Caeryssa woke, her heart pounding. Someone else breathed beside her in the regular deep inhales and exhales of sleep. A dim light from a partially cracked open door—a bathroom?—illuminated the room enough to see dark drapes, dark shapes of a dresser, closet, and several bookcases with actual books. Roots, those were rare. Most people just read on their wrist coms. A black rectangle against the lighter wall was probably a screen.

Shelves held various items she couldn't quite make out. She squinted. Was that some kind of toy and a large shell? Mementos, perhaps. Still images in frames stood behind them, so maybe these were his memories.

His?

Caeryssa inhaled again and the now familiar woody masculine scent filled her nose. She was in Rain's room... in her sleep shirt. Why? She started to push off the thick silver and dark blue comforter, a match to the one in her room, when the bedroom door opened and a slender form stepped in.

"Ah... you're awake."

As the person approached the bed, she recognized the doctor.

"Please, stay in bed," he murmured, tucking the blanket back around her and sitting on the edge. "As his soulmate, it's better for both of you if you rest together so the bond doesn't have to reach and expend more of your energies. Your bodies are already working hard to rid him of that poison. I apologize for undressing you, but I had to check your body for injuries. Do you still feel any tugging at your chest? Difficulty breathing?"

As he spoke, he removed something from her forehead. A sensor? Some kind of medical monitor? She reached a hand up to touch her head before considering his question. It must have been the soulmate bond drawing on her energy. That was what she'd felt before, what made her collapse. Not the lack of food.

But she was fine now.

"No," she whispered with a glance toward the prince. Did that mean he was doing better, too?

The doctor smiled. "I expect he'll sleep a while yet. Whatever you gave him seems to have saved his life, but also made him a little, well... delirious. He's been mumbling incoherently for the last couple hours about some kind of fairy creature." He held her gaze, peering intently with an eyebrow raised. "I trust that side effect will wane?"

She flushed. There hadn't been time to counteract the hallucinogenic effect of the Alluthra. Boiling and straining the pulp for six hours, then distilling over the better part of a day hadn't been an option with Rain seizing on the floor.

"Yes, his body should break down the hallucinogen in four to six hours."

"Dhevun mentioned you are a xenobotanist?"

Caeryssa nodded, then added, "Yes, Doctor Caeryssa Cadwell with AIMAED." Her heart sank. At least, she was for another week until she didn't show back up to work at the end of her vacation time and they fired her absentee ass. Thistle and thorn, she'd only held her promotion as head of the division for two cycles. She'd expected to continue as the lead scientist for several more decades. Would the prince keep his promise?

"A pleasure to meet a fellow medical professional," the doctor said, extending his hand. As she grasped it, her palm met flesh, not synthate, and she flinched, almost jerked away before remembering that wasn't an issue for her now. "I'm Doctor Lukas Julyen." He smiled, a kind understanding in his dark eyes. "It takes some getting used to, doesn't it? I'm not mated, but I'm no danger to you. As my sarru's soulmate, his life may depend on yours, as it did today. You are safe in my care." He patted the back of her hand before releasing it.

Standing, he added, "Rest, Doctor Cadwell. It's the best remedy for you and the sarru right now."

He left, closing the bedroom door behind him, and Caeryssa considered his advice. There was so much more to the soulmate bond than she'd expected from what she'd observed with her parents or the rumours that abounded. No one on her exploration team had mates, although a few of the ship's crew did.

After turning onto her side, she rubbed her chest, recalling the exhaustion and dizziness, then studied her wrists. From the very start, Rain had known and given her his energy. And he'd tracked her using the bond. She'd sensed him getting closer, the pain of their separation lessening. Was it because he was Sigma Draconis? Did he know more about how the bond worked? Why hadn't his dragon nature—nanites, hadn't Dhevun and Doctor Julyen said he had nanites?—why hadn't they healed him?

Rain mumbled in his sleep, rolled toward her, and wrapped an arm around her waist.

Caeryssa froze, pulse racing. She tried to lift his heavy arm but damn it, he flexed, drawing her across the bed and against his body... his half-naked body as her arm met nothing but solid warm flesh. His face pressed into her hair and he mumbled something about wild lavender.

Was he sniffing her?

His lips caressed her ear, kissing along the outer edge, before moving down onto her neck, and a shiver rippled over her skin. Her breath deepened, and she found herself tilting her neck, giving him greater access. Roots, the man had the most wonderful mouth. She couldn't recall a lover ever kissing her neck and hadn't realized it was an erogenous zone. But then, after the fumbled attempts during her teen years, sex had been clothed, hurried affairs to scratch an itch when the risk of accidental skin-to-skin contact had such permanent consequences.

This... this delicious, slow exploration had her panting and trembling.

The fingers of his hand spread, sliding under her sleep shirt and covering her entire bare abdomen. Oh fuck. She bit her lip and her muscles quivered, flesh tingling as his fingertips explored and crept higher to palm her breast.

A moan escaped, and she pressed back against his body as her spine arched, thrusting her chest into his hand. Was he even awake? Did he know what he was doing?

"Rain?"

His fingers plucked her taut nipple and she gasped again, "Rain?"

His only answer was the erotic scrape of teeth along the base of her neck where it met her shoulder.

She shuddered. "Rain? Are you awake?" she managed, between breathy, broken sighs at each tug at her breast. Heat coiled between her thighs and she pressed her ass back against a hard ridge.

"C'ssa... mmm... my C'ssa," he mumbled.

Oh blooming flowers, she shouldn't be doing this, shouldn't be allowing this. He'd been poisoned only hours ago. Damn it, he was delirious from the Alluthra. Just because he recognized her didn't mean he was actually aware.

And wasn't he... fuck, wasn't he her enemy, planning to kill her father? His hand left her chest to glide down her abdomen between her slick folds. She groaned, unable to still the jerk of her hips at the sinful caress, then gasped. Lightning flared as he found her clit.

"Mmm... C'ssa. So wet... so perfect," he groaned, sliding a finger inside her as his thumb rubbed her clit.

"Oh fuck," she whimpered, riding his hand. Thorny thistle, she was so going to the depths of the silent void for this. But fuck, it might be worth it. It had been so damn long since anyone had touched her in pleasure, since she'd felt another's skin slide against her body. She ground down harder, panting.

Heat spread outward, her body tingling. So close... fuck, she was so close.

He stopped and withdrew his hand, but before she could protest, he tugged on her panties and murmured, "Need, C'ssa."

"Yes, oh fuck, yes," she agreed, body vibrating with unsatisfied lust. Clumsy in her haste, she helped him strip her panties, then tossed her shirt while he shoved his boxer briefs down. Roots, but she wished there was more light. He was fucking spectacular. Ridges of muscle and a dark trail of hair led down to a long, thick cock. Her sex clenched.

Her visual admiration was cut short when he nudged her onto her back and crawled between her spread thighs. With his hand guiding him, he slid along her slippery folds once, twice, and the third time, thrust deep.

"Oh, fuck," she cried out at the shocking fullness, clutching at his shoulders. Biting sparks flared from her sex outward. His thumb found her clit again and her climax crested, spasms starting deep, then expanding. She wrapped her legs around his body and shook, overwhelmed by so much sensation.

"C'ssa..." he groaned. Slowly, he withdrew, before plunging deep again, setting a measured rhythm. Every thrust sent her arousal soaring, nerves singing as a second heartbeat pulsed in her core. His heated flesh caged her in, muscular torso rubbing against her breasts. Stars, she'd missed sex.

Rain cupped her cheeks and blinked bleary gold eyes, before taking her mouth in a thorough seduction of lips and tongue. How long had it been since someone kissed her? Ten cycles, at least? He tasted of the sulphurous, slightly bitter brew she'd given him, but beneath that, his own woody musk surrounded her, filling her nose. Matching hips to tongue, he coaxed and plundered her to another trembling orgasm—her cry captured by his mouth.

Thrusting faster, he groaned and broke their kiss, and a sheen of sweat grew on their bodies. Her grip slipped on his shoulders and she slid her fingers into his hair, a cool silk against her skin. The sound of flesh meeting flesh echoed through the bedroom.

"Yes... fuck, yes," she keened as he shifted his angle and hit a most pleasurable spot with every stroke. "There... right there."

"C'ssa..."

Her fingernails dug in, back arching as his delusion-fuelled nickname dug its way into her heart as his cock plunged between her thighs, joining them. No one had ever called her that. No one except this man, this complicated male who protected her and destroyed her all at once. What was she to do with him, to think about him?

"C'ssa..."

Roots... the way he growled it... fuck, she was going to—

"C'ssa... my C'ssa... mine," he roared, stiffening above her, then jerking and grinding his pelvis into her sex.

"Rain, oh Rain," she gasped, eyes rolling as supernovas bloomed in her mind and a wave of heat rushed over her climaxing body.

A weight pinned her as she recovered her senses. Rain had collapsed on top of her, squeezing her lungs. She shoved at his shoulder. "Can't breathe... too heavy," she wheezed, and he grunted, then rolled them onto their sides.

"My C'ssa... sorry... father's ship," he mumbled, falling back to sleep.

Her heart clenched. "What? My father's ship? The Basilisk is here?" she demanded, pushing at the arms banded around her. "Rain? Is the Basilisk here?"

But he didn't answer.

Tears filled her eyes, and she choked back a sob. She'd just given herself to the man who was going to kill her father.

(1816 words)