“She knew something was going on between you and me. She didn’t know what but she knew I would be returning home. Maybe I reminded her of the way she used to be. She tried to escape before. She always failed.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “That makes her death even more tragic.”
Alice braced her elbows on her knees. “The crew will Challenge you tomorrow. Are you ready?”
“I feel much stronger now,” I said. But…
I never admitted my weaknesses before. Never to anyone but Maisie. Maybe now she was gone, I could confide in Alice?
“I’m still not yet at full strength,” I said. “I can defeat one member of my crew, but there are no rules when it comes to multiple challengers. If I look weak after the first bout, another crew member could Challenge me right away. I need to overpower the first Challenger resolutely for them to not attack me a second time.”
Alice thought for a moment before moving to my desk and sipping water from my glass.
“Were you lying?” she said. “Was what you told me about the bond in your species true? That it makes you stronger?”
“Yes,” I said.
“It wasn’t a cheap trick to get me to sleep with you?”
“No.”
She took a big gulp of my water, raised her chin, and slammed the empty glass on the desk.
“Then we should do everything we can to make you as strong as you can be,” she said.
She marched around the bed and stood before me. She reached for the zipper on the back of her dress. She shrugged her shoulders and released it, letting it fall away and slip down her curves to the floor.
I couldn’t believe this was happening.
She stood staring at me, her chin up, proud, and yes, with more than a small challenge. Her underwear was mismatched and clung tightly to her hips and breasts.
She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
My eyes were hungry and absorbed every detail, every gorgeous turn of her body. The Titan in me lusted after her gorgeous frame. I breathed in her overpowering femininity.
Turning away from her was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. She was in mourning. She wasn’t thinking straight. I would not force myself upon her, even for the sake of the bond, even if it would make me more powerful for the battle tomorrow.
“You don’t need to do this,” I said. “I might be strong enough without bonding.”
She placed her hand on my forearm the way she had at the funeral. Goosebumps washed over my flesh, a tingling sensation in their wake.
“I’m not doing this because I have to,” she said. “I’m doing it because I want to.”
“You’re in mourning—”
“That’s why I need to do this.” She hesitated before saying the next word. “Please.”
She raised a hand to my cheek. “Maisie told me I could trust you, that you have a streak of honor buried deep. I can see it now. You’re a good man. A good captain. My captain.”
She raised my head and lowered her lips to mine. It’d been so long since I had a female—not since my days as a gladiator in the fighting pits.
The hunger remained contained but grew stronger over the months and years. It’d never felt so strong as it did right now. For this beautiful human female.
I met her lips with mine and explored her mouth with my tongue. She did the same and, not to be outdone, bit me on the lip. Not hard enough to draw blood, but enough for me to feel it.
I growled and cupped her ass in my hands. I lifted her off her feet and rubbed her against my cock that’d begun to swell ever since I first laid eyes on her. I carried her with ease. We kissed with lips of fire and passion. I tasted her neck and nibbled her shoulders.
With the threat of death and worse hanging over the both of us tomorrow, we seized today.
I unclipped her bra and let it fall between us. I took her nipples in my mouth and felt the hard buds with the tip of my tongue.
I held her with one hand and slid the other over her flat stomach to her wetness below. I didn’t even need to slip them inside to feel how juicy she was. I slid one finger inside and rubbed her gently but firmly.
She gasped and wrapped her legs around me tightly, clawing at my back with her fingers. I rubbed her harder, faster, working her on the inside, the pad of my hand working the outside.
She threw her head back, gasping for air. Then she pressed her lips to mine as I placed my foot on my bed to angle a little more space so I could widen her opening and slip a second finger inside.
A thin film of sweat formed on her face as she bucked and writhed her hips back and forth against my hand. I took a nipple in my mouth and pinched at it between my teeth as I worked her pussy even harder.
She screamed a second time as she pulsed around my fingers, her eyelids fluttering on the fringes of ecstasy and despair.
I brought my fingers, slick with her, to my mouth, and tasted her. “Mmm.”
Before I could taste my second finger, she wrapped her lips around it and tasted herself. “You’re right. I am tasty.”
Never in all my time as a gladiator had my temporary lovers been so passionate, so… consuming.
Unable to control myself any longer, I laid her on the corner of my bed. I hooked a finger under her underwear and pulled them off.
“I thought it was my duty to undress you?” she whispered.
“Today, I am your servant,” I said.
“I prefer for us to be equals.”
She didn’t roll up. Instead, she hooked her toes in the waistband of my underwear and pulled them down. Her eyes widened as my cock was revealed inch by inch.
“Now I know why they call you Titans,” she said.
“I’ll be gentle,”
