Domestic Duet: Domestic Alliance & Asset

by Cora Blu

  Chapter 16

  Aroc slid the door to Norese’s room until the latch caught, separating her from the noise of the meeting about to begin in his home.

  Impatient to hear Sadie’s voice, he paced a three-foot path from Norese’s door to his room while shoving his hands in and out of his pockets. He knew his anxiety was the result of seeing her in the hospital earlier. It triggered a worry in him he hadn’t experienced since Katherine died. Knowing she was okay created an abject hunger within him, to touch her from head to toe memorizing each luscious curve. And he would the moment she arrived.

  A captain, waiting; he hated waiting. Hated being alone more. That was probably why he waited. His heart fluttered. Karuntian didn’t flutter, yet this feeling was new for him. Knowing he’d have her in his arms soon, he paced.

  After Katherine died, going without sex for two years hadn’t bothered him… The hell it hadn’t! He’d craved it the same as a good battle. More than sex, though, he missed the company of a female. The soft flare of her hips in the shower, beaded with scented suds he loved. The easy padding noise of her feet moving on the floor as she sauntered through his home played in his mind. Memories of Sadie’s luscious scent filled his nostrils.

  He glanced at his empty bed through his open bedroom door at the end of the hall and images of Sadie filled his mind. Silky flawless skin, covering a long lean leg poking out from under the sheet hugging every dip and curve of her supple form. This wasn’t helping.

  A feminine scent caught his attention. He inhaled deep, hoping she’d arrived and was out in the kitchen getting her water as normal. She hated materializing. Said it made her thirsty. His hopes crushed after he registered Norese, powdery fragrance lingering from her doorway.

  One shoulder propped along the wall, he reached back, scrubbed the back of his neck, to loosen the knot of tension. Where was she? His other hand nearly ripped the flap from his cargo pants pocket snapping and unsnapping the closure.

  This female had him strung out. Through his brooding, he felt her presence in the air. His nerves stood on end.

  Sadie materialized inches from his face, smelling of coffee and something sweet on her breath. Chocolate skin speckled by rain. Pleasantries could wait.

  With a hand on the dip along her back, Aroc ushered her down the hall to his meditation room. Sadie gave him a confused stare as he flipped open the vent to hear Norese playing safe and sound in her room. He grew to love the sound of Sadie’s soft grunts when he hooked his hands beneath her hips lifting her off the floor.

  “What the—”

  “Shh! I’m wired knowing someone tried to put a bullet into you today. I could have lost you, Sadie. ”

  “I’m okay,” she said, soft and pliable in his arms. “Aroc, believe me, I’m fine.”

  Sadie returned the gesture. Her sweet moans tightened his cargo pants and her fingers edging the smooth ring around his most sensitive spike caused four more to emerge down the center of his back.

  He growled against her lips. “I’m on edge missing your hands on me, Sadie.” And her tongue and open thighs.

  She gasped. Her quickly pebbling skin blushed from her temple to her swollen breasts. The taste of her mouth had him fighting back the urge tearing at him to shoot out his spikes, rip the uniform from her body, and bury himself until her hips met his thighs. He ached to have her.

  Not for the first time, the desire for her touch racked his composure. Needed the velvet caress of her skin under his hand. The soft compliance of her body in his bed, he craved. Aroc wanted to inhale her scent until his organs wore her aroma like a feral marking, releasing up through his skin whenever another female approached.

  Addicted to her sweet scent, he inhaled deep to start the cycle over. This was out of control. Had he missed Katherine this much?

  No.

  Sadie’s soft body gave way, molding to his thigh under her behind, spreading heat to his groin.

  Shifting his head, he nipped her bottom lip then ran his tongue across the swollen flesh. “Sadie!” he murmured, tasting her on his tongue.

  “Captain Farkus,” she hissed his name on a ragged intake of air. He lowered to her belly. “What are you doing to me? This isn’t the time to explore our newfound passion for one another.” Her hands gripped his vest’s lapels, her nails scraping his throat. The sensation aroused Aroc, and he pushed himself tighter to her stomach.

  “This time is whatever time I wish it to be, Detective, and I’m not asking for your approval,” he warned with a wicked growl, his knuckle lifting her head up for his hand to thread through the thick fall of her hair while he returned to feed at her mouth. He slid a hand down to caress her hip around to her butt, and then lifted her legs around his waist. Heat from her core seeped through his skin and he stopped himself from going the few feet to his bedroom. Instead, he opted for kissing until she was limp in his arms. The knowledge that his touch could arouse her to this level caused his erection to ground against the zipper of his cargos.

  He tightened his grip on her hips, keeping their bodies pinned together. Sucking the long column of her throat, Aroc licked until Sadie’s lips parted on a moan, her fingers working into the waistband of his pants at his back, holding him tight to her body.

  Vixen.

  He felt her breast through the uniform, the taut peaks and swollen sides. The zipper separating the round orbs slowed him enough to think. Thinking, overrated right then. He growled, leaning away from her face, hating the sense of separation.

  Sadie sighed, resting her face on his chest.

  Setting a knuckle beneath her chin, he brought her eyes up to meet his. “Hi,” was all he could muster with the lack of oxygen left in his lungs after that kiss.

  “Hi yourself,” her answer a weak pant from her swollen lips. She raised her eyes to look up at him. “Was that the official greeting when I arrive at a meeting, or did I do something right?”

  He touched their moist foreheads together, more to calm his body so not to throw her to the mat and ravish every inch of her brown skin until their bodies slid over the other’s with sweat. Lips parted, he tasted the smooth skin of her face as he eased his mouth to her neck then murmured along her soft flesh, allowing his teeth to graze her skin. “I want you to move in with us. Become a family, Sadie.”

  Sadie appeared perplexed when her gaze found his. Resting her head on the curve of his temple her words came out soft and relaxed. “Ah, Farkus…what’s come over you today? Move in? You think this is the best time to discuss our relationship?”

  He felt the words vibrate up her throat as she spoke. The tender skin of her collarbone pebbled as he nibbled, holding her to him with a hand to her neck.

  “We’re moving forward, not backward, and that means I’m claiming what’s mine, Sadie…you. I want you in my arms, my home, and my life, and especially my bed.”

  Sadie sighed deep, her nails digging into his arms as she breathed. He loved that, and kissed a line across the dimple on her cheek until he could see her eyes. The stare lasted too long, but he wasn’t ready to share her with his males waiting in his office. He needed this female in his life…forever.

  He watched Sadie process his meaning and the waiting brought his heart in his throat. Would she want him as much as he wanted, no, needed her? Her fingers massaged along the small of his back absent of spike rings. The place she touched whenever he’d made her nervous that first few months they shared a bed. After a momentary pause, he pulled back to look into her face.

  “Breathe, Sadie.”

  She blinked fast, soft brown eyes regaining clarity; the lost look retreating as the flush on her skin colored her cheeks. “Captain Farkus, can we pick this up after the meeting when I stop shaking? I have to inform your security of what I heard in the café.”

  He didn’t care for her using his title.

  “When it’s just us, use my name, Sadie. I’m not your captain when we’re alone, I’m your male.”

  “We haven’t officially discussed becomin
g a couple, Aroc. I think we should wait until this is over and we can do this privately.”

  Closing his eyes, he cursed himself for waiting so long to be honest with her. Had procrastinating to revealing his feelings sent her into Oliver’s hands?

  “You’re ashamed to be with a karuntian?”

  “Oh, please! You rule a colony of over a thousand aliens and you’re raising a baby girl alone. It kills me that people don’t know the enigmatic male that I know.” Sadie hesitated. “Aroc, I don’t want our relationship to be a residual reaction to parenting Norese, or something we threw together at the last minute to become a family for her.”

  “My desire for you is the result of a year spent in your company. So discussing whether we’re a couple is moot. Discussing how we live from this moment on is the subject that needs clarifying.”

  Sadie touched a finger to her flush lips, smoothing it back and forth, setting her eyes on the black moon on the mural. “You’re in my head, in my heart, an important part of my day that I can’t seem to do without, and I never wanted to become…”

  “What?” he asked, nerves on edge, waiting to hear her say those words that would seal their future.

  She sighed, burying her face in his hands. He caressed her cheeks as if an unwrapped gift he treasured. “I never wanted to fall in love with you because you kidnapped me.”

  He smiled with wicked pride that he didn’t give a damn how she came to be in his life, just that she stayed.

  Her hands on his chest, Sadie gave a light push to look up at him. “You make me crazy, Aroc. Every time I come up here, you dig deeper into my soul, breaking me down to a trembling woman in need of this body.”

  “Is that supposed to deter my desire?”

  He sucked the finger she’d pressed to his lips into his mouth, nipping the tip. Her patient words met his ears, but her agile warm body pressed into his shaft molding itself around his length at her firm belly.

  “Farkus, I’m on edge emotionally with the case coming to a head. I can’t risk having my mind befuddled with the taste of you on my lips.”

  He kissed her between the eyes. “I’ve never befuddled a female, before, Sadie. I was going for seduction.”

  “You know exactly what your touch does to me. I try to stay professional, you smile, and my resistance withers away with my first moan.”

  He smiled hard enough to expose all of his teeth. Licking the tips, he watched her nipples poke the thin material of her uniform. “Share your information with my males then return to Earth and decide where you want to be. Up here with us, in my life and bed, or down there with no contact outside of the job. Norese needs stability.” He gave her no wiggle room on what he would accept as a relationship between them.

  “An ultimatum’s not your style,” she stated, a hint of worry in her words.

  “Either we’re a couple or walk away from me now. I’ll never bother you again.”

  There in the blink of an eye, she revealed the hurt and pain his words caused and he would cherish that forever. The exact moment when he was certain beyond all doubt, Sadie loved him.

  She cupped his cheek and let her tongue trace the seam between his lips. Her breath was sweet and warm when he kissed her. Instead of deepening it, he gave her control to judge how far it went. A string of heat trailed between their lips as she backed away.

  “I haven’t been in a romantic relationship in years, Aroc. What happens if I’m not the same without the agreement binding us together? What if you don’t like having me around all the time, or vice versa? You can be grumpy at times you know.”

  He could. “I’m grumpy when you’re down on Earth, where I can’t touch you or hold you while you sleep.”

  “Nothing official until this case is solved and I’m out of the spotlight,” she warned.

  This time he pinned her to the wall with his body molding to her and kissed Sadie with a passion he hadn’t thought to feel again, after losing Katherine. Sadie made him feel alive. Starting from his toes, the sense of home filled his body, warming his chest and heart. Their hungry sounds filled the air. Shuffling at the other end of the hall brought their heads up and apart.

  She kissed him again before they stepped away from one another. “After the meeting, I’m staying on Earth tonight to get some things sorted out with Theresa. I have a feeling the launch tomorrow is going to get ugly.”

  “I’ll come down and help you pack,” he teased, spinning them in a circle. Sadie snuggled close. “You make me happy, Sadie.”

  Sadie’s soft purr he loved. The same sound she made in her sleep. “I never thought I’d find someone that wants me as I am, but you do and I love you for that, Aroc. I want us to work as a couple.”

  “As a family—a family, Sadie,” he corrected, burying his face in her neck and inhaling her sweet scent deep into his lungs to tide him off during the meeting. “You and Norese are my family.” Sadie’s nod was all he needed. They walked down the hall in a moment of silence to join the meeting.

  Chapter 17

  Aware of the questioning glances, Aroc observed his males as he led Sadie into his office. They all stood as he pulled out her seat beside him. Sadie greeted the males towering over the table in front of the window overlooking the red lake. The glow lit the window bright as embers in the distance and surprisingly, it found Sadie’s face settling a blush over her cheeks, or maybe he’d done that.

  “Sit,” Aroc urged the males still standing. “Any word on the rogues, Montage?”

  He looked from Sadie back to Aroc then sat forward. “We’ve tracked him meeting with two humans down on Earth. We know the Hortzberg brothers are plotting another shipment. If it gets out we’re sending bad fuel to the waters of the Southern Hemisphere, the treaty will be breeched. Any further dealings with the king will be shut down.”

  Aroc didn’t miss the side-glance at Sadie by the other males. He’d never had his female sit in on his meetings, not even Katherine. “Have a problem, male?”

  “Captain, the detective is good at her job, but can we trust her with sensitive information?” one of his commanders asked, lips compressed.

  “Sadie has information she’s willing to trust us with when most humans wouldn’t help us. Respect the gesture and honor her unselfish intentions, Commander,” Aroc said, his attention on Sadie the entire time.

  The males grumbled, their chests heaving under their vests with their worries rising at trusting a human within their private meeting. Aroc bared his teeth, brows a slash of burgundy stiff hairs. He caught his reflection in the window along with Sadie’s. The room quieted as all faces noticed the same thing.

  Sadie’s bright white teeth caged the swollen edge of her bottom lip. His control excited her.

  He reclined in his chair. It was time to finish this. “Now, let’s start the meeting.”

  Montage clasped his fingers together, resting his forearms on the table. “As much as I hate the treaty, it gives us power with those living in the ocean. Aiding them in their research into liquefying natural gases rising from the ocean floor combined with our recycled fuel for their underwater vehicles. I doubt the humans even know of their existence.”

  Sadie swallowed, a sign she was full of questions yet he admired she left it up to him to decide if this was the venue to explain. It wasn’t.

  Holding her gaze, Aroc sank into her intelligent eyes and brought his tone down, quieting the room. “Bring my males up to speed on the launch, Detective.”

  Montage raised a brow and dipped a silent nod of respect the others followed.

  “You have our attention, Detective.” Montage sat back while Sadie relayed, in detail, the last launch before the space travel two-week shutdown goes into effect.

  Aroc watched his males devouring every word to leave her lips. She held their rapt attention. Nodding heads and serious eyes said they accepted and respected Sadie as a part of their world and not an outsider…a major hurdle for a human mate.

  “Yesterday,” Sadie continued, “two o
f the bankers frequenting Mr. Edwards’ meeting mentioned the Hortzberg brothers’ shipment launch.”

  Montage sat forward. “You have a time? A location?”

  “During the fireworks at the summer festival in the valley east of the botanical garden.”

  “Certain, Detective?” Commander Salazar, a bulky male, sitting to the left of Montage asked, his skeptical tone evident to everyone at the table. Interfering would undermine Sadie’s presence, so Aroc waited to see how she’d respond to his males.

  “Commander Salazar, I believe,” she said, her eyes focused intently on his face. “Are you asking if I’m certain of what I heard?” Sadie asked and Aroc heard the challenge in her tone.

  Salazar looked to Aroc.

  Aroc answered the query in his gaze. “The detective asked you a question, Commander Salazar. I suggest you answer her with a reply.”

  Salazar blinked twice turning his attention back to Sadie. “How do we know you’re not setting us up for your authorities on Earth?”

  “You don’t,” she told him, while placing her palms flat to the table to lean toward Salazar. “How do I know you’re not one of the rogues infiltrating the station, placing Captain Farkus in the uncomfortable position of having to call out one of his own males?” She offered her hand in a gesture of respect. “I don’t,” she added, “But I trust you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t care about your people the same as I care about mine. Working together is the only way we’ll stop this from continuing to happen.”

  The big man stood and took her hand after a long silent moment. Aroc waited to see if Sadie needed him to step in, but he knew Sadie would hate him for interfering.

  Salazar leaned closer. “You like a challenge, Detective?”

  Sadie met his challenge bringing her face closer to his. Everyone at the table tensed. “I love a challenge. But do I like standing here telling you that humans are attempting to steal from you? No. I think it’s vile and has to be stopped.”