Star Kissed (16 page)

Mandy sneaked a glance towards Akkadi.

The Naki prince she
wanted
to look at her was interested in Hichele instead. Mandy had never wanted to throw a hissy fit the way she did when she saw his gaze pinned to the Naki woman.

Maybe he really did prefer Naki women. She hadn’t wanted to believe the idea. Dressed in a uniform no thicker than a second skin, Mandy still wasn’t able to grab the Naki prince’s attention.

He moved towards the group without acknowledging Mandy at all.

He greeted his mother and Hichele with typical coolness. Hichele appeared far too pleased by all the attention. Mandy stayed back. None looked at her directly, but she suspected they were all aware of her. Mandy wasn’t the jealous type, but she felt a streak of envy at the fact Akkadi spoke to Hichele – however briefly – while completely ignoring the woman he took as a consort.

Akkadi led them through the command bridge and through a panel on one side. Mandy trailed the guard, who motioned for her to take up a spot beside him. She stood for a few moments, working on grounding herself once more. The men and women Naki on the war bridge glanced at her often, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t dressed like Cat Woman for them. Her eyes followed the movements of star ships darting through the space outside the station. She resisted the need to pinch herself to make sure this place was real.

“Enter
.
” The guard next to her said in the creepy whisper. She glanced up at him and grudgingly entered the panel, not yet ready to talk to anyone. Her day had started bad and wasn’t about to get any better.

Akkadi was alone in the room. She stopped upon entering, surprised. His gaze was on her, emotionless and cold as usual.

“My prince.” She gave a faulty bow, heart hammering in her chest.

“You learned to bow,” he said crisply. “Almost.”

Mandy rolled her eyes. She was all too aware of his nearness as he stepped into her comfort zone, where he seemed to like to be. His spicy scent ensnared her.

He just wants to torture me,
she told herself, gazing up at him. His blue eyes were mesmerizing, his intense look making her overly aware of how closely they stood. The world came into focus once more, her sense of the surreal disappearing. He was the only thing that was real, an anchor that wanted nothing more than to set her free to float away into space.

“You are ill,” he stated.

“No.”

“You appear ill.” He studied her intently. His words were as much a command as an observation, one she found herself answering.

“I keep having … flashbacks. Or something,” she murmured. “They make me dizzy. Like this isn’t real.”

“You know it is.”

“When I’m near you, it is.”

The tension between them confused her. It was sexual in nature, yes, but why would she want him after he kissed her and walked?

“You are dressed … appropriately,” he said. “I prefer the robe on you.”

“My queen has already had clothing made for me, my prince,” she said with as much humbleness as she could manage. She wanted to snap at him in frustration. He looked down her body, and his eyes glowed. It wasn’t the look of someone who viewed sex as a duty. It was a very human expression of desire.

His mother claimed he was trying to keep her at a distance for fear of having to admit he was a human. If so, he was more confused than she was after being thrown ten thousand years into the future.

They gazed at each other, the air between them crackling.

“Your form for a bow is off,” Akkadi said. “You need to learn it.”

“I’m doing my best,” she said with some emotion. “It’s not like you’ve been helpful at all.”

“The human wildness again,” he said. “I don’t know if I like it.”

“If I had to guess, I’d say you’re afraid of it.”

His jaw tightened in the only sign her words had any effect on him. Unwilling to back down despite the desire blooming within her, Mandy held his gaze.

“May I correct your form?” He held out a hand without touching her.

“You don’t need my permission to touch me,” she replied. “After last night, you should know that.”

“Inappropriate comment.”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “I think you like my wildness but are too stubborn to admit it, Akkadi.”

“Improper address,” he noted. His blue eyes took her in, lingering on her lips. “Bow, so that I may correct your form.”

She obeyed. He took her wrists gently as she rose.

“Your hands should remain in place,” he said. He moved her wrists to her sides and pressed them there, his warm hands covering hers. He interlaced their fingers, drawing her closer.

Mandy’s breath caught at the heat of his frame so close to hers and his masculine scent. The memory of his hands roaming her body possessively made her lower belly boil with heat.

A man without compassion wasn’t going to be sympathetic to her cause. She had nothing to offer him except for her body and an attempt at manipulating his emotions, if she could even access them. Even now, he was carefully controlled, cold, aloof. It made her want to prove to him that he was at least part human.

Akkadi needed a push, and she wasn’t entirely certain what that was. She’d never had to seduce anyone before; men just fell at her feet. Her mother used to bitterly claim that men only wanted what they couldn’t have.

He hadn’t melted to her kisses or her body. It was worth a try.

With some reluctance, Mandy turned away and walked to the door, swinging her hips in a carefully executed walk. If he didn’t react to
that,
she really was doomed.

“Wait.”

She paused a couple of feet from the panels, holding her breath in anticipation of what he’d say.

“Why did three of my cousins request to take you as a mate this morning?”

“I don’t know. Ask them, Akkadi.” She smiled. “What did you tell them?”

“The truth: none of them would want someone as disciplined as you in their beds.”

She swallowed a laugh. What he found offensive, she didn’t think his cousins would.

“It didn’t seem to deter them,” he added.

“It’s called making sure I have options,” she told him. “Vekko seemed upset that you meant to keep me as a consort when he wanted to make me an honorable woman.”

“We have an agreement.” Akkadi’s voice was cold.

“Because you really seem to want anything to do with me,” she snapped, whirling. “You walked out on me last night, Akkadi. If you don’t like humans, your cousins might!”

“If I understand your motivation correctly, there is nothing they can offer you that you want,” he replied calmly. Hands clasped behind his back, he closed the distance between them once more. “Only I do.”

Mandy tilted her head back to glare at him, hating that he was right and hating even more the way her body ached for him when he was this close.

“Did my mother put you up to … this?” he asked, eyes moving slowly over her.

“I like it.”

“I don’t.”

Angry with him, she moved closer, until their bodies just touched. She jabbed him in the chest with a finger.

“Man up, Akkadi. If you want me, then stop being a coward about it. If you don’t, let me make some sort of
arrangement
with your cousin!” Mandy spun to leave, fed up trying to read him.

 He caught her arm as he had the day before, this time spinning her. Before she could react, his lips were on hers, his kiss hungry and deep. Mandy’s desire roared to life. She wrapped her arms around his neck while his went around her body, one of his hands gliding to her ass. He drew her hips against his, letting her feel his erection once more. Mandy tasted him, lost in the scent and flavor of his spicy musk and the hard body pressed against hers. His full lips, hot mouth and intensity robbed her of breath. The warmth pooled in her lower belly raced throughout her.

She slid her hands up his shirt, marveling at the roped muscles of his chest and abs before she squeezed one hand between their bodies to stroke his erection through his trousers. He was hard, thick and long, which made the ache at her core hot and wet. She rubbed his hard on, satisfied when his hunger for her turned into outright need. His kisses started down her neck to her collarbone. One hand slid up her shirt to her breast, and he lightly traced his thumb over her nipple, the exquisite sensation chipping at her resolve not to let him affect her.

No part of her wanted to walk away from him. She wanted him to make love to her on the conference room table, to satisfy the need burning at her core.

More than that, she wanted him to feel what she did the night before when he walked out. Mandy captured his roaming hands and gripped his wrists, pushing him away. She stepped back, panting.  

Akkadi stared at her, desire flaring in his gaze as his eyes roved possessively over her body.

“Not nice, is it, to walk out right about now?” she challenged. “Remember that the next time you do that to me.”

“You’re leaving,” he said, gaze sharpening.

“Yep. I’ll be available tonight. Right now, I’ve got a
duty
to your mother.” She turned away to face the panels. She didn’t feel satisfied; she felt like throwing herself into his arms and begging him to fuck her hard, right there in the conference room next to the battle deck.

“No bow?” Akkadi’s voice was a cold, husky growl.

Rattled but determined, Mandy executed a perfect bow, sticking her ass out at him in the process.

She glanced back and saw Akkadi’s arms were crossed, his eyes on her rear with enough interest she almost laughed. She sensed his irritation and swung her hips seductively the last few steps towards the wall. She stopped, staring at the panels. From what she’d figured out, one was a door and the rest were walls. Her attempt at a victory walk would be stopped short if she ran into a wall.

“Which damn door leads out of here?” she asked.

“Panel on your left,” Akkadi supplied in a tight voice.

She expected him to give her the wrong directions and cringed. Mandy drew a breath and walked through the panel, pleased to see she ended up in a hallway. Proud of herself for creeping under the skin of the Naki prince despite the cost to her, she looked around. A guard stood across the hall. He motioned for her to proceed through the panel he stood beside. She fixed her hair and drew a few deep breaths to settle her zinging blood, flustered from her run-in with the sexy Akkadi. When she gauged herself ready enough, she stepped through.

Hichele, Helen, and the two cousins were in another meeting with more men. None acknowledged her. She took up a spot near the entrance, mind on Akkadi’s unexpected display of passion. With a shake of her head, she looked at his two cousins. She tried to act defiant about sleeping with whomever it took to get what she wanted, but Akkadi knew the truth. He’d be able to string her along all he wanted, because only he had the ability to send her home.

Mandy’s attention settled on Helen. What was the woman doing, playing the cousins and Akkadi against one another? Mandy didn’t know what to think of her introductions to the men earlier.

Did Helen think Mandy had a better chance with one of Akkadi’s cousins than with him? It wasn’t a happy thought, and it left Mandy doubting her ability to seduce a man whose thaws were almost too brief. After last night, she wasn’t about to assume Akkadi’s sudden passion earlier was enough to lure him into bed. He’d walked way once and not come after her the second time.

She was afraid to find out what happened the third time.

This meeting dragged on forever. Fortunately, it gave her time to recover from the exchange with Akkadi. Mandy debated leaving and ended up leaning against a wall. When it ended, she straightened herself to offer the required bows to those who filed out. Hichele took the arm of one of the older men, who looked too much like her not to be related. Her face was glowing.

“Mandy,” the queen called her over where she stood with her two adopted sons, the eldest Subakki and the second youngest, Kadi. Subakki looked to be in his prime while Kadi was little older than Akkadi and Vekko.

“Yes, my queen,” Mandy said and approached.

“Subakki, Vekko and Kadi have expressed an interest taking you as his mate,” Helen said.

Mandy opened her mouth to object, and the woman raised a hand.

“I know. Worst-case scenario. Assuming you can’t leave here. I’ve told them to give you two-to-three months to work out what you need to. After that time, we will have this discussion again about finding you a husband,” Helen said. “It’s a better fate than remaining a slave or consort.”

Mandy heard what the queen inferred, that Akkadi was not one of those interested in her as more than a consort. Though their relationship was just starting, she felt stung by the fact Akkadi wouldn’t be in the running. What was wrong with him? At home, she always had men lining up to date her. Why wasn’t he one of them?

It didn’t matter. She’d be out of here in three months anyway.

“Yes, my queen,” she said, realizing they were waiting for her to speak.

“You are dismissed for today.”

Mandy bowed and waited for them to leave, trailing them into a corridor.

“Follow me.” The waiting guard directed her. She did so, and he led her to Akkadi’s quarters again.

It wasn’t where she wanted to be at the moment. The man standing between her and home – who didn’t want to sleep with her when she flat out threw herself at him – wasn’t the face she wanted to see.

A darker thought gripped her. Helen had accepted the fact she would never return to the Bronx; she appeared far too certain that Mandy was never leaving either. Troubled by the possibility of remaining here, she crossed to the windows to watch her planet.

The sight of it made her hurt to recall how beautiful it once was.

Deep in thought, she didn’t hear Akkadi return.

“The sight disturbs you,” he said.

Mandy tensed. God help her, she wanted to be with the rest of the slaves! She had no idea how to handle or predict the Naki prince. The unmistakable sound of him approaching made her want to growl in frustration. Her body was already warming in memory of their kiss earlier, and she had the urge to cross her legs to keep her core from aching.