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  How could Krista betray her? Her maid had been so helpful in the planning and execution of her escape.

  But then for some unknown reason, Krista lived in fear of Livia’s father, and one scowl from him would have easily caused her maid to tell everything.

  Right down to the grittiest of details.

  She cringed at the thought of her father’s reaction. But at least Krista, unlike her, would be spared his wrath. Krista was protected by their laws. Only a male of her own family could punish her, and since Krista had no living male relative . . .

  Livia was not so fortunate, and there was no telling what her father would do to her for this. Chastity was one of the highest virtues any woman could possess on her world. In fact, men and women were allowed to mix only during meals, at chaste royal functions, and when married couples performed conjugal duties. For a woman to seek out a man not related to her was strictly forbidden. And punished severely.

  Publicly.

  She shook the fear away. She’d known the consequences before she set out. Either way, she was going to pay for her indiscretion, and if she had to pay, then she was going to make sure she completed the deed.

  Clenching her teeth, she scanned the room for a hiding place. At the back of the club were a line of booths. She headed for them.

  Unfortunately, all of them were occupied.

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  Drat!

  “Hey, babe.” A rough-looking man stopped her as she tried to move past him. “You want some company?”

  She considered it until he reached out and roughly grabbed her arm. He pulled her toward him, his hand biting fiercely into the flesh of her upper arm. “C’mon.” He gave her a slick smile as he roughly ran his hand though her wet hair. “What say you and me head to the back?”

  She jerked away from him before he hurt her any more. “No, thank you.” Turning, she saw the guards heading her way as they skimmed the crowd.

  Her heart hammering, she ran to the last booth and sat on the empty bench before the guard saw her.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  She shifted her gaze from the guard to the man who sat across from her. Livia’s breath caught in her throat as her gaze focused on his face.

  Oh . . .

  My . . .

  He was more than passable.

  In fact, she’d never in her life seen a man so incredibly handsome. His features were sharp and aristocratically boned. His dark-blond eyebrows arched finely over the most piercingly blue eyes she’d ever seen.

  Dressed all in black, he had long white-blond hair tied back into a neat queue. Clean-shaven and washed, he was gorgeous. An air of refinement and power clung to him. But his eyes were cold while he watched her. Guarded. They warned her that he was lethal in nature. And by the set of his jaw, she could tell he didn’t want company. He tugged at the black gloves over his hands as he eyed her with malice. She should get up and leave, especially since he had a fierce scar that ran across his cheekbone to his hairline and then down along his jaw. It looked like someone had intentionally carved it there, which made her wonder just what kind of man he was.

  What had he done to deserve such a wound?

  Biting her lip in indecision, she glanced back to the guard who was steadily headed this way. What should she do?

  Adron arched a brow at the woman, who had yet to leave him. He was drunk, but not so drunk that he didn’t realize the wet little mouse sitting across from him didn’t belong in this dive. He could smell the innocence on her.

  And it turned his stomach.

  Her dark-brown hair was loose, spilling over her thin shoulders in waves. She had large, angelic eyes. Brown eyes that had no past haunting her. They were completely guileless and honest.

  A shiver ran over him. Who in this day and age had eyes like that? And what right did she have looking at him with them?

  “I’m hiding from someone,” she confided. “Do you mind?”

  “Hell, yes, I mind.” He gestured to the door with his bottle. “Leave.”

  Livia frowned at the stranger. His angry tone set her back, and if it weren’t for the fact that one of the guards was scanning the booths, she would have left.

  Think of something. Because if she didn’t, she was sunk. The guard stopped two booths up and held out a small digital palm frame she knew had to contain her royal portrait to the aliens sitting in it. “Have you seen this woman?”

  Her plan in ruins, she knew only one way to thwart her father. She got up from her seat and sat next to the stranger.

  He scowled at her.

  Before he could say anything, Livia leaned forward and kissed him. Adron sat in stunned silence as she placed her tightly closed lips over his. It was the most chaste kiss a woman not related to him had ever given him.

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  By the way she held his head in her hands, he could tell she thought this was the way a kiss should be given. But worse than the innocence he tasted—he hadn’t kissed a woman in over eight years, and the feel of those plump, full lips on his was more than his drunk mind could handle. And her smell . . .

  Gods, how he’d missed the sweet, intoxicating smell of a woman. The warmth of a warm body pressed up against him. The feeling of a gentle hand on his flesh . . . Closing his eyes, he let go of the bottle and cupped her face in his hands as he took control of the situation.

  Livia trembled as he opened her lips and slid his tongue into her mouth. She’d seen people kiss like this in plays and movies, but no one had ever dared such insolence with her before. She tasted the sweet, fragrant alcohol on his tongue, smelled the warm, clean scent of him as he ran his hands over her back and held her so gently that it made her shiver. Her body burned from his gentle kiss. He’s definitely the one. This was the man she would give her virginity to. A man with tormented blue eyes and a tender touch. A man who made her breathless and weak, and at the same time hot and strangely powerful.

  In his arms, she truly felt as if she had control of her life. Her body. And she liked it.

  Adron had never tasted anything better than her mouth. He felt her inexperience as she hesitantly met his tongue with hers. His body roared to life with a long-forgotten heat that demanded more than just her lips. The fact that she could arouse him through his pain . . . That in and of itself was a miracle.

  No, it was heaven, and he’d lived in hell for so long that he’d forgotten the taste and feel of it.

  “Excuse me,” a man said as he stopped in front of them. “Have you seen this—”

  Adron broke away from the kiss only long enough to pass a lethal glower at the newcomer. “Go away or die.”

  Fear flickered deep in the man’s eyes. It was a look Adron was used to. Without another word, the man left them.

  Adron returned to her lips.

  Livia moaned as he deepened his kiss. The guards and her fear forgotten, she sighed in pleasure. Foreign emotions tore through her as he buried his lips against her neck and sent white-hot chills through her. His arms tightened around her waist as her breasts swelled. What was this deep-seated hunger she felt?

  This unbearable ache?

  He made her light-headed and breathless. And she wanted him desperately. “Would you make love to me?”

  Adron pulled back in surprise. Had he been sober, he would have sent her away, but there was something about her that called out to him in a way he’d long forgotten. It’d been an eternity since he’d last slept with a woman. Years of bitter, aching loneliness and pain. And here she was offering herself to him.

  Don’t even think about it.

  But for once he didn’t listen to that inner voice. Instead, he found himself getting up from the booth and leading her through the crowd.

  Livia didn’t know where they were going, but she made sure none of the guards saw her as they left
the bar. In the back of her mind, she was terrified. She didn’t know anything about this man. Not even his name.

  Never in her life had she done anything so compulsively foolish. And yet she instinctively knew he wouldn’t hurt her. There was pain in his icy blue eyes, not cruelty. Even so, had she not been so desperate, she would never have done this. Not even for him. He kept a possessive arm draped over her shoulder as he walked by leaning heavily on a silver-tipped cane. She wanted to ask him what’d happened to his face and leg, but didn’t dare lest it cause him to reconsider, something that would spell the end for her.

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  He led her outside the club, to a transport.

  After they got in, it took them to a high-end apartment building that wasn’t all that far from her hotel. At least that would make it easier for her to get home once this was over with. Livia relaxed a tiny bit as they entered the grand lobby. Thank goodness she wouldn’t be taken in a dark, filthy back room somewhere. Krista had well prepped her on what to expect. Right down to an estimation of how long a man would take before he let her go.

  Taking a deep breath for courage, Livia figured she would be back in her hotel room by midnight. There would be questioning, and eventually her father would learn the truth. God have mercy on her then.

  But she’d made her decision, and once her mind was set on something, that was it. She would not be swayed.

  Without a word to each other, they took a lift to the top floor. Once it opened, he led her into an opulent apartment that was almost the size of her palace wing, which was huge. And as soon as he closed the door, he pulled her into his arms. This time his kiss was fierce. Demanding. And it stole her breath as he pressed her back against the wall. Her head swam at the powerful feel of his hands roaming over her. What are you doing? You can’t go through with this. You don’t even know him. Shut up, conscience. She had no time or patience for it. This had to be done. It was her life, and she was going to claim it. No one would tell her what to do with her body again. And she wouldn’t allow her first time to be with an old man who made her skin crawl.

  With that thought in mind, she started unbuttoning his shirt.

  Adron sucked his breath in sharply at the feel of her hand against his bare chest. Her touch seared him. He could only vaguely recall someone other than doctors, nurses, or therapists touching his flesh in more years than he wanted to account for.

  To her credit, she didn’t cringe or comment about the multitude of scars that bisected his body. She didn’t even seem to notice them.

  That was why he hadn’t been with a woman since that long-ago night. He hadn’t wanted to explain the scars. To recount where they’d come from and relive the horror and agony of it. To have to face his lover in the early morning light where the scars stood out against his skin like nauseating beacons. He was thoroughly repulsive, and he knew it. He didn’t need to see his own disgust mirrored in the eyes of someone who regretted touching him.

  Perhaps that was why he’d chosen a stranger tonight. He owed her no explanation. Owed her nothing at all.

  He never wanted to see pity or repugnance on another woman’s face when she looked at him. If he lived forever, he’d never forget the sight of his ex-wife when she saw him in the hospital right after he’d been wounded. My God, they turned you into a freak. You’re revolting!

  But there was nothing in Livia’s dark brown eyes except curiosity and hunger. She didn’t seem to judge him in any way, and that he needed more than anything.

  Livia bit her lip as she ran her hand over the taut muscles of his stomach and torso. She’d never seen a man’s bare chest before, at least nowhere other than in movies. Fascinated by it, she ran her hands over the smooth, tawny skin that was stretched tight over hard muscles. Like velvet over steel. The contrast amazed her, and she had a strange urge to place her mouth on his skin to taste it. Her cheeks warmed over that thought.

  How extremely inappropriate . . .

  “You feel so wonderful,” she breathed.

  Adron pulled back to look down at her. There was a peculiar note of awe in her voice, a gentle hesitancy in her touch. And in that instant, a feeling of cold dread consumed him. He was drunk, but he wasn’t that drunk. “You’re a virgin.”

  Her face turned bright red.

  “Shit!” he snarled as he stepped away from her. His hard cock ached and his entire body burned. Leave it to him to find the only virgin he was sure had ever set foot inside the Golden Crona. Page 10

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  Gripping his cane, he limped his way to the bar and poured another drink. But the watered-down alcohol did nothing for him except piss him off more.

  Suddenly, she was behind him, leaning up against his back as her slender arms wrapped around his waist.

  He shook all over from the sensation, from the feel of her small breasts against his spine as she laid her head on his back. And in that moment, he was lost to her.

  Damn it to hell.

  She stood up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. Her breath scorched him and sent chills skimming over his entire body. “I want you to make love to me.”

  “Are you insane?” He turned to look at her.

  She shook her head. “I want to give my virginity away. I don’t want it taken from me.”

  “Taken by whom?”

  She dropped her gaze. “Fine. If you don’t want me, I’ll go find someone who does.”

  A strange wave of jealousy stung him as he thought of someone else inside her. What do you care?

  And yet for some unknown, stupid reason, he did. He didn’t want someone else taking what she’d offered him. The thought of another man . . .

  It called out the assassin in him and made him want to kill anyone who even looked at her. He caught her hand as she moved away from him. “What’s your name?”

  “Livia.”

  “Livia,” he repeated. It suited her and those guileless doe eyes that stung him soul deep. “Why would you give yourself away so cheaply to something like me?”

  Livia paused as she saw the self-loathing in his icy eyes. He hated himself. It was so obvious, and she wondered why. “Because you seem nice.”

  He laughed bitterly at her answer. “I’m not nice. There’s nothing nice about me.”

  That wasn’t true. He had yet to be mean to her. He was hurting, she knew that. And it made him snappish.

  But it didn’t make him cruel.

  “I need to go,” she said quietly, regretting that he wouldn’t be the one after all. “There’s not much time before I have to return, and I have to take care of this by the morning.”

  “Why?”

  She bit her lip as she felt her face flush again. In the morning, she’d be inspected by Clypper’s doctors. If she didn’t find a man tonight, she was doomed and bound for the altar.

  “I just do.” She let her gaze wander over his lush body. He had broad shoulders and a lean, firmly muscled frame. His white hair contrasted sharply to the black he wore. He was gorgeous.

  But he didn’t want her.

  So be it . . .

  Adron saw the steely determination in her eyes. She was going to find herself another man to sleep with. He knew it.

  He should let her, and yet . . .

  Why not me? Don’t I deserve something after all I’ve been through?

  One tiny, fucking moment of happiness?

  Ever since he’d lost his agility, he’d avoided women. He’d been afraid of embarrassing himself with his stiff clumsiness and pain. But Livia would have no one to compare him to. She wouldn’t know if he completely sucked in bed.

  Adron gripped his cane. He remembered a time when he could have scooped her up in his arms and run with her to his room. A time when he could have made love to her flawlessly for hours and left her begging him to stay.

  But those days were lost to
him forever, and he was trapped inside this broken body. One night . . .

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  Was that really too much to ask?

  “My bedroom is this way.” He grabbed a bottle of light alcohol and headed down the hallway. Livia hesitated as she realized he was inviting her to join him after all. Excited and terrified, she followed him down the elegant marble hallway and into a room at the end of it. The master bedroom was every bit as large as her own at home. A king-sized bed was set against the far wall, looking out over the city below them where the lights twinkled like fallen stars. He set his bottle down on the nightstand, then moved to a chair by the bed. His features stern, he sat down slowly. Pain made his jaw rigid as he bent his leg and moved to take off his boots. She wanted to know what had happened to him but didn’t dare ask for fear of making him angry again.

  So she went to him and took his foot in her hand.

  He looked up at her, his eyes startled as she pulled the boot free.

  “You know, I’ve never done anything like this before,” she whispered.

  “Seeing that you’re a virgin, I would think not.” Licking her suddenly dry lips, she removed his other boot.

  Adron could feel her nervousness, her uncertainty, and he wanted to soothe her. “I won’t hurt you, Livia. I promise.”

  She smiled a smile that wrenched his gut. How he wished he’d met her before that fateful night. Then he could have been the lover she deserved. He would have been able to take her all night. Slowly. Teasingly.

  He had no idea what he’d be like now. But he would try to pleasure her. Do his damnedest to make sure her first time was at least a decent memory.

  His groin tight, he pushed himself up and moved slowly to the bed. He sat on the edge and leaned his cane against the wall where he could get to it in the morning. Before he knew what she intended, she sat in his lap and kissed him. Adron inhaled the sweetness of her breath as he ran his hands over her back. He’d never expected a virgin to be so bold. And she was a quick learner. She deepened her kiss and teased his tongue with hers.

  Oh, yeah, this could be fun.