The warmth of the fine mist from the shower felt good across his shoulders. He chuckled when he thought of Lina’s insistence that he go ahead first. He could hear her talking to Gail in the other room.

The older woman had delivered a tray of food, complete with the ‘miracle water’ as Lina liked to call it. The combination of food and the nutrient enriched water had gone a long way to restoring his strength. Now that his body was free of the drugs, he could feel his energy returning.

He turned around in the shower when he heard Lina thank Gail and the door to their cabin open and close. A moment later, she stood in the doorway to the cleansing room. He brushed his wet hair back from his face. Her sparkling eyes followed the movement before sliding down over his body.

“Join me,” he encouraged.

A hint of a smile curved her lips. “Good things will happen if I do,” she warned with a smile before her expression changed to one of concern. “How are you feeling?”

His gaze moved over her. “Why don’t you come find out?” he suggested.

Her laughter filled the room. “You really have been around us gals too long,” she retorted.

He watched as she reached down and pulled her black shirt over her head. Heat filled him when he saw the lacy, black bra. She didn’t remove it immediately, instead her hands slid down her stomach to the waist of her pants. She unfastened them and pushed them down. She had removed her boots earlier, so there was nothing stopping her from kicking off the pants.

Clad only in black panties and bra, she took her time removing these last two items. He feasted his gaze on the pale twin mounds of her breasts, but his mouth watered for what lay hidden by the dark brown curls between her legs. His body, rested and rejuvenated, throbbed with desire.

The dark bands of his Amate mark around her wrists filled him with pride. He slid the door open when she walked forward. She stepped into the enclosure and the door slid shut behind her.

“I love you, Lina. You are truly my goddess,” he murmured, burying his hands in her hair and kissing her.

Pleasure coursed through him when her lips parted under his. Her hands caressed his body, moving from his hips, up to his chest, over his shoulders, and back down his sides as if she was memorizing him. His buttocks tightened when her hands cupped them. Her tongue tangled with his even as his cock throbbed between them.

He broke off the kiss and looked at her with burning desire. He wanted to feel her lips wrapped around his cock before he buried himself inside her. Wrapping his hands in her hair, he shuddered when she grasped his cock with both hands.

“We don’t have much time before you’re supposed to meet with Jag. I guess we’ll have to make this hard and fast,” she said, tilting her head to the side.

He rocked his hips back and forth as she caressed him. The combination of tight squeezes and fast stroking mixed with a slower, even rhythm made his cock swell in her hand. He agreed that it should be hard, but maybe not quite so fast. He reached down and wrapped his fingers around her wrists.

“This time, it is my turn to take care of you,” he said in a deep voice filled with emotion.

Pulling her hands away from his body, he gently turned her. Lifting her hands, he placed them against the opposite wall. He swiped his hand over the cleansing foam option. The mist changed to a light blue.

Starting at her shoulders, he followed the light blue trail of foam bubbles running down her back. He gently massaged her skin, noting the scars on her back for the first time. He’d seen the small round one before and knew what it was from—she had been shot with a human weapon.

“How did this happen?” he demanded, brushing his thumb over the scar.

Lina bent her head. “I was on a patrol and we took some fire. Never did find out who it was. Kali Parks, Destin’s sister, saw them before I did. If she hadn’t grabbed me when she did, I’d have been dead. She stopped the bleeding, called in for help, and Doc patched me up. Luckily, it didn’t do much more than hurt like a son-of-a-bitch,” she said.

“And this one,” he asked, running his finger over a long thin scar that ran along her right shoulder blade.

“Rebar. I didn’t duck low enough trying to hide from a group of Trivators,” she said. “That one took twenty-two stitches and almost got us caught. You guys have a great sense of smell. Thankfully for us, some other bozo decided to use the Trivators for target practice and they changed course.”

“You should never have been placed in such danger,” he said before he continued washing her.

Lina uttered a short, tense laugh and shook her head. “My life wasn’t all that dangerous until your people came to our world,” she murmured.

Edge could hear the change in her voice. He slid his hands around her and gently turned her in his arms. He glanced down at her, but she avoided looking in his eyes.

“Tell me,” he quietly ordered.

She shook her head. Lifting his hand, he changed the cleansing foam to a rinse. Cupping her chin, he tilted her head back and looked deeply into her eyes.

“Tell me… please,” he requested.

Her lips parted. He could see the emotion welling up in her eyes. Caressing her cheek with his thumb, he waited.

“I saw you before… back on Earth,” she said, shocking him.

“When? Where? I would have remembered if we had met,” he swore, trying to understand how he could have met her and not remembered it.

“We never met,” she said with a shake of her head. “I would like to get out of the shower.”

He watched in confusion as she opened the door and stepped out. She ignored the body dryer, and instead grabbed a towel from the shelf and quickly dried off. He turned off the shower and stepped out onto the drying vent. With haunted eyes, she finger combed her hair and stared at him through the mirror before she wrapped the towel around her body and disappeared into the other room.

He impatiently waited until he was dry before he strode into the other room. Lina was sitting on the bed, staring out of the window into space. Walking over to the bed, he sat down beside her and waited for her to speak.

“You were on Earth not long after the first wave of Trivators came,” she began.

“Yes, I did three tours on your world. The first one ten years ago,” he admitted, still puzzled.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. He saw her fingers nervously twisting the material of the bath towel. Reaching out, he covered her hand with his.

“Mirela and Mechelle didn’t recognize you, but I did. Some call it a gift, others a curse, but I never forget a face,” she said with a bitter snort.

He could see that this was difficult but very important to her. “I… don’t remember much except for a few of the patrols and some of the people I met,” he confessed. He’d been to many places and had done a lot of things over the years. He had vague memories, but nothing that he could connect with Lina.

Lina’s fingers stilled and she breathed deeply. He could practically feel her tension. She released her nervous grip on the towel and wrapped her arms around her waist as if to protect herself.

“Do you remember a shootout in Chicago? It was dark and there were… there were four men and a woman,” she whispered.

Edge frowned. He’d been on patrol with Blade and Sniper. The biggest reason he remembered the incident was because a woman was killed. It had bothered all three of them, and he had talked to one of the Trivator counselors in order to understand his guilt for not protecting her.

“Yes. We were ambushed. A human called for help and we responded. When we reached them, they opened fire on us,” he said.

Lina violently shook her head and scooted off the bed. She walked over to the window, and stood there with her fist pressed to her mouth. In the reflection of the window, he could see the tears in her eyes.

Concerned, he stood up and walked over to stand behind her. She stiffened when he placed his hands on her bare shoulders, but she didn’t pull away from him. He could feel her trembling.

“Tell me, please,” he begged, pulling her back against his body and wrapping his arms around her.

“They weren’t… He didn’t….” She uttered a choked sob and paused. “Leon loved to explore at night. His favorite… his favorite place to go was the Alder Observatory by the river. At night we could see the spaceships in orbit. He dreamed… he dreamed of going to the stars. He talked about us going together,” she choked out.

Dread filled him as she spoke. They hadn’t planned to kill the humans, just wound them and then take them into custody, but that didn’t change the fact that they had all died.

“Which one was he?” he asked.

“We were in one of the downtown parking garages. Leon saw a group of Trivators on patrol and we were waiting for them to move on. Three men and a woman took us by surprise while we were hiding. They… they planned to….” She shook her head and looked up to stare out of the window again. “Leon knew if he yelled for help, the Trivators on patrol would probably hear it and come to see what was going on. We used the opportunity to escape. We thought we might have a better chance if we ran toward you. The worst that might happen is we would get caught and maybe sent to the base. That would be preferable to what would have happened if we hadn’t done anything. We made it several blocks before I stepped on a loose piece of concrete and twisted my ankle. I couldn’t walk, much less run. Leon told me to hide under a truck, and he would lead them away with the hope that the patrol would come to his aid,” she explained in a voice suddenly devoid of emotion.

“We came, and they opened fire on us,” Edge remembered.

“Yes,” she replied.

“There was one male, he struggled with the woman,” he said.

Lina nodded. “She shot Leon several times. I didn’t know that at first. I heard a lot of gunfire and laser blasts. Everything happened so quickly and then it was over. I saw you… I saw you step out of the shadows. You walked over and stood over Leon for several seconds before you bent down and turned him over. I heard you say he was dead,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you had killed him.”

“Lina,” he murmured, turning her in his arms.

She refused to look up at him. He lifted his hands and cupped her face. Silent tears slid down her cheeks. He brushed them away and pulled her, unresisting, into his arms. Holding her tightly against his chest, he soothingly ran his hand up and down her back.

“We didn’t want to harm any of them,” he promised. “They were shooting at us, and we had no choice. Sniper shot your Leon in the shoulder. It was the woman who killed him.”

“I know. Doc told me. I had no one to hate but you. The woman was dead. I told myself that if you… that if the Trivators hadn’t come, then none of this would have happened and Leon would still be alive. I didn’t want to feel anything but hatred. I needed someone to focus that hatred on—and that someone was you,” she confessed, looking up at him with such despair in her eyes that it made him groan.

“Yet, you wear my mark,” he said, releasing her cheek and reaching down to lift her wrist up so he could press a kiss to it. “You accepted my claim.”

Tears clouded her beautiful brown eyes. “I never wanted to love anyone again, and then I met you. I swore the Fates were laughing at me when I realized which Trivator the Waxian held. I wanted to leave you, but we needed you. I wanted to hate you, but….” She tried to look away, but he refused to release her chin.

“But…,” he murmured.

She tilted her chin in defiance. “But then I started to get to know you. You were so damn stubborn and wouldn’t give up,” she said.

He shook his head. “I told you to leave me,” he reminded her.

A rueful grin curved her lips. “Yes, you did, but only to protect us. Then, you closed your eyes and gave me your trust. I honestly don’t know of another single person in the entire universe who would have done that on a narrow plank five stories high,” she confessed.

“You threatened to knock me out,” he teased.

“It wouldn’t have been that hard to do it,” she said with a strained laugh. “You make me laugh.”

“You sang to me,” he said.

She bit her lip and leaned forward to rest her head against his bare chest. “I love you, Edge. I was terrified when Bailey said you were dying. You make me want more out of life,” she quietly said, her voice catching on a sob. “You make me believe that love can be worth the risk.”

“Ah, my little goddess, you are the one who makes me believe. I love you, Lina. I have since you ordered me not to fucking die on you,” he murmured, rubbing his chin against her hair.

“Really?” she sniffed.

“Really,” he promised with a deep chuckle.

She leaned her head back and looked up at him. “How much time do we have before you have to meet Jag?” she asked, sliding her hands up his chest.

“As long as we want,” he vowed, bending over and picking her up in his arms.

He turned around and walked back to their bed. Laying Lina gently on the soft covers, he opened the towel covering her. Placing one knee on the bed, he leaned forward and captured her right nipple in his mouth. Her loud gasp filled the air as he sucked on the hard pebble.

He made a path down her stomach, brushing soft kisses along her ribs before reaching her hips. He slid between her legs when she opened them for him. Spreading her soft folds, he exposed the tiny nub that brought her so much pleasure. At the first swipe of his tongue, he knew a flame was ignited inside Lina.

“My Amate, today I will show you how much I love you,” he murmured.

* * *

Lina’s breath caught in her throat. A rush of feelings swept through her. Every time he touched her, she felt like she was on fire. Spreading her legs farther apart, she lifted her hands to her breasts and played with them while he tortured her clit.

“Yes. Oh, Edge, yes!” she hissed, wanting more.

Liquid heat pooled inside her and prepared the way for his fingers. She cried out when he added a third finger, stroking her while at the same time torturing her clit with his tongue and teeth until she was panting. She stiffened when the first wave of her climax hit her.

She groaned when he released her. She started to open her arms, expecting him to move up her body so he could enter her. Instead, he sat up and rolled her over until she was on her belly.

“On your knees,” he ordered, a slightly desperate note in his voice.

Still throbbing from her climax, Lina rose to her knees. He leaned forward and gripped her hip with one hand. Looking over her shoulder, she saw his hand holding his cock ready to enter her. Her eyes moved up to lock with his heated gaze.

“I want to take you hard,” he warned through gritted teeth.

“I love it hard,” she replied with a raised eyebrow. “Let me feel you, Edge.”

She got her wish. His thick, bulbous head pressed against her swollen labia. He was so aroused that she wasn’t sure he would fit at first. A guttural moan escaped her when he pushed forward, impaling her on his thick shaft. He gave her body a moment to adjust to him before he began moving.

Lina swore she could feel each stroke as if it were magnified. His cock, completely wet from her orgasm and his precum, slid along the sensitive walls of her channel. Shaking her head, she fought against another orgasm, unsure she could handle it.

Edge felt her stiffen. He released her hips in favor of her breasts and leaned over her body. The position pushed him even deeper inside her. Lina was ready to scream as he began driving into her with a force that took her breath away. She decided he must have been holding back before or the drugs must have had some impact on him because she didn’t remember him being quite so large.

The sound of their flesh smacking together drove her wild. Hot liquid coated his cock with her arousal, and she went over the precipice, locking down on him as she came again, this time harder than the first time. Her arms began to tremble, and she collapsed on the bed. She bowed her head with her ass still in the air.

Edge released her breasts to grip her hips again. She knew he was watching his cock as it slid in and out of her. It was growing larger as the blood flowed into it. The feel of his cock as he pulled it out to the tip and pushed it back inside sent her spiraling out of control.

“Edge!” she harshly cried out, gripping the covers in her hands.

“Yes, yes, yes!!!” he groaned, jerking twice before he stiffened and held her hips in a fierce, bruising grip while his cock pulsed inside her. “Oh, my goddess.”

Pulsing wave after pulsing wave locked them together. Tears burned her eyes when he leaned forward again and wrapped one strong arm around her waist. She could feel his lips against her shoulder.

“I love you, Edge,” she said in a soft, rough voice.

“Not as much as I love you, my beautiful Amate,” he murmured, easing them down onto the bed.