“Why would you tickle it?”

“Nydo,” Leigh groans. “Just don’t.”

“Anyways,” Piper finally says, her mouth pulled back in a tight grin. She shifts uncomfortably. “We need to leave, and since you two are headed elsewhere, we wanted to say goodbye. For now. Bon voyage. You know.”

Leigh sits up, and I let her go, missing her soft, warm body beneath me as though it’s part of my own.

She runs to her two friends, pulling them into a long embrace that makes me… envious.

Not of her, because I want her to have friends.

But of her friendship.

My brothers are the closest thing I’ve ever had to friends, and yet, we’ve never been as tight-knit and carefree as these three human females.

“Sueva sent warlords after us,” Piper finally says, loudly enough so that I know she means for me to hear. “You two need to pick up a comm link and call them off. Especially since you’re clearly here because you want to be, Leigh.”

“At least she is now,” Billie murmurs under her breath. “Alien dick must be better than I thought.”

“We aren’t having sex!” Leigh insists, her face as crimson as her hair.

“But we will be soon,” I assure the three of them. “She is my mate.”

“Ugh,” Leigh rolls her eyes at me, then turns back to Billie and Piper. “I’ll call Captain Jacks, I promise.”

“Be safe, Leigh,” Piper tells her, her strange light blue eyes watering as she tucks her into a huge hug.

“You too,” Leigh says softly, hugging them both again.

“Don’t forget to patch up,” Billie suddenly interrupts, sniffling. She points meaningfully at a small, dotted square bandage on her arm.

“Don’t worry, the last thing I need in this clusterfuck is a big pregnant belly,” Leigh says with a laugh.

“Comm us every day,” Piper sniffs. “I’m going to miss you.”

“Hey, listen to me.” Leigh holds her arm, then grabs Billie’s as well.

I tuck my arms around my chest, narrowing my eyes at the trio.

“We will see each other again, okay? This doesn’t change anything. We knew splitting up was a possibility. No matter what, we’re getting back… together. All of us. Right?”

An ache begins at her words, deep in my chest. I grit my teeth. Why does it sound like she almost said getting back to Earth?

“Yes, right,” Billie says.

Piper nods, too, but she doesn’t look convinced.

“Now go get ‘em. Let’s do this thing.” Leigh holds a fist up, and the three females bump their hands together in quick succession.

They all let out a primitive war whoop, and then Piper and Billie leave, without so much as a backwards look at me.

Strange creatures.

Leigh sighs, turning to stare at me as the door hisses shut.

“You are sad,” I say, surprised.

She rubs her forehead, her mouth twisted to the side. “I worry about them. I worry about all of them, and the women who went with the Arco. I understand why they made that choice, to go with those aliens to their marine planet and take their chance away from the Federation and the Roth. I even understand why we’re doing this… but that doesn’t mean I won’t worry.” Her eyes meet mine. “Aren’t you worried about your brothers?”

“Of course I am,” I say, slightly offended. “They are all I have left of my family. They carry the royal blood, same as I do. But they are brothers. These are just friends you worked with.”

“Yeah, on a ship. In space. In a male-dominated industry. And then, oh, I don’t know, we were captured by the Roth and shared a prison for god only knows how long thanks to the number of times they knocked us out to pump us full of fertility drugs.”

“And you don’t want a baby.”

“No, definitely not.” She throws her hands in the air. “Why would I want to bring a baby into this? We are in danger. The last thing I want is to gamble an innocent’s life during this. Why would you want that?”

I can’t stand how far she is from me, and I stalk towards her, drawing her into my arms. Stiff at first, she melts against me in the most delicious way after a few seconds.

“I want you to bear my children. I want to see your stomach huge with them, for everyone who looks on you to know that you are mine, and that I am the one who has mated with you.” I need it. I need it as fiercely as I need this woman to submit to me, to be my queen, to let me fill her with my cock.

“That’s not going to happen…” she says slowly. “I am not doing that.”

“Not right now, no.” I slide my palms across her back, and her breath hitches as my fingers tangle in the hair at the nape of her neck. “But you will want to. Eventually.”

“What if I don’t? Ever?” She raises one eyebrow, attempting defiance, attempting dominance.

I shrug. “Then I will have you all to myself.”

“And what if I told you I don’t even like you?”

“Then I would call you a liar. Because if you didn’t like me, you wouldn’t have been worried for me the way you were.” The words are smug, triumphant, and I dare her to challenge them.

“Well, if you were really wounded, or killed, it wouldn’t be great for the three of us human women in Roth territory, would it?” She tilts her chin, all defiance, but her arousal scent grows more intense.

I grin.

My Leigh likes this game between us every bit as much as I do. She likes to challenge me as much as I like it when she finally submits.

“That’s true,” I tell her, pressing my nose against her hair and inhaling deeply. “But that’s not why you were upset. No, you care for me. And even if you only want me for the way I make you come, then I am fine with that.”

She makes an annoyed, choking noise in her throat, but the corners of her mouth lift up slightly. “So romantic. Poetic, even.”

I know her well enough now to know she’s being sarcastic, but it doesn’t bother me.

“It’s the truth.”

“And why would you be fine with that, Nydo? My king? You wouldn’t care if I just used you for sex?” Her voice takes on a sultry quality. “Even though you keep insisting I’m your mate, that I’m the one for you?”

“Oh, I would care. It would wound me. But I also know how to play the long game, Leigh.” I brush my lips against her forehead, her temple, kneading her low back, then digging my fingers into the muscled curve of her luscious ass.

She sucks in a breath, and my nostrils flood with that addictive scent.

“Use me,” I growl, nipping at her neck, kissing her jaw. “Use me as much as you need to slake your lust. But know that when this is over, you will still be mine. Because it will not just be your lust I earn.”

“Is that right?” she moans. Her head falls back, her breasts pressing against my chest. “You wish.”

I bend down, biting one nipple gently through the delicate fabric of her shirt.

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.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

OceanofPDF.com

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.