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She turned to him, and his expression was softer, as if seeing her with the boy warmed his soldier’s heart.
“You’re right,” she said, trying to ignore how his look made her pulse quicken, trying not to picture what it might be like to undress him.
“Do you prefer to be on top?” he asked.
Her mind raced, even as her body responded with a desire she did not want to feel. Did he really think she was going to service him, just because they were sharing quarters?
Did he know where she had been? What she was?
Then he tapped a panel and a pair of bunks slid out of the wall, one above the other.
“Uh, yes, please,” she said, without meeting his eyes. “Top.”
“Private refresher is here,” he said, sliding his hand along another panel. “If you need it.”
He held out the orb, and she took it from him and dashed into the refresher, relieved to have a moment away from him to pull herself together.
You’re here for the boy, she reminded herself. And to start a new life. Stop getting distracted. A single mother can’t afford distractions.
6
RAFE
Rafe paced the few steps he could manage in the dark room, a storm brewing in his chest.
How was he supposed to sleep in this tiny room when it was filled with his mate’s delicious scent?
He could hardly concentrate well enough to protect her properly. It had taken all he had not to rip the arms off that sniveling fool in black for insulting her. He could still hear the words, ringing in his ears.
I know what she is…
As if there were any shame in being Terran. It was what she was born to, sure as that fool had been born Maltaffian. That was no reason to judge her. And the low-cut gown was admittedly unusual for long travel, but it was her choice, and plenty of species wore far, far less.
The dragon rumbled in his mind, trying to spur him to action.
Claim her, and she will be ours to defend to the death.
Yes, it must have been the dragon’s desire that had caused him to react to the Maltaffian’s insults with such vigor.
He was on a civilian train, heading to a sleepy little town on the frontier. Yet icy fingers had gone down his spine at the man’s behavior toward Jade. It felt like he had insulted her personally, not just taken a cheap jab at her race.
Mine.
He closed his eyes, trying to block out the sound of the dragon’s assertion.
Soft noises in the refresher told him the girl was bathing.
A vision of her naked and glistening flashed into his mind, unbidden, and he nearly groaned out loud with frustrated need.
He turned back to his pacing, trying to use the meditations he had been taught as a boy to help him control his shift. Maybe they would help him not to think these thoughts about Gus’s new mother.
Mine, the dragon screamed in his head.
Moments later, the door to the refresher opened and she appeared, the light orb in her hands so that her freshly scrubbed face and blonde mane seemed to glow.
Rafe was momentarily breathless.
He had broken speed records, watched stars blur past like something from a holo-film. He had seen the vast reaches of the system and the beating heart of an infinitesimal gem-snail under a microscope.
