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  I had to force the words out—the idea of him with another woman sent a bitter zing of jealousy through me, though I didn’t know why. Still, it was only fair, right?

  “Do you mean I might find another female and have her sexually?” He sounded shocked, as though I had suggested he go commit some kind of a blasphemy.

  “Well, yeah—since you’re not, uh, allowed to do anything with me. Not that I want you to,” I added quickly. “I just mean with all your weird rules and everything…”

  “I will not touch another female,” he growled as though the very thought disgusted him. “Never.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to offend you. Do you not, uh, have relationships with other women while you’re serving the Empress?”

  “I have not been intimate with a female for ten cycles—since right before I entered Sundalla the 999th’s service,” he growled, still sounding offended. “As I told you before, my chastity is dedicated to the Empress’s service and I take my vows very seriously.”

  “Ten years? Wow—that’s some dry spell,” I murmured. “And I thought I held the record there.”

  “You have not…been intimate for some time?” he asked.

  “No.” I sighed. “Not since I was attacked by a drunk frat guy in college. After that I just didn’t…want anything to do with it anymore. Not that it was great before that.”

  I felt Kristoff stiffen behind me, this time with rage.

  “What was his name, this male who attacked you?” His voice was a low, fierce growl. “I will hunt him down and kill him.”

  “I don’t know who he was,” I said honestly. “It was dark and I couldn’t see his face.”

  “The coward,” Kristoff growled. “To attack a defenseless female in the darkness!”

  “Not completely defenseless,” I said sharply. “I did manage to fight him off. He…” I swallowed hard. I didn’t like to remember the details of the attack. “He had me pinned and he was trying to spread my legs but I…I got a knee up and rammed him in the balls.”

  “Good.” Kristoff’s approval was sharp and immediate. “He deserved to have them cut off if he tried to take you—to take any female—against her will.”

  “I happen to agree,” I said as lightly as I could. “But I left my butcher knife back at my dorm room so I had to content myself with kneeing him in the balls and running away.”

  “And you have feared to be intimate with a male since then?” he murmured.

  “Not feared exactly.” I sighed. “I told you, I’ve never had much in the way of sexual feelings. It just seemed like a lot of fuss and bother over nothing. And after the…the attack, I felt like doing it even less.” I shrugged. “So I decided just to forget about it and concentrate on getting my degree.”

  It seemed incredibly strange to be lying naked in the dark with him and having such an intimate conversation when I hadn’t even known him two days ago. Strange but somehow completely right. I hadn’t even told Leah and Zoe everything that I had just told the big alien who was holding me so gently in his arms, and yet, telling Kristoff seemed natural somehow. I don’t know how I knew it, but I understood instinctively that he would never betray my confidences or tell my secrets. And he wouldn’t think less of me either, no matter how embarrassing they were.

  “Well…” I sighed and settled down, my head pillowed on his muscular bicep. “I’m getting tired. It’s been a long day…or night…or whatever it is.”

  “Then you should sleep,” Kristoff murmured. “I will hold you and ward your dreams, my Lady.”

  “Told you…” I yawned, finding that I hadn’t been lying—I really was tired. “You can call me Charlotte.”

  “That’s not proper,” he murmured, but I thought I heard amusement in his voice.

  “I don’t care.” I yawned again and let my eyelids drift closed. “Don’t care about propriety.” Which was clearly evident by the way I was sleeping naked and spooned up against a strange man.

  Only he’s not so strange anymore is he? whispered a little voice in my head. In fact, I think you’re becoming quite attached to your new bodyguard.

  Doesn’t matter if I feel attached to him or not—it’s not sexual between us, I reminded myself, even as I nestled my breast into his big palm and pressed my bottom against his hard shaft. Not even a little. The only reason we’re so close is so my symptoms don’t come back.

  It was true—I was sure of it. So then why did that strange little tingle follow me down into sleep?

  Kristoff

  It was, as I had told her, sweet torture to hold her lush body close and be unable to pleasure her. I couldn’t help feeling the soft weight of her full breast in my hand, and the press of her ripe ass against my hard shaft was nearly maddening.

  I wanted desperately to roll her sweet nipple between my thumb and fingers, drawing a low moan from her throat, and then to slide down between her legs and pleasure her with my mouth and tongue.

  The oral pleasuring of a female—of his goddess—is what every Majoran male craves with all his being. In fact, bringing a female to orgasm in this way is the most effective way to make a Majoran warrior come as well. Show me a male who can kneel between his goddess’s legs and make love to her with his mouth without coming and I’ll show you a male made of stone.

  I could picture myself between Charlotte’s thighs right now—rubbing my cheeks against her soft mound of blonde curls, kissing every inch of her outer pussy first, then going deeper. Spreading the lips of her sweet sex to find her Goddess-pearl nestled in her inner folds like a treasure. I would bathe it with my tongue, tracing gently and firmly, savoring her secret flavor while she pulled my hair and moaned her delight, begging me never to stop, calling my name as I tasted her…

  Stop! I ordered myself. It can never be between you—don’t torture yourself with such inane thoughts and fantasies.

  I tried to heed my own advice but it was hard…so hard. Especially with my new mistress curled lush and naked in my arms. I hoped that the healer waiting for us on Denaris would be able to give Charlotte something to help with her withdrawal symptoms.

  I’m a strong male but I didn’t know how much of this I could stand.

  You’ll stand as much as you have to—as much as the new Goddess-Empress deems necessary, Verrai, I told myself sternly. I thought again of the tale of Sundalla the 887th and her Imperial Guard. It was all written down in a hologramatic scroll in the Great Library of Femme One—it was one of the texts we of the Imperial Guard were made to study. It was meant to teach us that everything we did was only for our Empress’s pleasure and our bodies were meant only to serve her.

  Goddess—how I longed to serve her that way now! Especially after the long, intimate talk we had just had. It was much like the way I had used to talk to my old mistress, Sundalla the 999th, who confided in me almost from the start of my service to her. But the conversation I’d had with Charlotte held a special intimacy because she was curled naked in my arms as we spoke—I’d certainly never had that with my old mistress! Though the former Empress told me everything in her heart, she had always kept me at an arm’s length physically—which was, of course, right and proper.

  It was different with Charlotte. She pressed herself against me as she told me things—painful things—that I thought she might have kept secret in her own heart for many long years. It made me feel close to her, to feel that she trusted me enough to confide in me and know I would keep her confidences. We had talked the way lovers might talk—honestly and openly and the connection between us had been established as it hadn’t been back on her home planet of Earth.

  It felt almost like the beginning of a bond.

  But I knew that could never be. Once we reached Femme One, the Council of Wisdom would appoint Consort candidates, Charlotte would give them each a few drops of her blood, and her true withdrawal would begin, leading her to the male who was supposed to be her mate.

  Of course, all this would take place only after Charlotte