Chapter 1
She loved wild, animalistic sex. Sera stood with her hands braced on the wall before her, fingers scrabbling for purchase on the cool expanse of metal as her body rocked to the hot, hard rhythm Bretton set behind her. His long cock stretched her so wide the sensation bordered on pain. The perfect expression of their relationship. Agony and ecstasy twisting together until she couldn’t tell one from the other. She craved it. She wanted more.
Each slamming push drove her to the very edge of orgasm but didn’t allow her to go over. Frustration screamed through her, sweat sliding in slow beads down her temples and between her breasts.
“Please, Bretton. Please.” Her breath rushed out in harsh pants. How long would he make her wait to come? Hours, if he wanted to. She whimpered.
One of his hands drew back and slapped hard against her ass. She jolted, dark pleasure whipping through her as tingles raced over her stinging flesh. His chuckle rumbled up from his broad chest. “Have patience.”
“I can’t—I need…more.” She choked when he ground his hips against her. Her muscles shook in anticipation. She threw her head back so it rested against his shoulder. He licked her throat, sucking kisses up her neck to nip at her earlobe. She moaned low in her throat. “Please, I need more.”
“You’ll have more. I swear it.” He withdrew until only the very tip of his dick was within her pussy. She reached back to grab the flexing muscles of his backside. Her nails dug in, trying to force him to hurry.
“Now.” Squeezing her pussy tight around him, she moved with each pounding thrust. He groaned. Anything to make him go faster. Desperation ripped into her with jagged claws. She would die if it didn’t stop soon. She leaned forward and arched her body to try to move.
“Shh.” His hand splayed across her lower belly, pressing her back into him. “You’re so wet for me, fire fin. So sleek.”
His smooth voice caressed her ear, his panting breath blowing the tiny hairs at the base of her neck. She shivered in response. Long strands of his waist-length ebony hair slipped over her shoulder to caress her breasts as he dipped in to kiss her nape.
A sob caught in her throat, and she twisted in his arms. Hot desire whipped through her. “I want you. Just you. Only you.”
He shuddered against her, the only outward sign that her words had any effect. And maybe they didn’t. Pain lanced through her, and she swallowed. Unexpected tears welled in her eyes, and she was grateful he fucked her from behind this time. So much had happened between them, yet she knew no more of his heart than she had the day they’d met. She pulled in a steadying breath and blinked away the moisture that misted her vision.
“Sera?” He buried his cock deep within her and stilled his movements. She throbbed around him, her body sure of her needs…even if her emotions remained conflicted. He lifted his hands to cup her breasts, and a moan ripped from her when he flicked his nails over her beaded nipples. Fire roared through her veins, and goose bumps rippled down her arms and legs.
“Bretton,” she breathed. “Don’t stop.”
One hand lifted to bracket her chin and nudge her face around so he could look at her. The fingers of his other hand continued to play over her breast. His brilliant turquoise gaze burned with the heated edge of lust, the irises bleeding out until the color spread from corner to corner. “You’re certain, fire fin?”
She wasn’t sure of anything, just that she wanted him more than her next breath. Tipping her head, she brushed her lips over his. Their mouths moved together, teasing slowly. His fingers stroked over her jaw and down to the pounding pulse at the base of her throat. She smiled and nipped his lower lip. His tongue swept into her mouth as he took control of the kiss. She gasped when his fingers pinched her nipple, twisting the tip. The hot, masculine scent of him filled her nose. It mingled with the smell of sex in the room. God, she loved that. Loved his heavy cock nestled inside her, loved that he could still hold back when she knew he burned for her.
He trailed his fingers down her torso, around her navel, over the swell of her belly, and between her thighs. She sighed against his lips. He played with the hard nub of her clit, rolling his thumb over it. She pushed her ass back, nudging his dick within her. His breath rushed out. She didn’t have a lot of room to move, but even the slight friction was enough to send shivers down her spine.
She tossed her long red hair back so she could meet his eyes, so he could see how much she loved what he did to her. What only he had ever done for her.
“You are so lovely.” His gaze swept her face.
A flush washed up her cheeks. She’d been the smart one her entire life. Only Bretton had ever claimed she was pretty to look at. She smiled, clinging to this sweetness that she only saw when they were in bed together. This warmth and connection that felt so right, so much like she knew it should be between them always. She shrugged and cleared her throat. Her hips faltered in their movements. “Thank you, Bretton.”
He arched an eyebrow, grinding his pelvis against her backside. “You’re thanking me for the truth, fire fin?”
Flashing a little smile at him over her shoulder, she nodded. “I’ll thank you for a whole lot more if you’ll move your ass.”
He chuckled. Thrusting, he pressed deeper into her wet sex. She moaned, arching with him. His fingers played over her slick folds, rubbing the stretched lips alongside his stroking cock. Heat unfurled in her belly, rocketing through her system.
His hips bucked hard, picking up speed to a punishing rhythm. She burned hotter and hotter. He pressed down directly on her clit, the force of his thrusts moving her against his finger. A scream burst from her throat, tingles exploding down her legs. He leaned forward and bit the back of her neck. Hard. She jolted, her pussy fisting tight on his cock, milking the hard length. Sensation rolled over her in a suffocating wave, dragging her under until there was nothing except Bretton and his cock driving into her and the rush of orgasm crashing through her body. “I love you,” she whispered.
A long groan from him vibrated against her back and drowned out her words so he didn’t hear them. Slamming into her one, two, three more times, he froze. He jetted into her, coming hot and deep within her. He nipped the back of her neck again. His free hand raked up the front of her thigh, and she shivered, her pussy clenching in the aftermath of orgasm.
Always it was this way with him. Wicked control of her pleasure before he unleashed the wild side of himself. The side she loved the most because it was just for her—no one else ever saw it.
She collapsed against the cold metal wall, her sweat slicking the surface as her knees buckled and she slid down. Bretton caught her in his arms, lifted her to his chest, and carried her to her bed. She rested her cheek on his shoulder, closing her eyes to savor the moment with him.
Would he stay with her or leave her? She never knew with him. Two steps forward, two steps back. He was unpredictable, a variable in an experiment she didn’t understand yet. She turned on her side to face the wall. She didn’t want to watch him walk away if he decided to go. A small smile curled her mouth as he crawled in behind her, his front pressed to her back. He brushed his lips over her nape, and she shivered in response.
His arms encircled her in a light embrace, and she sighed at the soft pleasure of his skin against hers. She loved it when he was relaxed and casual. Not the formal diplomat he normally was, but the considerate lover.
She felt the mattress shift as he propped himself up on his elbow behind her. It usually meant he had something on his mind he wanted to talk about. Politics, religion, sex, business. She never knew what he might say, but she often said something that shut him down again, so she tried not to interrupt too much when he was in a rare, open mood.
“The trade ship arrives tomorrow.” His fingers drew lazy patterns on her shoulder.
Pulling in a deep breath, she wondered again at the twist of fate that had landed her in this man’s arms. She wasn’t born in this time or place, yet here she was.
Earth.
Here it was a myth, a legend, a part of history that had died centuries ago. When she would have died if her ship hadn’t been lost in space. She’d been coming to Aquatilis to help found a new colony. As a scientist with doctorates in mechanical and biological engineering, she’d been recruited to help with the gene-splicing that had created the new species of Homo sapiens that inhabited the colonized planets. In her time, they’d created only merpeople—Bretton’s ancestors—and had been considering experiments with large cats such as lions and tigers. Now, in addition to the merpeople on the water world of Aquatilis, weretigers, werebears, and weredragons lived on three other planets. So much change, so much she had missed.
There had been a malfunction with the spaceship she’d taken, but the life-support systems had maintained the passengers and crew in stasis. They’d drifted in space until they were caught in another planet’s orbit. They’d crash-landed. She fisted her hands in the bedcovers, vivid memories of that day flashing through her mind—the terror that had coursed through her, the heat of the fire, the disorientation of waking.
Along with one other woman—Jain Roberts—Sera had survived the crash onto the icy, mountainous planet of Alysius. The werebear world. She shivered, remembering the reception of her barbaric saviors. If Bretton hadn’t found her… Well, she didn’t care to contemplate what would have happened to her without the merman ambassador’s intervention.
Jain had been rescued by a different clan of bears and had fallen in love with their leader. Unlike Sera, she’d chosen to remain on the planet. If not for Sera’s relationship with Bretton, Sera wouldn’t understand the other woman’s choice. But there wasn’t much Sera wouldn’t do to stay with Bretton. She wished he felt the same. She winced at the thought, shying away from what that meant for her. A full year had gone by, and she was no closer to his heart than she had been when he’d taken her from Alysius.
She swallowed and closed her eyes. She loved him. Even the parts of him that drove her insane. His kindness, respect for others, and sense of responsibility. His sweetness when they were alone. His snobbery and aloofness when they were in the company of others. All of it intrigued her, attracted her. She bit back a smile—or maybe it just made her the worst kind of masochist.
He shifted, and the tips of his hair tickled over her skin. “Their transmission said they’d dock at midday.”
They no longer had the technology to send long-range communications as they had when she was born, but the weretiger ship had sent a short-wave burst transmission that Jain and her husband, Lord Kesuk, were aboard the ship. Why they ventured to Aquatilis when people from the two planets viewed each other with mutual disdain, Sera didn’t know. Unease twisted her stomach. “Jain will be here.”
“You’ve missed her.” His lips feathered over her skin, and she shivered, a slow coil of desire winding through her.
She curled her arm under her cheek. “Yes and no.”
“Explain.” He bit her shoulder lightly. Her nipples peaked tight, and she had to press her thighs together to still the sudden ache between them.
Swallowing, she tried to focus on the conversation. “I’ve worried about her on that planet. She is, after all, the only one like me—the only one alive who knew what it was like before now, who has seen Earth. That binds us somehow, but we were never close. Her brother and I knew each other well.”
“He was your lover.” It wasn’t a question, and his voice came out a flat monotone. He froze behind her before his hand lifted away from her arm.
She eased around to look at him. “Sometimes, yes. He wasn’t why I came here, in case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t.” He pulled back, rolling to his feet.
Sitting up, she reached for her discarded jumpsuit. “Hang on, I’ll come with you.”
He shook his head, his black hair slipping over his shoulder as he reached for his clothing. “No.”
Frustration punched through her, and she blew out a breath. “You always do this. Pull away. It’s like I’m only good enough when you’re hard up.”
“You’re speaking in Earthan euphemisms again.” He slid his soft-sided boots over his pants and jerked his shirt over his head. With an efficient movement, he secured his hair in a long queue down his back.
She folded her arms across her breasts, and his turquoise eyes flashed as his gaze dropped to her bare skin. “Then let me say it plainly: are you ashamed to have people know we’re sleeping together?”
A muscle in his square jaw ticked, and his nostrils flared in annoyance. She knew he didn’t care to talk about their unwieldy relationship. At the moment, she didn’t care. She tried not to push, but sometimes she had to. What did she mean to him? Where was this going? Anywhere? Was she wasting her love on a man who could never return her feelings? The questions plagued her more and more often.
It hurt, how he could disregard her in public. Part of her knew it was the nature of the culture that had developed on this world. But the woman in her needed to be acknowledged. Needed some indication that she wasn’t so…alone.
“If I were ashamed to sleep with you, I wouldn’t be sleeping with you.” With that he spun and strode out of the room.
She sighed and pushed to her feet. Reaching again for her jumpsuit, she stepped into it and sealed the front closed. Once she had her boots on, she was ready to get back to the workday Bretton had so pleasurably interrupted.
One of the machines in her lab was giving her inaccurate readings and needed recalibrating. Stepping through the hatchway that separated her private quarters from her lab, she picked up the tools she’d discarded. Forcing herself to put away the emotions Bretton had pulled from her, she ran through the tests she’d already run and considered those she still needed to conduct.
A sad grin tugged at the side of her mouth. As much as Bretton ran from her, he’d probably spend the night in her bed. What a mess. But it was her mess, and she couldn’t not want him.
“Bretton.”
He froze at the sound of his father’s voice behind him. Neptune preserve him, he had no desire to see the older man after a passionate session with Sera. It always left him confused and angry with himself for losing control. He shouldn’t want her, shouldn’t touch her. And yet he’d been unable to resist since the very first. A full Turn had gone by, and he’d been unable to slake his lust for the curvaceous scientist.
Clasping his hands behind his back, he waited for his father to draw abreast of him. Cuthbert Hahn looked every inch the senior counselor he was. He advised the Senate on all manner of political and social agendas. The Hahn family had always participated in the ruling of Aquatilis. Bretton followed in that proud tradition in his position as the chief ambassador to the other colonized planets. It was an important path before him, one he needed to perfect. He pulled in a deep breath and faced his father.
Cuthbert’s nostrils flared. He had the slightly wide and flat nose of a merpeople—all mammals on the planet had been genetically engineered to have their breathing passages lined with gills. His turquoise gaze slid over Bretton’s shoulder in the direction of Sera’s quarters. He narrowed his eyes and jerked his chin, indicating that Bretton should follow. “I worry you’re getting too close to the human, son.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to say.” Bretton’s jaw flexed. He had no desire to speak of Sera. He knew he should cease his relations with her, but what he should do and what he did were two very different things with her. He’d worked hard to perfect himself—as did all merpeople—but with her… He cursed himself for his weakness and her for twisting him into knots.
Cuthbert grunted, working hard to keep pace with Bretton’s longer stride. “You have a duty to your people. You don’t have time to become entangled with someone like her.”
“Like her?” The question ground out between Bretton’s clenched teeth. While he knew he shouldn’t be involved with Sera, it angered him to hear others speak poorly of her. She wasn’t a mermaid, so why did so many try to force her to act like one? But he could never vent his frustrations. In public, he had to act as though he was constantly improving himself. Before Sera, he hadn’t had to act, he had simply been what he should be. And anger and frustration—involvement with an imperfect woman—would cause scrutiny he didn’t want. He was a political figure, constantly under surveillance for any slip in demeanor.
“Emotional. Volatile. She’d make a poor mate for an ambassador. Especially the chief ambassador. You have an example to set. The ambassadorial corps must be cool, logical, and socially adept—she is none of those things. She’s the kind of woman who expects love in a mating.”
Bretton rolled his eyes. “Neptune forbid.”
“This is no jest, Bretton. I’m deadly serious.” His father caught his arm. Rabid intensity shone in his gaze.
Bretton snapped to attention and nodded. He knew what his father said was true. His hands balled into fists at his sides, but he kept his tone respectful. “I understand, sir.”
“Do not confuse physical compatibility with the makings of a suitable mate.” Cuthbert’s voice took on the lecturing tone he’d used when Bretton was a child. It grated to hear it now when he was a grown man.
“Sera is not Mother.” No, his mother had disgraced their family and left his father to live on a sea cow ranch at the very outskirts of merpeople civilization near the lost city of Pacifica. In doing so, she’d exposed them all to scorn for straying from the path of vigilant self-improvement. It had ruined his father’s career. He’d never be elected a senator or make the chancellorship as so many Hahns had before him. Now his father expected Bretton to fill the breach, to be everything Cuthbert could not.
His father gave a derisive snort. “Every woman is like your mother. I refuse to see you make the same mistakes I did.”
Bretton pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew his father was correct. Mating with the wrong woman had all but ended Cuthbert’s political aspirations—and Bretton had no right to dishonor his family like his mother had. He smiled, but it held no amusement. It had taken the Senate very little time to realize that Sera didn’t respond well to authority—and the only one who had any luck garnering her cooperation was Bretton. So she’d become his responsibility. Regardless of his official duties, he had to stop seeing her in a personal manner. Had to stop touching her, lusting after her, dreaming of her.
Starting now.
He heaved a weary sigh and ran a hand across his forehead. The trade ship was the most important function of his position each Turn, and letting Sera distract him was an error he couldn’t allow himself.