He’s surprisingly gentle, his fingertips barely scraping over my scalp, and oh so careful with the side of my head that still aches from the Roth mercenary’s attack. My raging lust abates somewhat…
How is it that this is the same dude who slapped my pussy and made me come so hard I nearly blacked out, now taking care of me like…
Like he meant what he said.
Am I really his mate?
I close my eyes, letting the warm water run over me, trying to shove the question from my mind. Instead, the vision of Nydo on the space station comes roaring back through my mind.
His mate.
“Nydo…” I start to ask him about whether he actually thinks I’m his mate, about whether or not he’s faking it—but the shower water shuts off, and I shiver at the loss of warmth.
“You are cold,” he says. In an instant, the shower steams around me, the remaining droplets heating as Nydo’s heat envelops me. I stare up at him, my mouth parted in surprise.
“That’s handy,” I say, raising one hand, watching the water evaporate.
He runs his hands through my hair, and when he’s done, it lies in dry waves around my shoulders.
“Well, that answers why you didn’t need Piper to help with my hair.”
“Is that what you were about to ask?”
“Yep,” I lie, nodding my head.
“For this meeting, you need to look the part of my queen as much as possible.”
My abdomen clenches at the stress he puts on the word, triggering an instant memory of how he called me that in bed only minutes ago.
“I know what the Roth expect to see.” He steps from the shower, and I track the ripple of his muscles, the designs on his skin as they disappear beneath his pants.
“Doesn’t Piper need to look like a… princess, too? Doesn’t Billie?”
Annoyance flickers over his face, and I latch onto it, because that’s the male I know. The one who is imperious, and not in a fun way. The one who acts like the rest of us are just here for his amusement, and like his power gives him the right to treat us all as lesser beings.
I scowl at his back, and he passes me a soft towel, which I immediately put over my nakedness.
“You raise a valid point,” he finally says, then pulls his sodden pants off. His cock springs free and I turn away, all too aware of the fact he’s seen every inch of me naked.
What was I thinking? I thought I could… just make a deal with him, and that ridiculous need to fuck him would go away? I’ve just made everything worse.
I’m so distracted by trying to scrub the image of his massive, hard dick from my brain that it takes me way too long to figure out what he’s said to me.
“What?”
“You are right,” he says easily, and when I chance a glance back over at him, he’s toweling off the rest of his body.
“I am?”
The look he gives me is quizzical and amused. He shouldn’t be so handsome. It should be illegal to look like that and be muscled and have friggin’ superpowers, too.
Oh, and he’s royalty.
No wonder he’s a massive asshat. Most of the time. I twist my mouth to the side. Usually.
“You are correct,” he agrees on a sigh. “The other women should know how to properly prepare themselves for today, too. I trusted Lyko and Ayro to clue them in, but perhaps I was wrong to assume my brothers remember anything about the females of our species.” He frowns, his eyes dull and dark again.
This whole morning has been weird, and I have a headache returning around my eyes.
“Why wouldn’t they remember when you do?”
The counter makes an odd sound as he grips it, his knuckles whitening beneath the grey.
“Because I was old enough to remember our mother. To remember what they did to her. They were too young to.” His voice is even, calm. Deceptively so, considering when he leaves the bathroom, there are melted handprints on the metal countertop.
I stare at the door he disappeared through.
What the hell happened to his mother?
I’m not sure I want to know.
But seeing as how I’m stepping into her shoes as the first human female royal, fake or not… I probably should make it my goal to find out.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LEIGH
Nydo’s all but disappeared, and I quickly toss the bed sheets that smell like sex into the sterilizer, finding fresh bedding and remaking it with military precision earned fair and square after my years with the Federation. It’s kind of nice, actually, the routine, the familiar thrum of the deep-space engine… as long as I systematically forget the fact I’m on a Roth ship and that the Roth King fucked the daylights out of me with his mouth and hand alone.
The door hisses open and I jerk up guiltily, patting the pillow.
Nothing to see here!
“Hey,” Billie says, lugging a tote, her muscles bulging at the effort.
“What’s in that?” I ask, foregoing a greeting.
“All the stuff you had sent back to the ship for the three of us,” Piper announces, filing in behind her with another tote, although this one doesn’t seem to be as heavy, seeing as how she’s beaming and as fairy-princess as always. We used to tease Piper that she was a total princess, until she told us she actually had played a princess at a theme park during the summer before the Roth invaded.
I swallow hard, the stakes running through my mind.
And now we’re all playing at it.
“You don’t look good,” Billie informs me. She tosses the crate on the bed, and it leaves an indentation.
Piper frowns at me. “It smells like sex in here,” she says, cocking an eyebrow. “Are you still having hormone issues?” Her tone is sympathetic, and I breathe a covert sigh of relief.
“Yep. Way to make it awkward,” I say.
“Nydo sent us in here so we could all get ready together.” Billie rubs her hands together. “Can’t say I’ve ever gotten all dressed up for a mission before.”
I choke on a laugh, and Piper and Billie cast me concerned looks.
“What?” Billie says, her brow furrowed in suspicion. “Something’s wrong, and it’s not your weird masturbation practices or your concussion. You’re worried.”
“Yeah, I absolutely am. Do we have any real idea what we’re walking into?”
“What do you mean?” Piper asks slowly. “I thought we were just going to see some Roth.”
“Yeah, but… I don’t know.” I brush my hair off my forehead, and a little thrill goes through me as I remember how Nydo raked his fingers through it. “He hinted that something bad happened to his mom, and we have to ‘dress the part’, and I just… we don’t know anything about how women in their culture are treated. The Suevans worshipped the ground their wives walked on, but what if the Roth are totally backward or, like, want to collar us or something?”
“We’re just here until we can get back to Earth,” Billie says, but it doesn’t sound like she believes herself, either.
Piper’s mouth pinches, and she runs her fingers through her long, blonde hair. “I trust Lyko,” she finally says.
I gape at her.
Billie looks between us, then throws up her hands.
“What do you mean you trust Lyko? You barely know him.” I frown at her, pacing in front of the door. “And it’s Nydo we should be worried about.” My face heats and my pussy tingles at the mere mention of his stupid name. “He’s… super-powered.”