“Thank you,” she said softly when he finished.
“I wish you would rest while I try again. The rocks cannot damage me.”
“If the rocks can’t hurt you, why do you have so many scars?”
“It’s part of the transformation process. As we grow and our skin starts to harden, it frequently develops these small cracks.”
She traced a finger along one of the scars on his chest, and he had to fight back a wholly inappropriate reaction to the soft touch. “These aren’t small.”
“Some of them are from damage in the mines back on Sorvid. Some of it is from my fighting career.”
“You’re a fighter?”
He shrugged, unable to tell from her expression if she was impressed or repulsed. “When I left Sorvid, I didn’t have many useful skills. Fighting seemed like the best option.”
“Did you like it?”
“Let’s just say I’m very good at it. I won my first fight so quickly that I suspected the entire thing was a joke. I didn’t realize that not everyone had the same natural armament as a Sorvid. One of the fight masters immediately offered me a contract. Of course, now I realize that it was barely more than the league minimum but at the time, I thought I was wealthy. I don’t even think the credits lasted a month. I spent it all on liquor and females.” He darted her a quick glance, half-laughing, half-ashamed, but her face remained composed. “Fortunately I was never fond of gambling but I did enjoy giving parties for the people I thought were my new friends.”
“I take it they weren’t?”
“As soon as the credits disappeared, so did they. But there was one male, Panoro. He gave me the best piece of advice I could have received. I was all set to go back to my contract owner and ask for an advance on the next contract. Panoro told me not to be a fool. He warned me that if I did, I would end up indebted to the male for the rest of my life.”
“But if you didn’t have any money—I mean, any credits—what did you do?”
“The same thing I’d been doing my entire life. I scrounged through leftovers, stole if I had to, went hungry when I had no other choice.” He kept his voice casual, unconcerned, but he suspected she could see the shadow of that time in his eyes because she placed a hand on his. He turned his hand over and closed his fingers around hers.
“Then what?” she asked.
“When my contract ended, I took bids for the next one.” He grinned. “I did very, very well out of that, but this time, I was more careful. My ship, the Aerie, was my one indulgence.”
“Why a ship?”
“Because it was mine. Because it meant that I always had a home. And perhaps a little because I enjoyed being surrounded by beautiful things.” He reached down and ran a finger down her cheek.
“Did you ever go home again?”
“Once. It was after I had that second contract, and I was sitting in my quarters feeling annoyed because the air temperature was a few degrees warmer than I preferred. Then I remembered what it had been like back on Sorvid.”
“I had a friend that I had grown up with and I went back to get him. I think I had some illusion that I would be rescuing him. He just laughed and refused to leave. ‘Better the hell I know,’ he said. I’m not sure if he truly didn’t believe that anywhere else was better or if he was scared to take a chance on an alternative.” He shrugged again. “That was the last time I tried to rescue anyone.”
“Until you came for me,” she said softly.
“Correct as always, little bird.”
She hummed thoughtfully but changed the subject. “Why did you leave Sorvid?”
“It’s not exactly a pleasant place to live,” he said dryly but decided not to elaborate. She didn’t need to hear about the horrors of his home planet. “And there was nothing to keep me there.”
“You don’t have any family?”
The familiar ache shot through him, still painful after all these years. “Not anymore.”
“I’m so sorry. Even though I know I’ll never see mine again, it’s comforting to know that they’re still out there, to think of them going about their daily business.”
Despite her words, her expression was wistful. He sat down next to her and gathered her into his arms. She snuggled against him and he couldn’t help responding to the feel of her body. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him.
“Are you… are you aroused?”
“I am always aroused when you are near,” he said truthfully.
She looked thoughtful, her fingers moving slowly over his chest. “Do you think we’re going to get out of here?”
“Eventually.” He didn’t add that he suspected the guards would be the ones to get them out—in which case, their fates might be even more unpleasant. He would fight to his last breath to protect her, but despite his fighting name of the Juggernaut, he wasn’t invincible, and he could be stopped.
Her fingers dropped even lower, skating along the edge of his pants now, and he caught his breath as she brushed against the swollen head of his cock. He expected her to move away, but she lingered, rubbing her thumb back and forth and gathering the liquid that began to coat his shaft. She looked up at him, and then very deliberately licked her thumb before sucking it into her mouth.
“Did I mention last night that you taste wonderful?”
“You are testing my self-control,” he growled.
“Am I? Good, because you test mine.”
With surprising speed, she straddled him,
