“Ai dohn’t want en-nee thing. Yoo werr haff-ing ah nait-meer.”
Her voice was the last thing he needed to push him over the edge. So deceptively soft and innocent…as if she wasn’t cut from the cord of all other females who’d managed to come close to him in the past.
Sitting upright so quickly she didn’t have time to react, Riv pulled her with him and she fell against his chest, her body lying sideways against his.
Her chest heaved against his as she pulled huge breaths into her body, her wide eyes searching his face.
Her throat moved as she swallowed hard.
“Leht mee goh.”
Her eyes searched his face and it was evident she was having trouble making out his features in the dark.
But he was having no trouble making out hers.
He could see her quite clearly and the look in her eyes, the frantic way she was beginning to pant, they both told him she was in over her head.
Whatever she’d planned…whatever she was doing…it wasn’t going the way she’d intended.
That minor victory eased some of his tension.
Loosening his grip a little, he kept her wrist enclosed by his palm.
The phek was she doing in his room?
He thought he’d made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with her.
He’d growled. He’d snarled. He’d tried not to encourage her company.
But here she was…
And the bad thing about it…
The more he stared down at her…the longer her body heaved against his…the more his anger dissipated, till he was left just staring down at her, wondering how he’d moved from bristling anger to…whatever this new feeling was.
Try as he wanted to ignore it, her body felt soft against his…her scent intoxicating.
And though she was wary, though she wasn’t sure what he was going to do next, behind her fear he could see her own anger simmering.
Only, she was much better at controlling it than he was controlling his.
She was waiting to see what he would do before she reacted…and right now his body was telling him he wanted to do one thing while his mind was fighting in the opposite direction.
Feeling her against him was making him react in a way that hadn’t occurred in a while.
Not like this.
His cock was growing hard. Very hard. And without his interference.
He could feel it pressing against his trousers…against her leg.
He should let her go.
He should release her and usher her from his room.
He should…
Something moist bumped against his arm, bringing him from his daze, and he turned his head slightly to see Grot rubbing his head against him.
The tevsi could sense his battling emotions. Grot was trying to calm him.
Riv closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Calm.
Calm.
Regain control.
Calm.
Releasing her wrist, he let his arm fall as he bent his head and fought to control his warring thoughts.
“Go,” he said.
As she lifted herself off him, her movements were jerky and he could feel her flaming gaze on him.
“Ugh, yoor soh difikult. So rood ahnd, ahnd, juhst…mahdennin! Ai was uhnesstly juhst trahy-ing to help yoo.”
Grot made a sound of disapproval in his throat and he didn’t need to understand the female’s language to know that she wasn’t pleased.
Well, that made two of them.
She’d just have to deal with it.
Just like he was going to have to deal with the emotions in his heart and the hardened cock in his pants.
As the female stormed from the room, Grot made another sound and followed after her.
He only had a second to realize that his tevsi was escorting the female to her quarters as if he, Riv, had just committed some crime and wounded her in some way.
He watched them go, unable to call his animal back to his side.
He was the one that was wounded.
Wounded by years of pent up rage and hatred.
Only, unlike the female’s wounded pride, which would be healed by the next light-cycle, he had no such hope of relief.
16
It was in the early hours of the next light-cycle that he heard a loud feminine shriek followed by the loud booms of Grot barking.
He’d already awakened and had been pulling on his trousers when the exclamation hit his ears.
It didn’t take him long to move, fastening the clasps of the trousers as he hurried toward the female’s room, tension in his shoulders.
He hadn’t been able to sleep for the entire dark-cycle.
Not after she’d invaded his room…his thoughts…the barrier he’d placed around himself.
“Ah, Grot. Calm down.”
He knew that voice and for a second it confused him.
What was Sohut doing in the female’s room? He hadn’t even heard him return..
“Hoo dah hell arr yoo?” He knew that voice too.
Hearing it again after last night made a sort of chill run down his spine that made him anxious to see the female.
He wasn’t sure he could look at her without remembering the night before.
It was something he should forget. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to.
The door to the female’s room was open when he got there and the scene inside had him stopping in his tracks.
Sohut stood against the wall, his eyes wide and his hands in the air as if in surrender.
In front of him, Grot stood on all fours, teeth bared, snarling at his brother as if he’d never seen him before.
Behind Grot, the human stood with his blaster in her hands, the business end of which was pointed at his brother.
The phek did he walk in on?
He didn’t know if he should be angry or if he should laugh at the sight.
Only Sohut’s gaze moved toward him. His brother kept his entire body rigid, but the look in his eyes was one of pure shock.
“What the phek, Riv?” Sohut’s gaze moved to Grot then to the female. “Grot won’t listen to me and this…what is this?” Sohut looked at the female. “Who is this? She has me at blaster-point in my own house!”
Sohut’s eyes grew wider as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“Yoor house?” The human glanced his way and Riv felt himself stiffen, images
