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“I need you so badly that I’m going to rut you right here against the—”
My muscles start to strain. A pang of pain spreads across my stomach. Raina is moaning, unaware that my energy is suddenly waning.
“Then do it already,” she urges me on, tightening her thighs round my waist.
“Wait, actually. . .” My legs buckle and I pitch forward, squishing my mate against the wall. She squeaks in surprise as we tumble together.
“Niko!” She cries as I crumple on top of her.
With a groan, I manage to flip onto my back, releasing her from my crushing weight. She turns over to check on me, passing her hands over my chest and the healing wounds on my belly. Her hands are gentle, a welcome comfort.
“Are you okay? It doesn’t seem like your wound is reopening.”
“It hit me suddenly. My legs are weak. Did I hurt you?”
She rubs her hip and glares at me. “I’m fine. This is why you shouldn’t have jumped out of the regen and waltzed in here like nothing was wrong with you! It’s the liquid coming off you. It was energizing you and now it’s drying away.”
“I think I’m actually sweating it off.” I wipe my brow.
“What I should do is drag you back down to your room . . .” She trails off, staring at me with a strange look. Her eyes go shiny, as if she’ll start leaking water from them again. She rests her palm on my cheek, and my stomach tingles.
“You scared me.”
I don’t know what to say as she looks at me, fighting the crying response that humans seem to have. The way she spoke it, it sounded like she didn’t want it to happen.
“You scared me that night,” I tell her. “Last I remember, I told you to run. But you didn’t, did you?”
“You’d be dead if I did.”
She glances at the subsiding protrusion in my shorts. I was fiery and ready to plunge into her, but it fades as her emotions bubble up.
“Let’s get you somewhere comfortable,” she says.
With her support and a lot of mumbled cursing, I manage to limp toward the bathing area at the center of the room.
There’s a stepped entry to the steaming baths surrounded by cushioned edges that allow for lounging. The ship was designed by the ancient Zaledians, a people that come from a hot planet. They crave this heat, and I’m mentally thanking them for building this bathhouse as Raina helps me step down a few levels. She guides me into a seated position, then steps out, choosing to sit on the edge with only her calves dipping into the pool.
The hot water soaks through to my bones. I’m so satisfied by the penetrating warmth that I let out a deep, deep sigh.
“Lay back,” my mate coos so sweetly that I still can’t be sure this is real. Perhaps I’m hallucinating; it feels like fantasy that Raina would act so soft.
“It must have been a while,” I guess, doing as she says by reclining on the padded edge of the bath.
“You’ve been unconscious for seven days.”
“And you’ve been here all that time?
She throws me an exasperated look.
“I brought you here. Thank God you had told me about Lakkavi. He had a medbot to stabilize you and then he brought us here.”
“What has Mak said to you? He’s already trying to steal you by getting you on his ship, so I have no choice but to follow—”
“Don’t skip the part where you explain to me why you never told me that this place exists. The way you spoke of home, I imagined a hovel on a far-off station, not a floating castle!”
“This place is older than dirt,” I mutter. “There are more amenities on any given station.”
“Excuse me for being from a primitive planet, but these are better amenities than I’ve ever lived with growing up. Your best friend is the king. You grew up in what’s basically a castle. Your adoptive mother is an angel. Everyone here reveres you and treats me with respect and love I never earned—”
