Page 209 of Never Kiss a Fae

My eyes widened as Exos’s brother entered the bedroom in a suit, his light hair mussed in that way I adored. He smirked, his hands tucked into his pockets. “You just had to one-up the mating ceremony, didn’t you?”

Exos gripped my thighs while casually replying, “You chose your platform; I picked mine. And in my opinion, a bed is far more appropriate than a ceremonial altar.” His sapphire gaze slid to mine as he gently spread my legs to expose my intimate flesh. “I prefer my method of worship.”

Cyrus snorted and stopped beside the bed, his icy blue irises grinning down at me. “I think I prefer your method, too.” He tilted his head. “You ready to say your vows, little queen?”

My mouth went dry as Exos positioned himself between my splayed thighs. He couldn’t mean to—

I arched off the bed as his lips closed around my clit without warning.

“Fuck,” I breathed.

Cyrus tsked. “That’s not how the vows go. It starts with, ‘I, Claire, accept the power that binds me to Exos, born of Spirit.’?” He arched a blond brow. “Now try again.”

Exos slid his tongue through my folds, his gaze holding a wicked glint as he watched me.

“I… I…”Oh God.I writhed, unable to focus, my veins flooding with liquid fire. This wasn’t fair. How either of them expected me to focus—

Cyrus palmed my breast, his touch eliciting a long, needy moan from my throat.

It was official.

These two were going to kill me.

“Focus, little queen,” Cyrus whispered, his lips brushing over mine. I hadn’t even felt him lean over the bed. My senses were all focused between my legs and on my breasts. “You don’t want to lose Exos again, right?”

I shuddered, shaking my head. Those words registered in my thoughts, the notion of severing my connection to Exos a very real threat. Because it had almost happened.

“Then repeat after me.” He lifted just enough to capture my gaze and hold it. And he repeated the first sentence of the vows.

“I, Claire,” I began, my fingers clenching as Exos did something sensuous with his tongue. “Accept the power that binds me to Exos, born of Spirit.”

Cyrus smiled and uttered the next part.

“To cherish and respect, through all the eras and time that may fall before us, until our souls do us part.” This was the same as my mating to Cyrus. However, the circumstances were very different. I’d spoken the vows in a dreamlike state within the Water Kingdom. Now, oh, Exos was making this extremely difficult.

Keep going,he encouraged through our bond.I’m just warming us up.

Some warm-up,I thought back at him while Cyrus spoke the next part.

“I give unto him the center of my essence, the heart of my being, my very spirit, and accept his in return,” I recited, my voice far breathier now than it was when we began. Because Exos’s warm-up? Yeah, it was turning into something far bigger.

Cyrus kissed me again before delivering the final words.

Which I parroted in a sultry voice I barely recognized.

“My element is now his just as his is now mine, to the fae heavens may we never part. And I shall never forsake him for another, my spirit forever belonging to him and to him alone.”

“Mmm,” Exos murmured, the vibration pushing me near the edge of oblivion.

And he sat up.

I half growled, my thighs quivering from the pending climax he’d denied me. But then he started speaking, the vows ones he clearly knew by heart. A warm aura settled over us, our spirits mingling intimately on a plane only we could access together. It was the place where our elements bonded, where promises were made and feelings were realized.

With each word he uttered, I felt the finality of our joining clicking into place, tying me to him indefinitely.

I sighed, the burning in my veins subsiding beneath a euphoric wave of rightness.

Mine.