I smiled. “Refreshed.” Oh, how my throat burned.
A straw slid between my lips as if he knew. “Drink, little queen.”
My brow furrowed even as I complied. That’s a new nickname. Exos usually called me princess, sometimes baby when he was turned on. My thighs clenched at the prospect, missing his touch and the way our element danced when together.
I drew my finger down his bare abdomen, creating a stream of water along his skin. I’d meant to use fire, but this worked, too.
Exos groaned as I pushed him back, my tongue already traveling downward to lick up the mess I’d made.
“Claire…,” he cautioned.
“Shh.” I needed this. Needed him. My body ached with weakness, my heart not fully whole.
I don’t want to think, I decided, indulging in the motions instead of my thoughts. I could analyze my body later. For now, I wanted to mate. To complete the bond we’d started. To consummate our link.
Some part of me questioned that logic.
A hint of the Claire of old.
But the Claire of new pushed worry and concern out the window, the fae inside me flourishing to the forefront.
“I need,” I said, not necessarily understanding what I required, just that I did.
“Open your eyes,” he demanded, that voice harsher than Exos’s usual tone. He pushed me to my back, his lower body settling between mine and causing me to arch up into him.
&
nbsp; Something was different.
A fluidity in our movements I’d never felt before.
Oh, I liked it.
“More,” I begged.
“Look at me first.” He trapped my hips as I tried to move upward, his hands on my face, a trace of cool water sliding across my lips that I licked off on a moan.
My eyelids fluttered, a dull light illuminating the male above me. So cruelly handsome with aristocratic lines etched into his stern jaw and perfect nose.
But the eyes were all wrong.
Not Exos.
“Cyrus,” I breathed, confused, but not alarmed. A sense of safety fell over me, his essence so well known and welcomed that I could never push him away. I cupped his cheek and tilted my chin enough to brush my mouth against his. “Kiss me.” Two words I never thought I’d say in his company, but they fell from my lips like a prayer.
It wasn’t Exos I needed, but Cyrus. I felt incomplete without him, a puzzle piece missing from where we were joined.
“Oh, Claire,” he whispered, his forehead falling to mine. “You don’t understand yet.”
“Make me understand. Show me.” I drew my nails down his bare back, adoring the way his muscles flexed beneath my touch. “Please, Cyrus.”
“You’re killing me.” He swallowed, his arousal thickening between my thighs. “The urge to… It’s wrong, little queen. So fucking wrong.”
“Then make it right.” I kissed him again, this time with more force, and licked his bottom lip. “I need you.”
I couldn’t explain why.
Didn’t understand how I’d ended up in bed beneath him.