Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Ravik was certainly feeling it too. The Beast Kindred’s head fell back and his hand slipped into Cassandra’s hair, but he didn’t try to force her down. He only stroked her long brown hair carefully, his big fingers gentle, despite the obvious effort it cost him to remain still and not thrust into her mouth.
His eyes were almost completely clear now, Severin noted—the milky film fading more with every second Cassandra kept her mouth on him. With every soft suck of her lush lips, his mind came back a little more.
Data, Severin reminded himself desperately—this was data.
The improvement was undeniable. Ravik’s posture had relaxed. His vocalization was coherent. His motor control was improved. His aggression was nil. His focus was entirely on Cassandra, but not in a predatory way. In a mate-bonded way—a protective way—a pleasure-response way.
Cassandra’s mouth was delivering topical analgesic and dermal regenerator to a burn site while simultaneously exposing Ravik to her saliva, scent, breath, and emotional care, Severin observed, attempting to be scientific. He really did need to know which element mattered most.
Was it her mouth? Her scent? Her warmth? Her willingness to kneel between Ravik’s thighs and take him in her mouth and swirl her tongue around his…
No. Severin attempted to push the thought away.
“Hmm,” Ravik rumbled as Cassandra kept sucking. “Feels good…feels good when mate sucks my cock.”
“It…it sounds like it’s working.” Severin’s voice came out slightly ragged. “You’d better keep it up, though—that’s a sensitive area,” he added.
Ravik groaned again, deeper this time.
Cassandra’s eyes flicked up to Severin, and for one dangerous second, he thought she saw too much—saw the hunger in him. Saw the way his hand gripped the table…saw the rigid line of his shoulders and the fact that his fangs were fully descended now.
But if she noticed, she said nothing.
She only looked back at Ravik and continued sucking the head of his cock.
And Severin stood at the end of the table, his burned hand throbbing, his body aching, his mind racing, and watched the woman who might be the key to saving them all wrap her warm mouth around his best friend’s shaft.
For science, he told himself. For healing. For Ravik.
All of it was true…but none of it was the whole truth.
25
CASSIE
Cassie told herself this was still about healing, but that was getting harder and harder to believe.
At first, it had been easy enough to pretend that she was simply applying burn ointment in a very unusual way. Ravik had been hurt, frightened, and regressed almost back into that foggy, half-feral state he’d been in when he first rescued her from the Dead Zone. He wouldn’t let her put the ointment on with her fingers and the only thing that seemed to calm him was her scent, her voice, and her touch. So kissing his burns better had made a certain amount of sense.
Sort of.
But now she was kneeling between his spread thighs in Severin’s lab, with Ravik’s huge cock in her mouth and the Blood Kindred was watching her with hungry blue eyes and his fangs fully descended. She wasn’t absolutely sure, but Cassie thought that was supposed to be a sexual response, since Blood Kindred only bit to cure or pleasure their mates. Also, there was a definite bulge in Severin’s sleep trousers.
That made it a little harder to file what she was doing under “medical treatment.”
But Cassie didn’t want to stop.
She told herself that Ravik was hurt and she was helping him. His poor cock had been burned by one of those nasty exploding fikka beetles and the ointment needed to be applied directly to the injury.
Severin had said her lower lip would rub the burn more effectively if she took the broad head into her mouth, and that did sound logical—Severin was a scientist, after all. A Blood Kindred xeno-virologist, to be exact, which meant he knew things about medicine and viruses and alien biology.
He also knew exactly how to look at a woman until her nipples went tight and her pussy got wet as she sucked his best friend’s cock. Which was extremely inconvenient when she was trying to cast herself in the role of Florence Nightingale and not the role of a woman staring in a porno.
Cassie shifted on her knees, trying to ignore the slick heat gathering between her thighs. She was still wearing that ridiculous little red silk nighty and nothing else—she really needed to get new clothes. As it was, every time she moved, the fabric brushed her tight nipples and made them ache. The lab was cool, but she was hot—hot in a way that had nothing to do with perimenopause and everything to do with the two males focused on her like she was the only one in the universe worth watching.
Especially Severin.
Ravik had his eyes half-closed, one big hand buried carefully in her hair as he groaned with every gentle suction of her mouth. He wasn’t forcing her, though—he wasn’t pushing her head or thrusting between her lips. He just sat there, massive and trembling, letting her do what she wanted while she held him in her hand and took as much of him as she could.