Page 22 of Chained

I shouldn’t be letting this happen.

I can’t seem to stop myself.

“I, on the other hand, do everything I deem necessary.”

He gazes down at me, his liquid dark eyes seeming to bore into my soul. I feel my traitorous core pulse, and his nostrils flare.

“You tempt me at every turn, little scrap.” His clawed thumb brushes down my cheek. “A temptation I’m not sure I can resist much longer.”

MAXYM

Cleo’s gaze doesn’t waver. Her chest heaves up and down as the scent of her arousal increases. I want to scatter the remaining weapons and mate her on the table here and now.

“We can’t…I can’t do this, Maxym,” she says, her voice a barely audible whisper. “You don’t want me.”

“Because you have a mate?” I hear myself growl far too harshly. “The one who put a youngling in your belly and yet makes you come here every day.”

She pulls her chin from my grasp with her own growl of anger.

“No.” Cleo marches over the table I was contemplating a second ago and begins putting the unused weapons in their box. “There is nomate. And my pregnancy has nothing to do with you.”

If I had any control, it vacated me long before my head injury. I pull her into an alcove. The feel of Cleo in my arms is even better than I ever thought it could be.

“I think you’ll find it has everything to do with me because I have claimed you and your young for my own.”

“You can’t do that. I don’t belong to anyone,” Cleo retorts.

“Don’t you?” I pull her scent into my lungs.

“This baby is my responsibility.”

To my delight, she smooths her clothing over her stomach, revealing the small swell which causes my cocks to jerk hard against my pants, making me groan out loud.

“I have to provide for it. I have to make sure it has a home. I have to…” Her words end in a sob.

“Tell me,” I order.

“I have to tell Retah and hope he doesn’t fire me,” she says and then looks at me like I’ve ripped her lungs from her body.

“Your employer doesn’t know?”

“He doesn’t.” She hangs her head. “I don’t know what to do.”

I want to tell her I will have her and her young. I will worship her body, nest for her, keep her and protect her.

Only I’m a prisoner of the dome. I cannot do any of these things.

“I doubt he will fire you for being with young,” I say.

“But when the baby comes…” Her eyes are filled with water. It hovers at the edge of her lashes before a drop runs down her cheek.

I catch it on my finger, bringing it to my mouth and tasting a faint tang of salt.

“He will accept it, or he will have to deal with me.”

Cleo hiccups, a smile briefly appearing on her face as she dashes the rest of the water from her eyes.

“I guess that’s one way to manage it.”

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