Chapter One
“Captain Valtron,” interrupted a young, green-skinned Ithinian crewmember as he stepped beside her at the Zarian Cruiser’s control seat. “Commander Zantrose would like to see you in his office.”
Koriana spared him an irritated glance while trying to remain focused on some adjustments being made to a navigational panel nearby. “Now is not a good time.”
He shifted uncomfortably and pressed, “The Commander was insistent.” Then he cocked his head, looking awed and curious. “Your father, King Alzamar, has sent a Royal Directive.”
Now he had her full attention. She sucked in an alarmed breath and all but forgot about the repair being made. She faced the younger man all the while attempting not to let him see her distress. Her heart raced. A Royal Directive?! Although it was possible that the message had gone to the commander, her lover, for reasons pertaining to the ship, in her gut she knew it had to do with her. She hadn’t communicated with her father since she’d left Arronda to join the Intergalatic Peace Mission over two years ago. Partly because this ship had spent most of that time in the far part of their galaxy. Mainly because she remained angry with him and the Ruling Council over a Royal Decree that she strongly opposed. She’d never planned to return to Arronda, but things hadn’t worked out like she’d thought they would. And now they were headed back to her home planet and its capital of Carldonia for an overdue short period of R and R time and some minor ship repairs before they headed out again. She’d been struggling to come up with excuses not to leave the cruiser during that time, but Dante had been countering each of them, wanting her with him when they left the ship. Now, with this Directive, she feared her entire new life could be destroyed.
“I didn’t know you were an Arrondian princess,” the Ithinian broke into her thoughts, all but dancing in delight. “A real princess! Oh my. Does anyone else know? Besides the Commander, I mean? Was it a secret?”
She looked quickly around to make sure the few crewmembers in the control room were busy with duties and the repair and not listening to this conversation. To her relief, none seemed aware of what had been said. She lowered her voice, “Yes, it is something of a secret. I do not wish others to know. I prefer to remain incognito about my background.” She didn’t correct him, didn’t tell him that the Commander didn’t know her true identity. Oh, this is bad. Really bad. Dante will be so angry with me. She just hadn’t known how to tell him, didn’t want to tell him.
It was even more important now that no one else knew her true identity. When she’d finagled her way into being part of the crew, she’d only wanted to be accepted for what she could do. At that time it hadn’t been much more than using her skills as a negotiator, but she learned new skills quickly. Soon she’d become part of the navigational crew and now was a shift captain. She’d earned these advancements and was proud of them. She was a respected officer. Even though she’d become their commander’s lover over a year ago everyone knew that hadn’t made her life easier. Dante required as much of her as an officer now as he did of anyone else.
“As you wish, Captain,” the Ithinian interrupted her thoughts. He appeared disappointed that he must keep her secret, but he gave a quick nod and disappeared in a blink of an eye. It was always a bit unnerving to experience an Ithinian leaving somewhere.
Returning to her immediate problem, she caught the attention of her first mate. “I need to go speak with Commander Zantrose. I might not make it back before the end of the shift. Will you be able to handle everything? Or shall I have the next bridge captain come on early?”
“We’ll be fine,” the slender albino answered, waving her off.
She wished he’d have voiced concern about being left in charge, even though she knew him to be extremely competent. An excuse not to go would have been preferable to discussing anything from her father with Dante. He had never been happy with the limited information she’d given him concerning her family, which was almost nothing. Certainly she’d never come close to revealing that her parents were the rulers of Arronda. He had been angry enough when he’d learned she had basically stowed away on his ship, believing her story about wanting to have adventures and get away from her boring existence on Arronda. He’d insisted she send a communication back to her parents and let them know she was all right. She’d done it, sort of. She’d sent the message to a friend of hers back home who sympathized with her wish to leave the life of a pampered, worthless princess. Of course, Dante had also taken the strap of correction to her for the first time right after she’d sent the message. She didn’t want to think about how upset he’d be with her now. It had been nearly two months since he’d disciplined her in any manner.
With a sigh of resignation, Koriana left her post and made her way through the large space cruiser. As she drew closer to Dante’s office, her stomach churned more and more. Why couldn’t the message have come directly to her and not to him? She could have responded, or not responded, by her own choice. Dante’s involvement would be a bad thing. Being from another world where males were strong dominants in relationships, he was much like her father and the men of Arronda.
All too soon she stepped into the doorway to Dante’s office. She took a second to try and regain her composure. She reached up to make sure her raven black hair remained neatly confined in the knot she always wore while on duty. She tugged on the hem of the short officer’s jacket and smoothed her hands down the sides of the body-hugging pants. Neat and orderly on the outside, a mess of jumbled nerves on the inside.
“Enter,” Dante gruffly ordered from where he sat behind a clear glass desk, frowning at something on the paper-thin monitor before him. He looked up. His dark lavender eyes had darkened with his irritation and warned the situation was as bad as she’d expected.
She resisted putting a hand over her nervous stomach and moved into the room. “I was in the middle of supervising some navigational panel repairs.”
“Which can be easily handled without you.” He shifted his attention fully to her. “I received a directive from King Alzamar. Your father.”
“It should have come directly to me!” Irritation with how her life was about to burst out of her control made her voice sharper than it should have been.
“As commander of the Zarian, official communications come to me.” He pinned her with a knowing look. “But I can see why you would have preferred that I not get this particular message.”
Koriana clamped her mouth shut. What could she say anyway? What he said was true. She’d hoped over time that her father would just accept that she was gone and out of his control. She’d never intended to return to Arronda, had planned to find a spot on another cruiser at some point. But then she’d fallen in love with Dante.
“The directive states that King Alzamar has ordered you to report to the palace as soon as we dock. It further states that you must answer to him and the Ruling Council for having ignored some kind of Royal Decree when you left Arronda two years ago.”
Fury at the official command, particularly when it was delivered to her lover, lit her temper. All her training in tactful negotiation fled from her thoughts. “I will not go! I will remain on the ship until we leave again.”
“Koriana,” Dante’s deep tone should have been a warning of his disapproval.
She paced the room, clenching and unclenching her hands. “I have nothing to say to him. Nothing to say to the council. I will not go!”
“You are acting irresponsibly. This is unacceptable behavior for an officer of your position.” When she stopped to face him and saw how his broad shoulders had stiffened, he added, “Unacceptable behavior to me. Unacceptable behavior for a Princess of Arronda.” His handsomely carved face was set in grim determination. “You will go, Koriana! Even if I must escort you there myself.”
He drew in a deep breath and blew it out. “I am beyond angry with you at the moment. You have gravely disappointed me with your apparent deception.”
She thrust out her chin. “The deception was not intended. I just… At first I didn’t know how to tell you and make you understand why I felt I had to leave Arronda. Later, after we became lovers, I feared losing you if you were to learn of my royal background. You see royalty as more bother than helpful in your services with the Peace Mission.”
Dante’s expression remained hardened and it hurt her heart to even think of him turning her from his life. She’d hoped he would one day ask her to join him as his lifemate, as was the way of his people, the Jacobians. But now… What she had done was done. She had to deal with things as they were now.
“He means to punish me. Even after all this time, I know he won’t listen to my side, just like he didn’t listen before I left Arronda. With my father, there is only his way, only what he believes is right.” She curled her hands into fists. “I didn’t follow ‘his way’ so what I did has been deemed ‘wrong.’”
“I have never known your father to be an unfair man, although I’ve had limited dealings with him. Still, he is your father. And the King. If you left without his approval, then you have done wrong. You deserve his punishment.” The familiar look of warning glimmered in his eyes once again.
Exasperated with him, with her father and the council, she further lost her composure and stomped her booted foot. “Dammishan, Dante! I wasn’t wrong!” she cursed in Arrondian at him. “And I’m absolutely not going. You cannot make me.” She finished with a string of colorful words of disrespect that revealed exactly how frustrated she was with him and the situation. She refused to admit even to herself that guilt played heavily in her spirited defiance now. Guilt and a good bit of fear.
His hard gaze shot to her foot and she felt her face heat. “You only make things worse, Koriana.”
She stood before him, wishing she could take her childish action and the disrespectful outburst back, knowing she couldn’t. She fought back the need to squirm under his chastising gaze.
“You did wrong, Koriana. No matter how much you wanted to join this mission, you should not have just run away to do so. You should have found a way to convince your father and the council that it was the right decision for you.”
She fought another squirm at his steady, condemning look. His irritation with her cursing him had been in his voice. “It’s in the past and should be forgotten. I’m a respected officer of the fleet now. I’ve grown up in these last two years.” The thought of returning to her family’s palace, knowing she was to be punished for disobedience, was extremely distressful.
“Not in his eyes.” Dante stood and walked toward her, power and authority radiating off him with each step closer. When he stood directly in front of her, towering over her by nearly a foot, he tilted her face to look at him. “In this instance, not in my eyes either. You have acted like a willful child and you have essentially lied to me all this time. You deserve to be punished in accordance both now and as your father and the council see fit when you meet with them.”
Koriana’s pulse quickened at his declaration. Her fists uncurled and she automatically reached back to cover her bottom. “I should return to my duties. My shift isn’t over yet.”
“Your first mate can handle everything until the next shift captain comes on duty.”
Aware of him seeing her holding her bottom protectively, she dropped her hands to her sides. “It was but a minor act of childish behavior.”
“Do I ever allow such behavior?” Dante’s expression was grim.
She’d wanted to get away from her often harsh father and all of his rules. She’d longed for a husband who shrugged off her occasional fits of temper, who merely wanted to love her tenderly and overlook her moodiness at times and her tendency to be incredibly stubborn. But she’d fallen in love with Dante, a man with his own rules and his own set of consequences for breaking them. He loved her with such depth, though, that she endured the times when he insisted on punishing her.
“No, it is not allowed.” It cost her to admit that.
With a nod of approval, he went to the door and locked it even as her pulse quickened. Then he took her hand and led her to the thick, cushiony sofa across the room. “You must pay for deceiving me, Koriana. Then you will be confined to quarters for two days, giving you time to come up with the proper words of apology for your father and the council.”
“My duties,” she protested. She didn’t like being confined to quarters. She didn’t like being relieved of her official duties. Her fellow officers would know she was being punished by him, not that it was an uncommon practice in other relationships onboard ship. Still, it would embarrass her to return to duty after a time of punishment. But the situation made her lash out in irritation. “Why should I apologize? I made an adult choice and acted on it. No, I will not apologize.”
Dante’s disapproval was plain by the firm set of his jaw. “Your stubbornness again makes you think unreasonably. Earns you more discomfort.”
He went to the nearly hidden closet and quickly returned with the well-worn leather strap of correction. He also brought the familiar, thick pillow and placed it in the center of the sofa. “You will lower your pants, Koriana. Take the position.”
For a second she didn’t move, could only look in dread at the strap. Her days of confinement to think of an apology for her father would also be spent recovering from this strapping.
“You wish me to lower your pants?” he threatened.
“No!” Her face flamed as she shoved the skin-tight pants down to mid-thigh. Being exposed like this was never easy. But to resist him any longer would be a mistake. Beyond that, she loved this determined man and had agreed to his ways even before they became lovers. Even if she sulked a bit after he punished her. Besides, she had much worse than a strapped bottom to face if she couldn’t find a way not to leave the cruiser.
She awkwardly crawled into position over the pillow, her bare bottom pushed high. “My biggest regret, Dante, is not telling you who I was before now. I am very, very sorry.”
“As you should be. And later, after you have been disciplined for lying and given time to recover, you will tell me the entire truth of your actions.” He looked down at her as she craned her head to look at him.
“I felt I had no choice. The Zarian had been ready to leave on a mission that intrigued me almost as much as getting the opportunity to see other worlds.” She wished he could understand her reasoning. “My father disapproved, had decreed that I could not leave Arronda. If I’d taken the time to form an acceptable argument for my decision, I would have missed the chance to depart on the Zarian.” There was more to it than that, but she wasn’t ready to tell him the rest. Yet.
“More goes through your mind, Koriana, I can sense it.” He held her gaze and dared her to disagree. “Something to do with abandoning your royal duties.”
“I still do not wish to be encumbered by those ‘royal duties.’” It was on the tip of her tongue to admit to him exactly what those “royal duties” would entail: that her father and the council had been prepared to have her begin interviewing possible husbands. Her choice, in truth, would not have mattered. The Ruling Council would have chosen the man for her to spend the rest of her life with. She shuddered at the thought. The only man she wanted to spend her life with was Dante.
“Which you won’t be, since you are now with me.”
Her heart felt heavy as she reminded him, “There is no commitment between us. I am neither your lifemate nor your wife.”
He frowned. “Nevertheless, you belong to me.”
It felt strange to be conversing like this when she lie before him prepared to be punished, with her pants lowered and her bottom bare. The awkwardness made her speak carelessly. “And so there is no need for me to face them now. I won’t go to them.”
His dark eyebrows pinched together. “I have grown weary of the matter. You will go before the council and your father. Out of respect for them and for yourself.”
He tapped the strap against the side of his leg. “For now we will deal with your current misbehavior and for having lied to me.”
Koriana wanted to protest further, but decided it was best to let the focus change. Dante silently waited for what was expected. Her face flamed as she avoided meeting his eyes. “I behaved like a child, stomping my foot and cursing at you. And I kept my real identity a secret from you. I have earned a lesson with the strap.”
“Yes, you have, my love.” His large hand settled on her bare bottom as it always did before he punished her. She was so aware of him in that moment. His proud masculinity was impossible to ignore for any woman, especially her. His power and control of everything around him could not be denied. But it was the intensity of his feelings for her that he expressed in many ways that most drew her to him. His desire for her was nearly unquenchable, which much pleased her. His firm belief in correcting her misbehavior didn’t please her as much.
She shivered in anticipation. Oh, how she hated getting punished by him. Lying like this, vulnerable and exposed, was humbling. She was anxious for him to get on with what he deemed necessary.
He straightened, stood beside her. “I never enjoy doing this, but it must be done.”
“I never enjoy this either.” Koriana curled her fingers under the edge of the cushion in front of her, lowered her forehead to the cushion, and forced her buttocks not to clench. “I would much prefer just being confined to quarters without enduring a strapping as well.”
“I’m sure you would, but it is not your decision.” A sizzling Thwack! to the middle of both buttocks made it clear the decision was his. He quickly followed up with stinging smacks to one bottom cheek after the other. The lashes fell fast, with precision, and painfully.
She squeezed her eyes shut, sucked in a breath.
“You’re an officer.” A half dozen biting thwacks landed with the firm reminder.
“You are a leader with adult responsibilities.” More swats fell even harder.
“You are not a child.” He sent a shower of lashes to her sit spot. “You know better than to stomp your feet in a tantrum fit. You know better than to talk disrespectfully to me.”
“I’m sorry.” She blinked her eyes, felt tears forming, and refused to let them fall.
“When you forget how you’re supposed to act, I will soundly remind you.” And remind her, he did. Another dozen thwasks landed with enough force that she was shoved forward, only to be dragged back into position. “I will blister your bottom until you cannot sit for several days. Is that understood?”
She arched backward. “It is not necessary to continue this, Dante.” Even though it annoyed her, tears trickled down her cheeks and she couldn’t keep from squirming from the pain. “I will accept the confinement…”
“You will accept this disciplining as well.” His hand rested on her burning bottom. “Will you not?”
He was testing her agreement to obey him, her trust in him. She blew out a frustrated breath. “Yes.”
Satisfied at her submission, he returned to his task. He was always a man who did a job well. Dante gave her another long round of even harder lashes so she’d not forget proper behavior.
Finally she could take no more. “Oooooohhhhh please,” she begged. “Stop.”
Again he rested his hand on her tender bottom. “You will control the urge to stomp your feet in a show of temper?”
Busy quietly sobbing she failed to answer quickly enough. The strap rose and fell in a biting thwack that had her yelping, “Yes!”
“You will control your desire to curse at me, show disrespect to me?”
“Yes.” She answered quicker this time to keep from getting another hard swat.
He held his hand against her throbbing bottom in warning. “You will obey the Royal Directive and gain audience with your father and the council?”
Without thinking clearly, she said, “No.”
“You dare much while in such a position.” He smacked her another dozen times and made her finally kick up her legs.
“Again, I ask if you will go to your father and the council by your own power? Or must I escort you there myself?”
This time she yelped, “Yes! Yes, I will go!” She made the agreement, but she would find a way out of it. Somehow.
“Good. Now I will deal with your having lied to me.”
“Oh, Dante, I cannot…” Before she could even get her weak protest out a fresh rain of hard thwacks landed. The lashes fell sharply and steadily for at least another five minutes. They burned her poor bottom until she was sobbing uncontrollably into the cushion, her legs kicking, her body bucking.
And then he stepped away. “We are done.”
Koriana collapsed limply, feeling the fire blaze across her bottom. She was in great pain and now she faced confinement, but she didn’t want to be alone just yet.
“Can I stay with you?” She looked awkwardly back at him.
His eyes mirrored a war of emotions within him. She could see that his cock had hardened as he’d looked down at her partially naked body. He was fully aroused and no doubt wanted to thrust inside her body, which she wanted as well—in spite of her great pain. But he had a firm rule about not making love immediately after a punishment. The lesson taught must sink in. No more than a comforting hug was allowed until he deemed enough time had passed.
He helped her stand and watched as her hands flew around to gently cover her tender bottom. His nostrils flared. She knew he’d seen the moisture beaded on her mound. Her arousal and consequent moisture had come upon her not long after he’d first touched her bottom with his hand. His scent had gotten to her. He was her lover and her body always responded to his nearness. Even when he disciplined her.
“You may stay.” His gaze moved to the rounded corner opposite his desk. “You may stand there with your pants lowered and your face to the wall. You will think about why you tasted the strap of correction.”
Koriana disliked spending time in such a way after a punishment and it was rarely asked of her. She could choose to go to their quarters and he would let her. But she was reluctant to do so now. She also wasn’t ready to pull the tight pants over her wounded bottom yet. So, with a nod of acceptance, she walked gingerly to the spot he’d decreed.
Dante took a minute to get up from the couch. His body was in distress, longing to sink deep into his woman. Watching her struggle to keep from sobbing in pain and to walk with pants lowered to mid-thigh was difficult. He didn’t like causing her pain. He would, though, when necessary. His Koriana could be a trial at times. She needed a man like him to keep her in control, and to love her. And love her, he did, even though she’d lied to him.
She reached his assigned spot, gave him a last regretful glance, and started to step closer to the wall.
“No, bend forward enough to touch your forehead to the wall. I would have your reddened bottom fully on display.” A stupid request because that made her more exposed to him. And that only made his cock grow harder when she obeyed.
It took effort for him to put away the pillow and strap, and then walk back to his desk when he wanted to go to her. Every nerve in his body was very aware of her. He’d seen the moisture on her mound, smelled the scent of her arousal. She suffered from the pain of a soundly strapped bottom now, but she would accept him if he went to her. Her agreement to stay here in his office and to stand on display for him rather than go to their quarters told him she wanted him as much as he did her. But he had a hard and fast rule about no intimacy right after a punishment. He would stand by it now.
He sat in his desk chair and forced his thoughts back to the messages he’d been reading before she’d come here. Every department head had sent updates on what repairs and modifications they would like done while the Zarian was docked in Arronda. He had much to read over and decide on, yet his focus was scattered. His gaze repeatedly moved to Koriana. He didn’t like her suffering pain, but it would pass in a day or two. Her pert bottom was red all over, more so on her sit spot. When he disciplined, he did it well.
“May I rub?” she quietly asked after a while.
Normally he would refuse the request, but he was feeling lenient. “You may.”
Her small hands flew back to her bottom and she gently smoothed them over the red surface. “How much longer, Dante?”
He watched her actions and grew harder again. As much as he desired to stride over to her and take her deep and fast right there, he resisted. Not enough time had passed. His voice was gruff as he said, “I believe another half hour.”
Her sigh of disappointment was nearly his undoing.
“You may straighten and move closer to the wall now. If you would like to, you may pull up your pants.”
She straightened and inched closer to the wall, but she didn’t cover her bottom. “I don’t believe so just yet.” She continued touching her sore bottom.
Dante was on his last nerve watching her and started to go to her when the Zarian engineer suddenly called over his intercom, “I need to speak with you, Commander. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Koriana’s body stiffened but she didn’t otherwise move from her position. He could make her continue to stand there. It wasn’t uncommon onboard ship for crewmembers to witness lifemates in various states of punishment, but he’d never forced that situation upon his woman and he wouldn’t now. He would regret sending her away instead of taking her now, though.
“Cover yourself and go to our quarters,” he said, his voice rough and filled with disappointment.
She pulled up her pants, gasping at the first touch of the stretchy fabric. Then she lifted her proud chin and walked to him. She went to his side and grimaced as she bent down to kiss him. “I need you.”
He groaned and drew her hand down until she could feel his cock. “I need you as well.”
He glanced toward the doorway where the engineer had just appeared. In a lowered tone, he said, “I will expect to find you naked and in bed. With your pretty red bottom up in invitation.”
She blushed, straightened with effort not to show the engineer that she’d recently been punished. “As you command.” Then she gave the other man a nod of acknowledgment and left.
Koriana paced around their quarters too restless to lie down. She had stripped off her clothing after shutting the door to their private space. It was a relief not to have anything rubbing against the tender skin of her poor bottom. But she had much more than a well-spanked bottom on her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about the Royal Directive. Facing her father—clearly still upset with her, just as she was with him—would be unpleasant enough because he would claim his right as her father to punish her for disobedience. She dreaded that, but could live with it.
Facing the Royal Council would be much worse. She didn’t want to do it. She had no wish to be forced to explain yet again her decision to go against them all and leave Arronda. She didn’t want to face their judgment and experience the consequences of defying them, possible additional punishment. She just wanted them all to understand that she no longer lived there or needed to answer to their rules. And she wanted them all—her father and the council—to accept her relationship with Dante. He was, and would always be, the man of her heart. She didn’t want them to deny him, to insist she marry another man, a stranger.
Talk about “consequences” and having to endure them. She carefully touched her still warm bottom. Dante’s strap had fallen hard. Which made her think about how angry he would be when she failed to go before the council and her father as ordered…or should he learn the full truth of why she’d run away. She shuddered. Definitely not something she wanted to dwell on.
Speaking of Dante, what was keeping him? He’d been as aroused as she when she’d left his office. She couldn’t imagine him talking for very long with the engineer, unless there was a serious problem, of course. She’d been commanded to wait for him naked on their bed, with her bottom up. Whenever he disciplined her, he insisted on taking her from behind. She suspected he liked seeing the bottom he had turned red, and he liked feeling the heat of that sore bottom against him. Whatever. She only wanted his big, long, hard cock ramming inside her anyway she could get it.
The door to their quarters quietly opened, startling her. She covered her racing heart with a hand.
His brow furrowed in annoyance. “Did I not tell you to be on the bed when I got here?” Obviously he was still upset with her.
Her gaze went to his swollen shaft bulging inside his tight pants. “I…I…” How could she tell him that she’d been too worried about her future to simply lie down and wait for him?
Dante walked to her, took her by the arm, and turned her sideways. Before she could even consider protesting, he spanked her sharply at least a dozen times. The previous pain of being strapped returned in force, not that it had faded much.
He nudged her toward their bedchamber. “Hands and knees. Now.”
Koriana’s body was on fire, far more than just her bottom. As always, she ached for him. Their aroused scents mingled, drove her need for his dominance higher. She ran for the airbed even as she heard him removing his clothes as he followed her.
“I will give you the pounding you need.” He was beside her as she scrambled onto the bed.
She trembled all over at the demand in his tone, at the huskiness. There were times when she rode her proud lover with her own wildness. But the times when he was in command of their lovemaking…
The instant she was in position, he gently pushed her head down to the soft mattress, which thrust her bottom out more prominently. He took a second to smooth his hand over her buttocks and made them quiver at his touch. “A good shade of red, even more so now that you again disobeyed me.”
“I am sorry,” she said on a shaky whisper.
Dante climbed onto the bed behind her, straddled his legs around hers. He reached down between her thighs and found her mound already wet and ready. He moistened his fingers on her juices. Then he rubbed her hardened clit for several torturous seconds before drawing his fingers slowly back over her crack all the way to her small puckered hole. For just a half-second he circled it with his finger and her buttocks clenched.
“Enough.” He gripped her hips. “I will take you now.”
His need to be in charge in this position and after punishing her mattered not to her. All she could think about was that thick, long cock coming into her body. She craved it. “Yes. Take me.”
Holding her tight, he slammed his shaft deep inside.
“Ohhhh, yes!” Koriana closed her eyes on the first wave of pleasure. He held still for a long minute until she pleaded, “Please. Please, I need you.”
She didn’t have to look at him to know he would be smiling in pure masculine pride.
Ever so slowly he pulled back, stopping when just the tip of his cock remained inside her. Then he drove deep once more, gritting out, “Mine. You are mine. You will never forget it.”
No, she would never forget it. She could not imagine any other man in her life. She would not allow another man to punish her the way Dante did. She would not, could not, let another man be intimate with her body.
He held her hips and pounded hard into her, deeper with each thrust. “You were made for me, Koriana. Only me.” The words came out as a grunt of both determination and desperation.
“Yes,” she gasped and thrust her bottom back in eagerness for each and every drive he made. Finally she reached the abyss he’d pushed her toward. She cried out with the powerful orgasm.
It triggered his own need and he held her down as she continued convulsing around him. She smelled his sweat, felt his body heat rise as he rammed into her with one fierce drive after another. Until his release tore through him, until he roared out her name in an agonized cry.
They were both shuddering when he found the strength to slide out of her. He collapsed on his back and pulled her to him. She winced as her tender bottom brushed across the sheet.
The wince served as a reminder about the unpleasant matter they’d discussed earlier. His tone was grim as he said, “You have two weeks to come up with a suitable explanation for the council and your father.”
“Dante…”
“No more discussion. It is settled.” He kissed the top of her head. “Sleep now.”
Annoyed, she wriggled away from him and stretched out on her stomach. He was wrong, the issue wasn’t settled.
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