“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.”