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“You’re reading my mind again. That’s enough. Let’s go back.” Xaixek’s quiet footsteps approached me, bits from branches and dried grasses crackling under his boots. He closed the gap between us in less than two strides.
“I have not just read your mind. It’s only happened one other time and that was when I touched you and found out you weren’t being truthful with me and treating me like a criminal when you knew I wasn’t.”
“I was only protecting you. When I feel, I am vulnerable. And when I’m vulnerable, I can’t protect you,” he said.
I moved in closer to him, lifted my hand and placed it against his chest. He let me touch them, but this time, he didn’t let me in.
I smiled. “I get it. When you feel, your auras are most alive, and if I touch you, I can feel what you feel.”
Xaixek covered my hand with his palm and in that moment a golden gleam swirled within his eyes.
“You can suppress your aura.” I was thinking aloud. No one had ever told me that the Zunatorians had some visible on/off switch that allowed them to hide emotions.
“Not really. I’ve learned over the years to cover one emotion with another. It’s imperative for the job I do. Convicts and killers I’m sent to track down have gifts too,” he said.
“I see.”
“You’re an empath, Alliana, as I’m sure you know. Your eagerness to help people and your sympathetic ways gifts you the ability to understand people even when others don’t. You were drawing from my aura and I didn’t know it.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I know that now.” His lips were so close to mine. “You are dangerous to have and dangerous to keep.”
“Is that what you believe, Xaixek,” I asked.
He said nothing, so I continued, “Speak for yourself. For Xaixek. What does Xaixek want?”
“You,” he growled, sending electric vibes up my spine. “T’at’up fi tix.”
“I want you too, Xaixek.”
He pressed a firm an dominating kiss against my lips and my soul lit afire. His mouth was surprising soft and the kiss felt like heaven. When he pulled away, I blinked up at him breathlessly.
“First, you’ll need to be punished,” he said, pulling the sack of his belongings from my hand.
I lifted my gaze and fixed my eyes on him. “Maybe I want to be punished,” I countered.
I wasn’t sure why I admitted such a thing aloud. Call it reverse psychology, or the curiosity tangled deep inside the web of my own thoughts—but the adventurous side of me wanted to know what he had in store.
I couldn’t explain what the root of my gut intuition was, but I just had a feeling that this so-called ‘punishment’ wasn’t going to be as severe as he was trying to make it out to be. I don’t know what it was, but the memory of him binding me to him with ropes turned me on like no other. It was the way in which he carried the tasks out. I felt no fear toward him. In fact, my instincts were telling me that I needed him.
He wound has hands around my waist and lifted me up off the ground. After throwing me over his shoulder caveman style, he started back in the direction of the rental pods.
Once inside, he laid me down on the bed.
For several seconds, he just stood there, brooding over me, breathing hard—staring at me intensely.
“You don’t like being tied up, you say,” he said, leaning over to let his lips graze against my ear. “Well, I now know that to be a lie.”
I gasped. Could he now read me?
“Mak,”he growled against the column of my throat. “I can read you.”
I didn’t move when he went to find the ropes to bind my hands again. He tied them together at the wrists and threw me over his lap until I was belly and face down. My heart pounded as his massive hands pulled up my tunic dress just enough to expose my bare ass. I thought I felt a tremor in his groin region, a stiffening—but I didn’t question it. It could have just been my imagination, anyway.
“You’ve been a very naughty girl,” he whispered. “Your actions cannot go unpunished. You must get a spanking. All Zunatorian mates must be conditioned to obey. For your safety, it is necessary.”
Xaixek cupped his hand over my right ass cheek and gave it a hard squeeze. I drew in a sharp breath and flinched.
