fantastic. He was a thorough and skilled lover in bed, and Roxanne had been surprised that he wasn’t all about his own pleasure like she would have expected. That first night when he’d dipped his head between her legs and gone down on her, she’d come so hard that her eyes had rolled back into her head for a moment, and she’d had to remind herself that breathing was a thing she needed to do to survive.
It was amazing, and his size and stamina meant that it had been very late by the time they’d passed out in an exhausted heap on the bed. Roxanne recalled that her last thought before falling asleep had been that if they could just keep doing that, then things might be alright.
Of course, they couldn’t just have sex all the time, and it became evident the very next morning that things were not going to go smoothly.
As a future wife of one of the Calphesians, Roxanne was expected to pack her things up and move them to the compound so that she could live with her husband to be and learn about their culture.
She’d have to drive all the way back to her apartment and deal with that, and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
When she’d woken up that morning, sore and sated, it had taken a few minutes for her to reorient herself and remember where she was, and Aedian was nowhere to be found. So she’d gotten up and walked around his rooms naked, wondering what a girl had to do to get some breakfast.
Luckily, someone had brought her clothes and the things she’d brought with her from the day before to the room, so she’d dressed in those quickly, wanting a shower, but not wanting to try and figure out how the complicated button system in the bathroom worked.
She didn’t know if she was allowed to just get dressed and leave, so she hung around, waiting for Aedian to come back and getting more and more agitated by the minute.
When he finally came strolling in, over an hour later, sweat damp and shirtless, she’d scowled at him. “Is that all you people do? Work out and fight?”
“Just like all your people do is whine,” had been his retort, which set the tone for the exchange.
“Excuse me?”
“Are you lacking in hearing?” Aedian asked, tipping his head to one side as he looked down at her.
Roxanne had glared. “ No. Look, whatever, I honestly don’t care what you do on your own time, but I have places to go, so what’s the deal with coming and going in this place.”
He looked at her blankly. “Why would you need to go?”
“Because I need to go get my things? And because I have friends and family that I want to see? I’m not your prisoner,” she’d snapped, even though it sort of felt like she was. “And I won’t be kept caged here. It’s fine for you and your kind, but I still have a life outside of here.”
They held each other’s gaze for a moment, Roxanne hating the fact that she had to look up to meet his eyes. It gave her a crick in her neck and made her feel small. Especially when he was looking at her like she was some kind of insignificant vermin.
Finally he shrugged a shoulder. “Do as you please. I do not care.”
It should have been relieving to hear him say that, considering she didn’t want him telling her what to do or thinking he had some kind of control over her, but it just made her madder, and she glared harder.
“So pleased to have your permission.”
His eyes had flashed, and Roxanne was struck by just how eerie and silvery they were. When he leaned down into her personal space, she’d fought herself to keep from taking a step back, even though everything in her was screaming that he was a threat and she needed to back up. But she reasoned that if she acted like she was afraid of him, then he’d never treat her with respect. And she was determined not to be cowed.
“You’re whining right now,” Aedian said, leaning in so close that she thought he might kiss her. “If you want to go somewhere, then go. I don’t have time to watch after
Michelle Freeman, Gayle Roberts