by Dena Christy
“Was your room not to your liking?” She took a step further into the room, and could feel the tension radiating off him. It was a tension she shared. Sitting through the meal with everyone present had been torturous, since all she’d wanted to do was find a quiet place to make love with him over and over until she couldn’t remember her own name. She was about to get her wish since they were alone now.
“Yes. You weren’t in it. I don’t want to be apart from you, not until it becomes necessary. I know I have made no promises to you but I want you to be my woman, at least until it’s time for us to go our separate ways. Would that be acceptable to you? That for now you’re my woman and I’m your man?”
There was a serious look on his face, and how she answered next would set the tone for relations between them from now until he had to leave. She didn’t want to think of him leaving, and she knew that if she even pretended to be his woman now, she was going to be opening herself up to a lot of hurt later. But she was sick of hiding, of pushing aside what she wanted to stay safe.
She stepped toward him and gave him the only answer she could. There were no words necessary as she grabbed the edge of the sash holding the robe closed. A tug was all it took to undo it and the edges of her robe fell open, letting him see a slice of her body. She rolled her shoulders back, and the robe slithered from her body to hit the floor.
“I am your woman.” She took another step toward him, loving the effect her nude body had on him. There was a fierceness on his face as he growled and put his huge hands on her waist. He pulled her to him and brought his mouth crashing down on hers. She pressed herself tight against him, and she could feel his arousal growing against her. She wanted to drive him mindless with need as he had down to her the night before. She pulled her lips away from his and smiled up at him in a way that women at the height of feminine power smiled at their chosen males for millennium. “You’re overdressed.”
She reached for the buttons on his shirt, and undid each one slowly, as if she had all the time in the world. She jerked it out of the waistband of his pants and shoved it down his arms so that his chest was exposed to her gaze. His muscles were so big, so well defined that she wanted to run her fingers over every one. She traced the lines of the muscles defining his abdomen until she reached the waistband of his pants. She glanced up at him, and his eyes glowed a little brighter with the electric blue light. It might be her imagination, but his features had grown sharper as well.
She opened the button holding his pants closed and eased the zipper down. He was so hard that when she opened the fly of his pants and shoved them down his hips, his cock sprang free. It pointed at her as if begging for her touch. She wrapped her hand around it and stroked up and down his shaft. He tipped his head back and let out a primitive growl, a sound which made moisture pool between her legs. He wasn’t wild enough for her yet, but he would be.
She sank to her knees in front of him and took his cock inside her mouth. His flesh was hard and smooth as it slid in and out of her mouth. Her hand stroked the parts of his shaft that wouldn’t fit in her mouth.
“Evie.” Her name came out in a growl as he threaded his fingers in her hair. She was at the height of her power as she aroused him further with her lips on his most sensitive flesh. She loved him with her mouth until he could take no more.
He pulled away from her and pulled her to her feet. She looked up at his face, she saw just how much her actions had affected him. This must be what he really looked like, under the human facade that he normally wore. His eyes glowed electric blue, with no sign of their normal onyx color in evidence. His skin had changed to a pewter gray that glowed like an opal in the light. What had changed most about him, was the sharpening of his cheekbones and the raising of ridges on his forehead.
“Is this what you really look like?” She stroked her fingers over the ridges in his forehead. His changed appearance didn’t frighten her since it was still Cynric underneath the surface changes.
“Yes.” His voice was lower and thicker. “Does it bother you?”
“No. It makes me want to fuck you even more.” Where this boldness was coming from she didn’t know. She would never have spoken like this to Adam when they’d been intimate, but Cynric stirred something more primal in her.
She turned away from him and walked over to the bed. She bent over and braced her hands on the edge of the mattress, exposing every part of her to his gaze. She peeked over her shoulder, and she could see the aroused snarl on his face as he stepped up to her and plunged his cock inside of her. She was so wet for him that he slid in easily. He stretched her, and a long drawn out groan was wrung from her as he slid out until only his head rested inside her, and he plunged back in.
“Yes, Cynric.” She curled her fingers into the bedspread as he pounded in and out of her. Her breast bounced as he fucked her hard. She could feel the tension building inside her, but she wanted to see him. She wanted to watch the pleasure spreading over his face when he came inside her. “I want to ride you.”
Her voice was breathless, and she didn’t know if he heard her. He withdrew from her and she straightened up and turned to face him. He climbed on the bed, and he pulled her on top of him so that she straddled his hips. She reached for his cock and positioned it between the lips of her pussy and sank down on him. Her eyes closed involuntarily at how good he felt sliding inside her, filling her with his massive flesh. She rocked her hips, rubbing her clit against his pelvis. She took hold of his hands and put them on her breasts. His expression was fierce as he cupped and kneaded her flesh in the tidal wave of pleasure that they were creating. He spread his hands around her back and pulled her down so that he could kiss her. He devoured her mouth with his as he slammed his hips up and down. She ground against him and mewling cries of pleasure escaped her as she felt the pressure build inside her. He held her close and rolled over so that now she was laying beneath him.
He pumped his hips, faster and faster as she clung to him, helpless to hold back her pleasure any longer. She cried his name over and over as her orgasm slammed through her. She didn’t think it was possible, but their lovemaking tonight surpassed any previous encounters she’d had with him. She truly felt like she was his woman as she came apart beneath him. Her breath sobbed in and out of her body as she was gripped by the most intense orgasm she’d ever felt.
He ground his pelvis against her and through the haze of pleasure shooting through her body she saw his release tighten the muscles in his face and pull his lips back in a snarl. He growled her name as his cock pulsed, pumping the essence of his pleasure inside her. She cradled and held him as his body shuddered on top of hers. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck, and she clung to him as they rode out their pleasure together.
She floated in the aftermath as he rolled from her and gathered her close. The beat of his heart, putting out a steady rhythm against her ear lulled her into sleep. The last thought that came into her head before sleep claimed her was that she didn’t know how she was ever going to give this up.
Chapter Eleven
Cynric straightened his shirt as he walked down the stairs. The position of the sun in the sky told him that he’d slept longer than usual, and when he’d woken all he’d found beside him was an empty bed. He hadn’t liked it. Evie wasn’t beside him, and he wondered if he’d been too intense with her last night. The experience with her had blown his mind. He had never been so aroused then he had when he’s seen her standing bent over with her hands braced on the bed. She was offering everything to him, and he’d taken it as a primitive wave of possessiveness slammed through him. She was his woman, and from the moment she accepted him in his true form and offered herself up to him, he’d felt it.
Perhaps she’d gotten up and let him sleep. He walked down the stairs and went into the kitchen. She was there, sipping a steaming liquid out of a mug. A slow smile spread across her face, and the doubts he was feeling melted away.
“There you are sleepy
head. I didn’t think you would ever get up. The others are in the living room, and I think Rebecca will get the feed to Hylda up and running at any moment.” Her smile faltered for a second, and she concentrated on the liquid she was sipping.
“Why aren’t you in there too?” He stepped toward her.
“It really doesn’t have much to do with me, does it?” She set the mug down and stared at it for a moment. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a hint of sadness on her face, and it hit him why she was in here and not with the others. Her future didn’t hinge on Hylda’s condition because she would not be leaving the planet. For all their talk of him being her man and her being his woman, it was all a fantasy they’d wrapped around themselves in the heat of their passion for each other. He wished there was something he could do to make it true, but he couldn’t will the mark to appear, and unless it did, he could not offer his whole self to her.
He took her mug out of her hands and pulled her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and held her to him. “Do you still want us to share a bed? I want you, but I don't want to continue on if it hurts you. I wish I could offer you more, but right now with things so uncertain I don't want to make promises that I can’t keep.”
She squeezed her arms around his waist for a minute and stepped back. She wouldn’t look up at him, and he thought he could see a sheen of tears in her eyes. The sight sent a knife edge of pain through him. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, and pretending that they had a future together, when they didn’t, was hurting her.
“Should I join the others?” He wanted her to tell him to stay with her, so they could work through this. He wasn’t ready to give her up. But he would do it if that was what she wanted. If being with him was hurting her, he would walk away from her now, if only to spare her further pain.
“They are waiting for you. I’m just going to stay in here and get some food ready since we haven’t eaten.” She turned away from him and he reached his hand out to her. He held it there in mid air until he curled his fingers into a fist and moved his hand back down to his side. Until he was ready to claim her as his woman for the rest of his life, he didn’t deserve to play in the fantasy of it. She deserved more than he was offering her, and he turned on his heel and walked out the door to join the others in the temporary command center that Rebecca had created.
Everyone was gathered around Rebecca and her computer, staring intently at the screen. The display showed what looked like a storage bay and sitting in the middle, under a bunch of lights was Hylda.
“You found her?” Cynric stepped forward so he could get a better look. Hylda looked battered, and it didn’t look good for her being able to fly.
“Yes but unfortunately this is as close to her as I can get.” Rebecca pressed a few buttons, and the view switched to a different camera that showed the back of Hylda, but it wasn’t any closer than the other view had been.
Cynric cursed under his breath and looked at Synn who was staring at the screen with an intensity he usually reserved for Miranda. “What do you think Synn, do you think we’d be able to get her into the air?”
“I don’t know. The damage could be cosmetic, or it could go deeper than that. It’s so hard to tell. The only way I would know for sure would be if I was in her and ran a diagnostic.”
“That’s impossible. I will not risk our lives on a maybe. If we knew for sure that we could take off in her, it would be a risk worth taking if I could get us home. We are not going in there on a maybe.” Disappointment settled in Cynric’s gut. He’d hoped that they’d have a more definitive answer on Hylda’s condition, but if a deeper analysis was required, it would be too risky. They might be able to get in there to Hylda once to get airborne, but they couldn’t go, test her and leave again. He was sure the military would find them out.
“You may not need to.” Rebecca hit a few more strokes on her computer. “It looks like they have the ship hooked into the military network. They are likely trying to figure out how it runs. I might be able to hack into Hylda’s system that way, but it will take a while. Once I’m in I’ll need Synn’s help to navigate her diagnostic system.”
“I can do that.” For the first time since he’d walked into the room, Cynric could see excitement on Synn’s face. Miranda must have sensed a change in him because he put her arms around his waist, and he squeezed her to him and kissed the top of her head. Cynric turned away. Seeing how much in love Synn and Miranda were reminded him of what he didn’t have with Evie.
“If you all are ready to take a break, there is some food ready.” Evie stood in the doorway. She was quiet and subdued and she avoided looking at Cynric. He didn’t know what he could say to her to get her to look at him like she had last night. Should he try? Would it be more painful for her if they continued?
Everyone else stood, and Rebecca paused beside Evie on her way out the door, and said something to her that Cynric couldn’t hear. Evie nodded and Rebecca left the room.
Evie looked up at him and he curled his fingers in toward his palms to keep from reaching for her.
“Is the ship flyable?” She looked as if she was dreading the answer.
“We don’t know. Rebecca will get in her diagnostic system and Synn will help her determine if the ship is well enough to fly.”
“And if it isn’t?” She took a step toward him, and while physically there was only a breath of space between them, he felt the distance between them keenly.
“We must think of something else. We won’t be leaving today at any rate.” He walked toward the door so he could join the others.
“Cynric.” Her voice was soft behind him and he turned with an eagerness that belied his determination to let her go if he had to.
She walked up to him, put her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He knew that their days together were numbered. He could not stay on this planet forever as a fugitive, but until he had to go he was going to hold her close if she let him.
Evie waited in the halfway house’s office for Rebecca to come in. She’d said that she wanted to talk to her about something when they’d been going in to breakfast. Evie had no idea what it could be. As she waited, she was glad for the time to herself, even if it was only for a few moments. The closer they got to finding a way off the planet, the more excited Miranda and Collette grew, and the more sad she became. She was glad that her friends were happy, but she didn’t want to say goodbye to them. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Cynric.
For all their talk about her being his woman, she knew it wasn’t true. It was a fantasy they were both playing, and it was a dangerous one. She’d tried to shore up her walls, to protect herself from the inevitable pain of his departure, but the walls she built around her heart in the years since Adam’s death were crumbling inside her. The truth was she felt like she was his woman, and she didn’t want to let him go. He’d warned her before they made love the first time that he couldn’t promise her anything beyond what they had and despite their growing closer, nothing about their situation had changed. She would let him go as soon as he had an opportunity to get off the planet. And it was going to hurt.
Rebecca walked in the office and closed the door behind her. She went over to the chair in front of the desk, and Evie was thankful that she was here. Instead of wallowing in sadness over what she didn’t have, she should count her blessings for what she had. She had friends who loved her, one of whom was sitting in the chair across from the desk. And she would not have to say goodbye to Rebecca when this adventure was over.
“How are things going? We have had little opportunity to talk since the compound was destroyed.” Evie folded her hands on top of the desk, and Rebecca looked up at her with a troubled expression on her face. “Has something gone wrong with the diagnosis of Hylda?”
For a moment she felt shame at the tiny spark of happiness the prospect of the ship not being flyable that went through her. If the ship couldn’t fly, that
would give her more time with Cynric, but it was a selfish wish. And it would mean that they would have to find another way to get off the planet, perhaps one even more dangerous than breaking in to where Hylda was held and flying away.
“I’ve left that up to Synn. I got him into Hylda’s system, and he can navigate through it faster than I can, so I left him to it. There is something I need to talk to you about and I don’t quite know how to say it.”
This didn’t sound good, and the look of dread that came over Rebecca’s face made Evie’s stomach turn sour. She didn’t know what it could be that Rebecca wanted to talk to her about that would put such a look on her face. The compound was destroyed, and they were now on the run from the military. What more could Rebecca say that hadn't already happened?
“The best thing to do when you don’t want to tell someone something is to just come out and say it.” Evie gripped her hands together, and told herself that she was being overly dramatic. She was sure once she heard what Rebecca had to say that everything would be fine.
“Do you remember when I said I was going to look into where the women go after you had your call with Serena? I finally got some time while I was waiting to get into the military’s system, so I did some poking around.” Rebecca drew in a deep breath and looked down at her lap. She bit her lip and looked back up at Evie.
What could she have found out? An icy finger drew a path down Evie’s spine and she shivered. Whatever Rebecca had to say, Evie had a sudden flash of intuition that she didn’t want to know what it was. But she’d hidden from enough things over the years, and whatever Rebecca had to say, she was going to listen to it.
“Go on.” Evie braced herself for what she was about to hear.
