Tiger of Talmare by Nina Croft

left open. There's less chance of it leaving a scar."
     
    She peered over her shoulder at him. "You sound like you've a lot of experience with this sort of thing."
     
    "I was in the army, it happens. There, that's done." He wiped his hands on a towel. "How does it feel?"
     
    Mel straightened up slowly, expecting to feel the sting of pain, but there was nothing. "Definitely an improvement, though I really wouldn't want to sit on it for a while."
     
    Her pants were tangled around her ankles, and she kicked them off. Her white shirt hung to the top of her thighs. She was almost decent.
     
    Zach washed his hands. He splashed cold water on his face before turning to examine her. His gaze made a leisurely trip from head to toe. He smiled. "You should lie down for a while. You might not feel it right now but being shot by a blaster is a shock to the system."
     
    "Perhaps you should have thought of that before you shot me," she replied.
     
    "I didn't have time to do much thinking. Would you rather be dead?"
     
    At his words, a tremor of shock ran through her body. Suddenly, it came to her that he had saved her life, and what that meant. She could be dead now, would have been if not for Zach. "No, I wouldn't rather be dead." She paused. Could she do it? She took a deep breath. "Thank you."
     
    He grinned. "Was that so hard?"
     
    "Close on impossible. You know, I think I will have that lie down now, after all."
     
    She made to clamber onto the high bed but Zach stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Take your shirt off first."
     
    "What?"
     
    "Your shirt," he repeated. "Take it off. You're not going to need it."
     
    She glanced up into his face. His eyes had that sleepy, half-lidded look that sent a shiver rippling through her body. She shook herself. "You're not seriously suggesting we have sex just after I've been shot?"
     
    "Oh, yes I am. I've been as hard as a rock for the last two days, ever since you had your pretty little hands around me." He looked at her for a moment, before continuing. "Do you know how long it's been since I had a woman?"
     
    "Now how the hell would I know that?"
     
    "Well, it's been a bloody long time, and I'm not waiting any longer."
     
    "You're taking rather a lot for granted."
     
    "Am I?"
     
     
     
     
     
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Chapter Seven
     
     
     
     
     
    Zach held his breath as he waited, trying to ignore the fact that his cock was rock hard, and his balls ached viciously. If he didn't get inside his little pirate soon he was going to go seriously insane.
     
    She was obviously thinking about it carefully, staring at the floor, chewing on her luscious lower lip.
     
    "Come on Mel..." he groaned.
     
    She raised her head and looked at him then her hand went to the top button of her shirt and slowly released it.
     
    A wild flare of excitement roared through his body. "Oh, thank you, God."
     
    She fumbled with the next button, and he reached out and placed his hand over hers.
     
    "Let me," he murmured, closing his fingers around her hand. "Hey, you're trembling. Not scared of a little bit of sex, are you?"
     
    It occurred to him as he spoke that she very well might be scared of sex. Who knew what she'd had to endure in three years in a brothel.
     
    "Of course not."
     
    He searched her face, but could read nothing from her expression. He finished unfastening the shirt. When it was done, he slid his hands inside, parted the material, and his palms glided up over her rib cage to cup her small pointed breasts. He was pleased to see her nipples were already tight buds. They hardened further, turning a deep, dark red as he stroked them with the pad of his thumb.
     
    Sliding his hands up to her shoulders, he pushed the shirt from her, tossed it on the floor.
     
    "You're beautiful," he said.
     
    "No, I'm not."
     
    "Don't argue."
     
    She was lean, no spare fat, with long, clean lines and small pert breasts. There was nothing "soft" about her, but his body reacted