Kirov blinked, amusement warring with lust inside him. This female had a tongue on her and he wanted her to use it on him, in whatever way she pleased, even if it was to spew confusing words he didn’t yet understand. One span, however, perhaps she would use that tongue on him in a much more mutually pleasurable way.
“Who are Pete and Sue?” he asked. “And what is a ‘perv’?”
“Jesus H. Christ,” she muttered under her breath. Before he could open his mouth, she turned to Vixron and said, “Look, this is just a big misunderstanding. I’m fine. Nothing happened. He just startled me is all. I want to go to bed now, okay?”
Kirov tensed when she pushed off the wall, everything in him rebelling at the thought of letting her out of his sight. His chest squeezed in panic simply at the thought.
What if he never saw her again? What if she was just a hallucination, a cruel trick by the Fates?
Kirov became aware that Vixron was still watching him and though it was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, he jerked his gaze away from his retreatingluxivaand focused it instead on the suspicious warrior.
“Ensure the female makes it to the dwelling safely,” he said. “And stay posted at the door for the remainder of the night. I will see about relief duty for you in the morning since you are clearly in need of rest.”
“Yes, Ambassador,” Vixron said, jerking his head in a nod.
Kirov’s body relaxed, the tension in his muscles releasing when Vixron turned his back, striding down the terrace.
Kirov could still see her. He watched the graceful sway of her body as she walked, a longing ache building inside him. It joined his restlessness, his excitement, his fear at discovering his fated mate.Vrax, how did Vaxa’an, Lihvan, Rixavox, and Vikanstandthis worry, this despair? The awakening of his Instinct had been like an extraction. A vital part of him had been torn out of his body and buried withinher. Forever.
And she was walking away from him.
He could do nothing about it, lest he make Vixron even more suspicious about what had just happened between them.
“Vrax,” he rasped under his breath.
Then, just before the female slipped back inside the dwelling, she paused. As if she could feel his eyes on her, she turned to look at him over her shoulder. Her red hair swayed down her back and though he couldn’t see the color of her eyes, for she was too far away, he knew they shone with beauty.
Feel it too,luxiva, he urged silently.Feel what it will be between us.
Hisluxivalooked at him for one, two, ten moments. Then Vixron stepped between them and the connection was ended.
Kirov felt the loss of it, ofher, like a severed limb.
Chapter Six
The hot water from the giant bathtub/pool greeted her when Lainey sunk in, neck-deep. The muscles in her body loosened, lengthened, and she sighed, though it sounded more like a shuddering gasp to her own ears.
Reaching up a trembling hand, she pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyelids shut. Her heart was still racing and her body…her body was still humming.
She was reeling from her encounter with the Ambassador. Everything about it seemed like a strange dream, an out-of-body experience. Not only could she not believe that she’d actually watched the alien masturbate to a shattering orgasm—so powerful that she felt likeshe’dhad one with him—but that he’d caught her and confronted her about it.
Lainey wrapped her arms around her naked, shaking body, running her hands up and down from her elbows to her shoulders. Her gaze strayed to the grey tunic lying in a heap at the steps of the stairs leading into the bath.
It had been covered in his…hiscum. It was something that should repulse or disturb her, but Lainey felt decidedly…undisturbed.
In fact, she felt quite the opposite. Which didn’t make sense. Which was why she was trying to calm her mind, to get it on straight before she headed for bed, so that she could wake up in the morning the same person she’d been before. Not this strange, altered woman, who felt like something cosmic had just shifted.
Becausesomethinghad happened the moment she saw him.
And it had happened for Cecelia too, Lainey couldn’t help but think. It had also—most likely, most definitely—happened to Taylor, Beks, and Kate too.
No, no, no, no.
Lainey put a halt to her thoughts, to the strong sense of dread and foreboding, and ignored the way her body still tingled from feeling that alien Ambassador’s strong arms wrapped around her. His smell, his massive height, the way his eyes gleamed with something sensual, something wicked, something unknown when he’d looked at her. Those goddamn piercing blue eyes would haunt her dreams if she let them.
Get a grip, she told herself.
Lainey took a deep breath, distracting herself instead with the peace she’d felt standing outside on the terrace, soaking in moonlight and fresh, cool air, before the alien had crashed into her life. She’d felt free then. After being locked away in cages on the alien fight club planet they’d come from, to being locked away in a room on this strange planet called Luxiria. Even being in the bathroom made Lainey antsy. She wanted open air, to feel no walls surrounding her.
