Then it might be the best idea I’ve ever had.
“I can make you come without even touching you.”
“Yeah, okay.” She rolls her green eyes, and there’s a hint of a sardonic smile on her face.
I concentrate, sending a ripple of my power to her, brushing it over her arm, the side of her neck, where that vein pulses against her fair, translucent skin.
Her eyes grow wide. “What the fuck?”
I inhale, closing my eyes briefly, reveling in the fresh scent of her arousal. Oh yes, I think I will like this very much.
“That is how I can help you, should you agree to let me call you mine, to call you my mate,” I say.
“Of course there are strings attached.” Her teeth make a horrible sound as she grinds them together.
I feel like the asshole she keeps telling me I am, but I don’t relent. I need to call her mine, and not just because it will help cement my claim that the Roth can and will mate humans successfully… when they are willing.
But because the purely selfish, horrible part of myself wants her to be mine, thoroughly and completely.
CHAPTER SIX
Leigh
Disbelief and desire war inside me. My whole body keys up at Nydo’s touch.
Except, he’s not touching me, not at all. He stands across the room, his eyes glowing embers, his hair crackling with vivid orange energy.
And yet, I can feel him.
Liquid warmth trickles across my arm first, causing goosebumps to pebble all over my body. Then it reaches my jaw, like hot honey, dripping down my neck, my collarbone.
I close my eyes, overwhelmed.
Living for it, for the hot slide of the phantom flames licking across my shoulders, down my spine…
My eyes fly open.
“No.” My voice cracks on the syllable, and Nydo’s eyes stay fixed to me, his touch still on the small of my back.
“But you are enjoying it. I can feel how your body responds.” He sounds confused, but it’s hard to see anything but the otherworldly glow of his eyes, his hair flaming around his shoulders. “Have you not relaxed under my ministrations? Why do you tell me no?”
“I don’t want you to,” I grit out.
The strange, steaming sensation vanishes, and I shiver in the sudden loss of it.
“I meant only to help you.” Nydo blinks, and the orange is replaced by coal-black. “You weep for the need of release, and my… my species did this to you. You are hurting. Why not let me help you? Why not let me repair the wrongs they have done to your body?”
“Because you…” I sputter, trying to form words. I’m already lost though, my body begging for his warmth again, begging for release. “Because I don’t trust you. And I don’t even like you. Now get out.”
His jaw twitches, but it’s not anger that creases his brow.
Not at all.
He seems truly sad.
I blink, but the expression vanishes before I can be entirely sure.
“Where would you have me go?” His voice is a low growl that sets me aflame again, for an entirely different reason. “This is my room. We will land on the Hernus-12 Space Station tomorrow. You must wear my scent if we are to be believed.”
“So dress me in your dirty clothes,” I retort. His room? The fucking audacity of these Roth! “Go sleep in the captain’s chair. I don’t care where you sleep. Not my problem.”
“Perhaps, perhaps you have forgotten,” he says slowly, stalking towards where I sit on the bed. “That there are very, very few females left in the universe. Of any species, thanks to the virus that’s spread like wildfire. Maybe you have forgotten that the station we go to will be full of males. I know that humans’ senses are not nearly as evolved as many species, but they will be able to scent you the moment you walk off this ship.”
I digest that for a moment, staring up at him. He prowls closer, every step graceful, every muscle on his body honed and powerful.
“My scent will protect you. It will keep you safe, and sell the… lie of our mating.”
“Ugh,” I say, but part of me knows he has a point, even if it annoys me. I lick my lips.
“I do not wish for you to be uncomfortable, Leigh.”
Fresh goosebumps emerge at the way he says my name, making it sound like a song on his lips. I stare up at him, confused by how I feel.
I want.
But I don’t want him, dammit.
“I do not wish to make you cry,” he continues. “But I need you to be safe, and the best way to do that, the only way to do that, is to coat you so heavily in my scent that no one dares bother you. Besides…” He tilts his head at me, his now blue-black hair falling across his shoulders. “We must begin exchanging our scents now, to ensure it is believable for my people when we recruit from the settlements. Mating would help that along.” A heated smile turns his lips up, his glimmering eyes near gloating at the trap he’s set for me.
Fuck this guy.
“I’m not mating you, not now, not ever.”
His eyes blaze orange, and I swallow hard, flinching. Nydo’s expression falls, and a swift pang goes through me, followed by confusion, then anger.
“You can’t manipulate emotions, right?” I ask slowly.
“Only energy.” He shakes his head, and a cascade of sparks fly from his hair. “Why? Are you feeling… differently?”
“Just making sure,” I say, altogether too quickly to be believable.
Why am I feeling sorry for him? What the fuck is wrong with me?
“I was not asking you to fuck me,” he says casually, brushing a loose strand from his handsome face. Gah. Why are the hot ones always assholes? Every damn time. “I was asking you to wear my scent.”
“So spritz me in cologne, you weirdo,” I say, narrowing my eyes at him. I stand up, feeling defiant and mad, my hands fisting at my sides… only to come face-to-face with Nydo’s wall of abs. They’re spectacular, even through the thin shirt he wears.
Ugh!
I flop back onto the bed.
“I do not know what cologne is. But I do not think I should spray you with fluids. I don’t think you would like that, either.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I cradle my head in my hands.
“Do humans joke about fluids often?” Nydo asks, his confusion unfeigned.
I stare at the ceiling, at a loss for words. Funny how a minute ago I was all hot and bothered, and now I’m just bothered.
“Nydo, I have to say, you are doing a great job of relieving that itch, just by being yourself.”
“I do not think that is the compliment I would like it to be,” he mutters.
I bark out a laugh, surprising both of us. His eyes flick to me, wide with surprise, then a small smile dances across his mouth.
It makes him even more handsome.
“So… you say wearing your…” I scrunch my nose up, forcing the words out, “scent will keep me safe on Hernus-12 tomorrow?”
He nods.
“And how, besides… mating,” I throw air quotes around the word, “or, god help me, fluids, do you suggest we do that?”
He doesn’t answer. Instead, he strips off his shirt, tugging it over his head.
And I am treated to a view of what, exactly, is under that training gear. I mean, I knew his body was fabulous, there’s only so much a shirt can do to hide it, but…
My mind shudders to a stop, my mouth gone dry. Holy guacamole. The hormones come flooding back, and I can’t stop staring. His torso is covered in the same velvety soft down as the rest of his body, and even though the grey color of his skin is somewhat disconcerting, he is, without a doubt, the most incredible being I have ever seen in my entire life.