Page 208 of Never Kiss a Fae

Claire

“Hands above your head, princess.” Exos loomed over me in an all-black suit that clung to his form in unfair ways—ways that forced me to obey him.

I stretched my hands above my head and gripped the bars of his headboard. “Happy?”

His ocean-blue eyes ran over my naked body and smiled. “Yes. Very.” He slowly unraveled his tie while keeping one knee beside me on the mattress, his opposite foot on the ground.

We were supposed to be going to our mating ceremony, but Exos had pulled me in here instead. Not that I was complaining. However, I did want to move to the final level with him. I almost lost him once. That would not be happening again.

“Mmm, the beauty of spirit is how solitary it is,” Exos murmured as he drew his silky tie along the center of my torso up to my collarbone. “We don’t require an audience, Claire.”

I frowned up at him. “What do you mean?”

He slid the silk around my wrists, tying the fabric into a sturdy knot. “This is our ceremony, Claire.” He leaned down to kiss me, silencing whatever comment I could have uttered back to him. But he had tohearmy shock, just as he’d clearly overheard my pondering about him taking me here rather than to the ceremonial room.

“Every element is different. Some require the formality, and while Spirit used to indulge in a similar tradition to the others, we gave up on it years ago. Not enough of us left to fill a room.” He righted himself, slid the jacket from his shoulders, and walked over to a corner desk to drape the wool fabric over the chair.

“We’ll be celebrated tonight after the coronation,” he continued, returning to the bed to smile down at me. “But this morning and this afternoon are for us and us alone.” He punctuated the words with a tug against the silk binding my wrists.

I glanced up to see them secured to the headboard—something he must have done while we kissed. Clever fae. It left me naked and bound before him.

His grin told me he more than approved.

“We’re going to bond, Claire,” he said, his tone holding a delicious depth to it that scattered goose bumps across my flesh. “We’re going to bond all day.”

My lips formed an O, but no sound escaped me.

Because he had started unbuttoning his shirt and I only had so many functioning brain cells around a disrobing Exos.

For months, he’d explored my body without allowing me to return the favor. Well, this last month hadn’t been his fault. My mother had held him captive underground.

Because she was apparently alive.

A train of thought I was so not going to consider right now.

No, I much preferred the sight of male sin before me.

I nearly swallowed my tongue, Exos’s body an art crafted by the Fae gods. His shirt fell to the floor, his muscles rippling along the way, and his hand landed on his belt. “Are you ready to recite your vows, Claire?”

Uh…I licked my lips. “Does it involve saying them around your cock?” Because I could totally get behind that. While I’d seen Exos naked before, I’d never been gifted the opportunity to memorize him with my tongue. And I would very much enjoy doing that right now.

His lips curled. “The ceremony only works if your words are intelligible, baby.”

“Then you probably should have left our clothes on.”

“What would be the fun in that?” he countered, the leather sliding from the loops of his pants. “I thought you enjoyed a good challenge. Isn’t that how we met? You were dared to kiss the man at the bar?”

“The very handsome man,” I clarified, recalling the night we met. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Do you regret it?” he asked softly, kneeling once more on the bed, his pants unbuttoned but still zipped. He cupped my face, his eyes holding mine. “Do you regret kissing me?”

I swallowed and shook my head. “No.” I still mourned Rick, my friend who had died in the resulting fire, but I no longer held myself responsible for the massacre.

Mastering my powers had provided me with a new view of the world, a deeper understanding of my control. There was nothing I could have done differently that night, apart from not kissing Exos. But even then, I’d been a ticking time bomb.

“You’re mine,” I said, wishing my hands were free to grab him. “I’ll never regret claiming you.”

His lips curled. “That’s good, Claire. Because I’m about to make you mine. Forever.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Cyrus? Can you help us with the vows?”