without restriction, but you cannot leave. My being here must remain secret.”
“Zevris, please just let me go home. I swear I won’t tell anyone.”
“I believe you, Nykasha, but I cannot take the chance. Not yet. If it were merely a matter of me being discovered, I wouldn’t care. But this mission is larger than me, and the consequences of me being discovered could be dire for my people.”
Tabitha stared down at her plate, absently pushing her food around with her fork. She didn’t take another bite.
“Four weeks,” Zevris said.
She looked up at him and frowned. “What?”
“I want you, Tabitha. More than anything I’ve ever wanted.” His heart pounded, his chest grew tight, and his mouth went dry, but none of that stopped him from continuing. “I have met more females than I can count since coming to this planet. Of them all, only you have this pull on me. From the moment we met, I knew you were it. You were mine.
“I know how much it is to ask, but allow me four weeks to convince you. To court you, to win you, to…earn you. And to make you see that you want me, too. Just…give me time, Tabitha. Give me a chance.”
Tabitha searched his eyes. “And…after the four weeks?”
“If I have failed, you are free to go.”
And you will never see me again.
Zevris placed his free hand on his thigh, curling his fingers as he gritted his teeth. The tips of his claws pricked his flesh through the denim. Would he be able to leave her? Would he be able to live without seeing her? It was insane to have grown so attached to this female already, to have come to crave her so much, but he understood on an instinctual level that he needed her.
And part of his mind was already formulating plans to disappear, to use his years of experience to evade the military force that had charged him with this very mission, just so he could be with Tabitha.
“And you are to never speak a word of my true nature, my people, or my mission to anyone,” he continued, “for doing so would put your life in danger.”
His female was silent for a long while. He wished he could read her thoughts, wished he knew what troubled her, knew her doubts, her fears, her wishes, her desires.
“So, four weeks to convince me, and you promise not to tie me up again?” she asked.
Not unless you ask me too, Nykasha.
The very thought of Tabitha submitting to him like that, of agreeing to be bound to his bed so he could do with her as he pleased, had his cock hardening.
“I will not bind you, but you will still share my bed.”
Her cheeks flushed, and Zevris knew she was thinking back to this morning, when she’d watched as he’d pleasured himself.
His gaze bored into hers. “I will not force myself upon you, Tabitha. I will only take what you give freely. But I will not relent. I will do everything I can to have you beneath me, to have your taste upon my tongue, to make you mine.”
Tabitha looked away, her cheeks turning that adorable shade of pink, but not before he caught the flash of want in her eyes. She reached up with both hands to fiddle with the end of her braid.
Zevris forced himself to take a bite of food, barely tasting it. Eager as he was for her to answer, for her to agree, he wanted her to do so in her own time.
“And, um…your mission,” she said. “It’s to…form a mating bond, right? To…impregnate me?”
“Technically, it is to determine whether those things are even possible between our species. But yes. Those are the objectives.” He leaned forward. “Regardless of my mission, even if that bond is not possible between us, I want you for my lifemate, Tabitha.”
Though he knew, deep down, that the bond would work. It had to work—he would accept no other outcome.
She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and quietly, and returned her gaze to him. “Okay. I will give you four weeks.”
He grinned.
“On the condition that you bring my supplies, equipment, and computer here so I can continue my work,” she added.
“Anything you need, I will obtain for you. Any comfort you desire.”
“What about my phone? And will I be able to record my videos, interact with my customers, ship out orders? Talk to my friends?”
“I…”
I haven’t thought about all that.
“I will move your equipment and supplies after breakfast,” he