With the heat of Commander Raa-ling’s body only inches from hers, Eva’s body thrummed like a high voltage wire. She’d love nothing better than to strip off her clothes and lie back on that bed so he could plunge deep inside her.

But fear pulsed through her at the thought.

“My room.” The words tumbled from her mouth.

He led her past the bed to another door. It opened to reveal a second bedroom. She stepped inside and glanced around. The only door was the one that led back to his bedroom. That meant she had to go through his room to get in or out.

As she stepped farther into the room, she noticed a paper-thin screen hanging on the wall across from the bed. Commander Raa-ling stepped to a small control box on the wall to the right of the screen and pressed a button. The sounds of sex filled the room, and on the screen were naked bodies moving together.

She glanced sharply at him.

“Let me show you the controls,” he suggested.

She stepped beside him, agitated by the wails and cries accompanying the video display and anxious to get the thing shut down.

“Push this button to select another display location,” he explained.

Above the button, a display indicated “Red Room—A4”. She pushed the button and it switched to “Red Room—A5”. She didn’t glance at the screen, but from the sounds she could tell similar activities were taking place. She pressed the button again. “Q36—B1”. Still the same kind of sounds.

“You can also see my bedroom, Q55 dash B1, the shower, Q55 dash S, and the living area, Q55 dash L. You can key in exactly what you want right here.”

He pushed a button, revealing a small keyboard.

“How do you turn it off?” she demanded.

“You can’t. I want it as a constant reminder of what you and I should be doing. I am your soul-mate. Once we make love, you won’t be able to deny it any longer.”

Hot blood pounded through her body, threatening a core meltdown. Shakily, she drew her hand from the control panel.

He stepped closer and curled his hands over her shoulders from behind, his breath brushing the back of her neck. His lips brushed her ear. She sucked in a breath at the sensual onslaught of his touch.

“Eva, I know you’re intensely turned on. The effect of being near your tanash’ae acts like a powerful aphrodisiac. Why don’t you give in to the feeling?”

She was sorely tempted to lean back against him, to draw his hands around her and press them against her breasts.

But she steeled herself against the traitorous demands of her body.

“I don’t believe in soul-mates.”

He eased away and sighed.

“I’ll be nearby if you need me. For now, I’ll give you privacy.” He moved to the door but stopped and glanced back at her.

“Eva, your discomfort will only increase until you do what your body demands. Check the drawer beside the bed for something to help you through this.”

The door slid closed behind him. She gazed at the table to the left of the bed, focusing on the drawer. Had he supplied some kind of medication to reduce the sexual fever that held her in its grip? Did he really think she’d take alien drugs?

She approached the table, then grasped the brass-colored knob and pulled. A selection of brightly colored dildos filled the drawer. She slammed it shut, her cheeks burning.

Eva’s whole body was on fire. She lay on the bed, still fully clothed, trying to ignore the screen, but her gaze kept returning to it.

The scene currently on the display showed a tall, red-lipped brunette lying back on a bed while a man licked her pussy. A second man kissed her breasts while a blonde woman sat beside them, stroking her own pussy.

Eva tried desperately to tune it out.

The man stopped licking the brunette’s clit and positioned his cock at her entrance. The blonde slid her finger inside her visibly wet opening.

Eva’s hand slid inside her dress and tweaked one hard, aching nipple, triggering an incredible explosion of pleasure. She longed to open her dress and grasp her naked breasts in her hands, to feel her hard nipples thrusting into her palms, but she was too conscious of Commander Raa-ling in the very next room. What if he came in?

She licked her lips as she glanced at the door. Her groin ached painfully. She reached under her dress and drew down her panties, then tugged them off.

The man repeatedly thrust into the brunette, while she pumped the other man’s cock with her hand. The blonde stroked her breasts as she thrust her fingers inside her pussy.

Eva’s fingers stroked her own slit. Wet and hot. Oh, how she wanted something inside her. She slid in three fingers and pumped, but it wasn’t enough.

The brunette moaned faster and louder, and the man groaned. Eva’s fingers moved faster and harder. The man grunted and stiffened while the woman wailed in climax. Eva moaned in frustration. She found her clit and stroked frantically. The man collapsed on his partner, then rolled aside, his flaccid penis slipping out of her wet opening.

The woman rolled over and prowled toward the second man. He stretched out on his back, his cock a tower of hard flesh pointing straight up. When she mounted him, Eva’s vagina clenched at the thought of the long, hard cock pushing inside her.

She couldn’t stand it any longer. She sat up and tugged open the drawer, then grabbed a long, purple dildo with a suction cup on the base. A trailing cord with a controller attached showed her it was a vibrator too. She glanced around for somewhere to attach the suction cup. A narrow, leather-padded bench of just the right height sat by one wall.

The brunette on the video moved up and down on her lover. Eva’s insides ached with need. She skittered across the room and dragged the bench away from the wall, positioning it so she could see the video. Would the suction cup hold on leather? She noticed a raised ridge on the surface of the bench that looked the same size as the suction cup. She pushed the dildo against the side of the ridge, and the suction cup slid into place. Clearly, that’s what it was for.

She tugged open the tie of her dress and slid it off her shoulders then stripped off her bra. She climbed over the bench and positioned the cool dildo against the hot flesh between her legs. She eased herself downward, trembling as the firm device parted her moist folds, then slid inside. Her muscles clamped around the rigid shaft.

Oh yes. The hardness pushing inside her felt like heaven. Her fingers dabbed at her nipple while she used her other hand to turn the little dial on the controller. The vibration sent ripples of pleasure through her.

The woman on the screen bounced up and down on her lover. Eva shifted up and down on the vibrating dildo. As the woman moaned, Eva tweaked her hard nipple, squeezing and tugging, ramping up her pleasure. The woman on the screen wailed, and Eva rode the dildo harder. It rammed deep and fast into her as she bounced up and down, faster and faster.

The woman screamed in climax as Eva felt her own pleasure blossoming. Waves of bliss burst through her and she couldn’t stifle her wail of release. She arched forward in one final, deep thrust, the sound of her pleasure echoing from the walls.

Finally, she slumped forward, the long rod buried deep inside her still vibrating. She turned it off and sighed. Her hunger had diminished a little, but not as much as she’d hoped. Her cheeks flushed at the thought that Commander Raa-ling might have walked in on her at any moment.

What if he had heard her? What if he knew exactly what she’d just done?

She dismounted the dildo and tugged it from the bench. The two lovers on the screen wailed in another climax.

Her gaze locked on the screen and a horrid thought tumbled through her brain.

Was this room being broadcast? Had she just given a show to the entire crew?

She shoved the vibrator back into the drawer, wanting it out of sight immediately, then climbed into bed and tugged the covers up around her neck, barely able to breathe.

A moment later, a buzz sounded at her door. But it wasn’t a moment, Eva realized as she came more fully awake. She must have fallen asleep almost instantly. Her sexual release must have relieved enough of her tension to allow exhaustion to take over, despite her anxiety at the thought that others—maybe a huge many others—might have seen her riding that vibrator last night.

“Eva, may I come in?” Commander Raa-ling’s words sounded through a speaker somewhere in the room.

Her face flushed. Obviously, he expected to hear her answer. That meant he must have been able to hear the sounds she’d made last night.

“Eva?”

She clutched the covers to her neck.

“Come in.” She forced the words from her clenched throat.

The door slid open and he leaned against the door frame, a broad smile lighting his face. Heat crept into her cheeks.

“I have breakfast ready for you. Would you like it in here or the dining room?”

She couldn’t handle the intimacy of him bringing her breakfast in bed. In fact, she desperately wanted to leave this room and the memories of what she’d done last night, probably in front of a huge audience.

“The dining room.” She continued to clutch the blankets to her chest, waiting for him to leave.

He smiled and watched her for several long moments. So long that she almost protested, but then he pushed away from the door jamb and left her alone, the door closing behind him.

She pushed back the covers and stood, glancing around, wondering what she would do for clothes. Her gaze landed on the pool of black fabric on the floor. She certainly didn’t want to traipse around in an evening gown indefinitely. She opened a door on a built-in cupboard and found two pairs of jeans, one faded blue and the other black, a selection of cotton shirts, a couple of sweaters and a red velour robe. The items could have been from her closet at home. They were exactly her size and her favorite type of colors: blues, mauves and soft greens. She selected a lavender shirt paired with the black jeans.

Eva stared at the bowl of oatmeal Commander Raa-ling placed in front of her.

She tried to ignore the quivering of her hormones anytime he came near, but it was damn difficult.

“Darjeeling tea is your preference, right?” he asked as he set a metal urn on the center of the table.

“Actually, blackcurrant,” she answered, trying to be arbitrary. She picked up the spoon to the right of the bowl and poked at the steaming cereal. She noticed a bowl of brown sugar to her left.

He smiled, undaunted. Damn but he was an attractive man.

“My understanding is that your favorite is blackcurrant, but you prefer Darjeeling in the morning.”

She plunked down her spoon and stared at him.

“How do you know so much about me?”

“I know a great deal more than your eating habits. I know you got married shortly after college. After less than a year, he’d had an affair. Then another.”

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. Pain lanced through her as she remembered those early years.

“By the fourth year, he didn’t even hide it anymore,” he said.

Her throat tightened. As the years had passed, she’d become numb to her husband’s cheating, but she’d never gotten used to the feeling of emptiness at the fact she hadn’t been worthy of his love. He’d never even bothered to try to please her in bed. A quick roll and tumble was all she’d been worth to him. A handy female body to satisfy his lust.

That’s all she’d been. And, it seemed, she hadn’t even filled that role well enough, because he’d always been looking elsewhere. Intellectually, she knew he was just a lazy bastard who couldn’t be bothered to consider his partner’s needs—probably the reason he couldn’t even keep a regular lover—but her self-esteem had taken a huge jolt.

”By the time you left him, just over a year ago, both of you had lost count of the other women.”

“Shut up, damn it,” she snapped, curling her arms around herself. She didn’t need him reminding her how lousy her marriage had been. How lousy men were.

This man was no different. Dragging her here against her will. Trying to force his beliefs on her.

Breath labored from her lungs.

“Were you watching me last night?” she demanded, unable to silence the question burning through her.