Текст книги "Alien On Fire"

Автор книги: January Bell

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

Her hands spasm against my arms.

“It is right, and it is true. Your body is mine, and your heart and head will follow.”

She doesn’t argue when I hoist her into my arms, her legs going around my waist, and head towards my quarters.

She can’t, because I’ve claimed her mouth as my own, just as I promised to do with the rest of her.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

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LEIGH

I hate that he’s right. I hate that I want him so much it overrides all that’s left of my good sense. Having sex with Nydo, kissing Nydo… worrying about Nydo—it’s a slippery slope, and I’m sliding right down it at breakneck speed.

He’s just such a damn good kisser.

Everything about him turns me on, even his ridiculously cocky attitude.

I like his arrogance.

Not that I’ll ever tell him that. Ugh.

“Tell me you were worried about me,” he says between feverish kisses. “Tell me how you felt when you saw me hurt.”

“No,” I tell him, and he pulls back from my mouth. The door to his room on the ship closes behind us, the lights coming on as we enter.

“What do you mean, no?”

“You already told me how I felt. Why should I bother?”

“Because I want to hear it from your mouth, and then I want that mouth to—”

I raise one eyebrow, pushing hard against his bare chest.

He gives me an arrogant grin. “Kiss me again.”

“Don’t we need to leave?” I know how this is going to end, with me in a quivering heap of post-orgasm bliss, but I have to say… I enjoy resisting.

“I already charted the course for Roth,” he tells me, his lips nibbling over the bottom of my ear. A shiver goes up my spine. “We have an hour before we need to take off… My only worry that it will not be long enough.”

“An hour is a long time.”

He smacks my ass, hard, leaving me gasping… and wet. So wet. I swallow, searching his gaze.

“But you said yourself that you aren’t in love with me.” He stares right back at me, all challenge. “That you don’t want to accept the mating bond between us. I intend to make every effort during our trip to Roth to show you why I would make you the best mate. I intend to worship every inch of your body, so that any time you think of me, you think of the most intense pleasure of your life.”

I blink several times. “You really think you can fuck me into loving you?”

He snarls lightly, his teeth scraping against my neck. “You truly think you can resist me?”

“I—”

“You want me. I scent it on you, I feel your warm wetness pressed against my stomach already, and it is driving me out of my mind. You need release, you said it yourself. I will give you what you so desperately need, and you won’t be able to resist giving me your heart.”

“Sounds like a challenge,” I mutter, then moan as he gently bites the curve of my shoulder.

“You like it when I challenge you,” he rasps. His eyes are fire again, and he shoves me against a metal wall, sliding me down slightly so his hard cock grinds between my legs. “You like it when I tell you how I’m going to fuck you senseless. Say it.”

“I do,” I groan, surprising both of us. Delight chases the momentary shock from his eyes.

“Tell me to fuck you, Leigh,” he commands, and the words are guttural, primal.

I’m so damn turned on my legs are already shaking around him.

“You’re hurt,” I object. “I don’t want to make it worse.”

His face softens slightly, something tender flitting over it. Then his mouth is on mine, and what starts gently ends with a clash of teeth and tongues.

I’m panting by the time we pull apart, my body taut and tight and yearning.

I want him. I want to feel him inside me.

“Tell me,” he insists, then kisses me again. “Tell me you need me to fill you up.”

“I do.” I’ve never wanted anything more than I want this, right now, in this moment. Why not? I’m on birth control. It’s not like I can get pregnant. Why shouldn’t I take what he’s offering? I can’t keep my head around him.

He tugs the silky black shirt off me, the lacy slip of a bra following in short order.

“Fuck,” he says, staring down at me. “You are so beautiful. So different.” His big grey hands tumble through my red hair, then float down to my breasts.

I expected him to be rough. To be possessive.

But he lays me down on the bed, pressing kiss after soft kiss to my mouth. His own dark hair is pulled back, and it only highlights the harsh lines of his handsome face. He strokes his calloused hand across my face, and I nip at his thumb, causing him to groan, his eyes closing as my mouth sucks at the tip of it.

“Leigh,” he says, my name a sigh of ecstasy.

“You’re so soft,” I say quietly, running my hands over his velvety grey skin. The darker charcoal swirls seem to move as I touch him, and I watch, fascinated, as they slip underneath my fingertips.

“Everything about me is hard,” he growls, his orange, fiery eyes fixed on me. “You are my softness. You are already my weakness. You may not want to give me your heart, but it doesn’t matter, because you already have mine. You can have both of ours.”

I bite my lip, unsure of how to respond to that.

When his mouth dips to my bare breast, though, I’m saved from having to say anything.

“I like these,” he tells me, then sucks the nipple back into his mouth, hard. “I like everything about you. I like the way you pretend to be tough, but underneath it all, you are warm and kind and tender-hearted.”

He switches sides, watching me as his teeth scrape across the firm peak of my breast. His hand stays on my face, and when his thumb rubs across my bottom lip, I return the favor, biting down lightly on it.

“Fuck,” he growls, and his hips grind down, his cock rubbing hard against my thigh.

I moan.

There are too many clothes between us, and suddenly, I can’t get them off fast enough. I fumble with mine, and he makes a feral noise, helping me pull my new pants off with gentle ease. His follow, and then he’s naked in front of me again.

I prop myself up on my elbows, drinking him in. Only the bandage around his waist mars his perfection. His chest heaves, his thick grey cock bobbing as I memorize every single muscle standing in stark relief on all that alien skin.

He seems to do the same, his eyes coasting over my skin like he can’t get enough.

It makes me feel beautiful. Special. Wanted.

“I must tell you something,” he finally says.

I want him to fuck me. “Right now?” I ask.

“Yes—”

I grab his cock, and we both moan at the sensation. “Right now, I want this in me, and I want you to do all the things you keep telling me you’re going to. Or are you all talk?”

“Fuck, Leigh,” he grits out.

I give a low laugh, then spread my legs, because I just can’t wait anymore.

“Look at that pretty cunt,” he growls. His fingers flex on my hips, and I squirm against him.

“Need you,” I pant, so turned on it’s almost embarrassing.

“This tight cunt needs me, doesn’t it?” he asks, and I nod, trying not to whine at him.

I stroke one hand down his cock and he shivers at my touch, his eyes closing to narrow orange slits.

“I think you need me, too,” I tell him, feeling powerful.

For a moment, he doesn’t move, just lets my stroke my hand up and down his hard length.

When he does move, I gasp in surprise.

He doesn’t slide into me, like I thought he would.

No, he fucking holds my hips down, and licks, and licks, and licks, until I’m panting for air. He laps at my wetness, watching me try to grind against him and still holding me down, keeping me from getting exactly what I need.

Nydo is as relentless in this as he is in everything else.

He shoves two fingers deep inside me, tickling gently, like he’s searching for—

“Oh, fuck, Nydo,” I nearly scream as he hits my g-spot, his mouth clamping around my clit as he sucks, hard.

I see stars.

It feels incredible. Better than anything I’ve ever felt in my entire life.

And he doesn’t stop.

I hold onto his hair for dear life as he starts backing up, moving his fingers in and out of me, my wetness spilling out everywhere, coating his face, my thighs.

“Come for me again, little flame,” he demands, and between that and his clever fingers, I arch off the bed again, unable to do anything other than what he says.

“Now you are ready for me,” he mutters.

To my surprise, he doesn’t just plow into me with wild abandon.

No.

He picks me up, holding my panting, boneless body close to his, then pulls me on top of him on the bed.

I expected him to try to fuck the daylights out of me. Hell, I wanted him to.

But cuddling is nice, too.

At least, that’s what I think he’s doing, until he spreads my legs, his hands back on my hips. Carefully, he positions his cock at my entrance, and it’s all I can do to remember to keep breathing.

“You’re going to ride me, mate,” he tells me. “I want to watch you take my cock deep inside you. I want to watch your body move as you come all around me.”

“It’s so big,” I moan, the tip of him stretching me.

“You can take it, Leigh. Take all of me.”

I want to. I take his cock in my hand, guiding it deeper into my wetness. But he’s so big, and even though I’m slicker than I’ve ever been, I don’t see how I can fit this massive alien inside me.

“So fucking wet,” he groans, his eyes blazing hotter than ever.

With that, the phantom heat of his powers begins tickling over my body. Over my clit. Around my backside, my nipples.

Holy shit.

I arch my back, and his cock slips deeper. Another inch.

“That’s a good fucking mate,” he says approvingly. “Look at you take me.”

I cry out as he jerks his hips up, fully seating himself inside me.

It’s too much. It feels too good. And still there’s the heat, trickling all over my skin, making every cell in my body feel that much more alive. I moan, and everything spasms inside me, a third orgasm rocketing through me.

“So fucking beautiful,” he says, gripping my hips, moving my body for me. “I’m going to take you hard now,” he murmurs, pulling my chest against his.

In the next instant, I’m on my back and he’s driving into me. I hold on to his shoulders, his biceps, and he pulls one of my legs up so that my calf’s pressed against his shoulder.

It’s so damn intense.

“Are you okay?” he asks, and when I open my eyes, my heart stutters a little.

His brow’s furrowed in concern, and a frown turns his lips down.

“Oh, I am so much better than okay,” I manage.

He slows down though, moving thoughtfully, his huge cock sliding in and out of me at a tantalizing pace.

When he kisses me, it’s… it’s almost tender, and I squeeze around him, liking this more than I thought I would.

Loving it.

When I come again, thanks to the hot trickle of his power against my clit, the steady thrust of his monster cock, it’s with his name on my lips.

He pulls out moments later, painting hot cum across my stomach and breasts.

It surprises me a little, that he pulled out, especially after all his ridiculous dirty talk about wanting to fill me up, but... it’s sweet, and it means a lot to me that he would honor what I told him about not wanting to be pregnant.

Especially when I pegged him for such a selfish jerk. Guilt swims through me, making my chest twinge.

I smile up at him, and his relaxed, blissful expression melts into a grin. He kisses me deeply, but it’s sweet, and tender, and I actually sigh in contentment when we pull apart.

“I like you like this,” he says, dancing warm fingers across my chest.

“What, naked and covered in your cum?” I laugh.

“That, yes. Obviously. But… I meant happy. I like this smile on your face. I like knowing that I am the one who caused it.” He inhales deeply, a strange expression crossing over his face. “It makes me feel… happy, too.”

Nydo frowns, the downturn of his lips making me smile harder, as though me making him happy is a bad thing.

“If you’re happy,” I ask him sleepily, “then why do you look like you just ate a lemon?”

His gaze scans my face, as though he expects me to be making fun of him, as though he expects to see anything but the relaxed, semi-embarrassing post-orgasmic half-smile that’s all I can muster at the moment.

The bed shifts as he pulls me into his arms, and I sigh in contentment, relaxing even more into the heat and softness of his skin.

“I think… my Leigh, I think that I do not deserve you. I am not a good male. You may be my queen, but this will not be an easy life.”

My stomach twists at that, and I still. “Well, all we have to do is get you back to Roth and make sure your reign or whatever is solid, and then I’m going back to Earth. Right? That was the deal.”

“That was the deal,” he agrees, but there’s a rough quality to his voice that turns my breath jagged.

I pull the thick blanket over myself. I’m still a sloppy, post-sex mess, but I’m too tired from the sex and from the attack to care.

“Sleep,” he tells me, his arms holding me tight against his body. “I will wake you when it is time to launch into the atmosphere.”

I don’t like taking orders from him, but his voice is so different than the usual arrogant drawl that I sigh again, my body limp and relaxed.

“Sleep,” he repeats. “I have you.”

As though I could do anything else.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

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NYDO

My Leigh.

I thought I could harden my heart to her wants, to her desires, to the fact I lied about my intentions to return her to Earth.

I swipe the warm cloth over her body, cleaning her up as she sleeps, so delicate and peaceful that it makes my chest ache. The primal, possessive part of me wants to rub my cum into her, to mark her so heavily with my scent that she can’t wash it off.

But I know that will only make her uncomfortable, so I push that piece of me down and continue to clean her with gentle, sure strokes.

My cock rises again, hard as a rock by the time she’s clean. I stare at her, unable to tear my eyes away from her.

She was to be a pawn in my game to regain the throne. My mate, yes. Mine, always. But a symbol, a female to breed and parade around and rut.

My hands fist at my sides, the wet cloth dripping onto my bare foot as I squeeze it.

I wasn’t supposed to care about her feelings, about her desire to get back to Earth.

Gnashing my teeth, I turn from where Leigh sleeps, and quickly wash my own body before dressing. I should tell her about the markings. The markings she will receive when I undoubtedly lose control and loose my energy inside her.

The markings the Roth will expect.

The tie between us that will scream to all that see us that she is, in fact, my fated mate, the Roth Queen, and the one who will secure our line.

The markings that will bind us together, keeping her from ever returning to Earth.

Now is not the time, though. My gaze flicks back to where she sleeps, drawn like a magnet to the quiet noises she makes, the curve of her hip, the elegant, muscled expanse of her leg.

To see my ash markings on her, the swirls of the Roth embedded beneath her skin… my cock begins to drip with pre-cum.

She will accept them. She will accept me.

My teeth grind together, and I rake a hand through my hair, undone by my need to possess her, to brand her as mine.

I only have to make her love me first, in the silly way humans do.

Then she can be fully mine.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

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LEIGH

I wake to Nydo running his fingers across my cheek, breathing my name as he stares at me with dark, inscrutable eyes.

“Is it time?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.

“Yes.” He holds up a set of clothing similar to what he has on, and I dress, still half-asleep.

God, I feel really good, though. Sore in all the right places, in spots I forgot could be sore, and I blush as I wriggle into the pants.

“I smell your arousal again,” he growls at me. “It is distracting.”

“Well, then breathe through your mouth, I guess. It’s not something I can exactly control.”

He grunts, then prowls through the doors. Sighing, I follow him.

I pat my hair as I walk, and I can tell it’s going to take ages to detangle. Sex hair? More like sex goddess hair.

Damn.

My eyes are glued on the tight fit of Nydo’s shirt, the way it highlights his sculpted back, his pants showing off his equally high and toned ass. I thought I could get it out of my system, but now that I know what it’s like with him? Yeah, right.

I squirm a little as I walk, turned on as hell all over again. Maybe I should think about baseball. Nydo would look delicious in baseball pants, no shirt.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t think about baseball.

Uhhhh, okay.

Maybe I should think about what the hell is going on between us. Other than the literally hot sex, trying to parse out my snarled emotions when it comes to this shitty agreement between us is sure to be a buzz kill.

Hot sex.

I’m so focused on remembering exactly how good it was between us that I don’t notice Nydo until he’s on top of me, pinning me to the wall.

“Female,” he growls, the darkness in his eyes receding in favor of the wild orange flames that only drive my sudden need higher. “You are making it hard for me to concentrate, and I need to navigate our ship into space.”

“I can’t control your concentration.” I lift my chin, refusing to apologize. He stares at me for a moment, and I watch him right back, waiting.

And I see the exact moment something snaps in him, his eyes burning with that inner, nameless inferno. His hands snatch my wrists, pinning me in place, his lips brushing across mine. Softly, first, gently, the barest of touches, and the bastard knows exactly what he’s doing, because the instant I moan, the instant I try to take more…

He pulls away with a wicked smile. When I pout, he dips his mouth towards mine once again, and this time? This time I bite his lower lip—not hard, but hard enough to elicit a growl that turns me absolutely feral with need.

“Enough,” he says, his voice so low and dark it makes my nipples prick.

With that, he releases my wrists, only to scoop me up and throw me over his shoulder.

I squeal in surprise, and he slaps a hand on my ass. Hard enough to sting through my pants.

“That’s not very nice,” I tell him, and then, because I’m hanging over his shoulder, I spank him right back.

“You like it, female. I can smell your cunt getting wetter by the moment.”

“Don’t call me female,” I say automatically, trying to ignore the rest of that statement.

“I can smell your ripe pussy, and I bet it’s dripping for me, isn’t it?”

It shouldn’t be so fucking hot when he says that. It shouldn’t make everything clench up in anticipation, but it does. I must still be in a pretty bad way if the phrase “ripe pussy” has me horny as a hotdog on a stick.

“I don’t know,” I finally answer primly. “And we have other things to worry about, like getting into space safely. I wouldn’t want to be a distraction.”

He rubs my butt with one hand, the other hooked behind my knees to keep me in place. Not that I have a snowball’s chance in hell of moving. His arms are like vise grips.

I gasp in surprise as his hand delves between my legs, and I grip his sides as best I can, hanging on for dear life as he manages to rub me in all the right ways through the fabric of my pants.

“Just like I thought. Your honey already drips for me.”

A second later, he’s flipping me back over his shoulder, plunking me down in the navigator’s chair. I’m nearly panting, and I can’t shake the feeling that I should feel… annoyed by the spanking, by his manhandling, but it was really hot.

So I just blink at him, out of sorts, as he smirks at me, strapping the webbing over my chest.

I slap his hands away. “I’m not an idiot. I can strap myself in.”

“Did you ever think that maybe I simply enjoy doing things for you?” Nydo rumbles, his little smirk widening as I stumble over a sassy retort.

It’s hard to be sassy when my brain refuses to divert any energy from my sex drive to my other functions. Sex drive: 99%, Common Sense: 1%, Sassy Retorts: 0.

“Are you trying to deny it?” he asks, clearly reading into my silence.

“I thought you were in a hurry to leave,” I deflect.

If he’s going to lord his sexual prowess and my body’s natural response to him over me, then I’ll be damned if I’m going to make things easy for him. I bite back a little grin.

Might be even better if it’s not easy for him, anyway.

He finally grunts, turning away from me.

I purse my lips, studying him as he works his way through the pre-flight checks and then straps into his own chair. Nydo’s clearly as at ease flying a ship as he is ordering people around. And ordering me around in bed.

My cheeks heat, and his gaze slides over to me, a cocky grin on his face, like he knows what I was just thinking about.

Fuck.

He can probably tell just by the way I smell.

“How long have you been flying?” I make myself ask. It’s small talk, and not even good chit-chat, but it’s something to talk about at least.

Besides, I know almost nothing about this male that was fucking my brains out not even an hour ago.

“I learned to fly at seven, like most Roth.” His voice changes, turning thoughtful. “My mother taught me.” His words are quiet, and I strain to hear him as the engines thrum louder, gearing up to take us into the atmosphere. “She loved to fly. She was an excellent teacher.”

He falls silent, and I blink as the interior lights dim. Nydo’s hands dance over the controls, and then we’re in the air.

My stomach drops, like it always does when I realize the ground has fallen away.

“My mother would have liked you,” Nydo says, and it takes me a moment to register the compliment. “She was a great judge of character.”

“Oh,” I say, not sure how to respond to that. “Thank you?” Is this the same male that was smacking my ass and feeling me up only seconds ago?

Talk about whiplash.

The ship shudders as we rise further, higher, the still-burning Roth destroyer shrinking as we put distance between ourselves and the wreckage.

“My mother was one of the few Roth that believed in taking a gentle hand with children.”

“It must have been awful when she… was taken,” I say, surprising myself.

He spares a glance at me.

The ship shakes as we hit the atmosphere, fire burning all across the exterior, the shields taking the majority of the stress as the red and orange glow blazes across my eyes. My fingers clutch at the safety webbing, and I grit my teeth.

I’ve done this a hundred times.

But never alone with a Roth.

Never on the way to a planet full of aliens who attacked Earth.

And never as their pretend queen.

Nausea rolls through me, and I take a deep breath, counting to four. Holding for four. Blowing it out.

“Your scent has changed.” He stares at me, and I make myself look at him. My jaw twitches. “You are afraid.”

“I am… nervous.”

“I will take care of you. You have nothing to fear.”

He’s so sure of himself. So damn cocky, like he alone can wipe away all my anxiety.

“You asked about the scar on my back.”

The fire on the outside of the ship dies, and we’re through the atmosphere.

Black rolls all around us, the planet already smaller as Nydo steers the ship away.

“I did,” he agrees. He folds his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes at me. “You didn’t seem to want to tell me.”

“I got it in the Roth invasion, Nydo.” It comes out quieter than I intended. Soft. I hate the way my voice shakes. I take another deep breath, trying to calm myself.

The orange flares in his eyes. Heightened emotion, I realize. They turn orange when he’s turned on, or pissed off, or really happy.

“I was trapped in a building that was hit by an explosion. A plas grenade, I figured out later. Something fell on me, sliced me open.” I take a massive breath, inhaling so much, so fast it makes my chest hurt, the webbing pressing against me. “I thought I was going to die that day. I never even thought aliens were real. And there I was, trapped in a burning building, while Roth raged outside, ravaging my city.”

He blinks at me, the orange fire guttering, his eyes turning deepest black, black as the void of space all around us. They could swallow me up, his eyes, or burn me down.

“I can still smell it,” I continue. “I can still smell the dust from the building, the fire. I can taste it in my mouth, hear the screaming all around. Because of the Roth. And where am I going now, Nydo? Where are you taking me?” I slant my head at him. I’m not angry.

I’ve said what I needed to say, and I feel… slightly empty.

“To Roth,” he rasps, his brow furrowing.

In the next instant, he’s pulling his safety webbing off, closing the distance between us in two easy steps.

His hands cup my face, his gaze as tender as I’ve ever seen it.

“You are brave,” he tells me, his breath warm against my skin. “You are braver than many Roth warriors. You can do this. I will be by your side the whole time. I will let nothing happen to you.” A muscle twitches in his forehead, and his nostrils flare slightly. “I could apologize until I am pale in the face, but it will not heal what the Overlord’s troops did to your people, to you. I only wish that I had been ready to take the throne before he invaded Earth. I wish I had been strong enough to save my mother and stay behind with my brothers. I wish things were different.”

I swallow, and his fingertips skate over my jaw.

“I cannot wish these things into reality, though, my Leigh. I cannot change what happened to either one of us. I cannot apologize away the evils of what the Overlord has wrought. All I can do, my Leigh, is promise you that I will not hurt you. That I will protect you with every power I have. You mean…” He takes a great shuddering breath, then forges ahead. “You mean everything to me. Everything.”

I bite my lip, staring down at my knuckles whitening where I’ve gripped the safety webbing so hard it cuts into my palms. He follows my gaze, and his hands find mine.

They’re warm, and strong, and he unwinds my fingers from the webbing, then peppers soft kisses along the red lines across my palm left by the webbing. It makes my breath stutter, the way he touches me, the way he makes promises to me.

I don’t know what to think about him, not really.

He’s giving me whiplash.

One minute, he’s so damn sexy my toes curl in my little Roth-style boots, and the next, so fucking bossy I want to roll my eyes and slam doors.

And then there’s this.

This sweet, kind side to him. I narrow my eyes, trying to figure out if he’s sincere, or if this is just some weird calculation on his part to get me to calm down.

Just when I think I’ve figured him out, he surprises me again.

“Are you hungry? We didn’t have much time to eat.”

“I could eat,” I admit.

He unstraps my webbing, and I’m too tired to argue that I can do it myself. Maybe I should just let him take care of me.

“The settlement was weird, huh? Or is that what I should expect from here on out? Being attacked by the Overlord and then that ass Roghat trying to kill me or have sex with me…” I drift off.

There’s something I need to remember about the settlement. About what I just said.

It’s right on the edge of my awareness, but when I try to focus on what it is, what’s bothering me, it slips away.

“What?” he asks, at least in tune with me enough to know I’m thinking hard about something.

“Something about what Roghat said, back before he grabbed my neck.” I frown, touching my collarbone, where it’s still tender.

“I should have killed him for touching you.”

“We needed him.”

“I will get you more cream for your wound,” he tells me. “After I feed you.”

“I can feed myself,” I tell him, pushing back on his shoulders lightly and standing.

Stars and planets shine outside the window, illuminating the endless stretch of space.

“Why do you push me away?”

“I barely touched you,” I say, laughing. The sound dies on my lips when I turn back to him and realize he doesn’t mean the way I touched him. Physically.

He shakes his head, hurt clear in his eyes.

Guilt slams into me, and I bite my cheeks.

“Ugh,” I finally say, throwing my hands in the air. “I don’t know, Nydo! Maybe because everything about this is insane. I nearly died after your species ravaged Earth. A lot of my friends did. My family, too. Then I had to live with the fact that I’d somehow made it out okay, that I’d somehow lived, when everyone else I loved died. Everyone! Do you know what that’s like?” I let out a harsh laugh, on the verge of tears. “Then I got snatched up again, after I joined the Federation, because what the hell else was I going to do with myself? The Roth put me in a cell and injected me full of drugs for the sole purpose of making more of the species that already took everything from me.” I laugh again, and it scrapes out of my throat. “That’s why the women in our crew used to tell me I was the unluckiest. Because I barely survived the Roth attack, only to find out I’d lost everything, then landed in that prison, only to have the lost King of Roth decide I was his mate.”

He regards me for a long moment, his lips pursed.

My breath’s coming in short, frantic puffs, and he gets down on his knees before me, clasping my hands in his.

“I don’t know what to do with you,” I tell him, throwing up my hands. “I… like you. I know you’re not the same as the Roth who ordered the horrible things that happened to me. But just when I think you’re nice, just when I think maybe you’re different, you go and act like a jerk again.”

He cradles my face in his hands, and I tilt my chin up, refusing to let him see just how much he gets to me.

“I care for you more than I thought possible, Leigh,” he rumbles, his eyes as serious as I’ve ever seen them. “I do not know how to be… the male you want me to be. I am not perfect. I will never be perfect. But when I tell you I care for you, that I want to take care of you, I mean it. I want you to stay safely by my side, forever.” He bites off the last word, and my eyes grow wide.

“You mean until you’re secure on Roth and I can go back to Earth. I just, I don’t understand you. I keep trying, and every time I think I have you figured out, I get all mixed up again. I’m trying. You seem wonderful one moment, and the next, you’re back to being a jerk.”

“You like it when I boss you around.”

“I mean, yeah, in bed, maybe. But otherwise, no. No. You have to realize this goes both ways, this thing between us,” I say, motioning between our chests. “If you want me to really sell the fact that I’m your mate, that there is a way for humans and Roth to really work together, then you need to get used to cluing me in on what the hell it is you’re planning. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.” I heave out a breath, hungry and tired.