Khar was already halfway to his feet, ready to storm out, but Lily pushed him back into the chair with no hesitation at all. Strength meant little when it came to her touch. He yielded instantly, sinking back down as Lily stepped between his knees and captured his face in both hands, forcing him to look at her.
“Khar, listen to me. Nothing is wrong with the ship or with your brothers or with anyone else. This is about you and me.”
Her determined, solemn gaze did not bode well for him, yet he did not dare look away. His traitorous body leaned into her palms as if drawn there by instinct. He had to salvage this moment somehow, win a second chance before she ended whatever they were. Words rarely failed him. Patterns of dominance and persuasion were second nature… yet now his mind was blank.
Too blank.
“Lily, perhaps it would be better if we did not talk about this right now. Are you hungry? Do you want anything to eat?” His eyes flicked down her body in a desperate search for an excuse, then latched onto something. He seized her hand. “Your hand is freezing. We need to warm you up immediately. Unfortunately we cannot talk about this until you are properly warmed.”
“What is wrong with you? My hands are always cold! I can still have a conversation!”
“No. Hypothermia compromises cognitive function. We will address that first. Then we will speak.”
Lily let out a monumental sigh, then silenced his spiraling nonsense by kissing him.
Her mouth crashed into his with such firm, unyielding certainty that it robbed him of breath and thought alike. Khar froze for a heartbeat, stunned, then growled in deep satisfaction as he answered her kiss with fervent, burning devotion. When they finally tore apart for air, panting, the words spilled out of him without restraint.
“Did I not lose you?”
“Khar, of course not… I…” Lily exhaled, gathering herself for something heavier. “This is strange for me. On Earth, I never felt anything like what I feel for you. It is too much. Too intense. It fills every part of me. It is hard to accept that when it comes to you, the rules I was raised with, my culture, even simple good sense… none of it matters. Because I just want to be with you.”
Khar’s eyes widened as the weight of her words struck him. But Lily did not give him time to react.
“When I seduced you, everything was so thrilling I didn’t even dare think about what came next. And when that perfect freedom ended and we would have returned to everyday life… then Horos took me. And through all of it, the only strength I had was the time I spent with you. I did not want to question it. I didn’t want to think that I might be fooling myself, or that it meant something different to you. And then… Horos did things, and I…”
At the mention that Lily had “seduced” him, Khar almost barked a disbelieving laugh, but Horos’s name turned his blood molten with fury. Still, none of that mattered now. The only thing that mattered was lifting Lily out of the sorrow clouding her voice. He reached up and traced her cheek with a gentle touch. His heart twisted at the sight of her uncertainty. He would do anything to soothe her. Anything. But how could he make her understand her fears were baseless without hurting her further?
Yet even this small gesture seemed to steady her.
Khar silently thanked every god he did not believe in, fate, or whatever force kept this fractured universe spinning, that he could see that radiant light returning to her eyes. The light that had captured him so completely.
“You know, Khar… it was easier to look for excuses than to be honest with myself. But for what truly matters, the risk is worth it. Even if it means facing the possibility that you might not feel exactly the same as I do.”
Khar could not endure another breath of distance. He swept her into his arms and pulled her into his lap so their eyes met on the same level. The words tore out of him in a rush.
“Lily, you do not understand. There is no Khar without Lily. I cannot tell you the exact moment it began, but I know it has nothing to do with imprinting. I have been your captive from the first moment I saw you. Do not think this was easy for me to accept. I fought it for a long time. Too long. But my senses finally returned to me, and I will never be able to exist without you.”
The tension in Lily’s beautiful, sweet face melted into unguarded joy and relief. Her whole posture softened, shifted, blossomed, as if they had finally found each other again after chrono-cycles of wandering in a desert. She leaned closer, and Khar pulled her against him without hesitation, pressing her fully to his chest.
“Just you and me, Lily. You have no idea what you have done to me. Your presence alone unraveled everything I thought I understood. I fought it at first, but I am wiser now. I was living in a prison, and you freed me. You are everything. We will do whatever you want. Go wherever you want. Just leave me a place at your side, and I will be there.”
Her smile rose through him like the first sunlight on skin after the longest, coldest night. A promise of something brighter, better, when he had begun to believe nothing would ever thaw the suffering inside him.
“We’ll do what I want?” Lily’s innocent, angelic smile shifted into something wickedly playful, as if she were plotting something deliciously indecent behind those luminous eyes. And her scent… Khar refused to think about it, because one thought and this entire conversation would take a very different turn, one he was not entirely sure she would welcome.
“Well… in that case, I think it is time to try something I’ve been thinking about a lot these past cycles.”
Khar’s cock, which had already reacted to her nearness, strained painfully against the tight fabric of his pants. He shifted her gently in his lap, hoping to hide the immediate response to her words, though he knew it was a hopeless fantasy.
“Yes? Anything my little Human Queen desires.”
Lily sank to her knees between Khar’s legs, her hands gliding slowly along his thighs from knee to hip, mapping every line of her Divani lover with deliberate tenderness. A deep, primal growl rumbled out of Khar’s chest. He could not resist her. He would have followed her to the ends of any galaxy without hesitation, but this assertive, fearless Lily ignited his desire until it bordered on unbearable.
His arousal strained sharply against the fabric of his pants, and whatever remained of his self-control dissolved the moment Lily’s tongue slipped out to wet her lower lip. His beautiful, infuriating Human Queen. He had missed her so much it bordered on pain.
“Lily… if you keep going, I will not be able to stop.”
She blinked up at him with wide, false innocence.
