Page 96 of Shielded in the Shadows

Gently, he raised me with one arm, freed his wings, and settled me on my back so he could go to his hands and knees above me.

When he spread his wings fully, I finally saw the webbed membranes on the areas that had been hit by plasma bolts. The burns had already healed, and inside the protective membranes the holes were closing.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the memory, but the terrible sight of his beautiful wings punctured and burned played out in my mind anyway.

Damn it, I should have been on the lookout for danger as we approached the warehouse. I never should have let my guard down and allowed Jonor get the drop on us like that.

No doubt awash in my self-recrimination through our bond, Jarrix bent and kissed my brow before touching his forehead to mine.

“Love, I understand,” he said. “Every time I close my eyes I see you falling from my arms. I can’t look at you without seeing what that shard of glaz did to you.” He rested his hand on the faint scar on my stomach. “I will have nightmares for all my years. For a while, I’ll need to touch you and keep you close so I can be sure I didn’t lose you.” His expression grew fierce. “But we are here, and we are alive, and I love you with all my hearts and soul.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Then show me,” I commanded.

With a growl, he lowered his head and poured all of himself into a ferocious kiss that made my head spin and my toes curl into the bedding. His tongue demanded entry to my mouth and I gave it, allowing him to plunder me as I’d ravaged him during our first kiss in my cargo bay.

He stole my breath when he drew my bottom lip into his mouth to suck gently. When he pricked it with his fangs just enough to inject a trace of his mating fluid, a wave of warmth rolled through my body, lighting up every nerve in its wake.

My back arched and I moaned, my knees falling open to welcome his hips between my thighs. I was already dripping for him, and had been from the moment he’d declared himself a servant to my pleasure.

He groaned and released my lip. “Gods, your scent drives me mad.” He gazed into my eyes. “My mate, will you accept my bite?”

I didn’t need to think about it. I shoved my fingers into his hair and dragged his mouth to my throat. “Yes. Please bite me.”

He chuckled against my sleep-warmed skin. “Not just yet, Captain. I have a very particular vision about how and where I’d like to give you my mating bite.”

I pulled his hair to make him raise his head. “You and your visions, Jarrix To’vok.” I scowled. “If you’re going to force me to wait, you’d better make it worth my time.”

He nipped my earlobe with his fang. Another drop of mating fluid made me moan and writhe. “I assure you I will more than make the wait worth it.”

He captured my wrists and pinned them to the bed above my head with one hand as he kissed his way down my throat to drag his tongue along my collarbone. Gods, I’d survived Orqiel’s plotting and Jonor’s plasma bolts, but the way Jarrix’s every touch sparked and tingled like electricity on my skin might be the death of me. Goosebumps prickled over my entire body.

His other hand slid down my belly toward my dripping pussy. The moment he slid his fingertip gently over my clit, I cried out and bucked my hips. His grip on my wrists tightened just a little.

“You’re so sensitive today,” he murmured, his lips traveling to my breast so he could flick my nipple with his tongue at the same time he brushed his fingertips back and forth over my clit. Every little touch sparked like static. “I like it.”

I whimpered and ground against his hand. “Jarrix…gods…”

He raised his hand and showed me his glistening fingers. “Look at this,” he said, and brought them to his mouth to suck them clean. He growled. “Delicious. You’re soaking the bed already, lovely Keela. But I don’t want to waste a drop.”

In one smooth movement, he rolled to his back, picking me up and settling me astride his hard stomach with his hands on my hips. His hard cocks pressed against my ass through the thin fabric of his pants.

“Cover me in your sweetness,” he said, urging me to move. “I need every inch of my skin to smell like my fearless mate.”

I let my head fall back as he glided me up and down his chest and abdomen, coating himself in my arousal. The ridges of his muscles and the rumbling in his chest provided perfect friction against my swollen clit and sensitive folds.

I wanted him to make me come—I needed him to make me come. But the memory of his devastated expression when he saw the glaz shard in my belly and how gorgeous and desperate he looked beneath me as he murmured pleas for me to give him more of my scent made me let him take what he needed.

When his hands finally tightened on my waist, sending a sizzle of electricity through me, I opened my eyes to meet his hungry gaze.

“Sit on my face, my love,” he grated out. “I want to drown in you.”

I managed to nod. In a flash, he picked me up and settled me above his mouth with my thighs on either side of his face.

I ran my fingers through his hair and tried my best to commit everything about this moment to memory, from the way his eyes glowed more brightly than I’d ever seen them to the glint of his fangs and how he gripped my hips as if he was afraid even now that he might lose me.

“Grab my horns,” he demanded. “And don’t you dare let go.”

And then he pulled my dripping pussy down to his mouth and suckled my clit with lips that buzzed with power.