Page 16 of Captured

“Torgus told me about Mia.”

I bristled again, furious that Torgus would share something so personal, and equally intrigued by the way she said Mia’s name with such reverence.

I broke away, turning back to the window and leaning heavily on the sill, letting my head rest against the glass as I tried to steady my breathing.

“She didn’t deserve what happened to her,” I finally managed, my heart clenching in my chest with every word.

Cosma stepped closer still, one of her arms slipping out from beneath the blanket cape and wrapping around my own, her hand coming to rest atop mine. Her pale fingers looked like twigs as they slid between my deep red ones. I could break her in an instant. I was Vaclan. I was a fighter. Why did she not understand that?

But she didn’t stop there.

I felt a nudge at my side and when I lifted my head from the glass; I realized she was resting her head against my shoulder. The way Mia used to do when we were kids. Only this was different, and I knew it. I could feel it through every inch of my body.

Strangely, it wasn’t just my cock that was reacting anymore. I was feeling delirious, like I couldn’t breathe and my mind could not focus on anything but her closeness. It was even worse than having her in my lap on the ship. That had been my doing. This was beyond my control.

Slowly, I pulled myself away from the window, forcing her to turn toward me once more. Only this time, I had abandoned any notion of turning away from her. No, once her eyes were on mine, I knew there was only one thing I wanted, and it was her.

Lifting one of my hands to her face, I brushed the loose curls back from her face, admiring the soft pink of her cheekbones and the demure way she dropped her eyes to the ground as I examined her beauty before she brought them back up and held her head high.

“What do you want, Malik?”

“I do not know,” I answered, perhaps too honestly. I was too dizzy with lust to know much of anything.

“Do you want to kiss me?”

I did, but nothing prepare me for the jolt of desire that went straight to my groin hearing it from her mouth.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” I asked, running a sharp fingernail down the edge of her jaw and tracing the flush of her skin in its wake. She was marvelous. She defied all reason.

“You are hardly the only one with dark secrets in their past. You have given me no reason to fear you, Malik. Only reason to want to know what is beneath the surface.”

Those words felt like a threat. She was trying to break down all of my carefully constructed walls with a pickaxe made entirely of soft words and gentle touches, and I had been disarmed.

Before I could think better of it, I turned her abruptly, steering her backward until her body pressed against the window, and I covered her lips with mine, flicking my forked tongue across her lips to savor her taste before she let me plunder her mouth.

She whimpered softly as my grip on her tightened and I leaned into her, desperate to explore as much of her as I could before she changed her mind. Before I got a grip and stopped myself. I had only this moment, and I was going to make the most of it.

When I finally pulled back, swirling my tongue across her lips again for one more taste, she was looking at me with wide-eyed wonder, but her hands were planted firmly on my shoulders and her blanket lay completely forgotten behind her on the windowsill.

“You have been nothing but a nuisance since the moment I first encountered you,” I growled, unable to wrap my head around what I was doing and why I was doing it. “And despite that, I find you absolutely intoxicating. I cannot explain it.”

She smirked at this, her eyes flashing. “You don’t need to explain anything, Malik, except to tell me if you want me right now.”

She’d done it again, taken my breath away inexplicably and left me helpless. I wanted her so badly I couldn’t stand it.

She rose from the windowsill, pushing me backward until we were standing face to face. She was challenging me, waiting for me to tell her no, and knowing that I could not. She had played me masterfully in every way. Now, I knew I could not think straight until I got her out of my system. Not after having tasted her sweetness for myself.

I didn’t answer her with words. Instead, I bent, sweeping her legs out from under her and lifting her against my chest, cradling her so that I could meet her lips with mine just by bending my neck. Thank the stars I knew this ship like the back of my hand, and I could navigate my way back to my bed with no collisions.

She never pulled away from me. I could feel her drawing me ever deeper into her gravity, as if my desire was feeding her.

My knees struck the edge of the bed, and I stopped to lower her onto the mattress. She kept her hands firmly wrapped around my neck, pulling me down with her.

“Don’t stop,” she whispered against my lips, her own tongue sweeping across mine hungrily.

Suddenly, I felt her tiny teeth latched on my lip, biting just hard enough to surprise me and send a surge of heat to my already enthusiastic cock. I had no choice but to bend over her, lowering myself until I pressed my chest to hers and she was shifting her legs to wrap them around my waist. When she released my lip, she was staring up at me with expectant eyes, unafraid.

“Have you ever been with a human woman?”

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