“They fight to give you this life. They fight so others can live full lives, just as you did for others with the coalition, and on Earth. I’ve been gone from Atlan a long time. We’ll just have to figure it out together.”
I yanked my jacket off and tossed it to the floor. My shirt followed. When I was bare chested, when I could feel her against my bare flesh, I pulled her close and settled her ear over my beating heart. “We will not be idle, mate. The senate will ask us to attend many events, acting as ambassadors for those thinking of joining the fleet. We will be interviewed and questioned by many. We will be consulted on matters of policy and war. We will teach others how to survive their coming battles, and we will have children, mate. I want my child growing in your womb. I want a houseful of rowdy boys and sassy girls. I want to have to sneak into the closet to fuck you, back you against the wall, and bury your cries of pleasure with my kiss so the children don’t hear your screams.”
Her shoulders shook as she laughed. “You are so bad, Dax.”
I lowered my hands to her back and unfastened her dress, letting the soft fabric fall to pool at her feet. I knew what she wore beneath, a thin sheet of clinging fabric that would not stop me from spanking her, fucking her, claiming her.
I lifted her then, cradling her in my arms and walked back inside our bedchamber, settling on the side of the bed with her in my lap. She lay quiet and content, her warmth a balm to my senses. Having her here, in our new home, settled me in a way I’d never imagined possible.
And yet, there was still a lesson to teach.
Lifting her head with a finger beneath her chin, I kissed her until she melted, until her arousal soaked the thin dressing gown she wore and her nipples were hard peaks beneath my exploring hands.
When she was soft and pliant, I flipped her over so her stomach was pressed to my thighs, her head hanging down and her ass lifted in the air for a firm spanking.
“Dax! What are you doing?” She squirmed, but I held her down with one strong hand on her back.
“You lied to me, Sarah. I promised you a spanking. It is long overdue as we were rushed through transport.”
“Dax. No. You can’t be serious about that. I had to—”
My firm hand striking her ass stopped her argument. She cried out, not in pain, but in outrage and I struck her again, harder this time, making my palm sting with the force of my strike. “No, mate. You do not lie to me. Ever. You will speak the truth. You will learn to trust me.”
Smack!
She kicked as I continued, “If you had trusted me, I would have helped you. I could have tended your wound, taken your direction to fly the craft, prepared a med kit for you.” Smack! “Instead, you stole my right, as your mate, to care for you. You endangered yourself, the men we risked our lives to rescue and me. You lied to me.” Smack! “Never lie to me again.”
She pushed at me, but she was small, her arms not long enough to gain purchase on the floor. With a snarl I ripped the transparent fabric from her body, the thin material parting in my hands like paper as I bared her to me and struck again and again.
Silence reigned, broken only by the sound of my firm strikes on her bare ass. She did not cry, argue, or beg for leniency. I struck until her ass was a bright red, until I heard from her what I needed to hear.
“I’m sorry, Dax.” Her voice was a whimper of contrition. “I shouldn’t have lied to you. I should have told you the truth and trusted you to help me. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I honestly didn’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“How much you—care for me.”
With her words, my will to continue her punishment bled from me and I rested my hand over her soft skin, petting her, needing to touch her, to know she was safe and healed and mine as she lay quiet and accepting of my touch. “You are my life, Sarah. You are everything.”
Not wanting to wait for a response to my confession, to be disappointed by her lack of feeling for me, I reached to my right and found the small box exactly where I’d left it on the bed. Holding her in place with my hand spread across her lower back, I removed the sexual device from its resting place and picked up the lubricant I would need to ensure her pleasure. I would make her come until she thought of no other, longed for no other life. Eventually, she would love me. For now, she was here, naked. Mine. It was enough.
“Do not move.” I barely recognized the growl of my voice, realized that the beast would not be denied, not this time. “You are mine.”
“Dax? What are you—”
With a swiftness and precision born of need I worked the lube and the plug into her tight ass; the sight of the control switch sticking out of her bottom actually made me growl.