Free Sarazen's Claim, Book One by Isabel Wroth Page A

take you to our quarters in the city. Your people will be housed close by, and for the time being some of my people will act as liaisons. Show them their new home, help them acclimate, teach them our laws. As I will do for you.”
    “Your replacement?”
    “You are my one, I can no longer take command and risk my life now that I have a mate.”
    “I’m sorry,”
    “Why?”
    “You’re being replaced, taken away from your position, because of me.”
     
    Her stomach was churning with guilt, but before she could say more, he had turned and his fingers found their way into her hair. To her face. He cradled her head while he tipped her chin up and made her look at him. She hadn’t seen him smile, not really, she’d seen his lips curve up at the edges, but his face hadn’t softened at all. It did now, and it was the most devastatingly beautiful thing she’d ever seen. It made his eyes turn molten, made his entire face change. He brushed his knuckles down the edge of her cheek, his chest and hers brushing as he stepped closer, surrounding her with his intense heat. “I am being relieved, my one. Relieved from a life of loneliness. Relieved from hopelessness and desolation. I am being relieved, not taken away or losing anything. I have been given the greatest gift, my one, a gift that I thought I would never receive.”
     
    He murmured the words to her, the tip of his nose touching hers, that sensual, sweet purr vibrating in his chest the whole time. He said those things to her, and her entire body felt like it melted and the only reason she was on her feet was because he had his hand in her hair, kneading gently at her scalp. She felt…overwhelmingly happy, touched, that he thought she was some kind of gift. Emotional, because this massive, powerful alien being had felt alone and desolate without her. “What will you do, if you’re not going to command an armada?” He tilted his head and rubbed his nose alongside hers, and she finally realized this must be the Sarazen version of a kiss, “Most likely I will be promoted to a seat on the elder council,”
    “And me?”
    “You may do whatever pleases you. I will take you to each planet in our solar system to gather flowers if it is your wish.”
     
    She nodded, boldly returning his caress, and then touched her lips softly to his, feeling him still and tense around her. “Why did you do that?” He asked curiously, and she frowned, tugging her lip through her teeth, wondering if she’d just made some kind of mistake. “Because I um, I wanted you to know I was appreciative, moved even, by um, by what you said.” His palm slid down to her waist to pull her that last few inches closer to him, leaving her no room for her hands except on his biceps, and she could see him frown. “Humans touch lips when they are pleased?”
    “O-or to convey um, affection. It’s called a kiss. I won’t do it if you don’t like it.”
    “A kiss. To show affection,” He said pensively, touching one of his own to her mouth, and another like he was testing out the way it felt.
     
    His lips were firm, like him, but oh so gentle, and the more he did it, the hotter she got. The more her head spun with desire, with want. “It brings you pleasure, I can smell it.” He growled, the sound pinging off her nerve endings until she shuddered and clung a little breathlessly to him. “It brings me pleasure to kiss you. Yes.” He made her feel like some kind of sensual, seductive being. Made her feel bold enough to slide her hands up over his thick shoulders and around his neck, his hair sliding along the backs of her hands like thick strands of silk.
     
    She kissed him again, and this time she licked at his bottom lip, smiling when he hugged her back, his arms shaking as his muscles bulged. “Is this okay?” She asked, but she could feel just how okay it was, how he crushed her to him carefully, how the hard proof of his arousal dug into her belly and the purring rumbles deepened in his