Then I forced myself to envision a life on the Vandar warbird. Even though it was completely different from what I’d been used to—the cold darkness a shock after living on an arid, sunlit planet—it was not without its luxuries. Take the bathing pools. I scissored my legs through the water again, the soreness already fading from the minerals within. There was nothing like this at home. Not to mention the large quarters that I didn’t have to share with my drunk father. There was only the Raas to share the expansive pallets, and he definitely fell in the plus column. There was no man who came close to Raas Vassim.
Even as I became aware of my shifting feelings toward leaving the horde and Vassim, there was a niggling voice in the back of my head reminding me that the only reason the Raas had kept me and desired me to stay was because I had the potential to break his curse. Without that, would he have given me a second glance?
I was pretty sure he couldn’t have faked his arousal in bed, but I didn’t know enough to know if that was the way he was with every female he’d bedded. I’d felt a powerful connection to him, but for him it could have been just like with all the others. That thought made a cold ball harden in my gut.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, under my breath. “None of this matters, if you don’t get mating marks and break the curse. He’s promised to take you home, and if the curse remains on him, that’s what he’ll do. It won’t matter how much you’re falling for him, or that you’ll have no life back on Kimithion III. A Vandar Raas won’t break his promise.”
I swallowed hard, the reality of returning home and leaving Vassim making my throat thick. After all my begging to go home, was I actually wishing I could stay?
“Come on, girl. The sex wasn’t that amazing.”
But it was, and Raas Vassim was. I couldn’t deny that he fascinated me and provoked feelings in me that I’d never experienced before. When I was with him, I was no longer timid Juliette, taking care of everyone around her. I was someone bolder. My face flamed. I was someone who’s been fucked by a Vandar tail and had loved it. I dunked my head all the way under the water, hoping to douse my burning cheeks and cool myself off. Thinking of Vassim’s tail inside me was doing nothing for that.
“You’re in so much trouble,” I said to myself, once I’d popped out of the water and dragged my hands down my wet hair.
“Have you committed a crime since I’ve been away?’
I opened my eyes, startled to see the Raas standing in the doorway.
“When did you…? I thought you were… Is everything okay?”
He eyed me with a dark, predatory gaze, shedding his clothes quickly and leaving them in a pile as he crossed the black, glossy floor and dropped into the water behind me.
Before I could turn to face him, he’d pressed his large body against mine, his heat only enflaming me further. “Everything is fine now.”
I gripped the stone ledge as he spread my legs with his knee then dragged the crown of his cock through my folds, the water making me even more slippery. “I thought you were needed for a raiding mission, or something.”
He lowered his head beside mine and nipped my ear. “We’re en route to a battle, but there is nowhere more important for me to be than here.” He notched his cock at my opening, tilting my hips up with one hand, and thrusting hard. He moaned as I sucked in a desperate breath at the familiar stretch. “Inside you.”
I leaned my head back, savoring the sensation of being filled completely by the alien warlord and letting all my doubts melt away as he stroked into me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vassim
The iron walkway rocked from side to side as I leapt off it onto a platform, clutching a beam overhead as the warbird pitched to one side.
Tvek. I righted myself and continued racing toward the command deck, cursing at myself for staying too long with Juliette. Not that I regretted a moment I’d spent buried inside her, the water splashing over the stone ledge of the bathing pools and spilling across the shiny floor. I’d taken her from behind, curling one hand around her waist to pleasure her with my hand while I pounded into her. After she’d come and screamed my name, I’d flipped her around and held her with her legs wrapped around my waist, moving her up and down on my cock until I’d no longer been able to hold back, exploding with a euphoric fury that had almost brought me to my knees.
Even now, as the ship shuddered from incoming weapons fire, my cock stirred as I thought about the sounds of water sloshing onto the floor and our moans echoing off the glossy stone. I groaned and pushed my cock down with one hand. Fucking her was a much better way to stay awake than wandering the dark corridors of the ship deranged from lack of sleep, but although I was more refreshed than usual, I had a hard time getting thoughts of her out of my mind. I needed to forget about the female
