Page 42 of Bound to the Marak

Trapped.

She couldn’t move.

But he was careful. Gentle.

As if he understood her fear and sought to soothe it through touch.

The sensation of being held like that—powerless, weightless, encased in strength—was unspeakably erotic. Her breath came in gasps, her lips parted, her spine arched with sensation.

He growled low in his throat—a sound so primal, so deeply male that it vibrated through her like thunder. She looked down at him—this godlike being, now raw and exposed, wild-eyed and shaking.

He was no longer untouchable.

He was no longer a god.

He was just a man. A male. A creature filled with need.

And he had her.

He could have done anything. Claimed her. Taken her.

But instead… he worshipped her.

One tentacle slid between her legs, exploring her gently, reverently, with slow, languid strokes that made her cry out. Another trailed down her spine, sending shivers up through her skull. A third coiled around her breast, teasing, testing, learning the way her body responded.

She gasped again—louder this time.

“Leonie,” he whispered. He didn’t need the translator. The way he said her name—it was reverent. Sacred. A prayer.

Pleasure built within her like a rising tide, and she surrendered to it.

To him.

To this impossible, surreal, overwhelming moment.

And all the while, the soft blue light of his markings pulsed in rhythm with her breath.

Twenty-Five

She had unmasked him.

The moment her trembling fingers lifted the ancient obsidian alloy from his face, something shifted. Not just in the air between them—but within him. Deep, primal.

It was sacrilege. Forbidden.

No being, not even the High Council, not even the most elite of the Yerak caste, dared gaze upon the face of a Marak. It was custom. Law. Worship. The face of a ruler was not a thing to be seen. It was to be revered, imagined, feared.

And yet, this small, delicate creature—a human—had disarmed him so easily.

Karian stood utterly still, watching her.

Her expression was reverent. Her awe was unfeigned. She saw him.

Not just his power. Not his title. She sawhim.

And the weight of that truth settled into his bones like heat.

He had expected her to flinch. To avert her eyes. Instead, she looked upon him with something dangerously close to wonder.

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