wouldn’t believe. Done things I can barely stand to think of.” Echoes of those horrors stretched tight across his face. “But I’ve made it here eight years and I don’t intend to die now.”
Her chest grew tight. She didn’t think she could bear even another few days on this place. She couldn’t imagine surviving eight years.
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” She spoke fast, the words spilling from her, more genuine this time. “I wasn’t trying to get you killed. I was trying to help. I–I should have listened. And–and I shouldn’t have called you a…a lowlife. I was scared and angry. I appreciate all you’ve done. Hiding us in the cave. Saving us from the tigos. Even the water and bandages you gave my colleagues.” She cleared her throat. “You were keeping to the deal. I was the one who screwed up.”
He didn’t acknowledge her words, but his grip loosened, the tension in his body lessening. “It’s easy to die out here.”
“But people make it.” Her voice shook. “You’ve made it. I will, too.”
He shook his head, something that looked a lot like regret in his gaze. “You’re soft. Delicate.” The finger that had been so predatory against her skin now felt like a caress. “Keeping you alive will be next to impossible. Even without the added stubbornness.”
A new and astonishing idea flooded through her, a live wire of awareness to her brain. Could it be that it wasn’t cold-heartedness that had promoted his departure, but the exact opposite? He didn’t want to watch her die.
“I’m stronger than you think. I know you don’t know me, but I am.”
His fingers stilled against her, proof he was listening.
“When the last wave of famine hit Earth, I was fourteen,” she continued. “My parents died from the blight within months. Orphaned, alone, everyone said my younger sister and brother and I wouldn’t make it another month. But I kept them alive. Stole when I had to. Worked whatever job I could get. Studied every spare moment. All so I could earn the scores that would get me a Council Academy scholarship and my baby sister and brother the right to live off my pension. And that’s what I did. And all three of us were doing just fine until I crashed on this planet.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I am going to survive this as well. Trust me.”
“I don’t trust anyone.” His hand fanned possessively across her belly while his nose skimmed along her throat. “But you smell good, female. Unlike anything on Dragath25. Taste even better.”
After so many hours in his arms, she knew that rasp. Recognized the hunger. Understood too that he was offering her a second chance. Something she suspected he rarely did.
Her body responded, her skin flushing hot while her nipples tightened and her pussy throbbed. “I won’t give you any more trouble. Touch me, Con—” she didn’t want to call him that. Not anymore. Not after he’d come back despite what she’d hurled at him. He might be a Dragath25 prisoner, but he was also a man. One whom she was coming to believe had retained more of his humanity than he realized. “If you won’t tell me your name, I’m going to call you Hero. It fits better.”
He froze. “It doesn’t fit at all.”
“You’ve saved me and my friends twice already. That makes you a hero.”
She thought he’d be pleased.
“A hero doesn’t do what I’m about to do,” he growled. “Spread your legs.”
He likely expected to elicit fear, but all that prickled across her skin was white-hot lust. He hadn’t hurt her before. Even when she’d insulted him.
This had to be a test. One she didn’t intend to fail.
She did as commanded. Her fingers curling into his shoulders as he yanked her pants down to her thighs. Cool air swirled around her ass.
“Still want to call me Hero?” His thick finger probed her folds, his gaze challenging as his thumb circled her clit. Slowly. Deliberately.
“No.” Pleasure shivered through her. What she wanted was to call him by his name. What she wanted was for him to stop pretending he was worse than he was.
“Good.” His voice dropped to a low rasp, that thread of wonder back in his voice. “You’re wet.”
“Yes.” Should she be ashamed? Maybe, but with his calloused hands working the part of her that needed him most, she couldn’t seem to care. Plus, this was Dragath25. She could make her own rules. Take pleasure while she could. With a man who was a