“Your skin is a bit different. Darker, as if you’ve been out in the sun.”
“You are the one whose skin changes color,” I replied.
I watched as her pale flesh changed color again.
“That’s blushing. I do it… when nervous or embarrassed.”
“Ah.” That was a reasonable bodily response and something that would help me learn my mate’s moods. “What happens when you are aroused?”
She… blushed an even more delightful shade of pink. “I—”
The words died in her throat as our gazes locked and I could no longer hide my need to touch her. She wrapped her arms across her breasts in alarm. “You’re him, aren’t you? You’re my mate.”
“Yes, Hannah Johnson of Earth. I am Commander Zane Deston. You are mine.” I leaned over and took her small hands in my own, holding them in place on her lap as I closed the distance between us. The doctor would return soon, but my need for her overcame my restraint. I would wait no longer. “And I will taste you now.”
Chapter Three
Hannah
My new mate was huge, bigger than any Earth man I’d ever dated, close to seven feet tall with massive shoulders and thighs. He wore a dense brown and black armor covered in a camouflage pattern similar to what the military used on Earth. He didn’t look the least bit soft. His eyes were dark amber and were startling in his face. The angles of his cheeks, nose, and jaw were perhaps a bit sharper than a human’s, but oddly handsome. His gaze was focused and intense, and I saw lust there, raw and untamed, and my nipples hardened under the sheet as his big hands covered mine. This magnificent male was mine. Mine! He looked like what he was, a predator. A warrior.
Someone who could keep me safe.
My hands were trapped in my lap, held easily in place by my new mate’s firm grip as he leaned in close to taste me. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant until his lips landed on mine and his long, rough tongue invaded my mouth.
His kiss—Zane’s kiss—was not like those of the boys I’d kissed on Earth. He pressed my head to the wall and demanded a response, holding me still as he plundered and explored my mouth. His kiss stole my air and my reason as his oddly long tongue wrapped completely around mine and tugged gently.
I could just imagine that length inside my pussy, teasing my g-spot until I screamed, or roughly vibrating as he licked my clit. I could imagine the coarse fibers lapping and suckling my nipples as his cock filled me to the brink of pain and his large hands held me in place, unable to move, unable to resist.
My whole body felt like a live wire, hyper-alert and so aware of my mate that I could barely breathe. His kiss melted my resistance and I didn’t try to struggle or fight his hold on me. Instead I welcomed the aggressive push of his tongue in my mouth and the steel-like grip
of his hands on mine. My pussy clenched and fluttered with heat and the wet evidence of my arousal quickly coated my thighs. Memories flooded me with the exotic scent of his skin, and my body responded as if I was still in the bride program’s matching simulator, experiencing the touch of another warrior.
He could take me right here, right now, and I wasn’t sure I had the will to stop him. This warrior was mine. Mine. Mine.
I couldn’t hold back the soft moan that left my throat any more than I could tell my heart to stop racing like a wild thing behind my ribs. His tasting went on and on until I was panting and limp in his arms.
This was my mate, my match, the one man in the universe who was supposed to be perfect for me. Everything feminine within me wanted to surrender to him, to just let go and allow someone else to take care of me for once in my life. I’d had the urge to submit before and with disastrous results. My last boyfriend on Earth had taken advantage of me, used me and never really cared. He had made so many promises with his alpha male attitude and his sexual domination that I’d given in and trusted him. I’d been betrayed by this weakness I had for aggressive men who took and took and took until they broke me.
I tore my mouth from his, afraid of him, of his instant power over me, and even more, afraid of myself. I knew nothing about him. How could I trust him so quickly? It was stupid and weak, match or not. The computer program at the bride processing center said this male, this alien, was the perfect man for me. Almost a 100% certainty of it. But what if it was wrong? What if he’d lied on his application to the program or turned out to be a user like all the rest of the men in my life? Even my own brother had used me in the end. He’d been perfectly happy to let me sacrifice myself and become an interstellar bride because it meant he didn’t have to work off his own debt or pay for his own mistakes. I’d done it anyway, not for him, but for my three nieces. Without the money I was able to give them, they would most likely have been taken and sold by the dark underworld criminals who held my idiot brother’s debt.
I tried to slow my rapid breathing, my frantic heart. Even the scent of him, something almost woodsy, taunted me. No. No! Men were not to be trusted. Neither was my body, apparently. It turned traitor so quickly, wanting to surrender to this big alien and give him complete control as I angled my head without thought.
“Stop.” I could barely get the word out, but he froze, his mouth tracing the curve of my neck, that rough tongue tasting me like I was his new favorite treat. My skin tingled everywhere he tasted. I clenched my fists beneath his as I fought my own body.
He growled with displeasure and pulled back to look me in the eye. “You cannot lie to me, mate. I smell the sweet honey between your legs. I can hear your heart racing and see the flutter of your pulse in your neck. You want this.” He leaned forward to claim my mouth again, his lips hovering just over mine. “You want me to fill you up and make you mine forever.”
His gravelly voice made me squirm with lust, but he’d loosened his hold on my hands and I hurriedly reached up to cover my lips with my fingertips before he could make contact. “I barely know your name.”
With a sigh, he leaned back to sit straight on the bed again and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“True, my wise little one. Your brain only knows my name, but your body knows so much more.” His brow winged up. “You will deny that is true, but your body tells me otherwise. As commander, this warship is mine. I am called Commander Deston, but you, mate, and only you, may call me Zane.”
“All right. My name is Hannah. We don’t use our second names on Earth, unless it’s for something legal, or a formality.”
Zane nodded and I tried to smile, tried to relax. At least he wasn’t pushing himself on me—even if, perhaps, I wanted that kiss to continue. There was time for that… later, but I had some basic questions. I glanced around the room, but it only looked like a hospital room on Earth. Nothing space-like. “We’re really in outer space?”
“Yes. We have been waiting for your arrival before returning to the front. Now that you are safely on board, we will rejoin the others in battle.”