“I’m reserving judgment on your Alvian friends, Gina. I won’t lie to you about that. I don’t understand it and maybe I never will, but I’m willing to try.”
“That’s all I can ask.” Now why did her voice sound so breathy and hot? She really had to have more control around him than this. It was embarrassing.
Jim shifted closer, his free arm going around her waist and drawing her into his warmth. His head drifted down, his lips angling along hers until he was kissing her for all he was worth.
He didn’t coax. He didn’t ask. He just took her on the ride of her life. She was with him though, and she didn’t object. Not at all. She’d been wondering where she stood with him all day and this was a definite answer. The most delicious answer possible.
His tongue dueled with hers, eliciting a response that lit a fire in her womb. She couldn’t hold out against him. He was too tempting, too commanding, and he knew just what to do to make her moan. A sound tore from her throat and it seemed to bring him back to his senses, drawing him back. But he didn’t go far.
“I’ve been wanting to do that all day.” His forehead rested against hers, their breathing matched in raggedness and tempo. Both had been affected by the tumultuous kiss, she was glad to see. She’d hate to be alone in her uncontrollable response to this man and his stirring passion.
“You could have fooled me,” she muttered, glad when he backed away. He searched her gaze with questions in his eyes.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m getting mixed signals from you, Jim.” She valued honesty and wanted it from him. “You tell me you want to protect me, you want me to live with your people in Colorado, but what do you want from me?”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked away. “Hell if I know.” He turned back to her and she could see the confusion in his expression, feel it coming off him in waves…along with the undeniable attraction and heat. “I want you near, Gina. I have all these protective feelings for you, but they go deeper than normal. I want to watch over you. I want you.”
“But you don’t want to want me, is that it?” The thought hurt more than it should have.
“Right now? Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t understand your relationship with the aliens, but when I touch you it doesn’t seem to matter. Nothing matters but you in my arms. But when I have a clear head, I worry about it—about you—about the aliens and what they mean to you. I want to mean more to you than they do, but I fear I’ve already lost too much ground. You’ve been with them a long time and from all appearances they’ve been good to you, but you’ve got to know it’s been hell for me and my people out here with the rest of them. Pure hell. And I’m not so sure I’ll ever be able to forgive…or forget.”
Silence held for a long moment while she thought about his words.
“I appreciate your honesty, Jim. Let’s just give it time, okay?”
“I’m not sure I can give you that, Gina.” He stepped close once more, his gaze pulling her in, his expression daring her to step into his arms, into his world. “I want you too much.”
“Dammit, Jim.” She shook her head, marveling at the way he could turn her head with just a few words. A fire erupted in her belly and though her mind told her no, her body was screaming yes, yes, yes!
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” he coaxed. “I think you want me too. Don’t you, Gina?”
“You are the most infuriating man.”
“I think you like infuriating men. Particularly me. So how about it? Can we boil this down to the most basic things for the moment? You, me, desire and pleasure?”
“And let all the other stuff wait? It won’t go away, you know.”
“I know. It preys on my mind. But I can’t walk away from you. I can’t keep my distance. I stayed awake deep into the night, thinking about you. About this trip. About all the myriad possibilities. But what it all came down to was my desire—my need—for you. Am I wrong in thinking you want—and need—me too?”
“I—” She had to be honest. “I want to be with you. Right or wrong, heartache or happiness, I want more of what you showed me last night, Jim. And you should know I always had a crush on you. You might’ve watched me in my dad’s dojo, but I was watching you too.”
“No kidding?” A grin lit his face as heat blossomed in his eyes. He pulled her into his arms and shifted his weight from foot to foot, rocking her against his hard body. “Last night wasn’t supposed to be about sex, Gina. I didn’t mean to push you that far when I walked into the room with you. It was supposed to be a search, plain and simple, but the moment I touched you, all my good intentions went right out the door. I’m sorry for that.”
“I’m not.” She rubbed her cheek against his, breathing in his breath, reveling in his warmth as he drew her into his arms. “After I got over the shock, I liked what you did. It was exciting and probably the kinkiest thing ever to happen to me.” She laughed as he started, then gazed at her with open fire. “It shocked the heck out of me, but I liked the feeling. And I want to feel that again.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet, baby.”
His hands went to the fastenings that held her top together, parting them expertly until she was bared to his gaze and his hands. He kissed her again, taking her lips with savage fury as his hands molded the roundness of her breasts. As his thumbs rubbed over the excited peaks, she gasped into his mouth. He broke away to trail his lips downward, capturing one tortured peak in the wetness and urgency of his mouth, rolling the other between thumb and forefinger, plucking gently. She cried out as his other hand delved beneath her waistband, seeking and finding the hot spot between her legs that cried out for his touch.
He wasted little time, sliding one long finger through the slick wetness of her arousal and pushing deep. She cried out as he began to rub that spot he’d discovered the night before. The tiny point deep inside that brought her so high, so fast.
She shuddered as he pushed her higher, his teeth raking over her skin gently, arousingly.
“Come for me, baby. Give it to me.”
She shuddered and shook in his arms as her sheath convulsed around his finger, a sound of indeterminate pleasure ripped from her throat.
“That’s it. You’re so hot, baby. You set me on fire.” He stroked her through the last of the shudders, stroking the flame to make her rise once again. It was so fast. She didn’t remember it ever happening this fast or this hot.
She leaned back against the rail that surrounded the console as he stripped off her pants, pushing his own down past his straining erection. He was built on the large side, as she’d guessed. As she’d hoped. His thighs were a work of art, muscle and sinew straining as he moved back to her, taking his place between her legs.
“I don’t have anything to protect you, Gina, but I’m safe from disease. How’s your cycle?”
“I’m on birth control. The Zxerah are careful about reproduction and I’m clean too, so it’s okay.”
“God, you don’t know how good it is to hear that. Damn, baby, I wasn’t thinking straight or I would’ve been prepared. I’ll take better care of you from now on, I promise.”
She stroked his sexy, stubbly cheek with one hand. “You take care of me just fine, Jim. Now take care of me some more.” She sent him her sexiest smile, her libido racing far ahead of its normal pace. This man brought out the siren in her, and she wanted him. She needed him. Now. “Come into me, Jim. I want to feel you inside me. I want it so bad.”
“Your wish…” he stepped up to her, pushing the large head of his cock between her slick thighs, “…is my command.” They both watched him push in, gaining entrance as she strained to take him. He was thick and long. She shimmied against him, seating herself on the railing, trusting him to hold her upper body so she wouldn’t fall off onto the electrified tracks. The danger only added to her excitement.