Page 31 of The Rebel and the Rogue

His fangs grazed my shoulder, and I cried out, my core clamping down on his cock like a fist from wanting them. Yes. God yes. I wanted him to fucking bite me. Claim me. He knew the truth now. Knew everything. Knew what I was, what I would always be. If he bit me now, claimed me, wanted me, I would stay. Fight beside him. Defend his people and his legion. Protect little Scylla and Nero.

All he had to do was one thing. Turn his head, sink his fangs deep.

Bite me.

“Come now,” he urged, his thrusts unrelenting. “Come all over my cock, Ivy. Give me what I want.”

He thrust deeper. Shifted his angle. Groaned. I moaned as he pushed me to the brink.

“Come. Say my name. Fucking say it,” he snapped.

“Bite me,” I begged. I couldn’t help myself. I wanted what I want

ed. Him. All of him. His cock. His body. His heart. His mating mark. His bite.

His venom.

“Do it,” I taunted. “Bite me.”

I was giving myself to him with those words. I’d give up everything, my need for vengeance, my need to roam, to drift through the galaxy alone. One little thing and I’d become his, give myself to him.

His fangs scratched the surface of my skin just enough to hurt, and I exploded, his name torn from my throat as I obeyed his command to come, my pussy milking his cock. Colors danced behind my eyes, my scream echoed off the thin walls of the bathing tube.

Bite me.

He was going to do it. Sink his fangs deep. Give me his essence. Make me his.

Fuck yes. I tried to gain purchase on the wall, but my fingers slipped. There was no purchase, no way to hang on to my control with him. Like my hold, I was willing to slip away. For him. Only him.

The thought made me come again, one orgasm running into another as he fucked me through it, fast and wild, pushing me higher.

With a groan he tore his lips from my flesh as his cock pulsed inside me. His cum filled me, scorching hot. Aftershocks made me tremble for long minutes as he held me pinned to the wall, our hands joined, fingers entwined. I had never felt like I was not myself before. Not me. The other half of him. Half of us.

So why were tears streaking my cheeks?

He’d given me pleasure but nothing else. Bite me. He hadn’t. He wouldn’t. Since he knew the truth of what I really was, of course he wouldn’t. Who’d want to be mated to me? Not Zenos.

I’d begged. Begged. And he had refused. Denied me. Again.

Swallowing hard, I willed the tears to stop before he could see them, thankful we were in the shower tube, the water raining upon us hiding them.

He wasn’t going to claim me. Ever. I had to make peace with that fact. I was Hived-Up. Contaminated. Less. Oh, he’d fuck me and help me work off the post-fight rush of adrenaline. He’d make me feel good, but now, when I’d hoped he’d make me forget all the bad in my life, it would only make me remember the one thing I could never have.

Him. I would never be his completely. I’d never be whole.

I should have heeded his original warning in the canteen. I didn’t belong here on Rogue 5, I didn’t belong dragging him to an empty room on Zenith and seducing him. I should have looked away from the gorgeous hybrid Forsian in the bar. I should have been stronger. It was too damn late now. I was in love with the big jerk, and he would fuck me—my aching, well-used pussy could confirm that—but not claim me.

Lesson learned. Message received. I wouldn’t ask again.

I was done.

When my body relaxed in his arms, he pulled free, rinsed us both off and carried me to his bed. The endorphins from the battle and from the sex faded, and exhaustion dragged me under as his fingertips traced the nicks and scars on my arms. My neck. He rolled so that I lay sprawled on top of him, a blanket creating a cocoon of warmth and safety over us. I didn’t say anything. There were no words left.

I was with him, in his arms, but we were separate, entities unto ourselves.

This was temporary, along with everything else in my life.

This wasn’t reality, this was another world. Another place. In this moment I was somewhere I didn’t have to worry about someone killing me or hunting me or demanding that I board a transport with my ReCon unit and charge into enemy territory. I didn’t have to think, worry. But I couldn’t help but feel. Not just his heated skin, but the hard planes of muscle beneath. The beat of his heart. Everything that was touching me but would never be mine.

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