I rub my face. “Veck, Kailani. That was my plan, yes. Before I knew you. And then I realized how traumatized you were. How much you hated needles and doctors, and I held back my purpose. I didn’t want you to be afraid. But I should have told you everything. And I’m sorry—I’m so vecking sorry about the way they took you. I never meant for that to happen. I want to rip all their heads off their vecking necks.”
She comes over to sit beside me. Some of the tension has left Kailani’s face. I doubt I’m forgiven, but maybe she’s not as angry as she was before.
“They took me into custody because I hadn’t requested permission to go on the mission. I should have accounted for that. I was a fool. I guess I imagined a much more celebratory landing. Me the hero—you the heroine. Instead we were both dragged in like prisoners.”
She studies me. “So, what happens now?”
I lift my shoulders. “You don’t have to do anything. I won’t let them touch you, all right? If you want me to go steal another airship and fly you somewhere else, I will. But I beg you to just give Zandia a chance. Not me—you don’t have to ever speak to or see me again if you don’t want to. But I didn’t lie when I said Zandia was a safe place for humans. You could make friends here. Make a life.”
She blinks at me. Her golden skin flushes a bit. “You called me your mate—back in the med bay.”
My horns thicken and lean in her direction. I try again to swallow. “I want you as my mate, yes. If you’d have me.”
She doesn’t answer.
“But matings must be approved by the king. I don’t know if I’d be granted the privilege.” I pick up one of the tiny crystals on the edge and roll it around between my fingers.
“Especially if I don’t help the doctors, right?”
“I’m not certain,” I admit.
“Did you just get in more trouble by taking me away from there?”
I shrug. “Possibly. I don’t care. You were frightened and alone, and I wasn’t going to sit around obeying orders when you were suffering.”
“You’re an idiot,” she says, climbing to her feet.
A stone sinks in my belly. “Yes,” I agree.
She loops a leg over me and straddles my lap. “Thank you.”
My breath catches. Horns go rock hard. I fill my hands with her ass and yank her hips over my erection as I claim her mouth.
“Veck, Kailani.”
She rubs her slick pussy over my erection, writhing in my lap. When she reaches down to grip my cock and guide it inside her, I don’t hold in my growl of satisfaction. I nip her neck, suck on her nipple. Then I grip her ass and lift and lower her hips over mine. Her glorious breasts bounce in front of my face. She loops her slender arms around my neck and puts her mouth over one of my horns.
I roar with the pleasure of it, yanking her hips in snug against mine, nearly coming. “Stars, Kailani. If you do that again, this will be over way too soon.”
Her laugh is husky. “Is that so?” She takes my entire horn into her mouth, her tongue swirling around it. She sucks hard. My thighs quake. Balls draw up tight.
“Kailani,” I choke.
She pops off the horn, and I groan, impaling her with my erection as I pull her over me in quick bounces. She swirls that velvety wet tongue around my other horn.
“Veck, veck, veck,” I groan. “I won’t last another moment.”
“Mmm,” she hums around my sensitive appendage.
I can’t take it any longer. I flip her on her back on the soft moss and slam into her like my life depends on it.
Her head falls back in pleasure. “Yes, Khrys. Yes!”
I’ve never been happier to hear those words. Veck, I thought I’d lost my mate forever back there, and now. she’s screaming my name while I pound between her legs. By the one true Zandian star, I don’t care if my honor is never restored. This is what matters. This is where I belong.
I force myself to slow down, arcing in and out of her smoothly as I lower my head to tease one of her nipples with my tongue.
She moans and grips my horns, causing me to slam in hard again.