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My orgasm made it easier to take him. He must have felt that too, because now he fucked me in earnest, holding me in place against his chest with his enormous hands under my thighs. His cock moved on its own to delve deeper inside me, one stroke at a time. His growls of what I’d learned was pleasure added to my own ecstasy because they traveled through his cock into me.

I hadn’t intended to kiss him, but I couldn’t help myself. I also couldn’t stop crying out his name over and over into his own mouth as his cock went deeper and deeper and I stretched to accommodate him in a delicious combination of pleasure and pain.

“Ariel,” he said, his mouth still against mine. “My ledger?”

How much was his debt? How much had I deducted? I didn’t know and didn’t care.

He slowed his movement then, his cock going still. “My ledger,” he said again, and took his mouth away too. At my scowl, his smile turned decidedly wicked.

“Gods,” I muttered, and tried to move on his cock, only to find I couldn’t because he was a gods-damned behemoth with the strength of a Fortusian ox. “Five thousand credits.”

When he grinned, I knew I’d given him the wrong number. “I mean six thousand,” I said quickly. “Plus tip.”

“No.” His eyes glinted. “Fivethousand. I have cut my debt by nearly half. I am pleased.”

“You seem generally pleased with yourself,” I shot back. “So that feeling shouldn’t be too unique, Thalan the hotshot raider.”

He stilled then, his expression going from amused to stoic in a heartbeat. “I am no raider,” he said. I didn’t like his voice now: harsh and flat. “I have left that life.”

“Nobody just—” I started to say, and then closed my mouth.

No, nobody just left a raider squad. Only by death could a raider leave. Death, or a desperate and ultimately short-lived run.

Suddenly, everything I’d thought about Thalan changed. I didn’t know why he’d deserted his squad, but there was a good chance he was running for his life. He’d likely come to my diner for a meal, hoping to find a moment’s peace before taking off to some distant place where he’d have a chance to live in hiding.

I didn’t feel sorry for him because I knew nothing about his life before this moment, but I understood what it meant to have to run—either away from something or toward some distant, unknown destination.

He watched my face, dark eyes searching my expression for what I thought of him. Did he expect a condemnation? Sympathy? Rejection? Well, I couldn’t judge him. Not without judging myself too.

Only much later did it occur to me that he must have wondered if I would rat him out to the raiders the moment he left, hoping for a big reward. In this moment, the thought never crossed my mind. By telling me that he’d deserted his squad, this colossus of a man had bared his throat to me, both literally and metaphorically.

“Five thousand credits,” I agreed, holding his gaze. I ran my nose over his lips before I kissed him again, this time less like I wanted to devour him and more in gentle reassurance. “Almost halfway to breaking even. Best get back to work, Thalan.”

He moved so fast that I had no time to react. In the same kind of lightning-quick movement he’d used to approach me for the first time, he took me to the counter, set me down on its surface with my ass against its edge, and raised my legs so my ankles rested on his shoulders. From here I could see us reflected in the mirrored wall, and I felt a rush of heat that meant I’d gushed again for him.

My Atolani lover was magnificent, his body solid muscle, his red flesh with its black stripes now hot to my touch as if fucking me made him turn to lava inside. I could not count all of his scars, but I wanted to drag my tongue across them while he growled and writhed. And his thick cocks were as beautiful and imposing as the rest of him, with their bulbous heads and the ridges that ran from the tips down the length of the shafts.

Holding my legs raised and open, Thalan fucked me with his upper cock, pulling almost all the way out so that his cock head throbbed against my opening before plunging himself deep every time, never going so far that he would hit my cervix and cause me pain I didn’t want. I cried out for him, helplessly spread, clinging to the sides of the counter to hold myself steady. His cock filled me up even more and its thick head and ridges rubbed against my g-spot nonstop. I screamed and screamed, calling his name.

When he pulled his upper cock out and pushed his lower cock into me, the angle changed and I climaxed almost instantly with a ragged cry. Apparently not satisfied with that, he circled my clit with his fingers as his upper cock rubbed against my folds.

I could die, I thought deliriously.I could die getting fucked by this man, and I wouldn’t even mind.

It was a ridiculous thought. So was my next one.

I wanted him to stay here with me. Stay and help me run this diner. Fuck me senseless every night and every morning. It wouldn’t be an adventure or dangerous or anything at all like his life as a raider, but itwouldbe a life.

What a stupid thing to want, but I wanted it anyway.

When I reached for him, he picked me up again and kissed me as he settled my pussy back onto his upper cock. This time I wrapped my arms and legs around him and rode him more gently, almost tenderly, enjoying the way he growled and his cock throbbed inside me. I could get used to this.

Stop that right now, I chastised myself.He’s a dead man. It’s only a matter of time.

I sank my teeth into his massive shoulder and moaned.

Maybe no man fucked as good as one who thought he was about to die.

“Four thousand five hundred credits,” I said without being prompted.