Bondmate Read Online Free PDF Page A

know what to do.
    “Food,
drink, a covering … answers to your questions.”
    “Where
are you?” She’d watched them before, trying to
interpret the looks they’d given each other and her. It was disconcerting to
speak to someone she didn’t know well in the dark.
    A
sliding sound and the bed pad moved. She felt his body heat and then the
slightly rough pads of his fingers along her hand. “Can’t you see me?”
    “No.”
She shook her head and turned towards where she thought he must be.
    “That’s
right. Your eyes require slightly more ambient light to be effective.”
    She
jumped as he touched her cheek, one finger stroking. A wholly unexpected
prickle of heat scattered over her skin. She heard him breathe, and his other
hand traced along her hair hanging over her shoulder.
    “What
are the women like where you’re from?”
    Why
she asked, she wasn’t sure. It just seemed odd to her that these big, healthy
males had come all the way to sad and dying Earth to find a woman to inhabit
their bed. He was silent for a beat, and she worried he was going to refuse to
respond.
    “They
are beautiful. Tall and strong. Proud. Rare.” Mateen’s fingers were now tracing along her earlobe and the sensitive
skin below it. These Alphan women were everything she
was not. A pang of inadequacy pushed aside the tingling sensation his careful
exploration of her neck had roused.
    “Do
you … have you…?” She couldn’t think how to phrase her question. She simply
didn’t know how their society worked.
    “Have
we looked for a partner among our own kind? No.” He drew closer. She could feel
his hard thigh pressed to hers. She could draw back and impose some distance,
but he was touching her hair again, threading his fingers through it in a way
that made her want to lean closer and sigh.
    “Why not?”
    “Because we are warriors. Fighters. Part of our code is that we journey to Earth when
the time is right, to find our mate. Defend her when we return. Prove our
worth.”
    One
of his hands brushed up against her hip, and she shook, automatically reaching
in the dark to cover it with her own. He was warm, his fingers thick and strong
under hers as they stilled.
    “Is
this not allowed?” His whisper gusted along her cheek.
    “I
… what do you want to do?” She was so used to fending off unwanted clutches and
grabs from desperate men that her caution had been automatic. Mateen didn’t
seem desperate, but rather curious, almost gentle. As if a golden, horned demon
would be gentle with her.
    “To touch you. I like it. Does
it bother you?” His frank questions disarmed her. This was so unlike what she’d
feared.
    “No,
it doesn’t bother me. I just wonder why you want to.”
    “I
find you attractive.”
    “Even though I’m human? Not Alphan ?” She wasn’t tall, strong, or golden. His hand moved
to her waist, his fingers curling towards the small of her back even as she
kept hold of his wrist.
    “Do
you find me unattractive because I’m not human?”
    Oh.
    “I
don’t know. I’ve only just seen you for the first time today.” She didn’t want
to insult him and was in fact, quite confused in her thinking. She blamed the
ample meal and the ever so slight caresses he was giving her. She was too soft
and warm to keep up a barrier between her thoughts and her mouth.
    “Illumination increase twenty percent.” Mateen barked out an order,
and she jumped again. Suddenly she could see him, seated on the bed next to
her, his face a few centimeters from hers. A handsome face, somehow the golden
shade of his skin didn’t strike her as odd anymore, and his bronze eyes were as
mesmerizing as a cat’s. At least, as she imagined a cat’s would be. His horns
were barely noticeable, and in all honesty, she was now more intrigued by them
than repelled. He watched her for a moment.
    “Our
anatomy is nearly identical, and our DNA is compatible. I believe both Bynton
and I are adequately symmetrical to indicate our vitality