AFTER A BIT OF EXCITEMENT and a bumpy ride in the jeep, Tessa and Kayleb were taken to the main house and given a room where they could clean up, rest, and were promised food once meal time rolled around. Since neither of them had eaten since the morning—and they weren’t sure how long ago that morning had been—they’d been handed a half a dozen nutrient bars out of pity.

But Tessa wasn’t that hungry. Not yet. She tried to tell that to her growling stomach, but it kept begging her to eat at least one.

Without asking what they preferred, Jacinta had her people put her and Kayleb in the same bedroom. Well, Tessa reasoned, she’d called herself Kayleb’s mate. Why would they need two rooms? That was like giving two rooms to a married couple. Some people might get insulted by something like that.

Oh God. Married.

She plopped down on the bed and shot a hand out to catch herself before she could fall flat on her back. Was that what they were now? Did announcing it like that mean she was going to take him back like nothing had happened? What did he expect from her? What did she want from him?

Was it too late to run back to the pirate ship and go down in a blaze of glory? At least that would be less confusing.

Thankfully Kayleb was still in the shower, she could hear the water running. She’d ducked into another room and used the facilities there, but her alien mate seemed to be taking his time. That was good, that was what she needed. Her hands shook a bit when she lifted them off the bed and her lower lip trembled.

They’d almost been killed by pirates! What the fuck! She couldn’t breathe.

Tessa pushed back up from the bed and paced back and forth, wearing a hole in the synth-wood boards on the floor. She’d never imagined that her problems would chase her to Earth. Her home planet had its issues, and its dangers, but pirates were not on the menu. Those monsters kept to the less populated systems and the far off shipping lanes. There was no use in waging war against a planet when the profit was in theft and slave trade. Which meant that she’d really pissed them off. Whatever she’d stolen was worth enough to risk destruction on Earth.

Damn.

She didn’t hear the water shut off, so when the door opened and steam wafted out of the bathroom, Tessa stopped in her tracks. Kayleb stood there wearing a thin robe that didn’t quite fall to his knees. Water dripped down off of his dark hair and ran in a rivulet down his neck.

She wanted to lick it up.

The sensation grabbed her so quickly that she took a step before she realized what she was doing. And once she realized, she didn’t stop. She’d been pushing Kayleb away, both physically and in her mind, to try and stop a hurt she’d already suffered. Whether she’d been trying to protect herself or pretending that she could go back and make it so she didn’t ever feel the hurt in the first place, she wasn’t sure. But when she looked at him now, those fears and anxieties and all the uncertainties the pirates wrought settled, calmed within her. They weren’t gone. They wouldn’t be gone until she blew their ship out of the air and ensured they’d never come after her and her man ever again.

But with Kayleb right there, she could breathe. And breathe she did, taking in his damp scent, warm and a little heady from the mix of steam and soap and pure male. Her mate.

Kayleb stopped her in her tracks with four little words. “We need to talk.”

The little drop of water she’d been following dipped under the fabric of the robe and Tessa dragged her eyes up to meet Kayleb’s. His nostrils flared, but his eyes weren’t the impassioned red she saw when they made love, and she needed to change that. But first... “So talk.” She thought the situation was pretty clear, but maybe he needed assurances.

“You told Jacinta that you were my mate,” he said. He took a seat on the bed and the robe gaped, showing her a delicious slice of skin but still hiding all the good parts.

Tessa squeezed her legs together and took a seat beside him. “Yes, I did.” Hadn’t they just discussed that in the woods? If he hadn’t kept his silence when they first met and if she hadn’t kept her silence when Krayter took him away, they wouldn’t be in this position. How could she turn around and say nothing to Jacinta?

Kayleb sat completely still, close enough that all he had to do was shift a little and he’d be pressed flush against her. Instead of movement, he might as well have been made of stone. “Are you?” He asked it with a sense of fractured hope. This was a man who could lay a man flat with one swipe of his fists, who didn’t blink from fighting pirates or defending her no matter the risk to himself. But his heart was bruised and battered and she realized he was just as afraid of the connection between them as she was. Just as afraid of the hurt they could give one another... and of the love.

He could be her everything, the person she’d never expected or hoped to want, but who meant the world—every world—to her. And if it came crashing down again, she didn’t know that she could survive it. But she wasn’t the woman who she was six months ago, and she understood him better now, understood the connection between them. The fear was still there, she couldn’t make it dissolve with a second’s thought. But the hope, oh, the hope burned bright enough to blot out the sun.

Tessa licked her lips and leaned next to him, sliding her arm across the heat of his back and tracing her thumb over the base of his spine. “Yes,” she said, “I’m your mate.”

And that was all the discussion they needed.

***

SHE VIBRATED AGAINST him, a thrum of energy pinging between the two of them, her heat imprinted on his flesh. Kayleb’s cock was hard as a rock, tenting the flimsy barrier of the robe and making its presence known. He’d barely held himself back when he stepped out of the shower and caught her looking at him like he was the finest dessert at the most expensive restaurant in town. And now, three little words sent him into the best madness a man could ever hope for.

Silence hung between them for a timeless second, and Kayleb was the first to break. He turned towards Tessa, capturing her mouth and falling back onto the bed with her under him, her legs open for him to nestle between, his cock pressing against her abdomen in delicious torture. She tasted like the mint of the toothpaste they’d both been given to clean with, but under that was the taste of his woman, fresh on his plundering tongue. All his.

Finally.

But this wasn’t relief. Relief didn’t come with an aching, straining cock and a woman arched under him making small noises and moans that threatened to send him over the edge before they could bring each other their pleasures. Instead, this was exactly the kind of torment he’d never known that he needed, never known that this was the kind of pain and desire a man could dream about forever without knowing just how vital it was to his existence.

If he ever stopped kissing Tessa, he’d cease to exist. There was no Kayleb without her, not anymore, and he had no idea how he’d managed for months with the hole in his soul that only she could fill.

He gave his thanks that Jacinta’s people had provided them with pajamas while they searched for more sturdy clothes. It was quick work to peel Tessa out of her flimsy layers and the robe he’d worn to dry was gone before he could register the feel of Tessa’s hands running hot over his skin. He shivered against her, breathing deep of her scent, dragging her close enough to dissolve the air between them.

This was no practiced seduction. Kayleb’s thoughts scattered at the touch of her tongue to his neck and his hands went everywhere, aching to feel every inch of her skin at once. He wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe and devour her and pleasure her until she couldn’t walk. And the only thing that mattered right then was her.

Her fingers found his cock and Kayleb gasped against her mouth, thrust against her as pleasure blinded him. She played him like an instrument, wringing him out with a deft hand that knew him well enough to kill with only a few strokes. Mind drunk on pleasure, he couldn’t wait to find out how they were together in a year, in a decade, in a lifetime. No matter how long they had together, it wouldn’t be enough for him, not with so much time already wasted.

Kayleb pulled away from the heat of her touch, shifting his hips back a fraction. “Don’t want to end this too soon,” he managed to grumble, though he had no idea if his words made any sense or if it was all just a groaned slur of desire. Tessa huffed out her frustration, but her hands traveled around to his waist and cupped his ass, keeping him on the tight edge of desire.

He kissed a line down her neck and through the valley of her breasts, promising himself that one day he’d spend hours teasing her there. But today he had other quarry. Her legs clenched around him, holding him close to her, but a little push from one hand and he had her spread, her sex open and glistening and ready for a taste.

Detyens didn’t have a heaven, but Kayleb might have discovered it between his mate’s thighs. He kissed down gently, teasing her and smiling as she arched up, the sound from the back of her throat a demanding plea for more, for completion. Her fingers tangled in his hair, nails pressing against his skull like she was the one with hidden claws rather than him. He might have worried that he’d nick her in his excitement and desire, but his own weapons lay dormant, in no danger of ever doing harm to his mate.

A devious swipe of his tongue sent Tessa cursing something so creative that his translator couldn’t quite grasp the meaning. Her fingers curled and she pressed him harder against her sex and Kayleb showed her mercy. A little mercy. He swiped his tongue against her folds, breathing her in as he tasted her and felt her tremble around him. Her cries spurred him on and as she quivered around him, Kayleb had never felt more powerful than he did in that moment, bringing his mate her pleasure.

Orgasm ripped through her, leaving her an arching, panting mass of desire under his tongue, flooding him with her taste as she came down from the first of many highs he’d bring her to. He kissed the inside of her thigh and worked his way back up until he captured her lips, seating himself back between those sensitive thighs where he belonged.

Tessa’s eyes were dazed, pupils blown out and cheeks flushed. Her chest rose and fell with gasping breaths as she tried to center herself and Kayleb knew he wasn’t helping by kissing her and curling his hands around her hips. But from the press of her lips under his own, she wasn’t about to complain.

Her pulse was a heavy beat under his fingers and she trembled in his grasp. Kayleb slowed himself down, giving her enough room to find her calm. But he didn’t let go, he couldn’t remember how. She was his now, had given herself to him, and there was no longer any backing down. Never again.

His fingers played along the edge of her sex, finding that sensitive flesh wet and swollen, but no longer pulsing with passion. He dipped his fingers inside, finding her wet and ready and wanting. Tessa’s own hand found his cock and guided him to her entrance. “Now,” she demanded, her lips still hot under his, the word dancing along his own tongue as she spoke inside of him.

He moved slow, almost painfully slow, fitting the tip of his cock against her tight heat and easing in with a groan that echoed with the guttural sound that Tessa made.

The wet heat of her enveloped him and though he wanted to thrust himself fast and deep, he needed to savor this moment, joined so intimately with his mate, the first time in a long chain of days stretching out forever when they would be together. He sunk in slowly and her fingers gripped him tight, her hips arching up to take more of him as she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him deep. She wanted it just as fast and hard as he did.

And who was he to deny his mate anything?

Kayleb plunged in to the hilt, seating himself fully inside her with a gasp of pleasure that echoed around the room as she milked his cock inside of her. Tessa hooked a hand behind his neck and pulled him down, capturing his lips in a wet kiss that he felt down to his bones. He moved in her, pulling out and plunging in, working his pace up until his world came down to him and her and the soft bed beneath them.

She moaned as he sank deep, the sound wrapping around him and squeezing tight until Kayleb had to clench his jaw to keep from spending before he brought his mate to her peak. His teeth ached and an ancient drive to mark his woman rode him hard. He buried his face in the crook of her jaw and tried to keep himself from going over that final edge. It was something primitive, something no civilized Detyen would speak of. But Tessa seemed to understand. She arched her neck, her fingers still clenched tight.

“Do it,” she begged. “Mark me, make me yours.”

She already was, and he wanted all of the worlds to know it.

He nipped at her neck, careful in his bite in a way he wouldn’t expect his desperate pleasure to allow. Tessa gasped against him as he kept her teetering on the edge between pleasure and pain. She arched and moved her hips in time with him, shivering and crying out with orgasm as she shuddered around him, pleased and desperate sounds escaping her throat.

With a roar, Kayleb buried himself deep and let go, his teeth on her throat and cock pulsing, marking her with his fangs and spend.

All was quiet for several moments while they came back to themselves, Kayleb lying beside Tessa, a hand draped casually over her hip. And then his mate let out a rippling laugh, practically convulsing against the sheets. It was infectious, and the joy invaded him until his lips pulled back in a smile and he felt like running around and cheering.

She found his hand and laced their fingers together. “When we get home, let’s stay in bed for a week,” she suggested.

Kayleb couldn’t wait.