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  And this time, I was afraid they were too strong to ignore.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Grav

  Leah was strangely quiet on the ride back to the hopper and I wondered what she was thinking.

  “You okay?” I finally asked.

  “Fine. Just…fine.” She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs. Suddenly, I felt a jolt of what I can only describe as pure, sexual need rush through me. My shaft hardened in my trousers, becoming instantly and painfully erect.

  What in the Frozen Hells? I shifted myself, trying to ease the sudden ache. Gods, where was this coming from? Why was I suddenly feeling so needy?

  Leah had been watching me from the corner of her eye.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, giving my own question back to me. “You seem…kind of tense.”

  “Just glad that part of the mission is over,” I said, shifting again. Gods, the throbbing in my shaft wouldn’t quit! It reminded me a little of the pain I’d felt when Leah skinned her knees. Speaking of which, I needed to treat those when we got back to the hopper.

  “Yeah, I’m glad it’s over too.” Leah’s voice was strained and distracted. “Um…are we close to the ship?”

  “We’re there right…now.” I maneuvered the shuttle so that it docked neatly with the hopper.

  “Great!” She was jumping out of her seat almost before the hatch swung open.

  “Leah?” I asked, just as she was about to jump down and run away. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Fine, really.” She gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just…really need to use the, uh, the fresher—you know?”

  “Sure.” I watched her go, feeling troubled.

  The sensation of deep sexual need was still with me—an urgent force that made me feel like I was going to climb right out of my skin. Was it an effect of the damn truth-drink the Reverend Mother had given us? I’d been feeling strange ever since I drank the weird stuff and Haenah had called it “Liquid Passion” or something like that. But she’d also said it only affected mated pairs and Leah and I were most definitely not mated. So what in the Frozen Hells of Anor was going on?

  I didn’t know but as I climbed out of the shuttle and headed for the control area of the ship to set a new course, I decided it might be worth it to take a moment and look up the truth-drink of the Acolytes of Naamah and see what I could find out.

  Leah

  I was so incredibly horny I didn’t know what to do with myself. Seriously, can you die of hornyness? Because I was sure I was about to.

  “God…oh God, oh God,” I muttered as I finally got into my room and the door whooshed shut behind me.

  I sat on the edge of the bunk, pulled up the gray acolyte robes, and yanked down the black lacy panties I still had from the naughty school girl outfit. They were drenched with my juices and my pussy was puffy and swollen with need, my clit peeking out from between my lower lips like a throbbing pink pearl begging desperately for attention.

  Had I thought I was in need before? Had I imagined that the backlog of sexual tension was making it hard to act normal? Well this level of sexual need made it hard to breathe.

  I literally felt like I had to come or die.

  I knew I hadn’t been able to touch myself in the time since Grav had sexually awaked me, because feeling my hand against my most sensitive areas was simply too intense. But now I had to try again—I had to. I was so sensitive I felt like I was on a hair trigger—as though the lightest touch would make me react.

  It made me react all right.

  The moment my fingertips just barely brushed my sensitive pussy, I had to clamp down on a scream. It felt like I had burned myself—like someone had held a lit match to my throbbing clit.

  Sorry for that awful mental image but it was really that painful. And yet the incessant sexual need pulsing through me made me so damn desperate I tried again…and again…and again.

  Each time it was agony and yet I was compelled to keep trying. My body was demanding a release that I couldn’t give it. It needed to reach that peak—the peak I’d felt was getting close the last time Grav had healed me.

  As though my thoughts of him had called him, I heard a knock on the door and a deep voice said, “Leah? We need to talk.”

  Oh my God! I was lying on the cot with my robes hiked up, my panties down to my ankles and tears in my eyes from pain and frustration.

  “Don’t come in!” I gasped, jumping off the cot and yanking my panties back up while I tried to adjust my robe. “Not yet—give me a minute. Or uh, maybe come back later. This really isn’t a good time for me.”

  “I’ll wait until you’re ready,” he said and there was in implacable note in his low voice that let me know he was serious. He would wait outside the door all night until I finally opened to him. It was no use, I was going to have to deal with him now since I seriously doubted I would be in any better shape in the future. Not unless I could take care of my “problem” and so far I hadn’t even come close to finding a solution.

  Smoothing my robes and blotting my eyes on my sleeve, I took a deep breath and opened the door.

  Grav

  “Yes?” Leah looked out at me, frowning fiercely. I could tell she’d tried to pull herself together and look calm but her red eyes and tousled hair told a different story.

  But it wasn’t just the way she looked—it was in her scent. The unmistakable fragrance of sex drifted up to my nose making me nearly groan with desire. Gods, she smelled so fucking good. So ripe—like a female who needs to be bred. Which was crazy because that was a Braxian thing. As far as I knew, the females of Earth didn’t go through a breeding cycle the way the females of my home planet did.

  I couldn’t deny my senses though—my nose never lies to me. Just because it didn’t make sense didn’t mean it wasn’t happening—Leah was in serious pain.

  I knew because I could feel it.

  Whether it was because of the truth-drink we’d been forced to take or for some other reason, the little Earth female’s body was in overdrive and it was clear she was hurting for a release.

  But I could tell by the look in her eyes—half defiant, half embarrassed—that she wouldn’t admit it easily. I would have to ease her into the conversation and from there maybe we could figure out what to do to help her.

  Of course, I knew what the information I’d found on the Interstellar Net said to do—but I wasn’t going there—no way in all the Frozen Hells. After all, half the information I’d found on the truth-drink was probably inaccurate. Almost every site I’d looked at told me it only worked as an aphrodisiac between mates. With everyone else, it was just supposed to heighten perceptions and sensations and make it easier to tell if someone was lying.

  Speaking of lying…

  “Darlin’,” I said to Leah as she stood there staring up at me defiantly. “Are you really all right?”

  “Fine. I’m fine.” She shifted from foot to foot and winced. I did too—I could feel the pain that had knifed through her most sensitive areas with her movement. And it didn’t take the tingle at the base of my spine or the change in her scent to let me know she was lying to me—lying because she was embarrassed and ashamed and afraid.

  I tried another tactic.

  “I just came by because I need to have a look at your knees,” I said, telling a lie of my own. Or at least, a half-truth. It was true I did need to tend her scraped knees but they sure as hell weren’t her most urgent problem right now and I knew it.

  “What? You mean you want to heal me?” I saw several emotions—hope, hurt, shame—all flash through her big brown eyes.

  “Uh…” I cleared my throat. I hadn’t thought about that possibility. But if it got me into her room and got her talking a little then maybe it was a good idea.

  Yeah, right, whispered a sardonic little voice in my head. Getting on your knees before her to lick her sweet, curvy body is a real fuckin’ good idea—if you want to los