by Presley Hall
She’s not looking directly at me, and that gives me the opportunity to let my gaze drift over her, taking in the sight of her in a way I so rarely have the chance to. She’s so small and petite, more so than any of the other Terran women.
Something about her reminds me of a bird, delicate and even frail in appearance, but strong underneath all that. Although many of the Terran women are beautiful, something about Cora makes her more attractive to me than any of them could ever be.
I can’t help but think that she would look so beautiful beneath me as I claimed her, her small, soft body a perfect contrast to my own muscled strength.
And I would take care of her. I would never let anything harm her again.
I grunt with irritation as I fumble the knot, distracted by my thoughts. Cora reaches out and touches me, her fingers steadying my good hand as it holds the length of rope.
“Just take it slow,” she murmurs, but I hardly hear the words.
The warmth of her fingertips on my skin, the gentleness of her touch, sends need like I’ve never felt coursing through my body. My cock, already swelling from thoughts of Cora’s delicate frame beneath me, hardens immediately to an almost painful rigidity. It’s so close to displacing what little covering I have that I’m slightly concerned Cora will notice and be shocked by it.
As her hand flattens over mine, I grit my teeth, wrenching away from her. I stand suddenly and stride across the room so that she won’t notice the strength of my arousal.
Having her touch me is too much to bear.
The desire coursing through me is more powerful than ever before. Every nerve-ending is alight with it, and my body screams for me to claim her, to give in to the need. Every day after our sessions end, my hand has been on my cock, bringing myself to a quick and furious release in an effort to stem the lust of the mate bond.
But it hasn’t worked. And now it feels more urgent than ever.
I cross the room all the way to the other side, breathing heavily as I try to bring myself back under control. The memory of her in the hallway before the accident floods my mind. She was soft and willing then, her body eager and warm against mine.
She wasn’t fighting the bond.
She wanted me.
In another moment, she would have been mine, and then that deshing engine…
With a growl, I strike out with my good hand, slamming my fist against the wall of the cabin as the robotic hand clenches at my side. Frustration and anger well up in me, and for the first time in my life, I hear myself screaming in my head it’s not fair.
Of course it isn’t. Life has never been fair, not since our world was destroyed by the Orkun. And certainly this is a small thing, compared to the losses of so many.
But it’s impossible for me to think of that right now.
All I can think is that I found my mate, the woman fated to be mine, only minutes before I was maimed. Irreversibly crippled.
I had everything in front of me, the last piece of a perfect future, and it was cruelly snatched away. My chance at love, at fulfillment, at a mate of my own.
Cora’s soft footsteps approach behind me, but I don’t turn around. My cock has softened slightly with my anger, but a tangle of emotions—fury, lust, sorrow, resentment—still churn inside my chest. I don’t know which will win out next.
“Druxik, I’m so sorry,” she murmurs in her quiet, musical voice. “I know this is hard… I know it feels impossible right now. I know this is frustrating. Believe me, I know.” There’s hesitancy in her voice, as if she’s debating whether or not to tell me something. Then she sighs. “You can do this. I know you can. Look how far you’ve come in just this short time.”
She reaches out and touches me again, her hand on the small of my back, and I tense. My entire body goes rigid as I feel her move closer to me, her other hand reaching up to press against my shoulder. I stay perfectly still, afraid to so much as breathe, trying to master myself.
Her proximity is straining every inch of my self-control, and I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
I’m viscerally aware that we’re in my cabin, with my bed only steps away. Desire rages through me, telling me that she is mine. Urging me to claim her before the bond breaks me apart.
Cora hesitates, and her delicate fingers squeeze my shoulder lightly.
“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself,” she whispers. “You’ve gotten so much better so quickly. The rest will come with time, I promise.”
I don’t speak. I can’t. My entire body is as rigid as a block of ice. After a long moment, she steps back, and I hear the soft sound of her breathing.
“I’ll give you some time to yourself,” she says quietly. “I can tell you need some space.”
No.
Something deep inside me reacts to those words, rebelling against the idea so entirely that it takes my breath away with the force of the emotion. I don’t want space from her. I want the opposite of that. I want to be so close to her that I forget where I end and she begins.
I turn without thinking, before I can talk myself out of it for the thousandth time or make myself see reason.
Grasping her arms and pulling her toward me, I bury my face in her hair and breathe in her perfect scent, the smell of her skin and her brown locks and… oh gods, the scent of her arousal.
My cock pulses in response, my loincloth barely covering me anymore, and for a blissful moment, I let myself feel the connection between us. It’s as if an electric current flows up from the place where my fingers wrap around her soft flesh, lighting my blood on fire.
I gaze down at her, my hands stroking over her shoulders, her back, and down her upper arms. To my surprise, she doesn’t recoil from the touch of the metal hand against her skin. It’s as if she doesn’t even notice it. As if it’s simply a part of me, like my flesh-and-blood hand.
But I’m still not worthy of her. I’ll never be the warrior I once was.
Cora’s mouth falls open as she draws in a sharp breath, looking up at me with those brilliant blue-green eyes. I want to fall into them, drown myself in them. She glances at my hands on her arms, her body leaning toward mine even as her brows furrow with confusion. She feels it too, I can tell—the connection that still burns between us.
The bond that has never stopped existing.
“What’s going on?” she whispers, her eyes widening with shock. “I thought you said we can’t… that we aren’t…”
I can’t help it. I can’t deny this any longer. She’ll turn away from me, I know it, but I have to give her the truth. I have to give us both a chance. I can’t fight the bond and my physical injury at the same time. The agony will tear me apart.
If she denies the bond, perhaps it will sever, I tell myself. I’ll be free of this pain, at least.
I don’t know if that’s true. But it’s the best hope I have. And I want to feel it fully, just for a moment. I need to feel whole again—and touching Cora, reveling in the connection between us, makes me feel exactly that.
“What I told you before wasn’t true,” I whisper roughly, my gaze fixed on hers. “You are my Irisa, Cora. I’m certain of it.”
13
Cora
My Irisa.
I stare up at Druxik, stunned. For a second, I’m not sure I heard him correctly.
The feeling of his hands on my arms and the nearness of his body makes me dizzy with need. The almond-like scent of the oil on his skin is intoxicating. Heat emanates from his muscled frame, and I can feel his desire, the ache in him, thrumming through my veins as if it’s my own.
Maybe it’s both of ours, mingling together.
Looking up at him, I can see all the emotions that I’ve been trying to fight in myself reflected in his eyes. I see need, desire, and a possessiveness that makes my body react like a piece of tinder under a spark.
I’ve been trying to hold all of that back, regardless of how hard it’s been, and focus only on what he needed most—learning to master his new hand. But now
I see a desperate need for something else in his eyes, and I recognize the fierce emotion. It’s a need to feel whole again, to feel wanted and desired, to feel like a man. I could give him that, I know it. But…
“No, that can’t be right. You said I wasn’t your mate,” I whisper breathlessly.
He’s so solid, so near. If I looked down, I know I would see the evidence of his desire—his thick, hard cock straining beneath the flimsy covering of his loincloth.
It’s all I can do not to look, out of curiosity if nothing else, but I know if I look at him in all of his nearly nude glory, I’ll lose all capacity for rational thought.
And I need to keep a grip on my wildly careening emotions, now more than ever. Because it can’t be the mate bond. It just can’t.
“You said you were wrong about it,” I insist. “That you made a mistake.”
Druxik presses his lips together, and a flicker of shame crosses his face.
“I lied,” he admits. “I’m sorry for that, Cora, truly I am. I didn’t want to deceive you.” He takes a deep breath. “But I was trying to protect you. I knew that you desired me, as I do you… and I wanted to keep you from having an imperfect mate. Someone who isn’t worthy of you.”
His features harden as he says that, a muscle in his jaw ticking, and I know he’s talking about his robotic arm. I recognize the emotions in his face, because I’ve felt them too. I’ve worried that I’m not the person I once was, that I’m damaged, deprived of something I need in order to fully be myself.
But I never imagined that he lied about the bond because of that. The connection between us is real after all, and he said it wasn’t out of some skewed, noble ideas about honor and worth.
A strange sort of giddiness fills me at that thought.
I really am his Irisa. He pretended it was a mistake because he thought he wasn’t good enough for me. How the hell could he ever think that?
I reach up to touch his face without thinking, my fingers skimming over the hard line of his cheekbone and the smooth skin of his cheek. His eyelids flutter closed for a second, and I see the breath hitch in his chest as his body responds to my touch.
All I want is to see the pain leave his face. To make him feel whole, to make him see himself as I do.
“I don’t care about that,” I whisper, and it’s true. It’s more than true. “You’re perfect, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never known anyone like you, Druxik. Human or Kalixian, you’re the best man I’ve ever met.”
His eyes flash open and fix on mine.
Desire burns through me, searing away everything in my mind except what I feel when I touch him. It’s fierce and powerful and the best thing I’ve ever experienced.
“I want you.” My words come out soft and breathless as I lean toward him, my chin tilting upward. His lips look so full, so warm. I want to know what they taste like. “I feel the connection between us, Druxik. So strongly. I felt it in the hallway when I ran into you, and I feel it now.”
He sways toward me, his lips a fraction from mine again—just like that day, in the moment before that fucking alarm went off. He’s so damn close. I take a breath, drawing in his scent, my senses overwhelmed with him. My eyes flutter closed.
“I’ve been going crazy,” I whisper. “Trying to pretend like I didn’t feel it. That it doesn’t exist.”
I open my eyes just in time to see his change color. The gold sparks flare out over the black and brown of his irises, making them gleam. It makes my heart flip in my chest, arousal tightening my entire body. He grasps me tighter, his arm wrapping around my waist as he pulls me against his body.
And then his head drops down, claiming my mouth fiercely as we both give in at the same moment.
His lips are warm and soft, and he tastes… oh god, the taste of his mouth is sweet and hot, his tongue tangling with mine as he kisses me with a force that I’ve never felt in all my life.
This is unlike any kiss I’ve ever had, and I know in that instant that I could be consumed by it, that I could let myself be claimed by this man—this alien—and never want anything else.
The hard length of his cock presses against my stomach as he clutches me to him, the heat of it burning through my clothes. One of my arms is wrapped around his neck, my hand tangled in his dark hair. My fingertips graze the base of one of his horns as my free hand goes to his loincloth, fumbling with the ties of it.
I want him naked.
I want all of him bare against me, and I want to be the same. Skin to skin.
But the knots are tied too damn well. My fingers feel thick and clumsy, my motor skills severely hampered as my mind is consumed by my need for him.
Druxik growls deep in his throat as he reaches down and tears the loincloth off, dropping the useless piece of material to the floor. His hands go to my shirt and tug at it, unwinding the material until it falls away from my small breasts.
I forget my shyness about my own nudity and the fact that no man has seen me or touched me like this since before my illness. All I can think about is Druxik’s hands on my skin. His mouth is still devouring mine as he slides those hands over me, his fingers teasing the tips of my nipples before he squeezes my breasts.
“I know they’re small,” I gasp self-consciously as he breaks the kiss, leaning down to kiss my throat. “I know some men like…”
“They’re perfect,” he growls, his gorgeous golden eyes flicking up to meet mine. “And I’m not other men.”
As if to punctuate his words, he drops his head lower, his mouth pressing against my breast as his tongue traces around my hard nipple.
My head falls back as lust sweeps over me. My entire body is afire with it, my blood liquid heat in my veins. His hands move over my waist as he licks and nips at my breasts, teeth and tongue sliding over my flesh until I’m moaning softly.
An intense kind of pleasure is gathering inside me, slowly building, waiting for him to release it.
And he will. I know he will.
He reaches for my pants, tugging them down as he kisses the space between my breasts, his mouth trailing down my stomach. He’s outrageously beautiful as he worships me, his hard, muscled body bent to my pleasure.
As my pants drop to the floor, leaving me completely bare to his gaze, he slides his hand between my legs. He doesn’t try to part my lips or slide his fingers against my most sensitive flesh yet, but I know he can feel how wet I am, and my face heats at that knowledge.
I feel almost embarrassed at how turned on he’s made me. My thighs are slick with arousal, and as he finally rubs his fingers through my folds, his gaze shifts upward to meet mine, his mouth drifting over the curve of one breast.
“You’re so wet for me,” he whispers, his voice a rumble against my skin. “I can’t wait to taste you. I want to please you with my mouth until you scream for me, Cora. Until you come hard on my face. And then…”
Holy shit.
I gasp, desperate to hear him finish the sentence. It’s always sounded so stupid when other men have tried to talk dirty to me in bed, but in Druxik’s deep rumble, with his golden eyes looking up at me, it’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever heard.
I want to hear him say more, for him to tell me every single thing he’s going to do to me—then I want him to do it.
My inner walls clench, and I know Druxik feels it, because he lets out a harsh groan as his lips slide down over my stomach. He seems to forget whatever else he was about to say, entirely lost in his need for me.
His fingers dip inside me before sliding upward to sweep over my clit. My knees nearly buckle at that, and my hand goes to the back of his head as his lips move lower.
I know what he’s planning to do, where he’s planning to put his mouth, and I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything in the universe. No man has ever gone down on me like this, and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
He’s going to make me come like this, I think dizzily as he kisses my abdomen, just a few more inches and… oh
fuck, it’s not going to take long…
I’m so aroused that I almost don’t register him kissing my scar at first.
His lips brush over the thin line that sweeps horizontally between my hipbones. It’s the one noticeable mark on my otherwise unblemished skin, and it’s the reason for so many of my insecurities. The reason no one has seen me naked in years.
And as he kisses along the line of my scar as if it’s something beautiful, just another part of me, what he said earlier hits me like a ton of bricks.
To keep you from having an imperfect mate.
That’s why he denied the bond, why he lied and said it was a mistake. That’s why he pretended it wasn’t real. Because he thought it would be wrong to bind me to someone who’s imperfect.
But that’s me.
I’m the imperfect mate.
Druxik’s supposed “flaw” is right out in the open for me to see—yet he has no idea about mine. He has no idea I can’t give him the children that the bond is meant to create, no idea that whatever mystical force is in charge of this has fucked up and somehow linked us in spite of that.
It’s me who should be denying him, because I can’t be the mate he deserves.
So before I can stop myself, before I get lost completely in the intense rush of pleasure, I reach down and press against his shoulders, pushing him away.
He doesn’t resist, following my silent urging and leaning back.
And as the physical connection between us breaks, it feels like a hole opens up in my chest.
14
Druxik
I’m so lost in Cora, in the sweet perfection of her body—her scent, her taste, the feel of her under my hands—that for a moment, I don’t notice the change in her. But then I feel her stiffen. She grabs my shoulders and pushes me away, stepping backward.
I rock back on my heels, blinking as I come back to my senses a little. My body is flooded with lust, completely overcome by it, my cock harder than it’s ever been in my life. It takes a second for me to think through the fog of arousal, and I stand up, a little dizzy.
