Ty couldn’t stop touching Dorsey. It started innocently enough, a brush of their hands in the transport. That led to a lacing of the fingers and the tracing of his thumb over the delicate skin on her wrist. She shivered, but she didn’t want him to stop. Especially when she tightened her hand on his.

He barely paid attention as they made it back to the fortress, the vehicle’s navigation doing the job of finding them a place to park. And then they were out in the open and he could pull her close and conquer her mouth. Only a quick taste for the moment. This was between them—the prying eyes of Nina’s agents could go eat a slice of Jaaxian picklefruit for all he cared.

So Ty forced himself to pull back, but the grin on his face when he saw Dorsey’s dazed eyes might have gotten him slapped under other circumstances. He cupped her cheek and ran his thumb over the sharp bone there. “You’re mine, Dorsey Kwan.” There was no backing out anymore. There never had been, not since the moment they met.

She clamped a hand down on his wrist and squeezed. “Are we going to just stand around all day?”

He wanted to sweep her up into his arms and run. Even with her delectable curves, it would hardly be a strain to carry her up the stairs. But the more attention they attracted, the longer it would take him to have her undressed, his cock buried deep inside her.

When the door to their room loomed before him, he cursed the gods and scooped her up, running the final steps, delighted by the excited shriek she gave. Only when they were alone at last, the door locked behind them and the rest of the world shut out, did he set her down.

Her face only came up to his shoulder, though her curly hair gave her another few centimeters. Her brown skin glowed golden in the yellow light of the lamp and her lips begged to be kissed.

“What?” she asked. He couldn’t pull his gaze away. He never wanted to stop looking at her.

“You seem so much bigger when you’re not standing right here.” He circled his arms around her waist and pulled her close. She was wedged between his hard body and the thick wood of the door.

Dorsey tipped her head back and laughed, the sound echoing. “I don’t think that counts as a compliment.” But she didn’t stop smiling when she said it.

Ty traced his fingers along her cheek again, reveling in the soft give of her skin. Detyen skin was tougher, made to survive naked on the high plains of their lost planet. Not quite scales, but perhaps once, long ago, they’d had the feature. Next to him, Dorsey was all softness and life, everything about her comforting and right, just perfect. “You’re larger than life,” he explained. “Like one of the dancers of Haal Krae.”

Her face scrunched up in confusion. “Where?”

“A planet far from here. The dancers cast their shadows out and appear dozens of meters tall. But when the show ends, they reveal that they are all barely taller than my chest. It is their art and their magic, like you.”

“I don’t have any magic,” she protested.

“Is that so?” he whispered as he laid kisses against her jaw and up around the edge of her ear, biting and pulling very gently with his teeth. “You have me ensorcelled.” He could feel the bond thrumming between them, growing stronger by the second. It was no longer a mere thread, liable to snap. Now it was a strong tether, binding them and supporting them. He placed his hand over her heart. “Do you feel it?” he asked.

Dorsey gasped as his fingers grazed the underside of her breast. “What…?”

“We are one, my denya. And I plan to keep you.” He swallowed her next words, not because he thought she would reject him, but because he could not go another moment without her taste on his lips. Then Dorsey was pulling him closer, rising on her toes so that he didn’t need to stoop down.

He scooped her up and strode across the room, setting her gently down on his soft mattress. He’d never been gladder for the accommodations than he was at this moment. This would be no hurried coupling in a cockpit, and even if they’d tried, the cots on their stolen ship would have required a lot of flexibility to make love properly.

Tonight he would worship her.

Ty climbed on top of Dorsey, spreading his legs over her hips, his hands still wrapped around her, pinned under her back. Though he was on top, he was under her power, unable to move unless she let him. He could try to pull away, but he wouldn’t risk jerking back and hurting her. Never his denya.

She rolled to the side and he pulled his arm free, taking the other back when she moved again. But they never broke apart. He’d been waiting for this, dreaming of it since he first laid eyes on her. She lived within his heart now and Ty could not imagine sex without her. He was hers completely.

With his newly freed hands, he worked on the edges of her top, unflicking the buttons and revealing her stomach centimeter by tantalizing centimeter. Her skin here was even softer than that of her hands, but with an underlying layer of muscle that flexed under his touch. She gasped softly as he glided his hands down her sides, caressing sensitive flesh.

“Tell me what you like,” he said. In the few minutes he’d had alone, he’d taken time to study human erogenous zones, which were similar to those of Detyens. But a manual could only take him so far. He needed his lover, his mate, to tell him what she needed, to show him what she loved.

“You,” she said, “I like you.” She gazed back at him, her eyes soft and brown and so inviting that he dipped down again to kiss her. It was better than breathing. Who needed air when he could have her?

With a quick flick of his claws, lightning fast and retracted before she could react, he sliced her top the rest of the way off. This way she didn’t need to maneuver out of it. This way he got to see her glorious naked body.

“Do you like this?” he asked as he skimmed his fingers up from her navel to right under the swells of her breasts. The flesh on her breasts tightened, nipples stiffening to peaks as he played with her.

“Yes,” she said, holding still. Tension coiled within her and he could sense she was holding onto control by a thin leash. But she let him explore.

He cupped her breast, playing with her nipples, changing his actions from the little movements and facial expressions she gave him. She liked when he played a little rough, but didn’t want it to hurt. And when he was pressing hard enough against her, she clamped her hand over his and showed him.

He shifted himself, sliding back just a little and wedging one leg in between hers. He dug down until he could feel the heat of her through his pants, his erection pressing gently against her abdomen. It was a tortuous mix of pleasure and pain, so close to salvation and yet so far away.

But right now was about her, and Ty would gladly take the punishment if only for the look in Dorsey’s eyes.

He placed his lips over one nipple and sucked, rolling his tongue around her bud and tasting her flesh. This she liked, a loud moan tumbling out of her throat as she clutched his head to her. Her hips ground down on his leg and Ty hitched himself up enough to give her more of the pressure and pleasure she needed. She wasn’t leaving this bed until she was completely marked and bound by him, tied to his touch.

As he would be to hers.

But she only needed one hand to hold him in place and her fingers had a mind of their own. He felt her brush up against the seam of his pants and groaned against her. And when her hand brushed up against him, he stiffened. Well, stiffened even more.

She couldn’t get a good hold on him through the fabric, which was the only thing that saved him from spilling right then. Ty pulled his head back, knowing his eyes glowed red with passion. If she was coherent enough to touch him, he was not doing his job.

His claws sprang out and sliced down the sides of her pants, making them as easy to swipe away as gauze. He kissed his way down her stomach, over the swell of her abdomen and around the small collection of curls covering her sex. He licked his way down, too, tasting the salt of her skin, the purely feminine scent that intoxicated him.

“You don’t have to—” She cut herself off when he flicked his gaze up.

“Would you deny me this pleasure, denya?” He knew he should explain what she was to him, but that could come later. What did words matter now? This, action, was the only real thing.

“Why do you keep calling me that?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.

“Because you’re mine and I am yours.” Seated at the apex of her legs, that was the only coherence he could manage. “And I would love you, if you let me.”

A smile cracked her lips. “Well, if you insist.”

Stars above, he insisted.

The first taste of her was pure divinity. He breathed her in, her scent and taste becoming his everything. She gasped, choking out a pleasured cry, and writhed against him. Her skin was silk and heat. Ty’s own cock pounded, the taste of her the strongest aphrodisiac. His fingers sank into her depths as his tongue swirled around the nub at the seat of her sex.

This, he’d realized, was the source of her pleasure. And he put his full effort into coaxing that little point out until Dorsey bucked against him, her cries hoarse and begging him for more. He teased her, his fingers plunging in and out of her wetness, until she stiffened against him and shuddered, her sex rippling with orgasm.

He kissed his way back up, stopping just long enough to worship her breaths once more, and then as he took her lips, he settled himself between her thighs, his cock hard against the entrance to her pussy.

Her eyes were intent on his, the brown so dark it was almost black. Ty saw his own desires revealed within Dorsey’s depths. The bond between them was fully formed and vibrating from the connection, hot and full and consuming.

They were in a place beyond words. Their actions and their sounds were language enough.

Dorsey reached between them and stroked his cock, her delicate fingers a vise around him. Ty’s hand fisted in her hair, his mouth devouring hers as she guided him to her entrance.

And then he was easing himself inside of her, the tip of his cock hot inside the wet heat of her pussy. Dorsey’s fingers dug into his shoulders, her nails leaving dents, marking him with her passion.

Ty’s own claws wanted to spring out, not to hurt, never to hurt her. But he was no green boy and he kept that one bit of himself under control.

He meant to go slow, to give her the loving that she so richly deserved. And then Dorsey moaned, loud and deep, and moved her hips against his, drawing him deeper into her.

The beast within him unleashed, and he drove deep, taking complete control. Ty grabbed one of Dorsey’s hands and pinned it above them, all the while moving in and out, marking her as his. His teeth ached and his primal instincts beat at him, driving him to take her in the old way and show everyone that she was his own.

His world narrowed until the only thing that existed was Dorsey and her sweet, sweet sex. Her breath came in uneven pants, and she struggled a little against his hold, not fighting him, but moving purely on instinct.

And with that beautiful cry of hers, she came, convulsing around him.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Ty reached forward and sank his teeth into her shoulder, marking her irrevocably as he emptied himself inside of her, his pleasure wrung dry.

When he could think enough to pull back, he saw the mark and a thrill of pride rang through him. Dorsey was his denya now, properly marked and claimed.