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“What kind of courting did you have in mind?” I asked eventually. “What was your plan, before this conversation?”

“I wanted to take you shopping on the promenade,” he said, lacing our fingers together despite how much larger his hand was than mine. “I wanted to buy some clothes for myself that aren’t a flight suit while you choose a beautiful dress and all the lovely accessories that go with it. And then I wanted to have dinner alone with you in the arboretum while Byx bribes security to close it down for a couple of hours for ‘repairs.’” He tipped my chin up and gazed into my eyes. “I hoped to kiss you under the stars with the nebula around us, and feel like the luckiest male in the whole damned galaxy.”

Maybe it was his vow to be the mate I needed, or the relief I felt knowing he wasn’t going to try to take over my life, or the brilliant colors of the nebula outside the window, or the glow of his eyes, or the rough edge in his voice that betrayed just how important this courting was to him, but suddenly the vision of us together in the arboretum was crystal clear in my head.

No opponent’s weapon had ever floored me as quickly or as thoroughly as how much I wanted this for him. For us.

“I will pay for my clothes,” I said, smiling as I cupped his cheek. “And for half the meal.”

He made a sound like a groan and drew me to his rumbling chest. I burrowed my face into the side of his neck and inhaled. He groaned again, louder and rougher this time. And his cocks were growing hard against my core.

I rested my head on his shoulder. “You really want me to wear a dress, though? Me?”

“I want you to wear whatever you want to wear,” he said into my hair, and I knew without seeing his face that he meant it. “You can wear a grain sack and go barefoot if you want.”

“I’ll look for a shop that sells grain sacks, then.”

He chuckled. “Shall we see if Byx thinks we can venture out safely to the promenade?”

“In a minute.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “So, when we get up to the arboretum in our new clothes and have our meal, you expect a kiss?”

“I hope for a kiss,” he corrected me.

“Is that all you hope for?” I teased.

“No.” Jarrix nuzzled my hair and pulled me closer until I felt his cocks throbbing against me through our clothes. I stifled a little whimper. “No, my mate,” he rumbled. “That is not all I hope for.”

Byx’s mate Felina was a gorgeous female Archan with pink fur, jeweled fangs, eight shapely segmented legs, and pink polish on all her many, many tiny claws.

Less than five minutes after we met, she kissed Byx passionately in front of everyone in the docking bay, wrapped one delicate leg around my shoulders, and declared herself my new best friend.

The panicked look I gave Jarrix as Felina swept me away into a private lift destined for the promenade made him shake with barely suppressed laughter.

My eyes narrowed. Bad bat. My fingers twitched toward the dagger sheathed on my thigh just as the lift doors closed, saving Jarrix from his bloody fate.

“I was a princess,” Felina confided as the lift rose smoothly from the outpost’s docking levels toward its uppermost habitat ring.

All ten of her eyes had purple lashes with matching shimmering dust on their almost transparent lids. They blinked in sequence, and I found myself blinking along with her in a strange kind of camaraderie.

“My mothers wanted me to wed a princess from another province,” she continued with a dramatic wave of four of her legs. “I refused because I wished to marry for love and ended up imprisoned on my family’s orbital estate awaiting my fate. And then Byx Klettirian, the greatest of all the Wundi corsairs, heard of my plight and came to rescue me. He destroyed the estate and freed me.”

“I did hear about that,” I murmured.

“He let all of the staff evacuate first, of course. He is a true gentlemale.” She clasped two of her many-fingered hands, her expression rapt, as if she was reliving the moment she and her mate had met. “Byx is the most magnificent male in all the Goddess’s many realms.” All of her eyes focused suddenly on me. “And how did you meet your beloved Garon, Adelaide?”

“Er…” I coughed. “In a bar? On a space station.”

“Oh, how wonderful,” she said with what might have been actual awe. “The Goddess weaves her threads so perfectly. Imagine…in all the vast universe, you and Garon met at a single point in time. Simply marvelous.”

The lift doors opened, saving me from needing to come up with a response. Felina guided me out onto the single-level promenade.

After evaluating the rest of the ships currently docked at Trakhan, Byx was reasonably certain none contained bounty hunters or mercenaries. Even so, to go shopping with Felina, I’d donned a plain maroon hooded cloak over my flight suit. My nanotech cloak had been destroyed getting off Ghira Station, but this one offered some limited camouflage capabilities.

To blend in with a crowd or disappear into the shadows, though, first I’d have to separate from the pink eight-legged female at my side who drew attention from the moment we emerged from the lift.

“So, what would you like to wear for your visit to the arboretum?” Felina tucked one of her legs into the crook of my arm and gestured with another at the shops and stalls lining the promenade. “And would you care for a drink while you decide? Byx enticed a Bacorian wine merchant to open a small establishment. The selection is woefully limited, but the quality is quite excellent. And of course our drinks will be gratis. The proprietor is a dear friend.”

She was already herding me in the direction of the shop.