Kraving Khiva by Zoey Draven

Chapter Twenty

“Khiva,” Evelyn moaned softly.

He purred. Even though her tone hedged on a warning, her hands were clenched into his forearms, gripping him as if she never intended to let him go.

“Just one more moment, leeldra,” Khiva rasped, nibbling at the sensitive skin of her neck, feeling the primitive urge to mark her in any way he could, if he couldn’t use his teela to do so.

He’d missed her. Craved her. It had been a week since he’d last seen her and while she always took his next available booking, it was always too long. This night marked her fifth visit to him, her third since returning to him a few weeks ago. They’d yet to have sex again and Khiva knew that they wouldn’t that night either.

A part of him knew that they’d never again have sex in that room. Half of him was relieved. It seemed strange to take her body where he took all the others, when she meant more to him than he’d thought possible. The other half of him ached at that knowledge because it had been over six weeks since he’d taken her virginity, over six weeks since he’d last mated her.

As a Keriv’i male in the presence of his leeldra, this was almost unfathomable. The Keriv’i male in him needed to mate her. And he knew that that need would only grow, since his Rut was fast approaching. Another week and it would be full-fledged.

Khiva inhaled her scent, branding her into his mind. She wore a thin white shift dress that night, as if knowing how much it would drive him mad and fuel his wicked fantasies. If he peered hard enough, he could see the subtle darkness of her nipples underneath, since she wore no undergarments. He couldn’t help but think that he’d be able to see them fully if he suckled on the fabric long enough.

Madness.

His cock had been aching all day. He’d known she was coming that night, since Valerie kept him informed of her appointments now. Though he’d brought himself to manual release a couple times throughout the afternoon, it had felt like he hadn’t orgasmed in over a year by how aroused he was. He was pawing at her like an untried youth but his enthusiasm seemed to make the scent of her arousal all the more potent.

A never-ending cycle.

Khiva couldn’t help but grip the flesh of her lush backside hard and Evelyn gasped at his touch. It was a message. It said soon.

Because Khiva didn’t know how much more of this erotic torture he could take.

“Tell me something,” he gruffly ordered, as had become their routine. It was meant as a distraction, a distraction away from his wicked imaginings of stripping her bare and fucking her right where they stood, of fantasies of emptying his teela inside her and watching her writhe and beg as orgasm after orgasm crashed over her body. “Anything.”

Her voice was light and breathless. “I-I saw a painting today.”

“Of what?” he rasped, carrying her easily over to the armchair he’d dragged near the fire. He sat and pulled her onto his lap, sliding her dress up around her hips so that her legs straddled his thighs. His hands caressed her smooth skin, his thumbs edging upwards until he caught himself.

Evelyn took a deep breath, linking her arms behind his neck. His gaze was drawn again to her breasts and he cursed softly when he saw the peaked points of her nipples straining against the material.

Demav, how he needed to sate her!

“It…it was, um, of a creature,” she said, obviously trying to shake herself from the desire, as Khiva was attempting to do. “Like the one you told me about on Kerivu last week.”

It was hard to think through the fog of lust but Khiva managed to say, “A kikuru?”

“Yes,” she said. “A kikuru.”

It drove Khiva crazy any time she said something in his language. It was her accent, he reasoned. It was soft and lyrical, though his language was neither of those things. It made him want to bury himself deep inside her body as she moaned Keriv’i words to him.

“It had wings,” she said lightly. “It was bright blue with large eyes and talons.”

“Kikurus were what humans refer to as red,” he told her, nuzzling just behind her ear, which made her shiver. He grinned. It was one her sensitive spots. No matter what, it would arouse her if he so much as breathed on it.

He heard her swallow thickly. “I—I know, but it was just how I imagined it in my mind. If it was red, it would have been a splitting image.”

Affectionate amusement burst in his chest and he trilled. He pulled away from her ear to look at her, a pleasing warmth pulsing through his body. “I am sure it would have been, leeldra.”

“You’re teasing me,” she accused.

“I am,” he murmured. “You like it when I tease you.”

“I do.”

Slowly, she leaned forward and caught his lips in a gentle kiss. Khiva breathed it in, but told himself to take it slow. He kissed her as if he was in no rush, as if they had all the time in the universe.

When they pulled back, Evelyn sighed and ran the pad of her fingertip over his lips. “Hello, Khiva.”

“Hello, Evelyn,” he murmured back, catching her fingertip between his teeth and giving it a gentle nibble.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

“I missed you more.”

“I doubt that,” she said smiling. Her smile faded slightly. “How was your week?”

“As any other week,” he murmured, trying to hedge around the question. “How was yours?”

Evelyn sighed but shook it off. He knew that her discomfort was about his clients. She’d admitted it to him during the last visit.

“As any other week,” she told him, flashing him a small smile which made him relax. Truthfully, a part of him liked her jealousy in a purely male way. It signaled to him that she was as possessive of him as he was her. But he also had to be careful, since he knew that the knowledge of his other clients hurt her as well.

But she understood. She had to. She’d always known what he was: a Krave.

With Evelyn, however, he was only Khiva. He knew that fact made it easier for her to accept, knowing that he was someone else entirely with the other human females. He played a role for a specific purpose, but never with her.

The fire crackled in the hearth with a sharp sound, making Evelyn jump a fraction in his lap. When he trilled, she pushed his shoulder.

“Nervous?” he questioned, catching her wrists and bringing them to his lips where he kissed the soft flesh.

“No,” she whispered, smiling. “Surprisingly no. Not with you.”

The knowledge pleased him. Over the past two visits, she’d opened up more about her life, of her childhood and the shyness and anxiety that had followed her into adulthood. He didn’t see evidence of any of those traits in the human female sitting on his lap right then, happily accepting his kisses.

Slowly, she leaned her forehead against the center of his chest and the affectionate gesture filled him with something that he was beginning to recognize, although it was something he’d never felt for a lover before. At least, not this deeply.

“Tell me something,” she whispered, her lithe fingers coming to fiddle with the fabric of his shirt.

Khiva, throughout their visits, was keenly aware that he never talked of his past, of his family. And he had been on Everton long enough, around humans long enough, to recognize Evelyn’s subtle disappointment whenever he hedged around a personal question. For Keriv’i, while they were affectionate with lovers and family, there were certain topics that one did not speak of.

For Evelyn, however, he wanted to. She’d told him much about her life, though in some instances, like when she’d told him memories of her father, or the bullying she’d endured as a child for never speaking, he knew it was painful for her to do so.

He could do the same for her, he reasoned.

“I renewed my application yesterday,” he told her softly, “to the United Worlds. To the Missing Beings branch.”

Evelyn didn’t react at first, but then she pulled away from the center of his chest to look at him properly. Her expression was softened, but gave nothing away.

“For your mother and your brother?”

Khiva nodded in response.

“Do you…have any idea, any sense at all, where they might have ended up?” she asked softly.

“If they survived,” Khiva said first. “And even if they survived, veki. I know there was some aid from the United Worlds for survivors, but they would have been documented into the servers. Some neutral colonies were also accepting beings at that time, but the number of which is unknown.”

“Khiva…”

He looked at her and said, “I renew my application every Everton year because I do not want to give up on them, even knowing that finding out the truth, even if they are dead, is slim. There are trillions of beings in our universe and many were effected by the Great War. But I want to know what happened. I need to.”

“Of course, Khiva. That’s understandable,” she whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek. “How long have you been applying?”

“The moment I could first pay the application credit fee. Nine years ago, I began.”

“You have been working here for ten years, Khiva,” Evelyn pointed out, furrowing her brow.

His fingers tightened briefly where they rested against her backside. “Pax.”

She licked her lips and then asked, “Is the application credit fee really that high?”

“To some, no,” he said carefully.

“How much is it?”

“300 credits,” he told her.

Evelyn’s brow furrowed even more and she straightened in his lap. Shaking her head, she murmured, “I don’t understand.”

“What do you mean?”

She studied him and said softly, “When I first came here, I signed a contract. Valerie told me that every Keriv’i gets half of the clients’ credits from everyvisit. That’s 450 credits. 300 credits…that’s less than a night.”

Khiva’s lips pressed firmly together and after carefully combing through his thoughts, he said slowly, “You believe that Madame Allegria pays us half?”

“It…it was in the contract. It’s the Earth Council and the United Worlds law that she abides by it,” she whispered, but her eyes were wide and Khiva could see realization begin to dawn in her gaze. “Khiva…”

“If she paid us 450 credits after every client, she would have no Krave left,” Khiva told her bluntly. “We would have obtained passage off Everton long ago. Where would that leave her?”

“Oh my God,” she said, her face draining. “How…how much?”

“Evelyn…”

“How much after every client?” she asked, her voice rising ever so slightly.

“Not every client,” he corrected her, his voice softening. “Every week.”

“A wage,” she said slowly. “How much per week then?”

Khiva’s jaw tightened. Now he understood why humans did not like to speak of credits.

“One,” he said.

“One…what?” she asked, blinking. “One hundred? One thousand?”

“Veki,” he said, blowing out a harsh breath through his nostrils. “One. One credit a week.”

Khiva watched her try to process what he’d just told her, information that would have his back stripped of its skin if Madame Allegria ever found out he’d told the truth of their situation.

Evelyn shook her head. “What?”

Khiva remained quiet, simply looked at her.

“Khiva, please tell me this is a horrifying joke.”

Khiva exhaled, shame threading through his insides. “It is not so much about the payment, but that we have shelter and food while we are here. There are many who cannot say the same.”

Evelyn stared at him, her pink cheeks going pale as she realized what he was telling her. She sat like a stone pillar in his lap, unmoving, unblinking, as she processed the truth.

She sat there for so long that Khiva began to worry. “Evelyn.”

“I…” she started, licking her dry lips. She began to extract herself from his lap, her movements urgent, and his stomach sunk, wondering what she thought of him know that she knew. “I—I think I’m going to be sick.”

She raced for the door leading to the washroom and Khiva cursed, quickly following her. He made it to the door just as she retched into the toilet, already crouched beside it on her knees.

Khiva put a hand on her back. “Leeldra?”

Evelyn continued to vomit and Khiva straightened to bring her the glass of water she’d taken with dinner. She was just wiping her mouth when he returned with it and he sank down to the floor next to her, handing her the glass.

Her eyes were wet with tears as she rinsed out her mouth and Khiva noticed that she didn’t quite meet his gaze.

Again, his gut clenched. Quietly, after a heavy silence, he asked, “Do you think less of me now, leeldra?”

He needed to know.

That made her gaze cut right to him and to his horror, more tears ushered into her eyes before spilling down her cheeks. “What? No!”

“Shouldn’t you?” he questioned. “Now you know I whore myself to sleep and eat here, as we all do.”

“Khiva,” she whispered, her tone aghast, her brows pulling together in an expression he didn’t want to see.

More tears spilled from her eyes and all at once, she buried her face into the palms of her hands, her shoulders shaking as rough sobs tore from her throat.

“Leeldra,” he said softly, his chest aching, as he reached for her. The moment his hands touched her bare arms, she climbed onto him until she was in his lap once more, with his back against the wall next to the bathing tub. Something about it reassured him and that tightening in his gut loosened. “Leeldra, why are you so upset?”

“B-because it’s wrong, Khiva!” she rasped. “Everything is so, so wrong.”

“Tell me, Evelyn,” he requested. “As much as I would like to, I cannot read what goes on in your mind.”

“I—I don’t even know where to begin,” she whispered, her shoulders still shaking. Where her face was pressed into his shirt, he felt the wetness of her tears and Khiva exhaled, stroking down her back as he waited.

Eventually, her sobs calmed, but Khiva still felt the way her heart beat steadily into his chest.

When she pulled back to look at him, he growled, not liking her reddened eyes and pale cheeks, knowing they were a result of his words.

“What she’s doing is wrong,” Evelyn said.

Khiva tilted his head down to show his agreement. “Pax, but I often ask myself, if she hadn’t found us ten years ago, would be better off? Or worse?”

Evelyn shook her head, “If the United Worlds found out about this, if the Earth Council found out about this, Khiva…she would be sent to the Quentin colony for life. You have to report this.”

If only Evelyn knew half of Madame Allegria’s wrongdoings…

“Leeldra,” he said softly. “I cannot.”

“What do you mean? Of course you can!” she cried.

“I wish,” he started slowly, running the pads of his rough fingertips down her cheek, smoothing away the lingering tears, “that we lived in a place, in a time, where I could. We are on Everton, Evelyn. I am technically employed under a very powerful human female, who has connections throughout the Earth Council and whose connections possibly even reach to the United Worlds. You underestimate the power of wealth. I have read about Earth history, as I have other species’ histories. One trait that runs through them all is corruption. Greed. What is the Old Earth saying? ‘You play the hand you are dealt.’”

Evelyn shook her head, “No, there has to be some way to—”

“Keriv’i have always been targeted in this way, Evelyn,” he admitted to her softly. “Biologically, we are ideal for sexual pleasure. We have always lived with the knowledge of our species’ history. It comes easier for us than, perhaps, other species.”

Evelyn bit her lip, her brows coming together, as more tears entered her eyes. She shook her head, trying to deny his words, but he knew they hit her core.

“I can report her, Khiva,” Evelyn said softly. “My father knew a being in the United Worlds, an old friend. I could try to find out who—”

“Veki,” Khiva said.

“Why not?” she cried out, anger edging into her gaze. “She is a criminal, exploiting you and the other Keriv’i under her ‘employ’ for sex, while she makes off with exorbitant profits and pays you practically nothing, which traps you here!” She let out a shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around her torso. Her tone was anguished as she whispered, “And I…and I have been contributing to it. All along. Using you the same way all the others have.”

Khiva growled. “Evelyn.”

“Do you…” she met his eyes and he saw a vulnerability there he’d never seen in any other being, “do you resent me for it? Even just a little part of you, knowing that I paid her to…to…”

Khiva’s voice hardened. “Veki. I do not.”

“How could you not?” she whispered. “This changes everything, Khiva.”

“Which is why I did not tell you until now,” he admitted, his hands tightening on her, as if afraid she would bolt and never return.

“What?”

“You ask me if I resent you for coming to me. Veki. Never. How could I? From that very first moment you stepped into this room, I have known.”

“Known what?” she whispered.

“You already know,” he told her. “I knew that nothing would be the same.”

Her breath hitched. “Khiva…”

“Do not diminish what we feel, Evelyn,” he told her. No, he pleaded with her. “Do not allow her that. Do not allow your new knowledge to taint this. I have never resented the manner in which you came to me because it brought you to me. A gift from a demav.”

Her lip trembled and Khiva felt her tears on his cheek when she leaned forward to press a kiss to his jaw.

“Pax?” he asked. “All I ask is that you do not feel guilt when you are with me, Evelyn. I understand your reasoning for not wanting to mate while here, but beyond that, when we are simply together like this, do not feel guilt. I could not bear that.”

When she nodded against him, Khiva felt relief so profound that it spread throughout his limbs and made them shake.

“It’s just hard for me to allow her to continue this,” she whispered. “I know it might make me sound like a hypocrite, but I thought she paid you well. More than well. I thought that amount of credits meant you stayed because you wanted to, not because you had no other choice.”

“This is not a battle in which you will win, Evelyn,” he murmured softly, as gently as possible. “Trust me, she is too powerful and she wields that power far beyond Everton.”

She let out a shuddering breath and closed her eyes before opening them. Softly, with their gazes connected, she said, “Let me help you. I have my inheritance. I can—”

“Veki.”

“But Khiva—”

“One thing you should know about Keriv’i males, leeldra, is that our pride burns bright, despite our circumstance,” he told her simply. He would not accept her charity.

Evelyn bit her lip, but then said, with a surprisingly stubborn tone, “I will convince you eventually.”

“You are certainly welcome to try.” Khiva’s arms tightened around her. “Do you feel well enough to stand?”

Evelyn nodded and Khiva hauled them up from the ground. “Good. Because I plan to take you to bed and hold you until morning. No more talk of this for now.”

“But Khiva—”

“Veki. Please, leeldra, I just want to be with you tonight. Without her coming between us. Pax?”

He was glad when her expression slowly softened in understand. And while Khiva knew they would speak on this subject much, much more, for now, she let it go.

“Pax,” she whispered back.