She found it dif­fi­cult to not strug­gle. She forced her­self to al­low the prince to have mas­tery over her. It was all for fun any­way, she told her­self. There was no harm in play­ing at fan­tasy.

  His skilled touch awoke all her senses, his wet hand tak­ing lib­er­ties with her body. Jes­sica moaned as he rubbed her breasts, and his tongue in­vaded her mouth in a kiss that made her moan all the more. The man tasted of vigor and lust, and it made her in­sides bub­ble in re­sponse.

  Cla­jak’s hand slipped down to push be­tween her thighs, to slide two of his fin­gers into her core. Her hips bucked to take him in as deeply as she could, lov­ing the hot fric­tion of his cal­loused dig­its pen­e­trat­ing her. Her sleeve clutched at them, try­ing to draw them in fur­ther, to fill her as her body in­sisted she was meant to be filled.

  Cla­jak held her tight against his chest, his other hand still im­pris­on­ing her wrists be­hind her back. Jes­sica pulled against his grip, want­ing to feel him all over and tor­ment him as he tor­mented her. He held her cap­tive eas­ily, not even break­ing the bruis­ing kiss he pun­ished her mouth with.

  Help­less, she thought, feel­ing a twinge of con­cern. But it was just a game they were play­ing, right? He wouldn’t hurt her.

  In and out Cla­jak’s fin­gers pumped, and he pressed an­other into her anus. Jes­sica jerked with a small cry, her pussy gush­ing thick honey. His hand worked against her sex, send­ing sharp stabs of plea­sure through her belly. Rather than damp­en­ing her de­sire, her anx­i­ety over her vul­ner­a­bil­ity only fed the bliss warm­ing her.

  A vi­sion of be­ing bound in chains rose in her mind’s eye, the re­straints ren­der­ing her pow­er­less while Cla­jak thrust his sex into hers.

  Jes­sica’s heart pounded. He wouldn’t do such a thing. We’re just play­ing a harm­less game, that’s all. If I told him to let me go, he would.

  She couldn’t deny that the twinge of fear fed the grow­ing plea­sure in her womb, how­ever. Cla­jak’s touch ex­hil­a­rated her more when he ex­erted con­trol over her. The el­e­ment of dan­ger, imag­ined though it was, leant ex­cite­ment to their play.

  Jes­sica gave in to it. She stopped try­ing to con­vince her­self it didn’t frighten her just a lit­tle. She stopped pre­tend­ing that she didn’t like the small bit of fear. She ended all ef­forts to es­cape Cla­jak’s hold on her wrists. In­stead, she of­fered her­self to him.

  He re­sponded with a growl, as if an­nounc­ing his vic­tory. He turned her so that she lay on her stom­ach on the floor from the waist up, her but­tocks hang­ing over the edge of the basin, and her legs trail­ing in the wa­ter. The tow­er­ing Kalquo­rian pinned her arms over her head, and he stood be­tween her thighs. His cocks, burn­ing hot against her skin, rested heav­ily on her but­tocks.

  She felt him shift, and the hand not hold­ing her wrists po­si­tioned his smaller cock at the en­trance to her sex. When she felt the larger mem­ber placed against her anus, she stiff­ened.

  “Cla­jak?” She heard the high-pitched ner­vous­ness of her voice. She pulled against his iron grip.

  “Re­lax,” came his voice, his honey tone sooth­ing. “I have stretched you enough to take me. You can han­dle it.” He tight­ened his grasp on her arms while his other hand pressed be­tween her shoul­der blades, hold­ing her down. “Show me how much you want me. Give your­self over en­tirely and feel the sweet­ness of ab­so­lute sur­ren­der.”

  Jes­sica trem­bled. Be­ing taken this way would hurt, of that she had no doubt. She couldn’t imag­ine her tight­est chan­nel ad­mit­ting such an im­mense in­vader with­out pain. So why was her body warm­ing to the prospect and her sex con­tract­ing with an­tic­i­pa­tion?

  He won’t make me do this. I’ll tell him I don’t want to, and he’ll stop.

  But her body clam­ored that she did want him this way. She ached to have him in­side her, rut­ting against her help­less body like an an­i­mal. Feel­ing him at the thresh­old, ready to re­lieve the empti­ness that yawned wide within her, melted all her in­hi­bi­tions.

  Jes­sica screwed her eyes shut as she forced the rest of her body to loosen. “I’m yours to do with as you see fit,” she whim­pered. She bit her lip against the com­ing in­va­sion.

  “In­deed you are,” Cla­jak said, quiet tri­umph fill­ing his voice. “Push out against me. It will open you.”

  He pressed into her and she pushed against him as he’d com­manded. Amaz­ingly, her nether ori­fice stretched to ac­com­mo­date the in­truder. Slowly Cla­jak im­paled Jes­sica, and as the girth of his pe­nis widened, her ass be­came more grudg­ing in its ac­cep­tance. A deep ache be­gan, and she groaned with the grow­ing throb of pain.

  “Easy, my sweet. Push as hard as you can now,” Cla­jak whis­pered, his voice coax­ing be­tween quiet gasps. Hear­ing his breath­less de­light made Jes­sica want to give him the sub­mis­sion he de­manded. She spread her legs as far open as she could, yield­ing to his need.

  He crept into her tight aper­ture, en­fold­ing his thick pe­nis in her re­luc­tant flesh. Jes­sica shud­dered from equal parts dis­com­fort and de­sire. She once came close to beg­ging him to stop, but some­thing pre­vented the words. A need to be pos­sessed and to sub­mit to the strength of her lover over­whelmed the dis­tress of the in­va­sion. She made her­self pli­ant to his an­i­mal urges, sur­ren­der­ing ut­terly to him.

  “If you feel real pain, you will tell me im­me­di­ately. Are you all right?” Cla­jak asked.

  “It’s only a lit­tle sore­ness,” Jes­sica gasped. Now that he had ex­pressed con­cern, she didn’t want him to stop.

  “A small ache is ac­cept­able. It is your plea­sure to serve me, even as it causes you dis­tress.” The steel in his voice in­ti­mated com­plete au­thor­ity over Jes­sica.

  Her sex clenched around the smaller pe­nis she’d barely no­ticed through the ache the larger one in­flicted. Over­whelm­ing crav­ing left her gasp­ing through her moans. “Yes,” she an­swered him.

  “You have no will but mine.”

  “Yes.”

  “You give your­self to me, to use as I de­sire.”

  Even as Jes­sica’s strain­ing flesh begged for mercy, Cla­jak’s smaller cock found a sen­si­tive spot in her vagina. It rubbed against a bun­dle of nerves, send­ing a thun­der­clap of de­sire vi­brat­ing through­out her body. She cried out, “Oh yes!”

  “I am your mas­ter.”

  Now there was no line be­tween ec­stasy and hurt as his cock con­tin­ued to press hard against that hot spot within. Fiery need re­ver­ber­ated through her gut, de­mand­ing to be ful­filled. Jes­sica strained back­wards to take the prince in, un­able to do so be­cause he held her help­less to the floor. Per­haps sens­ing her in­tent, Cla­jak pushed into her faster, forc­ing him­self hard into her writhing body.

  “Yes!” Jes­sica screamed.

  “Say it. Tell me I am your mas­ter.”

  “You are my mas­ter!” She had only a dim re­al­iza­tion of his com­mands and her re­sponses. Her con­scious­ness cen­tered on the ex­quis­ite mis­ery in her loins and the on­com­ing or­gasm, rush­ing to­wards her in a molten tidal wave.

  “You are my slave.”

  “I am … your … slave,” she panted, her body fill­ing with the sweet bright­ness that would soon leave her shat­tered in a mil­lion pieces. At last Cla­jak’s groin met her but­tocks, his en­gorged flesh imbed­ded in hers.

  He held still for an in­stant, let­ting her feel the full­ness of him strain­ing against the walls of her most se­cret flesh. She gasped and moaned, stuffed to burst­ing. It hurt. It felt won­der­ful. She’d never known such an amaz­ing mix­ture as this of plea­sure and pain, of serv­ing and be­ing served at once.

  Cla­jak rocked back, pulling him­self free of her un­til only the tips of his cocks re­mained within. Jes­sica gasped with min­gled re­lief and loss.

  Cla­jak drove his length into her once more, and she screamed at the de­li­cious tor­ment he in­flicted on her. Her guts roiled with burn­ing ela­tion. He re­leased his hold on her to seize her hips. He rocked his pelvis, fill­ing and then emp­ty­ing her over and over.

  “Harder,” Jes­sica heard her­self say. Her ass ached, and yet she wanted more.

  Cla­jak growled and he moved faster, his groin slap­ping against her but­tocks.

  “Please Cla­jak. Take me hard. Take me as hard as you want.” She sobbed as hurt and long­ing grew. She’d never known such crav­ing, raven­ing her un­til she thought she must cli­max or die. “Do it, damn you!”

  Cla­jak snarled in re­sponse, as if her urg­ing brought an­i­mal in­stincts to the fore. He pounded into her, a force of na­ture be­yond con­trol. Jes­sica shrieked like wounded prey as he rut­ted against her, a brute gone mad with lust. His sex was hot iron, brand­ing her frag­ile in­ner tis­sues, mark­ing her as his.

  Jes­sica’s cli­max burst through her, a roar­ing slaver­ing beast. She screamed as fast as she could draw breath. It didn’t ease af­ter the first crescendo; the waves of or­gasm rolled through her belly over and over, fed by the grunt­ing alien mer­ci­lessly work­ing her.

  Seizure af­ter seizure left her un­able to breathe, and spots flashed be­fore her eyes. Her shud­der­ing body be­gan to feel dis­con­nected from her mind, and a gray mist grew to cloud her vi­sion. From a dis­tance away, she heard Cla­jak’s roar. He rammed into her a few more times be­fore col­laps­ing over her, his sexes puls­ing.

  Jes­sica whooped air into her starved lungs as the spasms rack­ing her di­min­ished. With a groan, Cla­jak lifted him­self off of her and slipped out. Af­ter a few sec­onds of gasp­ing re­cov­ery, he hefted him­self out of the pool to sit on its lip. The prince lifted her onto his lap.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “I think so.” She was still puff­ing for air.

  He kissed her, his lips soft. His body was a warm haven, and Jes­sica snug­gled against him. She won­dered how this man, still prac­ti­cally a stranger to her, could feel so right. He looked in her eyes and stroked her hair. She warmed at the ten­der ex­pres­sion he gave her.

  “You have an­other ter­ri­ble scar on your back, in line with this one in front.” Cla­jak’s brows drew to­gether. “It is as if you were im­paled. What hap­pened to you?”

  Jes­sica held back a shud­der and made her voice light. “The ac­ci­dent hap­pened when I was very young. I barely re­mem­ber it.” She bit her lip in sud­den worry. “Does it bother you that I have scars?”

  His pur­ple eyes re­garded her with con­cern. “I am only wor­ried that you must have suf­fered great pain from such an in­jury. It takes noth­ing from your beauty, my sweet. I hope you didn’t mind I caused you some dis­com­fort with the rougher sex?”

  “I never imag­ined some­thing like that could hurt so much yet feel so good at the same time.”

  Cla­jak grinned his devil’s grin. “I’m glad I could show you such things. Teach­ing you has been a de­light.”

  Jes­sica grinned back. “If the other two men are the teach­ers you are and all our per­son­al­i­ties are com­pat­i­ble, I will be a very happy clan­mate.”

  Cla­jak’s smile froze then faded. “Clan­mate? To my clan?”

  “Of course. That’s why I’m here with you.”

  He moved her off his lap and stood. “I’m afraid there’s been a mis­un­der­stand­ing, Jes­sica. My clan is al­ready be­trothed to a Kalquo­rian fe­male. I’m sorry if you had the im­pres­sion you were be­ing con­sid­ered as our po­ten­tial Matara.”

  Jes­sica stared at Cla­jak, un­able to com­pre­hend what he was say­ing. “But you came to the dance. The per­for­mance was to at­tract mates. Is­rala said she made that clear.”

  “She did. My clan used the priv­i­lege of our rank to join the fes­tiv­i­ties.”

  “We slept to­gether. I only gave my­self to you be­cause I thought … I thought…”

  “That it meant we would be­come life­mates? That’s very Earther of you.” Cla­jak shrugged. “Your kind at­tach far too much im­por­tance to sex, even an en­counter as en­joy­able as ours has been. You do not have to re­sign your­self to a union with me. Now that we’ve had our fun, you can move on to choos­ing a per­ma­nent clan.”

  Hor­ror stole over Jes­sica. Bile rose in her throat, and she swal­lowed it back. “You mean you used me?” Her voice was small like a hurt child’s.

  Cla­jak vis­i­bly paled. “Used? No, not at all. I se­duced you for our mu­tual plea­sure.” He averted his gaze. He wouldn’t look her in the eye as he tied his blue wrap about his hips. “You had a good time.”

  “You used me and now you’re toss­ing me aside like garbage. Like some whore you bought off the street.” Jes­sica was hu­mil­i­ated, and hu­mil­i­a­tion al­ways made her an­gry. “I never would have had sex with you if I’d known I was only a toy for your amuse­ment.”

  “That’s not how it was. I en­joyed our time to­gether.” Now Cla­jak looked an­gry too.

  Jes­sica didn’t care about his anger, not when her stom­ach was knot­ting with em­bar­rass­ment. Not when she felt far more hurt than she should con­sid­er­ing they’d only spent one night to­gether. Not when she fought not to cry.

  She found her ripped dress and yanked it on. “I was sav­ing my­self for my clan. For men I’d spend my life with, not some, some … some royal spoiled play­boy!”

  “I don’t know what you’re so up­set about. Any clan you end up with will have had many li­aisons in their past. You should thank me for wak­ing your urges so you can fit in. We’re not all up­tight Earth­ers, you know!” Cla­jak’s eyes flashed pur­ple fire.

  “No, you’re noth­ing like Earth­ers,” Jes­sica an­swered, her voice go­ing cold de­spite the knot of tears clos­ing off her throat. She clutched the torn front of her dress closed. She looked Cla­jak full in the face, un­car­ing at the fury that filled his ex­pres­sion.

  She told him, “You’re a self­ish brute who cares only about his own an­i­mal hungers. You may have a royal ti­tle, but you have no real dig­nity. You’re dis­gust­ing. Any man who cheats on his fi­ancée is noth­ing but scum in my hum­ble Earther opin­ion.”

  Cla­jak’s face was as dark as a thun­der­cloud. He said noth­ing though, and Jes­sica stormed to the door, ready to make her exit. As she walked out, she couldn’t re­sist one last part­ing shot.

  “Hope­fully, your be­trothed is hav­ing as much fun as you with as many men as pos­si­ble. She de­serves it, con­sid­er­ing what she’s end­ing up with!”

  There was still no an­swer. As the door snicked shut be­hind her, Jes­sica felt the rage pro­tect­ing her al­ready dis­si­pat­ing. Half­way to her room, hu­mil­i­a­tion re­turned, feed­ing the aw­ful hurt that filled her heart. Some­how she man­aged to keep her tears back un­til she reached the pri­vacy of her suite.

  * * * *

  Fol­low­ing Jes­sica’s abrupt exit, Cla­jak went into the at­tached walk-in closet and jerked on a clean form­suit. His thoughts boiled as he did so. It wasn’t his fault the silly lit­tle Earther wisp had thought she’d be in­vited to join his clan. She should have con­firmed his sta­tus be­fore open­ing her legs to him.

  Then to take out her mis­take on him, call­ing him a brute and scum! Cla­jak, son of Im­pe­rial Clan Zarl, the fu­ture Em­peror of Kalquor, the next ruler of the very planet that of­fered Jes­sica a safe home!

  Cla­jak threw him­self on the lounger and was re­warded with the scents they had made dur­ing their time to­gether. With a mut­tered oath, he stood back up and stomped to the pic­ture win­dow. He didn’t want to be re­minded of last night, of how ut­terly per­fect Jes­sica had felt to his body.

  Cla­jak looked out over the gar­den with its maze of hedges and stone fenc­ing, ar­ranged in out­door rooms where lovers could tryst in semi-pri­vacy. It was late in the Plasian year, the coolest time of the un­named cap­i­tal city’s trop­i­cal cli­mate. Flow­ers bloomed in ev­ery shade of the spec­trum, deca­dently flaunt­ing them­selves for all to ad­mire. Had Cla­jak deigned to step out­side, he’d be blan­keted in their per­fumes, ru­mored to be pow­er­ful aphro­disi­acs to the Plasians.

  Cla­jak saw none of the beauty be­fore him. He couldn’t keep his mind off Jes­sica or the guilt over­com­ing him.

  Be­hind her mask of anger, he’d seen hurt and em­bar­rass­ment. Jes­sica had en­trusted him to re­lease her from the shack­les of Earth’s over­bear­ing moral­ity, think­ing she gave her­self to a man she’d spend her life with. Cla­jak had stud­ied Earther psy­chol­ogy in prepa­ra­tion of rul­ing the alien race mix­ing with his own. He should have known the Earther fe­male wouldn’t have had in­ti­mate re­la­tions for sim­ple recre­ation. Even the most re­bel­lious of the back­wards planet couldn’t help but be af­fected by the strict laws they’d grown up un­der.

  Brute. Scum. Did Jes­sica re­ally think of him in those terms? Cla­jak didn’t want to care how she felt about him. Still, the shame he felt over tak­ing ad­van­tage of the fiery-tem­pered woman wouldn’t leave.

  Even harder to for­get was the exquisite­ness of her body. De­spite her slight frame, she was soft in all the right places, yield­ing where a man most wanted to be yielded to. Cla­jak had been for­tu­nate enough to sleep with a few of the rare fe­males of his own kind, and even they couldn’t com­pare with Jes­sica’s pli­ant sweet­ness.

  Her ea­ger­ness to learn was an­other rea­son to re­gret his be­hav­ior. He’d ex­pected ret­i­cence from one brought up in such prud­ish cir­cum­stances, but Jes­sica had been fer­vent in her de­sire to please him. It had more than made up for her ig­no­rance. His con­tin­ued crav­ing for her shocked him. He had cli­maxed time and again only to be ready to have her again within min­utes. Had he ever en­joyed a woman so much?