1
Miranda Doyle, Xalia City, Southern Continent, Planet Trion
* * *
Gentle fingers made their way through my long dark hair as Brax tamed it into a long braid. I knelt on the bed and closed my eyes, reveling in the feel of his attention. Even this non-erotic task was arousing in its simplicity. I felt like the star in a movie I’d seen before transporting here—a movie where the hero braided his lover’s hair, then took her into a special room filled with toys.
Yes. This was exactly like that. For I had no doubt that as soon as Brax was finished, he would play with me for hours.
I’d been waiting for this night, for his return from duty, for weeks. Doctor Valck Brax was a sought after male on Trion. Everyone in the city knew he was a brilliant doctor and Councilor Roark’s most trusted advisor. What many didn’t know was that Brax was also regularly sent on dangerous missions he could tell me nothing about.
Despite his frequent absences from the city, I wasn’t the only one who wanted a piece of the gorgeous male. With his dark hair, darker eyes and a smile that promised wicked, wanton pleasure, he was all mine… at least for a day or two. Then he would, once again, be called to duty, don his uniform and return to being a soldier-spy as well as a doctor. When he was naked, he was mine. Clothed… he was a Trion warrior with duties and allegiance to his councilor.
His fingers tugged, then rubbed the tension from my temples. I wanted to melt into a puddle and beg him to pet me for hours, but we were on borrowed time. I didn’t want to waste a single moment of it. But the tension gave me away. I couldn’t stop thinking about the past. My past.
I’d come across the universe to this strange planet because there was nothing left for me on Earth. I had an ex-husband and putting several light years between us had been fine by me. He’d been all missionary, all the time, and had told me the devil was inside me for needing something more, for even thinking of it. He’d practically run to the shower after every time we had sex. I often wondered that he hadn’t stubbed his toe in the dark—since we’d never done it once with the lights on. He’d made me believe there was something wrong with me. That I was somehow twisted. Perverted. Filthy, even. Now, I knew there had been something wrong with him.
Divorce had been an easy decision. Coming here to Trion with Natalie and baby Noah had been even easier. I’d wanted something more then, but I hadn’t known what it was. Finally, tonight, after months with Brax, I knew. I wanted what Natalie had. I wanted a mate like her Roark. I wanted a baby of my own. Family. Safety. Protection.
I needed to belong.
When I’d first arrived, taking care of Noah and watching Natalie’s back had been enough. But Noah was two now—not a baby anymore. And I’d begun to heal. I had always wanted a husband, but after the divorce I knew I wasn’t ready for another.
I’d come out here, to a new planet, to find me.
I had questions that needed answers. Like why I’d never found basic vanilla sex with my ex to be arousing. Why he’d made me feel broken and dirty for wanting things he couldn’t understand. That I couldn’t understand. I didn’t know what to think. Or feel. Or want.
Until Brax. Until he opened my eyes to what I desired. What I needed. Craved.
A tug to my hair.
Restraints.
The sharp sting of a spanking on my ass.
The sharp thrust of a huge cock filling me from behind when I was tied down and helpless.
The newfound confidence I’d discovered within myself was something Brax had given me over the last few months. But tonight would either be a new beginning for us, or an ending. The friends with benefits arrangement we’d had since the beginning wasn’t enough for me anymore. A wild few days when he was in town and off-duty couldn’t satisfy me any longer. Oh, he’d give me orgasms and make me a sweaty heap, but I wanted more than sex with him.
I was finally whole, ready to give my heart away—and Brax was more than halfway to claiming it already.
I wanted everything Natalie had, everything I’d followed her to Trion to have for myself. I loved looking after Noah, and his new little sister, but seeing Natalie give birth to a second child—the little baby girl now only days old—made me yearn for the first time in years. My ovaries practically exploded just holding her.
But Brax didn’t want babies. He didn’t want a mate. He didn’t want anything more than a fun time. I wasn’t mad. I hadn’t wanted more either… until I did. And that wasn’t his fault.
“You are quiet tonight, Miranda.” Brax tied something around the end of my braid to secure it and lowered his lips to my bare shoulder. The soft, heated touch was like the brush of fire against my skin.
“I’m sorry, Master.” In this room, his bedroom, I never used his name. I didn’t have permission. When we were together, he was my master in every way, and I’d come to learn that with my surrender came amazing pleasure.
He moved in closer, and I gasped as his bare chest came to rest against my back. I wore next to nothing, sexy layers of gossamer silk that would not impede his hands, his mouth, or his cock from finding any part of me he desired. It was so pretty, decadent even, a shimmering fabric like translucent liquid opals. I’d never seen anything like it on Earth, and I’d spent two week’s wages from my job at the youth education center to wear
it for Brax tonight.
“Do you wish to share what troubles you?” His hands rested on my waist, and I could feel the patience in him. Heard it in the soft tone of his voice. He would wait if I wished. Would listen. But that wasn’t what I needed from him, for I already knew the answer. We’d agreed to no strings and that’s what we’d done all this time. A wild few days and then he walked away. It had been hot, easy and simple.
Until it wasn’t. Not in my mind… and crap, not in my heart. I wouldn’t ruin this time with him by telling him I wanted more, wanted to change the rules of our arrangement. It wasn’t fair to him, especially since I knew his answer. He was content as it was. And that was why I remained silent. I didn’t want his answer, didn’t want to hear him tell me again about his duty to his people. His loyalty to Roark. I didn’t need a list of the reasons he wasn’t ready to take a mate. The reasons he couldn’t take a mate. I already knew exactly what he would say.
No. I needed to forget—and feel. And if this was the last time, so be it.
“No, Master.”
“Then tell me what you need.”
The soft murmur of his voice settled within me, to the very heart of what made me… well, me. That soft request opened doors in my mind that no one else had ever opened. That, before Brax, I’d been too terrified to even peek through. But I understood now. I needed to surrender. I needed to feel safe and give someone else control. I needed to trust him to take care of me. That need drove me to kneel, to call him master, to give him anything he wanted because I trusted him to take care of me. I’d been afraid my entire life. With Brax, I obeyed… and I was free. While I might be submitting, he would give me my every desire. And right now, there was only one thing I wanted. I needed.
“You.”
The word was barely more than a sigh, and true in ways he couldn’t possibly understand. I’d approached him, after all. I’d arrived on Trion with Natalie and Noah almost two years ago. Then, I hadn’t been ready. But six months ago, I’d gone to Brax and offered my body, asked him to make love to me. He’d refused, at first. He hadn’t laughed at the request or shamed me, thank god. He’d studied me in that intense way of his, then asked me to explain my need to be fucked. By him. A stranger.
Trion was different. God, sooo unbelievably different. Males on Trion were so unlike Earth men, especially my ex. My ex would have scoffed and called me a slut. But Brax had sensed there was an underlying reason for my request, that I wasn’t asking simply because I wanted to get off or had a dark demon within me.
And so I’d taken the biggest risk of my life and told him the truth. I told him about my ex, my past, how I didn’t know what my body truly needed, but that I needed… something. I had admitted that I had been watching the females on Trion for months. Admiring them with their adornments and shimmering clothing. They were shameless. Bold. They submitted to their mates willingly and with a peacefulness that I envied. They were content. Blissfully, brazenly sensual. Trion females didn’t have to ask for sex. They exuded it.
At that time, I hadn’t exuded anything except lingering doubts from my bad marriage. And that was what Brax had seen. Then questioned with a relentless intensity I’d come to adore. As ruthless as he’d been with his questions about my past, he’d been equally merciless in his demands that I overcome it.
Having a doctor for a lover had certain benefits. He’d taken care of birth control with one injection, bent me over the table, and ordered me not to move while he examined me. More like, touched me everywhere—and I mean everywhere—and found out what made me burn.