Matrissa Prospera is tough — she has to be to have lived her entire life on a spacecraft. Now she's trapped planetside, kept prisoner by the only man who can make her melt with desire. Lithos I is known for the quality and quantity of the gems it produces, and mining has made this planet and its mysterious inhabitants very, very rich. Irav Tok is tall, dark and hard as rock, literally. He can make her want to talk for hours or make her skin flash through a dozen different colors as she reaches the heights of her pleasure. But can he help save the people on her ship? Should she risk everything when the answer he proposes is as tart and sweet as a pomegranate — a fruit with seeds the color of garnets?