“Yes,” I breathe.
He doesn’t move though, not yet. Instead, he stares down at me, his gaze full of wonder. He raises one hand up, tracing a finger across my jawbone.
“I must be the luckiest male alive, to have one such as you.”
My heart skips, and I smile up at him. I’m about to say something else, when he moves, and any rational thoughts disappear.
Oh. My. God.
The bumps. The vibrating. My hands fly to his hips, and my eyes roll back in my head. So much sensation.
So good. My body quakes, and I raise my hips to meet each thrust. He’s so tall that my head’s at his chest, but he curls down, kissing me softly and staring into my eyes as he picks up the pace.
“Feels so good,” I say, completely lost in the overwhelming surge of feeling. I wrap my arms around his waist, running my fingernails down his back, savoring every muscle, every ripple of power.
“You are everything,” he groans, “everything. You are mine, do you understand me?”
“I understand,” I whine, his xof driving me higher and higher.
“Tell me you’re mine,” he demands, his pace savage and fast.
I wrap my legs around him, nudging my feet into him, so close again I’m nearly out of my mind with pleasure. “Yours, Kanuz, yours.”
“My princess,” he says, and the words are victorious.
When he kisses me again though, it’s tender and soft, and it doesn’t feel like a loss, not at all.
I fall apart with a cry as his tongue sweeps across mine, his fingers tweaking my nipple as I shudder beneath him.
He comes a moment later with a brutal thrust, and I can feel it—his cum hot, searing through me.
I cry out again, the feeling winding me tight and loose all over again.
Finally, I slump, my legs quaking, and he pulls me tight against him.
“Now sleep, Princess.” His fingers comb through my hair, and for once, I don’t have a comeback. It’s all too easy to fall asleep in his arms, safe, the Suevan sky overhead.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
KANUZ
I have never felt so whole in my life, as I do with this delicate golden female slumbering beside me. I hardly dare take breath, too afraid of disturbing her.
All I want is to watch her sleep, watch the delicate fluttering of her eyelids, the lax shape of her addictive mouth. The plump curves of her breasts and the muscled thighs. One leg’s draped over me, and my cock’s hard again, still inside my sleeping mate.
It feels so fucking good.
Our scents mingle together now, and it heightens my desire for her. I want to mate her, fuck her, until there is only us. No fear scent, nothing but our shared pleasure.
There will never be enough where Gen is involved.
My princess.
My mate.
Finally. Finally. I frown, my gaze wandering past the treasure in my arms to the temple courtyard, overgrown with vegetation.
I do not know what the puzzle will be here, but I do not doubt this place is chock full of challenges. I hope on the asteroids above that the many-faced-goddess will take mercy on my mate and me. I hope that we are through the worst of it.
I long to have her safe and sound and well pleasured in my bed, not sprawled on the ground covered in muck, hungry and exhausted.
This is no way for a princess to be treated.
It is no way to treat a treasure at all.
When the moons are heavy in the sky, I finally close my eyes, somewhat assured that we will find no trouble this night, at least.
My eyes fly open.
Beside me, Gen stirs in her sleep, restless. I pause, frowning. The night is almost over, orange and red breaking across the sky as the sun blazes into view. A bush rustles nearby, and I tense, on high alert, only to relax again as a bird flies from the brush.
Gen cries out next to me, her feet slamming into my shins.
“No, don’t,” she pants, the words thick with sleep. Her fingers move, all her muscles twitching. “I can’t. Don’t.”
“Gen,” I say, shaking her shoulder, alarmed.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” she screams, her eyes squeezed tight.
“Gen, my princess, it’s Kanuz. You’re safe.” I wince. Safe enough, at the moment. “Wake up.”
She inhales deeply, her bare chest heaving. Slowly, her muscles calm, and her eyes blink open.
“What’s wrong?” she asks blearily.
“You were having a bad dream,” I tell her, pulling her closer to me, now that I’m not worried she’ll kick me in the xof.
“I was,” she says, her face falling, her gaze going distant. “I was dreaming about the invasion.” Her breath hiccups. “Did I wake you? I’m sorry.”
“No,” I tell her, nuzzling the nape of her neck, drinking her in. “Do not apologize.”
She snuggles closer, throwing an arm over my neck. I like her like this—sleepy and loose-limbed, soft and sweet. I like her in all moods. She’s a summer day, golden sunshine and humor, hot sun and passion, a sudden storm breaking in the afternoon, the warm night holding close in a dark embrace.
“Do your dreams trouble you often?” I ask her, worried. Worried, and furious at the Roth, for all my impotent wrath will do to help her now. If I see another Roth ever again, I’ll rip their spine out and give it to her as a gift.
“I mean, it’s not a big deal,” she says softly, her voice already thick with sleep again. I have run my poor mate ragged.
“It is to me.” I smooth her hair away from her face, luxuriating in her presence.
“It’s over. It’s over,” she repeats, and I wonder if she’s telling me, or if she’s simply reassuring herself.
I hate them even more for what they did to her, and for what they did to her people. What they did to Suevans and the other species at our settlements was terrible, but we had the technology and numbers to repel them.
The humans were sorely outclassed.
And here is the outcome of it: my sweet Gen, lax with sleep beside me, sold into our marriage by a government who would do anything to stop the Roth from attacking again.
At least I know our shipment is well on its way to Earth.
“I will not allow it to happen again, my love,” I tell her, holding her tighter.
She sighs against me.
“I vow it on the goddess herself. I will not allow the Roth to ravage another planet like they did Earth.”
A flock of birds flings itself into the dawn sky, silhouetted black against the rising sun.
I tuck my Gen under my chin and watch them fly, wishing we could sprout wings and do the same, so that my female could be safe.
I cannot fail her again. I cannot be the reason she wakes in the night, screaming her fears into the dark.
I will not allow it.
Sleep finally claims me again, but it’s restless despite the blessed female in my arms.
When we wake again, the sun’s hot in the sky above.
Gen stretches long, yawning and blinking. A sheen of sweat dots her brow, and she sits up slowly, rubbing her neck.
“Why are you staring at me?” she asks, shoving my shoulder playfully. At least, I think it’s playful. Maybe it is a hard shove for her.
“Because you are the most miraculous thing I have ever seen.”
Her cheeks flush pink, and a low growl slips out of my throat. “When you turn that color, it makes me ravenous for you. For all your parts that are that same color.”