Page 12 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

I was repeating myself, but I didn’t care.

He stepped toward me, and I froze in place like prey. His eyes glittered and flashed. I couldn’t look anywhere other than directly into them. He stood so close I could feel his body heat radiating, and damn… It was almost as enticing as the apple he held up to my mouth.

He leaned in, and his lips brushed my ear when he breathed into it, as if he was caressing the words with his mouth—exactly like the rest of his body whispered against mine. His voice was throaty, seductive, as he murmured, “Just one bite.”

He enunciated each word carefully, and at the feel of his voice vibrating against my skin, I closed my eyes and whimpered softly. But I didn’t open my mouth.

He drew the back of his hand down my cheek and across my jaw to my collarbone. His fingers played with the skin at the neckline of my sweater. “Now, Lara.”

The cool skin of the apple brushed against my lips, and I could almost taste its sweetness in its scent, feel the crunch as my teeth sank in.

Why was I working so hard to resist eating it?

In the back of my mind, a sane voice whispered,It could be poisoned.

But I knew it was more likely I was refusing simply because I didn’t want Ivrael to win.

Didn’t want him to believe he had any power over me.

Didn’t want to be seduced into anything—not even something as simple as taking a bite out of an apple.

But then he snaked one hand around to the back of my head, tangling his fingers into the hair at the nape of my neck. He fisted his hand in my hair, and with a jerk, used it as a handle to both tug my head back and drag the rest of my body up against his.

This time, my whimper was one of pain—but somehow, that pain also became something new.

Something foreign.

Something aching and mixed with desire.

He hadn’t moved the hand with the apple—he still held it in my face—but now he ground it against my mouth, much as he forced my body to grind against his.

His voice turned harsh and grating, a dark vein of violence threading through it, underscoring every word. “Take a bite.”

Everything around me stopped, going perfectly still. That’s when his cock hardened against me. I gasped, and I couldn’t say if it was from horror or excitement.

Ivrael used that moment to shove the apple against my parted lips. “Open your mouth, princess.”

And finally, I did, unable any longer to resist his orders.

My teeth crunched down into the apple, and it flooded my mouth with sweetness.

“That’s my good girl.” Ivrael let go of my hair and smoothed his hand down the center of my back until his fingertips danced right along the top of my ass. He never looked away from me as he took a half step back, a smile playing along the edges of his mouth.

The periphery of my vision darkened, and I glanced around to see why the light had changed.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said, and for an instant, his tone turned gentle. “Not without me.”

Then the darkness hovering around the edges of my vision spread inward, and the last thing I was certain of was Ivrael’s voice as he murmured, “Don’t worry, I have you.”

My knees buckled, and he caught me in his arms.

I knew that fucking apple was poisoned.

CHAPTER 4

IVRAEL

After leaving the Trasqo Market, I carried the unconscious girl to my spaceship, its lines flickering into visibility just outside the market gate. I was already calling out instructions as I headed up the ramp.

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