Page 223 of Monsters in Love

“Then stay silent.” My breath ghosts over the shell of her ear, and I force down the need to inhale. “We are close to the Sagath territory. We must be quick and quiet.”

My hand comes up over her mouth, pressing it closed. Mytirskathrobs again at the sight of her eyes widening and the feeling of her soft lips against my skin.

I want her so desperately, and the moment I find us shelter, I’m taking what’s mine.

As one moon slowly sets, the other rises, casting the reddish hue along the trees. My body throbs as Echo’s soft, plush body presses against mine. The need overwhelms me entirely. My mind swirls with thoughts of her caressing my wings and of how mytirska,extruded wetting the front of her pretty skirts.

My hunting party will search for me, and yet I fly through the Amae’silin the opposite direction. The forest holds no room for rest. Everything that lives in it will come to harm Echo, so I press myself harder than I should, waiting until I reach the end of my strength to stop.

There are deadAmae’silhere that were once home for the Volese, their stumps hollowed out into cabins. Once the Krel and Sagath edged into their territory, it forced them to live closer to the Caliphate.

This will be the perfect place to stop. I fly, finding the largest house built into the top branches with rows of swirling blossoms and vine.

“We will rest here,” I say, setting her down just in front of the large open doorway.

Echo makes a noise in the back of her throat, something akin to awe.

“Wow…what is this place?” She turns on her heel and searches through the rows and rows of homes. “Do people live here?”

“They did in the past.” A hand finds the center of her back, pressing her forward to the door. “Many things have changed since then.”

She turns to look up at me, worry etched on her face, pulling her brows together as her lips twist downward. “Everything in this place is trying to kill you, huh?”

If she only knew just how true that statement is.

I push her forward again until she finally relinquishes control, edging inside the darkened home. Her steps are unsure as I find the edges of a moss-covered door, sealing us inside.

My body towers over her in the small space of the home, forcing me to tuck my wings in closer to me so she has room. I step to her with a single-minded purpose, so eager to press her to me. Grabbing her around her waist, loving the little hitch of her breath as skin touches skin, drives me wild. “I desire your hands on me,otoki…” I whisper into the edge of her neck.

She swirls around facing me, chewing on the bottom of her lip. “Xakiras?”

What can I say? Since the moment I felt her hands and tasted her mouth, I have wanted nothing else. Hearing the sweetness of my name from her lips has my body trembling. I should not want aukolist—an outsider—to touch me; still I cannot get the thought from my mind.

“I told you I would finish what was started.” My hands splay against her back, tangling in the long tresses of her flax-colored hair before I wrap it around one of my hands.

“Why?” Her voice has a breathless quality to it, which only fuels the yearning I feel.

Why indeed.

A rough tug pulls her head backward to show me the column of her neck, and the gasp that gusts from her lips is like music to my ears. I want to taste it from her lips as she whispers my name. Instead, I hold back my lust, realizing she needs an explanation of what brought this on more.

My lips graze the delicate skin behind her ear. “Otoki, in my culture, wings are only stroked during intercourse. It is a highly erogenous place, and yet you have touched mine twice now.”

I wait for the moment it dawns on her. “Oh, no…I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, and yet when I tasted your mouth, you clung to me as though I was your very breath.” I lick the bottom of her ear as another of my hands feels up the bottom of her thigh underneath her skirts.

Echo’s moan and the scent of her arousal make it clear she likes what I’m doing, but I desire more; if she begs me, then I will act, but only then. “What about taking me back to my camp?”

“As soon as I am allowed, I will, but first, we will need to tell theKugitauri and Caliphate of what transpired.” I kiss the crux of her neck and shoulder.

“This won’t mean anything else to you, then? I know certain species take sex very seriously.”

Nocris choose their mates very seriously, but this will not be that. We would dance under the starlight, touching one another’s wings, and ourtunsavriwould tangle together. Echo has none of those, and so there will be no choosing her.

“Nothing else besides making your knees quake and hearing your sweet keening sounds as I ravage you like the delicious little thing you are,otoki.” My hand on her thigh finally reaches the edges of her mound, and I press against her undergarment, leaving my finger damp.

Curiously, these creatures self-lubricate. That may make her pleasure easier than Nocris females are used to. Interesting…

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