by Celia Kyle
Erudan had paled when he read the document, visibly struggling with a mix of shock and fury. But instead of directing that fury at her, he’d contacted Celestial Mates and demanded answers.
And the moment he’d received them he’d calmly disconnected the call and driven his fist into the exterior wall of the nearest building.
Literally.
Damn, but her mate was hella strong.
A strength he hadn’t turned on her. Nope, he’d released his fury with that single punch, took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and that’d been it.
Now she followed him into his dwelling, swaying with every step as exhaustion pulled at her. He turned on lights while he moved from room to room, giving her fleeting peeks at his body before he moved from that glow of light to fire up another until… Until she could see all of him.
Every glorious inch and not a single one of them the least bit grainy. Erudan in the flesh was sexier than she could have imagined.
She almost wished he had some of those grainy, out-of-focus qualities. Then she might not be staring at him, wondering how quickly they could get horizontal. Or vertical and up against a wall.
Rhea was flexible.
He hit all of her physical hot buttons. Erudan was tall and broad, rippling with well-defined muscles that she wanted to taste. He was raw power from the top of his dark hair to the toes of his large feet. Which made her wonder if the size of feet corresponded to the size of something else on Vians.
She decided she’d stop herself from checking out his package for the moment. Mainly because there was too great a chance of getting caught.
Okay, maybe a little peek when he stood in profile. Because really, how could she not? That bulge practically waved flags and invited her to give a squeeze.
She totally didn’t look twice, though.
Twice would have thrown more fuel on her sex-craving fire. Her core clenched just thinking about how he’d stretch her. She imagined what it’d feel like with his arms wrapped around her. She’d twine hers around his neck and pull him toward her until their lips were so close…
She really did have sex on the brain.
As she stood there, her breath picking up the longer she remained still, another thought slithered into her mind. Maybe Erudan wouldn’t take her face to face. Maybe he’d bend her over, kneel behind her. He’d grip her waist and…
Rhea licked her lips and shivered. That would be hot, but not the first time.
No, the first time they made love, she wanted to hold him, wind her arms around his neck and wrap her legs around his hips…
That was the moment Erudan turned, catching her needy stare. Her face flushed hot, a mix of embarrassment and desire suffusing her. She took a small step forward, but froze in place when he shook his head and she noticed the annoyance that still covered his features.
Right. She was ready to jump on the bang train but he wasn’t.
Yet even in his irritation, his gaze remained on Rhea. Though unlike her, his attention didn’t stray from her face.
Erudan’s fixed gaze seemed to linger, his eyes exploring every one of her features for so long that her exhaustion returned.
Rhea yawned.
Erudan sighed.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and then ran his hand over his face. “I see you are tired. I do not have a shift tomorrow. We will discuss our situation and discover a way to resolve our issue after we have both slept.”
Rhea nodded, agreeing until he got to the last half of his statement. One word snared her last alert brain cell.
She frowned. “Resolve? Resolve what?”
Erudan pressed his lips together until they formed a white line beneath his nose. He waved between them with his hand, gesturing at them both. “I specified our topic. Our situation. Come, I will show you where you will sleep.”
“Where I’ll sleep?” As in alone? Nope, that wasn’t part of the plan. Rhea hadn’t crossed six galaxies to sleep in a cold bed while her mate snored in another room, dreaming of ways to get rid of her.
Rather than answer her question, Erudan turned and walked away, heading deeper into the home.
Stupid male! She hurried after him and he acted as if she hadn’t said a word.
“These are the food preparation and cleansing areas. If you hunger, I will cook for you. You may cleanse yourself if you wish.”
Was his voice a hint tighter? His shoulders tenser? She hummed thoughtfully. Was he aroused by the idea of her all wet and soapy?
“This is my room. You will make use of it tonight.”
Wait. They were back to the big problem. “Where will you be sleeping?”
Erudan didn’t look at her, choosing instead to stare at the ground. “In the central common area of the dwelling.”
Rhea opened her mouth and then closed it again. She propped her hands on her hips, reminding her she still had her personal bag slung across her body. Stalling for time, she gradually lifted it over her head, causing the hem of her shirt to slide up and expose her stomach.
Erudan sucked in a harsh breath. Had his eyelid twitched? Did he flick a furtive glance at her bared belly? And was that bulge a bit bulge-y-er?
Oh yeah, he was attracted her. Good. That was half the battle won. She lowered her bag to the floor, gathered her courage, and dove in to fight the second half of their battle.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Or something…
Erudan had given up the pretense of looking away and focused on her, frowning as she propped her hands on her hips once more. She arched her back, pressing out her chest just a little. She might not have the biggest girls on the planet but they held their own.
When his gaze slid south, she charged. Well, verbally anyway.
“I don’t want to sleep alone. Mates sleep together and we’re mates. You saw the document yourself.” Why he kept denying things she didn’t know, but they were.
A strangled moan escaped his throat and his eyes popped wide for a moment before he narrowed them. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean what I say. No, I do not wish to have a mate.”
“You don’t want a mate or you don’t want me as a mate?” Rhea wasn’t sure where the hell her boldness came from but she wasn’t about to back down.
Erudan took a quick step back, surprise in his eyes while he spoke slowly and carefully, attention elsewhere. “My objection to mating has nothing to do with you.”
Riiight. So why hadn’t he looked her in the eye when he answered her?
Rhea’s lips quivered and tears pricked her eyes. The “it’s not you, it’s me” excuse seemed to span galaxies. His refusal on the heels of her ex’s betrayal just drove another painful spike into her heart. She swallowed against the growing knot in her throat and blinked away her tears. She wasn’t going to cry in front of him. She wasn’t.
Instead of meeting his gaze, she stared at the wall beside his head. “If you didn’t want a mate, why did you apply for one? You had to fill out a profile, answer their questions, list your preferences. It’s not like I ran my finger down the Vialea section of Celestial Mates’ digicomm saying eenie, meenie, miney, Iwantthathottie.”
It’d taken what seemed like forever to fill out questionnaire after questionnaire. She’d had to reveal things about herself she normally wouldn’t have talked about until she’d been dating a guy for a few months. But she’d bared herself, cracking the emotional egg and letting Celestial Mates create a Rhea omelet. Then Celestial Mates had cross-referenced her details with others in their database and then ding, ding, ding she’d been matched to Erudan.
Erudan, who hadn’t said a thing in response. He stood in front of her and silently stared until Rhea huffed. “What?”
“I do not understand your inquiry.”
She shook her head. “Why are you looking at me like that? What do you want to say but aren’t?”
He released a deep sigh. “I do not wish to say anything else this evening. Tomorrow, we will re
ctify this mistake.”
Rhea felt like she was choking on emotion. “Now I’m a mistake?” It was getting harder and harder to suppress her tears. “But you applied for a mate.”
“No. I did not.” He shook his head.
“But— “
“I did not, Rhea,” he growled and ran a hand through his dark hair. He stormed into the sleeping area, grabbed clothes from a dresser, and strode into the cleansing room. A moment later, the soft patter of water on a hard surface reached her ears.
Defeat pressed down on her shoulders, making her slump as she shuffled into the bedroom. She lowered to his bed, and through eyes blurred by tears, she stared at the closed cleansing room door.
She had to find a way to change Erudan’s mind.
Had to.
Until they consummated their mating, she wouldn’t be safe—from her father or the Department of Population.
Four
Erudan stepped into the cleansing unit, praying to the goddess Alea to be merciful and help him wash away the evening’s events. Particularly his overwhelming need to be in Rhea’s presence. The need to touch her. The need to fill his lungs with her scent. The need to possess and claim…
He shook his head. No, already Alea had failed him.
Warm water flowed over his body, sliding over his heated flesh, but the cool liquid could not banish the burning for Rhea in his blood. He gathered his cleansing bar and formed a thick lather on his hands. He ran his palms over his body, anxious to rid himself of the first grimy layer he’d gathered in Ikkim.
If only he didn’t imagine his palms were actually the female’s. If only he didn’t wonder if her skin was smooth and silken as he believed. She would start at his shoulders and travel south, stroking his abdomen…
Erudan shook his head. The situation was maddening—intolerable—and the female in his sleeping area was equally so.
“Rhea Lux,” he whispered, keeping his voice low as he tasted the syllables.
Rhea, similar to Alea—Vialea’s beautiful, caring goddess.
Lux was too close to lush—a perfect way to describe her soft, luscious form.
Ahlan had been right to call her strange. Strange yet beautiful. The most enchanting alien he had ever encountered. Even more glorious than his birth-brother’s mate.
His blood burned for her and his mouth watered for a taste of her. He wondered if her flavors would equal her sweet, musky scent.
His length throbbed. By Vi, his hardness had not lessened since the first moment her scent filled his lungs. No matter how many times he reminded himself he was unworthy of a female, he could not stop his cravings.
He attempted to focus on washing his body, too aware of the hardness between his thighs. He wished to wash away his desire as he washed away the dirt from the station.
Erudan prayed to Vi to rid him of his desire for Rhea Lux.
Vi, god of males, ignored his plea. Or he simply did not hear Erudan’s prayer above all others. If he had, Erudan would not be plagued by the fever that consumed his mind. It burned away all sense until he imagined Rhea’s small, soft hand closing around his thick shaft.
He was hard—aching—as he soaped his throbbing length. He groaned and leaned forward, bracing his arm against the slick hewo wall. He pillowed his head on his forearm and indulged in the fantasy that would not leave him. The one where he allowed—no, commanded—her to touch him.
One she would happily accept. He had not missed the hungry look in her eyes when she believed he was unaware of her stare. He would be a poor warlord if he was not aware of his surroundings.
And Erudan could be called many things, but never lacking in his training.
Within the privacy of the cleansing room, his hand wrapped around his length and the female’s name on his tongue, he could not deny the truth. He wanted her. He wished she could belong to him as she seemed to desire.
I am unworthy.
He must remember that fact.
A snarl rumbled free, one he silenced as another sound reached him through the thick hewo door. A sound that could only come from Rhea moving around his sleeping area. The female probably readied herself to claim his spot on the bed.
The image of her lush form sinuously prowling across the expansive platform of softness flashed through him, and a rampaging wave of heat snatched his breath.
He opened his eyes, desperate for another sight to take its place.
Erudan needed any other view to banish his craving. Except what filled his gaze was the last thing he desired.
Frozen, he stared at his wet flesh, his forearm mere inches from his face. His green-tinted forearm. The hue had taken over his skin while he had indulged himself in his fantasies, and as he stared, the color continued to ripple and darken.
No.
The green darkened further as if to taunt him until he was unable to deny the truth. The signs were clear—his insatiable thirst for Rhea, the pulsing hardness in his grip, the desperate urge to take her and make her his.
They all pointed to one thing.
His firez was upon him, and stronger than he’d ever experienced. And earlier. He was not due for his annual needing, his body’s desperate craving that could only be satiated by the slick heat of a female.
But not any female. Not this year.
This year he was desperate for Rhea.
The craving to sink into her soft body, pull her legs to wrap around his waist while he plunged deep, made his knees weak.
And rather than attempt to talk himself out of it, his mind reminded him that he could claim her. They had a Celestial Mates contract that bound them.
He sighed and shook his head. He could but at the same time, could not. The circumstances surrounding her arrival in his life were… wrong. As was her claim that he had applied for a mate. True, he had begun an application, but he had never submitted the complete file for inclusion in the Celestial Mates database.
If he had not tapped the final submit icon, he could not be any female’s mate. Not even hers, no matter that her scent and fiery determination for him to claim her properly aroused him in the most delicious ways.
He did not know how he had been bound to Rhea by a Celestial Mates contract, but there was one thing he did not doubt. He had to send her back before his firez reached its peak. Otherwise he would take what she offered and then she would spend her life chained to an unworthy mate.
Five
Do nights on Vialea last forever?
It seemed so. The darkness seemed to stretch on and on. When Rhea blinked awake, it was to find the windows still blanketed in black. She remained curled on her side, breathing in the heated scent of the male who usually claimed the massive bed. The one who also usually wore the tunic she’d slipped into due to the lack of other options since, well… who the hell knew where her stolen cases ended up.
She rubbed her cheek on the pillow, reveling in his scent, and realized there wasn’t any anger consuming her. Not like last night. Now she was simply left with… disappointment.
Disappointment and something more. Something left over from her dreams when thoughts of Erudan invaded her mind. Thoughts of his touch, his taste, the feel of him when he settled between her thighs and…
With a growl, she flopped to her back and glared at the ceiling. If it were left up to the stupid alien, she’d never enjoy his touch. Never. Ever. And that made her… sad.
Though, sad was a poor description for her emotions. It didn’t touch on the pain, heartache, and anxiety coursing through her veins.
Rhea rolled to her other side, gaze still focused on nothing, eyes still fighting to catch sight of anything in the utter black in the room. Still she got nothing. She also accepted that sleeping wasn’t going to happen. She could go to the food preparation area and grab a snack or a drink…
She sat up, feet dangling over the edge of the bed. The only problem in her plan was the lack of light. The last thing she needed was to bash her shins against a coffee table.
Did
Erudan’s dwelling even have coffee tables?
She couldn’t remember. Last night her attention had been wholly on him as he’d led her around his living space. She hadn’t bothered looking at furniture or decorations. Her eyes had stayed on the sexy Vian.
But Rhea knew enough about men to draw a few conclusions. Erudan was male—a warrior—and most military guys on Earth who lived alone weren’t big fans of cute coffee tables and decorations. If she moved slowly—carefully—she bet she could make it to his kitchen.
Maybe.
Screw that. Rhea straightened her spine, she would get herself a snack. Period.
She slid from the bed, bare soles coming into contact with the cool, wood floor. She silently padded across the room, hands outstretched as she headed for the exit. Her fingers caressed the smooth panel, sliding across the hard, polished surface until she came to a handle. A single tug had the door silently swinging toward her.
She ventured out of the room and stopped just outside the doorjamb, listening for any other sounds in the dwelling. The slow, rhythmic huff of Erudan’s breathing reached her. She’d known she was quiet, but his ongoing sleep reaffirmed her belief. Now she just had to make it across the dwelling without making a sound.
Sure, him waking would make her task easier, but it’d also open her up to the chance of hearing him explain—again—that he didn’t want a mate. She’d gotten it the first dozen times he’d told her.
Although, maybe if she flashed some skin…
Rhea pondered the merits of seduction—thoughts of rubbing all over him like a cat until he was overcome by her charms and mated her. He’d be hers then. He’d also probably hate her for seducing him until he gave in.
Who’d have thought she’d have to almost trick a guy into banging her?
Odd alien.
She reached the kitchen and discovered a small globe that gave off a soft glow sitting on the counter. Huh. An alien night light. Convenient.