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“Cocky only goes so far, female.”
“I love it when you throw American slang at me, Varnak. You keep studying. Why?”
He flushes and turns away. “Nothing to do with you.”
I grunt and slog my way through the broken pieces of the ship. “I’m going to take this stuff and check it out. Come with me or don’t.”
“I’m going to show you how to fight. If you have any sense, it won’t happen and you’ll tell them you changed your mind and you intend to go back home.”
I eye him uncertainly. “You would rather be a breeder to these women than depend on me?”
“I would rather you live than die. I don’t want you to fight at all.” His eyes shimmer with something elusive and breathtaking.
“I can fight, dammit! Stop telling me that I’m not worth anything.”
He stops, shocked. “You think that all you are worth is you fighting?” His sea-blue gaze sharpens until it feels like he can see every part of me. Like I’m an open book to him.
“Stop trying to analyze me! I’m not a damn problem for you to solve!” I stomp to the broken wall but he slams me into it, his huge size hovering over me, his teeth bared, his body taut with anger.
“I never thought you were a problem.” His eyes slide down and then he grunts. “Okay. Maybe I did at first. But I would gladly give you up and give up my own life if it meant you were safe and free. You deserve that, my kora.”
I suck in a sharp breath. I know what that means. I glance down and I see the faint trail of vines and flowers moving across his arms, under his skin, faintly lit up, turning his blue skin bright and clear.
“No,” I hiss under my breath. “I am not your mate, Varnak. I’m not anybody’s mate. I am my own person and men don’t like that.”
His sharp eyes soften to the peaceful look of the sea at night. “I know who you are and I do like you like you are. You’re beautiful and smart and you make me want to vrecking love you like a crazy male until you lose your voice screaming my name and you can’t walk the next day.”
I want that. I want to feel like someone wants me.
“I…I do want that too.”
“So leave that stuff for awhile and be with me, my kora.”
I shake my head. “I can’t promise you forever as a mate. That’s not me.”
“Males on your planet must be the dumbest in the galaxy.”
I snort and then laugh out loud. “I think you’ve lost your mind.”
He moves against me and I feel the hard length of him pressed up against me. My core slickens and all I want is to be with him. Tomorrow is going to be bad one way or another. Starting with not getting the chance to go home and fighting a woman who wants what’s mine.
I jerk myself to a halt. “Not mine.”
He stares at me. “Let go, my kora. Let me love you. Let me show you what we could be.”
He opens the room to the bedroom with his bare hands since nothing is working. Following him inside, I fight to keep from running. I don’t run from any male. I learned that lesson the hard way. Thanks to a father who felt like it was his right to beat me every damn day I drew breath. I can still feel the heavy sting of the wood on my ass as I tried to keep from crying.
More than once I went to school with my butt so sore that I couldn’t sit without tears rolling down my cheeks.
But I never said one word about what he did. I just waited until I turned eighteen and then I left without a backwards glance and I taught myself to fight so that nobody ever got the chance to use me as a punching bag. And I haven’t thought about the bastard for so many years. He is nothing.
Never again will I be somebody’s to abuse.
I draw in a deep breath as he stands there and watches me silently. He’s waiting for me to decide. He won’t take away my choices, my options.
He’s a good male. I could do far worse and actually I have.
One way or another I want this. Want him to wipe out all the hurt, pain and bad memories. No man has ever managed up to this point.
