Elation and horror warred within Penny as Krayter’s words sank in. You’re mine. My mate. She wanted to run, but he was between her and the door. She wanted to scream, but feared that one of her mother’s people might do something drastic.

And then she wanted to tug him down to the bed and do exactly what she’d already asked him. Make love to him until morning, until she couldn’t walk.

But she didn’t do any of that. Her face was a slab of marble, blank and cold. She’d learned the trick of remaining expressionless at a young age and it was paying dividends now. She opened her mouth and almost told him that this was some kind of mistake, that he’d confused her with another girl. But his eyes flared that demonic red of high emotion and he looked at her with such intensity that it was like sitting in front of a roaring fire.

No, he didn’t think he was mistaken.

Her tongue darted out and wet her lips. She blew out a breath and tried to keep her calm. “What does it mean? Why did you tell me before…” Now that this connection—whatever it was—was out in the open, she had trouble saying ‘sex.’

“I wouldn’t let you seal the bond in ignorance.” Krayter held perfectly still and spoke quietly, afraid to spook her. “You have the right to make that decision.” There was a deep well of sadness in him, something she wanted to soothe, but she didn’t know how.

“Seal? As in…” Her eyes flicked over to the bed and then back to him.

He nodded.

“And what does that mean?” Humans didn’t have mates, not like he meant. Most couples she knew didn’t last beyond a few years. The fact that her mother and father had been together for sixteen was almost a miracle.

Krayter furrowed his brow, probably wracking his brain for a way to explain something that was fundamental to his people. “We are more likely to have children than unmated pairs,” he said after a long moment. “And there is a connection between us. Can you feel it?”

Penny nodded once.

“I could not name every effect of the denya bond. But it is sacred to my people. And increasingly rare. Ever since my cousin found his mate, there had been a hope that─” He cut himself off.

“What?” Something wasn’t adding up here, and Penny needed him to keep talking so she could figure it out.

“There is hope now. Hope that we won’t go extinct.”

Because mated pairs had children? Penny’s fingers itched to cover her stomach, whether in defense or anticipation, she wasn’t sure. But she knew that there was no way in hell she was ready for a kid yet. “Why do you need human women?” That sounded like the plot of one of the media shows she wasn’t supposed to like. Every year a new alien appeared to steal away the most beautiful cast member. Of course, nine times out of ten he ended up being the villain. “Aren’t there mates among your people? Women?” She remembered that his planet had been destroyed just in time to stop from asking about it.

“Women are greatly outnumbered. Shortly after the destruction of Detya, our numbers were more equal. But now more males are born and many of our women have perished in the intervening years.”

“How do you know that I’m your mate?” The longer the idea sat within her, the more comfortable with it she became. Not accepting, not exactly… not yet. But she wasn’t running.

“I recognized you the first moment I saw you. It is instinctual.” He was watching her closely as he confessed, just waiting for her to turn on him.

But she understood. She’d felt it too. Still, he’d thrown enough bombshells for tonight. “I think I should go.” Even as she said it, reluctance settled over her like a mantle.

“There’s no need to seal the bond tonight,” he said as he took half a step towards her. He reached out a hand, but snatched it back before it could touch her. “We have time.”

“Time? Is there a limit?” Did this whole denya thing just go away if they waited a month? Would the choice be taken away if she stalled for long enough?

Krayter’s eyes were wide and his mouth hung the slightest bit open. “I simply meant that we are both young. I would never force you into anything. No matter the consequences.”

“If we do… seal the bond,” and that felt weird to say, “what then? Do I…?” She pointed down at her stomach and made a gesture to show it growing. “Or… what does it do? Is it like marriage? More than marriage?” She’d thought she’d had enough, but still the questions came.

“No, children would still be a choice. Sometime in the future. If you wanted them.” It came out fast and choppy. “As for the other. The binding is a binding. We belong to one another, for however long it should last.”

“So no more random space girls?” She smiled. “No dangerous mothers?”

“I only want you.” She’d been trying to joke, but he was dead serious.

They’d known each other for days, and yet Penny felt that same intensity, that same desire. And a large part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind and take him right there, to bind herself to him and see what the future had in store.

But what if he ended up just like one of those aliens in the vids? Standing in front of him, she couldn’t believe it. He was kind, and strong, and gentle. If she’d dreamed up a man, she might have dreamed up him. But she still needed time.

“We’re not having sex tonight,” she said. She needed that to be clear.

“As you wish.” He nodded. “No claiming.”

Penny looked towards the door. “I don’t want to go back to my room.” If she left him, all of her doubts and responsibilities would rush back, leaving her a mess of confusion. She wanted a night to just be… free.

“You don’t need to go back.”

The lights around them dimmed automatically as the house switched from its night setting to the sleep setting. Penny held out a hand. “Lay with me?” she asked. “Hold me?”

Krayter took her hand. “For as long as you want.”

He shouldn’t tell her that. She feared that it would be forever. Feared and hoped.

Krayter’s arms came around her as they laid down, the feeling all at once foreign and familiar. No man had ever held her like this before. And if she accepted him, he would be the only one.

“Put it out of your mind tonight,” Krayter whispered into her ear. “Leave your worries for the morning.”

She liked the sound of that. Penny tugged Krayter’s hand up and kissed the back of it. “If I can’t worry, how will we occupy our time?”

She could hear the heavy sound of his breathing and feel his muscles clench against her. His lips swiped her neck, his breath a hot brand. “I can think of something.”

They’d already said no to sex, but there were a lot of things she knew Krayter could do with those lips of his—and his hands, and his tongue—that weren’t technically sex. And at that moment, Penny was willing to only think about the most technical definition of the act.

“Can you?” she asked, arching her neck and giving him more space. “Like what?” His teeth rasped against the line of her throat and she shivered. He didn’t have fangs, but it was a close thing.

“Let me give you pleasure,” he commanded, his fingers fanning out to stretch from her waist to the underside of her breast. “I want to give you release. I’ve been fantasizing about this since the moment I knew who you were.”

The rational part of her knew that she should walk away right that moment and think things through. But that rational part was a single grain of sand on an entire beach of want. “Yes,” she said. “I want you to.”

In a blur, she was on her back and Krayter was above her, his arms twin bars on either side of her head. His eyes glowed that fiery red and somewhere deep inside of her twisted and clenched in hunger. He was a starved man before a feast. Before her.

“I’ll stop when you tell me to,” he promised. “One word and I’m done. I won’t even—”

She reached up and covered his lips with her fingers. “I trust you. You’ll stop if I tell you to.” But she wasn’t going to stop him. Already, she trusted him too much, knew that he wouldn’t hurt her. And when he said they wouldn’t have sex, he meant it.

He gave her a tilted smile, the expression at odds with his fiery eyes. “Just relax and enjoy this.”

Penny couldn’t relax, not with him straddling her hips and holding her exposed to them. Her clothes might as well have been invisible given the way he looked at her. Every breath she drew in caused her chest to rise and fall, bringing the focus down to her breasts.

Krayter slid one hand down, his fingers tracing the underside of her arm and sending chills across the sensitive flesh. When he got to her hand, he laced their fingers together, the fit tight and perfect. Meant to be.

“I’ve been thinking of ways to get you alone,” he said quietly, still staring at her with that scary intensity that she could grow to love.

“We’re alone now.”

He grinned. “I know.”

She watched his eyes like they were grappling, waiting for his next move, but Krayter held still, letting the tension between them build. Letting her anticipation build until she was squirming under him, her hips arching in want.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” she confessed, feeling a little like a fraud. He looked at her like she’d seduced him.

But Krayter didn’t seem to mind. “Then we need to make sure you savor it.” He dipped down and captured her lips, sweeping his tongue in and tangling with her in a lazy kiss. All at once it was like their first and thousandth, the sensations brand new and as comfortable as a soft sweater on a cool night. When he pulled back, Penny tried to sit up with him, but he had her covered and she couldn’t move. “I’m going to take off your top now,” he warned.

Penny nodded, though he hadn’t actually asked if it was alright. She let go of his hand and held her arms up, letting him slide the shirt over her head, doing a bit of a shimmy because she was lying down. Though the sheets bunched up under her, it wasn’t uncomfortable. She hadn’t realized that Krayter’s eyes could get more red, but when he was left with just her bra on, he could have lit fires with his pupils.

He undid the front clasp and slid the cups to the side and Penny shivered. His hand came up to cup her, rough thumb scraping over her sensitive nipple and making her stifle a moan.

“I want to hear you,” he said, a mix of awe and demand in his voice.

“The others…” She spared a thought for everyone else in the house.

“The walls are thick,” he promised, laying a kiss on the side of her neck. “I’m the only one who’ll hear.” He dipped lower and closed his mouth over her nipple, sucking gently and swirling his tongue around.

She couldn’t stifle the moan if she tried, not this time. Penny’s hands came down on Krayter, holding him close to her, hips arched and open, waiting for a joining that she’d never known she could want so much.

Her head was a muddle of sensation and emotion, questions about mating and denyas flying out the window and landing somewhere past the moon. There was no past, no future, not now. Now it was just them.

She whimpered as Krayter pulled back, sweat beading on her brow and her sex almost painfully swollen with want. She clenched her legs together in a desperate attempt to bring herself to the edge, but he moved, kissing his way down her stomach to the waistline of her pants.

His eyes flicked up and she saw that same desperate want in his eyes that wracked her own body. “I’m going to taste you,” he said. “And I want you to give me everything you’ve got.”

For a moment, she didn’t understand. But when he peeled her pants and underwear down, revealing her pleasure damped sex to the night, she knew what he meant. His lips came down on her and her eyes rolled back into her head.

She might have screamed. But as he used those skillful lips and sinful tongue, time dissolved until she was nothing but pleasure, nothing but sensation, and when she shattered, her body convulsed and her legs jerked, leaving her shaky, breathless, and spent, spread out under him.

When can we do that again?

She hadn’t realized that she’d spoken out loud until Krayter’s laughter rumbled between her legs. And then his tongue was on her once more and she forgot how to talk.