Page 14 of Marked for Vengeance
“Why do you deny it? I know you feel the same things I do.” He drew in a long breath. “I smell your need, little one. You are a feast for my senses. I want to know it all. The feel of your bare skin, the taste of your mouth, the heat of your—”
“Whoa! I haven’t agreed to anything apart from going with you so we can do our best to stay alive. I’m not thrilled aboutanything that’s happened since the ship went down. No matter what you think you smell, I am not in the mood!”
She slowed for a moment to look up at him. “I don’t understand any of this. Why the hell would you want me? Do you hit on every female you come across? I mean, you’re young, hot as hell, and quite literally horny…” She gestured to his horns. “But does this approach actually work for you?”
It was all he could do not to stop and demand she explain herself. He wasn’t hitting her. He’d never do that. Confused and distracted by her comments, he led her through the trees. They moved slowly, careful not to leave more traces of their passage than necessary.
The last traces of daylight faded away within minutes, leaving them to navigate in the dark. No moon brightened the sky for now, but the starlight was enough to let him find their way.
At first, Loris kept up with him, but once it went completely dark, her pace fell off. “How the fuck can you see anything? It’s as dark as a black hole at midnight out here.”
“The scrawnies created us to fight the wars they couldn’t. They designed us to have every advantage possible over their enemies. Night vision, higher pain tolerance, strength, endurance, even faster healing.”
Loris stumbled and bumped into him. “Theymadeyou?” she asked.
“They did. I was raised in a lab and tested on more times than there are stars in the sky.”
He waited, unsure what her reaction would be. It wasn’t what he expected. She leaned into him, close enough strands of her hair caressed his arm. “That must have been hard. I’m sorry, Vengeance.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. The verexi experimented on me. On us. None of the other species were involved.” Hethought for a moment and then added, “The scrawnies kept us a secret.”
“Saying I’m sorry is an expression. A way to offer sympathy. As for the scrawnies, I can understand why those brittle bundles of sticks wanted to create super soldiers, but I can’t believe they actuallydidit.”
“That’s why we’re here. On this planet. The experiment didn’t work, and they wanted to get rid of the evidence.” He slapped his chest. “That meant killing all of us. Only we didn’t let that happen.”
“How many of you are there?” she asked, her voice gentler than he’d ever heard her before.
“Nine now. Some died long ago. Ravage died when our ship crashed. Shatter was killed by a venomous creature that lives in the water. My clan-brother Rage was killed trying to escape. We think that was when they decided to get rid of us.”
“Interesting names you have. I don’t suppose one of you is called Rainbow or Snuggles or something like that.”
He scoffed at the mere idea. “We named ourselves. Do you imagine any of my brothers would choose such a name?”
“What about your sisters?”
“The scrawnies never created any females.”
Loris made a disgusted sound. “Of course they didn’t. They probably thought males would make better fighters.”
“They might have. Or they might not have considered it. They have no gender.” He shuddered slightly. “They threatened to castrate us if we continued to defy orders. I think they might have done it, but Bysshe reminded them that they wanted soldiers, so making us less aggressive wasn’t a good idea.”
“Wait. There are no females on this planet? None at all? And you came here straight from the verexi lab?”
“You are the first female I have ever touched, little warrior.” He gave in to his desire and drew her into his arms. “I like this.”
To his amusement, she bumped her hip against the hard ridge of his cock. “I can tell. But now I think I understand why you’re interested. You’ve never been near a woman before. You’re young, randy, and gods…are you a virgin?”
He didn’t want to stay here long. They had to get further from the shuttle before they set up camp for the night, but he needed to clear up something first.
“I’ve had sex. Many, many times. Only with pleasure bots, but some of them had instructional programs. I rated very highly on their assessment tests.”
“I just bet you did,” she whispered.
Her words broke his mind. He forgot about the need to get clear of the shuttle. He moved his hand to the back of her head, holding her still as he leaned over to kiss her. He had to know what she tasted like.
He brushed his mouth over hers, feeling the silken warmth of her lips. She started to stiffen in his arms. He knew she was about to tell him to stop, so he cut off her words with a kiss.
Perfection. Soft. Silky. Warm. He ran his tongue across the seam of her lips, and she parted them for him with a moan that vibrated across his tongue and all the way to his cock.
