I wasn’t expecting to come again. It caught me entirely by surprise, ripping through me like a tidal wave. Like my body could do nothing but respond to his. Our pleasure rising in tandem, crashing and cresting at once. I fluttered on him, then convulsed so hard my legs – once again – gave out.
But it didn’t matter. Because I was with Rivven.
And he caught me against his chest when I fell.
19
RIVVEN
Iwatched Shiloh sleep for a long, long time. Riding me the way she had seemed to have exhausted her. Sated her too, I was sure. She’d taken great pleasure from my mouth, my cock.
And tomorrow, she would be my wife.
She had chosen me.
I should have been the happiest man on Zabria Prinar One.
Unable to sleep, I pulled on my pants and left her safe and cozy in the bed. Unsure what else to do, I exited the room, heading down the stairs. Halfway down, I realized that someone was in the kitchen.
It was Warden Tenn.
“What are you doing?” I asked. I’d never found the warden in my kitchen before.
“Eating leftovers. Couldn’t stop thinking about that dinner you made,” he said, lifting a now-empty plate into my line of vision as I reached the bottom stair and then stepped into the kitchen. “Did you come for a second round as well?”
“No. Couldn’t sleep.”
“Didn’t want to sit there and just stare at her?”
“Already did that. For a long time.”
The warden made a sound of understanding. He put down his plate with a quiet clink on the counter.
“Sometimes, I think I’d never like to close my eyes again,” he said. “Just so long as I could keep on looking at her.”
By her, I knew he must mean Tasha.
This was a man who understood, on the deepest and most intimate level, exactly how I felt.
Perhaps he could advise me.
“I do not…I do not think that Shiloh feels as I feel.”
Warden Tenn crossed his arms over his thick chest. His head cocked to one side as he regarded me. “Explain.”
“She did not come here for marriage. She chose me, yes. But I was merely the man she’d grown closest to when the time came. I worry…I worry that one day, she will not be happy. She will resent the life she built with me.”
I pulled at the tap, running cold water into the sink. I splashed it onto my face, mopping with my palm before continuing. “She is so talented, Warden. Brilliant. She deserves a life that gives her everything she wants.”
“And you think the life you’re offering wouldn’t?”
“Not the way she deserves, no.”
Warden Tenn sighed.
“Here is the thing, Rivven. The women who come here and participate in this program? None of them choose Zabria Prinar One because their lives are brimming with opportunity and they have plenty of options. Well, maybe Magnolia is the exception. She really did choose to come here just because she wanted to marry one of you fools. But the rest of them?”
“No?”
