She gave a light suck to one of his testicles, then the other, nearly ending everything! He didn’t breathe as she rose up over his shaft.

With her hand wrapped around the base, she guided the head toward her mouth to run the tip across her red lips. Then came her moist little tongue to circle the flared head. He couldn’t stop an astonished grunt.

Yet then he frowned to feel pain sear over his arm, as if the skin was burning. When he glanced at it, there was nothing, soon forgotten.

She tongued the crown, darting flicks to the underside, making him growl her name. He’d barely recovered from that new delight when she closed her lips over him—with sublime suction.

“Gods almighty.” His hips shot up. Her mouth slid even farther down. . . .

The only thing that could make this better would be if she was straddling his own tongue at the same time.

When she glanced up then, she caught him licking his lips for more of her taste. Her brows drew together. Moaning around him, she took his length even more aggressively. Deeper.

Finally a deep he craved.

As his restraint deteriorated, he cupped her face to give shallow thrusts between her lips. He lifted one wing, using a flare to cup her ass. When he rubbed those supple curves, she shivered.

His heavy testicles tightened as his body prepared to release. No way he could hold back. “Don’t stop, Melanthe! I need more of this.” More of her shimmering eyes, her teasing lips. “Close, sweet. So close.” His head tipped back, eyes sliding shut.

Wait. She’d stopped? He faced her again.

She’d taken away that hot wet suction! “Melanthe?!”

She leaned forward to kiss his navel, leaving him racked with need and confusion. Yet then he felt her plump br**sts pillowing each side of his erection. Desperate for the contact he’d lost, he rolled his hips. His shaft glided along her cle**age. “Good gods.”

Another rock of his hips, and he grew nigh once more. “I’ll release like this . . . between your perfect br**sts . . .”

She tilted her head, gauging his expression. Then, with a sensual grin, she dragged her chest down his body to return to her kiss, adding the stimulation of her hand.

With her fist pumping the base of his dampened shaft, she sucked him with greedy, spine-tingling pulls.

“Ahhh!” Nothing could feel this good. Nothing, nothing . . . “I’m about to come!”

As she sucked and pumped, she cupped his testicles with her free hand, giving them an electrifying squeeze that brought him right over the edge.

Pleasure erupted. He threw back his head and roared—a sound that could never be contained.

Against her clever tongue, his length pulsed again and again, his back bowing in time.

She wrung every last shudder from him, forcing him to ride that pleasure . . . over and over. . . . A culmination so heart-stopping, it was almost fearsome.

He gave her only a drop or two of seed, but she hungrily drew on him for more. As if she’d been waiting forever to take him into her.

When she’d rendered his body boneless and his mind boggled, she gave him a last sweet kiss, then curled up against his side. As they both caught their breath, she laid her hand upon his chest, drawing her thigh up over his.

Time passed. Disbelief and satisfaction waged war in his hazy thoughts.

Melanthe began lazily dragging the backs of her nails up and down his chest. Breezes drifted over them as he floated without pain, discovering what bliss was. I’m to experience this with her for the rest of my eternal life?

And he hadn’t even claimed her.

He was eager to, but resting with his mate like this was an ecstasy all its own. He wondered how long it took for a female’s desire to stir anew. He wondered how many times a day she would let him attend to her. After he claimed her, once he’d found that home, how could he ever force himself to leave it?

Were these now to be his concerns? At the thought, he grinned up to the sky. He drew her closer, pressing his smiling lips against her forehead.

When they’d been young, they’d fallen into a ready camaraderie. Being with her had proved effortless—their interplay filled with rapport and affinity, with ease.

Now, after sharing pleasure with her, he believed they could become that close again, that they could rekindle the connection they’d shared.

And more.

When a ray of light wavered through the palm trees, he lifted her raven locks to the sun, just to watch them shine. . . .

“Sometimes I feel so comfortable with you that I forget our pasts,” she said in a languorous voice. “Sometimes I feel as if nothing had separated us, and only yesterday we were gazing up at clouds together.”

“I was just thinking about our camaraderie. It’s still here between us.”

“Hmm. Something is,” she murmured.

As if an alarm had sounded, he picked up on the subtle change in her tone. When her hand started to dip, tension renewed within him.

Because Feveris wasn’t satisfied. He remained erect, and his mate’s hips began to move, rubbing the slick heat of her sex against him. Bliss.

“You’re hard as iron.”

“You make me thus.” He turned to her, cupping her face. “Are you ready for more? I can give it to you.”

Worry crossed her face, but she still nodded. “I have to feel you inside me.”

Even as his shaft strained demandingly, his chest twisted with emotion. “I don’t want you to regret this.”

She lay back in the flowers and reached for him, her hair like a cloud around her head, night-black curls against bloodred petals. He knew he’d never forget this sight for the rest of his immortal life.