Page 214 of Commander’s Mate

“Yes. I want you too.”

He stood.

Did not touch me.

Waiting.

I closed the distance.

His arms came around me only then.

“I choose the ship,” I said against his chest.

“No.”

I pulled back.

“No?”

“You choose the mission.”

I knew what he meant.

Not him.

Not captivity disguised as romance.

Not lack of alternatives.

The mission.

My work.

My life.

“Yes,” I said.

“The mission.”

His forehead touched mine.

“Then come home with me.”

Home.

Not Earth.

Not Farseek.

Not yet.

But for the first time, the word did not feel impossible.

The door to our quarters had barely slid closed behind us when Zared pulled me against him. I raised my arms, curled them around his neck, and leaned into him. Tilting my head back, I parted my lips slightly for his kiss. Something between a moan and a sigh hummed low in my throat. His kisses were slow and intensely masterful, the kind I felt all the way to my toes. After a few hot, tongue-tangling kisses, clothes started coming off as we did a slow dance into the bedroom.

We were naked by the time we reached the bed and fell onto it in a tangle of arms and legs. I rolled onto my back, and Zared poised himself above me. I liked that he preferred to make love face to face. It seemed so much more intimate than other positions because we could look into each other’s eyes as we rocked together toward orgasm, in no particular hurry to get there.

Zared lowered his weight against me, squeezing my breasts flat against my chest. The only thing that felt better was when he sucked on my nipples at length while using his fingers inside me and rubbing my clit with his thumb until I came. He kept me writhing and shuddering, commanding me to look into his eyes as he did so. I loved the way he could do that.