Chapter 12
Xivthar watched as the Earthling female slipped into sleep, her pretty face relaxing from its earlier grimace. Her shaking had ceased and she seemed to sense the truth – she was safe in his bed.
For now.
When he'd learned of the dissection from his brother, he'd hurried to the lab, unsure what he would find. If he'd been too late...
Finding Jark'Khal purple and menacing, and he'd lost his calm. Killing the fucker had seemed the better option, but he had to remain in control of himself lest Drake call him out again. He had been physically violent with an underling, which wasn’t at all the way a Supreme Regent was meant to behave. His subjects would soon take notice, no doubt.
Still, how could he control himself when he'd seen how excited the little shit had become? Cutting off her clothes, teasing her with the saw. The son of a shark had deserved that punch. Like he deserved several more.
And the scientists who had sat calmly observing, they should be punished too. Asking him why he'd stopped the dissection. He was the lone sane man in a world full of crazies.
Unless he was the crazy one.
The female moaned in her sleep, and the regent stroked a finger across her cheek, unconsciously soothing her. The lead scientist had been anxious about confronting him but had nonetheless spoken up. He'd always seemed a reasonable man before, and he'd clearly thought the dissection was the right course of action.
But it couldn't be. Even if the rest of the planet thought it was.
Xivthar ran a hand through his tendrils, closing his eyes and trying to get a handle on his wayward thoughts. He couldn't be worried about what everyone thought or he'd second-guess his every move and there wasn't time for that. The threat from the Hareema was too serious.
He had to trust his instincts.
But was it instinct, or merely his desire for the Earthling, that was driving his actions? Ever since he'd seen his first image of a human female, he'd been fascinated by them. Their even skin, their soft hair, their sensual twists and turns.
Zantharian women did not have well-developed breasts or hips. They stored their embryos outside of their bodies for most of their pregnancies, and once the eggs hatched, their young were raised in special seawater ponds, feeding off the nutrients in the pools. Therefore female Zantharians had bodies similar to their males.
But human females, they were delightfully different. Smaller. More delicate. Curvier. Something about their shapes turned him purple quicker than any Zantharian female ever had.
And this female, her creamy skin and golden hair excited him like nothing else. The curve of her hip and the roundness of her bottom had his heart beating against his ribcage with the force of a fist. And the exquisite swell of her breasts made him hard, painfully so.
He glanced up to take in the beautiful features of her face, the moments of them being in heated conversation rolling over him and making him groan. Her green eyes had shone with intelligence, her little nose cute and slightly rounded at the end. She was beautifully put together, but it had to be her pink lips that caught his attention most. They were softer than seadown. He brushed his fingers along her thick bottom lip, another moan leaving her as he did. Just the thought of her mouth on him had his cock aching under his sarong. He pressed his hand to the front of his need and let out a shaky breath.
Despite the fact that her body lit him on fire, it was her spunkiness, her cleverness that had him hooked and willing to make a few bad choices.
Addicted already. No wonder his brother was worried.
And he probably wasn't the only one anxious about the Earthling. If he allowed himself to be seen as favoring this female in the midst of this crisis, a vote of no confidence would be in his near future. He wouldn't be able to blame his subjects one bit.
There had to be some way to get the information he needed without resorting to torture or dissection. Some means of discovering whether Sylvia could be trusted. And if he found out she was lying, he would do what needed to be done, for the safety of his people.
Xivthar watched over the Earthling female's troubled sleep and began to plan.
