Ignite by Tana Stone
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kalex
“What the hell?” Zoey jerked her hands, but I held them tightly.
I lowered my head so that my mouth brushed her neck. “I thought we were rushed in my strategy room.”
She twisted her neck to look at me, her eyes flashing with fury. “So, you tricked me into meeting you in an empty fantasy suite?”
“Once the tributes arrive, there won’t be any opportunity for us to try it out, and you really should experience a Zandoran pleasure moon at least once.”
She jerked in my grasp, but I didn’t release her. “What’s so impressive about a Zandorban pleasure moon? It looks like a jungle to me.”
“Zandoran,” I corrected. “And it’s nothing like one of your Earth jungles, I promise you. Now do you want me to tell you about it or are you going to keep fighting me?”
She glared at me but let out a breath. “Fine. I don’t have anywhere else I need to be.”
“Good.” I let go of her hands and walked around her toward the sunken natural spring.
“You’re naked,” she spluttered as I stepped into the steaming water and inhaled the steamy perfume rising from the surface.
I glanced at her over my shoulder as I descended fully into the pool, sinking down under the water covered my shoulders . “Of course. No one wears clothing on a Zandoran pleasure moon.”
She shook her head. “You’re crazy. This is crazy.”
I eyed her as the scented water bubbled around me, each popping bubble sending up more of the pungent, fruity aroma. “I thought you liked to take risks.”
She crossed her arms and jutted out one hip. “What’s risky about sitting in a hot tub?”
“Zandoran natural spring water has certain properties.” He held my gaze in silent challenge. “Aphrodisiac properties.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “You’re telling me that hot tub will make us horny?”
Already the water was working on me, my cock swelling beneath the water and heat simmering in my core.
I tilted my head. “Not exactly. It simply enhances whatever secret desires you already have within you and brings them to the surface. If you have any dark, forbidden desires, this water will reveal them.”
“I don’t have any dark desires,” she said quickly, and a bit defensively.
I shrugged one shoulder. “Prove it.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re a maddening alien, do you know that? I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
One of the crystal lights pulsed, sending lavender light across her face.
“You don’t,” I admitted. “But don’t you want to prove me wrong?”
Her gaze dipped to the water for a moment. “You think I can’t resist you?”
I leaned back against the edge of the pool, a growl building in my chest. “I don’t think you want to.”
She huffed out a breath. “This isn’t part of our deal, you know. I’m the one who’s supposed to say when and where.”
“Are you really going to pass up the chance to see if you can resist the Zandoran pleasure pools or prove to me that you don’t have the dark hidden desires I know you do?”
“Just because you’ve fucked me doesn’t mean you know me,” she said as she pulled off her clothes, tossing them on the floor and stomping over to the pool. The water splashed as she entered, and she also sank down until her chin touched the surface. “There? Are you happy?”
“Very,” I said, closing my eyes and letting my head rest behind me on the ledge.
“So, we just sit here and wait to be overcome with perverted desires?”
I opened one eye, my mouth quirking up. “Perverted? I didn’t know you were a prude, Zoey.”
She rolled her eyes. “Considering the fact that we’ve been screwing all over the station, you know I’m no prude.”
I breathed in deeply, the aroma of the water working its magic as I waited patiently for Zoey to feel its effects. “Okay, you aren’t a prude, but you have no desire for a Drexian mate. Why?”
She was silent, and I finally opened my eyes and pivoted my head to look at her. Zoey’s eyes were squeezed shut and her jaw was tight. Clearly, I’d struck a nerve.
“It’s a long story,” she finally said. “You don’t want to hear it anyway. We’re fuck buddies, not friends.”
“Fuck buddies? Is that an Earth custom? Do people have lots of fuck buddies?”
“It depends on the person. You’re actually my first one. Before you, I’d never been with anyone just for sex.”
Even though I’d never wanted more than sex from Zoey, I didn’t like hearing her say that. A possessive urge swelled within me, more evidence that the water was working. “And do you like having me as a fuck buddy?”
“I love it,” she said, then sucked in a breath and slapped a wet hand over her mouth. “Did I say that out loud?”
I grinned, my chest puffing out as I swiveled in the water so that I was body-to-body with her. “You did. I told you the water would reveal your true desires and eliminate inhibitions.”
Zoey put a hand on my chest as if to keep me at bay. “This was probably a bad idea.”
“Why?” I reached under the water and held her waist with one hand.
“Because I’m a good girl, and good girls don’t have fuck buddies and want to do the things that I want to do.”
I jerked her so that her body was flush with mine, the warm water sloshing around us. “And what do you want to do?”
She tipped her head back, biting her lip as if she was fighting the urge to tell me. “For once, I don’t want to be in control.”
“I thought you liked being the boss.” I dragged my thumb across her full lower lip. “You seem to like trying to boss me around.”
“I’ve had to be in control for so long because I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve achieved, but I don’t want to be.” Her pupils had gone so wide, her eyes were black. “I want you to take control of me.”
My heart thundered in my chest, and I rolled my head to the side as I fought the primal urges storming through me. “Do you want to know my secret desire?”
She nodded without blinking.
I dropped my head so that my mouth skimmed the shell of her ear. “To tie you up and do what I want while there’s nothing you can do to stop me. To have you at my total mercy while I fuck you.”
“Do it,” she whispered. “Please.”