That news surprised her. She glanced at the makeshift bandage on his left hand from the night before—an injury she was sure needed stitches, but he’d adamantly refused to call a medic. “I thought you hated them.”

“Not all of them.” He nudged her thighs farther apart so that he could finger her.

Zarya sucked her breath in sharply as he found the place and the rhythm that never failed to go straight to the core of her pleasure zone. “What are you doing, sweetie?”

“Having breakfast.”

She groaned as he started tonguing her. Her body erupted with fire, but she had to stay focused. “What about your shower?”

He made her crazy with lust as he licked and teased her until she couldn’t think straight. “You really want me to stop now?”

When she didn’t answer, he laughed. “Didn’t think so.”

Smiling, Maris greeted Syn and Hauk in the palace foyer and excused the butler who seemed more than relieved to flee their fierce presence. Something highly entertaining since, for once, they were dressed like decent citizens and not the infamous outlaws who were wanted dead by most governments.

Still, their collective ferocity was hard to disguise no matter their wardrobe choices.

Syn had even gone so far as to not line his black eyes or wear his earrings. Rather he had his long dark hair pulled back into a proper queue and was dressed all in white, which made his tawny complexion a deeper shade of olive.

Even though Syn had been raised alternately in prison and on the streets, and was the son of one of the most notorious serial killers in history, he held an air of poised refinement that would rival any aristo. An upper-crust demeanor Syn had refined after Nykyrian had helped him get off the streets and financed him through med school.

A renowned tech thief and trained assassin, that man was truly one of the most intelligent creatures Maris had ever met. And the only clue Syn gave this afternoon to his real lethal nature was the small lump at his hip, underneath his jacket, that betrayed a concealed blaster.

All of that combined to make Syn one of the most lickably delectable men in the universe.

Too bad he was straight…

Hauk was no exception to the lickable list himself. Indeed, he tied all the Sentella men for the number one slot.

Unlike Maris and Syn, Hauk was an Andarion—a lethal humanoid warrior race that valued physical perfection above all things. As a result, they were truly bred for size, speed, stamina, and beauty.

It was also rumored that their warrior spirit, that-live-for-now-and-damn-tomorrow attitude, made them some of the best lovers in the universe. But unfortunately for the other species in existence, they very seldom slept with non-Andarions.

Such a fetid shame…

Not that that was Maris’s only roadblock to having a taste of Hauk…

There were far too many men who played on the other team for Maris’s tastes.

Like the Sentella leader Nykyrian, who was half Andarion and half human, Hauk was as beautiful as a woman. But the rugged cut of his jaw, and that overwhelming aura of feral testosterone kept him from appearing even the least bit feminine.