But he was methodical.Thorough. Creating suds and washing them away, then repeating the motion until, finally, he pressed his nose to my skin and inhaled. His eyes held mine the whole time, hunger smoldering in those inky depths.
Slick immediately pooled in my core, responding to that look. Thatneed.
Becauseoh, yes, please.
I drew my fingers through his thick hair, yearning to feel him. Hold him.Guide him.
“Tell me my name, Kyra,” he whispered, his words sounding almost pained.
Alphalingered on my tongue. But I was beginning to understand what he wanted. What he was trying to ensure I knew.
Him.
Lorcan.
The Elite… I’m mated to.
I stared down at him, my tongue thickening in my mouth.
He’d pulled me back from Fare. Saved me from a fate I didn’t even want to think about facing. Because I’d been in heat.
Yet now… now I was… still in heat. But not quite. On the fringes of it, I supposed. Leaving the heart of the cycle.
Hence my hunger.
No, actually. That was because of Fare. He’d taken a lot of my blood. Too much. Without providing any in return.
I was famished.
Dying of thirst.
But there were other things I craved, too.
Like Lorcan. On his knees. With his mouth against my thigh.
Not biting. Just… kissing.
He held my gaze as he did precisely that, leaning forward to taste the skin he’d just finished soaping and rinsing. My eyes nearly closed in delight, the sensation so all-consuming that I almost forgot how to breathe.
His hands ran up my opposite leg then, his touch repeating the same ministrations—removing Fare’s stench. His marks. His existence.
Lorcan… was replacing him.
Showing me what it was like to be cherished. Respected.Mated.
I’d been in the throes of my heat, and he’d… rejected me. Sort of. I’d felt his need. Could smell it. Yet he hadn’t tried to knot me at all. He’d put me in some sort of sleep state, his healing power helping to chase away the remnants of Fare’s venom.
Lorcan had taken care of me.
Held me.
Purred for me.
He was still caring for me now, with each stroke of his fingers, chasing away Fare with individual caresses against my skin.
I shivered despite the heat of the water spray, my body slickening for very different reasons than my heat.
Lorcan was seducing me. Perhaps not on purpose, but his touch was…hypnotic. Perfect. Exactly what I needed.
