Page 36 of Decadence

Out of some deep-seated survival instinct, she felt the need to hold onto a weapon, no matter how useless it was.

Against him?

That wouldn’t do.

That wouldn’t do at all.

Ikriss moved forward until he was so close he could just lean in and taste her if he wanted. Her sweet scent made his heart pound like a war-drum.

His cock stirred.

Oh, he could so easily just take her right now. The temptation was almost unbearable.

No.

She was afraid… of him.

He remembered Tarak’s advice. He had to teach her otherwise. Kordolians like himself and the General and the other First Division guys…

They didn’t take their mates against their will. That would be too easy; too crude, too much like the old empire.

Too much against everything he’d fought so hard for.

Ikriss stared back at Sienna, observing how her lower lip trembled ever so slightly; how her nostrils flared and her pupils dilated infinitesimally, how the pink flush in her cheeks deepened.

He saw her pulse, fluttering rapidly in her neck.

She was reacting… to him.

Fear, or something else?

Something else…

There was a hint of it in her scent. He’d detected it before up on Silence, when he’d summoned her to his office.

It was as if her body knew what it wanted before her mind did.

A biological reaction. His Mating Fever. Her arousal. The latter was more subtle to detect, but it was still there.

Why?

Did it even matter?

All he needed to do was convince her…

Slowly, he raised his hand to his face and removed his false glasses, slipping them into his pocket, knowing his appearance would immediately change—from passably human to undeniably Kordolian.

Actually, he hated hiding what he was. When he’d worked mil-intel on distant planets where Kordolians were despised by all, he’d sometimes been able to ditch the helm and pass himself off as a defector; a rogue trader who had rebelled against the Empire.

Most citizens of the Universe generally respected that.

But now, upon seeing his true appearance, Sienna responded with a sharp intake of breath.

Like a small, defenseless creature caught in a hunter’s sights, she froze on the spot; nostrils flaring, eyes widening, a slight tremble coursing through her body.

She looked like she was about to flee or attack.

It wasn’t exactly the reaction he’d hoped for.

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