“You feel a lot bigger this way.”
“Every man likes to hear how big he is,” Daaron replied. He ringed her waist with his hands, steadying her and holding her in place. “Take as much time as you need to feel comfortable. I’m pretty happy right here as we are.”
She gave a choked giggle. His heart swelled unexpectedly; he’d heard laughter so few times from her.
Her life had been governed by hardship. He’d make her happy, he vowed. Short of betraying his cause, he’d do whatever it took to make up for her suffering.
Daaron’s noble thoughts evaporated as she abruptly dropped down over him, impaling herself on his length. He gasped, awash in sensation. Tessa closed her eyes, head falling back, apparently lost in sensation.
Long seconds passed.
Then Tessa began to move. Slowly at first, she rocked back and forth on him, riding him, clutching him with her inner muscles and driving him crazy. He reached down between them, pressing his thumb against her clit. She shuddered and moved faster. Despite his own mounting need, Daaron couldn’t take his eyes off her face. Her newly shorn hair curled around features abandoned to pure desire. Her breath came in short, hard gasps. A drop of sweat rolled down her temple and across her cheek before falling against him with a splat.
He pushed down hard with his thumb and she came with a loud cry as every muscle in her body clenched and froze, including those cradling his cock. He thrust up at her once more, just enough to push through the vise of her pu**y and knock him over the edge. Then Daaron’s own orgasm hit and he shouted his release. Tessa collapsed across him, panting, and he wrapped his arms tightly around him.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Everyone all right in there?” a man’s voiceasked, tone harsh.“Daaron?”
Daaron grunted, trying to catch his breath.
“Yes,” he managed to gasp out. “We’re both doing fine.”
“I guess we got their attention,” Tessa whispered. “Nice to know someone was able to take a break from counting my garnets long enough check up on random screaming in the compound. Thisissome sort of compound, right?”
Daaron heaved a sigh as he sat up to look at the incredible, sexy, belligerent woman who was now his wife.
“I wondered how long it would take us to get back to that,” he said, running the situation through his head, trying to figure how to explain things. “Sex is only going to distract you for so long, I take it?”
“I’ll admit it, you were right,” she answered. “Sex between us was good, just like you always told me it would be. And I really enjoyed it, so you can just stop gloating over that right now. But I want to know how you found out about my garnets. And why the hell you married me. You say you can’t tell me, but I’m not some puppet wifey. Either prepare yourself to watch me every moment for the rest of your life or tell me what’s going on.”
“I suppose you won’t believe this, but I really didn’t want to take them from you,” he replied, choosing his words with great care. “We simply can’t afford to have Imperials crawling around this planet.”
“Um, ‘Imperials’?” she asked, giving him a look of disbelief. “Daaron, youarethe ‘Imperial’, don’t you realize that? What kind of game are you playing here?”
“No game,” he replied. “You may find this hard to believe, but I’m actually a federalist. I don’t believe in Empire.”
She burst out laughing, falling back on the bed. To his delight, he could actually see the exact moment she realized she was naked. Her face flushed bright red, and then she scrambled to dress. He watched in silence as she pulled on her pants, amused when she couldn’t find her breast band. She pulled on her shirt, clearly annoyed. Finally she faced him again.
“Stop messing with me. Why are you here? Flattering as it may seem, something tells me you didn’t just marry me so we could…sleep…together,” she said, blushing again. “You must be doing something big here, and I want to understand.”
“Sex.We had sex.Fucked.Banged.Boinked. We have not slept together yet,” he said, drinking in her embarrassment. Then he grew serious. “You may not believe me, butI really am federalist. I don’t believe that the Emperor should have absoluteauthority, I think each planet should form its own government. I don’t even believe in the nobility.”
Silence hung between them.
“Daaron, in the entire time I’ve known you, you’ve taken your rank and status for granted. You never gave any indications at school that you felt this way. Why should I believe you?”
“I suppose you have no real reason to,” he replied. “And I doubt that just hearing the truth will make you believe. But these are the facts. The year after we finished school I attended court with my father, who is one of the Emperor’s advisors. We went on progress with him to a small planet called Danube. They hadn’t ever had a royal visit, and their protocol minister wasn’t up to the task. The first night they insulted the Emperor, my father and several other high-ranking members of the court by providing a pathetically inadequate banquet that featured an improper seating chart.”
He took a deep breath, willing himself to keep calm as he finished the story.
“The Emperor was so angry that he ordered the noble house that ruled Danube executed, right down to the last child and elderly servant. He had the planet interdicted—completely cut off from all civilization—and blockaded. It still is, and will be for the next fifty years. Danube wasn’t a highly developed place, Tessa. They didn’t have a medical or scientific infrastructure, let alone the ability to produce enough food to feed the population. The entire economy was based on arts and crafts exports.
People started dying within weeks. There were ten million living there when it happened. Imperial observers now estimate that at least half of them have died from disease and starvation. Slow genocide.”
Tessa’s face grew cold as she listened.
“We got regular reports at court,” he continued. “The Emperor felt Danube provided a very good example to the rest of his nobles. But it had the opposite effect on me. I’ve never been so angry. I’m still angry. I decided to do something about it.
“When I graduated from university, my parents gave me my inheritance. It included a small fleet and this system, which has four habitable planets. I’m a third son, so it wasn’t much compared to my brothers.