Page 10 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

He had just never cared before. Sex was a transaction.

The pleasure he got from it was fleeting and, usually, against his will.

He traded sex like a commodity, and maybe that’s why it had never actually interested him.

He didn't feel desire and attraction typically, and he associated that with living on Rik-Vane for the majority of his life.

He was never around his own species, and those people he was around were like him - murderers and killers and monsters.

Sway had even begun to suspect that he was simply one of those who didn't feel sexual desire. It wasn’t unheard of, even if it wasn’t the most common state of being. It honestly made sense with his lack of interest in sex and sexuality.

But that voice, the way it sounded when she said his name, the way her lips curled when she smiled, the tilt of her hip as she adjusted her weight onto one leg; it was like his entire body had been shocked by electricity.

It burned through him, setting every nerve painfully alight.

Turning on systems that had long lain dormant.

He was staring. Entranced. Delighted. He didn’t want to speak because he hoped she would do so instead and grant his ears the pleasure of her voice again.

Sway didn’t realize he was doing it, however, until she cocked her head. Still smiling at him patiently. Like she expected this to happen.

Which, maybe she did. Humans weren’t that common out in Coalition space. Their species was only a protectorate. Most humans never had a chance to leave their planet, and the few that did…

The few that did leave their homeworld did so because they were mating off planet.

That harsh reminder was like being doused in freezing water. The kind that crystalized on his feathers and kept him chilly despite his best efforts.

If a human was here, then odds were that she was mated. His crewmates had come here through difficult circumstances, so they hadn’t been mated – though one of them was now. But this female hadn’t been abducted and stuffed in a box.

Which meant, likely, she already had a male that would adore her. That had the privilege of hearing her voice whispering sweet nothings to him at night. That would hold him against those high, soft breasts, her hands stroking down the feathers of his back.

That thought made something dark and revolting swirl in Sway’s guts.

For no reason. He had no claim on this female.

He had no right to be envious of whatever male got to hold her lovely form in his arms. To savor her sweet cries in his ear as he pleasured her.

Feel the warmth of her body pressing against him as she held him tight.

Or know the joy of filling her belly with a hatchling.

He hated him. This male he didn’t know, over a female he had only just seen. He wanted him gone – in the worst way that word could be defined.

Grace was frowning now. He had been staring entirely too long. He was making her uncomfortable.

With no small amount of effort, he shoved that monstrous part of him back into the depths of his psyche where it belonged. He was a civilized farasie male. He hadn’t willingly committed an act of violence since joining Tanin. He wasn’t starting now over a female he had no right to claim.

No matter how much he longed to do so.

Though he didn’t feel it, Sway fixed a smile on his face. If nothing else, Sway was good at faking his reactions to others. Years of practice with the Master meant it came out looking natural and harmless despite the ugliness churning in his gut.

“I’m sorry. I was just surprised,” he said kindly, not a trace of the dark need humming through his voice. “You’re human!”

She giggled, frown banished that easily, as she pushed her hair back over her shoulder. The sound shot straight to his cock, setting it aching and throbbing and threatening to make it emerge from his body.

Beautiful. Musical. He needed to hear it again.

“I get that a lot,” she said, unaware of what the sound of her voice was doing to him. Of the ferocious desire twisting up with a deeply burning envy. “Not many people have reason to see a human. But, to be fair, I’ve also never seen a farasie in the flesh.”

“No?”

“Uh-uh,” she shook her head, sending her hair swinging.

It was hypnotising to watch the black tresses dance with each movement of her head.

Was she aware of that? “Your kind doesn’t leave their planet often, and when they do, it’s part of a bigger group.

It’s a safety measure, I guess. Since your people are said to be really pacifistic. ”

Was that true? Not the pacifist part, Sway knew that to be true very well. But did his people really try not to interact with the universe?

In a way, it made sense. His people being pacifists opened them up to danger in a way that he was only too familiar with. Banding together for safety seemed like the right move when traveling through a universe that could be cruel and dangerous.

“I guess I’m the same then,” he admitted. “Since I’m part of a bigger crew.”

“Actually, you’re still unusual,” she giggled, taking any insult out of the words. “Typically, a farasie will let someone else in the crew talk to me if there’s another species there. Your people are very protective and insular in regards to themselves. That’s probably why I haven’t met any yet.”

“Happy to be strange,” he said playfully, finding that it was true. He had no reservations about not being like the rest of his people. Though he should. He should be trying harder to uphold the pacifist ideals the farasie represented.

Which meant those dark thoughts he had for her mate were even worse for him to possess.

She laughed again. That sweet sound popped like bubbles in his veins, bright and clear and intoxicating. He didn't care if she was mocking him, he wanted to hear more. He held out his arms for her inspection. “So? How do I measure up as your first farasie encounter?”

She chuckled as she actually looked him over. Sway couldn’t stop his crest from trying to rise, nor his tail feathers from trying to spread. He kept them controlled, but the need to display for this wonderous little female was beating at him with a frantic urgency.

Grace, sweet little Grace. She clutched her tablet as her cheeks tinted pink. He’d seen that happen to Garnet when she looked at the captain.

Was she… attracted to him?

No. That was foolish. That was…

Her head dipped as she tucked her hair back behind her ear. A pleased little smile dancing on her pink lips. She gave him such a sweet smile.

“You are very handsome.” Her voice trembled ever so slightly, and he could hear the layered tone of playful professionalism. Like she was trying to make sure she didn't cross over into being inappropriate by saying so, and maybe she was just indulging his own playful question.

But he meant it when he asked. He wanted to know how he appeared to her.

And he desperately wanted her to mean it when she praised him.

“A-Are those your, er, feathers? They really cover your whole body.” She asked nervously, like she was balancing her curiosity with politeness. But as she spoke, she took a single step closer, looking at his exposed arm curiously. “They look so soft.”

He took a step as well, offering the arm in question. “Most of my body. And they are soft. Feel for yourself.”

Sway was just being foolish now. She could claim he was harassing her. She would laugh away the offer and put up a very obvious boundary that he shouldn’t cross. She was being kind and professional, and he was taking it to mean something it wasn’t.

Except, no. She took that final step, closing the gap between them, her hand up.

He went still as she stroked her long, elegant fingers down his forearm.

It was a slow caress. Not at all inappropriate or even intimate.

It was experimental, like she really might just be taking him up on the offer to indulge her curiosity in a new species.

Out here in the black, running across a new species was pretty common.

The Coalition was made up of over two hundred member species.

Naturally, you were going to meet people that were very different from you.

Questions about your species were not only common, they were considered polite, practically inane conversation.

Someone asking Sway about his feathers was normal.

Someone stroking them, however, was not.

But the tingles that went up his arm, sparking in his brain, searing the ghost of her touch into the underlying flesh, drove all concepts of propriety and sense from his mind.

Sway had never wanted anyone like this. He wasn’t accustomed to desire running riot, heating his blood, pulling at his crest. He’d long ago given up that part of himself as dead.

Killed by the life he was forced to live.

Even when he did experience sex, it was always the forced heat of an unwilling union.

Sway had never genuinely desired another.

Constantly surrounded by blood and agony and death, always associating sex with pain and discomfort, and it was no wonder that he’d lost all interest in it.

It just made that single stroke over his arm that much more powerful. It awoke something in him that had long gone dormant. Something aching and burning and inflaming.

Something unnervingly dark and possessive.

Sway’s heart dropped.

No. No!

Not this! Please, not this too!