him aware that he still had a raging erection that had refused to die down and that his pants were soaked in pre-cum like an untried youth.

“Sometimes,” he rasped, breaking their kiss, pressing his forehead against her as she let out little pants and gasps, “sex can change everything for the better.”

And Dravka knew that when—not if—they had sex…it would be life-altering. Dravka had known his feelings for her since he first laid eyes on her. Sex wouldn’t destroy them. It would lift them to where they were always meant to be with one another.

Tie them to one another, for the rest of their lives.

The nuvur’u drava. The linking. Just like Dravka had always sensed, always known.

Her eyes were shy as she absorbed his words.

“Yeah?” she whispered.

Dravka almost groaned at the curiosity in her gaze.

He shook his head, knowing that if he didn’t act now, he would end the night buried between her thighs—a place he’d always meant to be.

But he didn’t want that.

“When we have sex for the first time, mellkia,” Dravka told her, feeling his chest fill with sweet anticipation and determination and purpose, “it won’t be on Everton.”

Valerie’s eyes widened.

“Dravka—”

“And it certainly won’t be in this room, or any other room in this building, in this demav-forsaken place,” he told her.

Not in the place where he’d fucked hundreds of women in the years he’d been there. The mere thought of having sex with Valerie in the brothel, within these walls, made him feel restless.

He pressed a kiss to her nose, across her cheek.

“Pax?” he whispered, needing her to understand.

When he met her eyes, his belly dropped. She was wearing a soft, sad smile. And her gaze was…disappointed.

“Val?”

She was quiet for a long while and then she sighed, leaning into him, pressing her forehead into the crook beneath his jaw. Dravka marveled at how right it felt, holding her like this, her bare flesh pressed into his.

Then she said, “I’m getting married in a few weeks, Dravka.”

He tensed, just the mere thought unleashing fury and panic inside him. They were running out of time.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be rid of Everton.”

She pressed the words into his skin like a brand, her lips soft on his neck.

“You won’t be marrying him, Valerie,” was what Dravka replied.

She only sighed.

Then she asked, “Can I sleep here tonight? With you?”

He growled and maneuvered her so that she met his eyes. He cradled her face in his palms.

“I’m serious, Val,” he said, his tone soft and even. Certain. “We’ll take care of everything. You don’t need to worry.”

“We?” she asked, frowning.

His jaw ticked. “I told Tavak and Ravu.”

She pressed her lips together. “I thought you might.”

“We have credits, Val,” he said. “Maybe not as many as we are owed, what we were promised, but she did pay us.”

“A credit a night,” Valerie said, her jaw tensing. “That’s hardly payment.”

“Regardless,” he said, “I’ve been saving mine. So have Tavak and Ravu. With the 2700 credits that Khiva and Eve gave us, with the money from the townhouse and the collections…we have enough, Val. To get passage off Everton, to start over somewhere. Together.”

The longing was evident on her features.

He paused and said, “Maybe even on Dumera.”

“Dravka,” Val said, shaking her head.

“Khiva and Eve are there. We heard that he started creating firestones again.”

“Firestones?”

“I’ll tell you all about them sometime,” he promised her. “But if they are in circulation again, then he will need workers. Many of them if he wants to expand. He would hire all of us. You know that. And then we could have our home, Val. The one I said I’d give you. The one with—”

“Dravka, stop,” Valerie whispered. “Please.”

He took a deep breath but she pressed her fingers to his lips.

“You know how powerful she is. How many connections she has. She won’t let me go,” she whispered. “You know she won’t. Not when she needs me this much. She can and will find me anywhere in the universe if I try to leave.”

“I’ll take care of this, of you,” he continued, shaking his head. “You don’t need to worry. And you certainly don’t have to worry about Gabriel Larchmont.”

Celine Larchmont was one of Ravu’s clients. One who had a booking with him in two days’ time. They had a plan. Because sometimes, Celine Larchmont only visited Ravu to talk, according to him. He cared for her and he believed she cared for him. Ravu even believed them to be friends. He believed she had reason to help them, that she would help them if he asked.

“You don’t believe me,” he murmured, though a small smile quirked the edges of his lips. “But in time, I’ll show you that I am a male of my word. And I promise that I will make everything right. Pax?”

Valerie pressed a small kiss to his jawline. She gave him a small smile and Dravka hated the doubt in her eyes.

“Will you hold me tonight?” she asked softly, the words so sweet in his ears.

He inhaled a deep, long breath.

Then he maneuvered them on the bed, placing both of them underneath the blanket on his small bed and stretching out next to her.

He reached under the covers and slid out of his still-wet pants, using the material to clean the remaining pre-cum from his cock before he tossed the bundle to the floor.

Valerie was watching him in the darkness and he swore he caught her small blush. Now she knew he was naked—and she only wore that little patch of material between her thighs.

His hand slid across, pulling her into him. His palm rested on the swell of her ass, squeezing softly, eliciting a small gasp from Val. He tucked her close, as she’d requested, threading his arms around her.

Cold hands rested on his chest, which he quickly warmed. She sighed, a puff of hot air blowing across his neck, and she buried her face there.

They lay in silence for a brief moment. Her breath was beginning to even out, her heartbeat beginning to slow.

At least until he said, “And when we are settled on Dumera, in our little house with your garden…”

He felt the way her lips parted against his neck.

“I’ll hold you like this every night. Only, on Dumera, it’ll be after I’ve mated you thoroughly and filled you with my teela. I’ll hold you through your orgasms. Just like this. Every night.”

He grinned when he felt her heartbeat double in pace against his chest.

“The wicked things I’ll do to you there, mellkia. I can hardly wait,” he rasped into her ear, rubbing the little tip of it with his chin. “Now, sleep.”

Dravka heard her swallow. For long moments, her heartbeat never slowed.

Then she asked, “What does mellkia mean?”

He clutched her closer. He’d wondered when she would ask. He’d called her mellkia for years now.

“It means,” Dravka told her, “my love.”

Her heart sped even more.