Bracing my back leg to take 70 percent of my weight, I kept the front one loose and ready to strike. I had to find an opening, a weakness somewhere. Everyone had one, right? “I’ll let you make the first move. Wouldn’t want it over too quick.”
Oh god, oh goddess. Where the hell did that come from?The bravado coming from my mouth did not belong to me. It was a mad woman talking.
His lips quirked. A fraction of the intensity lowered as he clearly struggled not to laugh. “So be it, little captain.” A twist of his mouth and a smirk appeared on that handsome face. “Have it your way.”
Whoa. When did I start thinking of him as handsome?I didn’t have long to ponder as a sweep knocked my front leg out from under me.Shit!The lone saving grace was that I’d braced my back leg. With a phenomenal effort, I tucked my front leg into my chest and spun around. The blow knocked me almost in a full circle, so that I stood with my side to him. Had it been my back exposed, I would not have recovered.
Using the momentum of his strike, I flipped my leg over and delivered a side kick. But his speed saved him from getting a boot to the ribs. He grabbed my ankle and pulled me forward. I landed with my boot on the ground and my back to his chest. Exactly what I’d been avoiding the first time.
Not that easy.I ducked before he could grab me and rolled away from him. When I sprung to my feet, we faced each other once more.
“Not bad, Terran, but you’ll not win by dodging.” He stood in the fighting stance I’d taken once more, mimicking my moves.
I smiled at him, my cold smile I reserved for battle. “I didn’t plan on it.”
The commander baited me, and from the ease in his stance, he expected me to take it. Striking him again head on would be a fool’s move.
I was not a fool.
“Did you want to just watch me, or were you actually going to do something?” I bounced side to side, forcing him to track my movements.
His smirk returned, a cool twist to his lips that matched mine. “I didn’t want you to feel bad, little captain. You deserve a chance to try.”
I laughed at his taunts. “Oh, silly commander…” I faked left, then slid under him. A desperate, suicidal move if ever I attempted one, but I saw only one weakness on him—a male’s weakness. “I never try. I do.”
Popping him with an elbow to the groin, I rolled forward through his legs as he groaned. But he didn’t go down. Not even to one knee.What are his balls made of steel?I got to my feet quickly, not relishing a retaliation if I didn’t finish him off. Aiming a kick to the same region, I didn’t hesitate.
One large hand palmed my calf while the other hand cupped his balls. “That was a low blow, Captain.”
I shrugged. “Anything goes in battle.”
Releasing his groin, he hauled me into him and wrapped his free arm around my back. I wriggled against him; my leg still trapped in his fist as he tucked it to his side. The position was infuriating—and hot as hell. My pussy throbbed as he hitched me higher up his chest so that I stood on tiptoe with the one foot still on the ground. “Now, little captain, is that what you truly believe? Is there not a code of honor even among enemies?”
My eyes narrowed, ire rising along with a wave of lust at the contact between us. “Is that what the Versaken showed you?” My nostrils flared and my voice rose an octave higher. The emotions sweeping through me rocked me to the core. “Did they have honor when they shot my sister into space?”
A look I’d never seen before passed over the commander’s face—compassion? Empathy? I didn’t know. The Rhonar had no emotions, unless they were mated. That’s what we’d been told. It was the sole purpose for their negotiations with Earth. They needed brides to complete their bonds and save them from their biological states of emptiness. So, why now did the commander have a brightness to his eyes and a curve to his mouth that hinted at more?
“No.” The simple word was set in stone. “They lack all honor.”
A heavy silence laid over us as we stood immobile. He held me tight, staring into my eyes with a thousand enigmatic thoughts whirling behind his stare. I tried to get free once more, but the motion did nothing but shift me in his grip. My spread leg set my pussy right at the level of his stomach, and I almost moaned as my escape attempts brushed my clit over his hard abs. I bit my bottom lip to stifle the sound.
Suddenly, he sniffed the air, breathing it deep into his lungs.
“What is it?” I searched his body, hoping to find a spot where I could strike him. My arms were still free so I had to attempt a blow somewhere, but the only place that would do any damage was his face. And…I just didn’t want to hit him there.
“Your scent.” He sucked in another breath and angled me lower. The movement sent my leg over his hip, and my pussy in direct contact with his hardened cock. “Crex. I can smell your arousal, little captain.”
How did he recovery so quickly?Moving his arm from my back to my ass, he pushed me into him, working me against his shaft. “Fuck!”
“Tell me you want me to stop.” He slid me up and down, our pants the only barriers between us. “Tell me now.”
Stop? I didn’t want him to stop.My pussy throbbed like a second heartbeat. Lust swirled inside me like a hungry, living thing. I wanted to come on his cock more than I wanted to breathe. It didn’t matter that he was a surly bastard. He was hot and hard, and I wanted more. “Don’t stop.”
