The fear that he might rip her half—willingly or accidentally—played along the fringes of her mind, but she couldn’t make her body or mind see reason. The heat flowing through her demanded appeasement.

She struggled to see what sort of ‘weapon’ he had to work with when she realized he’d unfastened his own trousers and unearthed his ‘man thing’ but didn’t manage to get so much as a glimpse before she felt the probe of his flesh as he searched for the mouth of her sex.

The moisture that had made her slippery wet with need abruptly vanished. The mouth of her sex closed tightly the moment she felt the size of the thing butting against her.

The Prince thrust uselessly a couple of times and then reared upward to look at her.

He must have seen something of her doubts in her expression. He seemed to pause as if debating whether to continue or withdraw.

Apparently, he wasn’t ready to concede defeat. After that brief pause, he lowered himself against her and focused on kissing her senseless while he explored her with his hands.

Her treacherous body responded regardless of her conviction that whatever he was swinging hadn’t been made for her because they weren’t the same!

He seemed to think he could make it fit if he just lubricated it enough and pushed hard enough!

That was so very human of him that she managed to, mostly, forget he wasn’t!

He aligned his cock with her entrance and focused on distracting her. The moment she relaxed enough he thought it possible to breach her defenses, he thrust, wedging the head of his cock into the mouth of her sex.

For a handful of seconds, it seemed their heated flesh welded together and she wouldn’t be able to produce enough lubrication to break the deadlock.

But he kissed her again.

And drove into with relentless determination and her body yielded to the greater force—with burning reluctance!

He paused when he’d conquered the channel. She thought more to catch his breath than to allow her time to adjust, but the results were the same. Thankfully!

The burning eased and she was able to redirect her mind from the fear of tearing to the feel of his member inside her.

It felt indescribably good.

And when he withdrew and thrust again, setting a desperate rhythm to match the sense of desperation their mutual hunger had aroused, it felt better by leaps and bounds. She didn’t have time to wonder if she would manage to achieve climax. His girth left no part of her channel in want of stimulation. The friction of his thrusts against the walls, pounding against her g-spot, set her on fire. His own desire, clearly evident in his harsh breaths and the deep shaking she felt in his big body, drove her swiftly toward her peak. She paused at the summit, teetering maddeningly. Clenching her eyes tightly, she focused on grasping the prize and then gasped in a sharp breath when her body took the leap and the rapturous waves began to rattle her to her soul.

She was dimly aware that he followed her, reaching climax almost the moment her body began to shudder and quake, but she was too sublimely satisfied with her own pleasure to spare a lot of thought to his.

Well, beyond the satisfaction that she’d proven her ‘usefulness’ to him.

She tried not to smile at that thought, but she was so relieved that she’d not only survived the ravishment but had actually managed to enjoy it that she couldn’t completely contain it.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about him noticing it!

He rolled off of her as soon as he’d finished and bounded off the bed as if he’d been ejected. Striding quickly toward the bathing facilities, he slammed the door behind him with a resounding bang that rattled her eardrums.

Dismay flickered through Noelle’s satisfaction. With an effort, she pushed herself up and stared at the door in consternation.

The sound of rushing water filtered to her through the wooden panel.

What the hell? There was running water?

Not only was there running water but a cloud of steam followed the Prince out when he emerged some twenty minutes later, still dripping water.

Noelle was torn. She’d tried every frigging thing she could think of to get that damned shower to work and had finally concluded that it must be fed by a cistern built on the roof to catch rain water and that the water was frozen solid!

She felt stupid. Obviously, she just hadn’t figured out how to work the damned thing!

Beyond that, she’d begun to get a sinking feeling about the whole sex business because she couldn’t help but notice the Prince didn’t seem particularly impressed.

Well! She damned sure wasn’t going to let on how impressed she’d been with his performance!

The asshole!

Trying to appear just as unmoved as he seemed, she got off the bed, gathered her discarded clothing and headed into the facilities.

If the damned shower worked, she could damned well figure it out!

She couldn’t. She tried everything and finally gave up and got dressed.

The Prince gave her a cool look when she left the bathroom. “You did not shower,” he said disapprovingly.

How dare the savage act like she was uncivilized! “I didn’t feel like it!” she snapped sulkily before she thought better of it.

His brows rose, but although he narrowed his eyes at her, he apparently decided not to pursue the fight she’d stupidly tried to provoke. “Well, you must give some thought to how you might be useful to me and we will discuss it later.”

Noelle turned to gape at the bastard in disbelief.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately given her circumstances, he was oblivious to her outrage since he’d already turned his back on her and strode to the door. By the time he reached it, she’d had time to recover enough to reconsider glaring at him, or worse, throwing something. She thought he paused and looked back at her, but she was glaring at the fire on the hearth so she wasn’t sure.

“Fuck!” Drak muttered as he closed the door behind him, lifting a shaking hand to scrub it over his face.

He wasn’t sure of what had just happened beyond mind-blowing sex, but it had certainly been that and he was in no condition to think straight at the moment, let alone figure it out—or in fact anything! As in, whether or not he had just made a hell of a mistake in his handling of her.

Shaking his head, he considered heading down to the great hall and then reconsidered and headed up to the battlements instead to clear his head.

On the one hand, arriving in the great hall befuddled from a bout of great sex might more firmly impress upon his men that he was serious in his claim on the woman. On the other, it could be dangerous if he appeared to be vulnerable where she was concerned.

He trusted his men—to an extent and within reason. He didn’t trust all of his men with his life, however.

Noelle’s anger evolved into an urge to cry almost the moment the door closed behind the Prince. She wasn’t sure of why she felt the urge. It wasn’t from being just that furious—because she wasn’t. It wasn’t fear based, because she discovered she had lost the bulk of her fear.

It shouldn’t have been emotional wounding.

She had a sneaking suspicion that it might be, however—maybe purely injured ego and maybe disappointment.

She found him attractive—in a scary sort of way.

There was no getting around the fact that he was an absolutely magnificent male specimen—alien or not!

She couldn’t think of anything he’d done, however, to engage even a modicum of real affection—beyond seeing to her comfort and not killing her or raping and torturing her.

Were gratitude and admiration enough to sow the seeds of affection, though?

Frowning thoughtfully, she went back into the bathroom to study the facilities again and see if she could figure out how the damned shower and /or lavatory worked. If she could just get water! Hot water!