His Mate to Keep by Ivy Sparks
18
Xavier
I couldn’t stop drinkingin the sight of Merrit staring up at me. I wasn’t even surprised when she whispered, “You should have told me.”
My throat tightened. There could be no mistake about what she meant. “I tried…” I started. “I tried a thousand times, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to tie you down if it didn’t affect you the same way.”
“You should have told me. Even now, when I know I’m your fated mate, I don’t even know what that really means. I don’t know what it means for me… or us.”
I took a deep breath. Even if I didn’t know how to explain it before, I had to do it now. She deserved the truth. “It means I’ll fight to the death to protect you. No one can get between us—not the sentinels, not an army—nothing, but you don’t have to feel the same way about me. I understand it’s different for humans. My devotion for you will be forever, but if you want to keep drifting from place to place, I won’t stop you. I won’t force myself on you.”
She frowned, her big blue eyes looking up at me. “What makes you think you’d be forcing yourself on me?”
I had to think to make sure I heard her right. “But you… you never asked for this. It was forced on you—on both of us. It wouldn’t be fair to expect you to bond with me the way I bonded with you. It happened and now it can’t be undone, but only for me. Humans don’t mate like that. I don’t expect to lay that on you against your will. I’m not one of the experimenters.”
“But what if it’s something I want?” She squeezed my hand. “What if it’s something I’ve been looking for all along? What if I want something permanent—something that lasts forever?”
I opened my mouth to answer and stopped myself. Did she really just say that? Did she just say she wanted me forever?
“But do you really want…?” I had to stop and swallow before I could go on. “You want… me?”
She nodded and a crazy grin spread over her face. “At least you’re not a Travian spine-rhino, right?”
I couldn’t laugh. Part of me felt sick. “I don’t think I know how to be a mate. I don’t think I even know how to be a Kavian.”
She lifted her arm and her satin fingertips glided up my cheek. “I’m pretty sure you’ve got the ‘protect your mate no matter what’ thing down at least.”
The magical sensation of her touching me almost drove me out of my mind. “What about the other stuff? I never learned the ways of my people. I don’t know how to open my soul to another. I’ve never done it before. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“That makes two of us. I do know I never felt this way before, and I’m pretty sure I opened my soul to you in the lab…”
Before I thought to stop Merrit, she slid her fingers behind my neck and pulled me down to her mouth. The next moment, our lips met, and she slipped her tongue inside my mouth.
I felt myself collapsing into the blissful dream I experienced last time, but this was different. No one was watching. No one was pushing us to do this.
I reared back to find her eyes sparkling up at me. “I want you,” she whispered. “I want you here.”
Merrit took my hand and laid it on her chest. Her heart beat underneath. The ache in my own heart almost stopped me from touching her at all. It meant too much. I didn’t know if I could go through with any of this after everything that happened.
All at once, she cracked one of her crazy grins. “I’ll make it easier for you.”
She started to sit up. “Hey!” I snapped. “You’re supposed to be lying down.”
“Kind of like you were supposed to be lying down when you hiked up the mountain to get that cat-thing?”
She pivoted off her bed and pushed me down on it. “What are you doing?”
“You were on top last time. Now it’s my turn.”
I pretended to resist, but she left me no choice. I reclined on the blankets and she sat down next to me on the floor and started removing my shirt. I brushed her cheek and ended up clasping her cheeks in both hands. “Merrit… I want you. I want all of you.”
“You have me.” Her eyes darted down to my mouth. “You know that. You have me here.” She removed one of my hands from her face and pressed it to her heart.
Now I really couldn’t hold back. No more hesitating. I wanted her, and now I had her—all of her. Her heart belonged to me, and I pulled her down to savor that delicious kiss.
She eased into me and her arms threaded around my shoulder. Her hair cascaded over my face and her fragrant smell enveloped me. She slid over on top of me, and her weight filled my very being with such agonizing emotion I wasn’t sure I could cope with the intensity of it.
She undulated her body against me in slow, sensual waves. She held nothing back and showed me with every enchanting ripple that she wanted me. She no longer guarded herself against me or tried to hide her desire.
I traced the outline of her sides through her clothes. My hands circled her waist, then sneaked lower to the rounded curves of her hips. She arched her pelvis into my swollen length when I squeezed that voluptuous ass of hers. This body, this exquisite woman—she was all mine.
Before I could behold my mate any longer, she dove into my chest and her blessed lips brushed my skin. She grazed her lips and tongue against my heart and ribs and stomach. She rubbed her face and hair into my skin, savoring every inch of me.
I ached to touch her, but this was her moment. She touched me with all the tenderness of a lover—a true mate. The tiniest brush of her fingertips communicated bottomless feelings that spoke to forbidden parts of my soul.
She took back the violation of the lab. She did it because she wanted to, and she wanted me. She did it because I wanted to, not because anybody made her. This went way beyond sex and into another world, a world alien to both of us.
Merrit nibbled and sucked and nipped the most sensitive skin behind my ear until I gasped from the excruciating thrill of it all. I guided her with my hand on her neck and in her hair, but she went where she wanted.
I could just lie back and relax knowing that everything she did would feel out of this world. No pain. No humiliation. Just the bliss of being with her. Nothing could be wrong as long as I was with her.
She lifted up on her knees, and the look on her face almost drove me out of my mind. She smiled down at me with wide, hungry eyes. Her lips parted and her nostrils flared as she peeled her shirt over her head.
She wriggled out of her pants to reveal that magnificent body of hers. Her breasts swayed with her movements, and her hair cascaded over her like some kind of mesmerizing spirit out of myth.
She indulged me in caressing her breasts and hips, but when I tried to take it a step further, she smiled and gently scooted out of the way. She moved a few inches toward my knees, and with another meaningful smile, she untied my pants. She slid them down to my knees, then to my feet, unveiling my maddeningly hard cock.
She took just a moment to regard it with wide eyes, then her mouth surrounded me, eliciting a broken groan from my throat. Her hair hid her face from me, but I wouldn’t have been able to see her, anyway. My eyes drifted half-closed in the intoxicating pleasure of her lips around my cock.
Her wicked tongue licked around my throbbing hardness in delicious circles. She rubbed the head far back in her throat and coated every inch of my shaft. I kept following her movements with my hands, but she sucked with such gusto that I didn’t dare interfere.
When she stroked her fingertips down my shaft and rolled my balls in her palms, I couldn’t keep my hands off her for a second longer. I ran my hand down her back to the rounded moon of her ass. From there, it was too easy to reach underneath her and feel the pendulous sway of her breasts. Her nipples tightened and grew hard at my touch, and she moaned around the thick meat in her mouth.
Her breathing quickened and her mouth changed pressure as I teased her into a frenzy. She raked her fingertips across my stomach, holding back excited yelps. Her nipples felt so firm and inviting in my hands.
I left them with a pang of reluctance, but too many delights enticed me to explore the rest of her body. Her hips stuck up in the air, with the sweep of her spine running down to my crotch. When she rotated around my cock to suck it from a different angle, I saw a glisten of moisture running down her inner thigh. She was wet for me.
I slipped my hand between her thighs and her wetness swallowed my fingers into her engorged cavern. Her juices gushed down my hand when I delved into that den of sweetness.
She gyrated on my hand, pumping her hips to drive me inside, and whining in time to her own thrusts. Her muscles clenched around me in a sudden spasm of climax.
I could smell her from here, and that smell acted on my instincts. I pulled her toward me, and without taking her mouth off me, I weaseled my face between her legs. She froze as my tongue found her dripping slit. Her juices gushed into my mouth and she went wild.
She screamed and jammed herself down on my face. She gave four strong pumps and collapsed with her mouth over my cock. My flesh muffled her screams, but her steady, rocking rhythm told me all I needed to know. She sucked me in time to those eager, bucking movements.
Her taste flowed into my mouth and healed everything that was ever wrong with me. It made me strong and confident and ready to conquer the world. I didn’t need food or sleep. I didn’t need anything but that sweetness pouring down my throat.
My body took over, and I thrust my cock into her mouth to the same rhythm. We surged and swelled in a perfectly synchronized dance of matched completion. I explored her opening with my fingers and reveled in the tight, twitching velvet that dripped such bliss into my soul.
Long before I tired of touching her, she straightened up. Her countenance transformed again into something completely unrecognizable. Her eyes no longer saw me. She stared at something unseen, something beyond this world.
She pivoted around and straddled me. She supported herself by planting one hand on my chest and rotated her body into position. She whimpered and flinched when my shaft touched her throbbing slit. She was really going to do this.
Just when I thought she would descend on top of me and take us both to the stars, she clamped her eyes shut, swallowed hard, then snapped her unwavering gaze on me. “Xavier…”
I reached out for her, and she let me draw her down on top of me. Her silken breasts collapsed on my chest, and she released all her tension, relaxing into my kiss. She sobbed in excruciating ecstasy when I combed her hair back from her face and finally enjoyed the rapture of touching her the way I wanted.
Her eyes shone even brighter than before, but some hint of uncertainty lingered there. She searched my face for an answer to her unspoken question. “Xavier…”
“You’re mine, Merrit,” I whispered. “You’re mine.” I laid my hand on her heart and her eyelids sank. Her entire body melted over me as she lowered herself onto my cock.
I lost sense of place and time as her tight pussy lowered onto my length. Her lips entangled with mine as our bodies swayed and wavered together. Her flesh closed around me in a hot, tight fist, and her movements became rhythmic again, pumping my cock for all it was worth.
She didn’t try to stop me from touching her now. She didn’t try to control herself or our union. She became a wild creature at the command of her own insatiable need.
She bucked harder and faster. Her kisses became more demanding until, with a mighty effort, she jerked upright. She sat down hard on my shaft as I drilled deep into her.
God, she looked so maddeningly beautiful, letting herself go in the trance of insane desire. She dug her fingers into my chest and propelled her hips hard against my shaft. She took it to the hilt as all her muscles crushed me with successive spasms.
Her drunken eyes never left my face. She winced and gasped and moaned, but she never drifted off. She stayed with me through it all. She stayed locked onto me, heart and soul, as I filled her womb to the brim with my seed once more.
