“So, what do you think?” Sebastian says as he pulls his shirt over his head. For a second, I’m so mesmerized by the sight of his bare chest that I can’t focus on the question.

“About what?”

He stares at me like I’ve just asked what color the sky is. Which is a fair question, considering that the color of the sky depends upon the content of the atmosphere around any particular—

“About their offer, Kaya.”

“Well, I don’t really need their offer,” I remind him, lowering my voice so no one outside the little room they’ve assigned us for the night will be able to overhear. “Which makes me feel guilty for not just turning it down politely. But I don’t know how to do that without admitting that I can leave anytime I want. And that you’ll be leaving too.” I feel like we should avoid rubbing his impending escape in their faces.

“Yeah, me neither.” He steps out of his pants and leaves them pooled on the floor. Which is rough concrete, since we’re on the first floor.

“Are you going to sleep like that?” I try to frown at all the skin he’s showing off, but I only seem to be able to form a goofy grin instead. “You’ll freeze.”

“You’ll keep me warm,” he says as he stalks across the small space toward me.

“Not likely, considering how cold my hands are right now. I’m freezing. I don’t think this room is very well-insulated.”

“Well, the climate control doesn’t work, and the only window is missing its pane.” He points, and I turn to see that sure enough, what was once a window is now just a neat hole in the wall. And when I turn again, Sebastian is only inches away. So close I can feel the heat coming from his skin.

How is he so warm?

It’s probably something about lean muscle mass and endothermic—

“What?” He frowns down at me, trying to read my expression.

“Nothing. I just…” I still don’t quite know what to do with the fact that I’m allowed to touch him now, whenever I want. At least until we fly off of this godforsaken planet and he drops me off somewhere “safe.”

“You know, those mattresses are much more comfortable if you stack them one on top of the other. Of course, that’d mean we have to sleep pretty close together. Maybe even spoon…”

“Spooning? You’re trying to tempt me with spooning? Couldn’t you have at least said ‘naked spooning?’”

He laughs. “I thought that part was implied.”

I shake my head at him. “It’s not implied. It’s not inevitable. Sleeping with me once doesn’t make it a foregone conclusion that you’re going to get to sleep with me again.”

“I’m not talking about sleeping…” He reaches for my hips, and I let his fingers graze the material of my pants for just a second before I dance out of reach. “Okay, wait, I’m confused. You’re the one who wanted naked spooning. Is that no longer on the table?”

“I…” I frown at him, trying to figure out how to put into words what I’m thinking. “I just want…” My gaze flicks toward the two mattresses lying side by side on the floor, with a thin strip of concrete showing between them.

“Oh, I get it. You want to be seduced. You want me to work for it. Right?”

I shrug. “Well, I suspect every woman appreciates a demonstration of how badly she’s wanted. That’s all I’m saying.” But yes. I want him to work for it. I want to be kissed, and teased, and fondled. I want to be adored. On a two-inch thick vinyl mat, on the concrete floor, evidently.

“Most men would appreciate that same kind of demonstration.” Sebastian cocks one eyebrow at me.

“Seriously? Would a secure man need that much validation?”

His brow arches higher at my challenge. “Well, I don’t know about most men, but I know I could certainly use a little demonstration of how badly you want me.” He smiles. “You do want me, don’t you Kaya?” He saunters closer, wearing nothing but snug boxer briefs, from which protrudes the evidence of how badly he wants me. “This isn’t one-sided, is it?”

“Of course not.” And suddenly I’m really glad that a woman’s physical needs aren’t as obvious as a man’s.

“Then say it.”

“Say what?” But I know very well what he wants to hear.

“Tell me you want me. Tell me you need me.”

I take a step back and roll my eyes at him. “You can’t possibly be that insecure.”

“Oh, I’m not. But I am that egotistical. I want to hear how badly you want me to touch you.”

“And if that’s not the case?” It is. I’m just not accustomed to saying it.

Sebastian blinks at me. Then he shrugs. “That’s fine. We don’t have to spoon.”

“Oh come on. I’m wearing men’s clothing. I’m wearing men’s shoes—”

“They look great on you.” He grins and reaches for me again, but again I back out of his grip.

“—and I smell.”

“You smell great. You just took a sponge bath with the same floral soap I used.”

“I haven’t washed my hair in three days. There’s a lump on the side of my skull—”

“The bruise has faded a lot, and it really sets off your eye color.”

“—my only pair of underwear is still drying—”

“So you’re not wearing any? Oooh, let me see!”

“—and I’m pretty sure there are still a couple of bugs crawling on me, from sleeping in the woods. And you’re telling me that you need to hear how sexy you are?”

His grin glows like coals in a campfire. “So what you’re saying is that I’m sexy?”

“Yes. You’re the hottest man I’ve ever met in my life. But what I’m also saying is that if you want this to happen, I need to not think that I look and/or smell like a mountain man right now. That you still think I’m attractive, despite the fact that I’m wearing half the forest in my hair.”

This time when he reaches for me, I let him pull me close. “Kaya, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, and that has nothing to do with what you are or aren’t wearing. Clothes don’t make you look good; you make clothes look good.”

He leans in for a kiss, and despite my determination to stand firm, I can practically feel my irritation melting. How can a man I’ve seen beat people to death in the arena also seem so…charming? “But you make complete and total nudity look even better, so if you don’t take all this off in the next few seconds, I’m going to rip it off. With my teeth.” He snaps his teeth together playfully as his hands find the hem of my borrowed shirt and wander beneath it. “You are the best thing I’ve ever felt. My hands are thanking me right now. But my cock is jealous. He’s feeling neglected.”

“Your…cock is a he?”

Sebastian laughs. “One might think that’d be obvious.”

“I’m just surprised you’d refer to a part of your own body as a person.”

“Well, he does seem to have a mind of his own.”

I laugh as I pull my shirt off. Sebastian’s eyes widen. “You’re not wearing a bra.”

“I rinsed it out, and now it’s hanging over the edge of the sink in the bathroom, to dry.” I point at the closed door across the room. This building was evidently once a hotel or dormitory, and most of the rooms have built-in bathrooms, but the water in ours doesn’t work. The Sorority has only managed to restore plumbing to two of the bathrooms in the building and no one sleeps in the rooms connected to them, to make sure there’s public access to hygiene facilities at all times.

This community is amazingly…communal. It restores my faith in humanity, just a little bit. Especially considering that the only other people we’ve met in zone three tried to rape and kidnap me.

“Okay, well that’s a start, but nudity is actually an all-or-nothing concept.” Sebastian reaches for the waistband of my pants, but I step back, and he follows me. With a teasing grin, I step back again, and again, until my back hits the wall. I’m caught.

I think I like being caught.

But instead of undoing the button and pushing my clothes off, Sebastian slides his hand down the front of my pants.

“Oh, god,” I groan as his fingers brush my clit on their way farther down. “Seb—”

He cuts off the rest of his own name with a kiss as he shifts his wrist so he can slide one finger inside me. The moan that crawls up my throat sounds like it came from a caged animal. From a hungry beast begging to be fed. He swallows that sound as his finger plunges in and out of me.

There’s plenty of room in my too-big pants, but the angle is less than ideal, so he nudges my foot with his own until I spread my legs for him. Giving him more room.

Giving myself more depth.

The next plunge is two fingers, and I like the added girth, yet his fingers have nothing on his…other part. But then the heel of his hand begins to brush my clit with every stroke, and I find myself grinding into it. Demanding more pressure. More friction.

He shifts his hand again and his thumb finds my clit just as his fingers find that sensitive place inside me, and now I’m riding his hand, my fingers clawing the wall at my back. I have no shame. It feels so good.

I can’t believe I never knew it could feel this good.

“Sebastian!”

He laughs as he covers my mouth with his free hand. “Shhh…” Then he strokes harder. Faster. “You want more?” he whispers.

I nod beneath his hand. I need release so badly. I don’t understand what’s happening. I went years without an orgasm except by my own hand, but now that I’ve had a taste, my appetite has only grown.

“Come for me, Kaya, and I’ll let you ride my cock.”

I nod frantically. I’m trying. I want to. I need to.

“Let me feel how wet you can get. I want to feel your body grab my fingers and hold on. I want you to take it from me. Take it for yourself.”

Oh, god, the dirty talk. I groan behind his hand. I’m so close. I’m right…there.

“Come on, Kaya. You can do it. Come for me.” He plunges in, hard and deep, his thumb firmly rubbing my clit, and I break apart in his hand like glass shattering. No, like glass exploding. There are pieces of me everywhere. Yet still my hips rock forward, demanding more from him. Begging him to draw it out.

And he does. Oh, god, he does.

“You’re even more beautiful in the throes of orgasm,” Sebastian whispers into my ear. He sucks my lobe into his mouth and licks it gently. Then he bites down, just hard enough to draw a yelp from me, though it’s muffled behind his hand. “I want to see it again.” He removes his hand from my mouth and pulls the other from my pants. Then he shoves them down.

“Oh, I don’t know if I can—”

“You can.” Sebastian holds his hand up to show me how wet his fingers are. Then he slides them into his mouth and sucks them clean. “Mmm…”

“Oh my god! That’s filthy!”

He laughs. “It’s not filthy. It’s you. Would you think it was filthy if I came in your mouth?”

My horrified look seems to stun him. “You’ve never done that, have you?”

I shake my head, simultaneously humiliated by the question and by my own answer. I know people do that. But oral sex—particularly with a woman on the giving end—is among the filthiest, most undignified acts in the universe, according to my grandmother. It involves words she would only whisper, to warn me away.

“Not with David?” Sebastian asks, and though I’m uncomfortable discussing my previous sex life in the middle of my current one, it doesn’t seem to bother him. At least, not beyond the fury that always seems to consume him when David’s name comes up.

“That wasn’t…what he liked.” He didn’t like anything, really, except plain old sex. The kind where I’d lie as still as possible and close my eyes until it was over.

But that no longer even seems real. How could what happened with David even possibly exist in the same galaxy as what’s happening with Sebastian? Sebastian’s way is definitely better. Which can only mean that giving a…blow job—

Even in my mind, the words are whispered.

—can’t be as bad as my grandmother would have me believe.

And though I don’t want to admit it, even to myself, I saw Sylvie do it once, for Graham, on a feed my boss made me watch for “marketing purposes,” and she certainly didn’t seem to find it undignified.

“I mean, I guess I could try that. I won’t say I’m not intrigued…”

“Next time,” Sebastian grunts. “Right now, I have to be inside you. And you can come again. You will…” he promises with a smile as he shoves his pants down.

I gasp as he lifts me by my waist, then I cling to his shoulders as he presses my back against the wall and wraps my legs around his hips. Then he lifts me a little higher, and I feel him at my entrance. And oh, god, I want him inside me. Even though I just came.

I’m still wet enough that he slides in easily, and for a second, neither of us moves. I let my eyes fall closed and I live in this moment. Just feeling him hot and hard inside me. His chest warm against my breasts, while the metal wall is cold and slick at my back.

Then I squeeze him with my legs, and he groans as that forces him deeper. “You’re the best thing I’ve ever felt.”

I’m sure that’s hyperbole. Or flattery. Sebastian was famous, before Rhodon. I’m sure there were…fans. Women willing to do things I’ve never even heard of. He certainly didn’t get this good at sex from not practicing. But I’m willing to pretend he means what he’s saying, at least in the heat of this moment.

Sebastian begins to thrust, pinning me against the wall with his chest, and this new angle is…interesting. He’s hitting the same sensitive spots, but in a totally new way. Within minutes, my climax begins to build again, and I cling to him, both internally and with my arms.

“Wait for me,” he grunts.

“Oh! I can’t. I—”

“Wait for me, Kaya.”

So I try to draw it out, but each thrust pushes me closer to the edge of a cliff, and with my toes clinging to the edge, I can’t—

“Now, baby,” Sebastian groans, slamming into me with a frantic need. I let go, and my release washes over me like waves crashing against that cliff. My body clenches around him as he spills inside me, his chest rubbing against my aching nipples.

He kisses me, still throbbing inside me, and my legs tighten around his hips, pinning him against me. “God, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” he murmurs against my neck.

And with a sudden jolt of understanding, I realize that the inverse is also true. Despite the hardship and discomfort of existing on the surface of a prison planet, I’ve never been happier in my life than I am with Sebastian.

He’s not who I should be with. Sebastian and I don’t make sense. But the man who does make sense in my life is a domineering rapist…asshole.

I’m not going back to David. I’ve known that for weeks. The part I’m just now figuring out is that I don’t want to leave Sebastian. I don’t want him to drop me off somewhere safe, then go live out his life in peaceful anonymity. I want to go with him.

It’s not like I’d be leaving much behind. A fake fiancé I don’t want. A job I can no longer live with myself for performing. A grandmother who thinks everything I do puts me one step closer to an afterlife of eternal torment.

I’ve only been out here a few days, but what I’ve learned about myself could easily have taken a lifetime to understand, under other circumstances. If I hadn’t been kidnapped, I might never have realized that the things I miss most from my life are just that: things. Climate control. Clothes. A functional bathroom. And those are all things I’d get back, if I go with Sebastian.

But I’d also get him.

If he wants me.

He steps back, pulling out of me, then sets my feet on the floor. “Kaya? You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m just thinking.” I frown. “Why do you ask?”

“You were breathing funny. Kind of holding your breath for a second, like you do when you’re about to argue with me. I figured that meant you were arguing with yourself.”

“I was.” I blink at him. “I didn’t know I do that. The breath-holding thing.” Yet he noticed it. And developed a theory about what it meant. Because he gives a damn.

Don’t read too much into that. He might just be really observant.

“I, um…” I pull my shirt over my head as he bends to stack the bed mats, one atop the other. “I’m not going to take Maci’s offer.”

He stands and looks down at me. Right into my eyes. “Are you sure? This could all be over for you tomorrow, and I truly wouldn’t blame you for taking the out.”

“I know, but…I don’t want it to be over.”

Sebastian pulls a rolled-up towel from his bag and sets it at the top of the mat, as a makeshift pillow. “You want to stay on Rhodon and wait for the escape shuttle?” He pulls me close with a naughty smile. “Sponge bathing’s growing on you, isn’t it? I have this theory that we could make it sexy if we roleplay nurse and—”

“I want to come with you. Wherever you’re going when you leave here.” The admission makes my heart pound. My head feel light. “I mean, if you want me there.”

An odd stillness settles over him, like the surface of a calm lake, and I can’t tell what lies beneath. It could be a churning storm of tension, if I’ve just inserted myself into his life without an invitation. If I’ve misread every gesture he’s made.

If here, just like in the greenroom, he’s really only manipulating me to get what he needs.

“Wait, I’m not sure I understand. You don’t want to be rescued?”

I shrug. “I mean, I don’t want to stay here, obviously. But I don’t want to go back to my old life either. There’s nothing there for me, Sebastian. I’m quitting my job, which means I’ll no longer be living in orbit. I’ll have to go somewhere. And I want to go with you.”

“Kaya, that would mean leaving everything behind. Everything. Forever. What about your friends? Your grandmother?”

“I don’t have any real friends. For years, David and I mostly saw his friends, and mine sort of…fell away. And my grandmother doesn’t even really like me. I look too much like my mother—the sinner who lured her son away and eventually got him killed.”

Sebastian sits on the mat and pats the spot next to him. I sit, and now I’m staring into his eyes from inches away. “What about the money? Suing UA? You could go wherever you want. Start a new life. Make new friends.”

“I can’t… Sebastian I can’t do that. I don’t want to live the rest of my life on credits made on the backs of men forced to kill each other to entertain the masses. I want to go with you.” I take a deep breath. Then I give him an out. Because that’s only fair. “Unless you think that having me with you would intensify the manhunt. Or raise the bounty. Or whatever. I don’t want to make it harder for you and Sylvie and Graham.”

He stares at me, and I can tell from the virtual grinding of gears deep in his head that he’s still trying to process what he’s hearing. “Kaya, I don’t care about that. But…you know we’re not going to be living in luxury, right? We’ll have to lie low. For the rest of our lives.”

I nod. “If being here has taught me anything, it’s that all I really require in life is running water and a functional toilet.” And him. I need Sebastian.

“You wouldn’t miss your shoes, and your classy buns…?” He lifts a strand of my hair and trails the end of it down my cheek.

“You say classy; I say boring and restrictive.” Another shrug. “I’m pretty sure I’ve had a headache for three straight years.”

“Well, I do like your hair down. But Kaya, if you go with us of your own free will, you’ll be aiding and abetting escaped fugitives. That’ll make you a criminal. If we’re ever caught, we could all wind up right back here.”

“So, let’s not get caught.”

He laughs. “There are four million prisoners on this planet who probably once said that very thing.”

“We’re smarter than they are. But you still haven’t answered my question. Do you want me to come? Because if you don’t, I can just—”

“Baby, I always want you to come.” He rubs one thumb over my nipple through my shirt and gives me a dirty grin.

“Sex puns. Cute. But I’m serious. If you don’t want me there, tell me now. It’s really fine.” It’s not. I’d be okay without him. Yet I’d be without him. “But I need to know.”

“I want you there.” His voice is serious, but his grin is still…suggestive. “And I want you here. I want you everywhere. Every way. All the time.” And finally, the grin fades. “But I don’t want to ruin your life, Kaya. And that’s what would happen if you come with me and Sylvie and Graham. That’s a decision you can’t take back, and years from now, you may wish you could. I can’t stand the thought that someday you might look at me like I’m what went wrong with your life. That all your problems began with me.” He glances around at our current circumstances. “Though that’d be a fair assessment.”

“My problems began way before you. At most, you’ve added, like thirty percent to my problems.”

Sebastian frowns. Then he throws his head back and laughs. “Jokes. You’ve got jokes! That’s new, Johnston.”

I shrug. “This is all new. And that’s what I want. A new beginning with you. If you want me.”

“Yes. Of course. Come with us. Hell, help us decide where to go. If you’re sure it’s worth the risk…”

“You’re worth the risk. So stop trying to talk me out of this.”

But I really don’t think there’s going to be much risk. Sebastian’s plan is a good one. Universal Authority will give him anything he wants to get me back.

David will make certain of that.