it, so his butt was on the floor, his knees bent up before him, his wrists resting on them. Since I was on the bed, the only other place to sit was the floor. We were more eye level than before. “Ulza was my primary buyer. I sold her some Hive integration pieces right before I heard about you. Once I helped you escape, she retracted the credits.”
“That sucks. She shouldn’t be able to do that. Can’t you complain to the bank? Or whoever you aliens use to hold your money.”
“Banks? We don’t use banks. Not for hundreds of years. Too much power in one place, too much corruption. We exchange credits in a free market system.”
“So what, you’re like Bitcoin all grown up?”
He shook his head, his gaze oddly intense. “You say such strange things. We trade in credits. The payment systems are maintained by the Interstellar Coalition of Planets. Every planet answers to Prillon Prime if they do not maintain the security of the credit system on their planet.”
More than I needed to know, but I was sorry to hear that he’d been screwed out of his money. “I’m sorry you lost your money, but I’m glad you helped me. Thank you.”
He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. “There was no other option. During my transaction with Ulza, I heard about a human female being under the dome.” He was quiet for a second then added, “I finally had enough to buy an upgraded ion cannon.”
“That sounds big,” I said, not sure how to compliment him. The only cannons I knew about were on pirate ships or shooting out T-shirts at sporting events. But… if he was a space pirate, then I had to go with the first.
He turned his head, looked at me. “Not big, but powerful. One shot could destroy an entire asteroid field while traveling at high speed. The targeting software is supposed to be able to lock onto cloaked Hive vessels as well. Take them out.”
He sounded like an Earth guy talking about a muscle car.
“Wow,” I replied, not having a clue about most of what he’s said.
His eagerness at the man-toy slipped away as he sighed. “I gave her three months’ worth of Hive tech. For nothing. Now she’s not going to do any kind of business with me. Instead, she’ll most likely shoot me.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I replied.
“I should spank your ass like I would a misbehaved Trion female.”
Um, what? My eyes narrowed at his words. “Misbehaved? I didn’t ask you to help me. Hell, I was doing pretty darn fine on my own back there.” I cocked a thumb over my shoulder. “I saved your ass as much as you saved mine. You can spank my ass because it gets your cock hard but not for anything else.”
His eyes widened, and he stayed quiet, which made me more uncomfortable than if he bickered back. With a dinner plate sized hand, he reached out and took hold of my wrist, yanked me off the bed and to my knees beside him. Grabbing my waist, he lifted me up and over his lap, so I straddled him, my body cradled between his sturdy torso and his powerful thighs.
“The idea of spanking you makes my cock hard. I don’t have to be doing it to be in such a state,” he countered, and I felt the hard length of him against my pussy. His gaze dropped to my breasts and chain linking them. “The idea gets you hot, too.”
“It’s cold in here,” I countered. Traitorous nipples.
He tipped his head back and laughed. “Are you always so argumentative?”
“When someone calls me bad,” I countered without hesitation.
With a surprisingly gentle touch, he stroked my hair back from my face, his thumb brushing over my cheek.
“You were matched to Trion as an Interstellar Bride, which makes you a Trion female. While you may not think you are submissive, and your behavior certainly shows you otherwise, the testing isn’t wrong. You want someone to dominate you, to take control, to allow you to let go of all your troubles, to give them up.”
His deep voice made me want to strangle him. It also called to me. I’d been taking care of myself for so long, trusting no one, the idea of sharing a struggle or a burden with another was ridiculously appealing. I’d love to let go of all my troubles. But how? With Isaak?