"I saw it," he confessed, running both open palms over her muscular thighs, then skimming them underneath until he clasped her shapely bottom in both hands. "I saw it in your mind. The night of my crash." He'd dreaded her knowing that fact for the past week, but now that they were truly bonded, he felt an exhilarating freedom with this woman. Felt that she should know and sense all that he had kept inside of himself, that she should uncork it as if he were her very own genie-and then she would own him, as well.

Her face fell, her expression becoming grave. "I see." She pulled back from him, drawing her legs back against herself.

He stopped with his act of body worship and leveled his gaze at her. "You are angry?"

"It's a little personal, don't you think?" How had they gone from nearly making love one moment, to falling into a lovers' quarrel the next? "I mean, what?" she pressed. "You know everything that's inside of me? I don't get to tell you anything myself? Just like that"-she snapped her fingers to ill.u.s.trate her point -"it's all yours?"

Odd, but he felt his entire body tremble in reply to her question. His heartbeat accelerated; his throat tightened. "We are personal," he said, surprised by the way his voice betrayed his feelings. He clasped both of her hands, placing them on his own dark-skinned thighs. "This is personal, Kelsey."

"I should've had some choice in the matter," she answered, looking away from him. Then, tears glinting in her eyes, she turned back to face him. "What else did you see?"

Ah, now this question-this one he had dreaded most of all. What else did you see, foolish, idiot king? The answers were too myriad even to address.

He tilted his chin upward, seizing control of the moment like the commander that he was. He even allowed defiance to enter his tone. "Many things," he answered. "I saw many things inside of you, human."

She leaned closer, placing an open palm over his crazily pounding heart. "Many personal things?" she pressed.

He lifted an eyebrow in challenge-and yet he had no wish to cause her even a moment's pain. "Many Kelsey things," he told her, his feelings for her coloring his confession. "Many, many facets to the woman I now love."

She nodded and, chewing on her full lower lip, seemed to think on his answer for a long moment. His heartbeat's tempo took yet another spiraling, upward turn until he could feel the very blood coursing through his veins, could feel the muscle in his chest pumping to keep pace with the emotional intensity between them. Just when he'd begun to wonder if he'd shattered everything between the two of them, she glanced upward and searched his face. Her irises seemed large and black, the emotion in her eyes palpable. But he did not blink beneath her scrutiny, and for long moments they regarded each other. Such strangers they were in one way, aliens completely, and yet fully mated despite that fact.

"You love me?" she asked thickly after a few searching moments.

He bowed his head, smiling. "Sweet human, what else could you possibly think? I loved you years ago, and I love you now."

"Why didn't you tell me you'd seen all those things?" She didn't try to mask the hurt in her voice. "If you'd just told me..."

He shrugged, wishing he had an apology to offer, but there was none. There was only the truth: "I wished you to love me, Kelsey." There, he had said it. "I had already glimpsed everything-it could not be undone. I wished you to believe me a good man, insane as that may now seem."

"Jared!" she cried, leaning close-much closer. She slid upward, climbing onto his lap with a burst of heartfelt exuberance until the water sloshed over the rim of the tub and he had to groan with the sudden weight of her upon him. She was not a small woman, not by even his own species' reckoning. "Jared, I do love you. Already. I did from"- she paused, cupping his face within her soft palms and turning it upward until his eyes locked with hers-"well, from the beginning, I think. But you should have told me." She shook her head, tears welling in her cool-eyed gaze again. "I really wish you had before tonight."

"Before we mated," he finished.

"It's a trust thing."

He felt with her now as he often did with humans: unable to reason out her reaction. "You are angry about this seeing inside of you," he observed, feeling confused, "but not about my forming the bond?"

"I told you that was okay. I told you I wanted to help that night, remember? But this... this is you seeing into me."

"Isn't that what lovers do?" he asked, and meant it. Maybe the timing had been wrong, but d.a.m.n it all, he'd gazed into her as surely as if they'd been mated lovers already. "Don't they see each other's hearts? Very souls?"

She dropped her head. "I wouldn't know."

"You know me now, Kelsey," he promised, taking her chin and tipping it upward until their eyes met again in the dim light of the candles around them. Beyond her shoulder an array of tapers stood along the ledge of the tiled wall, their flames licking at the otherwise dark room, creating lyrical shadows in every direction. "Did you not see inside of me?" he asked, curious. He had wondered-frantically wondered- what she might have seen within him by the lake.

She shook her head, her expression becoming unreadable and sad, but her tender gaze never left his face. "Only images, tonight while we made love." She stroked his cheek, tracing the outline of his scars. He wanted to flinch beneath her close scrutiny, but willed himself not to. "No, I didn't see inside of you, not really. But maybe one day I can."

"I wish you had."

"I've felt you, though," she said, her voice growing much softer. "All week. It's become more and more intense."

"That is our bond," he agreed, staring up into her eyes. The blue in them had all but vanished, replaced by bright green. "You opened to me-did you know that?"

She shook her head, confused. "What does that mean? To open?"

"Most of my species would guard themselves," he explained. "Without even meaning to do so. You...

opened. There is not another word for it." The language barrier between them agonized him-he longed for his native tongue in a way he'd not done in years.

"When you appeared, there at the lake after your crash," she said, seeming to choose her own words carefully, "I was terrified of you. But I was drawn to you too. It was weird, Jared. I wanted to be afraid, but I couldn't be, not really. I felt your goodness. I'm sure some lost part of me remembered you, but it was more than that-much more. It was like down inside of you something beautiful attracted me. Something beautiful and very, very appealing."

He remembered the way she had responded as they'd formed the bond; how the physicality of it had aroused her. But had it been something about him as well? "Ah," he whispered, and searched for the right words, but seemed unable to produce another intelligent syllable in English. So he repeated the only ones that came to mind: "Ah, Kelsey."

She bent down to kiss him full on the mouth, almost as if sealing something between the two of them. As he sucked on her lower lip, teasing her with his tongue, she tasted sweet, like the whiskey he'd served her earlier-and she even tasted Refarian somehow, infused with the intoxicating kisses he'd been giving her all night long, and perhaps because she truly was a part of him now. He clasped her face in his hands, and she coaxed his lips open, her tongue darting into his mouth, twining with his own.

She was so close upon him, he could feel the warmth of her breath tickling his cheek, and her steady heartbeat beneath the palm he'd splayed across her back.

"Jared," she groaned in his ear as he cupped her bottom, holding her firm atop his groin. His erection pressed into her thigh, and he ached with need for her. G.o.ds, how he wanted her-more than earlier, more than during the past week. His heart and loins thundered with his desperate hunger for his mate.

"Jared?" she whispered in his ear, her voice a coquettish, seductive sound.

"Umm?" he managed, feeling her lift atop him slightly. Her hand slipped between them, closing about his erection. He cried out at the intimate touch.

"I'm going to do something," she warned him with a vixen's laugh right in his ear, never relinquishing her hold on the hardened length of him.

"Okay." The word came out all breathless and desperate. d.a.m.n it all, he had no control with this human! "Do... what?" He gasped, practically begging, as she gave his erection another tantalizing stroke, her thumb lingering on the vein underneath until he growled.

Her moody eyes narrowed with desire, and she positioned herself squarely on his lap, over him. Then in one swift, aggressive move, she sheathed herself over his hard-ened length. Against the back of his neck, the faucet k.n.o.b pushed into the base of his skull. He braced his feet against the tub's ledge as she rocked atop him with a furious motion. This time it wasn't gentle or beautiful; this taking of hers was fierce and binding. She wanted to seize something from him-just as he had taken from her soul that night at the lake. Men and kings and rulers all wished to dominate him; never did he submit. But this lover of his... he yearned for their bond to be equal-he yearned for her- and she needed to take him. With a m.u.f.fled groan of pure pleasure, he closed his eyes and let himself fall under her control.

Her thighs tightened, pulling against his, and her fingers clawed at his shoulders. Water swelled over the sides of the tub, sloshing onto the tiled floor. Over and over he moaned her name, whispered it, prayed it, breathed it. All the while he felt something unfamiliar rising to a crescendo in his blood, something that could never be denied. But he ignored the siren song of that thing, focusing only on Kelsey, right here, right now, atop him. He could feel the deepest place inside of her, like a slick, grasping caress.

Unrelenting, she continued to move atop him, gasping, throwing her head back in ecstasy.

On and on they went for long, aching minutes. Kelsey wrapped her arms around Jared, pressing her abdomen flat against his. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s moved against his face, and the bristling of his shadowed beard sc.r.a.ped at her nipples. She didn't care; she had to have all of this man who already owned so much of her. He'd wanted her to love him, and she did, completely, but there was a possessing that also remained here. Beneath her, his skin seemed darker than before-he seemed darker, more ambiguous. "What"- she gasped as she rocked atop him-"did"-more movement, her pushing down atop him-"you... see?" she cried out, her own o.r.g.a.s.m ripping through her core as she felt his burning essence fill her.

She cried, and he gasped, his face twisting into a glorious wince of pain and bliss. He grasped at her, his large hands steadying her atop him. He'd slid down into the tub beneath her until he was in a contorted position that didn't look even remotely comfortable-but her alien made zero complaints. Now they stared at each other, almost squared off into a battle of wills, his chest rising with ragged breaths.

"I saw that you are unique," he answered, panting. "I saw a kind, good, strong woman-untouched by the evil I've known all my days." He paused, his sensuous eyes narrowing. "I saw that you possessed every quality my heart has secretly longed for in a wife." Wife? But then again, what else was a lifemate? "I saw," he said, easing her off of him, "that humans, despite this war I'm embroiled in, are good and n.o.ble people-that is, if they are like you, my love."

She pitched forward, tears suddenly coming unbidden. She leaned against him, feeling his hands trace her backbone, caress the whole of her body. And she wasn't certain why she cried; maybe it was realizing that he knew her through and through. Maybe it was that she could never know him in the same way, not without this alien ability of looking into someone's soul. Or maybe it was just that she felt-despite how he'd invaded her initially, against her will-full trust for him. And there was a tremendous relief that came with that realization.

She should feel robbed of something; should have felt, as she had at first, that she wanted to take something from him in turn. But what she felt, here with the warmth of the lapping water around them both, with his muscled, warrior's body beneath her and his strong arms around her, was something unexpectedly alien: the complete, abiding, perfect trust of belonging to another. And she did belong, not just to Jared as a mate or a lover, but here with him, right in his arms. Somehow across the twining, circuitous paths that searched the galaxies, her soul mate had come to her.

"On Refaria, we have an understanding of time that is different from yours," he whispered, petting her hair with a gentle gesture. "It flows, forward and backward; sometimes it folds sideways or makes a contortion." She sniffled loudly, her face still buried against his sinewy shoulder. "But the main thing time does is that it brings us to the place where we belong."

I belong with you, she thought, closing her eyes. She hadn't belonged anywhere in such a long, long time -not really. Hot tears squeezed out, rolling down her face and blending with the warm bathwater. Oh, I so belong here.

"Some of my people even believe time to be a mirror," he continued in a whisper, "reflecting all our infinite possibilities, in multiple dimensions."

She pulled back to look in his eyes. "I have studied physics," she reminded him, sniffling. "So I'm familiar with hypers.p.a.ce theory."

"But I'm talking about more than theories, Kelsey," he continued. "What I'm getting at is... the way you felt you could trust me? That you seemed to know me? Not just now, but when we were children? Perhaps on some other planet somewhere, you already did. Perhaps you beheld the future, folding onto the moment-and knew I was your mate."

"I recognized you." In all his glorious, terrifying beauty, she had definitely known him. It was all beginning to make sense, even to a scientist like herself.

"And I you."

Then, breaking into a surprising, boyish grin-almost lopsided-he traced his fingertip over her

breastbone, outlining a constellation of freckles. "I even knew these."

She leaned upward onto his lap and touched the fanned edges of his almond-shaped eyes. "And I knew these."

"We knew each other," he affirmed with a nod. Somehow, when he put it in great philosophical terms like

that, his seeing all her secrets no longer seemed such a very big thing after all.

Chapter Ten.

Jared left Kelsey soaking in the tub, a half-dazed expression on her face; their interspecies mating had obviously taken quite a. toll on her human body. Blissful, celestial, holy, the joining had nonetheless been exhausting for her system- as had all the emotional interactions between the two of them. Kissing the top of her freckled forehead, he promised to return soon with a surprise, and she sank down into the frothy bubbles with a smile on her face. Just as he'd suspected: The woman loved surprises.

Mirror Lake had been a surprise-the ultimate one for her-yet she'd welcomed him with open hands and heart, then displayed that same lack of inhibition while making love with him tonight. She'd even begged for his fiery other self to touch her. Rarely had Jared felt that kind of deep, resounding acceptance, not in all his thirty years as a dual being. In his most natural state, none dared approach; people feared him, revered him, and if he were critically injured, they attempted to cure him. But none had ever longed to touch him in D'Aravnian form.

Not so with Kelsey. She had wanted his fire to roam all over that luscious curving body of hers, caressing, teasing her-and had never once counted the cost. Perhaps next time he might dare to move even closer. She would be safe, he promised himself, swallowing hard; he could dance near his love, keeping distance enough not to harm her. Just at the thought of it, the bath towel he'd swagged around his hips tented upward with l.u.s.tful enthusiasm, and he made a rough rumble of desire. Silence, man, or you'll frighten her, his calmer side cautioned. This is all new to her. She does not yet understand what you are.

Rubbing an open hand over his hammering heart, he worked to center his thoughts. The plan. He had to focus on the plan, which had formed in his mind as a way of expressing something human to Kelsey. One thing Jared had come to understand during his six years on Earth was that her species valued their pleasures. Not just the physical-ecstasy kinds of pleasures like the two of them had shared tonight, or life's greatest pleasures, but the simple kinds as well. Food, drink, sleep: Humans enjoyed even the most mundane elements of their existence, and when denied them, they chafed and grew irritable. His own life was a rugged one, with long hours of soldiering and dismal prospects for peace, but he wanted Kelsey to know something better in his arms. He wanted her first night joined with him to be one marked by all the sorts of indulgences that he imagined must matter to her.

And so his plan: He yearned to draw his exotic lifemate up into bed and feed her. Feed her little bits of chocolate and cookies and grapes, even give her sips of that blasted whiskey he loved so much. Then, after this royal banquet, he intended to ma.s.sage her feminine toes with some kind of lotion or oil-but where to find such things? Warriors kept no chocolate, no lotion. .

Pa.s.sing by the bathroom door again, he watched Kelsey adjust the faucet with said toes, and he smiled. She possessed beautiful, delicate feet, ones that required adoring. A quick glance at his bedside clock showed the time to be just after midnight, which meant that only watch patrols were about, and possibly Anika, who rarely slept more than an hour or two each night, seemingly powered on. bottomless reserves of energy. Ah, his dear Anika-when it came to doting upon her king, she was perhaps the worst in this camp, he thought with a devilish smile, as he slipped into his long terry-cloth robe. Yes, she would know exactly where to find what he needed.

Jared crept into Anika's room, the hall light arcing across the pinewood floorboards. In the top bunk, her twin sister, Anna, sprawled on her stomach and snored, one pale arm dangling over the side listlessly. In the lower bunk, Anika had folded herself into a neat, quiet ball, sleeping without making any noise whatsoever. Squatting beside Anika's bed, he gave her shoulder a nudge. Her eyes snapped open, then widened in alarm upon finding her commander bedside at such a late hour. He lifted a finger to his lips, indicating quiet. "All is well," he a.s.sured her, and relief washed over her features. He gave her a warm smile. "But I could use a little help."

"Certainly, my lord." She sat up, all business, without missing a beat-always the disciplined soldier. "Tell me how I may a.s.sist you. Is it further help with Kelsey Wells, sir?" she asked.

Did he look as shy and absurd as he suddenly felt? He had no business here, pawing around for such common things. Had he lost his mind? Anika might be his dear friend, but first and foremost she served within his military ranks.

"It is... nothing," he answered, his smile turning downward into a frown. "I shouldn't have wakened you. Back to sleep, soldier." He rose to his feet, but Anika followed.

"Please, my lord," she insisted, bowing slightly. "I wish to help with the human." The bow deepened, became a low gesture, and she placed one fist over her chest in pledge. He could trust this woman; there were few in all his elite forces more loyal or more deserving of his faith than Anika. Only Scott ranked higher as a friend and confidant. "Please, Anika," he whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "Rise."

She obeyed, pulling up to her full, willowy stature. "Tell me how I may help," she urged again, turning her open, kind face upward toward him.

"I require chocolate," he grunted-rather unpleasantly- folding both arms over his chest. The robe fell open then, revealing his bare skin beneath, still flushed with the afterglow of mating. Anika averted her eyes and he added, "Very fine chocolate."

The edges of Anika's fan-shaped eyes turned slightly upward with joy. "Chocolate, my lord?" Oh, this pleased his lieutenant-pleased her quite a bit, in fact, from what he could see. Among his people, those who attempted such workings were called lalalosungs: a mellifluous term for those with a sneaky habit of matchmaking.

"Lalalosung," he accused, his frown beginning to tug into a smile.

"Courting king," she shot back at him, eyes gleaming. For a long moment each regarded the other in challenge. Then Jared burst into rumbling peals of laughter-couldn't have stopped himself if he'd tried- until, on the upper bunk, her twin sister stirred. Anika yanked him by the hand, pulling him beneath the bunk and onto her bed before Anna woke and discovered her commander standing in their bedroom. He nearly slammed his forehead into the frame of the upper bunk, but fortunately missed the wooden beam by an inch or so.

Once they were settled and Anna's snoring had resumed, Anika leaned close, smiling at him. "My lord, did you know that humans consider chocolate to be a sort of love token?" she whispered, her voice a.s.suming a conspiratorial quality as she crossed her legs. "Some even say it's an aphrodisiac."

Strange, but he felt himself blush at her remark. "Yes, I have heard this."

"I wasn't sure if you knew that, sir." She leaned under the bed to retrieve a small box of private things, depositing it on the mattress between the two of them. When she removed the lid, there in the middle of the trunk sat a golden, perfect box, like the most royal case of jewels, G.o.d iva. Was this the name of a human G.o.d? He c.o.c.ked his head sideways, heightening his vision so he could better read the lettering:

G.o.diva. Ah, a single word. Yes, he had heard this term before here on Earth, though where precisely, he could not recall.

"They make delicious, wonderful chocolate," she promised him, her dark eyes growing wide.

Nodding toward the gilded box, he asked, "How did you procure this?"

"I have my ways," she answered cryptically, sliding the unopened box across the bed toward him.

"This seems a prize item," he protested, pushing it back toward her with his fingertips.

She shook her head, beaming at him. "Take it," she sang, again slipping the box across the bed like a

golden p.a.w.n. "It's your mating night, my lord."

He opened his mouth in disbelief. The woman knew!

Somehow, blast it all, his adviser knew they had crossed the ultimate barrier together. "How did you-"

She took his hands, closing them beneath hers atop the box. "I would recognize that look anywhere," she