Page 51 of Black Mamba

“Why? Help me understand.”

“Females—you—are extraordinarily rare.” He briefly points at me. “You are precious. Even if I did not want more from you, I would have been protective of you for being what you are. It issss not every day a female shows up outside my nest…”

“Women are not rare where I come—came—from. We’re literally everywhere.”

“Yet I have only seen you.”

“And your few female friends.”

“Yessss. Them too, but I met them after they were mated.”

I lick my lower lip. “Ah. So I’m just the first available female to you then.” That’s why he wants me. I get it now. I knew it.

“Perhaps. Perhapssss not.” His nostrils flare as he inhales deeply, clenching his hands. “Like I told you before, I knew when I first smelled you.”

Lightning flashes and the sky rumbles.

Watching his hands fist at his sides, I know I should send him away. I should tell him to go. This is the time to do it, if I’m going to do it at all. He knows I’m okay and will leave. But Jenna suddenly pops into my head.

Jenna would’ve never let him inside the ship in the first place.

Jenna and I have always been opposites. Always.

She hated her stalkers… yet I’m endeared.

Realizing I don’t want Lukys to leave, I take a step back and then another.

His tail moves around him as his eyes sharpen curiously.

I’m about to invite him inside, to ask him to wait out the storm with me, when my courage fails. I freeze where I’m standing as my face falls into a frown. What am I doing?

“I’m fine,” I whisper. “I think the ship will be fine too. You should go back to your cave.” My voice comes out a little more defeated than I’d like it to be.

“If you are sure⁠—”

“I’m sure.”

He eyes me then nods, slipping his tail farther inside to hand me the now-soaked towel. But when I reach out to take it, I freeze once more as his scent hits me.

Subtle and sparse with the watery dampness wafting from outside, the small whiff is enough to send me reeling. My toes curl and my sex constricts, reminding me I might be sick with him—and this is just going to make me sicker.

“Goodbye, Elena.”

He turns and leaves, disappearing into the downpour, and the moment his tailtip slips away, regret twists my stomach. Commanding the AI to close the hatch, I stomp to my room and shut myself in. I drop onto my bed and shove my hand into my pants to feel how wet I am, discovering I’ve dampened my clothes. Tingles of pleasure streak through me as my fingers brush my clit.

I want Lukys.

I want him and my body is ready, according to Shelby. I grab the hide off the floor and bury my face into it, inhaling and shuddering all over.

Fuck.

TWENTY-FOUR

THE LONG STORM

Lukys

Rain soaks me, drenching me from head to tailtip. Everything is damp, encumbered by liquid that will not stop falling from the sky. The pads of my fingers are wrinkled, and my scales are soft. My body is tense from the chill, and one of the only reliefs I have had these past few days is the environment’s check on my ardor. The near-constant strain of stretching scale and skin around my bulge has not been hurting me as much.