Thankfully, he let her sleep.
And then woke her up gnawing on her nipples.
It got her over the ‘hump’. She was halfway to paradise by the time she woke up enough to really enjoy his attention and too far gone to think about the earlier conversation. She responded because she couldn’t help but respond. He made her feel things she’d never thought she could feel, and then when they’d caught their breaths, he took her to rapture again.
And on the fourth day, they rested.
Niki had had time to put the entire conversation in the rearview by the time the ax fell so she was taken as completely by surprise as if she’d never even heard a word about it.
She went into the common room with Taurin, and came out of the bathroom to find Kagan waiting for her.
Apparently, it was swap day.
She heard a few angry words from women who refused to ‘go quietly into the night’, but they were dealt with swiftly enough to discourage the majority from saying anything. She didn’t know what happened and she didn’t want to.
A few of them cried.
Mostly those she could see looked frightened, confused, and then resigned.
Niki supposed that was closest to her reaction.
“’Fraid Kagan, Niki?” he murmured.
Was she?
Like more afraid of him than the rest of the giant aliens?
She smiled with an effort, tried to gather enough spit to swallow. “No.”
He took her hand and tugged her close. “Yes. Niki ‘fraid. Not be, ok? I no harm, ok?”
Niki searched his face, wondering if he’d worked hard to gather together that many words to reassure her. She thought he might have and felt a tentative warmth chase some of the chill from her. “Promise?” She tried to say it teasingly, but it came out as forlorn as she felt.
He scooped her up against his chest and left the common room.
She didn’t look for Taurin and Jurik. She burrowed her face against his neck so she wouldn’t see anyone at all.
“Is ok, Niki,” he said low, by her ear. “Dey leab.”
The warmth of his breath raised a flock of geese to pebble her skin, sent a shiver through her that was anything but indifference to him.
But then she’d felt a powerful attraction to him the first time she’d set eyes on him.
It took her brain several moments to ‘interpret’ what he’d said, partly because of his thick accent and partly because she’d been surprised at her reaction to him. She lifted her head and looked at him. “You’ve … learned English.”
His dark brows rose. “Engish?”
She smiled faintly at his pronunciation. “My language,” she clarified.
“Niki engish?”
Her smile broadened to amusement, but she couldn’t see trying to explain it to him when his vocabulary was still obviously very limited. “I speak English.”
He nodded. “Learn Engish spek talk Niki.”
Bless his heart, Niki thought. Good thing he’d learned Engish so he could talk to her!
It was sweet, though … she thought.
Then she took herself to task. She didn’t need to look for things to like about him—any of them. She was a captive. They weren’t being kind. They wanted sex because she was a young woman and they didn’t have any and they were horny. That was the sum total of it and she needed to get her head on straight.
He surprised her. He had food waiting in his quarters.
Well, and his twin, Goran. What did they call them? Their duo?
She wondered if Goran was an empathic healer like Jurik.
It would make sense, she decided. They were warriors. No doubt they had a big need for a healer and she’d watched them when they did mock battles. The duos guarded their backs.
Well, they guarded each other’s backs.
It sort of made them a two headed, four armed and legged killing machine.
The three of them settled to eating the first meal of the day together. But unlike Taurin and Jurik, who were both very reserved, Kagan and Goran seemed inclined to talk. “What call your world?”
“Earth.”
“Eos.”
“Your world is called Eos?” Niki asked.
He shrugged. “Was. No more.”
Niki stared at him feeling horrible as that sank in. “It’s not …?”
“Is no more. I tink.”
“Gone,” Goran said. “All.”
Niki didn’t think she could swallow the bite of food in her mouth to save her life without choking. She looked around for a napkin or trash can and finally resigned herself to chewing until she could swallow. “I’m so sorry,” she said when she finally managed to swallow the food. “Is that how you came to … uh … fight for the lizard people?”
He frowned. “Delizo Empire.”
A jolt went through Niki. “Seriously? They’re the Delizo Empire?”
He nodded, looking curious about her reaction.
Amusement flickered through her. “We have something on Earth we call a lizard. Looks like them but tiny.” She held her fingers about five inches apart, then she stuck her tongue out. “And they eat bugs like that. And they have a long tail.”
He stared at her tongue, his eyes narrowing, but it wasn’t anger she saw there.
“Lizard,” she said a little weakly.
“Why leab Earth?” he asked after a moment.
She shrugged. “To find a new home. Have a family.”
He waggled his dark brows at her. “I make. Next time, I win. I make baby.”
Niki felt her face heat up and then the blood rushed away just as fast as that sank in.
A woman—Earth woman—was fertile roughly three days out of every cycle.
And Taurin had made sure he had had sex with her all three days she’d been with him—several times.
Was that what he was doing? Or at least thought he was doing? Was it the same on their world? And, even if it was, they weren’t the same. They looked similar, but they weren’t the same.
He palmed her belly, making her jump. “Make baby here.”
She met his gaze, saw … what? Heat, certainly. But ….
No! She wasn’t going there, damn it!
He went there.
“You be my woman, yes?”
Niki gaped at him. How the hell was she supposed to answer that? “I … uh …. Well, I … uh ….”
Oh my god! She felt faint.
Actually a little nauseated.
“Um … I don’t … uh … really don’t know you that well … uh … yet,” she finally said uneasily. “This is … uh … this is such a surprise!”
He dragged her onto his lap, caught her face with one hand in the crook between his thumb and fingers, and, thankfully, silenced her with his mouth.
Despite her distress—or maybe because she was already thrown into a state of shock, the kiss sent her into a tailspin. She almost thought she had fainted for several moments. But then again, she didn’t lose awareness. She attained hyperawareness.
His mouth felt absolutely divine—everything about it. His touch, the firmness of it and the texture of his tongue as he explored her mouth with it. His taste. His scent. Just the way he held her.
Heat washed through her, seemed to swell up around her and swallow her.
She clutched at him when she discovered her arms were trapped and when he eased away enough to free them, she slid them up his chest and around his neck.
A tremor started deep inside him. She felt it, felt her body respond to it with a quaking in her sex.
He skimmed his hands up her torso, peeling her T-shirt up and settling his palms over her breasts.
They were like a pair plums on a turkey platter in his huge hands, but he didn’t seem disappointed. He massaged them and plucked at her taut nipples with the edges of his fingers.
After a moment, he broke the kiss and peeled her t-shirt completely off.
He was breathing heavily, shakily as he dropped the T-shirt and focu
sed on her breasts, touching each carefully, lightly. She heard him swallow and then he met her gaze.
“You are so beautiful, Niki. I have never seen anything more beautiful.” He swallowed with an effort, struggling to retain control as he felt it slipping from his hold. He wanted her so badly he could hardly think and he was afraid he would hurt her … or make her afraid of him.
He helped her off of his lap after a moment and peeled her panties down her legs so that he could see all of her. When she’d stepped out of them, he pulled her close, rubbed his face along her belly and finally burrowed her face against that softness and breathed deeply of her scent.
Disappointment flickered through him, briefly, when he realized the perfume of fruitfulness had vanished. A babe had taken up residence in her womb and left no place for his.
He dismissed it after a moment, told himself it did not matter.
But it did. He had wanted his child there.
He had not realized how badly he did until he felt the depths of his disappointment.
After a moment, he pulled way, picked her up, and carried her to his bunk. There, he leaned down and carefully settled her on it, studying her as he stripped his own clothing off.
She didn’t cringe or flinch when he had stripped and stood before her naked—which he had more than half expected—or worse. He took that as a good sign.
He allowed her to look until she met his gaze again and he saw … acceptance.
Then he settled on the bunk beside her on his side and examined her as he had wanted to, skated his hand lightly over her skin, enjoying the silky feel of it, the softness of her, the shape, the color of her. She was nothing like their women and exactly like them at the same time. He had always thought the shape of a woman’s body was beautiful, but hers took his breath away. He was not certain why. He only knew she did … and had from the first moment he saw her.
He didn’t entirely understand the way he felt about her. His people were not about possessions as the delizo people were—never had been—and that included the women, one another. They were free people. They respected the rights of all people to be free. They shared only what they wanted to share of themselves.
The mating—yes—that was a time of possessiveness. It could and fairly often did end in death for one of the suitors. But that was about breeding, producing offspring for a new generation. Once they had bred … well in general both parties were done. The woman, naturally enough, wanted the best sire for her children and the strength and agility of a warrior were the rulers they used to determine who was best.
For that reason, he had not been particularly surprised when he had wanted to kill Taurin for taking the place he wanted with her, breeding on her. But the breeding was done. He knew it. Taurin knew it. She must.
She had welcomed him.
And yet … he still wanted to kill Taurin for breeding her.
And Taurin still wanted to kill him for wanting her.
It was not just him he realized for the first time, feeling some uneasiness. And it was not just her. Well, it was just her as far as he and Taurin were concerned, but the other men had become more restless and volatile daily—because of the women they had been given.
As much as he hated to admit it, Taurin had been right, but he did not think Muck had a clue of just what he had done or where it was going to lead all of them.
Chapter Ten
Niki was a little disconcerted when Kagan settled beside her on his side and focused on exploring her with his eyes and light touches. She had felt the quaking inside of him and her mind had deciphered that as ‘eager’, but he seemed in no rush.
She didn’t especially want to slow down and savor—for several reasons. Her own desire figured among them.
But mostly she didn’t want time to think.
And yet, he snared her attention almost at once and kept it focused on him.
The way he touched her seemed … almost … reverent.
Or maybe careful?
Maybe he was as unnerved about her size as she was his?
Or was that just another case of judging him by herself? By her perspective and the way she felt?
Taurin had been careful of her—always. In retrospect, she wondered how someone so powerful had managed never to hurt her—not once—either deliberately or accidentally.
Because, she decided, he had always thought before he did—even when he was in the throes of passion and seemed out of control, he wasn’t.
Because they were used to handling young? They might not be used to women that were so much smaller in stature, but there must have been children in their lives, smaller beings that were fragile enough they had to be careful of them.
As strange as it seemed to picture them in such a light when they such fierce, dangerous warriors.
And maybe that instinct was what had saved her from injury—not forethought but ‘muscle memory’?
It piqued her … just a little, thinking of them as … fathers, husbands—whatever they called them where they were from.
But they had left all of that behind.
Or lost it.
She hadn’t wanted to pick at that wound. It seemed too cruel when he hadn’t seemed to want to talk about it.
She studied Kagan’s face as he studied her. In a moment, he turned his head and met her gaze and she saw desire in his eyes, banked, but there nonetheless. He shifted closer, covered her mouth with his as he rolled partly on top of her.
The heat that he’d summoned before flared up instantly—like throwing gasoline on hot coals. She caught his shoulders with her palms and then stroked her hands along his shoulders, stroked his long, silky hair. He broke the kiss after a moment, sucked in a harsh breath and explored her face and throat with his lips, and then her breasts, suckling first one and then the other until she was clawing mindlessly at his back.
He moved downward from there until he reached her belly and then seemed to hesitate for several moments and pushed himself up on his knees. Catching her legs just above the knees, he dragged her to him, settling a leg on either side of him and then reaching to stroke her cleft with one finger as he splayed the lips of her sex with the other. After a moment, he left off his exploration and grasped his cock, guiding it toward the opening he’d spread with his fingers and pushing just hard enough to engage his flesh with hers. He stopped then, met her gaze and grasped the tops of her thighs, pulling her to him so that the head of his cock slipped a little deeper.
Niki sucked in a breath and held it, struggling to prevent her inner muscles from clapping together and pushing against him.
He felt it, though. His eyelids slid to half-mast. Heat glittered in his eyes. He dug his fingers into her buttocks, pulling her to him as he pushed a little deeper. When he’d sheathed himself as deeply as he could in that position, he allowed himself to slip outward, and thrust again several times until his cock was thoroughly coated with her juices. Then he leaned over her with great care, supporting himself with his hands and then his elbows as he lowered himself until his chest brushed hers with every deep breath he took.
He stared into her eyes, then slipped a hand beneath her hips to hold her and thrust until he could go no deeper.
He sawed within her almost lazily for several minutes, easing deeply into her and then allowing her muscles to push him out, over and over until Niki could hardly catch her breath. She reached for him finally, in desperation, lifted her legs and coiled them around his hips.
He released a ragged breath and burrowed his head against the mattress, increasing the tempo of his thrusts until Niki felt the coiling tension inside of her abruptly snap. She uttered a gasp of rapture as it engulfed her.
His skin pebbled all over when she did. She felt his cock buck inside of her. He released a choked breath and pumped into her in short, quick trusts, his body shaking and jerking with his release and thrusting her toward a higher plane of pleasure.
Kagan slumped weakly in the aftermath, so drained he did not even want
to try to muster the strength to roll off of her. In any case, his cock was very happy in the warm, dark hole it had found and he was in no rush to drag it out.
After a moment, when he felt himself sinking toward slumber, he caught her buttocks tightly in one hand and rolled with her until his weight was on the bed and not crushing her. He curled both arms around her a little possessively—just for the pleasure it gave him to feel her against his length.
And then, feeling more relaxed and satisfied than he could recall ever feeling, he allowed himself to slip into oblivion.
Goran woke them both when he returned with food for the second meal.
Kagan eyed him a little resentfully, knowing he had to allow Goran time with her and still reluctant.
Ruefully, it occurred to him that it was yet another sign that things had gone awry. Ordinarily, he was inclined to think of and look upon his duo as an extension of himself.
But his dick was his own, he thought, and he would get no pleasure of it.
Dismissing it, he sat up, looked around for his clothing and decided the hell with it. He roused Niki. When she reached for her clothing, however, he snatched them away and tossed them to Goran.
She reddened, sent him a look he found difficult to interpret—and didn’t want to—and then looked down at her hands.
Goran lifted her clothing to his nose and sniffed. His eyes rolled back in his head.
“You look like a … hoarbeast, you oaf,” Kagan muttered, wondering with more than a little discomfort if he had looked as stupid when he had been sniffing all over her.
Goran reddened, flicked a glance at Niki and then dropped the clothing. “She smells good,” he growled a little defensively.
Kagan swallowed with an effort and gazed at her with longing. “She is a … delicious morsel,” he agreed. Taking some of the food from the tray Goran had brought, he nudged her to get her attention. “Eat, Niki.”
She met his gaze and flicked a look at Goran uncomfortably.
Goran, she saw, was eating as if he had no idea what it was he had and could care less. His eyes were glued to her—somewhere in the vicinity of her pubic bush—to leave her in no doubt at all of where his mind was.
Alien Warriors: Invasion Page 9
