“Get out,” she growled. “Leave me alone.”

He leaned negligently against the side of the open door, arms and legs crossed.

She clenched her hands, her body tightening, attempting to fight the desire to stride across the small space and drag him onto the bed.

“Get out,” she screamed, wrapping her arms around her midriff, in an attempt to suppress the desire.

A dark eyebrow rose, making him look more the pirate that she knew he was. “I have what you need.”

“I can get what I need from any male on this ship. I do not need you.”

His gaze darkened, then blazed. “You will fuck no other male on this ship. You owe me.”

Even though her radiance had turned dark crimson, she felt her skin pale, and a wave of faintness overtook her. She forced it down.

“Is that why you’re here?” Her voice was but a thready whisper.

His gaze turned black, hard as onyx crystal, glittering and razor sharp. He stepped into the room, pressed a button, and the door slid closed behind him. He pressed another button and she heard the lock click into place.

“If you wish to think so,” he responded.

A debt. She owed him. That was why he was here.

Taking a deep breath, she then slowly released it and straightened away from the wall. She lifted her chin, her jaw set.

“Very well. If you feel a debt is owed, then I will acquiesce to your request.”

A corner of his mouth lifted in an arrogant grin. “So you agree to pay the debt with your body?”

Every part of her rebelled against what she was about to do. Everything, that is, except her heart. Even without the effects of the drug raging through her body she would want him—had wanted him for a long time if she were honest with herself. But she would never let him know that.

“To pay a debt,” she affirmed.

He moved closer to her, until she could feel his searing heat against her own body. Lowering his head, he brought his mouth to within a whisper of her own.

“You are sure?” he breathed against her lips.

She closed her eyes, felt herself weave toward him, wanting the touch of his lips against hers.

“Y-yes,” she sighed.

She felt him move away from her, her whole body tingling with need, her radiance raging, a fiery crimson all around her. She opened her eyes, blinked and focused on him.

“In payment of your debt,” he asked.

“In payment of the debt,” she affirmed, unwilling to voice the real reason she was about to let him fuck her.

What she truly wanted was so much more than that. She wanted to seal with him, to know him, to give him that which she had never given another. To be with him in the most intimate fashion that an Argadian female can be with an Argadian male, and to seal him to her.

But that was not to be. He wanted nothing more than her body, in payment of past betrayals. She had no choice, not according to her own conscience. Maybe by giving herself to him in this way, she could assuage at least some of her guilt.

She met his dark, unyielding gaze and waited.