“And you think you’re going to just guilt-trip me into doing it?”
“Of course not! I’m just very confident, Eve, that you’ll want me. Already I can sense what I’m doing to your body. My abrasive personality is like sandpaper, it gets all that prickly outer layer off you good and fast, and then I just get to see the real you underneath.”
I stared at him. It was like staring into the sun. I had no words, but I had to stare at him and take him in. Was hereallyso confident? Did he really think I was going to voluntarily have sex with him? At this point, I would not do it out of pure spite. Just to prove to him that he wasn’t as great as he thought he was.
“When your crew mutinies,” I said, looking back down at my shoes, “it’s going to beyourfault for kidnapping me. Not my fault for not having sex with you. Remember that, dickhead, and don’t come crying to me that any of your problems are on me.”
He kicked my feet. Not hard, but enough to jolt me from staring at my shoes. “What the hell?”
“God, Love,” he said, “I really want to kiss you right now, just jam my tongue down your throat, taste you real good, you know?”
My mouth was hanging open. Thankfully no drool was dripping out. “No…” I managed to stammer. It sounded about 1/10th as forceful and sure as I’d meant it to.
Tschenkar leaned forward. I’d created a lot of space between us, but tall men could really lean far. Soon his face was right next to mine, close enough that I could see all of the perfection of his skin, eyes, and razor-sharp cheekbones up close. Normally when you got so close to someone, you noticed their pores were too big, or that they had blackheads, or maybe they had crooked teeth you hadn’t seen from further away. With Tschenkar, having him closer only meant I could see more of his perfections, and the startling lack of even the slightest imperfection.
“I’m gonna kiss you,” he said.
“No,” I managed, forceful this time.
“Thuliak explained the whole triumvirate thing to you, yeah? It’s not like you’recheating.”
“Thuliak hates your guts. He doesn’t want a triumvirate with you.”
“I’m strong. It will be good for the baby. Thuliak hates my guts, sure, but I bet he admitted even to you that I’m strong.”
He had. I remembered that. “What is cheating?”
He laughed. “Fuck me! Virgin planet! I have to keep reminding myself how little you know. Can we kiss first, then I’ll explain to you what cheating is?”
“You cannot kiss me.”
He leaned in closer like he was going to kiss me. I’d remembered hearing the Khetar talk about the pirates, and being disgusted and perplexed by the notion that human men could take sexual pleasuere without consent. As Tschenkar leaned closer in, I knew that he couldn’t really kiss me if I didn’t want it, but I still feared he would…
I feared it, because I wanted him to.
“Don’t,” I whispered in the most pathetic voice I’d ever heard come out of my lips.
“I won’t,” he said, “not if you don’t say yes, but I’m going to smell you.”
I closed my eyes, and even though I couldn’t see him, and even though he wasn’t touching me, I could smell him too. And as he moved close to me, I felt his presence even though he wasn’t touching me. I felt a closeness between Tschenkar and me, and when I heard him inhaling through his nose, I had to bite my lip to keep a pathetic little moan from getting out.
“You smell so lovely,” he said, “let me have just a little taste. I won’t even make you admit you want me to lick you, Eve, just don’t say anything for three seconds and I’ll take it as a yes.”
I was biting my lip still. Three seconds was not long. I felt like I should tell him ‘no,’ and I fully meant to say it, but the seconds just slipped away, and at some point I didn’t feel like I had it in me to get the word out. It’s like it was stuck somewhere in my throat, and making it pass over my tongue and lips was simply something I didn’t have the strength to make happen.
“You see?” he said, and then I felt his hand on my thigh, just above the knee. My dress was down to my ankles, so it’s not like he was touching my skin, but—
A warm wetness touched my neck, just above my collar bone. I shuddered, at first in revulsion, but as his tongue ran down across the dip in my collarbone toward my sternum, I had to stifle a moan, and my thighs pressed tightly together.
I looked down, but Tschenkar’s deep purple skin was so close that my eyes couldn’t focus. I ran my gaze down his body, and his rippling muscles came sharply into focus. I closed my eyes and found myself wondering whether he’d go up my neck, or down—
He jerked away and looked up. He laughed. He’d stopped before he’d even really kissed me. Was he just fucking with me?
I looked at him with my jaw hanging open. My neck was still wet from his lips and tongue, and I could smell his fiercely masculine scent on me. The warmth of him fell away with a cold chill, and my chest tightened with an aching longing to feel that warmth again.
Guilt hit me hard. I shouldn’t want this from Tschenkar. Thuliak had chosen me as his. He mentioned that I’d have to be with another Khetar later, but there’s no way he’d ever let it be Tschenkar.
“He’s here,” Tshenkar said, that beautiful laugh filling the ship.