“Niska,” I say, taking her flapping hands in mine, covering them to make her look at me. “You trusted me enough to let me take you to your peak. As a result, I reached my own. I do not understand why this puzzles you.” She stares up at me with those big brown eyes and I cannot help that my gaze drops to her slightly parted lips. “And-” I pause, huffing and tipping my head back, “-and you probably should not have given me that trust.”

“You’re ridiculous, do you know that?”

My gaze snaps to hers instantly. I… I am not used to being spoken to like this if it’s not coming from my own family. No-one else in my Principality would dare.

So why is cock starting to harden again? For fuck’s sake, Kiahn, get control of yourself.

I growl to myself and avert my gaze to the ground, my eyes snagging on the puddle of Niska’s undergarments and for more than I second, I wonder if she’ll let me keep them. Fuck, Kiahn, get a grip! “I know, and I apologize for almost losing control,” I say, absently rubbing at my horn.

“That’s not what I’m talking about, Kiahn.”

Goddess, but I do love hearing her say my name. “It’s not?” I ask, glancing back up at her.

“No! I’m talking about you beating yourself up over not even hurting me. You didn’t do anything Kiahn.”

I groan. She doesn’t get it. She doesn’t understand how much I wanted to make her mine - how close I was to clamping down on her neck with my fangs and fucking her hard to stake my claim. A million times with her permission would still not be enough for me to overcome this urge I have for her.

“You didn’t do anything,” she repeats, her voice a little softer.

I close my eyes, and take a breath before doing my best to level her with an even stare, trying to remind myself that she is just a contract bride. This shouldn’t be so difficult. “But I could have, Niska. So easily. You were so vulnerable for me… and…”

“And?”

Ah, shit.

My shoulders sag. “And… I liked it.”

Her lips quirk up on one side - a minute gesture that I find so infuriatingly attractive, that I start to think this little human is going to ruin me for all future breeding contracts. Honestly, it’s a startling question to ask myself, but I genuinely wonder if I’ll ever be able to get my cock erect for a female that isn’t her? Will I have to imagine Niska when I’m mounting my next bride?

I shake my head, trying to knock loose the wildly inappropriate and disrespectful thought.

“What’s so bad about liking it?”

I sigh. “Maybe we need to rethink this contract.” Even as I say the words out loud, I want to stuff them back into my mouth with my fists and swallow them back down like a mad-male. “Let me walk you back to your rooms.”

Niska crosses her arms and cocks a brow at me, and I know right then and there that I’m actually already ruined for all other females. Why is my heart racing right now?

“Actually, I think I’m going to stay right here for the night.”

“In my simulator?” I ask, feeling caught off-guard, and genuinely puzzled.

Niska scoffs and playfully slaps my bare chest as she walks straight past me and out into my bedchambers, delicately peeling off the patches at her temples as she goes. “No, I thought we could have a little sleepover.”

“I… do not understand.”

“You keep beating yourself up over nothing,” she says, handing me the simulator patches back. “And I’m going to prove to you that it doesn’t matter how vulnerable I am with you. You’re not going to hurt me. I trust you. So I’m going to spend the night here, with you,” she pauses and puts her hand up, “just sleeping. No more funny business.”

“Funny… business.” I stare at her after repeating her words, not quite seeing the humor in all of this. “That was funny to you?” I ask, hooking my thumb over my shoulder to indicate back at my simulator. If this is true, then I have a lot more research to do on human culture and what they find amusing.

“No, I mean, we’re not going to do anything sexual. We’ll just share a bed. We can lay down together… talk… and cuddle maybe.”

She says all these words as she’s climbing up onto my bed. The Xaviann-size piece of furniture somehow making her look even smaller as she has to heft herself up onto the mattress. Momentarily, my focus is caught on the way my shirt rides up on her soft thighs, and I remember that she’d left her undergarments back in my simulator room. She is bare.

She is on my bed, and she is bare.

“Kiahn?” Niska asks, her voice coming through the fog of distraction like she were far away. She’s peering at me from over her shoulder, and that look in her eye tells me I’ve been caught staring. “Are you coming to bed?” she giggles as she peels back my blankets and starts to tuck herself in.

Fuck, if that’s not a sight to behold.

I rub at my horn and then drop my hand so that I can palm the back of my neck. “Xaviann’s… don’t really… share bedchambers, let alone beds. And especially not with their breeding brides.”

“Really? Never?”

I shake my head.

She looks around, the certainty and playfulness gone from her expression. “Should I go? Is it disrespectful for me to be here?”

I can’t help it, my feet take me a step closer and I reach out as if I were about to physically stop her from leaving. “No!”

Judging by the way her head whips my way, I may have startled her with the ferocity of my reaction. I’d never considered sharing my bed with someone. I know Zann sometimes falls asleep in other people’s quarters after mating in the flesh, but he has always been one to go against the grain, and personally, I’ve never seen the appeal.

I do now, though.

“No,” I repeat more softly now, my arms out in front of me, palms down as I approach the side of my bed. “Please stay. That sounds…” fucking amazing and agonizing at the same time? Like both torture and a gift? “…nice.”

The word doesn’t seem enough, but I stop analyzing words and their worthiness when Niska smiles at me. “Yeah, nice,” she murmurs, her features beaming like there’s a light-source somehow inside her.

In a daze, I watch her eyes trace down my body, and I try not to make it too obvious that I’m trying to square my shoulders, and puff out my chest under her inspection. But then her gaze snags on my pants and her smile changes as she bites on her bottom lip.

I follow her line of vision.

Ah.

Right.

I should probably go and wash my seed off myself and change into clean clothing.

“I’m just going to…” my words trail off as I hook a thumb over in the direction of my washrooms. Niska grins and nods her head as I walk backward, not wanting to turn away from the sight of her sitting against my pillows until the very last moment.

Once inside my bathing chambers, I take a moment to close my eyes and take a deep, fortifying breath before going to my basin and bracing myself over it. There is a reflection glass hung above and I find myself staring intently at my image. Alright, do not spook this female, Kiahn. You came so fucking close to bonding her to you, and you can’t afford to slip up like that again. After my brief pep-talk, I ask the ship’s command for cool waters. The basin starts to fill up instantly, but before I can scoop some up to splash on my heated face, a slight glisten to two of my fingers on my right hand catches my eye.

Lifting my hand, my mind is promptly flooded with memories of mere moments ago, where those two fingers had been hooked inside the welcoming cunt of that beautiful little creature out there while she used my permission to suck on her sensitive little clit. Without thought or protest, I put my fingers into my mouth to savor the taste of her. My eyelids fall, and I can’t help the low, animalistic groan that comes out of me.

“Are you ok in there?”