So, perhaps I had been drugged after all because these three men were eyeing me as if I were their favorite candy and they each wanted to give me a lick. The idea made me lick my lips, which made their eyes drop to my mouth. One of them, I swear, made a rumbly sound in his chest. Their hands were on me, gently touching me as if I couldn’t sit up on my own, and the heat of their palms made me shudder as desire rose like a storm inside me. My whole life that darkness had tormented me, making me want what I couldn’t have. But that was my old life, right? I’d read the Interstellar Brides Program brochure, and it said their match rate was higher than 97%.
But then, I’d always excelled at being the exception to the rule. The only one of my friends in grade school who didn’t have a crush on Tommy Parker. The only eighth grade girl in math club. The only woman programmer at a fast-moving Silicon Valley startup until the asshole attitudes of the men in the office drove me to do something I still couldn’t quite regret.
Sure, I’d gone to jail for it, but then, I’d ended up here, with three of the hottest men I’d ever seen looking at me like I was dessert. No, not just dessert, chocolate molten cake with a hot fudge center, caramel drizzle and a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream on the side.
Ultimate dessert.
But I couldn’t think with them touching me. Or maybe it was the trip through some kind of dark matter, sub-space, freakish transporter straight out of a Star Trek episode. I tried to stand, but the room spun and I plopped right back down before I’d moved more than a couple inches.
“She’s hurt.” The blond spoke.
“Why is the doctor not here?” That one had dark hair, impossibly black, and it was almost as long as mine.
“I will find him.” The one with the wavy, copper-colored hair stood, and holy fuck, he was tall. Like a giant. I tilted my head back and looked up at him as he began yelling at the men who stood behind a control panel of some kind. It was like I just stepped onto the set of a crazy sci-fi movie…with huge, hot aliens. Except, they looked human. One head, two eyes, broad shoulders, lean hips, muscles everywhere. Their skin wasn’t blue or covered in scales and there were no tentacles in sight. They looked better than human, if my libido had a vote.
“I’m fine,” I said. I cleared my dry throat and tried again. “Really.” I wasn’t lying. The room had stopped spinning and the fog in my mind was quickly being overcome with nerves. Was one of these men my match? I was too nervous to ask, but god, I didn’t even want to think about it. Not really. They were all amazing, and I didn’t want to have to choose.
The giant spun on his heel at my voice and looked down at me, then crouched, an intentional move so he was closer to my level.
“I am Rager, one of your mates.”
He wasn’t speaking English, but I understood him. Strange. Oh yeah. I touched my fingers to the bump on my temple above my ear. Warden Egara mentioned I would be prepared for transport, including receiving an NPU, a Neural Processing Unit. She said it was a translation device that would actually wire itself directly into the language centers of my brain so I could understand every language in the galaxy. It had seemed impossible, until now.
“Rager.” His name suited him. His hands rested on his thighs—his powerful, big thighs—and I couldn’t miss how large they were. Yes, everything about him was big. My eyes widened. “You’re my mate?”
His golden eyes softened to something that made my nipples harden instantly. There was more than just lust there. I wasn’t quite sure what, but my body reacted as if he’d just given me an hour-long massage. Was I turning into a puddle? Right now? “I mean, um. Wow. Nice to meet you.”
I held out my right hand and he looked confused for a moment before enveloping it in his much larger one. He held my palm in his, the fingertips of his other hand stroked my arm, the inside of my wrist, and I bit my lip as heat engulfed me. Not just from him, but from the other four hands that still touched me, helping me remain upright.
So hot. God, I couldn’t breathe.
Tearing my gaze from Rager’s, I couldn’t help but hope that everything on him was big. I licked my lips at the possibility. My mate? He was gorgeous.
He grinned then and I swear I felt my ovaries jump for joy. Wow. I couldn’t believe this guy was my mate? The one I’d been matched to? I’d sat in the testing chair earlier and had this really hot dream. A sex dream where I was tied up and taken. Yes, taken. Rough and hard, gentle and wild. Things I’d never done, positions I only wished I’d tried before. And I’d felt so damn good. I’d actually come not once, not twice, but three times before Warden Egara had cruelly woken me. My pussy had been so needy and wet the back of my testing gown had been soaked.