I couldn’t hold back the soft moan that left my throat any more than I could tell my heart to stop racing like a wild thing behind my ribs. His tasting went on and on until I was panting and limp in his arms.
This was my mate, my match, the one man in the universe who was supposed to be perfect for me. Everything feminine within me wanted to surrender to him, to just let go and allow someone else to take care of me for once in my life. I’d had the urge to submit before and with disastrous results. My last boyfriend on Earth had taken advantage of me, used me and never really cared. He had made so many promises with his alpha male attitude and his sexual domination that I’d given in and trusted him. I’d been betrayed by this weakness I had for aggressive men who took and took and took until they broke me.
I tore my mouth from his, afraid of him, of his instant power over me, and even more, afraid of myself. I knew nothing about him. How could I trust him so quickly? It was stupid and weak, match or not. The computer program at the bride processing center said this male, this alien, was the perfect man for me. Almost a 100% certainty of it. But what if it was wrong? What if he’d lied on his application to the program or turned out to be a user like all the rest of the men in my life? Even my own brother had used me in the end. He’d been perfectly happy to let me sacrifice myself and become an interstellar bride because it meant he didn’t have to work off his own debt or pay for his own mistakes. I’d done it anyway, not for him, but for my three nieces. Without the money I was able to give them, they would most likely have been taken and sold by the dark underworld criminals who held my idiot brother’s debt.
I tried to slow my rapid breathing, my frantic heart. Even the scent of him, something almost woodsy, taunted me. No. No! Men were not to be trusted. Neither was my body, apparently. It turned traitor so quickly, wanting to surrender to this big alien and give him complete control as I angled my head without thought.
“Stop.” I could barely get the word out, but he froze, his mouth tracing the curve of my neck, that rough tongue tasting me like I was his new favorite treat. My skin tingled everywhere he tasted. I clenched my fists beneath his as I fought my own body.
He growled with displeasure and pulled back to look me in the eye. “You cannot lie to me, mate. I smell the sweet honey between your legs. I can hear your heart racing and see the flutter of your pulse in your neck. You want this.” He leaned forward to claim my mouth again, his lips hovering just over mine. “You want me to fill you up and make you mine forever.”
His gravelly voice made me squirm with lust, but he’d loosened his hold on my hands and I hurriedly reached up to cover my lips with my fingertips before he could make contact. “I barely know your name.”
With a sigh, he leaned back to sit straight on the bed again and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“True, my wise little one. Your brain only knows my name, but your body knows so much more.” His brow winged up. “You will deny that is true, but your body tells me otherwise. As commander, this warship is mine. I am called Commander Deston, but you, mate, and only you, may call me Zane.”
“All right. My name is Hannah. We don’t use our second names on Earth, unless it’s for something legal, or a formality.”
Zane nodded and I tried to smile, tried to relax. At least he wasn’t pushing himself on me—even if, perhaps, I wanted that kiss to continue. There was time for that… later, but I had some basic questions. I glanced around the room, but it only looked like a hospital room on Earth. Nothing space-like. “We’re really in outer space?”
“Yes. We have been waiting for your arrival before returning to the front. Now that you are safely on board, we will rejoin the others in battle.”
All the heat that had flooded my body drained from me instantly. The front? Warship? Battle? I knew Prillon brides were kept on battleships. I knew it before I was sent here. But the reality of being trapped on a ship during a real battle, where things blew up and people died, was suddenly terrifying. No longer abstract. Dangerous and scary and real. “I can’t go into battle. They must have made a mistake with my match. I have to go home.” I tried to shift and climb off the bed, but I realized I wasn’t going anywhere with Zane’s large body blocking my way. I also remembered I was naked under the sheet.
He scowled, and the expression turned his features into those of a predator. Scared now, I felt my eyes grow wide as I tried to back away from him. That seemed to anger him even more and his gaze darkened and his nostrils flared. “You aren’t going anywhere, nor shall you speak of leaving me again. I have tasted your desire, Hannah. We are very compatible.”