BAKER LET me go without another word. I seethed on my way to the elevator. Tom needed to chill out—really quick. All his posturing and flapping his frill was getting on my last nerve. Well, no, not really. His overprotective demeanor shook something loose inside me. I just couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not.
When I stepped out of the elevator to go to my quarters and get rid of the dress uniform, Tom followed me.
Silently, he wrapped his tail around my waist, trapping my arms against my body. My blood pressure spiked and my breathing sped up. How I hated to be immobilized! Some would call it a trauma trigger, or whatever, but it wasn’t. At least not when the tail-wrapping happened in a sexual or arousing situation.
“Why are you running away from me?”
“I’m not,” I replied, writhing in his arms. Did he even have arms? They felt like steel bands closed around me.
“Yes, you are. Would you like to stamp your feet while you try to convince me to the contrary once I’ve stopped speaking?”
I stopped fighting him and sagged back against his chest. “I don’t stamp my feet. Even I don’t stoop that low.”
“Are you sure?” Tom nuzzled my face. “What do I have to do so you’ll stay on the ship?”
“Why is it so important to you that I stay up here?” I countered.
“I want to know you’re safe, so I can concentrate on the task at hand without worrying about you.” He loosened his tail and coiled it around my left wrist, caressing it with the tip.
It took me a moment to form a coherent sentence. “But it’s okay for me to worry about you?”
“That’s different.”
“No, it’s not.” Why did I even argue with him? Why did I care? I had known this guy for a day and talked to him like we were in a relationship. I rubbed my suddenly sweaty hands on my blazer. I didn’t do relationships. I just wasn’t made for this.
“Yes, it is. You’re my mate, and it’s my priority to protect you.”
“I don’t need protection,” I snapped. Memories of running for our lives earlier today popped up in my mind. I made a vague hand gesture, and added, “Forget I said that. Oh, and could you stop with the mate-stuff? It’s giving me heart palpitations.”
“I know you’re afraid, but it’s nothing scary,” Tom said as he pulled me in for a kiss. By the time he was done with me, I was panting. He sounded perfectly normal. “What do I have to do for you to change your mind?”
“You’re rather persistent, huh? It’s really annoying, if you’d like to hear my opinion but… all right. Let’s see. How about we fuck, and if you’re good, I might rethink my decision?”
“If I’m good, you won’t go,” Tom repeated, staring at me skeptically.
“No, I said, I might rethink my decision,” I replied. When he opened his mouth to protest, I hushed him. “That’s all I’m willing to promise.”
He peered down at me for a long time. In a begrudging tone, he eventually said, “You’re trouble.”
“Not in bed.” I laughed and pivoted on my heel, heading straight for my quarters.
ONCE INSIDE, I stripped off the uniform. I threw the shirt into a hamper and hung the blazer and pants back in the closet while Tom leaned his weapon against a wall. When I turned around to face him, he was slipping out of his leather vest, revealing a broad-muscled chest and golden skin. On his left side, a long scar traveled from his nipple to his hip.
Without conscious thought, I stepped forward and traced the scar with my fingertips. Softly, I asked, “What happened?”
“A fight. I won,” Tom answered in a clipped tone.
Not something he wanted to talk about. All right, I could take a hint. I lifted my face and he got the gist. He bent to press his lips against mine while he folded me in his arms and tugged me close.
Warm skin touched my cooler flesh, and I gasped into his mouth. His tail swept along my bare legs, sometimes brushing, sometimes stroking, and I pushed closer to him. My cock swelled to full engorgement, and even though I wore only briefs, the confinement drove me nuts. I dipped my fingers into the waistband and lowered them to somewhere around midthigh.
Tom’s tail sneaked up and tugged my briefs down all the way. I stepped out of them, then plastered myself against his body. He put a hand under my ass and hoisted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist, turned on beyond belief when my cock slid against his ridged belly.
He carried me to my bed, where he dumped me. I pushed my heels into the mattress and fondled my sac. Tom’s nostrils flared as he shimmied out of his leather pants. His cock sprang free, and something akin to a mewl tumbled over my lips.
Nadisc men were huge, which was why intercourse with them was impossible. Or, well, it was possible if you wanted to be split open. I didn’t mind because their tails more than made up for it. Also, this way I could play with his cock to my heart’s content.
Tom grinned at me as he sat down on the bed’s edge to untie his boots. “Like what you see?”
“Very much.”
After chucking all his clothes, Tom crawled onto the bed, right between my open legs. He towered over me, and fuck it all if that sight didn’t cause my balls to draw up tight. Tom sniffed the air before he gently pried my hands off my sac. He pulled them over my head, before he bent down to slip his tongue into my mouth. Nothing had ever tasted better.
I lost myself in the sensations Tom evoked. His tongue traced the roof of my mouth, then caressed each of my teeth as if he wanted to savor me. My stomach muscles fluttered, and I raised my legs to cross them on the small of Tom’s back. I pulled his pelvis closer to mine and couldn’t help the deep groan that fell out of my mouth when our cocks brushed against each other.
During my very first time with a Nadisc, I’d suffered a bad bout of inferiority complex. I’d never really gotten over it, more like ignored it whenever I had sex with a Nadisc, but this time… this time I welcomed his size.
Tom had stopped kissing me, and now hid his face in the crook of my neck. His breaths came in short bursts that ghosted over my sensitive skin and left a trail of goosebumps on my body.
He undulated his hips against me, his thickly veined cock rubbing against mine. I arched my back, which brought me chest-to-chest with Tom. He swiped his tongue along my throat, and an alarm went off in the back of my head. Tom’s mouth opened, and he pressed an open-mouthed kiss on my throat, before he prodded with his tongue at my carotid.
“I hope you’re not doing what I think you’re doing,” I wheezed.
Tom’s lips left my throat with a soft plop. “So you know what to expect.”
The mating bite. Yes, I did know about that. So far, I’d dodged that successfully. I nodded. “Yes, I know, and no, you won’t bite me. The few who’ve tried it are probably still yowling in some corner of the universe.”
Tom raised an eyebrow and wrapped both hands around my face. “You’re a man of many talents, Berit Turner. I can’t imagine any Nadisc who’d willingly stop the mating.”
“I never said they wanted to stop, just that I made them. Look, I like you.” Tom’s face lit up, and I rolled my eyes before I continued. “Yes, get over yourself. I like you, but… I don’t like you enough to be mated to you. Can’t we just have some fun and move on?”
Tom’s expression darkened. His hands around my face tightened. Oh shit! How did I always get myself into such situations? Why the fuck did I always attract those Nadisc that thought binding me to them forever would be something good? And why the hell didn’t I have a weapon at hand? I always made sure to be able to protect myself!
“You’re mine,” Tom growled.
Fuck it all if that growl didn’t cause a thin trickle of precome to ooze out of my cock. He smirked at me as he rotated his hips on top of me. I gurgled something incomprehensible.
“I don’t belong to anyone, only myself.”
“I’ll take care of you.”
I pursed my lips. No matter how nice the idea of Tom taking care of me sounded—and didn’t that show I’d already lost some of my marbles?—I couldn’t agree. It went against everything I was.
“I don’t need a caretaker.”
Tom shook his head, sadness filling his eyes. “You need someone to love you, without conditions, just like you deserve.”
I sucked in a breath. Heated spots appeared on my body everywhere, I could feel the hotness surging up in patches. “I need someone to fuck me. Obviously you’re not up to the task, so how about you get out and I’ll get someone else to satisfy me.”
Tom’s frill spread out in all its glory. Red, orange, and yellow, all colors that should have alerted me of imminent danger. I reached out with both hands and followed the small, fragile spines that held the frill. He closed his eyes and a deep rumble rose in his chest, vibrating in my own rib cage.
When he opened his eyes again, he said, “I’ll never hurt you.”
“Says the giant on top of me who refuses to take no for an answer. Not very convincing, you know?” Not my smartest move, but then again I’ve never been known to be a smart cookie, only a smartass on occasion.
I stilled my hands. I could easily rip into the frill. The lines where I’d injured him earlier were still visible, but everything in me screamed not to do anything foolish. Not because he could snap my neck with a single flip of his hand, rather because I didn’t want to be responsible for any pain.
“You feel it. Why do you fight so hard against it? I can smell it on you.”
I frowned. “Smell what?”
“Your desire to mate, to give in to the longing deep in your heart to belong to someone,” Tom said in that gravelly voice of his. “You could have hurt me again, but you didn’t.”
Startled, I sank my head deeper into the pillow.
“Yes, I saw it in your eyes. The instinct to lash out, to get away, but you couldn’t, because you feel the pull of the mating bond.”
“The only thing I feel is a really heavy body squashing me,” I replied.
Tom’s lips curved into a smile. Then the bastard rocked his hips back and forth several times. His sac brushed against mine, while the tip of his tail flicked against my crack.
“Oh God,” I breathed.
“Berit,” he murmured. He pressed his forehead against mine and folded up his frill. I dug my hands into his dreadlocks, as always amazed at how silky they felt. “As soon as I laid eyes on you, I knew you were mine. You have to be.”
“Others have said the same,” I whispered. My resolution not to give in grew weaker by the second.
“And have any of them allowed you to take them?”
I inhaled sharply.