His By Command (Primarian Mates Book 2)

by Maddie Taylor

  “A question from me requires a prompt response, purrada.”

  “You,” she cried out before that blistering palm could swing once more. “You are in charge.”

  “And who am I?”

  “Roth, the commander.”

  “Yes. And as long as you are on my ship, little captain, I am your commander. You will obey my rules and respect my authority, including my right to hold you accountable for your actions. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” she breathed, totally convinced that this was what she needed to do at that moment. Of course, she didn’t tell him that.

  He flipped her upright and sat her across both of his thighs. She hissed as her fiery behind encountered his uniform pants, but he’d have none of her squirming. Instead, his hand beneath her chin angled her face up to him. His thumb swept out and flicked away a droplet that had formed on her lashes.

  “So brave, yet so very stubborn. It is acceptable to cry after a spanking. I won’t think less of you.”

  “I don’t cry.” Her reply was barely short of a snap, but somehow, she contained it. He was likely to start in on her butt again if he didn’t like her tone, as he’d mentioned often enough, and she didn’t dare risk it.

  “Is that so?” His arms encircled her, pulling her in tight. “What outlet do you have for your emotions?”

  “I work. Or I used to.”

  “You can still work on Primaria, you know.”

  “Really? What type of work do your females do, other than cooking, cleaning, and breeding?”

  He sighed. “That tone is back. I thought to go easy with this first spanking; evidently, it wasn’t enough.” Leaning her over his arm, his free hand cradling her jaw while looking down at her, Roth asked sternly, “Do you need another round?”

  “No!” Her whisper was as emphatic as the shake of her head. “Can’t you understand how distressing this is to us? Imagine if you were captured, your possessions taken, especially your ship, which is the only way you have of ever going home. And what if you were told some woman would have dominion over you, that your purpose, despite all your hopes, dreams, and everything you worked for, always, was to procreate for the rest of your life?”

  His brows knit together as she apparently struck a chord. “You make it sound like you’ll have nothing else. That isn’t the case. Our women are very content. And the few who have been blessed by becoming mothers have found great joy in that as well. You will feel differently when you get to Primaria. Our planet is beautiful, the people warm and friendly. Conflict within our world is rare; our threats and strife usually come from beyond.”

  She glowered at the insinuation.

  “I didn’t mean you, little one. We consider you a blessing, and you will be our salvation, if the Maker is willing.”

  “Three hundred women are expected to repopulate your world. That is terribly naïve, don’t you think?”

  “It is a small number, true. Still, it is a beginning, something we haven’t had in twenty years.” He became contemplative for a moment and she wondered what other nefarious plans he had in his head.

  “I think we should end this discussion now and let you get some rest.”

  “It’s the middle of the afternoon.”

  “Yes, and you are exhausted. You said so.” He didn’t wait for a response as he started undressing her the rest of the way, pulling off her boots and removing her flight suit.

  “I thought… you implied—” she stammered as she tried to brush his hands aside, without success. “I thought you said it was over.”

  “I’m done. But you can’t sleep in your clothes.”

  “Says who?”

  He arched a sable brow at her and said in a firm tone, “Says your commander. The bed

  will automatically regulate to the optimal sleeping temperature. It can’t do that if you’re dressed.”

  Since that sounded rather nice, and she had been practically sleepless for three long days, she didn’t protest further. With a knowing smile, he stood with her in his arms and twisted, depositing her in the center of the big bed. Before letting her go, the arm beneath her raised her enough to pull down the covers.

  Even their soft texture along her backside reawakened the tingling sensations and she arched away from it. This pushed her breasts and her hips, flush against him. Her eyes flew up as his cut to her. That’s when she noticed the color, already strikingly beautiful, had darkened to amethyst. She couldn’t keep from staring, and he seemed to find something about her intriguing and stared back.

  Stupid, Maggie, her mind screamed. Of course he’s intrigued; you’re naked!

  Without question, all the touching, spanking, and talk about breeding had turned him on. She’d felt it prodding her belly while over his lap, and now as it nudged her thigh, there was only one unknown. What did they do about it? Especially, considering he had adamantly insisted he wasn’t taking a mate.

  She didn’t have to wonder long, because as she watched him watching her, his head lowered.

  “This is a bad idea,” she warned. “A really, really bad idea.”

  “I know, sweetness, but I simply must have a taste of you.”

  His kiss was surprisingly tender and as light as a summer breeze. It was also entirely too tempting to resist. Yet again, her body rebelled, ignoring her brain’s blaring alarm bells calling for caution. She parted her lips in an open invitation for him to take more, which he did. And, unlike the men she’d been with before, he didn’t devour at the first sign of encouragement. Instead, his mouth opened softly over hers and he did what he had promised, he tasted.

  In a feathery wisp of a caress, his tongue softly stroked her lower lip. That small, warm touch sent shivers of arousal rippling through her body. Her hands came up and dove into his hair, finding it as silky soft as she imagined. Pulling his head down, she tried to deepen the kiss.

  “We can’t, purrada. Although I’d give my right arm to have you right now.”

  “Have me. I want you too.”

  “You will be the mate of another, and we haven’t been tested. The risk is too great.”

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered, her fingers clutching tighter. “And frankly, I don’t care about some faceless, nameless man. Besides, neither of us wants a mate, so let’s enjoy this one night, and to hell with the rest.”

  His tongue dipped inside and silenced her, exploring and tasting in as unhurried a manner as he’d started the kiss. After several delicious moments, he raised his head and gazed down at her, his eyes now almost black with his passion.

  “You do want me, don’t you?” She posed this hesitantly, suddenly uncertain.

  “More than anything. I can’t take you, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find fulfillment in each other’s bodies in other ways.”

  “Yes,” she groaned as his hand slid up her side and inward to claim her breast. It had been nearly three years since she’d been with a man; she’d take him any way she could get him. Her supersonic personal pleasure device had long since lost its appeal. It was cold and mechanical, where this man was flesh and blood, not to mention as handsome as sin with a seriously hot body. She could touch and taste him, and he would respond, as he was doing now.

  “I want to taste all of you, now,” he growled as his tongue swept inside again, at long last losing its gentleness, finding some urgency, and hunger.

  She liked slow and sensual, but after such a long, dry spell, she needed fast, rough, and carnal.

  When his mouth trailed down her throat to her breasts, he latched onto and drew firmly on an aching nipple, which sent her upper body bowing off the bed. He moved to the other and took it just as hard, not seeming to notice the less than gentle grip she had on his long hair as she clung to him. After lingering there until she thought she would pass out from the pleasure, he moved down her body. She responded by lifting into him, offering anything he wanted to take.

  The alarm bells in her head still rang; despite that, she didn’t listen. Foll
owing instead the seductive glide of his mouth down her belly, over her mound, and when his big hands pushed her thighs wide, the hot lick of his tongue as it stroked through her desire-slick pussy.

  His hum of pleasure was almost drowned out by her own cries when he lashed her clit mercilessly with his tongue. Her hips arched as her hands curled around his head, holding on tight, thinking she would die if he stopped before she found completion.

  He didn’t stop, or slow down in the least, tasting, licking, sucking, and laving as she writhed hot and wild beneath him. It was so good, and had been so long, that the spinning coil of pressure built to a rapid crescendo and she broke, crying out as the pleasure washed over her in a wave of sublime bliss. He stayed with her, easing her down slowly, letting up on the pressure of the most sensitive spots, until she lay limp beneath him. His body moved up hers, dragging his parted lips over her heated skin, until he reached her mouth and claimed it.

  He didn’t move in between her thighs, as she’d expected and needed him to do. For a moment, self-doubts crept in. Not believing he would go down on her and not follow through by taking his own pleasure, she reached down, confirming as she firmly clasped the erection digging into her hip that he truly wanted her.

  He was not as she expected, although she shouldn’t have been surprised. Like the rest of him, his cock was huge, and she craved every rigid inch of him inside her.

  Biting back a whimper of intense need, she beseeched him. “Please take me, Commander. I want to give you pleasure, too.”

  “We can’t, but you can ease me in another way.” He rolled, bringing her along with him so that she lay draped half across his chest, her fingers still gripping his shaft. His voice was raspy with need as he directed, “Use your mouth on me.”

  Oral sex had never been her thing—giving, that is. Yet with him, she had the overwhelming need to taste him, as he had her. To make him groan with raw need, to force his body to give up control and fly apart in a white-hot climax, like he had done for her.

  Eagerly, she moved down his chest. As she angled her head to begin, she had doubts that she could take even half of him. Not only was his length impressive, the girth was more than she had ever seen. Tentatively, she lapped at the smooth head, then swirled her tongue around the entire circumference as she squeezed her fingers around the wide base. He seemed pleased, his breathing quickening as he wound his fingers in her hair, the same as she had with him. His control was clearly better. He didn’t push her head down, or drive upward, which would have surely choked her. Instead, his hold was firm, yet gentle as he ran his fingers through her soft curls.

  With an intense desire to please him, she opened and took him inside, letting her tongue stroke the underside of the silky soft head as she bobbed downward. Inhaling through her nose, she let him slide along her tongue, taking in his phenomenal scent, and groaning at the clean, fresh, slightly sweet—which was odd, yet far from disappointing—taste of him.

  Hungry for more, she stroked the lower half of his shaft with her hand, while taking him more deeply. Still, that wasn’t enough, although by the sound of his silky throaty moans, she was doing it right. Pumping as she devoured him, she drew on oral skills long since buried as she determined to make him come as intensely as she had.

  He’d drawn it out, longer than her, but soon his fingers tightened in her hair, and he was arching his hips, thrusting upward as he controlled each downward glide. The slightly sweet taste got stronger on her tongue as his groans told her he was close. And she was ready for him, willing to take what he offered, which also surprised her, because she hadn’t ever wanted to before.

  The next moment, as his climax ripped through him, his velvety-smooth speaking voice raspy with intensity as he cried out his pleasure, Maggie knew she’d accomplished what she’d set out to do and reveled in her success with gentle licks and strokes of her tongue.

  Afterward, with both of them breathless, he more so than her, although she’d done all the work, his hands slid under her arms and he dragged her up his body, rolling them to their sides. He didn’t say a word, pressing her face into his chest as he buried his own in her hair. And with the strength and warmth of the commander surrounding her, she relaxed.

  Sleep, which had been so elusive in the past few days, called to her, making it impossible to truly contemplate the connection she’d felt with this man, which was stronger than with anyone before. As she drifted off, if not for her exhaustion, she wouldn’t have discounted the vague disquiet she felt. Perhaps from sleeping in the arms of a man she barely knew, an alien whose name was as odd to her ears as it was on her tongue, or the fact that not once, had he called her by her own, because he hadn’t ever asked what it was.

  8

  “It’s time to wake up.”

  The low voice humming near her ear sounded familiar, but she ignored it. Instead, she snuggled deeper into her pillow, not ready to get up yet, for two very compelling reasons. First, she still felt the drag of exhaustion in every hair on her head and every pore in her skin, and second, she’d been in the midst of a very pleasant dream.

  Walking in the rolling surf on the beach where she’d played as a girl, she slanted her face up toward the sun, enjoying the heat on her cheeks, while the froth of the warm waves tickled her toes. It was idyllic, made even more so by the grip of strong fingers surrounding her own. Following the big, firm hand up a muscled forearm and bicep, to unbelievably broad shoulders and beyond, to a strikingly handsome face with unusual violet eyes, she smiled. God, he was gorgeous. As they walked facing the wind, his long, thick hair snapped behind him. The color so dark it was nearly black, yet gleaming with threads of lighter chocolaty brown in the sunshine. She couldn’t keep from staring, entranced by his easy grace and surprising fluidity of movement for such a big man.

  What she was doing here with him confused her, except that when he turned and smiled down at her, she no longer cared about why or how, wanting only for the dream to continue.

  As the voice persisted, she rolled away, burrowing under the warmth of the covers as she tried to get him to hurry on down the beach and leave the irritating interruption far behind.

  “Little captain,” the voice called again, this time accompanied by a slight shake of her shoulder. “You must wake. We have arrived at Primaria and will begin transporting down within the hour.”

  Her eyes popped open and a flood of memories rushed into her head. She twisted around. Above her, Commander Roth leaned in, his purple eyes and handsome face the same as the man from her dreams. She flushed. He was real, and what had happened in this bed last evening had been no dream. Rather than the smiling face from her reverie, or the impassioned lover from the night before, the man of this morning was staring down at her with a much different expression.

  His lips were set in a line, neither smiling nor frowning, and the stunning eyes that had smoldered with both anger and lust only hours before were distant. As he straightened, putting distance between him and where she reclined on the pillows, she noticed this was not the arrogant, brash, though quick to smile and tease man she had come to know. Something had happened.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up. As she did so, the linens dipped down her front, baring her breasts. His gaze immediately followed, but after a brief glance, it rose to her face, still remote, and completely unaffected. She clutched the sheet to her chest, sliding it all the way up to her chin as she felt suddenly uneasy and self-conscious in his presence.

  “Nothing is wrong. You need to bathe and get dressed. I’ll be back in half a time cycle and take you to where the other females await transport down to Ariad, our capital city.”

  “I can rejoin the others?”

  “For now, until whoever has charge of you during your testing phase, and subsequently your mate, decides otherwise.”

  Her mate. Of course, did she expect a night of passion to change anything? She would soon be passed off to the authority of some stranger who was also an alien, one that wouldn’t
be him. And hadn’t his cool, dismissive words made that perfectly clear?

  She lowered her gaze, busying herself with the sheet, wrapping it securely around her as she prepared to leave the bed. It was a ruse, so he wouldn’t see how much his diffidence stung.

  “The bathing room is through there, as well as everything you should need.”

  As he spoke, she felt the bed shift as he stood. She didn’t look up at him or to where he pointed, acknowledging his instructions with a nod anyway. There was silence in the room for a moment, an awkward one at that.

  “Be ready to leave in half a time cycle.” His orders given, she listened to his retreating footsteps and the whoosh of the doors. Only then did she glance up. She was alone, of course, so easily dismissed despite what they’d shared.

  With a groan, Maggie flopped on the bed, covering her eyes with her arm.

  Thoroughly humiliated, she was reminded of the only other one-night stand she’d ever had. It was in her academy days. After a night of inebriated and barely mediocre sex, the fellow student she’d hooked up with had slunk out of bed in the wee hours of the morning. When she woke as he tiptoed to her door, it was patently clear he had hoped to leave unnoticed and avoid the uncomfortable chit chat about why he wouldn’t be calling. That brush-off, which had stung for a long while, hadn’t hurt nearly as much as this.

  You begged for it, Maggie. Practically jumping his bones despite him telling you it shouldn’t happen and that he wasn’t in the market for a mate.

  The voice in her head was right. Neither of them had thought it was a good idea. That was before he had kissed her and touched her intimately. It had been so glorious; she’d lost all sense of self-preservation. And she hadn’t ever come so hard, or lost control with a man before.

  So, you had great sex. What did you expect? Heartfelt professions of love?

  “No,” she whispered aloud, “but I didn’t expect to feel used like a common tramp either.”