Ascension Saga, Book 7: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga

by Goodwin, Grace

  “You can’t stop me and I can’t stop you.”

  I grinned. Couldn’t stop myself. “Sounds like old times.”

  Trinity laughed. “Come on. Come back to the palace. You said yourself Elder Amandine isn’t in on it. You should come in now. It’s too dangerous for you there.”

  “No, it’s not. I’m fine. And with Crayden dead, someone’s got to watch her back.”

  “And who is going to watch yours?” she countered.

  “I will, of course,” Nix replied.

  I eyed him, knowing now I wasn’t going to get away from him so easily. From the gleam I saw, the clenched jaw, I had a feeling I wasn’t breathing without him next to me.

  “No.” I raised a bloody hand. “I’m not finished. This is a big place, Trin. There are more players than just the one elder. Since she’s a good guy, then someone else has to be in on it. I’m in deep here and I’ve got help from a head elder. I dyed my freaking hair,” I replied, eyeing her carefully. She knew that was a big deal. “I can learn more.”

  I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that with Nix here, but I had to get Trinity satisfied and off the call and then I could deal with him.

  She sighed and I knew I had won. I ignored the caveman kneeling before me, looking up at me, staring at me like he’d never seen anything so beautiful. He lifted a hand to my hair and ran his fingers through the black strands as if he’d never seen hair before. I was waiting for him to grasp my neck and strangle me for how I’d gotten away from him.

  What was wrong with this guy? Why did he think I was his mate? I mean, I was so-so, at least average in looks. Maybe. My eyes were too narrow and my nose had a weird bump near the top. My lips were too thin and I had no boobs to speak of. For being a twin, Faith got it all in the looks department. What the hell was he looking at like that?

  His hands slid under the long hem of the tunic I wore; the heat of his hands seeped through the material of my pants. Higher and higher he moved, not slowly and not with too much haste, as if he were savoring the journey, until he cupped me.

  His eyes flared, his jaw clenched as I knew he felt how damp the fabric was and what that indicated.

  I moaned because his hand felt soooooo good.

  “Trin, I’ve got to go.”

  “But, I need to—”

  I disconnected, let the comm fall to the floor.

  Yeah, I needed to do something too, and it was Nix.

  I didn’t want him here. Obviously, the stubborn Aleran male had zero intention of letting me just go about my business. And now he would hover, with Trinity’s blessing. I had no chance of getting him to see reason. And based on how quickly he’d tracked me down, he wouldn’t be easy to shake off my trail.

  But, at the moment he was working my pants off and that was more important than anything else in the world. Thank god he’d closed the door behind him.

  “You’re in big trouble, mate,” he said as he worked my small boots off, then my pants.

  I grabbed the hem of my tunic and pulled, tossed it over my head. It was in my way, dammit.

  “You’re going to be in big trouble if you’re found in my room,” I countered, tugging off my undershirt next. I needed to be naked. Now. “God, this is insane. I need you again.”

  Nix stood and began to strip. One piece of clothing at a time, with a confidence mastered by a Chippendales dancer. And what he revealed. Hell, he wrecked those exotic dancers. Muscles on top of muscles. Broad shoulders, rippling abs, bountiful biceps, narrow waist. Thick thighs and that gorgeous V that led to his… god, that had fit?

  His cock was huge, and gorgeous. Not usually so, but his was a soft shade of pink, thick and almost pulsing with need. The crown was wide and smooth and pre-cum already dripped from the slit. Below, his balls hung heavily, as if he hadn’t already come in me three times.

  I pointed there. “Are you always like this? Are you a consort or something?” I wouldn’t have put it past Trinity to send me a consort to ease my Ardor. But a queen’s guard who was a consort? Who could sneak into buildings with stealth and a hard-on? And I’d never told anyone I had the Ardor.

  “I am the male who’s cum is going to be sliding down your thighs.”

  I glanced down at my nearly naked body, imagined him smeared all over my skin. Fuck, that was hot.

  “I’m no consort. I’m your mate and you awakened me.”

  I frowned, thinking. “Are you saying you’ve never, that I was, that you—”

  “Never had a hard cock before? That’s correct. Never fucked before? That’s also correct.”

  “You were a virgin?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Holy shit. You’re really good for a virgin.”

  That only stroked his male ego. His shoulders rolled back and his cock swelled even more.

  “We should… I mean, don’t you think we should wait? Take this back to the palace?”

  “Now you wish to go to the palace?” he countered. Slowly, he shook his head and stepped toward me.

  6

  Destiny

  I retreated toward my en suite bathroom. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked. I never realized how small it was until Nix took up most of the space.

  Unhooking the Aleran version of a bra and undies, I dropped both at my feet. I had now stripped out of every bloodstained, nasty bit of clothing I had. Even my boots. Nix had seen it all before, and I couldn’t stand to have the blood touching my skin for another moment. I’d had dead guy on me for hours.

  Gross.

  Naked now, I couldn’t quite stomach covering up with the robe either. I was still filthy. Blood caked on my palms. On my knees where it had soaked through my pants. I turned the faucet on and scrubbed my hands under the running water like my life depended on it. Soap. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Twice. Three times. I’d never be clean.

  Nix reached over my shoulder and turned off the water, waited until I turned toward him and reached for a towel, gently drying my hands as he spoke. All towel. No skin.

  “You made my cock awaken. We fucked, then you ran away from me last night. You are the one who put us here instead of in a private bedroom at the palace. We could have done this in a large, comfortable bed. Instead, you’re going to get the spanking and fucking you deserve right here in your shower tube.”

  A shudder went through me at his words. Holy hell, I hated to be bossed around, but Nix’s dominance hit every one of my hot buttons. That didn’t mean I would give in though. No way in hell.

  “As if.”

  The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You may have gotten away before, Princess, but not this time.”

  “I’m not a princess,” I countered. “At least, I am, but I’m not. Not really.”

  “You mean spoiled and used to getting her own way?” He reached past me again, this time to press the wall to turn the shower on. He had yet to touch me and it left every single nerve ending wide awake. “A man had his throat severed, you’re covered in his blood and you think I will allow this? That I will allow my mate to take such risks?”

  “Nix,” I said, not exactly sure why. Was I saying his name to have him touch me, to warn him that we would be too loud in a dorm-style building? To tell him he was being unreasonable? That he was absolutely right and I just wanted to be in the palace in a big bed and beneath him, all the bad stuff just… gone? Poof! I had no idea. My mind was scattering like leaves in a fall wind.

  I mean, I was in a confined space with the hottest man in the entire universe and he was naked. His cock had gotten hard for me. Only me. I knew about the Aleran males’ awakening. How they might search for years for the right woman to turn them on and wake them up. It was like instant puberty. From zero to hero instantly. And for Nix, that one in a million woman was me.

  No wonder he looked like he wanted to eat me alive.

  If that wasn’t hot as fuck, I had no idea what was.

  And what was I waiting for? I wanted him inside me giving me orgasms. By the dozen.

  “Yo
u doubt I’m your mate?” he asked, glancing down our bodies at his cock, which bobbed between us. When he stepped closer, it pressed hot and heavy against my belly. “That this is just… fucking to you?”

  Yes, I wanted to fuck him. I’d had sex before, but never like this? God, it had never been like this. I wanted him.

  “Nix.”

  Reaching out, I grasped his cock, stroked the full, ridiculously long length of it. His eyes fell closed and his hips jerked. I felt powerful, knowing what I did to someone so serious, so in control all the time. Leave it to me to turn on someone so uptight and rigid. He just had to be a queen’s guard.

  “I’m supposed to be finding my mother’s kidnapper,” I said randomly. “Not going at it like a rabbit with a man I don’t know.”

  He stilled my hand by gently gripping my wrist. “You know me,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. Holding me pinned just as much with his gaze as with his grip. “I am yours, Destiny. That is all you need to know. To feel. But as to the rest? Your hand is on my cock and you’re thinking of your mother?”

  I bit my lip, said nothing. He was right. My body was melting and my mind was screaming at the rest of me to get a fucking grip and get back to work. I didn’t have time to take care of myself. I had to find Mom. She needed me. Trinity needed me. Faith needed me.

  Nix cupped my face with a gentle touch and angled my head so I looked up at him. “Destiny, there is nothing else you can do tonight. You neglect your health, push your body to the point of starvation. Tempt death to take you. You do not take care of yourself. That is what happens when you’re in charge.”

  “Nix.” God, his eyes were dark. And the emotion I saw there scared the hell out of me. Shit. He was right. How had a man I’d just met known that much already? I did push too hard. I broke things. Bones. Skin. I had scars. I’d kept the emergency room back home well-stocked in casts when I was a teen.

  And this Ardor? I had waited too long, but I hadn’t realized just how close I was to the edge until Nix had shown up and set my body on fire. Who knows? Maybe I would have been fine. Maybe I could have held on for another week. Or two. “I’m fine.”

  “I hear that word a lot from you, yet I find you covered in a dead man’s blood. I do not believe you are using it properly.”

  “I don’t think—”

  Nix interrupted, placing his thumb over my lips. I wanted to lick and nip and suck him into my mouth. “Thinking. Too much thinking. I might have been a virgin before you, but even I know that right now what my mate needs is to be a sweaty, screaming mess from a good, hard fuck, from my energy pouring into you, feeding your Ardor, taking me inside you forever. That’s what you need and I’m going to give it to you.”

  Forever? What the hell was he—

  His free hand cupped my pussy, slid over my wet folds. Over my clit. Back and forth. Teasing me.

  I never finished that thought. No longer cared.

  “I love the feel of my cum in you. Knowing I’ve been here, taken you.”

  I whimpered, circled my hips as he slipped two fingers inside.

  His hand moved away and he turned me around, pressed my breasts to the cold, smooth wall of the shower tube. “Nix!” I cried.

  His answer was to kiss me. My shoulder. The back of my neck. The side of my face. Luring me into trusting him, he raised my hands over my head and locked one large hand around both of my wrists as water poured down on both of us.

  “You need to take better care of yourself, mate.” He washed my body with one hand, making quick work of the job, making sure all traces of the earlier violence were gone. It wasn’t sexual, but his touch made me feel cared for. Pampered. That was before the sharp slap landed on my ass. The sting had me gasping, then coming a little as the fire spread and his hard cock slid up and down the small of my back, the curve of my ass.

  Holy shit. Hot. “I’m fine.”

  Another swat, the sweet sting moved through me like liquid heat and my pussy clenched around nothing. Empty. Hungry. My core twitched and spasmed in the beginnings of an orgasm. I tugged at my wrists, tested his hold. He wasn’t hurting me, but there was no give. His heat was like an inferno at my back as he towered over me.

  Hot. So fucking hot. I wanted more.

  With a sound bordering on a growl, he leaned down and moved his lips over my cheek, making me shiver despite the hot water. “I’m in charge now. Your pleasure is mine. That little bite of pain, you like that? You just came, didn’t you, mate?”

  Gone was the gentle lover. Well, he’d never been gentle, but he’d also never been like this. Dark, controlling, maybe a little bit of the Doms I’d read about in romance books coming off him.

  But that bite of pain had been delicious and I wanted more. I widened my stance in the hopes of him giving me another stinging swat with that deliciously large hand. On my ass. Making me burn. Then he could lift me, fill me from behind. Fuck me again.

  I didn’t ask. Didn’t say a word. Speaking those kinds of thoughts out loud was completely different from thinking them. Telling him what I wanted made me too… vulnerable. I couldn’t go there with him. I couldn’t give in.

  He pulled back, that free hand of his roaming up and down my spine with a touch so gentle it made me shake.

  “Nix,” I said, sobbing his name, needing more but unable to ask.

  “Do you know why I got you all cleaned up?” he asked.

  I didn’t care, but he kept talking anyway.

  “So I can get you filthy dirty again.” He slipped his arm around my hips and lifted me, his knees coming between mine from behind. Opening my legs. Lifting my ass. He filled me in one smooth stroke, pinned me to the wall of the shower as he pumped into my body over and over again. “Later, we will find your mother. Fuck, we will save the fucking planet. But right now, I will save you. From yourself.”

  I cried out his name again, needing this, needing everything he’d give me. Everything he’d take. I didn’t have to think, didn’t have to do anything but feel.

  It was liberating. Freeing. For the first time since I’d arrived on Alera, I was free. Protected. Safe.

  And later, when he finally, finally, laid me down in the bed and fucked me, slowly, kissing me, watching my face as I came apart in his arms, I let him have me. I hid nothing. I took him deep and clung and kissed and whimpered when he pulled out, separating us. My body needed his in a way I’d never even imagined. The pleasure of pulling his essence into myself as he came inside me made my eyes roll into my head like I was taking a hit of the deadliest, most seductive drug. I couldn’t stop touching him. Wanting more energy. More touching. More. Just more. Needing him.

  And he gave himself to me. He thrust and groaned and worked his body to the verge of collapse. I watched his muscles shake with fatigue and his veins strain with exertion. I stared at his face as he came inside me, his expression—as I drained his strength and his seed—a mixture of pleasure and pain. Agony and triumph. And I couldn’t stop. My body had a will of its own. A hunger unlike anything I’d ever imagined.

  He didn’t try to stop me. Didn’t ask me to stop. I took and took and took. And he gave.

  When we both finally collapsed, unable to move, I knew I was in big trouble.

  When I snuggled into his embrace and pressed every inch of my skin to his warmth? When I pulled his arm tightly around me and cuddled into him like he was mine? When he covered us both with a blanket and I trusted him enough to fall asleep in his arms?

  Trouble.

  Really big trouble.

  7

  Nix

  I was on my feet blocking the ion blasters pointed at my mate before the door to Destiny’s room flew open and hit the wall. Or at least, I thought I was.

  I expected to find her snuggled in the blankets behind me, still warm from our slumber. Sated. Looking at me with the sleepy eyes of a well-fucked female in the pre-dawn light. Like I was her world. Like she cared. Wanted me. Was happy that it was me in her bed and not some other male.

  In
stead, my deadly mate was crouched on the end of her bed, naked and beautiful, her own weapon pointed at the intruders. I’d had no idea she even had a blaster. “Get out of my room.”

  Three clerics stood there, scowling, ion pistols pointed right at me. They ignored her, apparently assuming she was no threat. Idiots.

  “Get out. You have violated the sanctity of these grounds with your fornication and broken the initiate’s oath. You are henceforth banished from theses premises.”

  The grin spreading on my face was impossible to contain. The young guard looked like he was about to piss himself. But the male behind him was ogling my mate, and that was not acceptable. “I am not an initiate,” I said.

  “Not you,” he countered and pointed. “Her.”

  Clearly these were not guards Elder Amandine had sent. They knew nothing of her meeting with the elder. Someone on the floor must have heard us and complained. These guys were the morals police.

  “That her you are referring to is my mate. If you do not stop eyeing my mate, I will pluck your eyes from your skull and make you choke on them. Show her some respect.”

  The leader of the three, a young man who looked barely old enough to be weaned from his mother’s breast, and completely incapable of killing, puffed up his chest like a bird with ruffled feathers and lifted his blaster a bit higher. His gaze, however, shifted lower, to my engorged cock. There was no lying, not about this. An Aleran male’s cock did not become fully functional until his mate awakened him. And my body, despite the hours I’d spent lost in the pleasure of Destiny’s soft, warm sex, was very, very awake. And hard. And ready for another round.

  And these three were keeping me from that.

  The guard cleared his throat and stopped looking at my obvious erection. “Mate or not, she is an initiate of the clerical order.”

  “It is Aleran law that you can’t separate me from my mate.”

  “We are not separating a mated pair. Both of you are expelled from the property. Take your mate and get out. Both of you. Fornication is not allowed on sacred ground. You should have taken it somewhere else. You are banished.”