I wake up as Callum slides into the bed behind me. His legs are bare, and based on the warmth against my back, so is his chest. And he’s really happy to be here. I can feel that too.

I don’t know how long I slept, but the sunlight shining through the window is still rose-tinted and bright. I’m guessing it’s early afternoon. In a few hours, I’ll have been here for two days. “Any sign of guards?” I ask, as Callum shifts behind me. In reply, he closes his mouth over my earlobe and sucks gently. His lips and tongue are hot against my flesh, and every time he tugs on my ear, I feel an echo of that tug between my thighs.

Before I met Callum, I didn’t even know such disparate parts of my body were connected by anything more substantial than flesh and bone, yet he seems to know just where to touch me to awaken hungers…elsewhere. As if he knows my body better than I do. But then, I haven’t experimented with it as thoroughly as he has, so I guess that makes sense.

“That feels good,” I whisper. “But you didn’t answer the question. Any sign of guards?” The wrist com translates in a whisper that matches my own.

“No guards. But the hound walked right in front of the cabin, without even slowing down. Do you know what that means, hellkitten?” Beneath the translation, I hear the nickname he’s given me in his language, and I have to admit, it sounds better that way. Sexy and exotic.

“That means the soldiers don’t know we’re here. If they did, they’d have the hound stand guard at the door, so we can’t get out.”

His smile feels like warmth from the sun, only more focused. And hotter. “And that means we have a little time…”

“Yes.” I roll over to face him, and he pulls my left leg over his bare hip. Pressing his sizable erection against my stomach. “Time for you to sleep. You need rest, Callum.”

“I need you.” He kisses me before I can argue, his hand sliding up from my waist to cradle the curve of my left breast. And just to emphasize his point, he thrusts against my stomach again.

I break off the kiss with a laugh. “I got your point the first time. And it’s a very impressive…point. But mine stands. Sleep first. Then sex.”

“Sex, then sleep,” he insists, in my language this time. And that’s so impressive I’m actually considering his counter offer. But it’s the slow circles he’s drawing around my nipple that tilt the scales in his favor.

“Promise you’ll sleep afterward? Until I say we need to leave?”

“I’ll promise you anything you want right now, Maci, if you’ll roll over and let me lick you,” he growls into my ear. “I need another taste.”

“Anything I want, huh?”

“Anything.” He slides his hand between my thighs and I suck in a breath when his fingers brush over the seam of my sex, teasing my clit without ever making real contact. “But I have to warn you, we convicted criminals are not the most trustworthy bunch.”

“Well, considering that I’m one of those criminals…” I lose my train of thought when his finger rubs over me again, and my legs open for him with no conscious intent on my part. “What if I want to taste you?”

He slides two fingers into me, stroking with pressure in just the right spot, so slowly that the sensation is as much torture as it is pleasure. I’m waiting for the next stroke before this one is finished, and after a minute, I realize I’m holding my breath. Thrusting slowly against his fingers. Hoping for more…

“Taste me?” he whispers, and the wrist com translates softly. It takes me a second to remember that those were originally my words. I’ve almost forgotten I even know how to speak, much less that I made a counter offer of my own. “Little hellkitten, are you saying you want my cock in your mouth?”

“Yes? Maybe?” Even after what we’ve done together—what he’s done to me—I still flush at just the thought. “I’ve never done that, but I’d like to try…”

“Oh my god,” he groans. “How is such a sweet, innocent little thing like you still so sweet and innocent on Devil’s Eye? Tell me the truth—you got off the prison transport yesterday, didn’t you?” He’s teasing me, but he’s not far from the truth.

“I’ve been here a month, but I got lucky. A man in zone four looked out for me and my friend.”

Callum props himself up on one elbow, clearly curious. “And he didn’t fuck you for his trouble?”

I shake my head, and my hair catches on the rough material of the pillow case beneath me. “He liked Audra.”

“I don’t care if he worshiped this Audra’s pussy like it dripped gold, if he took care of you without fucking you, you got damn lucky.”

A bitter ache spreads through my chest, and for a moment, I can only blink up at him. “So, I’m only in here with you because I’m sleeping with you? If I don’t spread my legs, are you going to throw me out to the hound?”

“Of course not, hellkitten,” he leans down to nuzzle my neck. “Without you, I can’t unlock the door.”

I sit up and push him away, and his expression sobers when he realizes I wasn’t joking.

“Maci, look at me.”

But I can’t. I’ve made it through the past two days of terror, exhaustion, and constant hunger because I thought…

I don’t know what I’d thought. I like Callum. But what the hell does that mean on Devil’s Eye? We’re convicted killers. We’ve managed to hold off execution so far, but I know damn well that can’t last.

What did I think was going to happen? We were going to break out through the northern gate and live happily ever after on a planet full of rapists, thieves, and murderers? There is no happily ever after here. In zone four, we were lucky if we got a fucking pleasant afternoon.

Yet…when I wasn’t actively fearing for my life, I’d been happy with Callum over the past two days. And I’d thought he was happy with me.

“Maci.” He grabs my chin, but instead of letting him turn my face, I shove him off.

“I get it,” I snap. “I’m only worth what’s between my legs. And just so you understand, that’s not so different here than it was on my homeworld. That’s how I was still a virgin when I got here. My brother never let me out of the house alone—not even to date—because we lived in a really shitty district, and I still look like a fucking child, which attracts the worst kind of predators. But I thought you were…”

“You thought I was what?” His voice has gone hard. Even in the translation coming from the wrist com over my head. So finally, I look at him, only to find him watching me with a steely gleam in his eyes, like I haven’t seen from him since he first pulled me into that tree. Back when he thought saving me was a mistake, and I’d get both of us killed. “You thought I was different? Why? If I’m different than the men in the open population, it’s because I’m worse. I deserve to be here. I deserve to die for what I did.”

“What did you do?” I had no intention of asking, but suddenly there the question is, hanging between us.

“I’m a killer, Maci.” The words sound bitter and hard. Unflinching. “I beat three men to death because they took something that belonged to me. I did it to send a message. Which is the same reason I caved Scott Hansen’s head in, even after he stopped breathing. Because he tried to take you, so I had to make a fucking statement, and I do not intend to be misunderstood.”

I should be terrified of him right now. My head knows that. But my body…

My chest feels tight. That sensitive place between my thighs feels damp.

“You’re saying I belong to you?” That should piss me off. And on one level, it does. But on that other level…

“Hell yes, you belong to me,” he growls. “And not in that ‘prison dibs’ kind of way. You belong to me like my own fucking hand belongs to me. Like you’re a part of me. And I will fuck up anyone who tries sever you from me.”

“So…” I have to stop and clear my throat, because my voice is hoarse with some emotion I can’t let myself analyze right now. “So, I have no choice in this?”

He looks at me like I’m speaking gibberish, in spite of the translator. “No. Maci, don’t you get it? I have no choice. I haven’t bowed to anyone else’s will since I walked out of my pop’s house when I was seventeen years old. Yet somehow, in less than two days, you’re leading me around the woods like you’ve got a rope tied around my cock. You have all the power. So, yes, I want to fuck you. Right now, I want to be deep inside you so badly that it’s hard to keep my words straight as I say them. But that’s not why you’re here. And I’m not going to touch you again until you tell me you want that as much as I do.”

By the time he quits talking, I’m breathing so hard the room looks a little fuzzy around the edges. “That’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at once.” In fact, the translator seemed to be having trouble keeping up.

He shrugs. “I’m here to pay for the things I’ve actually done wrong, not for the imaginary counts of sexual extortion you’re adding to my rap sheet. Though I can understand the assumption, considering where we are, and what I just said about your friend from zone four.” He frowns. “So, I guess this miscommunication is mostly my fault.”

“Well, I appreciate the clarity.” Though that seems woefully inadequate to explain how relieved I feel right now. How…overwhelmed I am, to think that he values me like a part of his own body.

Do I have a rope tied around his cock? How the hell did I manage that?

“You know, when I first saw you, I thought Shaw put you in here to lure me out,” Callum says. “Like a human duck call, or deer pheromones sprayed on a tree. Then, when I found out you were a virgin, I knew that had to be the case. Why else would they throw a defenseless, freshly shaved virgin into the hunting enclosure?”

“The warden didn’t put me here for you,” I tell him. “I was supposed to be for Hansen. He wanted to be the one to pull the trigger on my execution. No pun intended.”

“He said you killed his brother.” Callum’s brows dip with a new thought. “He came all the way out to Rhodon just to execute you himself?”

“No, he was already here, to hunt you. I got sent to Devil’s Eye for hacking into a government network.” For my parents. Who didn’t even show up at my trial. “Three days ago—I think?—I escaped zone four with Audra and Tyson, but I got picked up by a patrol shuttle. I woke up here in zone two, where they made me shower and…groom myself. Then they stripped me and gave me to a man named Steven Hansen. Scott Hansen’s brother, who evidently paid for this extravagant, fucked-up vacation as a birthday gift. I accidentally killed Steven, trying to keep him off me, and murder gets an automatic death sentence. The warden said Scott could do the honors. So, here I am,” I finish. And Callum is watching me with an odd, quiet smile. “What?” I ask.

“I was right.” His eyes flash with a resurgence of heat. “You are a hellkitten.”

“Damn,” I can’t resist a smile. “What kind of murder do I have to commit to graduate to full-grown hellcat?”

“Premeditated,” he says, and I can’t tell whether or not he’s joking. “If those guards find us, you’ll get your chance. We’re going to get out of here, Maci. I’m not going to let them hunt us down like dogs.”

I don’t believe him. I believe he means what he’s saying, but that’s not how this place works. Even if we could escape the enclosure, they’d just hunt us down and shoot us in the wild. These past two days, and however many more we survive, they’re like a stay of execution, not a pardon. Eventually, the hammer will fall, and it will crush us both. But until then…

“I believe you were going to try to get some sleep.”

“I believe you were going to let me taste you first,” he counters.

“If memory serves, there’s an alternate proposal on the table,” I remind him, and he frowns. “Wherein I am on the giving end, rather than the receiving.”

“You know, it is possible to do both at once,” he says, and when my face begins to burn, he laughs. “But I guess there’s plenty of time for that.”

I hope he’s right. But I doubt it.

“Okay, I’m going to try this.” I rise up on my knees, and he rolls onto his back, pupils dilated in anticipation. “But you have to promise to tell me if I do it wrong.”

“There’s no way to do it wrong, Maci.”

But again, I have my doubts.

Nerves fluttering in my belly, I settle myself between his thighs, and at first, I can only look at him spread out in front of me. I’ve never really gotten to see him like this without the distraction of his hands on me. Not that I mind the distraction, but it’s kept me from truly noticing that he’s beautiful.

Messy dark hair, thick, expressive eyebrows, and two days’ beard stubble. Strong hands capable of both violence and pleasure. A quiet smile that seems patient, though the eagerness in his eyes belies that as I slide my hand down his chest, enjoying the feel of him beneath my fingers. His body is a playground of hard planes and mounds of muscle. He is power restrained. He is tenacious appetite and indulgent amusement in equal parts. And oh, god, he is all I know of sex. Of pleasure. Of my body’s own potential.

But now I want to know his.

I let my fingers trail over the tight V of his lower abdomen, and the muscles tense beneath my touch. His cock jumps, as if it’s reaching for my hand, and I smile, trying to push past my own timidity. There’s no better time than now.

There may be no other time than now.

I take him in my hand and feel the thick, hard length of him. Soft on the surface, but like stone beneath. He groans as I run my hand up and down. Familiarizing myself with his shape and size. Tightening my grip a little with each shy stroke. The head feels thick, and it has some give. There’s a bead of moisture at the tip. I brush my thumb over, it, smearing it, and Callum groans.

I look up to see if I’m doing this right, but his eyes are closed. His chest rises and falls deeply, his breathing quickening with every movement of my hand.

He likes it. I feel like I have the same kind of power over him that he had over me when his head was buried between my legs.

And suddenly I can’t wait to wield it.

I brace one hand on his thigh, then lean down and take the head of his cock into my mouth. It’s a strange sensation. He’s bigger than I really know what to do with, so at first I just lick the tip. That bead of moisture has a salty, musky taste, different than anything I’ve ever experienced.

Callum groans again, and emboldened, I take in more of him and suck gently as I let him slide out of my mouth.

“Oh my god.”

I think that’s good. So, I do it again, taking him as deeply as I can. The head of his cock bumps against the back of my throat, and I stop for a second, to wrestle control of my gag reflex. It takes some getting used to, but soon I find a rhythm, stroking with both my hand and my mouth.

Callum’s fingers slide into my hair at the back of my skull, not pushing me, but encouraging. His other hand clenches in the sheet, and the sight of it—of his eager arousal—makes me feel wet and achy, in the most delicious way.

“Maci,” he murmurs, and a tremor runs through his body, as if he’s fighting the need to thrust. “Hellkitten, please…”

I’m not sure what he’s asking me for, so I move faster. Suck harder. Each stroke practically brings him up off the bed, his thighs tense, his balls a tight mass in my hand.

I lose myself in the motions, ignoring the ache in my jaw, because in this moment I have him. He is mine. This man who’s strong enough to carry me and all of our supplies—to beat my attacker to death and outrun mechanical hounds—is suddenly desperate for something only I can give him.

“Maci!” Callum reaches down and gently pulls me up. “Wait. I’m close.”

“I know.” I lick my lips and lean down again, and he groans, but stops me. “I think I like trying new things.”

“Well then come sit on my cock. I need to be inside you. Deeper than you can take me in your mouth.”

Intrigued, I let him lift me and set me in position on my knees straddling his hips. Again, his cock jumps, straining toward me while he slides his hands up my sides, beneath my shirt, dragging it up. Then off.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he breathes, his gaze roaming over me with an almost palpable heat. “Lean forward a little…”

“Okay.” I follow his instruction, then wait, but he only smiles at me. “Now what?”

“This is your show, hellkitten. Do your worst.” He links his hands beneath his head and looks up at me with a heated smile, his eyes half closed. “But do whatever you’re going to do quickly, please. I really need you right now.” Yet he’s going to let me take control again.

I like it.

He holds my gaze while I slide my hand between us and lift myself, positioning him at my entrance. He’s still slick from my mouth, and I’m already wet, so I lower myself onto his cock slowly, gasping with the realization that this angle is all new. He feels different in this position. I feel…fuller. As if he’s hitting all new spots, like this.

I slide all the way down until I’m sitting against his hips, impaled, and I take a second to get used to the feeling. It’s…pleasant. Surprisingly satisfying, as if his length is the cure to an ache I hadn’t even realized I was suffering.

“That’s it hellkitten,” he whispers, and I hardly even notice that I’m hearing a translation. “Find your position and take what you need.”

Find my…?

“Lean forward. Work your hips and grind a little.” His voice is tense with urgency. His hands come out from under his head, like he wants to grab me and move me. To show me what he wants. But he’s going to let me figure it out. Even if it kills him.

I brace my hands on his chest and roll my hips forward, letting him slide out of me a little. When I roll back again, taking him deep, my clit rubs against his pubic bone, and a jolt fires through me. My nipples tighten, and he lifts my breasts, squeezing them. Running his thumbs over the points.

“Oh my god,” I breathe as I rock forward again, enjoying an echo of that same jolt. Then, suddenly this is a race to some kind of erotic finish line, and I am determined to win.

I put more weight on my arms and grind myself against Callum, taking him deep with every stroke as I use his body, teasing pleasure for myself from each motion.

“Come on, Maci,” he groans, and I remember that he was nearly there before. I’m starting from behind, and he’s trying to hold back.

I toss my head, and hair falls across my spine, brushing my backside. Callum lifts himself and his mouth closes over my nipple, hot and wet. “That’s it, hellkitten, I need you to come,” he murmurs against my flesh. Then he bites my nipple gently—just a hint of teeth—and more heat flares deep inside me.

“I’m close,” I tell him, and he bucks his hips beneath me, giving me more depth, more friction, while that hot pressure builds.

“Maci,” he groans as he grabs my hips and rocks me against him, pressing down hard while he thrusts up into me.

I come with a scream, my walls clamping around him while I ride him frantically, desperate to wring every second of pleasure out of this. At the mercy of my rhythm, I feel Callum release inside me over and over, groaning as he comes, until finally I collapse against his chest, exhausted, yet…invigorated.

Alive.

I feel like I could hike all the way back to zone four. But even as his arms wrap around me, Callum’s eyes are already closing. He needs rest, and we have no place better to go at the moment.

I drop a kiss on his chest, then I rise off of him. He squeezes my hand as I stand. “Sleep,” I tell him. “Sleep as fast as you can. I’ll wake you up if I see anything.”

Before I even get across the room to wash up, I hear him snoring lightly. As I take my seat at the window with a bottle of water and another protein cake, the pleasant ache between my legs keeps me thinking of Callum, even as I watch for our enemies.

God help anyone who tries to take him away from me.