“I told you I would never harm you.”

  “And I believe you,” she said quietly. “You’ve been tender and gentle, even when I angered you. You’re an honorable man.”

  He lifted an eyebrow.

  A small smile curved her lips. “Despite our appearance, I believe that’s true. You’ve a twisted sense of humor, and this has been the oddest courtship, but I know I can take you at your word.”

  “You believe this is a courtship?” He waited, willing her to have the courage to believe he was honest in his dealings with her.

  She took a deep breath and said in a rush, “Yes. As inexpert as I am, I know a man couldn’t be that hard all the time without being powerfully attracted.”

  Something inside him softened and relaxed. “And do you know what the purpose of this courtship is?”

  “You mean, beyond taking over my ship?”

  His narrowed eyes warned her not to tread that ground again.

  “You want me to accompany you to Qahir-Jadiid?” Her expression was hopeful and pierced his heart.

  “I want you to remain there with me.”

  A smile lit her face for a brief moment, and then she looked away. “But what of my ship?”

  “If you give me freedom, you’ll be viewed as a pirate by the Dominion and become subject to inter-galactic piracy laws. You could be executed if you are apprehended.”

  “Do I have to scuttle her?” she asked, her voice tight.

  “No.” He squeezed her hand. “Someday, we may have a need for her. Do you think you can bear to be planet-bound for a time?”

  “I love to fly, and it’s been my whole life since before I reached adulthood, but I find the thought of losing my ship doesn’t hurt me. I think…” She bit her lip, then released it and took a deep breath. “I know I can’t bear to live without you. I was lonely. Now…I’m not.”

  Satisfaction filled his chest and loins. It had come to pass, as his uncle had foreseen months before his death. He had found his mate, and soon, the falcon would tether its master. He tugged on her hand. “Come here.”

  “Wait!” Her eyes narrowed. “Just how many wives is a man permitted in your society?”

  He pursed his lips against the smile threatening to break. Now that she was assured of her place with him, his little prey wasn’t afraid to show her own talons. “As many as his first wife will allow.”

  “And do you already have a wife or two?”

  He feigned nonchalance and shrugged. “I’ve been a warrior for most of my adult life. I’ve had no time to seek a suitable mate.”

  Her eyebrows drew together in a fierce frown. “Am I just convenient, then?”

  “Ha’abib, you’ve been extremely inconvenient.” He jerked her to her feet and pulled her around the table. When she stood in front of him, he closed his hands over her hips.

  She stiffened, resisting his pull. “Will I be your wife or your convenience?”

  Annoyance burned for a moment until he noticed her white-knuckle grip on his hand. The answer was not apparent to her—she still doubted her own appeal. “My wife, of course.”

  She nodded once. “And if I tell you there will be no other wives in our life?”

  “Then I will expect you to provide all that a Tirrekh warrior needs from his wives.” He suppressed a smile as the light of battle appeared in her eyes.

  “Maybe one Earth woman equals several of your wives.”

  Needing to hold her, he stood up and circled the table, backing her up against the edge. “Perhaps we should test your theory.” He leaned down and captured her mouth in a hot, hard kiss.

  Andromeda sighed against his lips and their mouths softened, sliding together. He circled the sharp edges of her teeth, and then stroked her tongue with his.

  She yielded, sweetly opening her thighs to cuddle his sex. He circled his hips, rubbing her slit, wetting the tip of his cock in her moisture.

  She drew away and framed his face with her soft hands. “This…attraction burns. I couldn’t feel this way, if I didn’t love you.”

  He rested his forehead against hers. “As I love you.”

  Her eyes glittered with moisture, and she rose up on her toes to press her lips to his, again.

  Promises were exchanged as their tongues mated. His body stirred, her hips curved to accept his cock. He growled deep in his throat and lifted her off the floor. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he plunged into her wet warmth.

  They strained together—mouths and hips fusing, desperate to deepen their emotional and physical connection. Khalim’s hips rolled, pumping into her drenched pussy.

  At first, he didn’t recognize the noise, he was so lost inside the wonder of his woman’s body.

  Andromeda pressed against his shoulders. “Khalim, that’s a hailing signal!”

  The alarm in her voice pierced his sex-drugged mind. Her legs were already lowering from his waist, and he helped her gain her footing, regretting the loss of their connection.

  “What shall we do?” she asked, already heading toward the corridor. “We’ve been discovered by sentinels. We must be very close to the perimeter. How will we escape them now?”

  He followed closely on her heels to the bridge. “You must distract them.”

  “How?” She reached the ladder, but rather than climbing down the metal rungs, she straddled it and slid to the floor below.

  He imitated her action and followed her. “Do they expect you to respond?”

  “If I don’t, they’ll assume I’m still in suspension. They could board to wake me.” She slipped into her chair and flipped open the control panel. The screen opened, a midnight blue expanse dotted with brilliant lights from a billion far away stars. “Display all spacecraft.”

  As Khalim seated himself next to her, brackets surrounded a dark spot on the screen, and then illuminated the hull of a small cruiser.

  “There’s only one ship,” she said.

  “You will tell them you’re experiencing some sort of trouble with your ship. Anything that will convince them there is a reason for your ship to halt its progress. While they await your ship, I’ll pull them into another reality and we’ll escape.”

  Andromeda glanced at him. “When I open the communications line, they mustn’t see you.”

  Belatedly, Khalim’s gaze fell to her naked chest, and he frowned. “You need clothing.”

  Andromeda grinned, displaying a dimple in her right cheek. “You did say to distract them.”

  With her kiss-swollen lips and distended nipples, she’d certainly do that. It rankled that she was right. He glanced at the space beneath the console and screen. There might be just enough room…

  Before she could gasp a protest, he was on the floor and underneath the console, his hands pressing apart her thighs.

  “What are you doing?”

  Without preamble, his long fingers slid inside her vagina.

  Andromeda’s toes pointed to the floor, lifting her heels and giving him greater access to her cunt. “Stop,” she said, and then moaned. “I have to return their call.”

  “Do it,” he said then leaned closer and kissed the inside of one thigh.

  “You’re insane.” Her head pressed back into the headrest, and her hands gripped the armrests as if she were afraid she’d fly off the seat. “I won’t be able get out an intelligible sentence.”

  He spread the pretty pink folds guarding her entry with his fingers and stabbed his tongue inward.

  She lifted her hips off the chair, and he had to hold her down to accept his loving. “Make the call.” He circled her opening with a lap of his tongue.

  “Bastard!” He heard a click and then a breathless, “This is the captain of the Osprey. Identify yourself.”

  Epilogue

  ‡

  “What must they have thought when I cried out in the middle of their greeting?” I asked, rubbing his bottom absently. I’d never grow tired of exploring those hard, rounded muscles.

  “Andromeda, does it matter?” His head rested on my shoulder and his breaths still held a ragged edge. “They will not realize how long they hover at those coordinates…until I release them from their dream.”

  The tip of my finger traced the crease between his buttocks. “Where exactly did you take them?”

  I felt his shiver all the way to my womb. “To a place they will not be eager to leave.”

  I heard the smile in his voice, and I answered with a grin. “You took them to a whore house, didn’t you?” I smoothed my hands over the rise of his ass, and then grabbed both cheeks and squeezed.

  His cock lengthened inside me. “They are in a pleasure-giver’s palace,” he corrected me.

  “They rate a palace?”

  “Let us change the subject, hmmm?” The roll of his hips wasn’t needed to remind me where his pleasure lay.

  I was filled to the brim with his pleasure, so wet and sore from overuse the ache pulsed. Still, I couldn’t have him complaining. I pumped my hips and drew a long moan from him.

  “Mercy, Ha’abib!”

  I hoped I exhausted him. While in my arms, he’d never feel the lack of wives.

  He’d also never lack for laughter. His heart was lighter than when we first met. He smiled often, and I relished his sly sense of humor, even when the laughter was at my expense.

  Once again, he had brought me to Qahir-Jadiid. His flesh still embedded inside mine, his weight pressed me into silken blankets. They were spread upon a sandy shelf of rock overlooking a shallow pond. We arrived at sunset and watched the aqua sky fade to mauve and the stars appear like a billion phosphor-pots set to light our way.

  “If my ship were near enough, would we see us in the sky?”

  Khalim grunted and lifted his head. “We aren’t going to sleep, are we?”

  “This is a dream,” I reminded him. “You don’t need to sleep.”

  He shook his head then rose on his arms and disengaged our bodies. “You have much to learn.” Rolling to his back, he placed a hand behind his head and yawned.

  I climbed on top of him, stretching over him like a blanket.

  His hands closed over my ass.

  I folded my hands on his chest and planted my chin on top. I loved staring at him—his golden gaze warmed me to my toes. “This dream-sex could be the answer to birth control.”

  “Do you think so?” His slow smile was a study in masculine arrogance.

  Unable to resist the curve of his lips, I leaned down and slanted my mouth over his, lapping at the tip of his tongue.

  His body hardened beneath mine, his cock once again pressing at my cunt.

  I broke the kiss and gasped. “You give me so much, I’ll hardly miss flying at all.”

  Khalim’s hands glided up my back, and then his fingers combed through my hair, pulling me downward for another kiss. “Close your eyes, Ha’abib. I have something else to show you.” His mouth moved on mine, sucking softly.

  My legs parted over his waist, and I straddled his hips. I pushed my chest away from him, and his hands settled over my breasts. Circling my hips, I searched until my movements placed the head of his cock at my entrance. With a flex of my hips, I took him inside me. “I like what you show me,” I said, my voice raspy with want. I let my head roll back and closed my eyes. I ground my hips down, swirling, screwing his cock.

  Khalim’s soft laughter drifted over me. “This is not what I meant.”

  “No?” I teased him with another slow, spiraling thrust.

  His face darkened, his jaw tightening as I built his arousal. “I will show you. Turn around on me, love.”

  Never breaking the connection, his hands guided me until I faced the opposite direction. I felt him shift behind me until he sat with his chest to my back. “Now, close your eyes,” he whispered into my ear.

  From one moment to the next, we left the oasis and our hard, rock bed. Beneath my knees, I detected the movement of muscle clothed in rubbery skin. I opened my eyes and found that we were flying above the shadowed surface of Qahir-Jadiid. Our conveyance was a great beast with wide wings that canted to catch the wind. With Khalim’s arms anchoring me to his lap, his cock buried deep inside me, I raised my face to the starry sky and laughed.

  About Delilah Devlin

  Delilah Devlin is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of erotica and erotic romance with a rapidly expanding reputation for writing deliciously edgy stories with complex characters. She has published over a hundred sixty erotic stories in multiple genres and lengths, and she is published by Atria/Strebor, Avon, Berkley, Black Lace, Cleis Press, Ellora’s Cave, Grand Central, Harlequin Spice, HarperCollins: Mischief, Kensington, Kindle, Kindle Worlds, Montlake Romance, Running Press, and Samhain Publishing.

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  And if you’d like to dive into another fun and sexy series, check out the Night Fall series!

  Sm{B}itten

  Love Bites!

  Emmy Harris knows she’s not perfect. She has a little extra padding and isn’t the brightest bulb, but you’d think she was a sexy rock star the way everyone at a certain night club treats her from the moment she walks through the door. In fact, the two sexiest men there can’t seem to keep their hands off her, until one of them sweeps her away to his private domain. A girl like her isn’t going to waste a chance like that! So he’s a little rough and likes to take a nibble or two while he pleasures her. For a girl who didn’t know she’d never experienced a full-blown orgasm before, Dylan’s eccentricities are delicious!

  Dylan O’Hara only wants a night of passion to slake his lusts, but finds Emmy is a full-bodied, red-blooded siren whose innocence and humor draw this Master vampire like a moth to a red-hot flame. When Emmy attracts the attention of a serial-killing vampire, Dylan vows to protect her, but he fears he’ll lose Emmy once she discovers he’s not human.

  Truly, Madly…Deadly

  Just this once…

  On the trail of a serial killer, vampire Quentin Albermarle is mistaken for the killer by a police special task force. Once the smoke clears, Quentin finds himself in a delicious position—atop one of the unit’s crack officers, Darcy Henry. In need of Quentin’s access to the vampire sub-culture, the task force leadership invites Quentin to join the crime unit as a special advisor, much to the chagrin of the men in the unit, and especially, of Darcy.

  Caught between opposing forces, vampire and hunter…

  A no-nonsense cop with no time for romance, Darcy suddenly finds herself embroiled in a steamy love triangle between her mortal partner, Joe, and the handsome vampire. Going from abstinence to wantonness, she is unable to resist the two men’s relentless seduction or her own sensual curiosity about a vampire’s special “kiss”.

  A hunger like no other…

  When the real killer threatens the life of someone close to her, Darcy makes a choice that forever binds the three of them together.

  Knight in Transition

  A member of an elite police unit sworn to hunt vampires, Joe Garcia’s life is turned upside down when he’s transformed into one. On a quest for a cure, Joe’s search brings him to New Orleans in a last-ditch effort to recover his humanity.

  Professor Lily Carlson, a renowned expert in vampire lore, has a condition of her own. Her sexual libido has been in hyper-drive for months. Her only defense is to hide behind her glasses and tweed suits and stay as far away from men as possible. However, she’s thrilled to discover vampires really do exist when Joe shows up on her balcony.

  Although Joe deflects her attempts to make him a case study and confirm a few vampire statistics, he is drawn by her powerful allure. When werewolves join the chase and track her through New Orleans, Joe’s cop instincts tell him there’s a mystery to solve. Intent on protecting her, he must seek help from the last vampire on Earth he wants to ask.

  While his hopes for deliverance from his fate dwindle, Lily’s life is forever altered by an unexpected inheritance.

  Wolf in Plain Sight

  To Super-cop Max Weir, the only good vampire is a dead one. Since his special police unit integrated with vampires, he’s had to suppress his natural hatred to work side by side with the undead to hunt down and terminate the deadliest killers. Now the unit’s hot on the trail of a new menace in town, a pack of werewolves prowling for vampires who don’t care whether humans get in their way.

  When a stakeout goes awry, Max enters a bar looking for a fight or woman to help him blow off a little steam. What he finds is a winsome siren whose sexual appetites match his own.

  Vampire Pia D’Amato is on a secret mission to take out Max—either by seduction or turning him. He’s become a liability to the Masters’ Council setting up jurisdiction in southern Florida, and she’s not leaving until she’s done the job. But Max is more man than she bargained for with a deadly secret of his own.

  Knight Edition

  Sidney Coffey, Seattle’s “News at Nine” girl, uncovers the scoop of a lifetime and her ticket into serious journalism. The only problem is—without proof—no one’s going to believe the victims of recent gang killings are in fact “undead” and vampires!

  With her gut telling her there’s an even bigger story lurking beneath the surface, she decides to beard a reclusive vampire master in his den for an interview. But meeting the master only complicates things. For a woman with a voracious sexual appetite, the tall, dark and gloomy vamp proves an irresistible challenge.

  When a reporter trespasses on his estate, Navarro is at first amused then annoyed that the little baggage is close to putting together the pieces of a dangerous plot involving an old enemy and a group of murdered geneticists. To keep her safe, Navarro issues an invitation he won’t let her refuse.

 

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