“I didn’t want to get involved with a human, especially not one as politically important as you, but…” He cupped her chin, his face moving even closer. “But it seems I can’t deny myself.”

  It was the only warning she had before his lips stole hers. The kiss exploded with the force of a bursting supernova. His lips nibbled at hers, his tongue winning entrance to her mouth. He tasted so good, unexpectedly sweet, which Bianca puzzled over as she gripped his sweater to draw him closer. The thrill of his kiss startled her so much that she didn’t resist, didn’t push away. No, her treacherous body burrowed closer to his, and his low, purring approval flushed her body from head to toe with spirals of wild heat. Her pulse pounded as he moved his head lower to her throat. He flicked his tongue against her skin before dragging the tips of his sharp teeth along her neck, causing a light rasping sensation.

  A moan so loud it mortified her escaped her lips as she grew wet. His teeth moved to the crook between her neck and shoulder, sinking slightly deeper. Was he going to bite her?

  “Please…” Bianca breathed a plea, but she honestly wasn’t sure if she was asking him to stop or to keep going.

  “Please what, lilana?” He gathered her into his arms, and the scent of him washing over her made her delightfully dizzy.

  “What does that mean? Lilana?”

  Soren nuzzled her neck, his lips moving in soft whispers over her skin. “It means precious one in my tongue.”

  Precious one? How could she be precious to him? He was a K, and she was human. She knew how he viewed her people. His words from five years ago to her father still echoed in her head.

  “You have been poor custodians of such a precious planet. You have ruined it. We are here to fix what we can, and you will be thankful for the intervention.”

  The memory was a cold slap to her face. She flattened her palms on his chest and shoved. Hard. The muscled mass of Soren’s tall form didn’t budge. Tears of rage and shame pricked her eyes. She hated being weak, and only Soren made her feel like this. She was helpless around him, a toy, nothing of consequence.

  He pulled back and stared down at her, concern darkening his eyes. His russet hair, a rare color among the Krinar, fell into his eyes. Had he been any other man, she would have reached up to brush it away from his beautiful, predatory eyes. But she didn’t dare. His pull was undeniable, and to touch him would be to risk everything.

  “Ms. Wells, are you all right?” Scott asked.

  The agent’s voice drew her eyes away from Soren. Scott and Mike hovered like overprotective mother hens. A fresh wave of mortification rolled through her. She had been caught making out in the stacks like some college freshman, with a damned Krinar! And her agents, two men she trusted with her life, were frowning in disapproval, their faces pale, and each looked ready to draw his weapon.

  “I…I’m fine.” She gave the agents a grateful smile, but they all knew that if they dared to attack or restrain Soren, he was capable of ripping them to pieces. Krinar were incredibly fast and strong.

  Everyone had seen the footage of a Middle Eastern terrorist cell that had tried to fight off just one Krinar male. The male had been hit by a sniper’s bullet during a surprise attack, and that had only pissed him off. He’d rushed their position and torn them to pieces with his bare hands in a blood-fueled rage. If Soren wanted her, Mike and Scott would die trying to protect her from him, but they would die. She wouldn’t let that happen. She would surrender to him if she had to in order to protect those two good men.

  “Will the tour be over soon?” Soren asked, ignoring the agents.

  “I think so. Ackerman doesn’t have much else to show them.”

  Soren’s lips curved in the ghost of a smile. “Good. When it is over, you and I shall talk.” He stepped away and exited the stacks to wait in the entryway for his fellow Ks to return.

  Bianca ran her hands through her hair and struggled to grip the frayed ends of her self-control. Soren wanted her. She had felt the press of his shaft against her belly as he’d kissed her, and the blazing heat in his promise of what he wished to do with her. What was she going to do? There was no escaping this.

  “Bianca,” Mike whispered softly, but even he knew that Soren could probably still hear them. “You sure you’re okay? We can take you away, call your father”

  “No!” she hissed. If they called him, he would be furious, and that would risk the peaceful relationship between Earth and Krina. The Coexistence Treaty was in place, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be broken if she was foolish enough to resist. Lives could be lost, and they could be enslaved more than they were now. At least right now the human race could tolerate their situation. The Ks ran the show, but they let human lives go on mostly unaffected. But all of that could change if she dared to resist whatever Soren wanted from her.

  “You sure?” Scott pressed. “He wasn’t following protocol. It should be reported.”

  “No. You know as well as I do what that could lead to. If he comes back to my dorm, stay outside. Please.” She reached out to touch both men on the shoulders, but the heavy sound of a distant growl made her hands freeze inches from their skin. She drew a slow breath.

  Krinar males are possessive. Truth.

  Krinar males will not let another man touch what they believe is theirs. Truth.

  But she wasn’t his. She was her own person, and she would never belong to anyone the way Soren seemed to want her to belong to him.

  She rejoined Soren in the foyer of the library just as Ackerman and the two Krinar professors returned.

  “There is something so amazing about your books,” Driana said with a soft, appreciative smile. “I feel sorrow for the trees destroyed, yet the books themselves with their stories and knowledge pay tribute to the plants that bore them.”

  Jaks nodded sagely. “Well said.”

  Bianca watched the two alien professors, still surprised by their genuine warmth and friendliness. She had only ever met Krinar like Soren before, the kind who dealt with politics and those who had conquered the world. It was easy to imagine the Krinar as only bloodthirsty warriors, not like these inquisitive and kind Krinar. They had shown only respect and curiosity for her world and the lives of the college students. There had been no condescension, no looking down their noses at their primitive human ways.

  “Well.” Ackerman smiled at the group. “I think we’ve seen enough today. You’re welcome back anytime before August, of course. I’ll have your offices prepared in the buildings belonging to your respective fields of study, medicine, and Krinar and human biology.”

  “Biology?” Bianca couldn’t resist piping up. “Which one of you is teaching that?”

  Driana grinned. “I am. Is that an interest of yours?”

  “Yes!” Bianca said, forgetting for a moment about Soren, who had come up close behind her.

  “I’m studying marine biology. I would love to speak with you about Krinar marine life, if you are familiar with it. I won’t be here this fall since I’m graduating, so I’ll miss your class. Can I meet with you instead?”

  Driana’s gaze drifted above Bianca’s head to something behind her, the female K’s expression searching for a moment before she smiled again and nodded.

  “Soon. Very soon, little one,” Driana promised. She held out her hand and caressed Bianca’s face, and Bianca, thrilled at the prospect of talking to a Krinar biologist, returned the greeting with a smile. Her heart was bursting with excitement as she watched the university president escort Jaks and Driana away.

  Then only she and Soren were left, along with her security detail.

  “Show me to your dorm, Bianca.” Soren’s command was gentle, but it was still an order. He reached out to catch one of her hands as he said this, his warm palm covering hers completely. She knew he wouldn’t let her go if she tried to pull away. Domination shone in his gaze, even if it was gentled by a soft half smile. She bristled at his command, but she didn’t say anything. She headed off to her room, her hand still entwined with his.

  She was doomed. There was no preventing whatever was to come.

  3

  Soren kept his amusement at Bianca’s blatant coolness in check. Perhaps that was what had drawn his attention when he’d first met her five years ago. She had challenged him, shouting questions at an alien just moments after discovering they existed. She was full of natural charm and bravado. She reminded him of his twin brother, Sef. Twins were rare in their world, but despite their identical appearance, he and Sef couldn’t have been more different. But Bianca’s feisty attitude was very much like Sef’s.

  His brother would be only too delighted to hear that Soren was growing attached to someone who didn’t immediately acquiesce to his demands. At that moment, Bianca marched ahead of him like a warrior facing a battle she knew she couldn’t win. Stubborn creature—she had nothing to fear from him, except perhaps having to face night after night of intense pleasure.

  It was true that he’d gotten carried away in the library stacks, but he wouldn’t let it happen again, not until he was certain she desired him as much as he did her. He never forced females into his bed, and Bianca would be no different. If anything, he would take more care to woo her properly. But that did mean he’d have to show her that her responses to him were natural, a good thing, not something shameful.

  He ignored the looks of the students as they passed, knowing that he and a human—their president’s daughter, no less—must make for quite the spectacle. It was good that she had two agents to protect her, but they were only human. He would assign a Krinar guardian to watch over her. Krinar guardians were their form of law enforcement, and they would be discreet so that no one would know they were being watched. Sef was a guardian, but he currently worked missions involving human resistance fighters, so Soren would have to find someone else.

  Bianca stopped at the entrance to a red brick dormitory and nodded to her two agents. The men nodded back, then reluctantly walked away toward their parked SUV on the street.

  “You’ve trained them well.” Soren chuckled at the almost violent look that Bianca shot him.

  “They’re not pets. They would give their lives for me. They’re good men.” She darted into the building, and he followed her inside. Her room was on the second floor, next to the main staircase. Soren waited to see the inside of the room he’d glimpsed on the camera feed last night. For some reason, everything about her life now fascinated him.

  She opened the door, and a sweet smell wafted around him, a mix of Bianca’s feminine aroma blended with scented hair products from her bathroom. Her hair smelled of vanilla. He had grown fond of the Earth plant and its enticing aroma. Nothing smelled like that back on his home world.

  He followed her inside and shut the door behind them. Bianca shrugged out of the coat he had made for her and tried to hand it back to him.

  “Here. I don’t”

  “I have no need for it, and it will fit only you. Keep it.” He pushed the coat back against her, their hands meeting in a brief brush of skin and fabric. Her gaze fell upon their joined hands, and he admired her elegant, slender fingers. He was lost in memories of how it felt to have those fingers grasp his sweater to drag him closer. But now she pulled away from him.

  “Uh… So yeah…this is my dorm. That’s pretty much the last part of the tour.” She waved an arm around the room before she hung up the jacket and put it in her small closet.

  “Small accommodations. Don’t you miss the finer, larger rooms you enjoyed living at the White House?” He could never have survived the cramped confines of this room. Even thinking about it made his stomach twist in old fears.

  He’d once traveled outside the Krinar solar system when he’d been a younger male, wanting to seek glory and respect by bringing back news of other worlds to his people. He had stopped on one planet, Zaruth, and had been captured by a primitive race. They had been armed with weapons laced with a drug he hadn’t been familiar with, and before he could adapt, he’d been taken captive. For three hundred years, he’d been a captive of a primitive race. He’d escaped by the grace of good luck and cunning, but that failure was still planted firmly in his mind thousands of years later. The fear it had instilled in him was sometimes inescapable.

  He shrugged off the suffocation that was building around him and forced his mind back to the present.

  “I thought it would drive me crazy at first, but it’s fun sharing a room with Claudia.”

  “Claudia…” He pretended not to recognize the name. “And she is what, exactly?”

  “My roommate.” Bianca crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lip. He knew she was on edge being so close to him, and rightly so. Each time she took her bottom lip between her teeth and nibbled it, it made his body throb with an ancient fire and hunger to grab her and push her down onto the bed. He could show her just how much she would enjoy belonging to him, having her body mastered and dominated while he pleasured her over and over.

  I am eight thousand years old. I do not lose control over females. Certainly not ones so delicate. He repeated the reminder again in his head, not that it helped much.

  “You said you are to graduate in a few weeks?” He stepped closer, and she drifted back a step, her back colliding with the wall as he worked her into a corner. He watched her breasts rise and fall rapidly, like a caged animal. It shouldn’t have excited him, but the predatory part of him urged him to pounce, to take what was his. Soren clenched his fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her.

  “Yes. Two weeks.” Her breathless reply pleased him. He wanted to keep her off balance. He wanted her aware of the sexual tension that buzzed between them like electricity.

  Soren reached up and placed a hand on the wall beside her head, leaning in as he spoke.

  “Do you have a lover?” He knew the answer but wanted to see what she would say. Lie to protect herself, or dare to tell the truth?

  “What? You go from asking about school to boyfriends?” She tried to slide away from him along the wall, but he used his other hand to catch her hip. His hold was gentle, but he kept her firmly in place in front of him.

  “Yes. Do you have a lover?” He repeated the question, watching the way her pupils dilated.

  “Yes.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I do.”

  “Liar,” he teased with a chuckle. She glared up at him. He rubbed his hand on her hip, slowly gentling her with his caress, but it only made the rebellious fire burn brighter in her eyes.

  “Don’t call me a liar!” she hissed.

  “Then don’t lie.” His focus dropped to her lips. “Or else I’ll give your mouth something else to do.” Like use it on my body, he thought with delight. She would be the sort of female a man could kiss and tease for hours, being satisfied to explore her in all ways before finally claiming her.

  She punched his chest, though it had no effect, and he leaned in even closer. He could smell her arousal and had become almost drugged with the scent.

  “You arrogant ass—” Bianca was cut off as her roommate, Claudia, barged in the door, chattering wildly.

  “Oh my God, did you hear, Bianca? There are Krinar on campus. They” Claudia held a tower of books almost up to her chin, and she suddenly noticed Soren. She made a startled squawk, and the heavy stack in her arms went flying. Soren reacted without hesitation, moving to catch the tumbling textbooks in a reasonably composed stack. Then he held them out to Bianca’s trembling roommate.

  “Um, Bee, there’s a Krinar in our room. I’m not hallucinating, am I?” she said in a panicked whisper.

  Soren almost chuckled. Aside from his immense height to give him away, his people had eyes that didn’t quite look human, and their features were perhaps a little too…perfect, according to some. Humans could recognize them as aliens on some instinctive level.

  “Claudia, this is Ambassador Soren. Soren, this is Claudia Putnam.” When it was clear that Claudia wasn’t going to take the books back, he set them on her bed and bowed.

  “It’s a pleasure, Ms. Putnam. I apologize for intruding upon your living quarters. I was curious about them, and Bianca graciously offered to show them to me.” He could feel Bianca’s mutinous glare. She hadn’t offered, and they both knew it.

  “It’s nice to…meet you?” Claudia ended the greeting in a question, her eyes flicking between him and Bianca in concern. She didn’t trust him, because Bianca had told her all too often about the nightmares she had about the invasion—or K-Day, as the humans called it. He was a part of what had left Bianca anxious and restless on so many nights. If all went well, that would change. She would still be restless at night, but for other, more pleasurable reasons. Once he showed her how good things between them could be, she would be anxious to stay in his bed and in his arms.

  “Hey, Bee, are you good? You want me to leave?” Claudia was staring openly at him now, eyes wide with mixed terror and fascination.

  “Stay,” Bianca pleaded with her roommate. It was a cry for help, that quiet one-word utterance. Soren didn’t want her afraid, but it would take time to ease her fears. She was young. Twenty-one was fully grown for humans, but he knew she had no real experience around males of her own species, let alone Krinar males. He would gently introduce her to a world of passion, show her that desire and hunger were not things to be feared.

  “Okay, since this is my room too, and Bee is my friend, you’re going to have to answer some questions if you want to stay,” Claudia announced bravely.

  Bianca’s breath came out in a relieved sigh, and Soren’s ears picked up on the faint flush–thump–flush–thump of her heartbeat as that sweet blood of hers rushed through her veins.

  Soren moved his focus from Bianca’s blood to her roommate.

  “Ask. I can’t guarantee to answer all your questions—some information is classified by the non-interference mandate.”

  “Okay.” Claudia edged slowly around him to sit on her bed. Bianca did the same, curling up on her own bed. This allowed Soren to claim Bianca’s desk chair as he prepared for the roommate’s inquisition.

 

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