Grace Goodwin - The Virgins - Complete Boxed Set

Our society was strict and traditional, but women held much power, were cherished and protected above all else. And I’d seen the flare of desire in her eyes as I’d threatened to spank her, even more so when I’d held her in place and fucked her with my fingers. She would adjust well. We were an old race, an ancient race advanced enough to ensure none went hungry, none were homeless, our politics staid and our wars limited to the universal fight for survival against the Hive threat that raged in deep space.

And Cassie was young, young and innocent and so beautiful, looking at her caused both my heart and my cock to ache with want.

She took a long time answering my question, but I waited for her to organize her thoughts. I knew nothing of Earthen mating customs, of what my mate might expect from me. Did they not believe in love? In forever?

“Yes. People in love lose their minds all the time.” She sounded so sad, resigned, and I tried to remember that she’d just lost her dead husband’s father and been forced from her home. It was hard to balance the feelings of seeing her heartache with the joy that coursed through me every time I caught a glimpse of her, breathed in the sweet scent of roses and sunshine, remembered the soft feel of her skin under my hands and mouth. It was my job to take away her heartache as much as pleasure her body.

“And have you ever lost your mind for love? For your husband, perhaps?”

She’d been married, and still, I wanted her answer to be no. A deep, primal part of me wanted to be the only man she would ever love. I tried to convince myself that her presence beside me was the only thing that mattered, that I had time to win her over, but the aching organ in my chest refused to listen.

Her sad grin made me yearn to stop the horses and pull her into my lap, kiss the sadness from her eyes. “No. My marriage to Charles was… convenient. He was six years older than me and we were raised in the same house. When I turned eighteen, it just seemed… easy to marry him. We knew each other and we both wanted to help run the boarding house. While I felt comfort with him, it was never love. As for losing my mind for love? The only time was behind the chicken coop. With you.”

I was instantly hard from the memory of her wet pussy under my tongue, the taste of her desire on my lips as she’d whimpered and cried out before me, her hands in my hair, holding me closer. Tighter.

I wanted that again. Now. I’d rarely imagined finding my marked mate and when I’d dared hope of such an occurrence, I’d pictured her baring her body with eagerness, calling me to her with her eyes and her words, begging me to take her, to fuck her, to fill her and make her mine. Marked mates were instantly eager for each other, eager to seal the bond through mating sex—sexual fulfillment with the marks touching—and it happened quickly. Most marked mates bonded the very same day. They just knew .

The marks were the guide, the link, the bond.

Now I was forced to wonder just how many mated pairs were separated by distances too far to be overcome.

I knew that eons ago Everians had colonized far-off planets, but Earth was beyond the range of my expectations. As for Cassie, I was surely well beyond her expectations. She’d been married, but the man had died. From the surprise in her eyes as she’d responded to my touch, the man had not pleased her as he should. From her words just now, he’d not gained her heart either. But that was no surprise.

He wasn’t her marked mate. I was.

And so whatever she’d had with her husband had just been temporary until I found her. I was thankful to the dead man for protecting her.

Now… now it would be different. I would awaken not only her mark, but her every dark desire and fantasy. And I would fulfill them. Every. Single. One.

Being a widow left her vulnerable. I was surprised, since she did not know of her mark or her history, that she had yet to remarry. With her beauty, her fiery demeanor, her solid and caring work ethic, surely she’d had Earth men circling about her. Men more worthy of her attentions than those like the fucker who’d had his hand on her ass.

The mere thought of that arrogant bastard made me want to turn my animal around and go kill him, but that would make me no better than Neron. I was just not accustomed to women being treated so poorly, with such disregard and lack of respect. But this was Earth, a somewhat backwards and rustic place. They were not as advanced as Everis in so many ways. And that prompted me to return my thoughts to Cassie’s ignorance of her mark.

She was supposed to be mine, my preordained mate, the one and only woman in existence destined to belong to me. I’d pressed my hand to hers, sealed our marks and allowed the heat of our mating bond to flow freely between us. My cock had swelled to the point of bursting and my skin had felt as if it were on fire. I saw the heat and awareness in her eyes, but she refused to believe in it. She’d merely looked up into my eyes and calmly informed me that she would accompany me only until Neron was dead and that I was to keep my desires to myself.

I’d never imagined she would doubt my claim or refuse my touch. My body was primed and eager for her, ready to strip her bare and make her mine. But I would only bond with her if she agreed, if she wanted me as badly as I wanted her. No, I would only bond with her if she needed it as desperately as I did.

I could practically hear Thorn’s laughter already. That arrogant ass had women falling all over him on Everis, and yet he gave none of them his heart. Like me, he came from a powerful family. And like me, he was not the firstborn and would not inherit title or position on the Sevens. Yet he had a gift with women. Never did he have trouble with a female, claimed he was too good with his cock and left them no breath with which to argue.

The idea of fucking Cassie into submission was tempting indeed, as I had no idea how to convince her I spoke the truth, to convince her to believe me. My only option was to take her to the ship and allow her to see it with her own eyes. I could share her dreams, fuck her to mindless orgasm again and again, but that wouldn’t make her truly believe.

A dream was easily ignored or attributed to fantasy. But a cold, hard ship with sonar cannons and antigravity engines would be much more difficult to refuse.

Cassie continued to surprise me, and for that I was well pleased. She’d saddled her horse and had the mare ready before I’d managed to settle the blanket on my nervous animal’s back. At which point she’d promptly shoved me out of the way and accomplished the task herself in less than half the time I would have required. The horses both followed her docilely out of the barn, like trained pets, not large beasts. She’d filled her saddlebag with a few belongings, added the rifle that had been above the kitchen door, then mounted her mare and looked down upon me like a queen sitting a throne. Even now, I watched her movements, attempting to match the smooth glide of her body in the saddle. And my Cassie did not bounce or slide out of her saddle as I did. She seemed to flow with the horse, as if they were connected, one body.

Apparently, she liked the damn animal more than she liked me.

The thought was irrational and childlike, but it was my heart talking, not my head. She was mine. Mine . And she was not supposed to reject me, or require me to prove my worth. Divine destiny had taken the decision from both of us. I’d never imagined dealing with a female who had no idea what the mark meant, or where I was from. I also never anticipated having to keep her alive and trying to woo her simultaneously. If she’d known of the match, then she would have come willingly.

Instead I’d envisioned myself meeting her on Everis, her mark calling to mine as I carried her to the nearest quiet place, lifted her skirts, fucked her hard and fast, catching her cries of pleasure with my kiss. And then?