Page 9 of Trak (Virilian Mail Order Mates #1)

Eight

“I don’t know how you could stand the smell in there.” Anna sent him a dark look. “That room was more potent than a funeral parlor.”

Even with the language chip, the comment confused him.

He knew the definition of a funeral parlor, but not what one smelled like.

It was a place where the dead were prepared for disposal.

Did that mean Sinno’s room held the odor of dead humans?

He would be steering clear of that topic.

“I was fortunate that she didn’t change the door key code,” he said, opening the door to his own room.

“I had not planned on staying there as long as I did.” He sent her a chagrined look.

“It took you long enough to want to see me.”

“So, it’s my fault you chose to camp out in your mistress’s sex parlor?”

“Ex-mistress,” he corrected, and he meant it.

“And no. All the chambers in our sector are occupied and Sinno’s empty quarters were the closest ones to you I had access to.

” Sinno understood how important it was for Trak to have offspring.

Since their relationship had ended on good terms, she would undoubtedly find this situation extremely amusing if he she learned about it.

When she learned about it. Sinno’s portrait had the capability of recording everything that occurred in her room.

Now, he had the one female he wanted to get naked and randy with in his chambers. She had been nearly silent the whole walk back to his rooms. Nandi was nowhere to be found, thank the stars. The last time he’d seen her, she had given him an earful about his poor handling of this situation.

Lights were dim in his rooms, but he could see the changes. Anna came inside, hugging herself. “You weren’t here and you were sending all this stuff, so…I, um…”

“Made yourself at home,” he finished. Trak looked around his bedchamber.

In the span of seven Earth days, it had become very much her bedchamber.

There were clothes and shoes and pillows in places that had never had those things before.

One of the unused rooms off of his room, which he was considering setting up for her to stay in when they weren’t in bed together, was filled with the things he’d sent her.

It was tidy enough. She wasn’t a slob. He was the slob.

If not for Nandi sweeping through and cleaning up after him, the room would be unlivable.

“Where are the jewels? You seemed quite keen on them.”

“Oh.” Her eyes went shifty. “I hid them.”

“You what? ”

“They’re hidden. In case someone tried to steal them.”

He blinked. “Why would anyone do that?”

“Are you serious?” She looked incredulous as she fingered the medallion on the chain she still wore.

It pleased him to see the mark of his family etched in the silver around the setting.

“Those are huge, flawless diamonds and the workmanship of the metalwork is incredible. Someone could try to break in and steal them.”

“Love, not far from here is a planet containing millions of pounds of diamonds. Literally loaded with them,” he explained.

“I’m glad you like them, but they aren’t quite as valuable out here as they are on Earth.

” He kept mum about the fact that there was no “workmanship” involved either.

The fabricator of the pieces was the same machine that made specialty parts needed to repair his ships.

She gave him a skeptical look. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Utterly. Even if someone wanted to steal something like that, they would never get into the Virilian sector, let alone through this door, which is made of an alloy so hard, it would take a full cycle to penetrate with the most powerful tools available. So feel free to take your jewelry out of your hiding places.” She seemed quite concerned about theft.

Perhaps she’d been robbed in the past. “Are you aware that the necklace you wear is set with a diamond?”

She picked up the medallion, tilted it to the light and brought it close to her eye. “How did I miss that? It’s not cut. It’s polished smooth as a river rock. Amazing.” She looked up. “I thought it was quartz or something.”

He shrugged, giving up trying to figure her out for the moment. “My point is, don’t worry about the jewelry. Or anything else. It’s safe enough here to not have to hide it.”

The truth was, the Bott-L2 space station was not a safe place.

It was policed by its own shady inhabitants who dealt their own forms of justice, which were rarely civil.

The Virilians were no better than most of the other species that claimed sectors of the station.

This was a place of trade where much of what was traded was banned in more civilized sectors.

Virilians may not trade in life-forms, but most everything else was fair game.

Trak watched Anna retrieve wrapped-up bundles of jewelry from under the bed, behind a trunk in the empty room, and inside a compartment in the dining room.

She’d even secured a bundle underneath a tabletop using adhesive she’d gotten somewhere.

How odd. He observed her tense face, sharp and watchful, and wondered about the woman who would do such a thing.

What drove her to hide the jewelry so creatively?

“Are you accustomed to being robbed on Earth?” he asked her.

Her head whipped to face him. A carefully blank expression masked her face. “No.”

There was stark complication in her quick reply. “Really? Then why do this?” He chuckled as a sudden thought came to mind. “Unless you were the thief.”

“I was a lot of things.” Her arms tightened around the bundles in her arms.

He gestured to the jewelry, wrapped in towels or articles of clothing she presumably didn’t like, clutched in her arms. A few things were beginning to make sense. “I don’t care what you did on Earth, love. I’m no saint, myself.”

She paused and bit her bottom lip. “I’m…

I guess we all live what we learn,” she said.

“And I’m trying to live differently.” She carried her haul into the room she’d claimed for her things and placed them in a trunk, then locked the trunk.

Trak watched her, marveling that those were the first true, personal things she’d said to him.

He wondered if she realized how much she had just revealed of herself in those two sentences.

Trak stood still as she approached him. She stopped right in front of him, hands on hips, appearing somewhat combatant. “Well?” she said. “Let’s get to it.”

“To what, love?” he asked with a grin.

“ It ,” she snapped. “Sex. Or whatever you wish to call it.”

“Not very romantic, are you?” He crossed his arms. “D’you think just saying the word ‘sex’ makes a man automatically rise to the occasion?”

“Doesn’t it?” she asked, blinking her eyes wide.

“Well, sometimes, maybe,” he conceded, “but I promised you pleasure and you are standing there looking ready to do battle.” He strolled past her, brushing his arm against her as he passed. “Entirely the wrong attitude, m’dear.”

She stood there, remaining still and silent. Waiting.

Trak circled behind her proud, straight back.

The clingy dress had a slit down the spine, held together at her neck, so the opening only offered a peek when she moved in certain ways.

He could see that long slice of skin and the intriguing ink that swirled on it.

He’d seen her tattoos when she’d arrived, of course, but the images hadn’t registered.

Now he was curious how much of her history was inked on her skin.

His chosen match had more secrets, it seemed, than he could have imagined.

He wanted to learn them. He wanted to learn her .

With fingers that had dealt death in battle, weapons in trade, and pleasure to plenty of lovers before, he touched the base of her spine and traced a slow line upwards. His touch was light and soft. What he was really doing was testing her temperature. Testing them both.

Then he felt it—the moment her muscles unwound, the telltale shiver that vibrated under her skin, the shallowing of her breaths.

His own muscles contracted in reaction as a smile pulled at his lips.

This female was opening to him. Her body was responding, revealing her growing arousal.

He already knew she wanted him. That kiss had told him everything, but seduction was not something to be rushed.

When he entered Anna, he wanted her writhing and moaning. He wanted her begging him to take her.

He pulled his hand away and heard her intake of breath.

He stood close behind her, using his body heat to sensitize her awareness of him.

With the same light touch as he’d used on her back, he placed his fingers on the backs of her hands and trailed them upwards.

He stopped at her shoulders. He toyed with the thin straps of her dress.

Her eyes were hidden behind the fall of her hair, but he could all but feel her eyes, wide and blinking, and her head wondering what he was going to do next.

He slid one thin strap off a smooth shoulder and placed a kiss there.

It was brief and soft, meant only to entice, to tease.

She turned her head towards him with an intake of breath.

Only her head. Her body stayed still, but he could see now that it was costing her effort not to turn or openly respond.

Her response made his cock swell in his trousers.

He moved her mass of red hair aside and placed a light kiss to the back of her neck. She tipped her head back on a sigh.