Free Absolution (Delroi Prophecy Book 4) by Loribelle Hunt

companions for females, but they’re really bodyguards.”
    He sighed. “That’s what I should have
done for Xiri.”
    She met his gaze, saw the lingering
regret. “You could do that now.”
    “No, Goran has taken care of it.”
    She’d wondered why Xiri hadn’t accompanied
them to the Keep. Was a little surprised after her abduction that Xan trusted
her to Goran’s care, though the couple planned to join them in a few days. He
gave her a wicked smile that made her toes curl and her belly flip-flop.
    “Oh, I’m not worried. Newly mated
warriors rarely let their der’lan’s out of sight.”
    She got the feeling he wasn’t talking
about his cousin and her mate. The gleam in his eyes made her alternately melt
and freeze. Lascivious. So damned hungry. He took a step closer and she backed
up. Kept backing up as he stalked until she realized he’d herded her right
where he wanted her. The bedroom. She didn’t dodge when he reached for her.
Didn’t protest when he slowly stripped her, then himself, and stretched out on
the bed next to her.
    “I made you a promise,” he said.
    His voice was soft, his eyes filled
with a lazy heat that made her hold her breath as the images of that promise
filled her mind again. Her silence was all the consent he needed and before she
knew it she was cuffed to the four corners of the bed. He stood and looked down
at her.
    “So beautiful, love, spread out and
waiting for me,” he whispered.
    He settled between her legs. His cock
was hard, hot, but he didn’t thrust into her. He brushed kisses over her cheeks
before moving to her throat, which remained unmarked. They’d been so busy they
hadn’t had time to schedule with a tattoo artist. He sucked sensitive skin
between his teeth.
    “My
mark will go here. My sweet, powerful, beautiful der’lan.”
    She felt his control fracture a moment
before he shored it up. He licked and nipped his way down her body, stopping to
torture her nipples with teasing gentle licks.
    “Xan.
I need more.”
    “Mmm.
And I need everything. Give me everything, sweetheart, and I’ll give you what
you need.”
    The last of her resistance to the
bond. The small piece of herself she held back, that she’d thought was too
broken, too wasted to ever give again. Her heart. He slid down her body and bit
her inner thigh.
    “You’re thinking too much,” he said
aloud.
    His gaze clashed against hers,
demanding and domineering. Loving and promising, if only she had the strength
to believe she deserved it. This time his teeth grazed her clit. Unwilling to
do anything that would make him stop, she froze.
    “Anna
Leigh,” he murmured into her mind as his tongue stroked
through her folds. “Give yourself to me.
You’ll never regret it.”
    His teeth worried her clit, his tongue
flicked tauntingly. The demand in his mind became something else, morphed into
something gentler. Coaxing. Cajoling.
    “Enticing,” he teased. “Charming.”
    “Bewitching,” she
complained, though she laughed.
    Her resistance dissolved into dust.
The bond between them got impossibly stronger. She felt him in every part of
her. Heart, soul, body. She accepted his right to be there, hers to be as
closely tied to him, and his control snapped. He sucked her clit hard, just
like she liked it, and thrust two fingers into her pussy.
    “Come,
der’lan. I can’t wait to get inside you,” he growled.
    Ecstasy rushed through her. Pleasure
so extreme, so deep she couldn’t begin to describe it. Wanted to drown in it.
She was distantly aware of the cuffs being removed, of Xan rolling her to her
stomach then pulling her to her knees. He thrust into her and the orgasm
started all over again. He rode her through it. When she started to come down,
he strummed her clit and it started all over again. It was too much. Too much
sensation, too much bliss.
    “Xan,” she begged, but for what she had
no idea.
    His thrusts quickened, his breathing
grew ragged. “I’ve got you, love.”
    He