for a moment and he held her there.
“If you ever have need of healing again, let me know,” he rumbled, looking her in the eyes. “Like I said, I take my vows seriously.”
“I…” Penny licked her lips. “I believe you,” she said at last, her voice coming out much more breathy than she liked. “And thank you, for that. Let me know if…if there’s anything I can do to, uh, cherish you back. Not that I can heal you, or anything,” she went on quickly. “But if you’re in pain and there’s anything I can do to, you know, help you and…uh…uh…” She was getting lost in the pale golden depths of his eyes, she realized.
“Yes, sweetheart?” he prompted.
“I don’t know what I was going to say,” Penny admitted, feeling foolish.
“That’s okay.” He gave her a smile that centered more in his eyes than his mouth. “We don’t always have to talk.”
For a minute, Penny thought he was going to kiss her. And for a minute, she almost wanted him to.
Then she reminded herself of where she was and who she was with. She might have made a temporary alliance with the big Hybrid out of necessity, but he was still the dangerous space pirate she’d been warned about.
Also, he’s probably only interested in you because of that damn Spice in the air here, whispered a pessimistic little voice in her head. So cool your jets, Penny.
The little voice was right, Penny decided. She needed to keep a close check on her emotions here and not let them run away from her.
She stood up from his knee and this time V’rex let her.
“I…um…I should try to find something to wear,” she said, nodding down at the skimpy white towel which barely covered her. “I can’t go around dressed in a towel all day and you kind of tore my Unification dress all to pieces.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” V’rex rumbled, standing himself to loom over her. “Was tryin’ to put on a good show—that’s all.”
“Well, you certainly convinced me,” Penny told him. She blushed when she remembered exactly how convincing he’d been.
“You’ll have to learn to be more convincing yourself,” he growled. “But we can work on that later.”
And with those cryptic words, he left the bathroom at last, leaving Penny to wonder how in the world she had gotten into this strange new relationship and where it was going to lead.
Thirty-Nine
Damn it, the little female was really getting under his skin! V glanced down at her name on his chest again. True to his word, his body was already healing the branding wound, leaving nothing but a permanent scar in the place where the burns had been. Well, that was going to be hard to explain the next time he was with a willing female.
Only, at the moment, he couldn’t imagine ever wanting to be with any other female than the curvy little human. She was the one for him—he’d been hit by a thunderbolt the minute he’d seen her in the Lucky Lounge and he just couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that she was his female to cherish and protect.
Not that he wanted to shake it. What he wanted now, was to get closer to her—if she would let him.
He hoped Penelope had enjoyed the healing he had given her. He’d tried to use his lust-honey sparingly and give her a much more gradual, building pleasure than the sudden, intense orgasm he’d forced from her earlier. The fact that she hadn’t liked the orgasm—that it had disturbed and upset her—was a revelation to V.
Before Penelope had put the idea in his head, he had never considered that a female might not want to come.
I mean, who doesn’t want to have an orgasm? he asked himself incredulously.
But he supposed he could see her side of it. She had been scared to death—he’d felt her terror as he lay on top of her. And just because he overwhelmed her body with pleasure hadn’t meant she was any less terrified. In fact, she’d probably been even more scared of the strange, unaccountable things happening to her body without any warning or consent given on her side.
V had never thought of it that way before. He’d told Penny that he hadn’t had any complaints from past lovers, but really, he hadn’t been with any one woman long enough to know what she thought of his technique. Most of his sex life had been a series of one-night stands, since he had always