Page 15 of Touch the Stars (Ghara Empire #1)

Baatar.

H e stroked his fingertips through Kaitlyn’s hair, the strands sliding over his hand like silk.

Her breathing was light, her body relaxed in his embrace.

So peaceful and content, for the first time since he had met her.

Not to mention beautiful, with the sweet glow of their lovemaking clinging to her skin.

Would she fall asleep in this manner each time? Undetans did not. Yet, if she did, he would hold her like this, close to his heart where she belonged, waiting for her to wake up again. For the rest of their lives, if he could.

Kaitlyn sighed, made a sleepy sound, and snuggled closer to him, her cheek against his biceps and her breasts brushing his chest with each breath she took.

Perhaps it was little wonder that she needed to sleep.

Despite her small stature, she had taken every measurement of his length into her.

Balls-deep, as she had called it. A mystifying term at first, until he had associated his round testicles with balls.

It was a wonder none of his people had ever made that logical connection.

His cock stirred as if to say it was ready to push deep into Kaitlyn’s hot, wet, willing core again and stay there as long as possible. An idea he appreciated with his entire being.

Kaitlyn’s eyes opened, and she wrapped her fingers around his awakening appendage. “Aw, my little friend here looks like he needs attention.”

“It has been terribly neglected.” He swallowed as her hand pumped up and down his length.

“Poor thing.” She wiggled down lower, but he stayed her by grabbing her shoulders.

“Not yet, my little empress.” But definitely later. “Right now, I need to be balls-deep inside of you again.”

Her giggle was an endearing and encouraging sound. “Guess that’s only fair, since I got what I wanted last time.”

He rolled onto his back and lifted her above him. It was convenient that she was a compliant bed partner at the moment, although it would not last. Her personality was as dominant as any warrior’s.

He tightened his groin muscles, raising his cock fully vertical to impale her.

“Whoa!” Kaitlyn wriggled in his grip. “Put me down.”

What was she doing? He released her and she half rolled, half fell onto the bed next to him.

“Kaitlyn?”

She sat up, pushed the hair back from her face, and stared…at his cock. Was something wrong with it? He glanced down at himself. All seemed well, so why this strange reaction?

“Did you…? You can make it move independently ?”

“Yes.”

“Show me.”

He relaxed the proper muscles and lowered his cock to its natural erect position, then raised it to vertical again.

An expression of awe lit her face. “Well, fuck me. That’s a game-changer.”

“Is that a good thing, or a bad?” It sounded as though it could go one way or the other easily.

She met his gaze and crawled toward him. “It’s a great thing.”

That was a relief to know. “Human men cannot do this?”

“Hell, no.”

If she had not just straddled his hips, presenting him with a more enticing prospect, his ego would be swelling to dangerous heights now.

She leaned over him. “Pick me up and impale me on your flagpole, my big, bad-ass alien lover.”

That he could do, with pleasure. He grasped her by her biceps, raised her up to reposition her until his tip pressed against her opening but did not enter her.

Not until her focus was on him rather than their nearly joined bodies.

Patience was required for this maneuver, and stamina.

It might take time to get her undivided attention.

He made a throat-clearing sound, and her dark-eyed gaze shot to his.

There we go.

He thrust his hips upward and dropped her at the same moment, sliding into her slick channel.

A ragged cry of pleasure—his or hers, it did not matter—reached his ears.

Hers or his, it did not matter. All that mattered was immersing himself in her heat as she moved her hips to stroke over his length faster and faster.

Then, her walls tightened around him and her cry echoed through the room.

He drove upward, hard and deep, his shout joining hers as his release spurted into her body.

Kaitlyn slumped across his chest, puffs of her breath warming his skin. He brought his arms around her. It appeared that humans did nap after each sexual encounter. And this time, napping with her seemed appealing.

Kaitlyn.

She stretched and smiled at the ceiling. How unexpectedly glorious that the day of sexual bliss with Baatar had stretched into the night. The sweet soreness of being well-loved between her legs wasn’t going away anytime soon, and that was just fine. What a great reminder of how good life could be.

She rolled onto her belly and inhaled his masculine scent on the sheets. Somehow, he’d managed to stake his own claim in her heart, right next to Kris.

The faint scent of food cooking mingled with his.

“Shit.” Time to get moving if she was going to get a shower in before Baatar brought breakfast.

Damn, but it was great to have someone else cook for her. She scooted to the edge of the bed, slid off, then headed for the washroom.

Ten minutes later, she gave the solid frosted glass wall of the shower enclosure a light tap. The wall turned into a wavy iridescent “curtain.” Now for the weird part. Walking through that curtain. She took in a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and stepped through.

A blade of pleasant heat skated over every inch of her skin, then the warmth of the bathing prep room floor was under her feet. She opened her eyes to focus on her arms, then her body. Completely dry. Baatar hadn’t been kidding. The cleansing chamber curtain really did work like a towel.

“Bitchin’ technology these aliens have. Neltai.” She stepped through the other weird-ass wall-doorway to the bedroom and into the man standing on the other side. “Whoa, shit, Baatar. Do you have to stand so fucking close to the door?”

“You make much noise.” His English was getting better.

“You ain’t heard nothing yet.”

“I know that I have.” His grin turned wicked. “Many times, for a whole night.”

“Smart ass.” She inhaled the delicious aroma of whatever he’d just cooked, and her stomach rumbled.

“Come, eat, my Kaitlyn.”

My Kaitlyn. That sounded so nice. Affectionate, not possessive. Even “my empress” didn’t bother her as much as it probably should.

They sat on the bed and fed each other from the dishes of alien food, as Baatar explained how each was made and what planet they were from. So far, she hadn’t hated any of them, but she did have favorites—both sweet and savory.

“Try this.” Baatar offered her a chunk of meat coated in a pink sauce between his thumb and forefinger.

She leaned forward and closed her mouth over the morsel, and sucked until he released it. The flavor was almost like salmon, but its texture was closer to ham.

“Mmm. Delicious.” She gave him a smile as she skewered a piece of meat with the pointed shadak. “My turn.”

At first, it’d been weird eating with what looked like a single, sharpened chopstick, but after so many meals, she’d come to prefer it and the shovel-like shagat over a fork and knife.

She brought the morsel to his mouth, and he pulled it off the utensil with his teeth. A small ache stabbed at her heart. This was what she wanted. Someone to talk to, be serious with, and play with. Someone to share her life with. Someone like Baatar.

No, not someone like him. Just Baatar.

She breathed out a resigned sigh and set the shadak so it was balanced across her bowl. “We have to decide now, today, what we’re going to do. I don’t want to be empress, but I’m not going to let your family die either.”

He gave his chin the smallest of upward jerks in an affirmative. “My faith in the grand emperor’s motives is now lacking.”

“Me too. Him and your Ancient Ones. Who are the Ancient Ones, anyway?”

“What we are taught as children is that they are entities, the last twenty souls of a long-dead race who inhabited Ghara.” He set the bowl of salmon-ham on the floor. “Their physical bodies perished millennia ago, and now their souls reside in a vessel…a holy crystal called the Empire’s Heart.”

She twisted her mouth to one side. “So, they’re some sort of immortals or something?”

Who might be a little control-freakish.

Baatar shook his head as he moved more dishes from the bed to the floor.

“No one knows for sure about their mortality. Our teachings say that they were chosen from among the existing Gharans to remain in this dimension so they could continue to help right the wrongs their people brought upon the Nineteen Planets.”

“Seriously?” That must have been one helluva fuck up. “What’d they do?”

“The original Gharans were a highly advanced race who ventured into the galaxy to search out other races, and to unite with them peacefully. They found nineteen other planets, and shared pieces of their advanced knowledge equally with all.” He shrugged with his hands.

“Some of those worlds used the gift to help their societies prosper.

Others used it to gain power, eventually turning on the peaceful ones who flourished. Soon, wars raged between all of them.

“To restore order, the Gharans presented a treaty for all. An ultimatum, really. Any planet who did not agree would be stripped of their gifts of technology and left to fend for themselves. The prospect of not having the tools to protect themselves against their more advanced neighbors did not appeal to anyone, so even the most war-like planets agreed to the Ancients’ terms. This was how the empire was formed. We have been at peace ever since.”

“Wow.” She drew up her knees and hugged them to her chest. “I don’t get why there are only twenty Ancients left. What happened to the rest of the Gharans?”

“Ah, good question. Each being was chosen to represent one planet in the empire, including Ghara. Collectively, they became known as the Ancient Ones, and have served as counselors to imperial leaders of the empire. They also are responsible for choosing the imperial heir from one of the nineteen member planets…”

A furrow appeared between his brows as his words trailed off. Then he shook his head as if dismissing whatever he was thinking about. “As for the others of their race, they simply disappeared.”

“Like, poof? Into thin air?” Nobody just did that.

“The accepted theory is that they left their bodies behind to move to the next level of existence and attend to all who had suffered and died because of their poorly thought-out explorations.” He picked up the last bowl and speared the piece of meat at the bottom.

“I wish I understood why the Ancient Ones decided to add a new planet to its fold.”

“You mean my planet?”

He nodded as he met her gaze. “Yes.”

“Maybe because Earth has a lot of water?” There were a shit-ton of sci-fi invasion stories about that.

Baatar chuckled, low and rumbly. “This is unlikely, as two-thirds of the planets in the empire have as much or more water than yours. One is at least ninety-five percent water.”

“Oh.” So much for that idea.

“I checked the handheld to see if it had obtained any new information from the freighter.” He held out the meat to her, and she leaned forward and pulled it off the shadak with her teeth. “The only interesting thing was that they were to make an unscheduled stop within the Gharan Empire.”

The meat turned to leather in her mouth, and she forced it down with a hard swallow. “Where?”

“Ragat.”

“You mean, Rocky the Asshole’s planet? Something stinks here, Baatar.”

He blinked as though startled, then turned his head slightly and sniffed his shoulder near his armpit.

A small giggle bubbled out before she could stop it. “No, no, no. Not you . I mean this situation. Something’s sus.”

“Sus?”

“Suspicious.”

“Ah, yes.” He jerked his chin forward, then leaned sideways to place the bowl with the others. “I agree. The right thing to do is to return to Ghara and seek the counsel of the emperor and Ancient Ones. Even so, I find myself reluctant to take you there.”

“But if you don’t, then your family will be executed.” And you, too.

The lines bracketing his mouth deepened. “And if I do, I do not trust that the emperor will not attempt to kill you again. It is a quandary.”

“Well, I’ve got news for you. He didn’t seem all that broken up when he thought I’d killed you. You know what he told me? He said that I’d made it easier for him. I’m pretty sure he wants you dead, too, Baatar.”

He stared at her, but his face was a mask. No hint of what he might be thinking showed.

So, not teaching this one how to play poker.

She leaned forward. “How ’bout we go to Undet, grab your family, and run? It’s a big galaxy. There’s gotta be someplace to hide.”

“Is that what you wish, my Kaitlyn? To spend the rest of your life hiding?”

She let her shoulders slump. “Not really.”

“We cannot make it to Undet before the grand emperor’s soldiers, anyway.”

“Then…we have to go to Ghara and take our chances.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “What if Rocky the Asshole tries to kill me again when we get there? Do you think the Ancient Ones would help stop him?”

Baatar shook his head, and the sapphire-blue stone of his translator glinted through the strands of his dark hair. “Probably. It is in their best interest to keep the heir alive.”

Not completely reassuring, but better than a hard no.

“Here’s an idea.” She reached out and took his hand between hers. “You drop me off on Ghara, then take the pardon to your family so that they’re safe.”

And now the little voice inside her head decided to scream Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! But if his family died because she didn’t at least try…she couldn’t live with that. So, what other choice did they have?

“No. This is…I cannot put you at risk.”

“Life’s a risk, Baatar. And, in theory, Rocky’d be an idiot to try anything with the Ancient Ones watching, so I’ll be fine.

” For a while, at least. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

“One way or another, I’m going to find a way out of this empress gig, I swear.

Once I do, I’ll need you to come back and get me. ”

“Kaitlyn…”

She blew out a resigned sigh. “Well, do you have a better idea?”

His blue gaze was heartbreakingly bleak. “I do not.”

“Then…?”

He looked down at their joined hands. God, this must be killing him inside.

Finally, he jutted his chin out in agreement. “I still do not like this plan.”

“It’ll be okay, my warrior.” It had to be.

She pulled him down until they lay side by side on the bed with his head cradled against her breast as she stroked his dark hair. “One more thing.”

“Anything, my Kaitlyn.”

“After you drop me off, find Kris for me.”

“I swear I will.”