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  He frowned. “You mean you’ve never reached the peak?”

  I shook my head, feeling obscurely ashamed.

  “Remember I told you I never felt much of anything back on Earth? It’s only since I’ve been up here with you that I started feeling like I might be able to, you know, have an orgasm. I…” I licked my lips and looked down. “I thought I was going to, uh, have one the last time you were healing me. When you were, you know…licking my breasts. But then you stopped and even though I tried I…I can’t seem to make myself, uh, reach the peak, as you put it.”

  Grav made a low sound in his throat and I looked up quickly. Was he angry for some reason?

  He was, but I soon found out it wasn’t at me.

  “This is my fault,” he growled, frowning. “I did this to you, darlin’. I woke up your body and then I left you wanting because I was afraid to get involved. And then the damn truth-drink the Reverend Mother made us take made it about a hundred times worse. That’s why you’re in so much pain.”

  “I understand why you didn’t want to get involved,” I said quickly. “I mean, we already talked about this and decided it was a bad idea. I’m still married—uh, joined, and—”

  “You’re not joined to that abusive asshole back on your home planet,” Grav interrupted me fiercely. “Not in the eyes of the Goddess. He broke the contract between you and gave up any right he had to call you his female the moment he put his hands on you with anything other than love.”

  “I guess…” I bit my lip. “That’s not exactly my definition of divorce but—”

  “We decided it’s a bad idea because I’m a half-breed—I can’t bond you.” He looked incredibly frustrated by that for a moment. “And because of my past.” He lifted my chin again. “But Leah, just because I can’t bond you to me or claim you as a mate, doesn’t mean I can’t bring you pleasure…at least enough pleasure to ease your pain.”

  “Do…do you want to?” I asked and then realized what a stupid question it was. “I mean, of course you do because you’re feeling the pain too—right?”

  “Yeah, I feel the pain you’re having, darlin’,” Grav rumbled, his white-on-black eyes never leaving mine. “But that’s not why I want to touch you…to make you come.”

  “Why then?” I whispered, my voice breathless and uncertain.

  “Because you’re fuckin’ gorgeous,” Grav growled, cupping my cheek. “And I’ve wanted you from the first minute I saw you on the AMI.” He stroked my face, still studying my eyes intently. “But I don’t want to scare you. So let me be clear—I don’t know what kind of treatment you’re used to in the bedroom but I’m gonna be gentle, darlin’. As gentle and slow and thorough as you need me to be.”

  I felt a wave of heat rush through me.

  “You…you will?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Suddenly, with no warning, he swung me up into his arms.

  “Oh! Grav, where are we going?” I gasped as he stood easily and carried me towards the door.

  “My room,” he growled. “More room to spread out there. I have a feeling this is gonna take a while.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Grav

  I laid her out on the bed and damn if she wasn’t the most gorgeous sight I’d ever seen. She let me take her robe off, raising her arms obediently and then relaxing back on the bed when it was gone. When I got it off her and threw it over the side of the bed, I saw she was bare except for the tiny little underthings she’d called “panties” that the Commercians had given her with her first outfit.

  Without the robe in the way, I could see how badly she needed to be touched. The thin black fabric clung to the folds of her pussy, molding itself to her soft little mound so tightly I swore I could see the outline of her clit. She was wet there—the black material shiny with her honey. It made my mouth water and I had to remind myself I was only doing this to help her—to ease the pain that I had started in her the last time I had healed her breasts.

  Speaking of her breasts, they were soft and round and full, the pink nipples erect with need. I wanted to suck them again but I wasn’t sure how Leah would feel about it. I also thought about taking my flight trousers off—by now my shaft was snarling for release. But then I decided that probably wasn’t safe.

  As I’ve said before, Braxians have a point of no return. I didn’t intend to reach that point with Leah tonight. I was just going to help her come—that was all. So the trousers stayed on.

  “Grav,” she whispered, reaching for me. “Please…”

  She didn’t finish her sentence but she didn’t need to. I lay on the bed with her and took her in my arms. She flowed to me, as warm and willing as water, the lush curves of her breasts pressed against my chest, her round, full hips and heart-shaped ass filling my hands.

  Gods, she was fucking perfect.

  I kissed her then, because I couldn’t help it, taking her sweet mouth hungrily, tasting her as I had back on Gemina. She kissed me back eagerly, opening her lips to me and inviting me in when I invaded her.

  I wanted to penetrate her with a whole lot more than my tongue, but I felt her sweet body quivering against mine and knew this wasn’t doing her any good.

  We had to get down to business.

  Reluctantly, I pulled away and positioned her in the crook of my arm.

  “Grav?” She looked up at me uncertainly. “What…what are you going to do?”

  “Touch you, darlin’,” I murmured, looking into her big brown eyes and feeling like I was drowning. “Just touch you—that’s all.”

  “All right.” In a gesture so trusting it made my heart fist in my chest, she let her thighs fall open, inviting me in. “All right,” she whispered again. “Go ahead.”

  I growled softly in the back of my throat and ran my hand down her body, making sure I paid attention to her full breasts as I went. Leah cried out and arched her back when I tugged gently at her tight nipples. I knew how sensitive they were and I couldn’t resist sucking one tender peak into my mouth as my fingers found their way down to her mound.

  Leah cried out and arched her back, offering me more. Offering me anything I wanted.

  Gods, how I wished I could take her up on that! But we couldn’t go too far—it would be too damn hard to let her go if we did. And I had sworn to myself I wouldn’t go to that point of no return. Not with someone as innocent and lovely as Leah.

  Because a Braxian’s point of no return—well, let’s just say it’s not a pretty place. Not in battle or in sex.

  “Darlin’,” I murmured hoarsely, releasing her nipple as my hand found her mound. I cupped her pussy—just cupped it at first, feeling the warm little mound nestle in my hand. The black fabric felt slippery with her juices and she gave a soft little cry and pressed up into my palm.

  “Grav,” she whispered breathlessly. “Grav, please…I need…need you so much.”

  “I know you do, sweetheart.” I lifted my fingers and let them trace gently between her pussy lips, running lightly over the sensitive little bump of her clit, caressing her through the thin panties.

  Leah gave another little cry and I saw how much need she was in—felt the surge of painful pleasure my touch provoked in her. My cock gave an answering surge but I ignored it—this was about Leah. About easing her pain and giving her pleasure.

  About making her come.

  “I need to touch you under your panties, darlin’,” I murmured, looking into her eyes. “Need to touch your bare pussy. Can you let me do that?”

  Leah bit her lip, uncertainty flickering across her face.

  “Yes,” she whispered at last. “If…if you need to.”

  “I think I do if I’m going to make you come. Look—I’ll just cup you at first. All right?”

  We both watched as my fingertips teased under the waistband of her little black panties and I finally held her, bare and vulnerable and oh-so-Goddess-damned beautiful in the palm of my hand.

  “Oh, Grav…” she br