“La La?” The rumbling voice drew me from sleep.

I blinked. Thor leaned over me, dressed in his cloak.

I scooted up. “You’re going somewhere?”

“Questing.”

“Oh.” I rubbed the center of my chest. It probably wasn’t the best idea to sleep in this dress. There wasn’t room to breathe. Especially less right now.

He was leaving to get me what I’d asked for…

“Will return to you in half a sun.” He crouched by the bed, his face a wrinkle of concern. “Not need have worry.”

Goddamn . He was too freaking sweet.

I reached out and set a hand on top of the one he rested on the bed. “Thank you, Thor.”

His attention moved to my touch on him, and he seemed to be absorbed in the sight. He lay his other hand over mine.

My chest constricted. He had a way of reacting like every contact between us was a gift.

“Will win third base.” His gaze moved to mine. “Will have touching you.”

My breaths rushed, my head getting light. “I know.”

He stood, and collected his helmet.

I watched him leave. The door groaned. I leaned forward and tugged the laces on the back of the dress twice, hard.

The bodice relaxed and I drew in long lungful’s of air. Except the lightheadedness didn’t let up.

“May we converse?”

I sat up straight. Macca asking permission before invading my brain again? “Yes.”

“Should the Baratican return with the requested pallets, there will only be one more task he can be assigned before you find yourself mated.”

I sagged back down on the bed. “Yes, I’m painfully aware.”

“And yet you gifted him kissing?”

I covered my face with my palms. Oh, god . There was never really privacy with Macca was there? “Haven’t you ever heard of an ice-breaker in negotiations?”

“An ice-breaker?”

“It’s where you concede a small thing in order to position yourself more favorably in requesting a larger thing.” I lowered my hands. Wow, that actually sounded legit. “Like a bazillion nutrition pallets.”

“Then well played.”

I hugged my arms. Played …

“I almost feared you’d succumbed to baser human desires.”

“They’re just chemicals remember?” I rolled out of bed, and collected a change of clothes from the pile.

“Perhaps you are more evolved than I first appreciated…”

I paused, setting the clean clothes down on a dry rock in the water room. What the hell was Macca buttering me up for? “So, am I to take it all emotion is beneath a Crestonian?”

“Don’t be facetious. Crestonians possess deep affection for their offspring, and passionate loyalty to their maternal family line.”

I removed my dress. “So how then, if they don’t succumb to base desires, do they partner?”

“A modest harem of men of compatible species are kept within each ruling family for pleasure or procreation. Otherwise marriages occur with otherworlder’s for political purposes.”

“Men kept for procreation…” I released a snort. Well, there you go. There had to be one planet in the known universe. But Macca’s words continued to roll around in my head. “Do Crestonians only produce female offspring?

“Yes, but—”

“So basically, they are the female version of Baraticans?” I stepped into the pond, the water dredging wonderful heat over my calves.

“Absurd. Most certainly not. Entirely different species.”

“So, what happens if a Crestonian and a Baratican do it?” I maneuvered to where the spring sprayed water out of the wall. “Will it be a girl or boy?”

“Baraticans only produce male semen, it’s always a male—but this is of no consequence, your imagination has distracted you yet again.”

I turned around and rinsed out my hair. Damn, the water felt good here. I shut my eyes and let the heat melt through me. “Then go ahead make whatever point you’ve been working up to, or I’m going to keep getting bored.”

“You must ask the Baratican for a replacement power cell.”

I swiped water out of my face. “What?”

“There will be no need to remain here until the escape pod rejuvenates if we can obtain an entirely new cell.”

I stepped out of the water, and dried myself with the used slip. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t a simple request?”

“ It is not easy, but also not impossible for him to obtain.”

I squeezed out my hair. Somehow naked, I still felt as though I wore that damn corseted dress.

“He would do it for you.”

“I’m not so sure.” I pulled on a clean slip and underwear but didn’t bother with an overdress. “He knows I came here in an escape ship. He’s not stupid, and he won’t do anything he thinks could help me leave.”

“Have you more ice-breakers?”

I swallowed.

Ice-breakers.

What more could I give him that I could afford to part with?

The world turned upside and inside out. I ran through the woods. Rocks sliced my heels. I stumbled but kept going, scrambling through a thicket.

My heart throbbed in agonizing slams.

Can’t stop.

The whirling grew louder, swarming around me. I screamed, light flooding so sharply over me, my skin pulsed with burning waves. Gravity vanished. My feet left the ground. The tugging began.

Tugging toward the light.

To the heat.

I rose up over the trees, screams tearing out of me. The stream by the back of the cabin came into view. A man fished beside the water. I’d know that fishing hat anywhere.

“Uncle Syd,” I yelled, and waved my arms. “Help!”

He continued fishing. Oblivious to my shouts. Another figure emerged beside him, darkened in shadow. This one looked up.

Looked up and watched me wrenched away.

Weight settled in the center of my chest.

I came awake with a gasp.

A huge hand rested between my ribs. “Sleeping?”

Thor crouched in front of me. My pulse boomed. He probably felt the slam against his palm.

I took a calming breath. “Yes.”

Napping wasn’t a habit I tended to indulge. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep before he got back, but once I’d curled up on the couch, it’d been so easy to rest.

“Scare in sleep?” His mouth made a sharp line.

I scooted upright. “It was just a bad dream.”

He withdrew his hand. “Dream?”

I pressed my tongue to the roof of my dry mouth. Dream was a human word, and I hadn’t realized there wasn’t an equivalent in Baratican. “When you sleep and your subconscious imagines things?”

“Not have.” His mouth turned down. “Why imagine scare?”

That’s right, they didn’t sleep—they meditated.

“Not on purpose, it happens unconsciously.” I tucked hair behind my ear. “Sometimes it’s something completely random, or like today it’s a memory that gets all twisted up.”

His gaze flickered over me. “What did dream?”

“About the night I was taken from earth, but it was all backward.” I wiped sleep from my right eye with a knuckle. “It was daytime not night, and instead of being taken from my room while I was sleeping, I was running away through the woods.”

“You have imagining like memory?” He watched me, expression opening in wonder. “Seeing in head?”

“Yes.” I smiled. How adorable, he found the idea of dreaming fascinating. “See, and hear, and touch, and feel. Just like a real memory, but it’s not true.”

“What else happen?” His fingers brushed my knee.

“I got sucked up into the spaceship, and could see everything underneath me, like my Uncle fishing at the stream, and I called out to him for help…but he didn’t hear.” I glanced across the room.

“Did dream more?”

I looked back to him. He watched me so closely. Was he just intrigued by the concept, or was he peeping in windows right now? “There was another man at the stream, standing behind my Uncle. He saw me.” I swallowed. “He saw me getting sucked up like that, and he didn’t care.”

The area between his brow made a vee. “Who man?”

“I couldn’t tell.” I rubbed my arm. “It looked like maybe he could’ve been my dad, or maybe he was my ex-fiancé. I don’t really know. Either way, both ways, he didn’t care what happened to me.”

“What is finsy?” The vee grew deeper.

I blinked. Fiancé ? Crap, that was human too.

“It means.” I searched for the word. “Betrothed?”

His teeth flashed, and a snarl tore through the room.

“Former.” I grabbed his shoulder. Shit . I’d almost forgotten Macca’s warning. “Former, betrothed.” I squeezed his shoulder harder. “I’m not betrothed anymore.”

His growl grew louder. Not his sexy let’s-make-mating growl—a snarly going-to-use-these-teeth-on-some-fucker growl. “Are betrothed.”

I withdrew my touch slowly; my heart rioting just like in the dream. “Really, I’m not.”

What was a jealous Baratican capable of?
“Are betrothed.” He planted one enormous hand on the couch beside me and leaned up. “Are betrothed to me .”

A flush flamed up my neck to my face.

I couldn’t respond. Because he wasn’t wrong.

He also wasn’t right .

“Thor not fail courtship like he.” He planted his free hand beside my other hip boxing me in. “Will win all favor, all courtship. Will have mating.”

My pulse hummed in my ears. The certainty I had that it would never come to that , that I would get away, that this was a game, bruised like rose petals in hail storm.

“Have won third base.” He reached down beside us and lifted a large leather sack, and placed it beside me. The contents clinked like coins. “Eleven thousand pallets.”

My heart seemed to move to my belly. Shit . A thousand more than I’d requested and everything about the way he looked at me now told me I’d be compensating for that bonus disk by disk.

He seized the back of my knee, hauling me straight. “Present for touching.”

My stomach quivered.

Present?

I swallowed a rising joke. What, not going to buy me a drink first? The words didn’t want to form.

I squeezed my legs tighter.

“Did win.” He snarled again—and this one I couldn’t judge it’s meaning other than it sent a tremble rushing up my spine. “Will have.”

Oh, Jesus.

I turned my face to the side and let my legs fall open. He tugged me, dragging my hips down the cushion. A gasp knocked through me.

The rip didn’t even make a sound. My underwear gave way between his fingers, exposing my wet flesh.

He grabbed the top of my slip.

My gaze flew back to him. “No.”

I reached for his hands—too late. The slip parted like cobwebs, no match for his strength. I crossed my arms over my breasts.

He rose up over me, and took my wrists. “Did win touching.”

I resisted for a moment, then let go. Let him spread my arms wide and look at my tits.

He had won.

It just wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I’d pictured a little fumbling foreplay. A little diddling below the belt.

He ran his ravaging gaze over me.

There wasn’t a fumbling molecule in him.

And hadn’t I already known that?

He held my wrists apart. “Present more.”

My breath hitched. Heat suffused me. I widened my legs.

His growling overtook the sound of my pulse. He released my wrists. I kept my arms up, stuck like that. Unable to recall how to move.

He pressed his palms to my inner thighs, and opened me wider to his gaze. Looked right at my cunt without an ounce of shame.

I panted.

He touched down my inner thigh, his movements slowing. “Found first secret.”

Secret ?

I only had a moment to wonder. He touched my clitoris. Right on it with his index finger like it was a magical button.

My hips jerked.

“Did find secret working of your sex in tasting.” He pressed against my clit, and his finger, his god-damn alien warrior finger, fucking vibrated .

I squealed, hips rising off the couch.

He rubbed, and pressure and movement joined vibration, shooting cruel sensation through me. Too much. Too fast. My hands flew to my thighs, my nails biting into my skin, and I came in a way that was like being hit with a defibrillator.

My head snapped back, and my spine contorted under the sudden blast of pleasure.

He continued rubbing my sensitized clit, now so slick that were he human, if he’d been with other women, the degree to which I flooded would be humiliating.

The vibration streamed through my nerves and hit my womb.

I grabbed his wrist and twisted my hips away. “Please.”

“Did win.” He pushed back against my resistance. The vibration curled into an ache.

“Please.” I twisted again. “It’s too much.”

His movements adjusted. The vibration slowed. He slid his touch from my clit.

My limbs sagged, and I sucked soothing air in.

“Thor, I’m finished.” I just wanted to roll over, curl up and cup myself, but he was still in the way. The suddenness of what happened left me empty and shook. “I’m done.”

His attention moved from my pussy, to my face.

“Not have start touching.” He pushed an enormous finger inside me.

My teeth sunk into my lip, my knees rose. Fuck . His finger was so freaking huge.

He flexed his finger.

I grabbed my hair in both hands, and couldn’t help looking down. Watching him push into my pink flesh. I groaned. This pleasure less of a slam and more of a budding bliss.

“Think wife has more.”

My pussy clenched around him. Yep. In fact, there was more. There’d never been any “more” before but there was definitely more now. The tension gathered through me, puckering my nipples, and making my hips grind.

He curled his finger, gentle vibration radiating into a spot that made the cave roof glow bright and white above me.

I moaned from the pit of my stomach.

“Another secret.” His words grew growlier, and he curled into that blissful place. “Think could hide secrets of your sex from me?”

“No—” My scalp stung as hair tugged between my fingers. It really was a secret—no one had come close to discovering my g-spot before. “I’m not hiding anything.”

He added a second finger.

My chest filled with air, and my teeth gnashed together, feeling and need growing so tight it made me want to bare down.

“I will discover all, La La.” He took my thigh under his arm, and the vibration in his two fingers pulsed into me.

He pushed up, and my saturated flesh squelched.

My mouth opened, and gasped. For a moment I was sucked out of my body and propelled into a place of pure quiet. He curled his fingers and every thing came back in a rush.

A rush of bliss, and bright, and wet.

Climax seized me in a haze of shuddering ecstasy.

His hand, skin shiny and slick with my arousal, plunged against my pussy, and he released a howl of pure triumph, and ran his hand through the gush.

Holy shit. I’d squirted. My chest heaved for air. And to think I’d always been a non-believer.

“Now have all your mating secrets, wife.” He dragged me down onto the ground.

My back hit the floor with a thud.

He rose above me.

My arms sprawled. I felt microwaved as popcorn. My limbs numb. Couldn’t move. What the hell had he done to me?

I’d had sex before—actual proper sex with penis and all.

And this fucking ridiculous man took things to the next level times ten, with only two fingers.

He removed his loin cloth.

His enormous, crazy, wouldn’t-exist-on-earth erection sprang free.

Fuck it.

I let my legs fall wider. If he could do half of what he had with his hand with his cock, it’d be worth the minor risk of possible fatality.

“Stop him, Leila, we don’t have the yet have the power cell—”

I slammed my hands over my ears at Macca’s screech.

Thor climbed over me. Past my vagina where I was sure he was headed, and knelt over my chest. He grabbed my wrist and pulled my hands to his cock and looked at me.

Mutual … My skin sizzled. That’s right I’d said mutual touching.

I gripped his cock with both hands. Fuck . He actually required two hands.

I didn’t get a chance to do anything though—he wrapped one of his hands around mine, and squeezed my breast with his other.

“Mine.” He bit out, and pumped his cock with both our hands.

His chin sunk lower, but he did not lose himself. No, not like I had. My breath caught full. It was as though he could control it—he came with a hiss, and spurted all over my tits.

I shook, the hot semen tingling my skin. My nipples tightened painfully.

I writhed and panted, my body pulsing with feeling.

He jerked over me, his cock throbbing under my fingers.

Wetness dribbled over my breasts.

He stroked our hands one last time, then released me.

My arms fell to my sides, and I looked down over myself. Damn, but that was a lot of come.

I glanced back at him.

His gaze seemed to shoot straight through me. Screw what anyone said. No penis had to enter a vagina for it to be sex. This was the most sexual experience of my life with zero intercourse.

He squeezed my tit through the mess. “Now have all your mating secrets.”