Flame of the Alpha (9 page)

When he did, the smile blossoming across his lips echoed her sentiment.

Happiness
.

That wasn’t a word Dante had ever associated with Earth. Yet right at this moment, with Sophia snuggled close in his arms, he couldn’t remember why not.

* * * * *

The universe stretched out on a boundless sea of black velvet, kept at bay only by a large, impenetrable window and a few hundred tons of heavy steel. The floor vibrated under Sophia’s feet. She’d expected more of a lurching motion, but the flight was smooth and even, like floating on a cloud.

“I never get tired of the sight of you in my room.”

Sophia’s heart skipped a beat, but she didn’t turn around. She didn’t have to. Dante’s reflection stared back at her from the glassy surface of the window, superimposed upon the shimmering rainbow colors of a nebula.

“How was your shift?” she asked as the door slid shut behind him.

“Uneventful. There’s only so much work for a security chief in outer space.
Especially since we haven’t seen another vessel in days.”

Sophia shook her head. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough excitement to last me a lifetime.”

Dante’s image warped and waved as he stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her against his chest. His palms traveled up the side of her ribcage to cup her breasts. “Are you sure you couldn’t use just a little more excitement? Maybe the kind that comes with lots of heavy breathing? Perhaps the occasional moan?”

She chuckled and slid her hands over his, encouraging him to squeeze the firm globes. Even cradled in his broad, masculine palms, her breasts felt bigger than she remembered.
Heavier, too.

“If I must,” she said, feigning a heavy sigh.

Dante chuckled. “Such a good sport you are, doing your wifely duty without a word of protest. Don’t worry, Mrs.
Lotton
. This will be over before you know it.”

She laughed at that, and the carefree sound echoed through the interior of the small room, bouncing off the metallic walls and sleek steel furniture.

Freeing her right breast, Dante skimmed his fingertips over her stomach, dragging her own hand along for the ride. She followed the reverent motions of his palm as it caressed her swollen belly to dip lower until he could press his hand against her mound.

She moaned and tossed her head back against his shoulder, steeling herself for the pleasure already beginning to course through her body. “Saints, how I love --”

The piercing sound of a door chime tore through Sophia’s mind, jerking her awake in the span of a heartbeat. She lurched to a sitting position, bringing the blanket to her chest as she struggled to make sense of her surroundings.

These weren’t her quarters.

Dread pooled in the pit of her stomach. Afraid of what she’d see when she glanced at the other side of the
bed,
Sophia flexed her shoulders and stretched out her right arm, which was tense and stiff from sleep. At last, she allowed her gaze to slid along the hills and valleys created by the blanket to the slumbering form of the man beside her.

Her breath halted in her throat. She’d thought Dante beautiful before, but lying here in the semi-dark, a sliver of sunlight streaming through the curtains to illuminate the high ridge of his scarred brow and tumble over his leather collar, he looked magnificent. His lips were slightly parted, and the low rumble of a deep snore echoed from his throat.

Against her better judgment, she’d begun considering nestling back in the crook of his arm for a few minutes longer, when the door chime pealed through the room again.

This time, Dante blinked his eyes open. A broad smile curved his lips at the sight of her. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

“It’s not morning,” she shot back, fighting to ignore the thrill that ran through her at the sound of his husky compliment. “I only lay down for a few minutes. It’s probably late afternoon, though, which means I’m desperately needed at the showing.”

“Far be it for me to keep you from your duties.” His smirk didn’t waver. If anything, it only seemed to grow broader until all she could see
was
a perfect set of white teeth and a feral, almost predatory grin gleaming in the shadows.

Sophia rolled her eyes and slid forward along the length of the bed. “Most of the Academy’s at your disposal. Feel free to wander a little and get to know the place. Any section of the building that’s off-limits will be easy to spot, as the doors won’t open to your hand imprint.”

“
Mmm
…intriguing.”

The interest in Dante’s tone didn’t escape her. She forced a sense of casual ease into her voice. “What is?”

“The fact that you’d feel the need to keep some rooms locked away from prying eyes.”

“Many of our patrons demand privacy, whether they’ve initiated an acquisition or simply want a demonstration of our graduates’ talents,” Sophia said as she retied the sash holding her robe together. The garment was a mess of wrinkles, but there wasn’t much she could do about that now. With any luck, she’d have time to swing by her quarters and change before the first patron decided to have official purchase papers drawn up and she had to be present for the negotiation phase.

“That’s all it is?
The need for privacy?”

Sophia opened her mouth, but the infernal peal of the door chime silenced her before she could say more. Whoever was out there didn’t seem satisfied with merely the chime the third time around. A rapid series of thuds shook the doorframe.

“Mon patron!”
Sophia pressed her hand to the panel to the right of the door and watched it slide seamlessly aside. “Someone better
be
dying out here, Brianna.”

The guard’s well-trained gaze took in Sophia’s disheveled state, then slid past her to Dante, who’d propped himself on an elbow to watch Sophia move around the room. She cleared her throat. “Not yet, but I believe Captain
Jolen
has threatened something to that effect if we keep him waiting much longer.”

Sophia’s spine went rigid. “Why is he back so soon?”

Brianna lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “He said you’d be expecting him.”

“Tomorrow!”
Sophia threw up her hands in exasperation. “We were expecting him tomorrow. I haven’t prepared a training room for his use and Dante…” Her voice faltered. She licked her suddenly dry lips. “Dante’s not ready.”

“I don’t think he’s going to care much for that excuse this time around,” Dante said.

The low whirr of the motorized closet alerted her that he was on his feet and rummaging through the available clothes. Judging by Brianna’s furtive glance past her, Sophia guessed he hadn’t bothered to cover himself as he crossed the length of the room.

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, remembering the taste of his cock in her mouth, the feel of the thick shaft as it settled on her tongue, the way it
spasmed
and pulsed when the burst of seed spilled from the tiny slit to flow down her throat.

“I apologize for disturbing you,
M’Lady
. We searched everywhere before coming here. Captain
Jolen
insisted on having you bring Dante yourself. We didn’t think to look here for both of you.” A flush crept up the other woman’s cheeks. Brianna had been working at the Academy for years, yet she’d never gotten used to the blatant sexuality of the place.

Sophia couldn’t blame her. Anyone who hadn’t been trained as a pleasure servant still had the enviable ability to be awed by sex and all it entailed. Priestesses typically fell somewhere in between. As the Academy’s trainers, they were required to familiarize themselves with every nuance of the carnal arts. However, none of them had experienced the thrill of sex for the sake of pleasure. They offered themselves willingly to the pleasure servants in the name of the training and as part of their worship of Saint Valentine, but that was out of duty rather than passion.

Until earlier today, Sophia had never done anything even half as impulsive as sucking Dante’s cock for the sheer enjoyment of the act. She’d wanted to atone for her part in his captivity, for the hardship he’d have to endure at Captain
Jolen’s
hands. More than that, however, she’d wanted to bring him pleasure.

Only she hadn’t imagined that the
act of making him come
, an act she’d performed at rituals and gatherings countless times in the past, would bring her satisfaction as well. And she certainly hadn’t imagined she’d want to curl up with him afterward. Saints, she hadn’t done anything so reminiscent of her Alpha nature in…well,
never
.

“I wasn’t gone that long,
Bri
. You could have told Captain
Jolen
to wait. As it is, he’ll have to wait anyway. I have to attend to the showing and make sure the patrons are pleased before they leave for the evening.”

Confusion etched itself between Brianna’s blonde brows. “The
showing’s
over,
M’Lady
. The patrons all left when you didn’t return.
Yesterday.”

Sophia gaped at the woman. “That’s absurd. I wasn’t gone that long,” she repeated. Spinning around on her heel, she fixed Dante with a narrow glare. “What did you do to me?”

Dante crossed his arms over his bare chest. He’d pulled on a pair of linen pants made for a much smaller man. They stretched across his groin, drawing her attention to the impressive bulge that strained against the material between his legs. The pants’ hem reached halfway down his calf.

“
My cum
has magical properties. Or didn’t you know? One drop can knock a woman out cold.”

It took Sophia a full ten seconds to figure out he was teasing her. She ground her teeth together, a muscle twitching in her jaw. “Not funny.”

How was it possible that she’d slept through the night and part of the morning without waking once? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so soundly. Or for that matter, the last time she’d dreamed.

Oh,
mon
patron…
that dream
.

The memory of the dream shook her to the core. A trembling shudder traveled up the length of her spine, awakening sensations that had felt incredibly real while she’d slept beside Dante. She remembered the easy way she’d laughed at his teasing remarks, as though she’d become used to his irreverent quips. And the way he’d touched her, and called her
Mrs.
Lotton
. And, oh, Saints, her rounded stomach…

She forced herself to draw a deep, shuddering breath and release it on a soul-cleansing sigh.
A dream.
That’s all it had been. Dreams held no weight in the realm of the living. They weren’t important. And they certainly didn’t predict the future.

Dante would leave as soon as Faye was able to get him off Earth, and Sophia would return all her attention to worshipping Saint Valentine. This was where her destiny lay.
On Earth, with her patron Saint watching over her.
And if it so
happened
that Dante was to be the man whose seed would finally take root within her womb? That was a very real possibility she couldn’t ignore.

After years of participating in the Lighting of the Flame ceremony and failing her patron Saint miserably each time, she refused to let her emotions for Dante cloud her judgment. She’d already found her Flame. Now all she had to do was convince him to stick around long enough to go through with the ceremony, and keep him out of the Captain’s greedy clutches in the interim.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger did little to keep Sophia’s growing headache at bay. “How long has the Captain been here?”

“A couple of hours,
M’Lady
.
He’s in the
Sanglant
. And he’s not happy.”

Sophia’s eyelids drifted closed as she forced her ragged breathing under control. Of course the Captain would choose
that
room of all those available. “No, I don’t imagine he would be. See to it that he’s served refreshments from the kitchen. Fresh strawberries, if we have them.
And a bottle of champagne.
Spare no expense. It might not soothe him completely, but I’m hoping it’ll calm him down enough that he won’t take his ire out on Dante when we arrive.” Brianna hesitated, so Sophia made a flicking gesture with her fingertips. “Go. We’ll be there shortly.”

When the woman disappeared into the inner cloister, Sophia spun on her heel to face Dante. “You can’t meet him like this. You haven’t been trained and the Captain is…he’s…”

“Volatile?” Dante filled in for her.

“Something
like
that,” Sophia acknowledged. “He trains pleasure servants to switch from their submissive personalities to dominant ones. It’s technically a role reversal, and something we don’t encourage here at the Academy. Every pleasure servant is created with the submissive gene ingrained deep in his or her psyche. An obedient slave is a valuable slave.”

Dante’s lip curled in distaste. “I’ve seen the way people treat their obedient slaves. Frankly, I’m not sure what this captain guy’s doing is such a bad thing, especially if he’s teaching servants to think for themselves and fight back when the occasion calls for it.”

Sophia shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. A pleasure servant trained to become a Dominant can perform the act, but he’ll revert back to his submissive tendencies, especially in an emergency. If his life or safety is threatened, he’ll cower and plead rather than fight back, simply because it’s what he’s been instructed to do here at the Academy. Even the captain can’t change someone’s attitude so drastically, and I think he’s come to realize that.
Which is exactly why he wants you.
” She blew out a breath that ruffled the bangs falling into her eyes. “You’re different, Dante, and he knows it. You can give him what he craves.”

Anxiety flittered across his features for an instant. It dissipated quickly, leaving Sophia to wonder whether she’d imagined it all along. The cocky grin returned, and with it, the Dante she’d come to know. He strode toward her purposefully and swept her off her feet, lifting her in the air and pressing a firm kiss to her mouth.