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“You’re making me nervous.” She tried to laugh it off, but her words were true. For all her bravado, could she really handle not one, but both men?

Not bloody likely.

“Good.” Alex rose from his seat beside her bed and headed for the door, not saying another word.

Bakac followed, leaving Doriena to contemplate their future.

Chapter Four

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Alex?” Bakac always deferred to Alex in matters of Doriena, but this was different. And not what Bakac would call conducive to winning the heart of their souls’ mate.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life repressing your needs? She has to know what we want, the same as we need to know what she wants.” Alex gripped the carrying case that contained the week’s end entertainment. To Bakac, he didn’t look certain at all.

“And if those wants don’t coincide?”

“Then it’s best we find out now.”

“Will it change your desire to claim her as your mate?”

“Not my desire, Bakac, but I won’t trap her in a relationship she can’t stand, the same as I won’t trap myself.”

“Well, I’m telling you now, Alex, if she doesn’t like my darker nature, I’ll repress myself to the other side of the Universe and back before I’ll give her up. Just because she’s not ready for this stuff now doesn’t mean she won’t be if introduced properly. Sometimes you just have to be patient.”

Alex didn’t say anything, but Bakac got the distinct impression he was trying to scare off Doriena. Well, the things in that carrying case would probably do it. He’d just have to make sure they progressed carefully.

For this little adventure, he’d have to stay in tighter control of himself than ever before in his life.

So much for showing Doriena his true nature.

?* * *

Doriena had been to Bakac’s mountain estate only once. It was nestled high up in the Mandorian Mountains overlooking Northling. The view was breathtaking. Great trees spired majestically around the front and sides of the estate, and a mountain lake was situated in the back. Bakac always told her the lake was cool in the heat of the summer, while heat from an underground fissure warmed the water in the winter, creating a natural hot spring. Secretly, she had always wanted to swim naked in that lake. Perhaps she’d get her chance.

Instead of taking a transport pod to the estate entrance, she opted for a chartered drive. It took several hours, and she needed that time to prepare herself.

If that was possible.

She knew Alex wanted to shock and frighten her, and she wasn’t sure it wouldn’t work. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on her training at Military Command. If there was ever a time when she needed to repress her emotions, it was now.

?* * *

What thefuckwas keeping Doriena? Alex paced back and forth between the bedroom and the window of the great hall that overlooked the estate’s entrance. He’d been waiting for over three hours and was beginning to think he reallyhadscared her off.

Then he saw the small conveyance making its way up the side of the mountain, and he knew what she had done.

He blew out a breath of air. If he’d given her a specific time to be here, he’d punish her first thing. But he hadn’t.

More importantly, he hated that he cared. He didn’t want to get his hopes up because what he had told Bakac was absolutely correct. He would refuse to take her as his mate if she couldn’t accept his sexual appetites. Bakac could do as he wished, but he would not live his life in sexual repression.

Damn it.

Funny how he felt the need to remind himself of that.

Once he knew she was on her way, would in fact be there very soon, he went back upstairs to Bakac’s gym which they had converted into a “play room” for the week’s end. With Instamovers, it had only taken them half an hour and the effect was… disturbing.

All the windows had been covered. All the equipment had either been removed or refitted to use as a device of restraint. Toys of every imaginable use were placed around the room.

And the thought of tying Doriena down made his bloodboil! He got an instant hard-on every time he imagined her creamy, freckle-dusted flesh stretched out and helpless before him. His to do with as he pleased.

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