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  He stalked abruptly from the room, leaving Nadiah to stare after him and wonder what had happened. How could he be so sweet and gentle one minute and so gruff the next? And what had he been about to say when he stopped himself and went for the clothes?

  * * * * *

  Rast cursed to himself under his breath as he rummaged in the small duffle of extra clothes he’d picked up while on Earth. So Nadiah thought he didn’t want to see her or touch her? How in the hell had she gotten such a crazy idea in her head when the exact opposite was true? When all he could think about was her soft, ripe breasts moving under the thin tharp, when even the slightest brush of her hand against his sent his body into overload? He felt like a horny teenager, walking around with a hard-on most of the time. To put it bluntly, she was driving him crazy.

  Only her obvious suffering had kept his body from reacting when he’d held her earlier. His anxiety for her pain and his anger at the evil fiancée who was doing this to her had completely overridden any sexual urges he might have had at the time. But now that she was better, he could feel himself reacting again. Now that he’d held her warm and naked in his arms, he wanted her more than ever.

  And it wasn’t just the physical desire that was tormenting him—there was a dark, possessiveness that seemed to be growing like a weed inside him. He’d told Sylvan that he didn’t know how he felt about Nadiah but that was no longer true. Now, when he looked at her, there was no doubt what he felt. Mine, whispered a voice in the back of his head whenever he saw her. She’s mine and no one else had better touch her or I’ll fucking kill them!

  It was crazy and Rast knew it. Nadiah didn’t belong to him—he had no claim on her at all. But no amount of reasoning with himself seemed to help. He wanted her, wanted to protect her, possess her, provide for her. I want to be the one she comes to if she’s hurt, the one she shares her joy with when she’s happy. The one she tells her troubles to. The one she curls up with at night.

  The one she loves.

  Rast shook his head. But if I tell her that, what will she think? What will she say? I’ll scare the hell out of her, talking like that, saying that I want to own her, to possess her. I haven’t even known her that long, I can’t dump all these crazy, strong emotions on her out of the blue.

  He felt like an idiot. Best not to say anything, he decided as he finally found something in his duffle he thought might fit her. Best to just go back to normal—or what had become normal for them—which was mostly avoiding each other while they waited to get to Tranq Prime and get on with the damn challenge.

  “Here,” he said, striding across the narrow corridor and handing Nadiah the bundle of clothes. “These should work.” He turned his back to let her change and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt her small, soft hand on his shoulder a moment later.

  “Thank you,” she said when he turned around. “But I’m afraid only half of it works.”

  Rast took a look at her and nearly groaned aloud with sexual frustration. Had he thought the thin tharp she had been wearing was bad? This was a hundred times worse.

  He’d given her a pair of his old sweatpants and a white button down dress shirt he’d packed in case he found himself in a formal situation. She was holding the former and wearing the latter—with nothing underneath it.

  Rast didn’t remember his shirt being so see-through but he could clearly make out the tight pink points of her nipples pressing against the white cotton material. The shirt was long enough to cover her, at least—it fell to mid thigh—but when his eyes moved down, he saw that her long, shapely bare legs were exposed and the faint shadow of her sex was visible through the hem.

  “I’m sorry if you don’t like the way I look,” she said stiffly, obviously misinterpreting his gaze. “But the pants won’t fit—they just keep falling down.”

  Her soft voice made him realize that he’d been ogling her like a schoolboy. Quickly, he jerked his eyes upwards to meet hers. “Don’t be stupid,” he said roughly. “You look…fine. And don’t worry about the pants.” He took them from her and threw them back into his own room, directly across from hers. “I’d, uh, better go check the star charts.”

  “Wait…” She put out a hand but at her soft touch on his shoulder, Rast flinched away. Nadiah pulled back at once, a hurt look on her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…to touch you when you didn’t want to be touched.”

  The innocence and pain in her deep blue eyes moved him. She wasn’t to blame for his crazy feelings, he reminded himself. Nadiah was innocent—a virgin. She truly didn’t know how desirable she was and probably had no idea of the effect she was having on him, just by being near.

  Part of Rast thought it might be best to keep it that way. After all, what good could it do for him to admit how much he desired her? Commander Sylvan had made it abundantly clear that she was off limits. Letting her know he wanted her would only make things difficult between them. But the look in her eyes was breaking his heart. Would it be possible to let her know how beautiful he thought she was without actually admitting how desperately he wanted her? Rast hoped so.

  “I’m sorry,” Nadiah said again, turning away from him. “I’ll go lay down on my bed and you can study the charts.”

  “No, wait.” Rast put a hand on her arm. “I’m the one who ought to be sorry.”

  She turned back and frowned. “What for?”

  He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “For avoiding you. For keeping you at an arm’s length all this time when we should have been getting ready for what’s waiting on Tranq Prime together. For not…for not telling you how I really feel.”

  Her breath seemed to speed up and her cheeks got pink. “What do you mean? How…how do you really feel?”

  “Come on.” Rast tugged her into the small sitting room across from the food prep area. “We’d better sit if we’re going to talk.”

  Chapter Ten

  Nadiah couldn’t believe that they were finally going to have a real conversation—one that Rast himself had actually initiated. But what exactly was he going to say? She felt like her heart was pounding in every part of her body at once as she sat down beside him on the tiny, plush love seat which was barely big enough for two—especially when one of them was as big and muscular as Rast.

  He settled across from her and took one of her hands in his. “I haven’t been fair to you, Nadiah,” he said, looking at her directly. “I’ve been avoiding you, trying to keep my distance, never really talking. But not for the reason you think.”

  “What—?” Nadiah started but he shook his head.

  “Please, just…let me finish. You somehow have the idea I don’t like the way you look, that I don’t want to see you or touch you.” He brushed her cheek lightly with his fingertips. “Nadiah, sweetheart, nothing could be farther from the truth.”

  Nadiah’s heart seemed to stop in her chest. “What…what are you saying? That you feel something for me?”

  “More than something. And a hell of a lot more than I should.” Rast sounded grim.

  “Then…you don’t dislike me?”

  He frowned. “What the hell would give you that idea?”

  “Because of the way I treated you before, when you didn’t believe in my gift.” Nadiah looked down at their joined hands. “I shouted at you…slapped you…”

  “I deserved all that and more,” Rast said firmly. “I was being a bastard—I don’t blame you for being upset.”

  “But I…I brought up your sister. Jessie…And I know you’d probably rather not talk about her…”

  “Not true at all.” Rast squeezed her hand. “You don’t know how many years I went wishing I could talk about her. Wishing I had anyone to listen.”

  “Really?” Nadiah looked at him doubtfully. “But your parents—you said before it was a forbidden subject in their house but would they really never even mention her?”

  Rast laughed bitterly. “Whenever I try to bring Jessie up, my mother just frowns and says it’s not a polite topic o