Lunar Heat: 1 (The Heat Series)

by Susan Kearney

  And then he stepped back to the other side of the fire.

  Trembling, Shara slid out her finger, caressed the sensitive bud. She felt as if she was about to explode. And yet, as much as she wanted release, she wanted to draw out this moment. She liked him watching her. Staring into his eyes as she pleasured herself was so sexy.

  Her hand moved slowly, then faster. Her hips began to tremble. Almost there. She was so close. She was going over the edge.

  “Stop. Put your hands on your hips. Spread your legs.”

  She gasped, trembled in need and frustration. She must have done it too slowly, because he pinched her nipples. “Ow. Ow.”

  And then he sucked away the sting. She had never wanted to touch herself so badly.

  “You are delicious,” he murmured then lifted her into his arms and carried her near the fire. He sat on one of the large rocks, placing her sideways on his lap.

  Her head leaned against his chest and she could hear his heart beating wildly. And when he nudged her legs apart, she had no idea what to expect.

  “Close your eyes.”

  She waited. And felt something soft tickle up the inside of her knee. She trembled. Felt the feathering on her back, her shoulders, her lips and cheekbones. Ever so slowly he caressed her belly, her mons.

  And then he shifted her to face him. She could feel his sex just touching her opening. But he didn’t enter her.

  Instead, he caressed her with the tip of his sex. Her wetness coated him, making him slick, and soft, and hard.

  He teased her, taunted her. Drove her into a frenzy haze.

  “If you come, I’ll turn you over my knee and spank you.”

  Oh, my God. She was so ready to explode. Without her sight, she could feel his every breath; every caress drew the knot in her stomach even tighter.

  Fighting the sweet torture, she panted. She would have squirmed, but his Quait held her in place. Relieved at first that she wouldn’t inadvertently squirm and break his rules, she reveled in his Quait. In the power of him holding her still.

  But as his sex slipped over her most sensitized sweet spot, wave after wave of pleasure broke over her. He gave her no rest. No recovery time. Just friction so delicious that she shattered. And lost track of how many times she came.

  At his complete mercy, he wrung out every quiver. Without his Quait controlling her, she would have fallen from his lap. She’d never been so content and happy.

  She hadn’t known her body could take such pleasure without frying her brain cells.

  Well, maybe they were fried. She couldn’t think beyond the last mind-blowing orgasm. Her body had grown hypersensitive. His slightest caresses caused her to tremble. Surely he was about to short circuit every exhilarated nerve ending.

  Finally, finally, finally, he grasped her hips and lowered her onto his delicious hardness. And she craved his fullness, tensing to ride him.

  But he let her do nothing. He lifted her with his hands, thrust into her with his hips, making sure that each long stroke caressed her where he’d create the best friction.

  She tossed aside his rules. “Faster. Please.”

  He gave her exactly what she asked for. And the ferocity of his movements matched her burning desire to have him deeper. Harder. And right now.

  Her thoughts spun. Her mouth gasped. Her throat tightened. Beneath her hips, his bronzed flesh, slick with sweat, glistened in the firelight and showed off his burnished physique. But it was the intensity on his face that drove her. Never had she seen such naked passion.

  He took her over the top with him. This time, he gathered her close against his chest, held her as pure sensual heat poured through her. He held her for a long time, until their rapidly beating hearts slowed, and her ragged-breath ebbed to normal.

  Shara knew she would never be the same. Never wanted to go back to the way she’d been.

  “We shouldn’t have done that,” he growled as he slid out from under her.

  “Hey, it was your idea.” Being dumped onto the cool rock after being pillowed by his warm flesh set her teeth on edge. So did his insinuation that she’d had any say-so. She’d been asleep and wakened to pure seduction. He’d never given her brain a chance to catch up to her body, and she’d simply gone with the flow. She couldn’t imagine a woman who would have done otherwise.

  His voice was low, angry, full of self-loathing. “Quait kicked in. Having you again was a mistake.”

  Not again. Why couldn’t he accept the sex was phenomenal and move on?

  She needed some space. And the idea of putting clothes back on her sweaty body was as totally unappealing as staying by the fire to argue with him. Gathering up her clothes, she stalked to the stream.

  How dare he make love to her so thoroughly and then tell her it had been a mistake? Damn him. They’d agreed not to do this, and yet she couldn’t put all the blame on him. She’d wanted him and, if she was truthful, it had been more than lust. She liked him a lot. And she trusted him . . . like no other.

  Every muscle in her legs still trembled from the amazing experience. She was certain she’d walk bowlegged for a week—that is, if she could find the strength to walk at all. But she was so glad she hadn’t told him to back off.

  The sex was too damn good. His Quait had an upside. But had her wondering how she could like his domination. She found their play sexy. She liked waiting on him because she knew she was worth waiting for.

  And his little punishment stings really added a thrill of excitement to the mix. She had no idea what she would have done if he’d carried out his threat to spank her. The way she responded to him—she might even like it.

  Once that thought would have scared her. But Cade made everything good. Because he was a good man—only she didn’t know how to get him to see it.

  His regretting the best experience of her life made her mad all over again.

  Hobbling to the pool, she drank deeply and splashed water on her face. The icy water took her breath away, which was probably just as well because she had absolutely nothing less than R-rated words to say to Cade—calling their lovemaking a mistake really ticked her off.

  As much as she hated the idea of donning her clothes without a bath, she didn’t much like the notion of freezing to death, either. She’d started to slip into her bra when she heard splashing.

  Turning around she saw he’d already thrown more wood onto the fire, stoking up the heat. And naked, Cade was using two sticks to pluck stones out of the fire and toss them into a small pool in the crook of the creek.

  “What are you doing?”

  “How about a bath? At least one at lukewarm temperature?”

  He was throwing hot rocks from the fire pit into the pool to heat the water. Such a simple idea, yet brilliant. One she’d never have thought of.

  When he finished throwing, she bent to test the water temperature. The springs flowed in a series of rock pools, and he’d wisely chosen a small and shallow one off to the side where the current wouldn’t quickly sap the heat.

  “It’s tepid.” She stepped into the water and found cool spots as well as warm spots. Knowing the temperature would chill fast, they made the most of the heat, washing quickly, then using the bits of cloth they’d wound about their heads to protect their flesh from the sun to dry themselves before dressing and hurrying back to the fire.

  Perhaps they could wash their clothes in the daytime.

  After returning to the fire, Cade sat on the opposite side from her, feeding more wood into the flames and then again making a pit of rocks along the perimeter. Stiff, he wore a closed, stoic look, and his eyes—sad, brooding, and slightly hostile—didn’t invite her to start a discussion.

  So she shivered by the fire and watched the sun rise and felt very much alone. She had no idea which desert they’d landed in or how far away it might be to Siren City and civilization. There was only her and Cade. And his hot lovemaking followed by his declaration that sex had been a mistake made him seem darker, stranger, more alien, than he h
ad since they’d met.

  Shara hated the distance between them. The tension had her on edge. If she couldn’t have his arms around her, the least he could do was talk. Sensing that Quait was too delicate a subject, she hit him from a different angle.

  Shara fed a stick into the fire. “Right about now Jules has to be worried sick about us.”

  Cade remained silent.

  “She’ll have tried to call me. And when I didn’t answer, she’ll assume something has gone wrong.”

  Cade said nothing.

  Shara ignored his brooding. “Of course she won’t panic immediately. Even vidlinks can go dead. But eventually Jules will kick up a fuss. Send out search parties.”

  Cade just stared at the fire. Shara wanted to kick him. “How dare you make love to me and then refuse to talk.”

  Cade raised his head and stared at her.

  So much for having a personal conversation. With a sigh, she switched back to the topic of survival. “No one will know where to begin to look. Perhaps we should consider trying to walk out of the desert.”

  He shook his head, whether at her persistence or in answer she couldn’t be sure.

  “Fine.” She drew her knees to her chest, pretended he’d responded. “We don’t know which direction to go anyway. And we probably shouldn’t give up our water supply. But if we stay here, we’ll starve. And the sooner we begin our journey, the more strength we’ll have.”

  Say something, damn it. But after another look into the clear hostility in his expression, she too went silent.

  Clearly, he didn’t like that he’d been unable to resist making love. And Shara really didn’t want to think about it anymore, either.

  41

  “The Volcano Observatory is a partnership between the United World Geological Survey, Io’s Park Service, and the University of Jupiter,” Lyle lectured Jules in a tone that told her he’d repeated the statement many times as he led her from the office building toward his four-wheeled tractor. Although her space suit was supposed to keep her toasty, Jules couldn’t seem to get warm. At least the vehicle would be heated and she could take off her helmet, but the ride would be bumpy. Jules knew that since the gravity on Io was so light, hovercars could actually fly off into space. “We closely monitor volcanic activity here.”

  Snow flurries obscured the distant mountains. In the thin air, Jules shivered, tried to put aside her worry over Shara’s failure to answer the vidlink, as well as her vision of Shara caught in an explosion to pay attention to what Lyle was telling her.

  But how could she think when it was cold enough to see her breath fog inside her helmet? When all she wanted was to go home to lush palm trees, warm New L.A. breezes, and white sand beaches?

  Lyle opened the door for her and spoke through the radio. “It’s my job to monitor real-time data for earthquakes, ground deformation, stream flow, and selected stream temperatures.”

  His explanation went in one ear and out the other without leaving much of an impression in her brain. She already knew Lyle was smart or he wouldn’t be a scientist, but she finally knew why she was here and what she wanted from Lyle. If Shara couldn’t stop Cade from building his portal, Jules needed Lyle to go to Haven and use his expertise to convince Cade that the portal would cause a catastrophe on Earth.

  She’d already told Lyle she was a psychic, and while that had gone over better than she could have hoped, she knew she couldn’t come right out and tell him more. She could just imagine his expression if she explained that an alien wanted to build a portal to another planet, and her vision predicted it would cause a series of volcanic eruptions across the Pacific Rim. Yeah, it was so scientific and sane that no doubt he’d do just what she wanted—leave his research on Io and book the next flight to Haven.

  Jules didn’t like lies, or scheming, and she dreaded the idea of motoring over the icy track that served as a road. She hated the cold. Snow seemed bizarre to her Hawaiian genes. Thanks to the light gravity, she didn’t think she’d been thinking clearly or had been warm since her rocket had landed. And concentrating on Lyle’s job or what to do next wasn’t even uppermost on her mind. She wanted to know about that picture of Cade’s brother on Lyle’s wall.

  So after he walked around the vehicle and slid behind the wheel, and the tractor pressurized, she tried not to think about the cold leather seat. She popped the seal at her neck and removed the helmet. “Tell me how you know Jamar.”

  “Dr. Jamar?” Lyle removed his helmet and started the engine. Frosty air blasted from the heater. “In addition to monitoring the site, I collaborate with scientists from around the world to study the volcanoes.”

  Lyle shifted and smoothly pulled into the snow-tire tracks of other vehicles. She casually braced her hand on the dash and ignored her churning stomach. “So Dr. Jamar also specializes in volcanoes?”

  “Actually, he wanted me to analyze the difference between Lamenium action here and on Haven, a tiny asteroid in orbit over Earth’s equator.” Lyle glanced at her. “Is it a coincidence that that asteroid is owned by your best friend?”

  He hadn’t answered her vidlink calls, but he’d done his homework about her. Jules ignored his perceptive question. “How long ago was that picture taken?”

  “About nine months.”

  Wow. Jamar had arrived way before Cade. Jules wasn’t sure how this fact was significant and filed it away to think about later. “Could you be more specific about what he wanted you to analyze? In terms I can understand?”

  “He was interested in whether an electromagnetic pulse from the sun could cause the Lamenium on the asteroid to destabilize.”

  “And can it?”

  “It’s possible, but the pulse would have to be larger than anything in recorded history.”

  “But if this pulse did occur?” The back rear tire slipped, and she restrained a gasp of fear. Lyle didn’t even seem to notice the skid.

  The man had to have balls of steel to drive to work every day over roads that resembled an ice-skating rink. With all the slush, snow, and ice, she could barely make out where the road was. She tried not to think about the road. Instead, she pressed him. “If a pulse did happen, it could throw Haven out of orbit? So the asteroid could crash into the Pacific Ocean?”

  “The chance of such an occurrence is extremely small.”

  The Jeep hit a rut, and her teeth gnashed. When they reached a smooth stretch of road and she could speak without fear of biting her tongue, she asked, “But if the pulse threw Haven into Earth, could that set off volcanic eruptions around the Pacific Rim?”

  “If Haven was a normal asteroid, I’d say it would be highly unlikely. But the Lamenium on Haven makes it unique. And I suppose it’s possible.”

  Oh, God. Jules’s hands shook. Now she understood why her visions had shown explosions on the asteroid causing massive devastation on Earth. Haven was going to crash into Earth and set off volcanic eruptions.

  “Hold on a sec. I want to try and reach my friend again.” Jules tried Shara on her vidlink, but again, no one answered. She also tried Teresa Alverez and got the same result. Resigned to being out of touch for now, Jules stuffed her vidlink back in her bag, determined to call every hour until she reached them. Beside her, Lyle drove with easy familiarity, and she focused on him, rather than the chilling outdoors. “What did you mean when you said that you’re always around active volcanoes?”

  “Io possesses many geysers, vents, and ice pots from cold volcanoes.” Lyle spoke with the ease of a college professor, his tone deep, enthusiastic and . . . masculine. His eyes sparkled behind his glasses as he warmed up to his subject. “Quakes around here are common, with one thousand to three thousand annually.”

  “That’s a lot of earthquakes.”

  “So when you tell me you’ve seen me around an active volcano, well . . . we’re driving over one of the biggest active volcanoes on Io.”

  “You’re serious?” Damn. Damn. Damn. She recalled the image in her vision of his earnest face and the volc
anic eruption spewing lava. Now, he told her they were driving over a land that averaged three earthquakes each day.

  He must have seen the look of horror in her eyes. “‘Active’ doesn’t mean it’s going to explode. In fact, the probability of a major explosion here has been calculated to be as probable as a one-kilometer asteroid hitting Earth.”

  “Thanks. I feel so much better now.” She peered out the darkening window, almost grateful she couldn’t see more of this frozen land.

  When he stopped, she feared they were stuck. He checked his watch as casually as if he were about to catch a hoverbus. “We should just be able to make it.”

  “What?”

  “I thought you’d like to see Neo Faithful.”

  He sounded so enthusiastic, but the idea of stepping out of a perfectly warm vehicle into the snow and cold had about as much appeal as ice fishing at the North Pole. She tried to sound disappointed. “It’s too dark to see anything.”

  “We have lights for special showings.” He sounded proud, enthusiastic.

  Great. Jules swallowed hard, pulled up her scarf to cover her chin and neck, clamped on her helmet, and forced her voice to sound cheerful. “That sounds awesome.”

  The moment she opened the door, she could have sworn frigid cold curled down her neck. Her feet slid on the ice, and snow covered her boots as she sank to her ankles.

  Lyle took her arm. “Let me help you. The walk can be slippery.”

  No kidding. “Thanks.” Jules pasted a smile on her face and prayed Shara would call her soon, because if she didn’t hear from her by morning, she was contacting whomever she must to begin a search and rescue.

  42

  Like any First, Jamar detested physical labor, and while it would have been easy enough for him to mentally enslave enough of the Israeli people on Mars into obeying his will, if he used them to uncover the first portal piece, they’d remember what he’d made them do. And since he had to work in secret, using them and letting them live wasn’t a good option. And killing them would have caused an incident that might have set the authorities against him . . . so he’d decided that doing the nasty work himself was the correct choice.