“Hey,” I called over the noise. “I’m sorry.”
Without stopping the flow of water, he turned around.
My mouth went dry. Fuck me. Again.
Without his kilt or shoulder armor or leather forearm guards, I could finally see the massive Vandar completely naked. My gaze shifted from his sculpted chest to his ridged stomach, and finally to the thick cock hanging between his legs, black markings wrapped around the shaft like the ones curling across his chest.
“What?” He swept his hands over his face and blinked at me, water hitting his back and spraying off his body.
I stepped closer, droplets stinging my face. “I said, I’m sorry.”
He tilted his head then shook it. “You are what?”
Huffing out an impatient breath that the infuriating alien didn’t just turn off the water so he could hear me, I took another few steps to close the distance between us, wiping the spray from my own face as it hit me. “I said, I’m—“
He snaked an arm out and hooked it around my waist, jerking me under the water and then spinning me so that my back was pressed flat to the wall and his body pressed hard to my front to immobilize me.
“What the actual…?” I spluttered, as warm water ran down my face and into my eyes and mouth.
“I should punish you,” he said, his voice a throaty rumble that cut through the sound of the water. Even though the water was warm, his naked body was even warmer against me.
My pulse fluttered nervously. Had I been wrong about the Raas?
“Or maybe I should fuck the defiance out of you, instead?”
My breath caught in my throat, and my heart hammered wildly. Even though I was pinned to the wall by his rigid body, I struggled against him. “I said, I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” His head was next to mine, his mouth against my ear. “Sorry for running from me, or sorry for getting caught? Sorry that you didn’t trust me to keep you safe after I saved your life? Or sorry that I was forced to fight over you and exile one of my raiders?”
I pushed against him, but he was too big to budge. “I’m sorry you still don’t get why I have to leave.”
Not exactly my best apology, but not my worst.
He ground himself into me, his cock now hard. “I told you. You cannot leave.”
Arousal coursed through me, but I shook my head. “You have to let me go. If you don’t, the empire will come after both of us again. But the next time, it won’t be just one person. And they won’t stop until they’ve killed me and you.”
“I will stop them.” He pulled his face back so he could meet my eyes, even as water cascaded behind him.
I believed that he would try, but I also knew the empire. Too well. I hitched in a breath. “I can’t let you risk everything for me. It’s too much.”
“Because I don’t know you?” He cupped my face in one hand.
“You don’t. If you knew me, and all the things I’ve done, you’d be glad to be rid of me.” The truth of my words made a knot form in my gut. No one should want someone like me. Not after what the empire had made me.
He tipped my chin up. “You are wrong. If you left, I would never stop searching for you.” He brushed a kiss across my lips. “You are mine, now. The good and the bad.”
A strangled sob worked its way up my throat. How could he believe that after what I’d done? After what I’d forced him to do? It didn’t make any sense.
“I told you that a Vandar Raas never lies. We also never give up.” He dragged his thumb across my bottom lip. “Do you think that after battling the empire for millennia, I would be scared by them coming after you?” His eyes were molten, searing his words into me. “Let them come, and I will rain fire on them for daring to threaten my mate.”
“You don’t want a mate as bad as me.”
“I want you,” he said. “No matter how bad you are.”
In that moment, I believed him. I was his, and he would die to protect me. I opened my mouth to speak but he tangled a hand in my hair, and jerked my mouth to his.
Need stormed through me like fire, scorching everything in its path as I arched into him, deaf to the water rushing around us. All that mattered was the burn of his flesh against mine, and his hot tongue plundering my mouth.
His mouth claimed mine as possessively as his hands that moved roughly down my body until he reached my ass. He lifted me up with a fast jerk, spreading my legs and wrapping them around his waist as the fabric of my kilt rode up and bunched around my stomach. A desperate breath escaped my lips as he pressed me hard against the slick, stone wall, rocking into me.
I didn’t just want him to fuck me. I needed him inside me, as if being filled by him would burn off the desire that clawed at me like an untamed beast and kill off the creature the empire had made me into.
“Fuck me, Bron,” I said after ripping my mouth from his.
His predatory gaze locked on me, his dark eyes savage as he notched his cock at my entrance. “You could not stop me.”
Then he thrust hard and fast, causing all the breath to leave me. I lost the ability to think, my heart hammering as he impaled me against the wall. Bron’s jaw was tight as he moved thickly between my legs, my own legs sliding down his wet back as water rushed over them.
I clutched his shoulders, heat rolling through me as he fucked me against the wall. His rhythm was punishing, but I welcomed each deep thrust and the spirals of pleasure
