The Taming: Book 3 in the Tribe Warrior Series by Imogen Keeper (romantic novels in english TXT) 📕

She should be thinking about getting home, but her brain refused. It was their last night. And her body wanted him.

“I want to kiss you,” he breathed, his breath fanning over her skin.

She blinked up at him.

“Do you want me to?”

She licked her lips. Shuffled her feet. Took a deep breath. “Yes. I want you to kiss me.” Like I’ve never wanted anything in my entire caged life.

He trailed a finger down her neck, and that one touch made her shiver from the top of her head to the bottom of her toes, as if every cell in her body had just come fully alert. His mouth curved in a deadly smile. “Go inside, then, and we’ll finish what you started.”

“What I started?”

“You brought up my organ.”

He had a point there, really.

15

Come to Vesta with me

TOR WATCHED KLYM as she walked down the passageway, shoulders back, head tilted in its eternally snooty angle.

Neena had been right. She’d make one hell of a selissa. Now that he knew she was going to be his, all he wanted to do was shove his way inside her and stake his claim.

She glanced at him over her shoulder, and a line formed between her brows. “You’ve the strangest look on your face. What are you thinking?”

He should tell her about Agammo’s father and the arrangement for peace—he should tell her that they were going to lift off in the morning, and that he was going to genuinely abduct her this time—because she wasn’t going to get a choice.

He should tell her she was going to Vesta, a place she’d sworn she’d never go, and she was going to be his selissa, but somehow… he just couldn’t. She’d get that sad, trapped look in her eyes like it was the worst sacrifice she’d make in her whole sad life. Maybe he could show her what they could be tonight, and then it wouldn’t be so hard when she found out in the morning.

He held out his hand. “Are you ready?”

“Just like that?” Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink, clearly thinking he meant to shove her up against the bulkhead again and kiss her.

“Just like that.”

She nibbled her lip, glancing around the passageway.

Because he wanted to, he reached up and tugged at a few of the pins holding her hair up. It all dropped down her back, thick coils of gold, shimmering in the light like the sea on Vesta. He pushed a heavy coil of it over her shoulder. “What do you plan to do in Argentus?”

Her eyes flared, and her lips dropped open. “I don’t know.”

“Does anyone there want you?”

Her mouth tightened, and her chin jutted out. “Nearly every man on Argentus wants a woman. One of them would take me—it’s what I was born to do.”

He could well imagine they would, but it wasn’t the same thing. “And you? Do you want any of them?”

“The Bonding would make me want them.”

“I thought you wanted to be free.”

She lifted a shoulder. “No one is free, isn’t that what you always say?”

He touched her jaw. “Come with me to Vesta.”

Her brows drew together in a sad little frown. “You said yourself, the Alliance would kill me.”

Not if they were married. He trailed his hand up her neck. Smooth skin. Like velvet under the pad of his finger. “I could protect you. You aren’t my enemy.”

Her smile was almost coy. “Not so long ago I was your enemy.”

“The Alliance will come for you.”

Her eyes widened. “Even on Pax-Ahora?”

“Possibly.”

She swallowed, eyes darting around the room. “I can’t. We’re enemies. The people would hate me. I’d never be accepted. What would I do there?”

He could think of a lot of things he’d like to do with her there. “They would accept you if I made them.”

She turned her face away from him like she was seeking out all the many reasons they shouldn’t be together. But he’d already thought of them, and every last one of them was bullshit. “Assuming you wanted to. And what if you didn’t. What if you changed your mind?”

“I wouldn’t.”

“You might. You do constantly.”

He clenched his jaw. “Then we should enjoy tonight.”

The lace of her dress rasped against his hands as he slid them down her hips to grip her ass. It wasn’t exactly a gentle touch, but it wasn’t rough either. He tugged on the dress, dragging it up by fistfuls, until he found the soft skin of her round ass.

He groaned, dragging his nose along her hairline, breathing in that indescribable fruit.

“But we don’t know what will happen.” She broke off on a strangled moan when he rocked his aching cock against her belly. “This could trigger a Bonding.”

“It won’t. We won’t have sex.” Yet.

Her hands moved restlessly against his chest. “This isn’t decent.”

That made him laugh. She hadn’t been so concerned about decency a minute ago. “You’re thinking like you’re still on Argentus, but you’re not.” He spoke in her ear, just a whisper, letting his lips touch the sensitive skin there and trailed his mouth lower, breathing along the path his tongue made, knowing it would make her shiver in the cool air. “There’s no such thing as decency on Vesta. We just do what we want. You don’t have to follow any rules with me. Just be you.”

“B-but we can’t…”

“Can’t what?” He swallowed a laugh. “Reproduce?”

“Yes. No. I mean, no we can’t do that.”

“We’re not going to. I just want to touch you.” Even if they did, she wouldn’t get pregnant. Not unless he wanted her to and went into full rut.

When he caught her earlobe between his teeth, her whimper echoed across the room. It sounded like heaven. It sounded like acceptance. It sounded like a mother-fucking yes.

And he wished he could take it that way, but he had no clue what would happen, and while it would be fun to spend a few days lost in an Argenti Bonding or out of their minds in a daze of heated