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She pressed her legs together gingerly. No pain. No slick or sticky feelings.
I was safe. Am safe.
Her heart gave an extra hard thump. It shouldn’t be so rare to find an honorable and safe person, but for her, it was.
Even the people you believe you can trust...
She blinked away memories and a sudden hot tear. Jade didn’t let herself think about life before the Pleasure Parks anymore.
But this is life after. Life with a fresh start. Life with someone I can trust—I think. Could I have finally found that one-in-a-billion “good guy”?
Ardol moved in his sleep, and she moved with him, guiltily realizing that she wanted the contact. Wanted him near.
For the first time since she was a teenager, Jade closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
ARDOL WOKE UP AND FOUND his nose full of soft crimson threads. Strands. Jade’s hair. He gave a slow, silent inhale, savoring her sweet scent. Something bitter and sad had tinged her scent every time they met—but it had faded so much overnight that Ardol wondered if it might have been the air on Lynx-Nineteen, not his Queen.
His body gave a hungry squirm as he surveyed her. The thin, sheer nightdress had hitched higher as they slept, revealing one soft, cream-colored globe of her rear. With a careful craning of his neck, he could look over her head and survey her much smaller frame.
Mouth-watering breasts.
A little patch of ruddy curls that he wanted to touch and examine. Was it coarser, like the fur of Felids, or soft like her long, flowing hair?
Ardol closed his eyes with an effort. Even if his examination was only visual, he suddenly felt it was wrong. Jade didn’t like sexual activities, and browsing her naked body was making his cock harden against her back.
From their limited conversations, Ardol believed Jade had never been “forced” to do things at the Pleasure Parks, but desperation and fear had coerced her to do more than she was comfortable with.
No one is going to make my Queen do anything she doesn’t want. Crave.
Even me.
Longing welled up in him, and he pushed it down. Leopardines were the greatest lovers in the galaxy. He’d always been told that.
That makes no sense. There are so many Leopardine Kings who don’t love their Queens like Rupex loves Layla, or Talos loves Wendy.
The greatest lovers... Greatest fuckers. Greatest orgasm-givers. There’s something selfish about that, too. We keep our Queens happy—perhaps only physically happy—so we can have many, so we can have all the sex we want.
“Ugh.” A soft groan escaped him. It’s too early—or rather, too late in the day for ugly truths on an empty stomach.
As if on cue, a soft beep came from the ship’s communication system by the door to his quarters.
“Transcription of message from Kamau, Chef of the Comet Stalker. ‘Good evening, love pets. Should I send down some food? Felids cannot live on love alone.’ Reply requested.”
“What’s happening?” Jade asked in an adorably weak, sleepy voice.
“It’s the kitchen, my Queen. How hungry are you?”
“I... Really hungry.” Jade sounded surprised. “That’s weird. I don’t usually have much of an appetite.”
“Kamau is a wonderful chef—even if he has his faults. Ship, this is the Freight Coordination Officer with a reply to the last transcript. We would love whatever the chef has prepared. Thank you.”
“You sound more polite and less like an arrogant prick,” Jade yawned, then clapped her hand over her mouth as she struggled to sit up. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. I... I wasn’t thinking.”
Ardol gave her a grim smile. “I was. It’s true that I was arrogant. And probably prick-like. Knowing you, even for a few days, has made me think beyond my planet and my people. I’m not sure that I like it—but I know that I like being with you,” he admitted.
“I guess so.” Jade’s eyes traveled to his waist and stayed there.
Ardol let out a hiss of annoyance and yanked his robe shut. “That happens to many males of various species. Pardon me.”
