There was no finishing dinner after the hullabaloo. Dane volunteered to take my tray, along with what he could salvage of his, back up to the dish area while I waited at the table for him to return. Everyone nearby was watching me out of the corners of their eyes, but nobody approached. I was grateful for that.

When Dane made his way back, he didn’t sit. “Perhaps you should visit the infirmary,” he suggested, looking at my fist. I was holding it against me because it ached and stung every time I moved it. “You seem to be in pain.”

“I don’t want to,” I told him with a shake of my head.

He gave me a stern look, and I could tell he was wrestling with himself on whether to argue with me or not. Finally, he asked, “Would you like to go back to your room?”

I nodded, pleased that he didn’t press me on the matter of the infirmary. He held out a hand to me, which I took with my uninjured one, and helped me up. As we left the hall, I could feel the gazes of every crewmember in there on me. Almost like a shield, Dane pressed his palm into the small of my back to guide me forward. I felt a shiver creep up my spine to the nape of my neck as I realized it was the second physical contact we’d ever had.

He kept his hand on me the entire way to my room, but, when we reached my door, he removed it. “I suppose you would like to relax after such an event,” he said. His words sounded even choppier than usual, and there was a strange look in his eye. “I will leave you to rest. Thank you for dining with me.”

With one last glance at my fist, he turned to leave. Panic suddenly burst through me like a torpedo, and I grasped at the only thing that popped into my head.

“Why have you been ignoring me?” I blurted out.

Dane stopped in his tracks immediately and spun around so quickly that he was a mere blur. “You believe I have been ignoring you?” he asked.

I snorted with derision. “I don’t believe it. It’s not like it’s a perspective, Dane; it’s a fact. You’ve been ignoring me. Why?”

His mouth opened, his chiseled jaw dropping an inch or so, and then closed again. His milky eyes flicked between mine as though he was searching me for the right answer. I refused to give him any indication of what I wanted to hear and remained steadfastly silent, staring unblinkingly back at him.

“I do not like to be near you,” he finally admitted rigidly.

I gaped at him, hurt and stunned by his answer. “You—what?” It was impossible for me to process what he’d said, and the hurt gave way to defensive rage. My uninjured hand jerked out in front of me in a furious gesture, and I demanded, “If you don’t like to be near me, why would you offer me to join you for dinner?”

He just stared at me. His mouth didn’t even open and close this time. He just stared. Embarrassed and angry, I shook my head violently and reached for the button that would open my door.

“Forget it,” I snapped bitterly, jabbing my finger onto the button. The door started to slide open, revealing the small, unlit bedroom within. “Thanks for the lovely evening.”

I had taken one step over the threshold when fingers closed around my upper arms and spun me around. Dane’s face was only a breath from mine, his scent filling my nostrils until the only thing I could smell was him. His hands gripped my arms so firmly I had no chance of pulling back, and his eyes plunged so far into mine that it was like he filled me.

“I do not like to be near you,” he repeated, his voice hard and fierce, “because it makes me want to do this.”

And then his mouth was on mine.

Everything inside me erupted, bursting like pomegranate seeds and filling me with euphoric nectar. I tasted him as viscerally as I tasted a potent wine, an intoxicating blend of an alien palate I could only equate to menthol and cedar. His tongue slipped between my lips, pushing through my teeth, seeking my tongue. I accepted him willingly. Every one of my senses was overwhelmed with him, and, as he suckled on my lower lip, I moaned.

In an instant, my feet left the ground. I felt his hands slide underneath my thighs and hoist me into the air, wrapping my legs around his waist. My fist was no longer throbbing in the wake of the endorphins coursing through me, and I threw both arms around his neck to cling to him. He gripped me tightly, releasing one of his hands just long enough to whip it backward and slam it into the button that slid the bedroom door closed behind us. Then, without bothering to turn on the lights, he cradled me again and moved forward as his tongue swirled around mine.

The ship’s gravity seemed to falter for a second before I realized I was actually falling backward onto the cot. I landed gently with my legs still twisted around Dane’s muscular form, and he landed with a soft thump over me. Our mouths had separated for the briefest of moments before we rejoined them, desperate to continue devouring one another. Every inch of my body was singing simply from kissing him. I felt pleasure, need, passion, and fear racing through my veins with each passing breath, and it was the most divine sensation I’d ever experienced. My heart pumped wildly with both the thrill of the moment and the fruition of the emotional havoc I’d been feeling.

He straightened up suddenly, his pale eyes bearing down on me through the darkness, and I froze. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Did I do something wrong?”

A low, vibrating growl rose from his throat, and a zing of arousal shot from my ears to my loins. In a flash, he swept his hand down the length of my torso. Cool air licked my unexpectedly bare skin, and I realized he’d unzipped my jumpsuit and freed my breasts from the fabric. Instantly, my nipples hardened from the sudden temperature change and the electricity of his gaze on me, and his eyes became hooded like he was hunting and had spotted his prey.

“You are exquisite,” he said. Somehow, it sounded less like a compliment and more like a threat, and I was immediately so turned on that I burned.

“Dane,” I mewed desperately, squirming beneath him and trying to beg him for the attention I craved.

I didn’t have to ask, and he didn’t hesitate. His head dropped low, and his mouth sought my nipple. I felt his lips rolling the thin-skinned point between his teeth, and I groaned as my hips bucked upward. All of the feelings I’d been harboring for him over the past month completely exploded outside the boundaries of schoolgirl crush and, if the ripples of pleasure scrolling over every single nerve I possessed were any indication, rocketed right into full-blown infatuated dedication. As his tongue flitted around my areola and skimmed over the hardened tip, and I was unable to do anything but moan and claw at his back with mounting need, I realized this alien was more dangerous to me than anything else I’d ever encountered. Not because he could take my life—though he could—but because he could take my will.

One of Dane’s hands snaked between his body and mine, wriggling through the unzipped opening of my jumpsuit and worming downward. My breath hitched in my throat as his fingers found my sweet little button of sensitivity and curled around my sex. He heard the gasp, and I could feel him grinning against my breast. His teeth nibbled my nipple playfully for just a moment while his hand rested over my folds, and then he switched to the other nipple. This one, having gone unstimulated thus far, was extraordinarily sensitive and ready for play, and I was wrenched upward in an arc by the powerful spark that shot through my body the moment his lips suckled around it.

As soon as my spine curved, pressing my breasts upward and exposing my nipple even more to his titillating teeth, his hand started working. The pad of his thumb sought my bead and began painting light swirls over its surface while his forefinger slipped inside me. Instead of the gentle but helpless moans I’d been eliciting so far, a deep, pulsating moan sprouted from my belly and burst out of my throat like a monster from within. My voice filled the room from wall to wall, and I had no means of controlling it.

Dane released my nipple and skimmed his face upward until his mouth found mine, and he kissed me so passionately it sent me into a light-headed whirlwind to rival the climax I was rapidly approaching. Our tongues intertwined, his fingers kept moving, and I was about to explode into a million pieces. I closed my eyes and felt the waves of pleasure cresting. He stroked my clit over and over relentlessly, determined to send me spiraling into euphoric oblivion.

“You are mine, little vixen,” he growled.

I opened my eyes again and looked at him through slits, desperate to see the danger and dominance on his face. As I did, however, something else caught my attention. My gaze slid over his shoulder. I saw a pair of white eyes that weren’t Dane’s staring at me.

It was Lokos!