“You want a baby.”
His words stop me. Shock me. Am I that obvious? Or is his intel just that good.
“So?” I don’t bother denying it.
“I could give you a baby, little human. I could make you swell with life, and unlike the lonely path you were considering, cold fertilization and medical testing, that infant would not only have father, but a vast family.”
“Thanks, but you're not the catch you think you are.” I push away from him and leave a little distance between us.
He stands up. The water comes to his waist. He is taller than I am. I can see the flared head of his alien cock breaching the surface about an inch in front of his hard torso. God, he is impressive. He looks down at me with that impeccably handsome face, and those golden slitted eyes that are so hard for someone of my species to read.
“We will see how you feel when you are ovulating,” he says. “Judging by your mood…”
“My mood!? You just fucking captured me and marched me naked through the streets of your city like a fucking dog being walked. Don’t talk to me about my mood!”
“Yes, reactive,” he says. “I would imagine you will bleed soon.”
This asshole is just like every human male who thinks because a woman is assertive, she must be on her period. At least Sithren seems to understand the foul mood comes before, not during. That’s a leap of comprehension few human males seem to make.
“And then, fourteen days after, your body will crave seed. You will come to me then, I think, and you will beg to be mated.”
I roll my eyes. I know he doesn’t have to be this nice to me. He could ravage me and throw me in a cell and have me killed for what I did to him. I think he thinks making me have his baby is a more satisfying conclusion to things, a more proper conquest for a female. He is trying to use my yearning for family against me. It won’t work.
“I want a human baby, Sithren. Not a hybrid.”
“Beggars cannot be choosers, and if you were already a mother, you would know that it is not possible to choose the kind of child you get. Scales or no scales, that is the least of the contrariness you can anticipate from an adventure as bold as breeding.”
Now he’s giving me life advice. As if he isn’t the monster everybody spends their entire lives trying to escape. He’s the worst.
“You’ve kidnapped me from my life, you’ve turned me into an object of mockery and shame, and now you think I will want to have your baby? You’re dangerously delusional. I’m going to escape your stupid planet. I have a date with Vial 22-B and I intend to keep it.”
“That’s going to be the father of your baby? Vial 22-B?”
“Yes. He's not an asshole. Unlike present company.”
“I’ll tame your mouth soon,” Sithren says. “But hearing you tell me this with a straight face is very enlightening. Has the Authority broken you so deeply you are not even going to attempt to meet a mate?”
“None of your fucking business.”
“Poor little broken Authority toy,” he taunts me. “Wants a baby and doesn’t know how to love a man. What would be the point, toy? Do you think the baby is something to be played with? Something that has no needs, requires no father?”
“What do you know? You’ve fathered dozens. Don’t tell me you parented them and gave them all the attention they needed. Wouldn't have been possible.”
“My harem functions as a family. There are many uncles to every offspring. I have always been available to my children. Will Vial 22-B hug your baby?”
I’m having the argument with him that I've had inside my own head before. Of course I’d rather a romantic partner and father, but you can’t summon one of those out of the ether. It takes months, if not years to bond with someone and decide whether they are good relationship material. I don't have that kind of time. I need to have a baby.
“I’m not going to talk about this anymore,” I say.
“Yes. Why talk when we can make love?”
“Fucking delusional,” I curse, paddling my way toward the far edge of the tub. I haul myself up over the side, petals clinging wetly to my skin as I lever myself up out of the perfumed water.
“Stop.”
I feel a scaled hand on the back of my neck. He has stilled me right on the verge of leaving the bath, my hips pressed against the soft rolled edge. It should have occurred to me before, but this is a bath to be fucked in.
I freeze because I have no choice. At any moment, I expect to feel the probing head of his cock against my pussy. He’s going to fuck me whether I want it or not. He’s going to fill me up and…