Maci’s a virgin.

Fuck, why didn’t she tell me? I would never have—

Okay, I would have, but I’d have gone about it all differently.

How the hell does a woman maintain her virginity on a prison planet, anyway? Around here, a virgin is like a fucking unicorn—everyone’s heard of them, but no one I know has ever seen one.

Until now. But how was I supposed to know? She was so into it. So eager. She was naming her body parts like an X-rated vocabulary lesson, and that shit was hot as hell.

And she said yes.

Fuck, she probably thought she had to. That if she didn’t give me what I wanted, I’d just take it. Or I’d kick her off the platform and leave her to fend for herself. That’s what anyone else would do on this piece of shit red planet.

Damn it. My frustration boils over, and I slam one fist into the platform beneath me. The whole thing shudders, and Maci cowers away from me, hands covering her breasts, eyes wide and frightened.

Great. I’ve hurt her and scared the shit out of her.

“I’m sorry.” I can’t even remember the last time I apologized for something—not that it matters. She can’t understand a word I’m saying. So, I hold up my hands, palms out, in the hopefully universal signal for “I mean you no harm.” Though I’ve given her no reason to believe that.

How the hell am I supposed to tell her that I’m mad at myself, not at her, with a vocabulary consisting of a few body parts and some plant words?

I make an over-the-top scowling face and mime slamming my fist into the platform again, without actually making contact. “Angry,” I say, giving her the word for what I’m feeling. “Angry at Callum.” I pat my own chest. “Not angry at Maci.”

She nods hesitantly, seeming to understand.

So here I am, fighting blinding anger at myself and a raging hard-on, while a willing, naked woman looks up at me with big brown eyes. At least, she was willing. Maybe she would be again, if I weren’t crippled by a toddler’s grasp of her language. If I had any way to explain that I can make it good for her. That it doesn’t have to hurt.

I guess I’ll just have to show her.

“Maci.” I take her hand and hold it for a second, until she no longer looks like she wants to pull away from me. “No more pain. I promise.” I know she can’t understand me, but I’m hoping that she’ll understand the sentiment, if not my actual words. “Sex? Yes?” I say in her language.

Are you still willing to give me a chance?

At first, she just blinks at me. Then she gives me another hesitant nod.

I’m not sure whether or not she still thinks she has to do this, and I don’t know how to ask. All I can do is offer her pleasure and demonstrate my willingness to stop whenever she wants. No matter how badly my cock aches at the sight of her laid out in front of me, bared to my eyes, thanks to whatever razor got ahold of her very recently.

I frown as that thought sinks in. This naughty grooming is totally at odds with an intact hymen, and neither of those concepts seems native to a prison planet whose population is eighty percent male.

Who the hell shaved a virgin, then threw her half-naked into the hunting enclosure to be torn apart by metal hounds or shot with a laser rifle?

“Callum?” Maci gives my frown a worried glance.

“It’s nothing.” Just another question I have no idea how to ask her.

I lie next to her again and lay my hand across her stomach, and for several seconds, I simply maintain eye contact, giving her a chance to object. When she doesn’t, I lean in for a kiss.

This time her mouth opens instantly, welcoming me in, and she’s so responsive that I get lost in the moment, making out with her like we’re a couple of teenagers in the back of a car. Then she groans into my mouth, and my cock jerks against her leg, ready to pick up right where we left off.

Instead, I keep kissing her while I slowly run my hand over her stomach toward her breasts. They’re small but firm and nicely rounded, and she moans again when I palm one and rub my thumb over her nipple. Maci wants to be touched. She enjoys being touched. She just needs to be touched by someone with a little more patience than comes easily to me after a year alone in a cage.

I give her breasts plenty of attention, and when she starts arching into my touch again, I reluctantly abandon her lips and leave a trail of nibbling kisses down her throat. She throws her head back, granting me more access, and I groan as I work my way over her collarbone toward the hard peak of one breast. As I take it into my mouth, I slide my hand slowly down her stomach and over the bare mound of her pubic bone into folds already slick with need.

My cock aches as I find her clit and rub a gentle circle around it. Maci squirms beneath my attention, arching her back, her eyes closed. She makes soft, needy noises in her throat, and if she doesn’t stop, I’m afraid I’m going to spill all over her leg.

It’s been too long. And as tragic as this may be, considering we’ve both been put here to die, she seems to have been waiting for this her whole life.

Waiting for me.

That’s what I tell myself, anyway, as I move my hand down from her clit—gritting my teeth against my own need when she groans in disappointment—and gently slide one finger inside her.

She’s so wet. And tight. How the hell could I not have noticed that the first time?

A year of abstinence makes for one callous bastard of a lover. But I can make up for my mistake.

I press up with my finger and my cock jerks again when I find a small, slightly rougher patch. I rub it lightly at first, then more firmly, and when she begins to grind up into my hand—fuck, that’s hot—I press my thumb against her clit and rub.

Maci makes a hungry noise deep in her throat, her head still thrown back, then she whispers words that sound like she might be praying. Or…begging.

I ignore the ache in my cock as I give her a little more pressure, a little more speed, and I capture her nipple lightly between my teeth.

She bucks beneath me, and she’s so wet now I could cry. My cock wants—needs—to be where my finger is, but she’s not quite there yet.

I stop stroking inside her just long enough to add another finger, and she’s aroused enough that it fits nicely. So, I add a third. When she stiffens a little, I tease her nipple with my tongue and rub her clit a little harder. She relaxes again, and soon she’s making panting noises.

“Oh…” Maci grabs a handful of my hair and pins my face to her breast as she thrusts against my hand. Her instincts are so sweet. She’s so close…

Close enough that I slide my hand free and gently pry her fingers from my hair.

“Callum…” she moans. Then she murmurs that polite word. The one that sounds like she’s begging. “Please…”

I can’t wait any longer. If I don’t bury myself inside her, I’m going to come all over us both, and now that she’s really ready…

“Just a minute, hellkitten,” I whisper as I settle myself between her legs. “I’m not done with you yet.” I may never be done with her. That eager little body… Those hungry noises. Her grip on my hair—and on my fingers…

She’s fucking addictive.

I prod gently at her opening, and she when she wraps her legs around my hips, I slowly slide all the way home.