His Fire Maiden by Michelle M. Pillow

Rifflen, and you think to sell me to the highest bidder. You would not be the first to try.”
    “I do not traffic in…” Her words trailed off. Did he call her bewitching and seductive? “You think I look feminine?”
    At that, his guard slipped. Black eyes traveled down her body and back up again. The dark gaze lingered on her hips and breasts a little too long. She felt the tingling warmth of desire erupt between her thighs. The sensation curled around her, flooding her body with the kind of desperate hormonal reaction that would be hard to fight.
    “You know the effect you have on men,” he stated. It wasn’t a question.
    “Are you saying I have an effect on you?” She swayed toward him. Her legs shook. This wasn’t supposed to be happening.
    “Are you trying to get me to confess attraction?” he countered.
    Was she? Violette didn’t know how to answer that. Well, if she were honest with herself, the truth was she didn’t want to think about the answer. “Are you confessing attraction?”
    “Are you inviting attraction?”
    “Perhaps I should…” Violette glanced at the door. She had to get control of her emotions. “This is my room. If you like, you can stay in here—”
    A low growl sounded as he shot forward. Before she could even end her sentence, she was pressed back against the hard metal of her wall by a solid block of pure, hot, male muscle. She moaned. She’d been about to offer the room as his temporary quarters while she bunked elsewhere, but Dev took it more as an invitation to her person. How could she blame him? She had been flirting.
    Flirting? Space captains didn’t flirt. That couldn’t have been what she was doing.
    Oh, but then why was she kissing him back? Sliding her tongue into his hot, wet mouth, she let him suck it between his teeth. Sacre , but it felt nice the way he flicked his tongue against hers. Heat radiated from his body, warmer than other humanoids. His body hovered close to her, not touching save for their lips. His hands pressed against the metal wall, trapping her before him. There seemed a great fire burning beneath his surface.
    Her fingers lifted to his forearms. The fine red lines that decorated his flesh appeared to darken as his kiss deepened. She kept her eyes open, even as they wanted to drift closed. He was staring at her, probing her with his piercing gaze.
    She’d wanted him since first seeing him standing on the docking plank to his ship. All the emotions she worked so hard to suppress surged forth—grief, anger, passion, need, they all poured over into him. Their touch became a losing battle for control.
    The muscles beneath her fingers flexed as he pulled his mouth from hers. She gripped his arms, not wanting him to stop. Violette opened her mouth to speak, but only a loud gasp escaped her as she drew in a long breath. One of his hands lifted to the front of her tight black shirt. With a jerk, he pulled the neckline and tore the material from her breasts. Her breathing became raspy and her head light.
    Heat enveloped her. Violette pressed into the wall. Dev’s mouth found her neck as his hand found an aching breast. Her nipple practically exploded against this palm when he touched her. How long had it been since she’d felt the intimacy of a man’s flesh? At the moment, she couldn’t remember.
    There was something to his stoic nature that called to her, a sadness buried deep inside of him, but also a repressed passion that smoldered beneath the surface. If his body heat were any indication, it would do more than simmer once unleashed. She wanted to feed into that passion until his blood boiled like hers. None of this made sense, and yet, here she was, kissing Dev and forgetting about everything rational in her life.
    Oh, to feel something beyond sadness and duty. To not have to think.
    Her hands moved to his clothing, intent on undressing him. She could feel he was shaped like most humanoid males, yet she wanted to explore the look of him.