Page 24 of Forced to Mate by the Mad Scientist (Kindred Tales Spicy Shorts #3)

24

KROSS

Kross did a last sweep of his suite to be sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. It was hard, leaving the Mother Ship like this, but it was the only think he could think to do. After what he’d done to Sylvia, he didn’t deserve to live in any proximity to her. So even though it wounded him deeply to leave his Fated Mate behind, he had decided to go.

Where he was headed, he didn’t exactly know. He had given his notice to Commander Sylvan after a discrete inquiry to the Med Center and let him know that Sylvia was not, in fact, pregnant. His Commanding Officer had seemed both surprised and disappointed by the news.

“Are you certain about this?” he’d asked, when Kross handed in his resignation. “Have you spoken to Sylvia about it?”

Kross shook his head.

“After what happened between us, I don’t think she ever wants to see me again. Not that I blame her,” he added morosely.

“If it makes you feel any better at all, she hasn’t lodged any kind of complaint,” Sylvan had offered. “And she reiterated to me several times on our trip home that the two of you had been drugged by Dr. Barbarous. It’s possible she doesn’t blame you at all for what happened between you.”

“If she doesn’t, she should,” Kross growled. “I took her against her will. And the way she was so eager to part from me lets me know there’s no love lost between us.”

“Do you think she might have been embarrassed?” Sylvan asked, raising one pale blond eyebrow. He was a Blood Kindred and had the blond hair and ice-blue eyes to prove it. “After all, I’m your Superior Officer and I walked in on the two of you while you were…er, stuck together.”

“It’s more than that,” Kross said moodily. “I could feel how much she wanted me out of her—away from her—through our Bond.”

Sylvna’s eyebrows shot up.

“So the two of you actually had Bonding sex? You bit her as well as knotting her?”

“Apparently so—I can’t remember,” Kross admitted. “Everything that happened is just kind of a haze up until I heard her sweet voice in my head.”

He could hear the longing in his own voice but he shut it down fiercely. He didn’t have a right to long for Sylvia anymore—not after the way he had treated her.

“She woke me up—brought me out of the weird animalistic state the drugs Barbarous shot me up with put me into,” he said, making his voice firmer. “And not long after that is when you walked in on us.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Sylvan said mildly. “We were there on a rescue mission. I never expected to see the two of you, er, engaged in Bonding sex.”

“I know you didn’t. I didn’t expect to engage in it either,” Kross had admitted. “Anyway, what’s done is done but Sylvia deserves to live her life without constantly having me at the back of her mind. So I’m going somewhere far away—someplace where we’ll be out of metal contact range.”

“I understand.” Sylvan nodded. “But are you certain you don’t want to talk to her once more before you go?”

Kross had shaken his head firmly.

“No—that wouldn’t be fair to her. She needs to heal and she can’t do that if I keep popping back into her life. I’ll have to let her go.”

His heart felt like a stone in his chest as he said the words…and it felt like a stone now as he looked around his bare suite. Most everything he owned was packed in his long-range cruiser—he was only leaving the furniture and the appliances. He’d only come back to do one final sweep before leaving the Mother Ship for good.

Satisfied at last that he hadn’t forgotten anything, Kross was just putting out a hand for the front door control…when a loud pounding on the door itself stopped him.

“Kross?” he heard a familiar voice shouting. “Kross, are you in there? Open up, God damn you!”

Surprised, he touched the controls and the silver door to his suite slid silently open. Standing on his doorstep, her hair a wild golden-red mass around her head and her eyes wide, was Sylvia. She was panting as she looked up at him and he couldn’t quite read her expression.

“ There you are!” she exclaimed, sounding both irritated and relieved. “I’ve been calling and calling—why don’t you ever answer your…your…the thing—whatever it is in both our heads?” And she tapped the side of her own head for emphasis.

“The mental link?” Kross asked, raising his eyebrows. He was shocked to see her standing there. Had she finally come to “tell him off” as the humans said? Maybe it had taken this long for her to process her trauma and now she wanted to fight about it.

Kross supposed he couldn’t blame her…though her timing was exquisitely bad.

“Yes, the link—the link!” she exclaimed. “You put up some kind of barrier between us and you never pick up the phone! I mean, you never answer me.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me,” Kross admitted heavily. “Not after what I did.”

“You didn’t do anything!” she snapped, shoving her way past him. “Or at least, not anything I didn’t want you to.”

This was news to Kross. He shut the door and followed her back into his mostly empty suite. Sylvia was in his living area, pacing in front of the overstuffed leather sofa. She was wearing a green dress that made her eyes look smoky in the dim light. Kross thought she had never looked more lovely but he needed to know what she meant.

“Do you mean I didn’t force you?” he asked, coming back to stand beside the couch.

“No, not exactly .” Her face was turning red, but she seemed determined to keep talking. “After the stuff Barbarous injected you with started to take effect, you started doing a few things but?—”

“Wait.” Kross held up a hand to stop her. “What things exactly? I need to know everything that happened between us. I can’t remember any of it up until the time your voice in my head woke me up.”

“Well, you, uh, sucked my nipples,” Sylvia’s face was even redder now, her cheeks rosy with a blush. “And then you got between my legs and licked me there too.”

At the memory of tasting her sweet pussy, Kross’s shaft went instantly rigid in his trousers. Gods, he loved the taste of her juices! Not to mention the sound of her moans and sighs and the feeling of her small fingers pulling her hair as she bucked her hips to meet his tongue…

“Mmm, I did, did I?” he growled, giving her an interested look as he settled on the couch. “And then what?”

“Then he gassed me—with that awful cotton candy gas,” Sylvia explained. She had stopped pacing and was just standing there, her hands balled into fists and her face pink with embarrassment. “He told me that if I didn’t let you, you know, breed me that I would have painful urges. So painful that they could kill me.”

“So you…?” Kross raised his eyebrows, waiting to hear the rest.

“So I unfastened your trousers,” she admitted in a low, embarrassed voice. “I mean, I really was in pain. And you couldn’t do it yourself—you were in ‘animal mode,’”

“So you let me breed you?” Kross could barely believe it. He was half relieved and half angry. “All this time I thought I’d forced you! I’ve been fucking hating myself, Princess,” he growled.

“Have you?” Sylvia looked stricken. “I’m so sorry! I tried to contact you, but you weren’t picking up on our link.”

“Yes, well—I didn’t think you really wanted to talk to me,” Kross said, looking away. “I thought you must hate me and I didn’t blame you.”

“I don’t hate you!” Sylvia came to stand between his legs. “In fact, I think …I think I might love you, Kross,” she said in a low voice.

Kross felt his heart stutter in his chest.

“Are you serious?” he asked, his voice coming out hoarse and uncertain. “But the way you acted—you wanted me out of you, you couldn’t wait to get away?—”

“Our boss walked in on us while we were tied together like a couple of dogs in heat!” she exclaimed. “Of course I was embarrassed and wanted you out of me. I mean, it was so unprofessional .”

Kross didn’t know whether to laugh or be irritated. But her words kept coming back to him.

“So now that I know I didn’t force you, go back to what you said before, Princess,” he told her.

“What I said before?” she looked at him uncertainly.

“You know? About loving me?” Kross took her hands in his and looked at her hopefully. Their height difference was so great that they were almost eye-to-eye, even with him sitting and her standing. “Did you mean it?” he asked.

Her cheeks went pink all over again.

“You said it to me too, you know,” she said, slightly defensive. “When you were under the influence of that injection Barbarous gave you. You told me you loved me—that you’ve always loved me.”

Kross decided to risk everything.

“I do, baby,” he said honestly. “And I have always loved you—you’re my Fated Mate. I just didn’t think I could ever Claim you because I’m a Hybrid.”

“Fated Mate?” Her eyes went wide. “That’s what the priestess said.”

“What priestess?” Kross frowned.

“I don’t know her name.” Sylvia shook her head. “She came to me when I was walking in the park just now and told me you were about to leave and I needed to go see you before it was too late.” She nibbled her lower lip. “It’s not too late, is it, Kross? Please say it’s not.”

“Of course not, Princess…” He drew her down into his lap so that she was straddling him and kissed her gently. “You got to me just in time,” he murmured. “I was just about to leave the Mother Ship for good.”

“Without even saying goodbye?” She looked incensed.

Kross shrugged.

“I thought you never wanted to see me again. So after I found out you weren’t pregnant, I decided to leave so you wouldn’t have to have me in the back of your head. I was going to go somewhere outside the bounds of our mental link.”

“I don’t want you to go anywhere,” she said softly. “And I wish you’d remove the barrier you put between us. I want you in the back of my head, Kross.”

“All right.” Kross reached into his mind and tried to dislodge the barrier…only to find that he couldn’t. It felt like a door in his mind that was stuck closed somehow, though he couldn’t say exactly how or why.

“What’s happening? I still can’t hear you,” Sylvia complained. “I want to hear your voice in my head again, Kross—I miss it.”

Kross shrugged.

“I’m sorry, Princess—it won’t budge. I feel like I’m trying to open a door but there’s a heavy weight behind it.”

She looked stricken.

“So…that’s in then? Our Bond is broken before we even got to use it?”

“Not broken, exactly,” Kross said quickly. “Just…dysfunctional.” He frowned. “Honestly, I don’t know how we even formed it in the first place. I’ve never been able to Bond with a woman before—I thought it was impossible.”

Sylvia looked thoughtful.

“Do you think it might have something to do with the way Dr. Barbarous manipulated your DNA? I mean, you still have the red skin and blue hair.” She gestured to him. “Maybe he also inadvertently ‘fixed’ the part of you that made Bonding with a woman impossible.”

“That’s possible,” Kross said, nodding. It had been difficult getting used to his new “look” but when he considered that it was an outcome of the DNA manipulation that had allowed him to Bond with his Fated Mate, it seemed like a small price to pay.

“So if it was possible for us to Bond once, it should be possible to do it again,” Sylvia said.

“Bond again?” Kross frowned at her. “You mean you want to?—”

“Have Bonding sex. Right now.” She wiggled against him and he was suddenly aware of how her soft little pussy was pressing against his crotch and her full breasts were nearly in his face.

“Mmm, baby—are you serious?” he growled, putting his hands on her hips.

Sylvia nodded.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t remember anything from the first time?”

“It’s all a blur,” Kross admitted.

“Then we should do it all over again. Maybe it will ‘unstick’ the door that’s keeping us from communicating mentally.” She sounded so reasonable Kross couldn’t deny her. Also, the way she was looking at him, from under her long lashes and the feeling of her soft, warm body pressed against his own was making his shaft so hard he could feel it straining against his trousers.

“That sounds good to me, Princess,” he growled. “How do you want to do it?”

“I’ll tell you how—this time I want to be in charge.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “Last time I was pretty much helpless, so I want to call the shots this time around.”

Kross felt his cock surge even more. He fucking loved it when his Princess got bossy!

“Sure, baby,” he growled. “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

“First of all, hands at your sides,” she ordered.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Kross took his hands off her hips and put them at his sides.

Sylvia frowned.

“You know I hate when you call me that! In fact, I think it calls for a punishment.”

“A what?” Kross’s eyebrows shot up—he hadn’t seen this coming!

“A punishment,” Sylvia repeated.

Then, to his surprise, she rose to her feet, standing on the couch cushions. Still facing him, she lifted the skirt of her green dress, revealing white lace panties.

“Kiss me.” Her voice was slightly breathless and her cheeks were flushed. “Kiss my panties, Kross. That’s your punishment.”

Kross couldn’t believe his luck—only a thin panel of sheer lace was separating her sweet, soft pussy from his hungry tongue.

“Yes, Princess,” he growled and reached up to grab her hips again and pull her towards him.

“Uh-uh.” Sylvia slapped his hands away. “Keep your hands at your sides. You’ll get what I give you—understood?”

Kross felt yet another surge—gods if she kept this up, his cock was going to wear a hole in the fabric of his trousers!

“All right,” he murmured. “I’ll wait for you then.”

He didn’t have to wait for long. Before he knew it, Sylvia was leaning towards him, pressing her soft, lace-covered pussy mound against his face.

Her sweet scent was fucking intoxicating! Kross rubbed his face against her eagerly, wanting to mark her as his own as he inhaled deeply. Gods, he couldn’t wait to invade her with his tongue!

And why should he wait, he reasoned? The lace panel was thin and narrow. He could just slip his tongue in on the side to get a taste of her sweet juices.

He did exactly that, finding a way in and slipping his tongue deeply into her slit.

“Oh!” Sylvia gasped, looking down at him in surprised pleasure. When she saw what he was doing, Kross thought she might scold him at first. But then the tip of his tongue found the tight little button of her clit and she moaned and her hips jerked again. “Oh, Kross!” she exclaimed. “Is that what you want?”

Kross didn’t have to answer because she was already reaching down to pull the lace panel to one side. She spread her thighs wider and suddenly he had full access to her tender flesh.

Goddess, she tasted good! Kross lapped her eagerly, sliding his tongue from the bottom of her slit all the way up to tease her clit again.

Sylvia moaned and threaded her small fingers through his hair. She pulled him forward with surprising force and Kross licked her more deeply, sliding his tongue low to gather her salty-sweet juices before teasing her clit again.

“Oh, Kross!” Her soft, throaty moans made him feel like he might come in his fucking trousers! Forgetting that he was supposed to be keeping his hands at his sides, he grabbed for her generous hips and tugged her forward.

Burying his face between her thighs, he lost himself in her.