“Huh? What do you mean by force?”
When he turned around, he realized she was still watching him and it didn’t help that nothing had changed in the way she looked.
The fire sticks’ light was still illuminating her face in a way that made him want to stare and the expression on her face was only now tinged with a little confusion.
And her gaze...so innocent.
If only she knew the thoughts in the back of his mind, she would be looking at him in horror; they were anything but innocent.
If not stranded on a desert planet, would she have wanted to report him to the Vaen plutocracy? Would she have wanted his wings stripped and him banished Below?
Rubbing a hand across his throat, Kyris rolled his shoulders for a second, grimacing slightly at the pain that was still there.
“Hit it to activate it. Hit it to deactivate,” he answered her.
Was it the light? The shadows? The intimacy of having her all alone and to himself?
He’d never had trouble controlling himself before, but the more he looked at her, the more he was finding it hard keeping his distance.
He watched as she slapped the stick against the wall and the light within it promptly died.
“Ooh.” Her mouth formed a circle, her lips coming together in a near pout and Kyris found he couldn’t look away.
Hitting the fire stick against the wall again, a smile broke across her face as the stick began to glow.
It was good she wasn’t looking in his direction. He thanked Polvrak for that for he knew that every emotion he was feeling was written right across his face and he wasn’t sure she was ready to be confronted with any of them yet.
Heck, even he wasn’t ready.
“This is so cool!” Her voice echoed in the cave, interrupting his thoughts as it bounced against the stone walls.
It wasn’t cool…it was hot…but whatever. As well as being strange, humans also said strange things that made no sense.
It didn’t matter, though, and he didn’t bother to correct her. There was too much on his mind but at the forefront was the growing realization of one thing…
These feelings weren’t in his imagination.
They weren’t impossible, for here they were.
And there was no way he could ignore them.
There was only one option…he had to make her choose him.
And make her choose him he would.
11
The fire sticks were making the cave a little too warm for him but he resisted the urge to sit outside. He’d had the choice of doing that or sitting across from her and, of course, he’d chosen the latter.
“I have food.” Reaching for one of the food packets, he checked the label. He wasn’t hungry but he bet she was. And she needed energy to get better.
She hadn’t complained but he saw her wince and rub her head a few times, which meant her head must still hurt.
Reading the label on the food packet, he opened it and stretched it out to her, watching her reaction.
A furtive glance at him and she raised her hand to smooth her dark hair behind her ear almost nervously.
But she didn’t take the packet.
“You should eat.” He gently thrust the packet in her direction again.
It took her a few seconds to take it from him. But still, she didn’t eat.
“Is there enough for you?”
He was sure she was starving. Why would she care if he ate or not?
Thoughtful, she was. It made something move within him.
“There is enough.” He watched her pause. “Eat.”
“Thank you.” Her whisper was almost inaudible as she took the opening of the packet into her mouth.
When her eyes lit up and she took a more generous portion of the food into her mouth, her delighted and surprised giggle made his cock twitch.
The food packets impressed her, too?
It was strange, but charming in an innocent kind of way.
Things he took for granted made her so happy.
“What is this?” She took another large gulp.
“Fruit.” He knew he was eyeing her like a predator watching its prey but he couldn’t help it. That giggle. He wanted to hear it again. “Try this one.”
She took the other packet without question and squeezed the contents into her mouth.
“Oh god...” She groaned and her eyes rolled over in her head in a way that had him staring at her, speechless. It took everything within him to not let his mouth fall open.
That look. That groan. It was a look of pure ecstasy. The exact way he imagined she would look on her back, writhing in ecstasy.
Shifting to the side, he turned his groin away from her.
He was already hard and she would undoubtedly see it pressing through his trousers.
“This is so good.” She groaned again. “It tastes like...” Taking another gulp, her eyes rolled over again before she smiled at him. “It tastes like papaya. God, I love papaya.”
The name she had for the fruit didn’t translate to anything in his language.
Glancing at the packet again, he realized it was zenoju, a fruit found only on his home world. He made a mental note of that.
Once they got picked up by the Restitution, he was going to hoard all the zenoju packets on board.
He would even order a shipment of fresh zenoju to his address at the base. That is, if he managed to get her to stay with him. She’d only stay if she chose him.
If she liked the tasteless packaged zenoju so much, she would absolutely orgasm from the real thing.
Orgasm.
It was his turn to groan and when she looked over at him, he had to pretend he was clearing something in his throat. The thought of her having an orgasm made his cock throb.
Ultimate pleasure…
…and he wanted to give it to her.
Every. Night.
And day, too, if she allowed him to.
As she finished eating the packets and wiped her lips, he held out his hand with some more but she shook her head.
“No, thank you. There’s quite a bit in one packet. I think
