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“Really.” She considered his tongue, the heady scent of her sweet hormones growing thicker in the air.

“Yes. And I can taste that you are debating the merits of letting me sample you. The air is positively delicious filled with your desire.” He rolled his tongue, showing off how well he could please her.

“We consider oral sex to be foreplay. Among my people you’d be called a virgin if you haven’t used your cock.”

His brow furrowed. He wasn’t new to meeting other races and had heard this reasoning before, but it stung coming from Nadzia. He was about to tell her he was hardly a novice and could more than please her, then recalled she wasn’t entirely amused by all his experience either.

“Is that so?” he replied instead.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Then again, you’re not human, and I’ve never met a man with a tongue like that.” Nadzia nibbled her full pink bottom lip, considering the potential.

“That’s right, beautiful, and you never will again.” His mouth tipped up at the corner, feeling redeemed.

“There’s that ego,” she snorted. “But you’ve already disappointed me. I thought I was going to see something special.” She wagged her brows. She was a tease, driving him crazy.

He moved closer and Nadzia stepped back. He took another step and so did Nadzia, until she was pressed against the edge of the estuary, no place to go.

“Well we can’t have you disappointed. I might be willing to show you what’s beneath my shell, if you let me taste you,” Aculus countered.

He made the bargain knowing full well he couldn’t hold himself together much longer with her near.

“That was the deal,” she mumbled, staring up at him.

It really wasn’t the deal when she jumped into the water, though he wasn’t about to correct her.

“But I won’t mount you the way you are familiar with, unless you want to be my mate.”

Except she was his mate and the reason his shell was going soft. But telling Nadzia this was a biological response instead of some quaint tradition would only scare her off. And if he mounted her it would seriously complicate things. The trip home was going to be hard enough as it was, but he’d never be able to conceal it if he bonded with Nadzia now. It would also make it twice as agonizing if she rejected their bond and decided to return to Earth.

“And if we do this, it’s because you want me to. Not because you think it’s the only thing I want from you.” He gripped her hips, reveling in the way her soft flesh gave beneath his fingers instead of being hard and unforgiving like the Osivoire.

“What else could you possibly want from me?” she asked, staring up at him with her big green eyes.

His gorgeous, funny, brave, sensitive, delicate little mate had no clue.

“I want to know you,” he husked, pressing his body against hers, his desire getting the best of him.

Her heartbeat quickened. And every breath she took made her stiff ruddy nipples rub against the softening shell on his abdomen. There were so many new sensations, he was having difficulty focusing.

Maybe I should stop this.He’d already fibbed to his mate, not telling her the whole truth. If he let this go any further, he’d end up on top of her, completing his claim.

“Just this once.” Nadzia nodded, as she stroked his biceps.

Break me!There was no way he’d deny her now.

Four

What Lies Beneath

Nadzia

She was tipsy but not so drunk she didn’t realize what was happening.

This is probably incredibly stupid.She was just another notch on Aculus’ bedpost.

And yet when he fed her the line that he wanted to know her, she knew she’d regret it if she let this moment slip through her fingers. So maybe she was just drunk enough to be honest with herself.

And Aculus is hot, from the way he shamelessly flirted and took her jibes in stride, to the way he rescued her family. Even his body was killer. He was massive, the ultimate warrior, looming over her, his hard body pressed against hers. His intense red eyes filled with desire as they bored into her. The foreign man made the butterflies in her stomach do somersaults.