by Mel Teshco
He frowned a little. “No. Believe me, that wouldn’t have stopped me.”
“Then tell me. Please.” Some inner women’s intuition told her she wouldn’t want to hear the truth, and yet she needed to all the same.
He expelled a heavy breath before unbuttoning the top of his shirt, exposing his collarbone and a silver chain that glinted against the honey-warmth of his skin. His fingertips glided under the chain and lifted it, revealing a ring.
She stiffened, and asked, “Yours?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes. I’m … a married man.”
Chapter Two
Something wilted inside her. So she was nothing more than a space fuck while his wife waited for him back on Earth. She shouldn’t care. A one-night stand was all she’d expected anyway, deep down. She was prison scum and he was one of the most important men on the Siren.
She blinked. “Your wife doesn’t mind you being with other women?”
His face whitened and the green of his eyes hardened like chips of glass. “My wife was abducted almost three years ago by a group of men who wanted more than our supply of food and water.”
Bile threatened to rise in her throat. She swallowed. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
He shut his eyes for a moment, veiling the sharpness of his brilliant stare. Then his long lashes flicked open and he said, “It’s okay, of course you couldn’t have known.”
Did anyone else on the ship know he had a wife? She had a feeling none did; that the pilot was an intensely private man whose secrets were his own.
She pressed a hand to his chest, absorbing his heartbeat, which thumped hard beneath her palm. “You never found her, did you?”
Stark pain flashed in his eyes. “No.”
“I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t be. Your sympathy is wasted on the likes of me.” He let go of the chain and the ring dropped back into place. He turned his palms up, his voice raw. “These hands killed many of the men who took her.”
A little shiver raced through her. No wonder he knew how to protect. But somehow she wasn’t scared of him and, in fact, did sympathize. If she’d been in his shoes and someone had taken a loved one, she might just have done the same thing. “Vigilante justice?”
His hands curled into fists. “I had no choice. The police were pretty much non-existent at that stage, and those who stayed were busy with other, more ‘important’ matters.”
She could only imagine. Many of the honest policemen had been replaced with those who followed the regimes of the rich in their towers. She’d learned that the hard way. “Yet here I am, a prisoner for saying no to a man with more power and money than soul.”
Jarred’s nostrils flared at her comment, sympathy shadowing his own gaze. “And here I am a murderer walking around as a free man with hundreds of people’s lives in my hands.” He blew out a breath. “It’s a crazy, fucked-up world we’ve left behind.”
She nodded. “It sure is.”
His secret was big enough to end his career. She was beyond amazed that he’d confided in her. How many other women prisoners would have used it against him?
No. The pilot wasn’t a fool. He was an extremely good judge of character and she was beyond proud that he’d recognized her integrity.
She smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t get caught.”
His eyes darkened and he took hold of her hand, his breath warm and his lips even warmer as he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Thank you.”
Her own breath quickened, and then caught, the moment his eyes narrowed and focused on her inflamed fingers. “What happened to your hand?”
She bit into her bottom lip at the sight of her ‘worker’s’ hands before managing an idle shrug. But it was the magna-cuffs encircling her wrists, gleaming dully under the downlights, that served to remind her of her station in life. She was a prisoner who could be locked down for any supposed transgression. “Work happened.”
He frowned. “I think I need to have a word with Chief Songworth—”
“No.” She tugged free from his grasp. “I’m treated no better or worse than the other prison workers … and that’s the way I want it to stay.”
Jarred’s stare searched hers, before he relented with a slow nod. “Of course.”
Her tension evaporated. The pilot understood that special favors wouldn’t be well received by others who were still doing it tough. Keeping a low profile was the safest option. Other prisoners could take offense at the smallest provocation.
His clasp was gentle when he reached for her hand again and headed for the corridor. Her pulse escalating and her knees going weak, she didn’t hesitate this time. He might have killed with his bare hands, but she didn’t blame him. In fact, he just might be the most thoughtful and honest man she’d ever met.
He was a man who’d protect his own. Someone she could easily fall in love with, if she wasn’t careful. She ignored the fluttery sensation in her chest. Damn. It was a good thing they’d only ever be intimate this once.
His stride shortened to match hers. She glanced up at him and suppressed a smile at his tight jaw and the twin lines creasing his otherwise smooth brow. Her pace quickened. He wasn’t the only one impatient to get to his room.
At the cabin door, he turned his wrist beneath a security scanner. She took in a deep, shuddery breath as anticipation and a hint of anxiety pulled at her belly. But as she inhaled his spicy masculine scent with undertones of vanilla and musk, desire took over and became all that mattered.
She suppressed a whimper even as the door clicked and Jarred thrust it open. He stepped inside and tugged her to him.
Lucinda was only half-aware of the cabin’s spaciousness before Jarred lowered his head, halting any further thought. His lips touched hers and warmth pooled deep. As his goatee brushed against the sensitive nerve endings along her jaw, she opened her mouth on a sigh, allowing his tongue to press inside, invade and conquer.
His mouth softened and his tongue traced the seam of her lips. He kissed the corner of her mouth, before he bent and nipped her chin, then kissed away the sting.
God, she was putty under his skilled hands, lips and tongue. Her knees were almost too weak to support her, her muscles jellied even as her entire body pulsated with arousal.
Her head fell back as he continued kissing along her jawline and then her neck. She gasped when he suckled at her flesh, and then shuddered as he again kissed away the pleasure-pain sensation. It was like being pushed one moment, then pulled the next, and having no idea where you were headed, but aware the journey would be almost as incredible as the destination itself.
He made her pussy wet and had her body tingling all over. And he’d barely even started.
With a groan, Jarred cupped her nape and slanted his mouth over hers. Kissing deeply. Taking control.
She sagged into the hard length of his body, reveling in his strength and assertion, in the bulge between his legs that would soon fill her and take possession of her body.
Despite the fact his wife still had a hold of his heart, Lucinda was desperate for him. Their coming together was never going to be romance and flowers. It was physical release, pure and simple.
The gorgeous officer would remind her, just this once, what it was to be worshipped and fulfilled.
He dragged his mouth from hers, his eyes burning and his expression primal. “You’re sure?”
God, the fact he even cared enough to ask melted whatever reservations she might have had. Not that she had any. “I am,” she whispered.
His lashes flickered, the tightness in his mouth easing. He unbuttoned her yellow prison shirt and pushed it down her arms, exposing the plain cotton bra that barely restrained her C cup breasts. Her heart fluttered. Though she was hot and sweaty, in that moment, with his eyes drinking her in and his whole body unconsciously leaning toward her, she felt beautiful.
He reached out a hand and unclipped her hair. As her blond tresses fell halfway down her back, his breath hitched in his throat
and he whispered, “Jesus, you’re gorgeous.”
She’d always thought words were cheap, but right then she felt ten feet tall and totally invincible. She was no longer some lowlife prisoner aboard a ship going to a new world and an uncertain life. She was a woman desired by a man.
A man she desired equally as much.
“Thank you.” Her hands moved almost of their own volition as she reached up to unbutton his shirt. He stood still, though his body thrummed with tension as he watched her, like a hungry predator waiting to attack and devour.
She pushed his shirt back with unsteady hands, slowly baring his lean, corded body to her stare. He obviously worked out in his spare time, though she’d bet his physique was mostly due to great genetics.
His shoulders were broad, his pecs defined and his abs lightly muscled. A faint trail of hair arrowed down past his belly button, and her fingers itched to explore farther south.
But it was the flaming phoenix tattooed halfway across his chest and over one shoulder that captured her attention. She traced the red and gold ink with her fingertips, enjoying the ragged, indrawn breath he took before he explained the tattoo’s origin.
“When the Earth started to go to shit, I wanted a symbol that represented rebirth and hope. The phoenix was perfect.”
She shivered. She’d bet it had become an even more powerful symbol when his wife had been taken from him. Her chest tightened, then she buried all thoughts of the pilot’s wife to the back of her mind. She wanted only to bask in the moment, treasure the short time she’d be with him.
Jarred’s eyes locked with hers. “I still have hope that our planet will one day regenerate.”
She believed that, too … but only once humankind had been wiped out and Mother Nature took over. It’d take hundreds, maybe even thousands of years to reverse the effects of people’s self-destruction.
It seemed hard to believe that perhaps one day, long after whoever remained on Earth had died out from starvation, chem-lung, and other diseases, people from Solitaire might return to Earth, and this time nurture the planet.
“I love it,” she breathed. “And I hope you’re right … I hope the Earth does survive.”
Even if we’re no longer there to claim it as our own.
“You and billions of other people,” he said huskily, his hands clasping her hips before he bent and his mouth again took possession of hers.
With a breathless little sigh, she surrendered completely to his mastery, her lips parting under his guidance while all her senses fell into a whirlpool of desire.
Her lashes fluttered and she closed her eyes. She’d dreamed of this moment, craved it. His kissing alone far and away surpassed all her fantasies. But it was only when he tore his mouth from hers to suckle one of her breasts through her thin cotton bra that she realized how impatient she was for him.
Electricity shot through her nipple straight to her core, generating liquid heat between her thighs that no doubt left its mark on her panties.
He captured the tip of her other breast in his mouth and she moaned, long and loud. Heaven help her, if he continued with his foreplay she’d be unable to do anything but quiver beneath his skilled hands and mouth.
His fingertips skated across the bare skin of her belly, before he popped a button free at the waistband of her pants. The material slithered to her feet, leaving her in nothing but her plain, prison-issue underwear.
He bent, and in one fluid motion lifted her into his arms before pressing her onto his soft mattress and following her down. Her gasp was lost against his mouth as it covered hers once again, his goatee brushing over her jaw and somehow heightening the wonder she was becoming lost in all over again.
His lips were velvet soft, his mouth hard and relentless, his body defined with tough, lean muscle. His aroused, masculine scent emphasized the warmth of his torso against hers, his imprisoned cock felt hard and insistent in its demand to fill her, to fuck her.
She whimpered. God, she needed him … but there was one thing she had to do first. She pressed her palms against his chest and his head reared back, his glittering eyes snaring hers.
She smiled a little before moving her hands to his nape and unclasping his chain. “I don’t want anything between us.”
He nodded, expelling a long, slow breath as the ring glinted under the cabin’s light before she dropped it onto his single bedside cupboard.
She lifted her head, meeting him halfway for a kiss that quickly deepened as it became more urgent. Damn he was sexy. Strong, smart, and capable. He tore off the rest of her clothes before she helped him with his, their mouths slipping apart only long enough to drag in breath.
Her whole body was hypersensitive and hot with need, her heartbeat drumming and her pussy slick and wet. His cock throbbed long and thick against her belly, his shaft impossibly hard, yet silken-soft and inviting her touch.
She reached down, her palm gliding over his length. “You’re so big.”
His chuckle was thick and honeyed close to her ear. “All the better to pleasure you with, my darling.”
Before she had time to absorb his words; smile at their meaning, she jerked at his touch on her pussy, his fingers brushing across her plump clit before deftly massaging.
Pleasure lanced through her and she mewled and spread her legs wide, grinding her core against his hand. Needing more. So much more.
The pilot knew exactly what he was doing. He pushed her close to orgasm, then stopped … and started again. On the verge of shattering, she whimpered in relief when he at last clasped his shaft and pushed the head of his cock between the folds of her pussy.
His eyes holding hers, he pushed in all the way, deep and hard. She arched up, shuddering as her inner muscles rebelled at the invasion. She hadn’t been with a man for close to twelve months, and Jarred was huge.
She dragged in breaths while he sat deep inside her, waiting as her muscles adjusted.
“Are you alright?” he asked hoarsely, a muscle in his temple flickering, his jaw gritted tight.
She nodded, thankful for his restraint. Most men she knew would continue on regardless, seeking pleasure for themselves first. He leaned down, his lips sliding across hers and his tongue delving deep and playing with hers until her body dissolved into a delicious puddle of desire.
Only when he pulled his mouth free from hers did his hips rock back. Her inner muscles squeezed and his eyes glittered, before he drove forward once again. Her breath whooshed out even as he set up a steady rhythm that sent her perilously close to the edge.
There was no longer any pain, only a fierce need to be taken hard by this man. Moisture flooded her pussy and lubed his cock, her inner muscles contracting as an orgasm quickly built.
He drove deeper, his jaw gritted, his brow damp and his face flushed with the effort of restraint.
Oh, god.
He didn’t have to wait long. Stars sparkled behind her glazed stare as an orgasm threw her high. She cried out his name as pleasure jolted through her womb and rippled through her body.
Jarred jerked against her and groaned, his seed spilling deep inside her.
When she slowly returned to some semblance of normal, his body still bridged hers. Their breaths rasped in and out, and then fused for a lingering moment as they shared a kiss.
Jarred finally drew back, his stare lingering on her, possessive and hot. He whispered something tender and not quite audible, but there was an unmistakable reverence in his tone that had her aching for something more in her future other than an empty prison bunk. He rolled onto his side and gathered her into his arms. They faced one another, but no more words were spoken, Jarred seemingly as caught up in the wonderment as she was.
Sex had never been so … gratifying.
How had fucking a stranger been more intimate and satisfying than being with any of the men she’d supposedly made love to in the past?
Jarred reached out and brushed a thumb over her lip. “Stay the night?” he suggested huskily.
> Her body heat seemed to suddenly drop as his words reminded her of the great gulf between them. She was a prisoner without rights. He was a pilot with every right in the world.
She cleared her suddenly thick throat. “I can’t. You know that.” Though everything within her screamed to stay in the safety of his arms, she pulled free and swung out of the bed. His stare fairly burned her back, and she imagined the frown darkening his face.
“Was a quick fuck all you really wanted?” he growled.
The jagged emotion behind Jarred’s question made her pause. She swallowed. She’d never expected anything beyond physical release. He was still married, for god’s sake, despite the odds against his wife still being alive.
So why the sudden tightness in her chest, and scratchiness behind her eyeballs?
She turned to face him. “Isn’t that all you wanted?”
“I wanted more from the moment I first saw you,” he said quietly.
Helping her rescue dirty laundry strewn over the floor hadn’t been the most romantic setting, but it had said something for his character. Shame none of his virtues mattered.
She looked pointedly at the ring lying abandoned on the side table. A lump formed in her throat even before she turned back to him and saw his whitened face. “Then I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
Her heart thudded dully in her chest as she stepped into her panties and clipped on her bra. God, how she wished she had a set of lacy underclothes like the ones she washed onboard for the elite. At least that would be one less thing making her conscious of the huge gap in their social standings.
“You didn’t disappoint me … quite the opposite,” Jarred said softly.
She scooped her prison shirt from the floor, her hands noticeably trembling. When had their one-night stand turned so serious? She let out a breath. “I’m glad.”
“Yet you’re going anyway?” He swiped a hand over his face. “If you’re worried about your cellmates—”
“No. They’re not my keepers,” she said flatly.
