Chapter 1264: Re-Marking Melissa

Melissa’s face softened instantly.

Her hand settled over his.

"You mean our baby?"

"Our baby."

The words still sounded wonderful.

Phei leaned forward until his lips touched her stomach.

One kiss, then another, slower this time, open-mouthed against the warm, taut skin. Melissa’s fingers entered his wet hair while he remained there for a moment, smiling against her like an idiot, the heat of his mouth lingering as if he could kiss the child through her.

His kid.

Gods.

Phei finally lifted his head, but his thoughts had returned to the vanished Mark.

The explanation seemed obvious now.

Living Soul.

The System had explicitly told him that the Mark’s evolution needed to spread through his women again. Those who already carried his old Mark would need to be marked once more, while women who had never received it would need to accept it for the first time.

Roxanne had been the exception.

That had never felt accidental and whatever had happened between them and improved the Mark had apparently allowed Roxanne’s Mark to cross that threshold by itself.

Sienna had received the evolved one through everything that happened between that night. Which meant, as things stood now, Roxanne and Sienna were the only women whose Marks had properly entered that new Living Soul state.

Melissa’s old Mark disappearing made considerably more sense now.

It had not been rejected but it become obsolete waiting to be renewed.

Phei’s gaze dropped once more toward the place it had once rested. The water lapped at the smooth, unmarked skin just above the join of her thighs. His cock, thick and fully hard now against her ass, pulsed once at the thought of putting it back there.

Then he looked at Melissa.

A very familiar smile slowly appeared.

Melissa recognized it immediately. "No."

Phei blinked innocently. "I haven’t asked anything."

"That face already asked."

"What face?"

"The perverted one."

"This is my loving and devoted partner face."

"It looks exactly like your perverted one."

"That sounds like a design flaw."

Melissa laughed, shaking her head as Phei shifted around her until they were facing one another more fully.

His hands settled around her waist. Water streamed down the full curves of her breasts, over the tight buds of her nipples, down the soft plane of her stomach. She was naked in his lap, thighs parted around his cock with her pussy pressed close enough that he could feel every small shift of her body against the hard length of him.

"Can I mark you again?"

That made Melissa pause.

Phei’s eyes remained on hers.

He had claimed her once because she had wanted him to. He would do it the same way again.

"The Mark kind of changed after I evolved to another realm," he explained quietly. "I think that’s why the old one disappeared. The Mark isn’t what it used to be anymore."

Melissa searched his face.

"Better?"

"Much."

"How much better?"

Phei smiled faintly. "Enough that I want it back on you."

His thumb moved along her waist, then lower, tracing the empty place where the Mark had lived. "Especially now."

Melissa followed his glance toward her stomach and understood exactly what he meant.

Protecting her no longer meant protecting only her; she now carried their child. And if the evolved Mark gave Phei even one more way of sensing danger before it reached Melissa, then he wanted that connection restored yesterday.

His expression turned serious. "But only if you still want it."

Melissa stared at him for several seconds.

Then her lips slowly curved.

She reached for his hand.

Phei expected her to squeeze it.

Instead she drew it downward beneath the water, stopping just low enough to make the intention perfectly obvious without needing explanation. His fingers brushed the slick, heated pussy between her thighs. Melissa’s breath caught, a small, shameless sound leaving her as she pressed his hand more firmly against herself.

His eyebrows rose.

Melissa leaned closer until her lips nearly touched his. "If you’re going to mark me again," she whispered, amusement warming through her eyes, "you had better make the occasion memorable."

Phei’s grin became shameless immediately. "How memorable?"

Melissa’s nails lightly traced the back of his neck. "The sort where I complain about walking afterward."

Phei stared at her then laughed aloud. "When haven’t I?"

Melissa’s mouth fell open. "You arrogant little..."

He kissed her before she finished.

The kiss began laughing and ended considerably less innocent. His mouth opened over hers, slow and hungry, tongue sliding against hers while his hand stayed low between her thighs, feeling the heat of her through the water. Melissa made a soft, helpless sound into his mouth and wrapped her arms around his neck, breasts pressed flush to his chest, nipples dragging over his wet skin.

Phei stood with her in his arms, water spilling from both of them in shining sheets while Melissa instinctively wrapped herself around him. He held her securely, one arm beneath her and the other around her back, her legs locking at his waist; his hard cock pressed against her pussy as he broke the kiss only long enough to look down at her stomach again.

Phei lowered Melissa just enough to kiss her belly once more, directly above the tiny life hidden there.

"You," he murmured against her skin, "are going to have to forgive your parents occasionally."

Melissa burst out laughing. "Phei!"

He looked up at her with complete innocence. "What? I’m preparing the child for reality."

She caught his face and kissed him again, deeper this time, shameless with hunger, her body still wrapped around him, wet and open and already asking for more.

Phei carried her from where they sat through the warm drifting mist, still smiling against her lips, and somewhere between one kiss and the next his gaze returned to the place where his first Mark upon Melissa had disappeared.

It would not remain empty for long.

This time, when Melissa accepted him again, it would carry something their first Mark never had.

A Living Soul.

And Phei intended to make certain she remembered exactly how she received it.

Phei carried her only as far as the wide stone bench beside the bath, still wrapped in steam and the last of the falling water. He sat with Melissa astride him, her wet thighs bracketing his hips, her breasts flush to his chest — full, heavy, and gleaming, the tight peaks of her nipples dragging over his skin every time she breathed.

The hard length of his cock was trapped between them, thick and hot, the hungry huge head already smearing a slow bead of wetness against the soft private of her lower stomach.

He did not rush her down onto it.

He kissed her first.

Slow. Open-mouthed. The kind of kiss that asked for nothing except more of her. Melissa answered with a soft sound against his tongue, her fingers sliding into his wet hair as he deepened it.

He tasted her thoroughly — the corner of her mouth, the full lower lip, the small catch of her breath when his tongue stroked hers. Her hips rolled once, instinctive, dragging the slick, heated silk of her along the underside of his cock.

He groaned into her mouth and held her there, not letting the kiss break.

When he finally drew back, it was only far enough to kiss the line of her jaw. Then the place beneath her ear. Then the wet column of her throat.

Melissa’s head tipped back with a quiet, helpless moan. His mouth moved over her pulse as if he meant to memorize it. One hand spanned her waist and the other rose to the full, heavy curve of her breast, palm filling with the warm weight of her, thumb brushing the tight, wet peak until she shivered.

"Phei..."