“We are going to my tent. While the harem will keep you safe, it will not allow us any amount of privacy. For what I plan to do with you, privacy most certainly is in order. I would like to speak to you without raising the attention of the entire outpost, therefore you should hold your tongue.”
* * *
Before the harem’s tent flap closed behind us, I caught a glimpse of Mara’s wicked smile. I knew her smirk wasn’t born of friendship. Most likely, she greatly enjoyed the knowledge that I would be punished. Based on the way the other women deferred to Tark, I had to assume most didn’t defy him as I did.
The way his eyes had widened as my hairbrush bounced off the tent wall, I had to assume he’d never had anything hurled at his head before, either. I hadn’t been able to help it. The man made me so mad! How dare he lean over me, his cock filling me completely, and whisper in my ear that I was his, then, only a short time later, request Mara to come to him?
If he found that vile woman appealing—though I had to admit her body was what most men desired, even if her personality was certainly lacking—then I wanted nothing to do with him. Surely the processing center’s matching program had made a very large error.
The processing center’s machine had delved into my mind, seeking the best match based on subliminal, subconscious wants and desires. In the chair, I’d dreamt of being taken by a man while another watched. Their words had been base but sexy—hell, even downright carnal—but I still had to question if that was what I really wanted. I’d been adamant about Goran not touching me, and thankfully Tark had proven to be just as particular, at least up until now.
Surely even my subconscious mind didn’t want a man who sought the comfort of others.
I felt the warm air on my skin as Tark carried me across the outpost. It had been dark the last time I’d been outside. A full day had passed, and once more the light of day had faded. Inky blackness surrounded us, and on top of that, I was upside down. My mate was not giving me much opportunity to glimpse my new world.
Quickly enough, we were inside once again and I was lowered from Tark’s shoulder. He was slow about it, and when he set me upon my feet on the carpeted ground, he looked me over with an assessing gaze as if to assure my well-being.
We were in Tark’s tent.
“Where’s the fucking table?” I asked. “Do you expect me to bend over it again? Is that how Mara likes it? Or is tying a woman down the only way you men on Trion can fuck a woman?”
Tark stood quietly and let me toss out those barbed words. He wore attire similar to the previous day. Black pants, gray shirt, although this one had short sleeves and was a pullover, with buttons down the front. His broad shoulders and chest were well defined beneath the trim fabric. He was so big and yet he was the most perfect specimen of a man I’d ever seen. They didn’t make men like this on Earth, at least I’d never seen one. His dark hair was a little tousled, perhaps from carrying my heavy weight about.
It was his eyes, though, that were so expressive. I saw a glint of anger there, but he was remarkably calm. Calmer than I was. His gaze also held surprise and definitely heat.
“Are all women on Earth so difficult?”
“Do all men on Trion fuck everything with a pussy?” I countered, my voice shrill.
Instead of yelling, he knelt in front of me. Before I could figure out his intent, he had reached under my thin gown and removed the stimspheres from my body with a gentle tug on the dangling chain.
I gasped as they slid out and my pussy felt empty. I clenched down and it felt odd to have them gone, even though they’d stopped vibrating sometime while I’d been asleep. He set them aside, forgotten on the carpet.
“It seems that I will have to come up with alternate forms of punishment, for my device appears to have made both your mouth and your temper worse, not better.” I opened my mouth to speak, but the look he gave me had me remaining silent. “We barely know each other, and today I will remedy that.” Tark came to his feet, so close that the heat of his chest reached me across the narrow space. “You are questioning my honor, but I find that your anger pleases me.”
That was not what I expected him to say. I expected him to yell and wave his arms around and perhaps even toss me over some fucking stand and spank my ass again. But please him? He’d stunned me into stillness.
“It… it pleases you?” I asked.
“Yes.” He grinned and wrapped his strong hands around my upper arms just tight enough that I felt treasured, but not threatened. He knew how to disarm me. Damn the man, he was even more handsome when he grinned and my heart rate kicked up a notch. Just seeing him smile could be bad for my health. “You believe that I have done something dishonorable and you are upset about it. It pleases me that you would demand honor in your mate.”