Enticed By The Corsair (Corsairs, #3)

by Ruby Dixon

“Promise me,” Tarekh says in a low voice. When I glance over, he continues. “Promise me that if she’s dead, you’ll put an end to me, too. I won’t live knowing that I failed her.”

I stare at him. We’ve been through a lot, he and I, and Tarekh’s always been light-hearted and easy-going. This isn’t him. But I’ve never been mated. I don’t understand what it’s like. This sits wrong with me. But I also know what it’s like to want to die. So I nod.

Her eyes aren’t hidden by shadows. They’re gone, nothing but dark, angry scars remaining in their place.

Omg. 😱 That’s horrible

I’ve learned the hard way that disobedience only costs you things. I was wild and rebellious once—no longer. Never again. I don’t want to lose anything else.

Please help me because I can’t take much more.

“I’ve got you, Iris,” Alvos whispers, and his breath stirs against my skin. “I won’t let you fall.”

I want to see his face, and the ache of that realization hits me. I’m never going to be able to look at him. Ever. I’m going to be lost in the darkness forever.

She deserves so much better than she’s been given, and I vow she’ll never have reason to fear me.

Something deep inside me instinctually recognizes her as mine. I’ve heard other mesakkah talk about it. How when they meet their female, they just know in their gut that she’s the one. That the connection is lightning fast and soul-wrenchingly deep. Always thought that was garbage until now.

They deliberately marred her beauty. They wanted to break her. “You’re beautiful,” I tell her, because I can’t not. In my eyes, she is. I see beyond the ugly marks and the harm they’ve done to her.

My heart skips a beat at that smile. For that, I’d do anything. For her, I’d move asteroids and fly through black holes, unafraid.

I’m hers in that moment. Completely and utterly hers.

Iris is strong, but in different ways. She's quiet and she won't do anything but smile at you…but she has to be strong to have survived what she did.

“Oh, I'm not fixed. I'm as broken as ever. But you get better at hiding it. And you get better at being broken.”

There’s a restlessness in my belly that makes me push harder and fight for more. Always more. I’m the first one in a fight and the last to leave.

“Don’t make me growl at you,” I tell her. “You’re allowed to shower as much as you want on this ship.”

In this moment, there is nothing I want more. Tend to her? Take care of her? Make her feel comforted and loved? “Gladly. Wait here and I’ll return.”

Cat steps inside, and then pauses when she sees Iris perched on the bed in a plas-towel and me combing her wet hair. She raises one of those mobile human eyebrows at me, and I scowl in her direction.

say. I want to tell her that the ribbon doesn't matter. That I love her scars because they show how strong she is and what she's survived.

“Stop,” I tell her before she tries to give me something she shouldn't. “Your body is yours. I'll sleep in the room if you want company tonight. It doesn't have to be in the bed. I can sleep on the floor.”

I reach out and brush my fingertips over her brows, smoothing her hair back from her face. “I'm here with you.”

Her smile is shy even as she strokes the fur of my tail, and I nearly come in my pants. “A cotton tail.”

I'd plow through a thousand szzt junkers to get to her if she was in danger. I'd beat ten thousand aliens with my fists. I'd do anything for her. Anything. Everything.

I'd never touch her…but that doesn't mean I won’t come in my pants like a schoolboy if she keeps going as she does.

They're just people like everyone else. Once you get to know the person underneath, looks don't matter all that much.”

“I'm angry.” I hate that her shoulders stiffen. “Not at you. At the szzt that took you and hurt you. They're dead now, but I wish I could kill them all over again.”

No wonder there's no fight left in her. They broke her and she hasn't had time to mend. I'll always be here for her, I decide. Always.

Everyone gives him shit about his clothes and his meticulousness, so I imagine him as a bit of a dandy.

Maybe I recognize a fellow repressed person in Sentorr. I think he's like me, bottling up everything inside and giving the world a very focused picture of who he is. I'm calm and agreeable. He's efficient.

I'm calm and unruffled, sweet and polite, even when I don't want to be. It makes him crazy. I think he'd like it if I was wild and out of control, but I can't do that. I can't be that girl anymore.

But I notice. I notice everything about her.

I want her to realize that this is her home. That I am, too.

Survival is still first and foremost on her mind, and this is how Iris has chosen to survive.

I rub the plates on my brow and wish that I was a better male for her, a more understanding one. I understand her broken parts, but that doesn't mean that I know how to handle them.

How can I love her and want to shake her at the same time? But I do.

“I'd never let anything happen to you. You're mine.”

“Make me forget,” she whispers. “Remind me that I'm in a good place.” “You're with me,” I tell her between presses of my mouth to hers. I am hungry for more, so much more. I love the feel of her slight body pressing against mine as we kiss, and my cock aches, my needs long suppressed. “In my bed. In my arms.”

She just needs to say his name and I'll keffing kill him, whoever it is. Anyone that inspires this much terror in my female is not going to draw breath much longer.

“It's not to prove a point,” Alvos says. “It's because I love you and you're mine.”

“I'm going to unwrap this pussy,” he tells me, and a hot hand skims over my lower belly. “And then I'm going to taste it.”

“You're coating my fingers, love. I can't stop looking at how turned on you are. How ready for me.” He pushes my folds apart and then places one hand over the lower part of my belly, pinning me against the bed as I float up once more. “Mmm, look at that.”

“Kef me, you taste good, Iris. So good. I'm going to lick this pussy for days.”