Page 82 of The Alien Warrior's Mate

And yet, she’d lost.

Korben grunted at the same time Sara lost her grip. The heat of their anger and lust collided until they cried out from the storm that devastated them both.

Thirty-Two

Korben

“This changes nothing,”Sah-ah said, rolling up her undergarments and pulling out the curls trapped beneath the collar of her tunic.

Korben swung his legs off the cot. “Your lips say one thing and your emotions convey another.”

“Me and myemotionsare none of your concern,” she spat. “Stay out of my head.”

Korben frowned at her tone. After mating with Sah-ah—neh. He had done more than that. He’d torn her body to shreds. Dragged her deeper and deeper into ecstasy. In his loss of control, Korben had given her more pleasure than her body had known what to do with. It was evidenced in the bruises on her dark skin. In the swelling of her lips. In the way she winced when she shuffled her thighs.

And yet Sah-ah was still angry.

He licked his lips. He should have known from the furious way she kissed and caressed him that he had yet to get through to her. He had been a beast in the cot, and Sah-ah had been a monster. His mate had tugged and nipped and suckled. She’d spurred him. Faster. Harder. Whipped hips and fingers raking scalps. Mouths open and then filled. She hadn’t said the words. Stubborn female. So he found more dirty, twisted ways to tease her, to taste her, to break her.

At one point, the bed had snapped and, had it not been bolted into the wall and made firm by metal bands, they would have crashed to the floor.

After, when they were both exhausted and limp, he’d tried to hold on to her. To keep himself inside her. To press gentle kisses to her skin. She’d pushed him off, rolling away to catch her breath. After a few moments of her back turned, she’d gotten up and grabbed for her undergarments.

Korben heard a rustling sound and glanced up to see Sah-ah brushing herself off. She licked her swollen lips and slightly rubbed the bite marks on her shoulder. Korben winced. Perhaps he should have been gentler with his delicate mate.

Sah-ah took another small, careful step toward the door and Korben shot to his feet.

She sensed him and stopped. “What?”

“Is this going to be a habit?” Korben asked softly. “You will shun me until I take up too much space in your head and it becomes too painful for you to ignore.” Gesturing to the cot, he added, “And then you will seek me out and ravish me until I forget?”

She pulled her tunic down her shoulder to reveal another bite mark. “If that’s what it takes, then yes. I’ll find you when it’s too much, and I’ll let you take it all out on me.”

His chest heaved. “My heras…”

“Don’t.” She was still facing forward so he could not see her face, but he took note of the tenseness in her slim shoulders and the quiet tremble in her voice. “I can’t trust anyone. Only myself. I won’t make the same mistake again.”

As Sara strode to the door, panic crushed his heras and made it hard to breathe. Korben felt the weight of the world return to his shoulders.

He had to make a choice.

Right now.

Would he let her in and allow her to be a partner or would he try to stumble forward alone?

Sah-ah was at the door now.

Time was running out.

Moving fast, Korben strode to her and snatched her wrist. Jerking her around, he said in a low voice, “The Heronas have my brother and the Healer.”

Sah-ah blinked slowly.

Once.

Twice.

The information seemed to swirl around her head, rattling like glass until her brown eyes widened. “Your… brother?”