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She blew out air through her lips, her expression changing once again, this time to full-blown exasperation. "And how are you going to leave me on Astrionis when we can't even be fifty feet apart without rolling in pain on the floor? And what the hell is Astrionis?"

I stared at her, then opened my mouth and closed it. Frygg. I hated the fact that she had a point. I hated these damn marks. My palms slapped the table in front of me, and I jumped up so fast that my chair fell back, making Hannah jump. Good. Fear me, female.

I stared at her, and she stared at me as if challenging me, but with enough sense to keep a hint of weariness. She even held her spork up as if she'd use it as a weapon. Laughable but admirable nevertheless.

"Yeah, a minor setback in your plan, right?" She knew her words enraged me, and still, she didn't cease or back down. "So you're gonna live onAstrioniswith me then?"

She pronounced Astrionis like some disease.

"We could be neighbors. Or live in the same house. We could work the fields together." She kept the hits coming. Her feigned nonchalance made me want to throw her out even more. She even dug in her food and chewed it. Never so much as looking away from me.

"It'll be interesting to see what happens if you bring another woman home or I a man. Will ourmating markslike that?"

Frygg the mating marks. My insides roiled at the idea of her being intimate with another man. I roared and upended the table she still sat at.

She managed to grab her plate and placed it on her lap, still pretending to be utterly nonplussed, but her hand was slightly shaking. I was rattling her. Good. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake sense into her, but just then, my cock twitched again, and I wasn't sure if I could stop by taking her by the shoulders.

"I take that as a no?" She arched an eyebrow.

The female simply didn't know when to stop, did she?

"Do you have any self-preservation, female?"

"Hannah. My name is Hannah," she corrected with just the slightest hint of a tremble in her voice. "But the answer is yes,yes, I do, and you are scaring the shit out of me if that's what you want to hear. But"—she raised her spork into my face—"I don't think you'll kill me since you don't seem to have the first idea about these mating marks, and you're smart enough to realize that if you hurt or kill me, you don't know what those marks will do to you."

Oh, that female was maddening. She was testing the last strings of my composure and patience, even though I had to admit, given the circumstances, I admired her ability to remain logical instead of breaking down into a weeping mess.

However, the moment her lips opened, I shook my head and stomped out of the room before one of my baser instincts took over the last shreds of my self-control.

Afraid to put too much distance between us, I stopped right outside in the hallway, leaning against a wall and taking a few deep breaths, trying to understand why she was getting to me.

It was maddening, driving me insane.

At the same time, the need to bend her over the table and fuck her into oblivion until she cried my name sent me into a perpetual state of aggravation.Why her?That thought echoed inside my head over and over.Why her?Of all the females I had encountered, why did it have to be her? She wasn't even my type. Well, she was beautiful, I allowed, which very much made her my type, at least in the physical sense. Otherwise? The moment she opened her mouth, I wanted to strangle her. All those frygging questions I didn't have answers for, nor did I want to dig into those questions because part of me realized that once I did, there would be no going back to who I was. It was something I felt deep in my bones and brought up another problem: these things that were coming up were already things I had wondered about before. I just didn't like the way she was pushing me to find answers. I wasn't ready to tackle this particular beast. I liked my life.

Liar!

Was that not why I attempted to get drunk in that shady establishment in the first place? Hadn't I picked that particular moral cesspool in the hope of getting into a good, mind-blowing brawl that would get me out of the funk that had enveloped me lately?

Exasperated, I ran my hand through my hair. What a frygging starstorm spiral.

My instincts, honed over years of training and fighting, picked up noises from inside the nourishing area, which I was certain meant Hannah was rightening the furniture I had upended. Good, at least she was keeping busy with something else besides peppering me with questions.

The lights dimmed slightly, alerting me that it was time to go to bed. Space travel didn't really give any time for morning and evening, but scientists had discovered that with the lack thereof, morale tended to run low on space travelers. They came up with a solution. At the start of every journey, the computer calculated the exact amount of Galactic Standard Time it would take to get from point A to point B. It divided the time by the amount of hours a species needed to sleep to be at their maximum performance level. Next, it simulated day and night using lights, gradually dimming then brightening, signaling travelers' bedtimes. Of course these were mere suggestions, not orders. One could still spend the night partying, but their performance would be low the following day.

"Time to get a good night's sleep," I announced, stepping back into the nourishing area, hoping she had eaten her fill.

"And where and how will that happen?" she demanded, her eyes blazing in challenge.

I closed my eyes and prayed for patience.

"I've already assigned you quarters." I pointed out, realizing, once again, too late, her point.

"Fine, we'll bed down in mine."

She pushed her fists into her sides, looking adorable in herfury. I swear, as long as she didn't open her mouth, she was the perfect female.

"I will notbed downanywhere withyou."