by Vi Keeland
A gentle squeeze on her biceps encouraged her to continue.
“My father was a lieutenant in the Boston police department. I grew up surrounded by the code of blue. It’s all I ever knew. I wanted to be a cop my whole life. When I told him his only daughter wanted to follow in his footsteps, he burst with pride.” She coughed, choking on the sorrow clogging her throat.
“He didn’t know, did he?”
She shook her head, fighting the sadness tightening her chest. “My mother didn’t want to fall in love with him. But sometimes the head has no control over what the heart wants.” Lilly shrugged. “She had no intention of having children. But fate had other plans.”
A gentle finger turned her chin again. The man wouldn’t let her look away and hide in her shame. “They were lucky to have you.” Lilly wanted to drown in the compassion Dallas offered. “And you them. Not many people can claim to be born of such love, Lilly.”
“Love couldn’t change who I was. As much as I want to deny it. I’ll always be a Seraphelium.”
“It doesn’t make you less of a woman.”
Once again she laughed in disgust at his naiveté. “According to the asshole who wanted my badge, that’s not the case. I’m an abomination. An out-of-control alien looking to take over the human race from the inside.”
“Wait…the Chicago PD knew what you were?”
“Are you kidding me? I kept the truth from everyone.” She wanted to turn from Dallas’ probing gaze. Instead Lilly found herself leaning into the warm caress of his thumb across her cheek, knowing his disgust could take it from her at any moment. “I never slept with guys in school or later with those on the force. Though Serapheliums aren’t on the alien registry, I lived in fear if I ever got too close to someone they might find out what I was.”
“You mean to tell me you were celibate?”
She smiled at his incredulity. “I didn’t say that. I just didn’t have relations close to home. I traveled. On long weekends and vacations I had one-night stands. But that gets old really fast.”
“Did you seduce them with…”
She could see Dallas was wondering about their liaison in the alley. “Dallas, it’s not like I want to—”
He silenced her with a finger to her lips. “I didn’t mean it that way, Lilly. Is there anyone you’ve slept with who you didn’t,” his hand waved the length of her body, “seduce with this power?”
There was no recrimination in his tone but guilt speared hard nonetheless. “I never turned it on if that’s what you mean. But my own arousal is often enough to trigger—”
“Are you aroused now, Lilly?” Dallas stood slowly. He swung the chair out of the way and moved in front of her. “Because right now I want you with an ache that burns.”
She admired the muscular curve of his thighs. Hungrily contemplated the bulge behind his fly. Feasted on the firm ridges of his abdomen and the well-defined wall of his furred chest. Took note of the taut cords of his neck and the slight tic of muscle in his jaw. And finally forced her gaze to meet his. The man was over six feet of sexually heated male, making her wetter than hell.
“I’m not doing it on purpose,” she said. Her body ached to be taken by this man. It was obvious he found her desirable as well. But as much as she wanted him buried to the hilt in her heat, satisfying an itch no toy at her hotel could relieve, Lilly was sure she wanted no part of the frustrated confusion quivering along his muscles. “Listen, Dallas. My energy’s still high. I pushed it up to gain control over the Znedu and then again on Thaegan as he ran through the alley.” Now that he knew what she was, Lilly refused to feel shamed by her heritage. “I’ve no doubt it’s pulling on you now. I can’t change that. And I’ve got to tell you, you’re stronger than any human male I’ve met for resisting it this long. I still have no idea how you manage to touch me and then break the contact. No male’s ever been able to do that once I’m bound to them.”
With the slow deliberation of a man on a mission, Dallas bent at the waist. Planting his hands squarely on the arms of the chair, he leaned in close. “If it’s all right with you, I don’t think I want to fight this anymore.” Satin lips feathered heat across her mouth, stealing what little breath she had. He added soft pressure that made her dizzy with its intensity. When his hand snaked around the back of her neck, he changed the angle. Dallas’ tongue swept her bottom lip, begging for entrance. She opened for him and his flavor burst hot in her mouth, affectionate and fiery with a demanding edge that screamed male.
She pulled away from the assault, her breath sawing from her lungs. “Damn it, Dallas. Untie my hands.”
“Nothing doing, sweetheart.” His mouth curved, but the smile held no humor, only rapacious danger, making her tummy do a little somersault.
She smiled back in a seductive invitation. They both understood the bindings had nothing to do with keeping her hostage and everything to do with the sexual game just beginning. Lilly wanted this man with a hunger she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “Afraid of a tiny woman?”
Dallas dropped to his knees between her quivering thighs, his lustful gaze never leaving hers. “Fear has nothing to do with it, m’ lady.” Wrapping both hands around the back of her head, his palms framing her chin, he pulled her down for another kiss. His tongue swept into her mouth, exploring, demanding and she met every thrust and pull with equal challenge. When he drew back to catch his breath, she rasped his bottom lip through her teeth, pulling a deep growl from his throat.
He pressed his forehead to hers. “I want you, Lilly. Like an alcoholic wants his next drink, I need you.” His heavy pants heated her face. “Tell me now if you don’t want this and I’ll stop. I’ll die a slow agonizing death…but I’ll stop.” His laughter filled her heart.
Lilly couldn’t remember the last time she needed someone so badly. It had nothing to do with the sexual energy thrumming through her veins and everything to do with the fact that the man prostrate before her understood it was her need driving them both and still he wanted her. There was some comfort in that.
“If you stop…I’ll kill you,” she whispered.
Dallas inhaled a shaky breath and gently pressed his lips to hers.
Oh hell no. “Don’t go easy on my account,” she said against his mouth. “In the state I’m in, fast and hard works just fine for me.”
He tipped his head back, his smile slow and reckless—as if a plan was formulating. “Far be it for me to ignore a lady’s request.” The words were low and deadly, promising all the wickedness glinting in his eyes. “Hang on tight, Lilly. You’re in for one hell of a ride.”
His mouth came down on hers, devouring her in its breathless path to possess. Lilly’s head fell back against the chair as his lips broke from hers, raking a path of moist heat and raw lust along her jaw and down her neck. While his teeth scraped over her pulse points, his hands swept across her shoulders, peeling his shirt away as they went.
Dallas let it slide seductively over her breasts until it lay in a pile in her lap. When the broad heat of his palms slid over her achy mounds and squeezed, she couldn’t hold back the moan of need keening from her lips.
Dallas chuckled. “I’ve only just begun.” He bit playfully at her neck then licked the spot his teeth had grazed. He rolled the hard peaks of her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers at the same time, sending sparks straight down her center. His mouth kissed a hot path to her breast. The damp curls of his hair tickled along her heated skin, a wonderful contrast to the nip of pain he inflicted with his love bites to her nipples. Her back arched, pressing her heated flesh harder against his talented hands and greedy mouth. Dallas pressed her breasts close together with his hands and flicked his tongue from one aching nipple to the other. Pleasure careened along her nerves, shooting straight to her clitoris, her body trembling against the assault.
As much as she wanted to dig her fingers through the thick curls of his hair and pull Dallas close, being bound to the chair lent another level of eroticism to his to
uches. She could neither fight the onslaught of sensations nor change his course. Not that she wanted to do either. The man certainly had moves that required no assistance or instruction.
With one hand still on her breast, the other tripped down her rib cage and gathered a corner of the shirt still covering her lap. With slow deliberation, Dallas dragged the material over her thighs and she canted her hips, loving the feeling of the soft material over her naked flesh. The erotic scent of her arousal hung in the air.
Dallas filled his lungs. “That’s a heady perfume, Lilly. It’s enough to drive a man insane with need.”
She wasn’t sure if he had intended them to, but his words stiffened her back and knotted her stomach. With just one sentence Dallas had slammed the door on her fantasy that being with him would be different. For once she’d wanted to believe this union was more than just a mindless rutting brought on by the lustful odor of her body. Like bees to honey, men just couldn’t resist the attraction.
Lilly had let herself believe that Dallas was somehow different.
Dallas hesitated. Leaning back, he studied her. “Did I say something wrong?”
Yes. “No.” She shook her head to emphasize the word she didn’t feel. Now she was more interested in finishing what had begun and powering down her energy. How Dallas chose to get them both off and break the bond, didn’t matter anymore. Lilly just wasn’t sure how he’d complete the task with her tied to the confining chair. “Wouldn’t you be more comfortable doing this over there on the bed?” She tipped her chin toward the large sleeping pallet in the corner piled with decorative pillows.
He frowned with confusion. “I don’t intend this to be about me, Lilly.” Dallas planted a tender kiss on her inner thigh. “This is about what I’m going to do for you.” His hands squeezed her calves, and she swore she felt the heat of them even through the leather of her boots. “I rather like having you at my mercy. And from my perspective…” his teeth dug into the tender skin just above her birthmark and Lilly bit her cheek to hold back her cry, “it’s rather obvious you’re enjoying it too.” His palms skimmed up the outside of her legs as his teeth nipped a path to her most sensitive flesh. “And I intend to take full advantage.”
Dallas’ actions made no sense. The man urging her thighs wider seemed willing to delay his own gratification to satisfy her needs first. Even as confusion clouded her thoughts, Lilly lifted her hips, exposing her weeping cleft and allowing his thumbs access to spread her swollen lower lips.
“That’s right, Lilly, open for me.” He filled his lungs with her scent. “I have no intention of untying you until I have you begging.” Dallas blew up her slit and she writhed at the thrill of the chilled air. “And even then I might keep you there just to hear you continue to scream for me.”
Two fingers spread her lips, exposing the aching bud of her clitoris. When Dallas put his mouth on her slick flesh, the silken touch of his tongue was like a flame licking over the pearled nub. He sucked her clit into his mouth and tortured it with hot little flicks. The pleasure blazed over her nerves, spreading out to scorch a path to the tips of her fingers and toes. Dallas’ other hand slid along her inner thigh, swirling two thick fingers in her cream before pressing them into her clenching channel, drawing a moan of bliss from her throat.
She couldn’t believe this was happening. Like their encounter in the alley, he was willing to satisfy her needs first. Lilly wanted to contemplate his motives, but the carnal sensations he was creating in her body made all logical thought impossible.
The sexy slurping noises of Dallas finger-fucking her, the sight of his head in her lap and the electrical currents radiating out from her core brought on a climax so hard and so fast, Lilly was bucking against the ropes and screaming his name before she had time to process what was happening. Because her energy level was so high for so long, the explosion of rapture burst over every nerve and trembled through every muscle of her body. With no way to move, her nails bit deeply into her palms and her toes curled in her boots. The sexual energy ebbed even as her body quaked and shattered in ecstasy.
Despite the erotic current pulsing out from her, Dallas seemed content to focus solely on her. When she looked down in wonder, the last shudders of her orgasm clenching her belly, she found him staring at her. He smiled and laved up her slit as if he couldn’t get enough of her slick honey.
“Like what you see?” she asked.
“A beautiful woman reaching orgasm while she screams my name? What’s not to enjoy?” His triumphant grin warmed her heart.
He held her gaze as his caresses became gentle nibbles on her sex and thighs. Pulling his fingers from her channel, Dallas sucked off her juices and groaned with pleasure.
“That’s a smug look of satisfaction you’re wearing.” she said, breathless. Without the energy snapping over her nerves, her body melted into the chair. She swore the heat that had coursed through her had liquefied her bones.
Dallas trailed kisses up her hip and stomach as he rose on his knees. “After a woman’s screamed your name in the throes of a rather thunderous orgasm,” his teeth grazed her nipple, “why shouldn’t a man be pleased?”
He laughed and captured her mouth with his.
The taste of her honey burst on her tongue as Dallas kissed her with a rapacious hunger that sparked her barely cooled ardor. His hand slid up her belly to cup the weighty flesh of her breast and she arched into his touch, surprised her muscles could respond.
Breaking the kiss, Dallas laid his forehead against hers, his thumb brushing her sensitive nipple. “If I untie you, will you run?”
Her head shook even before she thought about the question. Only an hour ago she thought this man intended to kill her. Thirty minutes ago she believed he would ship her to the outer reaches of Krystallos Three to be enslaved. Now, despite the looming threat of an interrogation, she just wanted to curl up in Dallas’ arms and steal a few minutes of security in his embrace.
Dallas carefully picked up the dagger and cut through the bindings at her ankles. He stood, walked around the chair and sliced the bindings at her wrists.
Lilly hugged herself, stretching the tight muscles of her shoulders. Rubbing her hands together, she worked blood back into her tingling hands. In the thrill of being bound and at Dallas’ mercy, she hadn’t realized just how sore they’d become.
He stood beside the chair and pulled her to her feet. His hands massaged her shoulders, concern lining his face. “You should’ve said something if they were too tight.”
She smiled and nipped his chin. “I had other things on my mind and didn’t notice.”
He laughed and pulled her against him, his arms anchoring her to his hard body. The heat of his skin against her torso shot a burst of longing down her core. She thought the amount of energy that had been released had drained her. But standing this close to him, her breasts pressed against the warm skin of his chest and his erection rubbing her belly, Lilly’s body once again thrummed with need.
“I believe you have entirely too many clothes on, Dallas.” She tipped her hips and ground her pubic bone against his fly.
“Do you have something in mind?”
She undid his buckle and unsnapped his jeans. “Well, if Thaegan’s going to take all night, I’d like to repeat the performance in the alley a few more times.” Lilly really wanted to ask how Dallas had managed to control himself when her energy had been pulsing and driving the Ka’al mad with need. But having sex with her wasn’t really a choice any male made, just the result of her gift. She’d tried to accept that fact years ago. Veering the conversation in that direction wouldn’t accomplish anything except making her feel small and insignificant.
“Maybe we could take advantage of the comfortable bed in the corner.” She nodded once again to the functional pallet that passed for sleeping space in the one-room cabin.
“That could be arranged.” His dimple deepened around the smile curving his lips.
She couldn’t tear her gaze from the unfathomab
le depths of his soulful eyes. Eyes that raked her face with the desperation of man in the desert seeking water. Eyes hooded with sexual hunger. Eyes filled with a compassion she could almost believe in.
But reality was a bitch. None of that was real and Lilly chose to ignore that fact and lose herself once again in the fantasy of Dallas’ desire. She maneuvered the jeans off his hips, releasing the velvet heat of his erection to brush against her hip. Trapping his penis between their bodies, she rolled her hips, pressing her belly against his cock. She tipped up on her toes, catching his groans of pleasure in her mouth as she kissed him long and hard, the taste of her still on his tongue.
Dallas’ arms slid around her back, his fingers digging into her ass, holding her tight to him. The soft fur of his chest teased her nipples into tight points. His muscles trembled with the need he’d worked so hard to control. Lilly pulled him closer, letting herself imagine his desire was about her.
Dallas had given her so much pleasure and as much as she wanted to feel him buried in her, stretching and filling her, Lilly wanted to offer him something in return. Breaking from his kiss, she trailed love bites along his chin and down the taut cords of his neck. She slid down his stomach, intent on tasting his hot cock in her mouth. She pushed the jeans down his thighs and the dagger fell from his waistband to the floor with a heavy thud.
Lilly reached for it as the door slammed open.
Chapter Seven
“What the fuck…” Thaegan’s heavy steps pounded across the floor. “Watch out, Sawyer, she’s got the dagger!”
In the split second it took Dallas’ lust-fogged mind to register Thaegan’s sudden appearance, he interpreted exactly what the Ka’al saw—the mess scattered on the floor behind them, Lilly’s unbound naked form bending seductively in front of him and the Seraphelium taking control with the deadly Ba’alkin dagger sliding toward his vital organs. With the jeans tangled around his ankles, there wasn’t much Dallas could do to protect either of them from the oncoming freight train that was his partner. He curled his body over in hopes of shielding Lilly from the blow, but survival instincts had her moving like a shot.
