“That seems like a pretty big decision to make.” My cheeks were red as copperberries, I knew they were. Fuck. And another feather bites the dust. I just couldn't seem to keep my cursing under control lately. I mean, could I be blamed, considering the circumstances? “Don't you need more time?”
“Time?” Vex asked with another laugh, turning abruptly and covering my body with his. I slid down the pillows and ended up with him on top of me, his forearms brace on either side of my head. “I don't need any more time, Brynn. I started watching you long before you ever noticed me.”
“That's not creepy at all,” I whispered, but my voice was husky and broken. It was hard to protest with the long, hard length of Vex's erection pressing into me. And, like, I didn't even want to protest. I wanted Vexer so damn badly. So badly. He was the only living man I had feelings for. He made me feel alive. “Since when?”
Vex lowered his face to my throat, teased his tongue along the length of my neck and made me shiver.
“I don't know. A few months, maybe? Every time you came and went from New Akyumen.”
“Seriously?!” I squeaked, just before he pressed his mouth to mine, the slight stubble on his face rubbing against my smooth one. He was so … big and male and primal, nothing at all like Elijah or Air. Not that that made them any less special. In fact, it made all three of them that much more intriguing. I'd never given a lot of thought to having a harem of my own … Vex made me both stupidly interested in it … and sort of against it, too.
Having him hold me like this, I could almost imagine him becoming my one and only. But then, I loved Airmienan more than the sun loved the sky. It was an interesting fantasy though, one that I entertained by spreading my legs and encouraging Vexer to slide between them.
He ground his hard cock against the molten heat of my core, the only items separating us a few thin pieces of silk—my panties and the pajama pants he'd borrowed from Air's dresser. It wasn't like the prince needed them at the moment …
A rush of sadness and pain took over me, but I pushed it back, deepening my kiss with Vex and wrapping my legs around him. He tasted as good as he smelled, like sunshine and life and new beginnings. I flubbing needed him—bad.
“Be my mate, Brynn,” he growled against my mouth, using forceful thrusts of his hips to turn me into a molten puddle of desire. I couldn't resist what he was offering me, even as I knew it was too soon to want it. Too selfish, really, considering the state of my life.
“Are you asking me to marry you?” I whispered between kisses. Vex pulled away just slightly and spread his wings wide before them in close to his back. His gray eyes burned with the bright fires of lust … and something else. Need. Desire. Affection. That's what it was, right? Because it couldn't quite be love. And yet, he'd woken me up from a sleep whisperer's spell? How was that even possible?
“This is more than that, Brynn. My people are monogamous and we mate for life.”
“Does that mean you're a virgin?!” I choked out, and he laughed again, the sound rumbling through me from above.
“No,” he said, flashing white teeth at me in a cheeky little grin. “It just means that once I choose a mate, once she accepts, there's no going back. There's a small ceremony that goes along with it, but what matters is the heart.” Vex put a tattooed palm to his chest and locked eyes with me from above.
“I'm not … I don't know,” I choked out, knowing I had to consider Air's and Elijah's feeling in this. True, my relationship with Eli was much less formal than what I had with Air, and even then, that was on the rocks, too. But I owed them that. I wouldn't treat these men like the only thing that mattered was the individual relationship we had. It was ridiculous to think of a harem as a sun with rotating planets. The guys would interact in some form or another. They had to at least get along. “Maybe we try this first and then decide?” I squeezed Vex to me by clenching my thighs and he groaned low in his throat. In the back of my mind, I was still thinking about Talon, but right here, right now, I needed this like I needed to breathe oxygen.
“That sounds like a good plan,” Vex rumbled, kissing me with his whole mouth: lips and tongue and teeth. He drew these small sounds from my throat that I prayed on Haversey's hard nipples nobody else would hear … but yet I knew everyone would.
“Let's get naked,” I said in a husky whisper. The thing with ghosts was, they could shed their clothes in an instant, get naked without shedding a single scrap of cloth. But living people, they had to remove them slowly, sensually.
Vexer pulled back from me and sat up on his knees, pushing the red silk pants down his pants and showing me everything that was hiding down there. A bit of dark hair lead down the flat expanse of his abs underneath his belly button. It was dusted around his pelvic area, highlighting all the best parts.
And Haversey help me, Vexer was really big. Like really, really big.
He adjusted his position on the bed and kicked his pants off onto the floor, crossing his arms over his chest and raising one brunette brow in challenge. His look very clearly said … “Your turn.” I grinned as he spoke the words aloud, shedding my nightie and watching as his attention landed fully on my breasts, on the brown shadows of my nipples. “Mm. Even better than I expected.”
“Professor Cross says you have a pornographic imagination,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at Vexer. It was a bit of a struggle to hold back a smile. “I don't appreciate you thinking about me naked.”
“Really?” he asked, reaching down and running the tip of one finger down his cock. “Because I was praying to Reisender, Haversey, and Hellim that you were thinking about me.”
I can't help it; my mouth twitches up in a smile and I let go of my breasts, standing up and sweeping the long length of my hair over my shoulders to hide my nipples. Time to take off the panties. Deep breath, Brynn.
“What sort of things were you thinking about?” I whispered as I slowly, carefully shimmied out of my panties, dropping the damp silk fabric to the floor. I swept my hair forward to hide my crotch and watched as the corner of Vex's lip curled up in a small snarl.
“Come over here, and I'll show you,” he said, gripping the base of his shaft and squeezing it hard enough that he drew a gasp from his own throat. I approached him slowly, wrapping my wings around myself like a shield. When I got close enough, Vex reached up and used his hands to carefully push them aside, like he was giving me a proper little reveal. “How experienced are you?”
“Not very.” I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat. “You?”
“I could teach you a few tricks,” he said with a confident, male smile that turned my insides to mush. He put his hands on my hips, weaving his fingers through my hair to find my bare skin. Our eyes met and my pulse roared so loud that I couldn't hear a damn thing otherwise. “I'm taking birth control, and a DPS …”
“Me, too,” I said, nodding briskly. A DPS was a disease prevention spell. I was prepared for this.
“Excellent,” Vex growled, pulling me forward to straddle his lap. The hair on his legs brushed the smoothness of my own and made me shiver as he curled his wings around us, rubbing his feathers against mine.
My hands came to rest on either side of Vexer's head, and I leaned down, letting my breath feather against his lips before we kissed, slow and languid, tasting each other. Do I want to be this guy's mate? I wondered. I hadn't known him long, but Hellim's balls, he'd sure stepped up to the plate. He'd held me as I wept, gone out on a limb and found the rare supplies for the spell, and then, he'd risked his neck to sneak on campus and wake me up.
Plus, you know he was hot. Super hot. Like Sukupoli—the god of sex—hot.
And I … kind of liked him, too.