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  Tragar seemed to sense that her orgasm was finally over, or maybe it was just that her honey had stopped flowing. For whatever reason, he raised his head at last and looked at her.

  “Was it all right, my Khalla?” he asked, his deep voice hoarse with passion and his eyes half-lidded. “Did I serve you well?”

  “So well,” Emily whispered. “So well that I…I…” Then her face crumpled and she burst into tears.

  * * * * *

  Tragar rose quickly from his place between her legs and gathered her into his arms.

  “Are you well, my Khalla? You aren’t hurt, are you?” he asked anxiously.

  “N-no.” Her voice was breathless with tears and she burrowed against his chest, pressing her hot cheek to his throat. “I just…it felt…”

  “Yes?” he urged gently, stroking her trembling back. Gods, the poor little female felt like she was going to shake herself apart! Had the pleasure she felt been too intense for her to bear? He had heard that the first time a Khalla’s honey flowed it could be an emotional experience for her.

  “It just felt…” Emily looked up at him at last, her pale blue eyes still bright with tears. “For the first time it felt right. And it felt good too—so good I guess I sort of…lost control.” She sniffed. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize for your pleasure,” Tragar told her, stroking a strand of hair out of her eyes. Gods, she was lovely! Both when she came and gave herself up to him completely, and when she was nestled here in his arms, looking up at him so trustingly. He felt his heart swell and he longed to hold her this way forever.

  “I’m not—not apologizing for the pleasure, anyway. I just kind of…got a little wild.” She bit her lip. “I hope I didn’t pull your hair too hard.”

  “I loved it,” Tragar told her honestly. “Loved the feeling of your hands on my head, guiding me forward and your lovely body tensing around me as you finally released your need and let your honey flow against my tongue.”

  “That’s not the only thing that flowed.” She looked down at her breasts, grimacing a little. “I’m, uh sorry about your bed. I’m afraid I made a real mess.”

  “This is a good thing,” Tragar told her gently, palming her warm, full breast and thumbing her nipple gently. Emily moaned softly and thrust her breast more fully into his hand. He pinched the pink peak of her nipple and a droplet of amber nectar rose to his touch. Leaning down, Tragar lapped it up, savoring its sweet, light flavor so different from the richer honey that flowed from her pussy. Gods, she was so sweet…so ripe. His mating fist throbbed in his flight leathers, longing to breed her, to make her his completely but he knew it could never be.

  “So you’re not mad that I made a sticky mess of your bedspread?” Emily asked, sounding breathless.

  He looked up from lapping her nipples. “Your body needed to release and flow, my Khalla. Don’t apologize for that either.”

  She looked at him timidly. “Is it…is it considered blasphemy too—what we just did? I mean, you tasting me—my honey?”

  “No.” Tragar stroked her cheek but couldn’t help feeling troubled. What they had done wasn’t forbidden…but it was something that was supposed to be reserved exclusively for a Khalla’s chosen mate. Something he was not and could never hope to be. Even if he had deserved the love of one such as Emily, he knew the Elders of the Holy Council would never consider him a fit candidate.

  “I’m glad.” Emily pressed against him again and sighed contentedly. “I don’t want you to feel like you’re damned or going to Hell or whatever just for helping me.”

  “I told you,” Tragar said roughly. “I’m already damned—what difference does it make if I commit a few more sins along the way?”

  “Don’t feel like that. You seem to think you’re this horrible person but you’re not—honestly.” She looked up at him earnestly. “I didn’t know how to feel about you at first but, well…now I think you’re the sweetest, most wonderful guy I’ve ever met.” Her cheeks got pink and she gave him an embarrassed little smile. “And I’m not just saying that because you give me multiple orgasms, either.”

  Tragar laughed softly and pulled her close, nestling her sweet, rounded body in the curve of his arm, loving the way she fit just right against him. His heart swelled and a wave of protective possessiveness washed over him. Oh Goddess, this was not good and he knew it. Acting as her chosen mate, drinking her nectar and now tasting her honey…it was going to be next to impossible to give her up when they finally reached Rageron.

  And yet, that was exactly what he had to do if he cared for her.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  They slept entwined in each other’s arms and Tragar would probably have stayed that way the entire night, content just to hold her, if the burning in his arm hadn’t woken him up.

  It was the most intense pain—as though his entire arm from wrist to shoulder was on fire. His eyes flew open, his entire system flooded with shock and anger and fear. His first thought was for Emily. Was she well—were they under attack? Did he need to defend her?

  She was sleeping peacefully, however, a look of contentment on her lovely face. Tragar breathed a sigh of relief and looked at his arm, holding it over his head to examine it in the dim blue light of the firepit. It was the narsh that was burning, the black webbing that covered his arm was outlined in red sparks that throbbed and stung and ached unmercifully.

  Tragar knew what it meant and he knew he couldn’t ignore the message. Rising carefully, so as not to disturb Emily, he went to the ship’s control area and sat down.

  The message indication light was already blinking fiercely. Tragar took a deep breath and thumbed it on, taking care to shield his own signal first. He didn’t want whoever was on the other end of the line to know exactly where he was—or how close they were to Rageron and a new way of life for Emily.

  “Tragar! So there you are.” Tier Shan’s compound eyes glittered angrily as his insectile visage popped up on the viewscreen. “I suppose I don’t have to ask if you have completed your mission and terminated the girl yet. Click-click.”

  “I have not,” Tragar said heavily. “Nor do I plan to.”

  “You dare to stare me in my eyes and defy me? To tell me to my face that you intend to break the sacred oath you swore when we took you into the Verrak? Click-click!”

  “I have not broken my oath,” Tragar protested. “There was no formal time limit set upon this contract.”

  “That doesn’t matter. The one who placed the contract in the first place contacted me and he was enraged that the girl still lives. Click-click. And so he should be—you are tarnishing the entire reputation of the Verrak with your reluctance to carry out a contract you accepted.”

  Tragar stiffened. “I cannot help that. I don’t know why he wants Emily dead but I do know that she does not deserve death. She is kind and loving and beautiful—a bright spark in this cold, dead universe. I will not snuff it out.”

  Tier Shan’s mandibles worked against each other for a moment as though he didn’t know how to answer such blatant insubordination.

  “You have feelings for this female,” he accused at last. “You are…how is it that you fleshy meat-sacks describe it? Ah yes, you are in love with her!”

  Tragar started to deny it…and then stopped himself. Only a week ago he would have said that any love in his heart was dead. That it had dried up and withered away when he lost his beloved Landra and Jalex. But when he thought of Emily…how it felt to hold her…to comfort and pleasure her and just to be with her…

  “Yes,” he said at last. “Yes, I suppose I am. And I will not kill her, Tier Shan. I do not care what the consequence may be—I will protect her no matter what.”

  His superior’s compound eyes burned with rage, his black, misshapen head seeming to swell with the intensity of his fury.

  “Are you telling me,” he said in a low, hissing voice. “That you do not intend to fulfill your contract? Click-click. Because if that is so, Tragar, I must