Page 20

Twenty

“P leasure ,” she echoed at last, the word strange on her tongue. It felt like she’d never really said it before—like it belonged to someone else’s vocabulary. Someone more daring, more reckless.

Her voice sounded too loud in the small, luxurious craft.

She let the word hang in the air a moment, staring at Karian, trying to process everything that had just been said. He was still watching her, perfectly still, as if he didn’t need to breathe like a normal being.

Pleasure.

Her mind flicked back—unwillingly, painfully—to Earth. To the men she’d known. Julian, then Mark. The whirlwind of beginnings, the burn of endings. Brief, intense things, those relationships. Nights of tangled sheets and whispered promises that evaporated by morning. They’d said the right things—until they didn’t.

Sex. That was all it had really been. A distraction. A game.

And now… this alien wanted the same?

Her fists clenched in her lap.

Was that all she was again? Desired. Acquired. Kept?

She felt a sharp spike of anger rise in her chest, tangled with something else—something hotter, more dangerous.

Powerless.

But when she looked at him again—his tall, imposing frame, his regal black-and-silver armor that shimmered with every movement, the way his tentacles moved with eerie grace even in stillness—her outrage cracked.

And something else slipped in.

Curiosity.

Even now, even with her heart pounding and her mind screaming don’t , part of her couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like—to be touched by him. Not just his hands, but those other limbs too. To feel their strength, their strangeness. Would it hurt? Would it thrill?

Could something that terrifying… be sensual ?

Her cheeks flushed hot, but she didn’t look away.

Karian, still as stone, tilted his head slightly. Almost imperceptibly. She wondered if he could read her thoughts somehow. Then, in that deep, velvet voice of his—filtered through the translator—he spoke.

“I see your mind races. You wonder what I mean, what I intend. You question what I am capable of.”

She said nothing.

“I have studied your kind in detail. Extensively,” he said. “Human physiology. Neural architecture. Sensory thresholds. You are fragile, yes—but exquisitely sensitive. Responsive. Beautifully built for pleasure.”

His words—scientific and seductive all at once—landed in her gut like a weight.

“I will do everything in my power,” he continued, “to ensure you experience pleasure beyond your wildest imaginings. Everything. ”

She stared at him, heart hammering.

His voice was low and deliberate, and it did something to her—curled around her thoughts like smoke. It was the voice of someone who knew what power he held, not just physically, but sensually. A voice meant to seduce without even trying.

And the worst part was… it worked.

Part of her wanted to believe him. To imagine that someone could want her that deeply, that completely. Not just to use her, but to devote themselves to her pleasure. To know her body better than she did.

But another part recoiled.

Her voice trembled when she finally spoke.

“Is that all I am to you?” she asked. “Pampered. Kept. A toy for your pleasure, nothing more?”

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t react.

But the weight of her question hung between them.

She looked away, biting her lip. “I mean,” she added under her breath, “there are worse things…”

She hadn’t meant to say it aloud.

But it was true, wasn’t it?

There were worse fates than being claimed by a powerful being who, so far, hadn’t harmed her. Who offered softness where she expected cruelty. Who spoke of pleasure like a promise.

And yet.

It maddened her. The not knowing. The imbalance of power. The way he watched her like she was both a mystery and a prize.

“I don’t understand how I can talk to you like this,” she whispered, half to herself.

Because she was talking back. Challenging him.

He was terrifying. And still, she defied him with her questions, her doubts.

And he let her.

Karian didn’t speak. Not immediately.

But his silence didn’t feel threatening. It felt… patient. As if he were waiting for her to understand something. Something important.

And maybe, part of her was beginning to.