Page 57 of Savage Union

I felt a surge of admiration for my Fated Mate when I realized this. Truly, Turk was more subtle than I’d ever given him credit for. I supposed he had to know how to shape the opinions of the males he was in charge of. And so far, what he was doing seemed to be working.

This morning the other Crewmembers were all polite to me and respectful to Turk. In fact, only three people seemed unhappy to see the two of us talking together. Jerx, Gurflug, and Frux, the Union Rep. I noticed uneasily that the three of them were sitting at the same table, though they didn’t seem to be talking much. Still, I knew that any of the three would be happy to hurt me—and probably Turk too. It made me realize that no matter how awkward things got between us, I would have to stay by my Fated Mate’s side.

Well, hopefully thingswouldn’tbe awkward since Turk had said we weren’t going to talk about the kiss we’d shared, ever again. We were apparently just going to pretend the whole thing never happened.

And that was what I was determined to do…until I developed the Need.

32

JESSINA

Here’s the thing about finding your Fated Mate—the thing I had only a vague idea about because I was still innocent and nobody had told me anything growing up. Once a Brute Clansmen finds his Fated Mate and the two of them spend time together in close proximity, both of them start to develop symptoms—sexualsymptoms.

For males, it’s very straightforward—a Brute develops The Thirst. It’s a deep longing to taste his Fated Mate—to spread her legs and drink of her juices.

For females, the symptoms can be more varied. They develop The Need or The Needing, which can manifest in several different ways.

Some women get freezing cold when they’re too far from their Fated Mate, especially at night. Others develop The Emptiness—a deep need to be filled by their Fated Mate’s shaft. Still others begin to produce a thick, sticky nectar that fills their breasts and must be sucked out. Their nipples get tender and painful when this happens and only the mouth of their Fated Mate can ease the ache. Or they develop a stinging pain between their thighs that only his tongue can cure.

And lastly, some women develop their own version of The Thirst—a deep desire to drink their Fated Mate’s seed.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this or I never would have risked getting so close to Turk. I had a vague idea that Fated Mates might start to crave each other, but I had no inkling that sleeping in the same room with him would send my body into complete overdrive.

The first symptom showed itself later that morning when I was checking the course that Gurflug had plotted to the next worm hole. My throat began to feel dry and I started having daydreams of taking Turk’s shaft in my mouth again. I could see myself, kneeling before him and reaching into his uniform trousers to pull out that long, hard cock I’d felt grinding against me the night before…

I pushed the illicit images away and finished my work. But still the daydreams lingered. They came back even stronger when Turk took me into his Ready Room to give me the time dilation drops so I wouldn’t get sick in the worm hole.

“Open for me, Cass,” he rumbled holding out the eyedropper filled with pale pink liquid. When he said those words, my stomach fluttered and my pussy was suddenly so hot and wet I could barely stand it. I could just imagine myself on my knees before him, opening my mouth for his cock…

I pushed the thought away quickly and allowed him to squirt two drops of medicine under my tongue. But the images kept coming back to me all day long and my throat continued to feel dry, as though I needed something to lubricate it.

Drinking water didn’t help and my yearnings to touch Turk and suck him—to take him in my mouth and feel him spurting down my throat—got stronger and stronger. By the time dinner was over and we were on our way back up to his quarters, I was feeling half crazy with Need—though of course I didn’t know what it was.

Ignore it,I told myself sternly.It can never happen. Youhaveto stop thinking like this—stop imagining such things!

But I couldn’t seem to help myself—my mind was filled with images that simply wouldn’t go away. I had heard of obsessive thoughts before, but I had never experienced one—until now. The thought of sucking him justwouldn’tleave my head. It was getting so bad I was afraid I might blurt something out—which I was sure would be unwelcome since Turk had been determinedly treating me like a navigator and a Crewmember and nothing more all day long.

I need to get away from him!I thought as we entered his Ready Room.I’ve been near him all day—if I can just breathe some air that doesn’t have his scent in it, I might be able to calm my mind.

Though what I was going to do for my dry throat, I didn’t know.

“Excuse me, Captain, but I’d like to check something with the nav band before we go to bed, if you don’t mind,” I said to him.

“Hmm? Well, all right—if you want to. Just don’t mess with the autopilot’s program,” he said to me.

“No, of course not. I just want to see tomorrow’s route,” I said quickly.

“Suite yourself.” He shrugged, maybe a little too casually. “See you in a bit.”

I hoped I wasn’t hurting his feelings. He probably thought I was trying to get away from him—which I was—but he had no idea of the real reason why. And it wasn’t like I could explain that I’d suddenly developed an intense desire to suck his cock and swallow his cream.

I sat in the nav chair and put on the nav band, plotting the next day’s course but actually thinking of Turk. Being away from him wasn’t nearly as helpful as I’d hoped. True, I could no longer smell his warm, spicy scent which drove me crazy withdesire, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about him…couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to taste him and touch him while he groaned and stroked my cheek…

At last, I gave up. It was getting close to lights out and I still needed to take my shower. Sighing, I placed the nav band carefully back in its place and headed through the Ready Room, my head whirling with illicit ideas.

I was so distracted, I didn’t notice that Turk wasn’t in the bedroom. My only thought was to go in the bathroom and get dressed for bed as quickly as possible so I could crawl under the covers and try to sleep. Getting some shuteye seemed like the only way to banish the obsessive thoughts that haunted me. Though possibly they were so intense and intrusive they might even follow me down into sleep. If they would only?—

My thoughts were cut off when I opened the bathroom door and came face to face with Turk, standing naked in the shower.

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