Free Stark Pleasure; the Space Magnate's Mistress (The LodeStar Series) by Cathryn Cade Page B

sexuality to the mercy of the lunar pull.
    Foolish enough to trust it to this man.

Chapter 7
    What would it take to get her to trust him?
    In his office, Stark poured coffee into the mug waiting beside a steaming carafe. Taking a drink, he turned to pace before the streamlined space with its banks of waiting holovids and input station. His little cat was going to be a handful.  
    He remembered the night before with a mixture of satisfaction and irritation. It wasn’t as if she was the type of woman he usually preferred. She wasn’t tall or bosomy, and her hair had been hacked by an inexpert hand.
    There was just … something about the combination of feisty, independent cat and the pliant sweetness of her lithe body that drove him wild. As well as her husky voice and that laugh of hers. Even when she’d been strung tight with nerves, he’d still been able to make her laugh. What had they been speaking of? Ah, skrog, of all things. He smiled to himself, imagining her face when she first saw the creatures, as well as any number of other wonders in the galaxy. She hadn’t traveled, judging from her questions.
    She’d known her share of loss, though. No people, although she’d let slip she’d had a brother. So she’d lost him as well as her parents. Now she’d lost even her dubious shelter and most of her credit.  
    The dazed, animal pain in her eyes after the explosion of her apartment building had hit him hard. He knew what it was to lose even one’s shelter, to be cast onto the streets of this city with nothing, with survival hinging on every move, every decision. He’d done it and she probably would too, but at what cost?  
    He’d slid into bed with her last night so that she wouldn’t be alone when she woke. He could have left Opal or his housekeeper, Natan, on night watch, or even set a holovid droid to hover by the bed, alert for any sign of agitation, but he’d wanted to be the one to comfort her.  
    No hardship there, but he hadn’t expected her to seduce him so determinedly. He would have done many things to chase the shadows from those Tyger eyes of hers, but she’d asked the very thing he wanted to do anyway. And then she’d delighted him by accepting his domination, even being comforted by it.  
    He wanted her to submit to him further. He wasn’t even sure all the ways yet. He’d make them up as they went along. She pleased him as few other women in his memory.  
    He froze, cup at his lips, steam curling against his face. Surely that couldn’t be true. He’d had courtesans from several planets. Beautiful women who knew tricks this little cat would never dream of. No, he was just bored. His businesses and investments were burgeoning on three planets and in space via his cruise ships, but lately he’d been a bit … restless.  
    He smiled wickedly into his coffee cup. The advice psychs did say to keep a pet. So perhaps he owed it to himself to take on a Tyger kitten.
    He’d keep his emotions out of it, of course. He always did. There were several beings in the galaxy he counted friends. There were only two he’d die for—his younger brothers, Joran and Creed.  
    He’d been in love once; for a time even nursed a broken heart.  
    Adora, his first and only ‘love’. He grimaced, taking a swig of scalding coffee.  
    A less aptly named female had never been born. Behind a face of sweet innocence had lurked a heart so mercenary he’d been unable to believe the evidence of her betrayal. Until, of course, he’d seen it with his own eyes. Then the truth had taken him down like a charging Mauritian.
    Now he held himself apart from the idiocy that drove beings to make fools of themselves, risking fortunes and self-respect for hormone-ruled emotion. He’d risked worse than that—his brothers’ well-being.  
    He’d never again allow himself to be led by his cock. Sex was a necessity of life for him and Kiri’s cunt was sweet and wild, but he controlled when, how and all the rest.
    It