My need for her surged through me, bringing my cock to life. Our bodies yearned toward one another, living conduits of the mating bond craving completion. I moaned deep in my throat and tightened my arms around her waist, lifting her up off her toes.
Eventually, I pulled my lips from hers just enough to whisper against them. “Amelia and Zont didn’t wait, you know. There are no other grooms vying for your hand. We could follow their example.”
I knew it was too much, too soon, but I couldn’t help asking, hoping maybe she would realize I would never hurt her.
Hoping she would know we belonged together as instinctively as I did.
With a whimper, she pressed herself against me, deepening the kiss until we were both breathing heavily.
Finally, she drew away a little and shook her head. “Not yet,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stand it if…” Her voice trailed off.
If anything went wrong, I finished her sentence in my mind. “I understand.”
Slowly, I set her on her feet again, sliding the front of her body down mine so she felt the evidence of my desire straining toward her. Her eyes fluttered into the back of her head and her breath caught in her chest. Exhaling one long, slow, shaky breath, she reached up to place one hand on either side of my face. I tilted my forehead down until it rested against hers.
“You really are an amazing man.” Her voice trembled, and I knew if I pushed, even just a little, she would invite me in.
I couldn’t do it.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” Gently, I dropped a light kiss on her forehead, forced myself to release my arms from around her body, and stepped back as she opened the door.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered, and as she stepped into her room, she glanced back at me, her eyes brimming with tears.
I really needed to find out why she was so frightened of the connection between us.
Tomorrow, I promised myself.
Halfway back to my quarters, I realized I left my wristcom in the chair I occupied during the party that Mia had called a “reception”—which, come to think of it, was an odd term, since no one was receiving anything there.
I should never have taken off the wristcom in the first place. But I had been awake and working for most of the previous two days, and the strap had begun to chafe against my skin in an odd way.
Even now, the skin there was slightly discolored and inflamed, possibly a reaction to accidental exposure to some of the Hordedust, as my team and I had taken to calling the disintegrated bodies from the Alveron Hordeship.
I didn’t want to put the wristcom back on yet. And I was too tired to be bothered with anything other than falling into bed right now. Even my kiss before leaving Mia at her door had been perfunctory.
Not that I couldn’t have been convinced to work up more energy if she had asked me to stay. But as usual, her response had been mixed—part eager passion, part utter terror.
I’ll com Cav when I get back to my quarters. He can get the wristcom to me tomorrow.
And as for Mia—our own Bride Games were scheduled to begin in the morning. I would get a full night’s sleep and give her my complete attention then.
The Alveron Horde had once again been repelled. I had all the military scientists onboard the station working on Hordedust. I could afford to take some time out to properly court my bride.
When I got back to my quarters, though, it took me a long time to fall asleep.
More than anything, I wanted to have Mia in the bed next to me. I was ready to claim her, make her mine.
Even the thought of claiming her made my cock twitch and grow hard. I ached to hold her, taste her, make her scream in pleasure. I wanted to plant myself inside her.
I fell asleep imagining holding her in my arms, and I dreamt of her.
In that dream, she held a small child. I knew he was ours, somehow—but at the same time, part of me also knew he wasn’t exactly mine.
His head rested on her shoulder, his legs wrapped around her waist. His skin was a lighter shade of human brown than Mia’s, his close-cropped, dark, curly hair the same shade as hers.
As I stepped forward to take them both in my arms, she receded from me in the way of dreams, until I stood alone in the center of Station 21, desperate to find them again.
Chapter Nineteen
Mia
I had been here for less than ten days, but it felt like forever since I had talked to Josiah.
At least I had figured out where things were, mostly, so I knew where I was going—and when to go. Station 21 ran on a twenty-four-hour schedule, but there was still a kind of a night shift. The Khanavai had figured out long ago that they needed a dark cycle, just like humans did. At any given time, half the lights on the station were lowered, including the living quarters. A smaller part of the station ran on the opposite schedule, so what most of us considered the night shift workers were acclimated to their own “daytime”. I just hoped the transporter room would be on the night shift at the same time I was.
I made my way quickly through the public areas of the station, trying to look like I knew where I going, look like I belonged there, among the humans with legitimate business on the station.
When I arrived at the transporter room, I waved Eldron’s wristcom at the entry pad and tapped in the code I’d heard him speak into it.
Luckily, the transporter room had been powered down at some point. I didn’t know if it was because of the night schedule or because no one was using it at the moment, but I really
