Images and feelings came to me as I moved on his shaft. I felt an overwhelming surge of warmth and care, heat and lust. His longing to meet me as he watched me move about in my day-to-day life, his admiration that I worked so hard to pull myself up in the world, his gut-wrenching fear that someone was trying to take me out of the world, and his...love. No one had ever loved me before.
Thick emotion mixed with carnal need made my eyes fill with a sense of how beautiful and perfect this was, and I picked up my rhythm, trying to pump my hips faster along his length. I was in his heart and mind. And he was in mine.
Winding tighter and tighter, spiraling hotter and hotter, needing to reach the pinnacle, I just couldn’t go fast enough, hard enough, and I was almost sobbing with the need for release. In a sudden move, Ryder took charge. He rolled me over and pushed into me, his features harsh, his jaw clenched. My legs wrapped around his hips, and he slammed into me again and again, both of us crying out. My hips rose to meet each thrust, my clit sliding and rubbing against him with each stroke. Harder and faster he pumped. Our lips fused, feeding each other moans and gasps. Higher and higher we climbed, our minds melded, our needs multiplying. We rode the edge of the cliff, nearing the jumping-off point.
“I’m going to come so hard,” he ground out, slamming into me again and again.
“Yes!” I cried, breathlessly, and then I felt myself go off with a heat explosion, breathless arch, scattered mind, as spasms of pleasure rolled over me.
Dimly, I heard his harsh shout. We were engulfed in waves of turbulent release that left us shaking, our bodies quivery. It was a few minutes before I realized he had collapsed on the pillow next to me, though one of his legs was still between my thighs and one of his arms was curled around my midriff.
“Lin’de,” he murmured roughly. “You’re going to kill me.”
“Not if you kill me first.” My lips curled into a smile as I basked in the warm glow of our spent arousal.
It was long moments later that I realized what I thought I’d picked up from being part of his inner world. It was the first time he’d ever pulled his wall down for me, and I thought I’d seen... Was Ryder in love with me? My throat burned as my mind was captured by the question.
“Yes.” He turned his head to look at me, his green eyes clear and steadfast as he read my thoughts. “I am.”
A thick ball of emotion choked my throat. I didn’t know what to say. How...?
Using a gentle finger, he traced the moisture down my cheek, wiping the tears that had begun trickling after such a beautiful revelation, and smiled gently.
“But how...when...” Full, coherent sentences seemed impossible, as tenderness and warmth made my thoughts fuzzy.
“How could I not?” He kissed the tip of my nose. “You were so beautiful and thoughtful, and strong and kind...”
The warm timbre of his voice poured over me like a gentle waterfall. Hurt places that I didn’t know about, deep places in my subconscious, were suddenly filled with healing warmth. “You got all that from...watching me? I mean, how did this all start?”
“You want to know how I ended up on Earth? Investigating you?”
“I just want to understand. I need the big picture.” I wanted to believe. This was all too good to be true, and life had already taught me not to trust things that felt good.
He pulled me closer, onto my side, facing him, so one of his muscular thighs rested between mine, and my soft lower stomach cupped his still semihard shaft between us. Taking a deep breath, with his large hand languidly tracing shapes along my back and spine, as though he couldn’t stop touching me, he started. “It began with the investigation. Sy had been able to find Frank, using new technology he’d developed. We have communication devices. We refer to them as satellite links, or sat links for short. Anyway, for the last few years, Sy has tried to design programs that would recognize when one of the sat links was being activated on Earth, but with very little success.”
“Why is that important?”
“We need to monitor who’s coming, who’s going and their movements.”
“Doesn’t that impinge on their rights or something?”
“Coming through the mylunate transfer is not a right. Those who are allowed to come through know and agree to the monitoring, because they recognize the delicate nature of traveling between planets. We need to ensure that anyone who comes is going to acclimate and fit in immediately. And still, as much as we police the transfers, there are those who have managed to find ways and means of coming here through illegal channels.”
“Like Ranik?”
“Like Ranik and a few others who are currently under investigation. About eight months ago, Sy had a breakthrough. He found what he was looking for. Each sat link has a digital signature embedded in its transfer while in use that no Earth technology contains. That’s when Sy was able to locate where Frank was, and I came immediately.”
“How did that connect you to me?”
“We were able to find Frank whenever he used his sat link. Unfortunately, he wasn’t using it that frequently, and he moved around a lot, so we lost him several times. He managed to elude us over and over again over the years, somehow knowing what our moves were going to be before we did. A few months ago we saw that he was spending more and more time with your boss.”
“And so you started watching me?”
“We didn’t know who all was involved, helping him. I also rationalized the idea because I’d be able to get information from the inside. Find out what was going on, where he was holing up. Reggie was easy to find, but not easy to talk to without drawing attention to myself. I didn’t want to scare Ranik off just when I thought we’d get him. You were more accessible, so I could see what you were up to more easily, and as his assistant, you likely knew more about what was happening behind the scenes. Assistants always know more about what’s going on.”
I had to acknowledge that was likely true. “Why not just take Ranik out when he’s with Reggie?”
“We needed to take things slowly and be careful. That’s most important on Earth. I don’t think you can fully appreciate the delicate nature of the relationship we have with Earth. If taking extra time ensured a better result and kept the secret of our existence safe, I was okay with taking extra time. Imagine how Reggie would have reacted if we’d just grabbed Ranik while they were out and about.”
“He would have tried to beat you down.”
“Right. We couldn’t attract attention to ourselves or risk having the police get involved. We just wanted to find where Frank was calling home and grab him there, but he was smart enough to keep moving. He never stayed alone. He made friends everywhere, some innocent, some not.”
“He moved in with Reggie just over a week ago.”
“But now he likely knows we’re on to him again and will have moved on to hide under another rock somewhere.”
“So you were watching for him to find a pattern of movement and were hoping I would be able to provide you with the background details?”
“I was content to sit back at first, let Sy befriend you. I figured you were like every other woman in Hollywood, trying to get discovered. I had no interest in finding out anything else about you. Just wanted to gather my data and move on to capturing and securing Ranik. It was fortuitous that you worked for the company that Sunan owned.”
“My cousin turned me on to it.”
“She did?” He seemed surprised. “We don’t usually advertise.”
“I figured she knew my aunt was about to kick me out just when I was about to graduate from school and wanted to do me a solid by helping me find work. She was already working as a receptionist somewhere in the industry.” Hmm. As distasteful as it was to think of calling her—the idea really made me cringe internally—maybe it was worth a call to my aunt to shake her down a bit for some information.