Page 44 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

Isobel

Her eyes ran over him hungrily, trying to take in every detail in an instant.

But it was impossible. Though Xaal and humans had some similarities, there were also plenty of differences.

His skin was midnight blue, that she knew already, but what she wasn’t expecting was the stormy gray of his hardened eyes.

An entire landscape of dark clouds over rough, gloomy seas was contained in his irises.

Isobel quickly looked away from them lest she become lost before taking in the rest of him.

His face was broader than a man’s, and his cheekbones and jaw were sharper and more defined. He had two scars—a long one that went from the thick ridge of his brow and curved against his cheek in a crescent shape, and one that ran along his other.

She had never considered that scars could be beautiful until seeing them on Ved. They told a story of who he was and complemented his already fierce visage.

His hair was different than anyone’s she’d ever seen, thick strands of dusky silver that were short on the sides and pushed back on top. Her hand itched to run through his locks, to feel them pass between her fingers.

His lips parted, drawing her attention to them. The blue of his mouth was darker, with a purple undertone like the last shade of the sun before the sky darkened completely. Long, large bottom and top canines peeked from his lips as his dark tongue ran across them.

She understood, then, why Xaal compared what they found attractive to a weapon. He was made from brutality, molded from violence. An apex predator from the depths of ancient stars and unknown planets.

He was deadly and beautiful.

Finally, she met his gaze.

In the time it had taken her to inspect his face, his pupils had dilated, pushing the bold gray to the sides as he watched her. She felt more seen than she had at any other moment they shared together.

“I am on my knees, unmasked, begging your forgiveness,” he said, and she couldn’t take her gaze off his lips and how they formed around the words.

“I forgive you,” she breathed. It was the easiest thing to do.

He shifted and ran a hand through his silver hair, pushing it back. “And how,” he said slowly in her language, “do you find me?”

Stepping closer into him, she placed a hand on either side of his face. His skin was warm beneath her palms. Her thumbs followed the curve of his cheekbones. Her fingers tapped the points of his fangs, danced across his lips.

Ved closed his eyes in pleasure. “My face has never been touched in such a way,” he said, his voice growing husky. “Your fingers are so soft.”

Such tenderness wasn’t the Xaal way. And how long had he worn his helmet with only Kravis to see him?

Her heart burst with the need to show him all the softness he could have.

But she had no words for him in that moment.

Instead, she did something she never thought she’d have the opportunity to do—she pressed her lips to his.

He stilled, only briefly, as if surprised by her boldness. But then he crushed her to him, his arms enclosing her, a hand reaching up to grab the mess of curls at the nape of her neck.

“This is what your books spoke of,” he growled against her mouth.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Kissing.”

When his tongue swiped against her lips, she gasped. He swallowed the sound, tilting her head how he wanted her as their teeth and tongues met.

“Gently,” she murmured.

“Show me.”

She pressed her mouth to his again—fitting her bottom lip between his. “Soft,” she whispered. Tilting her head, she tried another angle while he remained unnaturally still, only his lips responding to hers.

“Soft,” he repeated moments later, his voice a ruined thing. His long canines scraped sensually against her as they slowly opened to each other.

The first kiss in the books she read was always a defining moment.

And now she understood. Every bit of longing and desperation was held in the confines of their mouths, in the meeting of their lips.

They shared breath and groans, need and fire.

Ved licked inside her mouth, tasting her, coaxing her tongue to dance with his.

He moved a hand down her spine, splaying his fingers across her backside.

Then he stood and picked her up with him.

A squeak escaped her as she tightened her arms around his shoulders.

He broke their kiss and, looking at the control panel with determined concentration, untangled his fingers from her hair to punch a sequence in .

Squeezing her curves, he lifted her legs around his midsection. His tunic rode up her thighs in a deliciously sinful way. Fire pooled in her core, coursed through her veins. She wanted him so much that she feared she would come apart if she didn’t have him.

“I need to be inside you, kyreni, ” he said hoarsely. “Right now.”

Sparks ignited in her veins as he echoed her own desires. “Kyreni?” she murmured.

He pressed her against the wall and nuzzled her neck, his fangs scraping over the soft flesh there, his hands pulling up on the tunic. “It’s the cord that connects our hearts. If the artery is badly injured or severed, both will suffer and fail. Kyreni—my heartscord.”

It was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever called her.

Pulling the material over her head in an instant, he bared her to him. Watching him as he took in her naked form was a spiritual experience. His pupils dilated, his tongue slowly licked across his bottom lip, and then he smiled. It was a ravenous, dark smile that was so completely him she gasped.

This was her mate.

Roughly, he pulled his already hard length from his trousers, his gaze never leaving her.

She whimpered with need, bracing herself against the wall as he lined himself up with her entrance.

“You’re so perfect,” he said thickly. “Already wet for me.” The broad tip of him pushed inside, opening her up for him. She bit her lip and wiggled her hips impatiently.

But he was merciful—in a single thrust, he filled her completely.

Isobel cried out at the same time Ved groaned with relief.

“I thought I had lost you,” he growled as he pulled almost all the way out of her and drove in again. His gaze was all wild storms as every inch of him throbbed within her.

“I thought,” she panted, “I was going to lose you, too. I never want to feel that way again, Ved.”

“I won’t allow it,” he rumbled, pressing the thigh he held back and pushing himself impossibly deeper. “You’re mine now, Isobel. Not just for tonight, but forever.”

Forever.

Fully in control, he moved her up and down his shaft.

His hips rocked forward. The rhythm was punishing and rough, ravenous and possessive.

Whatever he was seeking, she was, too, her body becoming pliant in his hold.

She gripped his powerful shoulders, fisted his hair, dug her nails into him as he drove into her again and again.

Each thrust was a promise, and each carnal noise that left them echoed their need for each other.

His tongue laved across her collarbone, over her breasts, and still he didn’t slow.

Pressure built inside her as they careened toward an inevitable conclusion.

The ridges and bulges of his shaft swelled and pressed into her, filling her more.

His fangs teased her nipples as he sucked and nipped at the supple flesh around them.

“Ved,” she whined—for mercy or more, she couldn’t know.

“You were made for me,” he said roughly, his movements erratic now. “I’m going to lock inside your tight heat. Fill you so full of my seed and make you mine.”

As he said it, he buried himself as deep as he could with a groan. His base became fuller, harder, pressing on all sides of her walls until he could do nothing but pulse within her. She clenched around him to keep him there even as her body stretched to fit him.

Pain and pleasure twisted together sensually and overwhelmed her. She was made for him. Her body was made to take him, her heart to hold him.

They were always meant to find each other .

“Come with me, kyreni ,” he rasped.

And her body obeyed. Light fractured in her vision as jolts of pleasure undulated through every nerve. His seed filled her in hot, thick spurts that only added to the greatness of her release. She was so full of him.

“You take my knot so well,” Ved praised, voice ragged. “So perfect for me, so good .” Spasms from his climax devastated him, his muscles straining, even as he held her shaking body in his strong grasp. He tried to thrust deeper, his full base throbbing.

“Nevskol. Have to—” He pumped his hips shallowly, his knot lodging within her with more finality. “Fill you up,” he groaned. “Your tight little—” His pupils dilated and his lips parted, all four of his big fangs showing as he panted. More of his seed filled her as his hold tightened on her.

Pressure built and built, forming into a new sensation that was somehow all satisfaction and greed, pleasure and ache. Whining, she tried to wiggle off his shaft, to escape the intensity, but he was well and truly locked within her.

“Isobel,” he pleaded just as she was dragged into an unending ocean of release.

Surely, some cosmic shift occurred as they shattered and reformed. Planets collided and stars bowed to the very force they’d become. They traveled the span of the galaxy in the space left between their bodies.

The skies would never be the same, and neither would they.

When Ved could finally pull out of her, he cleaned her delicately, deposited her into his bed, and discarded the rest of his clothes. She watched him move around the small room for several minutes as he gave instructions to Exxo.

She was mesmerized by all the muscles that made up his form and how they shifted beneath the expanse of his flesh.

She had the sudden and filthy urge to trace them all with her tongue.

“Isobel?” he said, peering at her.

The way his mouth formed around her name, the way his long canines peeked from between his lips as he said it, was a spell that bewitched her. She was certain she could watch his expressions for a lifetime and never tire of them.

“Hm?” she hummed sleepily.

“Do you need anything?”

“Just you,” she said before a yawn overtook her.

His gaze darkened as he took in her naked form, his body already reacting to her again. Stalking forward, he said, “Exxo, dim the lights and open the viewport. Only alert me if we are in imminent danger. I intend to sleep deeply with my mate.”

“ Only sleep? ”

Ved growled in annoyance—a sound she had heard him make dozens of times before. Now she knew it had been in response to Exxo.

“ I would have thought being happily tethered and with tensions adequately … released, you would be less snarly. I see it has only made you more ill-tempered .”

Isobel laughed softly.

Ved climbed into the bed, collecting her up as he did. “Don’t encourage him,” he grumbled .

“I find him endearing,” she said as he pulled her onto his chest and lay back.

He was so warm that she snuggled into him before he even fully settled.

A low buzzing sound that she’d come to associate with the mechanisms of his ship filled the room as the passing galaxy beyond was revealed on one side.

“What was that, by the way with your—” she gestured to his manhood. “You called it locking.”

His hands rubbed down her back, kneading her backside with each pass.

“When a Xaal is deeply connected with another, the base of our cock swells when we are about to climax, locking us inside our mate. All Xaal have some aspect of this, regardless of sex. I didn’t consider that this may not be what you humans do. Did I hurt you?”

“Did it seem like I was hurt?” she asked, looking up at him.

His smile was devilish.

And despite returning it, something nagged at her. “Have you ever… locked inside anyone else before?” The thought of him doing so made her stomach twist into knots.

He pulled her up his body until they were face to face.

His expression was so intense, she understood then why she could always feel his gaze upon her before.

Mask or not, his eyes held all the emotion he didn’t let show elsewhere.

“Only you, kyreni . Only you have that part of me. Only you have my hearts. It almost happened my first time having you and if I had let myself lose control then, I don’t think I’d have been able to let you go. ”

“You shouldn’t have let me go,” she said primly. “But I’m glad you came to your senses. I feared I was going to have to use my fork against you.”

He tucked her head beneath his chin again and wrapped her in his thick arms. “A terrifying prospect.”

“ I, for one, think he still deserves the pointy end of a fork or two ,” Exxo said.

Isobel smiled and fell asleep on her mate as the two of them bickered.