CHAPTER 49

“What have you done?” she whispered. Because she was already bound to Eveera against her will, she had come to terms with it, but this…

“I bind myself to you, through darkness and light,” he told her. She pulled away from him, as well as she could. There was a red stain around his lips, his tongue darted out to clean it off.

“You didn’t think to ask?” Her voice raised, a little hysterically. “Xor, I can’t do this…”

“Easy, Hellcat,” he soothed. “I was already bound to you in every way that matters. This is not like your bond to Eveera, you owe no reciprocity. It changes nothing for you. I will not die should you break this connection...only suffer.”

“Then why?”

“Because I already suffer when it comes to you...because, should you ask it of me, I would give my life for you...because you are the only one who has ever made me feel, and I will take it all, even if it destroys me.”

*Whuh.*

He reached out a hand, brushing her hair from her face.

“I do not want to go through this life disconnected from everything...everyone. You asked me my intentions, here they are. I give myself to you, Hellcat. You have owned my heart for a long while. Take it or leave it, the choice is yours, but I give it freely.”

Tianna’s heart thundered in her chest. She wanted to be angry, to insist he had taken liberties that were not his to take. But the intent of his words rang true through the echoes of the bond. He had made himself completely vulnerable to her. There would be no more question of his motivation.

“Oh, Xor,” she sighed. “Won’t you be in trouble? I thought this was forbidden.”

“It *is* forbidden, without express permission from the Queen. I sought her approval the first time I spoke of you to her.”

She blinked at him and he gave her a crooked little smile.

“I have known what I wanted for a long time, Hellcat.” He stepped back, and somehow the space around her felt too empty. “I will leave if you wish, a servant has been sent for a change of clothes. You need only wait until he arrives and you can flee. I will never force you, Hellcat, nor will I hold you away from what you feel is your purpose. I do not wish to quash your drive, I mean to ride along beside you, if you allow.”

And there it was. Xor’annan’s intentions.

It felt, for one long moment, like her heart simply stopped. How had she seen anything else in him?

He took another step back, giving her space.

“No,” she commanded.

She was mostly naked, spread on top of his desk like some feast, and she was ready. He hadn’t been the only one wanting.

She didn’t say it out loud, but her intentions...her emotions came through loud and clear.

Xor’annan pulled his shirt over his head. His body was thick with muscle that only came from constant training and battle; every muscle defined in a way that modern men on Earth couldn’t replicate. Several pale scars crossed his abdomen. Training wounds? Or close calls? His chest showed a sprout of black hairs that led to a single line delving into the front of his breaches. She watched as he moved his hands downward, the way the shadows played along the hard lines of his body. It took two quick movements to free himself and kick the breeches away and she was looking at Xor’annan in all of his naked glory. His erection thick and long, twitched, a silver droplet forming at its tip.

He was nothing short of magnificent. His head tilted down, long black hair falling over his horns and face, brushing against his chest. Wild, uncontrolled.

Dark eyes flashed at her from beneath his heavy brows, as he prowled forward. The dagger made quick work of the other side of her breeches. He tossed it to the side, lifting her against him with one hand and yanking the material out from underneath her with the other.

Then her naked ass was pressing against the cool wood. He set her down and guided her torso back so she was once again leaning on her hands. Gentle fingers encouraging her legs farther apart, sliding up one thigh and down the other, but always missing that one important step.

“Xor,” she growled.

“I have waited a very long time,” he told her. “Indulge me.”

She groaned in frustration but spread her legs wider. When that wasn’t enough for him, he pulled at each ankle until her knees were bent and her heels were leveled on the desk top. Her body had to slide back a fair way, since she was no flexible gymnast but he stood back and stared down at her, satisfied at last. It opened her thighs an almost embarrassing amount, exposing her folds, her arousal, everything open and vulnerable to his view.

“You displayed for me like this...waiting for me, is the most erotic thing I have ever imagined.” He ran a single long finger over her belly and through the mound of hair. Nerves burst when he passed over Tianna’s clit and through the slick folds. Just a gentle touch. It wasn’t nearly enough. She bucked her hips.

“Mmm, patience, Hellcat.”

He trailed the same finger through again. The same fleeting pleasure followed his touch.

“So wet,” he murmured. Then, without warning he clamped his hands onto her hips and dragged her to the edge of the desk once more. He caught her legs before they fell and braced the back of her knees on his arms as he leaned over her, keeping her open and exposed. His head lowered first, brushing her lips and then moving downward, a gentle trail of kisses and nips until he reached her right nipple. He ran his tongue over the peak once, twice and then his mouth covered it and he sucked hard. At the same time, his erection pushed into her, so hard it was almost unbearable. The combination of sensations spiraled her out of control. Her body clenched around him, pleasure culminating in her core, higher and higher. Xor’annan pushed again, sliding deeper, another long tug at her nipple and she was lost.

Waves burst through her and a desperate sound escaped her lips. The burst washed over her again and again, tangles of delicious sensation pulsing and traveling from her core, up her back, down her legs, everywhere.

Xor’annan had dropped her knees, his forehead coming to rest in the crook of her neck, his horns brushing her shoulder a smooth hard contrast to his skin. He concentrated on holding her hips still, pumping into her, every stroke deeper and a bit harder. His breathing was ragged puffs against her skin. She wanted nothing more than to collapse back onto the desk and recover from the most intense orgasm she had ever had, but he shifted her hips, angling them just so, and the build started again, growing with wild intensity. He ground himself into her, muttering something incomprehensible, his movements growing wilder, more desperate. When he threw his head back and roared, Tianna’s own pleasure broke once more, her body clenching him, pulling every last ounce of pleasure it could from his presence. She cried out with him, a broken whimpering.

He stood like that, still within her for a long time, his hands gentle now, less demanding.

A small mewling escaped her, and he looked down, expression soft.

“You…,” he began, but did not expand.

He recovered faster than she did, sliding himself out of her. She whimpered a bit at the loss, though God knew she couldn’t have handled any more. He gathered her in his arms, easily lifting her and made his way to the couches. She didn’t have the strength to resist, and when he pulled out an enormous soft blanket and wrapped them both in it as he sat, she thought that this might be the most at peace she had ever been. Her body felt sore and yet light and oh so good, the aftereffects of his lovemaking still running through her.

He sat himself against the arm of one of the couches and tucked her beside him, so she was against his side, head on his shoulder, the blanket up around their shoulders. He stroked her hair at the nape of her neck, fingers trailing absently downward along her skin until they reached the small wound he had created. He lingered there, as if seeking comfort from the mark.

“Regretting it already?” she teased.

“Never,” he growled. “I could never regret anything to do with you.”

Silly as it was, her heart gave a little flip. She couldn’t love him; she was just finally getting to know him.

“Xor?”

He grunted.

“Tell me about your childhood. Did you grow up in the manor in the woods?”

Xor’annan hesitated for a moment, thinking. Almost subconsciously, his arm tightened around her, holding her closer.

“For the most part,” he answered. “There were times my parents were expected at court and we would travel to the city. This house,” he gestured with his free hand, “has been inherited through my family for three generations.”

“So, the blanket fort in the attic?”

“Dornodar and I made that one summer when Trill was four. She was a terror, and it was the only place we could escape her.”

“Dornodar was your brother?”

Another pause.

“Yes.”

“What happened, Xor?”

She could feel him tense beneath her, and the echo of his discomfort, of his pain trickling to her. This wasn’t a topic he was comfortable talking about. She waited patiently. She wasn’t sure he would share with her, but he trusted her enough to bond her.

“They were murdered, brutally. My parents, first. I think the enemy believed that, if we were left unprotected, we would be easy to take care of after they were gone. One night, they left us here under the protection of our staff and went to a court function. They were attacked on the way home. My father was an accomplished warrior, so he did not travel with many house guards. Still, they must have known his capabilities because they did not engage him directly. The ambush came from the second story of the third house down on this very street. They killed the entire family living there just to sit in that house and fill my father and mother full of poisoned arrows. They made it to the front door before they collapsed.” He paused. “That’s how we know it’s someone within the court. They would know where he was, and no street brigand would have bested my father.”

Tianna’s stomach dropped. Oh, Xor.

“How old were you?”

“Ten. Dornodar was fifteen, only months away from being old enough to attend court functions. If he had then, he would have died alongside my parents.”

*Oh my god.*

“And you’ve been alone since then?” Poor, poor Xor’annan.

“Once we knew we were targeted, Dornodar hired one of my father’s best men to teach us to fight and help protect us until we could stand on our own. From the age of ten on, I spent hours every day learning how to defend myself and those I care about. From then on, the enemy learned their mistake, for we grew to be far more formidable than my father. For many years, they couldn’t touch us, though they tried.”

“And Dornodar?” she was almost afraid to ask. The sadness...the loneliness and sense of loss she was getting from him was nearly overwhelming, and that was just the echo of the bond. Still, his voice was even when he spoke. He had learned to hide his emotions well. It touched her that he trusted her with them, with this.

“Dornodar was fierce, stronger even than I. Had he not had a wife and newborn to protect they would have never succeeded in killing him. He was the last to die before Eveera’s mother, and by all accounts, he took out more of them than should have been possible.”

Tianna fell silent. Such tragedy. She didn’t even know them, but she knew Eveera. She pictured the tiny, helpless baby cradled in her mother’s arms; the two parents fighting with every bit of desperation to save her.

Xor’annan brushed her cheek, his fingers coming away wet. She hadn’t even realized she was crying.

“Xor,” she whispered.

“Yeah, Hellcat?”

“I think we need to try harder to find this enemy of yours. And I think I have an idea.”