And if she was honest with herself, she wanted him to.
But instead he visibly collected himself, obviously determined to continue with the seduction he’d planned, feeding her delicacies from his world out here among the stars.
Finally, she pushed her plate away. She needed to clear her head and think about something else –anythingelse besides Kodran and how badly she wanted him to rip off all of her clothes and ravish her on the shuttle floor.
“So. What hostiles were you talking about earlier. Is it the cyborgs?” she asked.
He nodded. “Mostly them. There are any number of dangers to travel between planets. There are the cyborgs, there are the pirates, there are the slavers. There is nothing for you to worry about, though – we have scanned the quadrant and it is clear.”
“Tell me about the cyborgs.”
He grimaced and set his drink down. “There was a corporation called Futuros. They wanted cheaper labor for the dangerous mining planets, many of which have poisonous atmospheres or are bombarded by meteorites. So they took death row inmates, wiped their memories but allowed them to retain some decision-making parts of the brain, and made them into cyborgs. It worked well for a while, but then something went terribly wrong. On one of the mining planets, the highly radioactive atmosphere made their hard drives go haywire. They became self-aware and able to communicate with each other, sort of like linking into one giant computer. And although they had no memories of their former lives, they seemed to retain their core personalities. These were sadistic torturers, mass murderers who delighted in ending life for the sake of it.”
Rosamund shuddered. “So what did they do once they became self-aware?”
“They brutally slaughtered all the human overseers, stole their ships, and fled into space. They freed other groups of cyborgs and banded together. For a while they roved through the galaxy, living on hijacked ships. And then they started the population wars, in an attempt to wipe out sentient species and steal their planets.”
He saw the look on Rosamund’s face.
“They would never touch you. I would never let anything happen to you. I would die first.” His eyes glowed a brilliant green and the air around them warmed up by several degrees.
“You barely know me,” she protested gently.
“That is not true.” He took her hand and placed it on his chest. “In a way, I have always known you. You have always lived here. And now you have come home to me.”
It was sort of like the belief on Earth that everyone had a soul-mate out there – you just had to be patient and find them.
She pressed her hand against the hard muscles of his chest for a moment, then withdrew it. Touching him was dangerously addictive.
“All of your people believe this is how love works?”
“We do. Some of us are not lucky enough ever to find our heart’s fire.” A look of genuine sadness drifted across his handsome face at the thought. “Some of our kind make the choice to mate for the wrong reasons, such as wealth or prestige. I feel very sorry for them.” He looked at her. “Haven’t you always felt that a piece of you was missing?”
Rosamund felt a sharp throb stabbing deep inside her. How had he known about the faint ache, the sense of incompleteness, that had haunted her ever since she could remember?
“I…I guess. I’ve never really felt an emotional connection with anyone I’ve dated. There might be physical attraction for a short while, but it’s always felt…hollow. Unsatisfying.”
His eyes glowed even brighter, and red scales rippled over his face and arms. Now the air was so hot that sweat beaded on her forehead. Smoke curled from his nostrils as he stared intently at her.
“Who have you dated? What are their names and where are their domiciles?”
He was jealous! Also, he wanted to find her ex-boyfriends and set them on fire. She should discourage that. No matter how horrible some of her exes had been.
“That’s long in the past. I haven’t dated anyone in ages. Anyway, I just want to focus on the present. I’m sitting in outer space with a dragon.” She stroked the scales on his face with her fingertips. “They’re so pretty.”
“Oh, this?” Instantly he was entirely covered with scales. Then he blew a heart shaped smoke ring, and she laughed.
“You are very beautiful when you smile,” he said.
His skin went smooth again. He stroked her arm, and she stifled a moan of frustrated desire and slid back away from him.
“We’re still in the getting-to-know-you stage,” she protested weakly. “Umm… Uhhh… Tell me about how human females change into other species.”
“Well, we all descended from common ancestors, who fled their own planet and colonized the galaxy when their sun went supernova.”
She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest to hide the swollen buds of her nipples. She vaguely hoped this explanation would be boring enough to tear her attention away from the pink curve of Kodran’s lips, but she didn’t think so. She so desperately wanted to press her mouth against his.
“Some of those ancestors genetically engineered our races, to give us a better chance of survival on our new worlds. That is why we can change into animals. And the engineering is so efficient that if a female humanoid becomes pregnant with our young, her body will adapt and change to the species of her children.”
