Jess was incredible. Utterly amazing. Her hot little body clenched tightly around his cock as he’d taken her over and over was everything Laarn had dreamed it would be and more. Much more.

But as hot as the sex was, lying next to her as she slept, feeling her pliant and trusting in his arms… That had been the stuff his deepest, darkest, wouldn’t admit to anyone on pain of death fantasies had been.

Lying there with her sleeping in his arms, he’d held her close, sliding a hand over her still flat stomach. Wonder still filled him that she carried his child safely within her and that moment, that memory of holding her, would forever be etched in his memory.

The knowledge that he wouldn’t be alone as he lived out his life… the fact he had a female by his side as his partner, to bear his children, had finally sunk in and had he been standing, would have brought him to his knees.

She was his, his mate, his life… An intelligent female, not a near animal like the oonat some of his brothers had settled for, but a real woman with wit and intelligence who he could have a conversation with.

He re-entered his, no their quarters with an excitement rolling through his veins he hadn’t felt for years coming through those doors because he knew she waited for him within.

His cock, semi-hard all day, flared to life and pressed uncomfortably against the front of his leathers. He was as stiff as a flagpole, even though he’d had her more times than he could count last night and then again before he’d left this morning. Leaving her all sleepy and sated in his bed, her lips plump from his kisses, had been the hardest thing he’d ever done.

But now he was back, and the hours he’d spent in the lab were too many away from her and the haven of her sweet body.

“Jess?” he called out, not finding her in the cool shade of the main rooms. Like most Latharian summers, the day was hot enough to burn flesh from bones, the heat only just starting to dissipate as the sun neared the horizon.

“Jessica?” He looked into the bedroom, not finding her sleeping either.

A pang of disappointment hit him. One of his favorite parts from last night had been rousing her from sleep so he could take her again. She’d seemed to particularly like his tongue against her clit, her little toes curling as she came back to wakefulness with a feline stretch that quickly turned into a hoarse scream as she came.

Panic replaced the disappointment, though, as he couldn’t find her in the facilities either, but then the soft splash of water from outside got his attention. The bathing pool. A groan whispered from his lips at the thought of her naked in the silky water.

“Draanth…” he breathed, his cock jerking savagely. He had to have her again.

Striding out onto the veranda, he stopped short at the side before him. In this, one of the older parts of the Imperial palace, the quarters were larger and more ornate, which extended outside as well. His bathing pool ran the length of the veranda, the cool water reflecting the blue tiles beneath invitingly. But no water could be as inviting as the woman floating on her back in the middle, as naked as the day she’d been born. Her eyes closed, she hadn’t seen him yet, a look of such serene relaxation on her face she looked like one of the goddesses themselves, come down to grace the mortal realm with her presence.

She must have sensed his presence or his gaze on her because she opened her eyes and looked right at him. “Laarn!”

A beautiful smile spread over her features, stealing his breath away as she swam toward him. Need and lust raised their heads and roared within him, and in the space between one second and the next, he tore at his clothing, stalking toward her.

His jacket hit the tiles behind him, and he walked out of his boots as he wrenched his pants open, his cock leaping free as he bent to shove them off his hips and down his legs. They were off in seconds, his gaze never leaving hers.

Her cheeks flushed, her eyes darkening as she read the intent on his face, but rather than coming to the steps toward him, she swam backward away from him. His lip curled, a warning growl in the back of his throat, but she just smiled as he waded down the steps into the water.

No words were spoken between them. None were needed. He wanted her, and he was going to have her. The water moved around him as he walked, no, stalked her across the pool.

She watched him, the light of mischief in her eyes, a light made brighter the more he growled, acting like the savage warrior he knew humans had dubbed his kind. But his little Jess seemed to like him like this, her cries of pleasure loud when he held her firmly and took what he wanted…what they both wanted.

Before he reached her, she darted to the left, trying to slide past him in the water, but he was ready for her tricks. Throwing himself to the side, it was the work of a couple of powerful kicks and he had his arms around her, hauling her up against his broad chest before she could go under.

She wriggled as if trying to escape, but not too hard. Her delighted gasps were punctuated by the splashes of water around them as he carried her toward the shallower end of the pool. Turning, he sat on one of the inbuilt loungers, the curved tiled “seats” allowing a bather to recline in comfort under the cool water.

It was the work of a moment to set her astride him. She gasped in pleasure as his hard cock slid the length of her pussy lips under the surface, the additives in the water to care for their skin making the ride silky.

Reaching up, he fastened his hand around the nape of her neck, a pang of protectiveness warring with the sheer lust surging through him at how delicate the bones there felt. How delicate she felt. Every time he touched her, he felt like a brute… but he couldn’t stop. She was his, his mate… and fire for her burned in his veins.

Pulling her down, he claimed her mouth. Their lips locked and then parted before returning in hot, open-mouthed caresses that drove the need in his body higher. Breaking away for a second, he ran his thumb over her cheek, catching sight of the marks around his wrist. Both Karryl and Tarrick had commed to congratulate him and warn him that if he thought his need for her was slacked now he’d had her, to think again… The lust that burned within for her would only get worse, as would hers for him.

This fact was proved as she wriggled to get closer, taking over their kiss by thrusting her tongue into his mouth in demand. He groaned at the feeling as she teased it along his, rocking her hips to grind her pussy against his thick shaft. That was nothing to the feeling when she slid her hand between them, wrapping her small fingers around his cock and stroking.

“That’s it, little human,” he broke away to rumble against her lips. “Take it, take what you want from me. It’s the Lathar way, and you’re mine… so you’re Lathar now.”

Letting go of her neck, he lay back in the water, spreading his arms in silent invitation. Her gaze shot to his, and then she smiled. The hot look in her eyes had him ready to come then and there. She pumped his cock again, firmer this time, and he groaned as her finger slid over the crown. Every instinct he had urged him to rise up, flip her over and bury himself balls deep in her welcoming softness but he held off. This was for her. For her to take her pleasure from him.

She teased him with her hand, pumping in slow strokes as she reached out with the other. Grabbing his wrist, she brought his hand to her breast in unspoken command. He did as he was bade, cupping and caressing the soft weight of the luscious mound in his hand. She was tiny compared to him, but her breasts more than enough to fill his hands.

He held her, stroking his thumb along the underside before sliding it across the swell of her breast, watching her face as he found her nipple and rubbed it. She bit her lip, eyes closed and head thrown back, a look of erotic concentration on her face. Trying to ignore her siren’s touch on his cock, he played with her nipples, stroking and circling, rubbing and tweaking them until they stood out proud, all but begging for his lips and tongue.

Sliding his hand up her back, he urged her to lean forward. A soft swipe of his tongue made her gasp and wriggle, the fingers of the hand on his shoulder turning to claws against his flesh as he teased her anew. Her hand on his cock faltered and she released him for a second to guide the hand he had on her hip between her thighs. Against her breast, his lips curled into a smile at the invite. He didn’t need to be asked twice, easing combat-callused fingertips between her slick pussy lips to find her clit.

He stroked and suckled, her body arching and writhing in response to the dual assault. Her hand closed around his cock again, but he kept her too off balance to do more than touch him, or stroke occasionally, ruthlessly driving her up toward need and heat.

“Laarn…” The soft plea of his name on her lips was the sweetest sound he’d heard in his life. “Please…”

“What do you need, little one?” he rasped, sitting up suddenly to claim her lips. “Tell me and I’ll give it to you.”

“Fuck me,” she whispered and he groaned, the words turning him on beyond all belief. “Take me and make me yours again.”

He nodded, lying back in the water again. Wrapping both hands around her tiny waist, he lifted her. She helped, repositioning and presenting the head of his cock against her slick entrance. They both groaned as she slid down, impaling herself on his thick cock slowly.

“Ride me, Jess,” he groaned, lifting to see where their bodies joined, to where her sweet little pussy stretched wide around his thick cock. Before long, he wouldn’t be able to take her like this, she would be too big, her belly swollen with their child. “Ride me as I watch you, looking up in worship of the goddess you are.”

“You see me that way? As a goddess?” She looked down at him in surprise, already starting to move. He gritted his teeth at the erotic slip slide as she lifted up and then impaled herself on him again.

“You’re mine. My bond-mate,” he managed in a rough voice. “I will always worship you, kneeling at your feet if I must to be granted the boon of touching your beautiful body. I will always crave you, always need you, always want you.”

She groaned, the sweetest sound he’d ever heard, and then there were no more words. With each rock of her hips as she rode him, she took them both closer to bliss. He held out for as long as he could, letting her have her way with him, but then she began to falter, her hips losing the rhythm.

Opening her beautiful eyes, she didn’t need to say anything. He read the entreaty, the need in them loud and clear. With a growl, he took over, his hands on her hips as he drove up into her. The water lapped and splashed around them as he fucked her with long strokes. Crying out, she collapsed across his chest and he held her, his strength enough for both of them as he moved. Driving up. Stroke after stroke almost turning him inside out with fire as he held off his climax to make it good for her.

Then she whimpered, and her pussy clamped down hard around him as she came, near silently in his arms. He grunted, the spasming of her pussy milking his cock. Fire raced down his spine and around to his balls, his cock jerking as he surged up into her one last time and stiffened. His cock buried inside her to the hilt, he groaned as he emptied his balls into her, jet after jet of hot, ropey seed bathing her inner walls in an explosion of bliss the like of which he’d never experienced before.

Then it was over, and he sagged in the water, glad of its support as he held her close and brushed his lips over her temple. Closing his eyes, he sighed in contentment and happiness.

She was his. Forever.

* * *

The last few days with Laarn had been amazing.

Jess sighed to herself, lost in happy memories. He was a wonderful lover and insatiable. She wasn’t an innocent by any stretch of the imagination, even verged on the adventurous, but she’d had no idea sex could be so… everything. So fulfilling. Earth-shattering in its rawness and beauty.

The healer certainly was a dark horse. So stoic and implacable all the time, she’d have never guessed that under that unreadable facade lay a deeply sensual streak that delighted in torturing her with pleasure until she was hoarse screaming his name and boneless with the ecstasy he took her to.

It was more than just the sex, though. There was something else there. A look in his eyes when he touched her, took her… something in there that rocked her right down to her soul.

She couldn’t stay away from him either, wanting him again even though he’d come back at lunch. He’d claimed her again… all uncontrolled passion against the door in their quarters, too desperate to even make it to the bed.

And she’d loved it. Every single hot, sweaty, needy second of it.

Loved it and wanted more. Needed more. Craved more.

Was that normal for bonded couples? This all-consuming, carnal desperation.

She bit her lip as she made her way through the corridors to the makeshift healer’s hall, careful to keep to the smaller halls and corridors so she didn’t get caught.

Security had been massively increased in the palace after the purist attack and given the fact she was carrying what could be the savior of the Lathar race, she wasn’t supposed to even leave their quarters without the security detail camped in the corridor outside the front door. So she’d slipped out of the garden entrance when they weren’t watching.

After all, surprising her husband in his office for a quickie didn’t need an audience. She was kinky, but not that kinky.

Her heart sped up a little as she reached the large hall they were using while the upper levels of the healer’s hall was rebuilt. The south wing of the palace was high ceilinged and flooded with light. Instead of walls, there were simply dividers and screens to create rooms and a big tent of plastic material for the quarantine areas and operating theaters.

Making her way around the edges of the hall on silent feet, she passed the recovery “rooms.” Xaandril, badly injured in battle and brought back to the palace by Laarn, was in one of them, Kenna in constant attendance. Jess’ lips quirked.

Try as Kenna might to insist her concern for the big general was simply that of one soldier to another, it was obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that something was going on between the two of them. It also hadn’t escaped Jess’ notice that Xaandril still wore the blue ribbon Kenna had wrapped around his wrist at the tournament.

“I was going to terminate them.”

The sound of Laarn’s voice stopped Jess just as she reached the area at the back of the hall that had been sectioned off for his lab and office. Her hand fell away from the drape dividing it from the room next door that she’d slipped into. Instinct made her shrink back, out of sight of the semi-translucent panel across the upper third of the drape. Slowly, she edged forward, just enough to peek around the edge.

Two big figures moved about in the area beyond and she easily recognized the other figure as Karryl, Laarn’s friend and Jane’s mate. The huge warrior was leaning against something on the other side of the office, his arms folded across his chest. He was also right in her line of sight, and she his, so she had to be careful. Any movement and he’d spot her for sure.

“You were?” Karryl asked.

“Yeah.” Laarn moved around the bed in the middle of the room. From the metallic sounds and the sparks lighting up around him, he was mending it. She bit her lip again; intelligent, a surgeon and good with tools… was there no end to his talents? “I would have done it as soon as I’d confirmed conception was viable.”

Her attention snapped away from the hot image in her head of Laarn stripped to the waist with a welding torch in his hands and back to the conversation. Conception. He was talking about her pregnancy.

A chill shivered down her spine in warning. She didn’t need to be hearing this, shouldn’t be listening… but wild horses wouldn’t have dragged her away from that spot, her feet rooted to the floor as Laarn continued to speak.

“I never wanted to implant them at all.”

“What do you mean? How the draanth did she get pregnant then?”

Laarn’s chuckle was dry and a little bitter. “Because I’m a fucking idiot and left everything set up in my lab rather than saving the data and terminating the things.”

Her heart stuttered in her chest. Things. He was referring to babies, their babies, as things.

“But Jess was ill while I was away, and those draanthing idiots in the hall made her feel unwelcome, so she used my lab…”

Karryl took up where he left off, realization in his deep tones. “And she used your equipment… the AI completed the implantation sequence.”

“You got it in one.” Laarn paused and sighed, the outline of his figure moving as he dropped his head, his hand coming up to scoop his hair out of his face. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as she watched. How many times had she seen that gesture?

“Honestly? I never intended to implant them at all, or claim her. I never wanted that—”

The tears fell, a sob rising in her throat as she backed up, her ears ringing. He didn’t want her. He’d never wanted to claim her. Pain lanced through her chest and she stumbled unseen from the hall. Her vision blinded by tears, she somehow made it through the hall and out into the corridors without anyone seeing her.