“Wow.” Star’s hands touched his stomach, and then brushed across his cock. “At least it was worth waiting for.”
“Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but. “You had to be primed before you got here, or I’d be in the brig now instead of in you.”
He rubbed the head of his shaft against her, coating himself with her cream. Pausing a moment as his frame shook violently, Roark waited for the heat wave to pass before pressing into her.
“You better not leave this time.” She was panting and shifting restlessly against him, her legs locked around his waist as if to trap him to her. “Or I’ll kill you for sure.”
In answer, he rolled his hips and surged into her.
“Oh hell,” she gasped. “I don’t even know your name.” And then she came. Hard rippling spasms gripped his cock, stealing his breath and stilling his heart.
“Damn,” he growled, his thighs shaking with his need. “You’re so small…tight as a fist.” He worked his cock into her with powerful thrusts, grunting with every deep plunge.
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Definitely worth dying for.
His head fell back and he howled his release, two days of misery shooting out of him and flooding into her. Clutching her suspended body tightly, he stroked himself with her cunt until he was drained.
For now. The next heat wave would hit within moments.
He rested his damp forehead against Star’s, fighting for control, their labored breaths mingling. “Hi,” he managed. “I’m Roark.”
“Hi, Roark. Nice to finally fuck you.”
* * *
Star shook her head. This was soooooo wrong. A judge was not supposed to have sex with the criminals. “This doesn’t change anything, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.” He turned his head and began to lick the sweat that misted her skin.
Deep inside her, he throbbed, his erection unabated. It felt so good, it took every bit of control she had not to grind herself onto that massive cock.
He was beautiful, the ambassador. Roark. She couldn’t see colors with her night vision, but she could see everything else. The spots that mottled his silky skin made a wondrous pattern. His hair was dark and straight, hanging almost to his hips. His mouth, with its sculpted lips, was a work of art, and she moaned as he turned his head and pressed it to hers.
“Just give me a week, Star.” He licked her lips. “Then I’ll go with you without a fight.”
“You can’t fight me,” she said dryly, her hands brushing across the tops of his broad shoulders. He was very big. Tall, and well-muscled.
Very yummy, but still… “I’d tear you apart.”
“But then you’d miss having all you want of this.” He pumped his cock through their cream.
She shivered. “You’re a cunt tease, you know that? A fucking week 11
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I’ve been squirming over you!”
Roark laughed, and it was a warm sound, so vibrant and full of life.
His hand cupped her nape and he nuzzled his nose against hers. “It wasn’t easy for me either, you know. I’ve waited almost two years to come into my heat.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It was the only way I could reach you. The time during our heat is when a Jacian’s telepathic powers are strongest. I could not have dreamed with you at any other time, and without dreams we would not be together. You are too focused on your work. If it were possible, I would have had you sooner, and without risk to my life, but this was the only way.”
She took a few moments to absorb what he’d said. What the hell was she going to do? Whatever detachment she’d felt when she walked in the door was gone. Her prey wasn’t some nameless, faceless body.
He was a man. A man who had been loving her nightly for a week. A man who, even in the grip of a tormenting heat, had taken the time to please her as well.
“I can’t go through my heat without you, Star.” He slid his hands down her arms and then laced his fingers with hers. “You’ll have to kill me if you won’t stay. I’ll go mad trapped like a wild animal in your brig.” He thrust as deep as he could go. “I’d rather die if I can’t have you.”
You’ll have to kill me. How the hell was she supposed to do that now? He was inside her.
“Why?” To risk all this…for her…she didn’t even know him.
He reached up and touched her hair. “May I?” Star nodded, and he pulled the tresses free of their knot. “I’ve spent a great deal of time in the courts on Primus. This,” he shifted her hair through his fingers,
“caught my eye. I followed you. I watched you work, I saw the compassion you strive so hard to hide. I like your toughness as well as 12
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your softness, and I love that the advancement of your species is so important to you. As an ambassador, I can relate to and respect that.”
“I’ve never seen you,” she scoffed.
“I wear a black cloak and hood.”
Her eyes widened.
“Ah…I see you’ve noticed me. I have to cover myself. My appearance is…distracting.”
Star snorted. “That’s an understatement.” Frowning, she asked, “Do all Jacians look like you?”
“We share the same level of similarity as any other species.” Roark lifted her hair to his nose, and took a deep breath.
“So, no,” she answered, startled by her reaction to his tenderness.
“You’re exceptionally hot. Women fall at your feet and beg you to fuck them.”
His mouth curved in a smile that made her heart leap. “Would you have done that? No? Well then, my looks offer no advantage I would be interested in. Hence the robe.”
Slipping his hands around her shoulders, Roark pressed his body fully to hers. She felt the tremor that moved him, felt the sudden swelling of his cock inside her. Her breasts grew heavy, her blood heating and slowing with her arousal. He smelled divine—a potent allure for her heightened senses. His skin was soft and sleek over beautifully defined muscles. Her hands touched his back, slid down his spine, kneaded his flesh.
“Kiss me, Star,” he begged softly in the deep, dark voice that moved her. “Like you did in our dreams.”
She shouldn’t. But his mouth waited just inches from hers, the mouth that had pressed kisses to every inch of her skin. Licking her lips, she tilted her head and gave him what he wanted, her tongue sliding along his, drinking in his taste. He groaned and then began to move, his cock slipping from her inch by inch and then gliding back 13
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inside, the thick head stroking every tender spot.
“Oh man,” she breathed, shuddering just like he did, the feel of his deep, steady plunges making her writhe in his embrace. His long, silky hair swayed all around him, caressing her legs where she held on for dear life. She’d wanted this for a week, and yet the hunger he fed was far older than that.
“Is it good for you?” he purred, knowing damn well it was. He bent his knees and shifted his angle, massaging her so deeply her eyes watered. “How’s this?” He pulled out to the very tip of his cock, and then rolled his hips, screwing back inside.
Her plaintive moan was all the answer she could manage.
His skin grew hot to the touch, his muscles trembling beneath her hands. He was holding back for her. Again. “Go ahead, Roarke.” Star licked the shell of his ear, then bit the lobe. His cock jerked. “Take what you need.”
“Star…”
“I want it,” she whispered.
As if her words freed him from invisible restraints, his entire body hardened, then like a coil held too tightly, he sprang into action. He withdrew his cock and then slammed his hips to hers, the wall behind her protesting with a creak. Again he slipped out, again he thrust, his rhythm increasing with every lunge until he was pounding into her, giving her the long, deep plunges she’d begged for in their dreams.
Pinned as she was
, she could only take what he gave her. She struggled for leverage, for control, but found none. Roark bit her shoulder and then growled, “Want to come?”
“Yes! Damn you.”
He ground his pelvis against her clit and watched her orgasm, his gaze so hot it burned her skin. She rippled around him, milking him, clenching tight to hold him deep. She curled her body around his while he cried out and spurted his pleasure inside her. The feel of his power 14
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reduced to such desperation was amazing. That he’d wanted to share this only with her was more so.
As he finished, he held her tightly, but his grip was tempered with unmistakable tenderness. Her body was dense with muscle and unbreakable bones, but Roark made her feel cherished and delicate. Far beyond the sex, this heated after-embrace was achingly intimate—his sweat mixed with hers, his tongue licking at the bite mark, her hands tangled in his hair.
She could never terminate him.
So now…what to do with him?
“If we—” She cleared her dry throat. “If I agree that we stay here fucking for a week, do I have to hang off the wall the whole time?
What happens when I have to pee?”
Laughing, Roark drew his head back and kissed the tip of her nose.
“That’s something I didn’t know about you, your sense of humor. I like it.” He stepped back, his heavy cock slipping wetly from her. Star pouted at the loss, and he groaned, but there was no help for it. She’d never retract her spines if he didn’t let her calm down a bit.
“Lights,” he called out, and she blinked to see him in the new brightness.
“Oh jeez.” She swiped her fingers over her mouth to check for drool. In full color, he took her breath away. Inky black tresses set off eyes the color of sapphires—a deep, dark translucent blue.
Then she registered how those eyes looked at her, and she swallowed hard.
He walked a slow semi-circle, his body moving with a fluid, powerful grace. Every muscle was clearly delineated, bunching and flexing as he strode with quiet command and made his thorough perusal. He reached out, his fingers brushing the sides of her breasts, tickling her waist, dipping between her legs where his seed leaked from her. “You are so lovely,” he breathed. The smile he gave her was 15
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wistful. “Thank you for this week, Star. It’ll be worth it.” He brushed his lips across hers. “Remember that.”
…when I’m gone.
The words were unspoken, but she heard them just the same.
Consumed by a sudden sadness, her spines retracted, and she slid easily to the floor.
A week.
She lowered her head. Only a week to find a way out of this mess without killing Roark or ruining her career. Star hoped that would be enough time.
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CHAPTER 3
“Did you pick this place because of that harness?” Star asked, lying flat on her back and staring up at the apparatus above the bed.
“Yes. A guy has to be creative when fucking a woman who gets prickly when aroused.”
His smile curved against her shoulder. Roark had the oddest way of sleeping. He wrapped himself around her with their limbs tangled together. At the moment, his hand cupped her breast and his leg was slung over hers. After years of serving on the bench, a position which required frequent travel and killed any chance for a relationship, it was an intimacy that soothed her loneliness.
“Also it was the best way to get the ‘drop on you.’”
“You know,” she grumbled, “that tactic wouldn’t have worked if I’d had any sleep the week before.”
“You haven’t had any sleep this week either,” he said smugly.
“Partly because of that harness, and its endless possibilities. Who knew 17
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the stern Huntress judge had a liking for such erotic play?” He caught her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “You’re just full of surprises.”
So was he. Roark was a multi-faceted individual—one moment teasing and playful, the next abrupt and arrogant. He was still getting used to her disagreeing with him over simple things, like what vid station to watch or which restaurant to order food from. It was clear he’d never held a long-term relationship, but then he’d just turned thirty and he was exceptionally handsome. She wasn’t surprised.
The comm link beeped next to her.
“Yes?”
“The clerk for Justice Yamada has been comm’ing you,” Two-Thousand said.
“He’s been doing that all week.” Star gave a slight shrug, or as much of one as she could manage with Roark’s head on her.
“He has tried several times today, and his last message was very clear—‘Check in, or lose the robe.’”
So that was it then. Their time was up.
Star sighed, her hand stroking through the silky strands of Roark’s hair. “Make the pre-flight arrangements. We’ll be on board within the hour. Star out.”
Roark kissed the tip of her breast and then rolled out of bed. He stretched, his beautiful skin moving sinuously over the muscle beneath.
She watched him, as she had been all week, memorizing every line of his body, every smile, every heated glance.
“I’m not going to your ship, Star,” he said in that deep voice she adored.
“What?” Sitting up, she gaped at him. “You promised!”
His mouth was taut with determination, his sapphire gaze intent.
“Terminate me here.”
“What? Are you insane?”
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“It’s best this way, and you know it.”
After leaping from the bed, she began to pace. “I thought all-you-can-take sex was supposed to prevent madness. Isn’t that right? Did I not fuck you enough?” She threw up her hands and then pointed a finger at him. “Just so you know, sometimes I was really sore, but did you hear me complain? No! I put out all week. You shouldn’t be crazy.”
Roark came to her and pulled her into his embrace. “I love it when you start with the humor. Especially when you do it because the situation is too uncomfortable, or you’re facing questions you don’t want to answer. It’s one of your little quirks.”
She buried her face in his chest, her own so tight she found it hard to breathe. “Don’t ask me to do this, Roark. Not after this last week.”
He tilted her chin up to look at him. “Did it mean something to you, Star?” His gaze searched her face. “Do I mean something to you?”
“Well, you’re pretty to look at. And you’re built in all the right places, and that thing you do with your tongue is awe—”
Roark lowered his head and took her mouth, one hand cupping her breast while the other moved away from her advancing spines. His touch was like fire, it always had been. Everything inside her came alive when he held her.
“Yes,” she whispered when he broke the kiss. “It meant something.”
“Then do this for me.” He cupped her cheek. “If it has to happen, I would rather it be you.”
She shook her head. “You haven’t done anything wrong. No one got hurt, you passed through the cycle. Perhaps I can argue on your behalf.”
“I fled my pre-assigned,” he pointed out gently. “If I get away with it, others will try. It’s a good system, Star. It’s protected a large number of individuals. As the former Jacian Ambassador to the Interstellar 19
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Council, I know how important it is that the Jacian people retain their reputation.”
“Yes, I know all that!” she snapped, pushing away and running her hands through her tangled hair. “But how would you feel if I asked you to kill me?”
Turning to confront him, she was startled to see her blade in his hand. Roark held it out to her, his bearing as proud and noble as always.
“No.” Star shook her head, her eyes wide with horror.
r /> “Your appointment is at risk.”
Her hands clenched into fists. “I hate you.”
He flinched, but kept his hand outstretched.
As she stalked toward him, her eyes narrowed and she swiped away the tears coursing down her cheeks. She drew her arm back when she reached him, and punched him in the shoulder. He took the blow easily.
“You teased me for a week.” Punch “You requested me to come here.”
Punch “You fucked me to exhaustion.” Punch “And now, after I like you, you want me to kill you? Go fuck yourself!”
Roark caught her next blow as it came toward him, and held her hand. “I didn’t request you, Star. I hoped you would be the one to come after me, but I didn’t ensure it. With the sentence for rogues being death, I thought I had a pretty good chance of the Justices sending you, but I didn’t ask for you. There was no way I could have without revealing my plan to run.”
Crying silently, she stared up at him. “Your government requested me in particular. They insisted on it.”
His frown and pursed lips told her that he was as clueless as she was. He released her fist and brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I think you better find out what Yamada wants.”
Nodding, Star moved to the comm link on the nightstand and linked to Two-Thousand.
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“Patch me through to the clerk.” It took only a moment for the clerk’s disapproving features to fill the screen.
“You should at least attempt to make yourself presentable before reporting in, Judge Star.”
“You seemed like you were in a hurry,” she pointed out, smoothing her hair with trembling hands.
“Your input was desired, but the Chief Justices moved forward without it when you could not be reached. Now they wish to know if you’ve terminated the Jacian ambassador yet.”
Star lifted her chin. “Not yet.”
“Excellent, they will be relieved.”
She froze, and felt the answering tension in Roark. “What?”
“The Jacians have requested a reduced sentence based on the ambassador’s prominence and the fact that he did not injure anyone during his heat. The Interstellar Council has agreed that terminating a political figure with the popularity of Ambassador Teron would incite trouble they don’t want. The Jacians pointed out that they agreed to the pre-assigns in a show of goodwill, and they are not obligated to follow the dictate.”