Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 2

“Upper level, quarters six-four-three,” Prime Nial shared. “We will debrief. Later.”

“Tomorrow,” Leo replied. Before I could even move, he had me tossed over his shoulder and was carrying me out of the room.

“Leo, put me down,” I said, pounding at his back. “This is ridiculous. I can walk just fine.”

He harrumphed, but didn’t stop. “Yes, it is ridiculous that I have to remind my mate that her life is much more valuable than mine.”

“I can’t help that I’m a flipping princess.”

“It has nothing to do with you being an Aleran royal. It has to do with you being my mate. It seems I haven’t fucked you well or hard enough for you to realize that. I will be fixing that right now, and I assure you, you will not be walking just fine after.”

The threat made me shiver, eager to get on with things. It didn’t take long for Leo to reach the quarters Prime Nial had allocated for us. I didn’t see much of the main room except what I could around Leo’s ass, but the bathroom was large. I doubted most rooms were of this size, but then again not everyone on the ship was a princess. Or Prime Nial’s close friend.

Leo pressed buttons on the wall, which turned on the shower. Steam immediately began to swirl in the glass enclosure. He finally settled me on my feet and I stood, staring, as he tugged off his torn and dirty clothes, dropping them to the floor, most likely to be burned, or whatever one did on a battleship. Mother had told us about life on Alera, not outer space. As far as I knew, she’d never seen the inside of a battleship.

I couldn’t help but stare as every inch of him was revealed, but the dried blood was a visible and gruesome reminder of what he’d gone through. He stepped into the tube, began washing it all away. I hadn’t been in the cell where they’d held him—tortured him—for long, but I remembered.

“Mate, you have five seconds to strip and join me or I will be tugging you in as you are.”

From the depth of his tone and

the way his eyes were still on me, I knew he was serious. That, and the fact I’d been carried like a sack of potatoes across a battleship.

I made quick work of the outfit and stepped into the warm tube when he opened the door. Without thinking, I took the soap from him, began to wash him. His cock was hard, just as I’d always seen it, the vein up the length pulsing with his life blood. The crown was broad and I remembered how it would stretch my pussy nice and wide for the rest of him.

“I’m sorry,” I replied, staring at his chest, his cock bobbing and bumping against my belly.

“For what specifically, mate?”

“For you being hurt.”

“That, Trinity, I could endure. What I couldn’t survive would be if you had been hurt. Captured. You have no idea what the enemy is like.” He stilled my hands with his, and I lifted my chin to look at him. The water beat down on both of us. Here, in this warm cocoon with him, I felt safe, like nothing could ever harm us. But that wasn’t the truth, the evidence of that swirling down the drain.

“I couldn’t just leave you to them,” I countered. “I was able to help and I did.”

“Unacceptable.”

The shower tube was snug, meant for just one person, or perhaps two normal sized people. But Leo was so big there was nowhere to go, nowhere to look but at him.

“Unacceptable?”

“I will not have you in harm’s way.”

“Even if you might die?” I asked, completely exasperated.

“Yes.”

“Well, that is unacceptable to me,” I said.

He took the soap from me, washed us both efficiently and thoroughly. While his touch wasn’t meant to be sexual, it was impossible not to be aroused. His hands were on me. Everywhere. My Ardor was making it hard for me not to lick drops of water off his chest. The water shut off and a hot wind turned on.

I let out a strange eep of surprise, but Leo put a steady hand on my shoulder. “You do not wash like this on Earth?”

“With a big, sexy man I can’t wait to—”

His jaw clenched and I stopped mid-sentence. I’d never showered with a man before. Never wanted to. With him? I was about to melt into a puddle at his feet. “I do not want to hear about other males. You are mine now.”

“No, Leo. I have never taken a shower with a man. And not with a full body dryer. We use cloth towels to dry off.”