She took a few moments to absorb what he’d said. What the hell was she going to do? Whatever detachment she’d felt when she walked in the door was gone. Her prey wasn’t some nameless, faceless body. He was a man. A man who had been loving her nightly for a week. A man who, even in the grip of a tormenting heat, had taken the time to please her as well.
“I can’t go through my heat without you, Star.” He slid his hands down her arms and then laced his fingers with hers.
“You’ll have to kill me if you won’t stay. I’ll go mad trapped like a wild animal in your brig.” He thrust as deep as he could go. “I’d rather die if I can’t have you.”
You’ll have to kill me. How the hell was she supposed to do that now? He was inside her.
“Why?” To risk all this…for her…she didn’t even know him.
He reached up and touched her hair. “May I?” Star nodded, and he pulled the tresses free of their knot. “I’ve spent a great deal of time in the courts on Primus. This,” he shifted her hair through his fingers, “caught my eye. I followed you. I watched you work, I saw the compassion you strive so hard to hide. I like your toughness as well as your softness, and I love that the advancement of your species is so
important to you. As an ambassador, I can relate to and respect that.”
“I’ve never seen you,” she scoffed.
“I wear a black cloak and hood.”
Her eyes widened.
“Ah…I see you’ve noticed me. I have to cover myself. My appearance is…distracting.”
Star snorted. “That’s an understatement.” Frowning, she asked, “Do all Jacians look like you?”
“We share the same level of similarity as any other species.” Roark lifted her hair to his nose, and took a deep breath.
“So, no,” she answered, startled by her reaction to his tenderness. “You’re exceptionally hot. Women fall at your feet and beg you to f**k them.”
His mouth curved in a smile that made her heart leap. “Would you have done that? No? Well then, my looks offer no advantage I would be interested in. Hence the robe.”
Slipping his hands around her shoulders, Roark pressed his body fully to hers. She felt the tremor that moved him, felt the sudden swelling of his c*ck inside her. Her br**sts grew heavy, her blood heating and slowing with her arousal. He smelled divine—a potent allure for her heightened senses. His skin was soft and sleek over beautifully defined muscles. Her hands touched his back, slid down his spine, kneaded his flesh.
“Kiss me, Star,” he begged softly in the deep, dark voice that moved her. “Like you did in our dreams.”
She shouldn’t. But his mouth waited just inches from hers, the mouth that had pressed kisses to every inch of her skin.
Licking her lips, she tilted her head and gave him what he wanted, her tongue sliding along his, drinking in his taste. He groaned and then began to move, his c*ck slipping from her inch by inch and then gliding back inside, the thick head stroking every tender spot.
“Oh man,” she breathed, shuddering just like he did, the feel of his deep, steady plunges making her writhe in his embrace.
His long, silky hair swayed all around him, caressing her legs where she held on for dear life. She’d wanted this for a week, and yet the hunger he fed was far older than that.
“Is it good for you?” he purred, knowing damn well it was. He bent his knees and shifted his angle, massaging her so deeply her eyes watered. “How’s this?” He pulled out to the very tip of his cock, and then rolled his hips, screwing back inside.
Her plaintive moan was all the answer she could manage.
His skin grew hot to the touch, his muscles trembling beneath her hands. He was holding back for her. Again. “Go ahead, Roarke.” Star licked the shell of his ear, then bit the lobe. His c*ck jerked. “Take what you need.”
“Star…”
“I want it,” she whispered.
As if her words freed him from invisible restraints, his entire body hardened, then like a coil held too tightly, he sprang into action. He withdrew his c*ck and then slammed his h*ps to hers, the wall behind her protesting with a creak. Again he slipped out, again he thrust, his rhythm increasing with every lunge until he was pounding into her, giving her the long, deep plunges she’d begged for in their dreams.
Pinned as she was, she could only take what he gave her. She struggled for leverage, for control, but found none. Roark bit her shoulder and then growled, “Want to come?”
“Yes! Damn you.”
He ground his pelvis against her cl*t and watched her orgasm, his gaze so hot it burned her skin. She rippled around him, milking him, clenching tight to hold him deep. She curled her body around his while he cried out and spurted his pleasure inside her. The feel of his power reduced to such desperation was amazing. That he’d wanted to share this only with her was more so.
As he finished, he held her tightly, but his grip was tempered with unmistakable tenderness. Her body was dense with muscle and unbreakable bones, but Roark made her feel cherished and delicate. Far beyond the sex, this heated after-embrace was achingly intimate—his sweat mixed with hers, his tongue licking at the bite mark, her hands tangled in his hair.
She could never terminate him.
So now…what to do with him?
“If we—” She cleared her dry throat. “If I agree that we stay here f**king for a week, do I have to hang off the wall the whole time? What happens when I have to pee?”
Laughing, Roark drew his head back and kissed the tip of her nose. “That’s something I didn’t know about you, your sense of humor. I like it.” He stepped back, his heavy c*ck slipping wetly from her. Star pouted at the loss, and he groaned, but there was no help for it. She’d never retract her spines if he didn’t let her calm down a bit.
“Lights,” he called out, and she blinked to see him in the new brightness.
“Oh jeez.” She swiped her fingers over her mouth to check for drool. In full color, he took her breath away. Inky black tresses set off eyes the color of sapphires—a deep, dark translucent blue.
Then she registered how those eyes looked at her, and she swallowed hard.
He walked a slow semi-circle, his body moving with a fluid, powerful grace. Every muscle was clearly delineated, bunching and flexing as he strode with quiet command and made his thorough perusal. He reached out, his fingers brushing the sides of her br**sts, tickling her waist, dipping between her legs where his seed leaked from her. “You are so lovely,”
he breathed. The smile he gave her was wistful. “Thank you for this week, Star. It’ll be worth it.” He brushed his lips across hers. “Remember that.”
…when I’m gone.
The words were unspoken, but she heard them just the same.
Consumed by a sudden sadness, her spines retracted, and she slid easily to the floor.
A week.
She lowered her head. Only a week to find a way out of this mess without killing Roark or ruining her career. Star hoped that would be enough time.
CHAPTER 3
“Did you pick this place because of that harness?” Star asked, lying flat on her back and staring up at the apparatus above the bed.
“Yes. A guy has to be creative when f**king a woman who gets prickly when aroused.”
His smile curved against her shoulder. Roark had the oddest way of sleeping. He wrapped himself around her with their limbs tangled together. At the moment, his hand cupped her breast and his leg was slung over hers. After years of serving on the bench, a position which required frequent travel and killed any chance for a relationship, it was an intimacy that soothed her loneliness.
“Also it was the best way to get the ‘drop on you.’”
“You know,” she grumbled, “that tactic wouldn’t have worked if I’d had any sleep the week before.”
“You haven’t had any sleep this week either,” he said smugly. “Partly because of that harness, and its endless possibilities.
Who knew the stern Huntress judge had a liking for such erotic play?” He caught her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “You’re just full of surprises.”
So was he. Roark was a multi-faceted individual—one moment teasing and playful, the next abrupt and arrogant. He was still getting used to her disagreeing with him over simple things, like what vid station to watch or which restaurant to order food from. It was clear he’d never held a long-term relationship, but then he’d just turned thirty and he was exceptionally handsome. She wasn’t surprised.
The comm link beeped next to her.
“Yes?”
“The clerk for Justice Yamada has been comm’ing you,” Two-Thousand said.
“He’s been doing that all week.” Star gave a slight shrug, or as much of one as she could manage with Roark’s head on her.
“He has tried several times today, and his last message was very clear—‘Check in, or lose the robe.’”
So that was it then. Their time was up.
Star sighed, her hand stroking through the silky strands of Roark’s hair. “Make the pre-flight arrangements. We’ll be on board within the hour. Star out.”
Roark kissed the tip of her breast and then rolled out of bed. He stretched, his beautiful skin moving sinuously over the muscle beneath. She watched him, as she had been all week, memorizing every line of his body, every smile, every heated glance.