Miki wouldn’t let him. She gripped his hair and watched it slide through her fingers. “Did I tell you that you have great hair? Wonderful arms. And a really amazing butt.”
Max shook his head. “Afraid you take all honors there, honey. I could have gutted that bastard when I found him frightening you, touching you.” He traced a tiny bruise at her breast and cursed.
“Hey, I wasn’t frightened.” She smiled crookedly. “Not too frightened to fight back, at least. I was just about to use my needles on him.”
“Isn’t knitting supposed to be a quiet and gentle hobby?”
“Not the way I do it,” Miki said proudly.
Smiling, Max looked down at the floor. Her bra and panties were dropped on top of his discarded vest, looking completely out of place, sheer lace against ballistic nylon. Just like the two of them, he thought grimly. This shouldn’t be happening, according to the rules.
Damn the rules. He wasn’t about to stop until he’d had one taste of her pleasure. She shuddered when he kissed the tips of her breasts, her body arching in his arms. The sight of her made his touch turn rough.
It seemed that her heart hammered inside his chest, her blood churned in his veins. Something linked them, bound them, while Max traveled deep through the storm of her aroused senses.
“You want it slow?” he rasped. “Because that isn’t happening, honey. Not this time.” Not that there would be a next time.
The sound she made was part whimper, part wild laugh. “Stop trying to frighten me. It’s not going to work. I know exactly what I want.” She rose to her toes and caught his lower lip in her teeth. Smiling, she smoothed her hands along his locked thighs, teasing the heavy weight of his erection. “Whether you know it or not, you’re pretty unforgettable. Now if you’re done trying to make me change my mind, I’d really like to feel you all the way inside me.”
Miki had wedged a little penlight between two stones on the wall. In the faint light he could see her eyes, dark and urgent, but with the hint of a smile.
“Prepare to get yourself screwed into oblivion, honey.”
“Is that a promise?”
Max turned her sharply and pressed her hands against the stone wall, holding her in place with his body while his heavy erection rode against her tight, perfect butt.
With one hand he found the warm triangle of curls and stroked her apart. When his callused fingers played over her, she moaned and tried to turn in his arms, but he nipped her shoulder and worked his fingers deeper inside, past slick barriers that tightened at his touch.
She wedged her hips against him, wiggling madly. “Max, I need—”
He realized she would have been furious if she hadn’t been so lost, already on the edge of her first climax. So he pushed her over, capturing her breasts in his hand and stroking her damp, sexy mound until her body tensed and he felt the slam of her release. He didn’t wait, spinning her around and driving her up again, voracious as he took in her breathless cries and the whisper of his name like a soft plea.
The sound shocked him.
His name. This wasn’t distant and impersonal, and Max wondered if he’d ever escape her pull—or if he wanted to. The intimacy seduced him and suddenly he had to hear his name again, given blindly in her passion. He needed that affirmation of contact and humanity more than he needed breath. Kneeling with the rain on his back, he savored the taste of her stomach and then inched open her wet heat, exploring with his mouth and tongue until he found the faint throb of her pulse through the delicate folds of her skin.
She smelled like sex and his deepest, unknown dreams. Her husky cry cut through the silence as she gripped his shoulders, swaying while Max held her upright with one arm at her waist, working his mouth over her, bringing her up once more.
Her nails scored his neck.
“Can’t.” Her voice was breathless as she sank back against the wall, trembling. “There can’t be—more.”
“Like hell there can’t,” Max said grimly. He slid two fingers inside her and heard her gasp as a new wave of pleasure broke over her. And then while she hung suspended, her heart pounding, he kicked away the clothes at his feet and pulled her hard against his thighs.
Need seemed to solidify, dancing in ghostlike fingers of electricity around them. He had trouble finding the edge of his senses—and the beginning of hers. Damned weird energy here, he thought. He’d have to figure out exactly what was going on. Later. In an hour, he might actually be able to hold two thoughts in his head.
“No protection,” he gritted, aware that pregnancy would never be an issue, not after the genetic work that had come with his military selection. But Miki wouldn’t know about that.
“What?” She stared at him blindly, took a sharp breath.
“Protection. I don’t have any, honey.”
She pulled him closer and slowly savored his mouth, her dark eyes focused on his face. “I should care, but I don’t. We could be dead tomorrow, Max. Tonight I want everything, and I want it fast. Get my message?”
He couldn’t miss it. Not when her hand slipped down to cup his length and his vision took on an electric haze, like a circuit board that was overheating.
She teased him with both warm hands, and Max bit back a curse. “You’re too damned good at that, honey.” He caught her wrist and moved it to his thigh, where it would be marginally less dangerous.
“Hey, let go of me. It’s not fair. That’s one great body you’ve got, and it’s not the kind of thing I’m likely to see again. I want a shot at it.”
Max muttered a string of choice phrases. “Forget it, Blondie.”
“No, now.” Her chin angled up. “Otherwise everything stops here.”
Max felt the slam of her heart, the spike in her stress hormones. She was serious. “How about we compromise with later?” Never, he thought. Because there wouldn’t be anything later for them.
So this encounter was going to play out by his rules. No woman had ever tried to fine-tune his lovemaking before. If she had, he wouldn’t have cared.
But he cared now, damn it. He wanted to do this right for her.
Miki considered the compromise, then frowned. “I’m out of here. Not interested. Halt.” She hissed the words as Max pulled her around to face him. His thighs rode against her damp softness. With one hand pressed to her heart, he read her body’s response.
Pulse kicking. Stress levels up. The woman was lying through her teeth. She was as interested as he was and just as committed. “I’d say you’re lying, honey.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Let’s say that I’m good at reading the signs.”
“No way. No one can—”
Smiling grimly, Max lifted her leg across his thigh and entered her with a deep, slow thrust that brought half his length inside her.
She whimpered and closed her eyes.
He thrust again.
“I hate you.” She bit his lower lip, sighing. “I wanted more time so I could drive you crazy, but I couldn’t, could I? There’s some part of you that never relaxes. You’re always ready, always prepared for something bad to happen.”
He wasn’t thinking too much now. Max groaned as she opened sweetly to his strokes, then sucked in a breath as he felt her teeth nip at his jaw.
He watched her face as he stroked deeper. In the same moment he leaned down to kiss her, savoring the metallic taste of her saliva on his lips. Dozens of chemicals and body markers filled his mind, the rich complexity of her making him smile possessively.
Life with her will never be boring.
Max froze. He did a mental freeze frame and went back over that last thought. He had to be crazy even to imagine there would be time together for them. This was it, all they would ever have.
He tried to forget the image of her body in his bed at night, her sleepy face on his pillow at dawn as he brought her awake with his mouth and tongue.
“What’s w-wrong?” She pressed closer, wriggling to draw him deeper inside her, her f
ace dazed and urgent.
“Absolutely nothing.”
But everything was wrong. This was sex and nothing more. It was simple, dead-perfect screwing. Period.
His mind knew that. The cool voice in his head swore it was true.
But his reckless body and pounding heart had a whole different take on the situation, dragging him into dangerous, unknown places where his emotions colored every movement, every breath. He fought the pull of her sigh, her skin, but nothing worked.
He wanted a future with her, damn it.
He wanted more time. But he wouldn’t have either.
So he shoved away his useless hopes like cold cobwebs. His breath was raw as he drove away everything but reading her heartbeat while his hands tightened in her hair, cushioning her head against the wall as he pushed home, as deep as he could go.
Once and then again. So slick and so beautiful. Tighter than he had expected, Max thought dimly. She looked dazed by her response, which meant that this kind of pleasure was new to her, too.
The thought fisted in his chest in a way that was dark and primitive. He wanted to feel her naked need. He had to know she’d carry this memory of him always.
His slow withdrawal made her nails dig into his back. She hissed a protest, then sighed when he caught her hips and stroked deeper, stretching her until she took him inch by inch.
Her body tightened. She gasped his name, and he drank in every raw sensation, lifting her up onto a narrow ledge in the wall, pulling her legs around his waist while he watched her slow return to full awareness.
When her eyes opened, he whispered dark praise in a voice that sounded like a stranger’s and he took her there, every pounding stroke driving her against the cool stone wall until they were both sweating, both frenzied. Until there was no separation and no holding back.
Their hands met, fingers locked. Skin to skin with no barriers.
The air was charged around them and time seemed to shimmer. Then Miki’s body convulsed again, and this time she dragged him along with her, her voice low and urgent. In that moment Max was warrior and protector. His blind mating drove him deep, hot and thick inside her.
He was careful not to call it love.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TWO MINUTES PASSED. Neither one had the energy to move.
A few lifetimes later, Max ran one hand down her back. When he pressed against her, his desire was unmistakable.
Miki stared at him. “You can’t be ready to do that again.”
His smile belonged on the face of a jungle predator. “Of course I can.”
Miki stared at him blindly. Her legs hurt. Her body was on fire.
And she had never felt so good. Memories of Max’s hands and the slick friction of their wet bodies made something dark stir inside her, making her want more. She locked her legs and drove her body against his, the hard wall at her back and his harder muscles beneath her legs. The man was huge and built, with a sculpted body that left her throat dry. He was big everywhere, and she was dazed by his intensity, dazed by the slick, stroking fingers that shot her up again, into a blinding release.
Dimly, she realized he’d lifted her onto some kind of ledge while his mouth skimmed hers. She tilted her head and sighed when their tongues met in hot, delicious friction. He muttered when she tightened her muscles around him. Sweat dotted his skin when she pushed her body against his, rewarded by deep, pounding contact.
This time she was too stunned, too lost, to cry his name, but it rang through her thoughts as they fell together, hands locked, his eyes on her face as if some unspoken question had finally been answered.
EXHAUSTION.
Bliss.
Complete insanity.
Miki winced as a piece of stone dug into her back. Moving would have been a good idea, but her muscles refused to respond.
She wouldn’t call it surrender. The experience had been less and far more, a bonding of blood and heart born of sweat and sex and honesty. She’d never felt anything like it before. He was stronger than any man she’d ever met, but he had been careful and protective, cushioning her hips with his open palms and her back with his arm. He’d made her feel protected and at the same time possessed. If the whole experience hadn’t been so overwhelming, Miki would have been irritated that he had read her so well.
As it was, she was too tired to smile and too sated from sex to argue with him about anything.
Rough fingers cradled her neck. Slowly they opened over her cheek. “Anyone here among the living?”
“Jury’s still out on that.”
“Any broken bones or torn ligaments to report?”
Miki assumed he was joking, but she realized there was uncertainty in his voice. She slitted open one eye, trying to focus despite her exhaustion. “I’m fine. Just as fine as I can be without any functioning muscles. Give me a few centuries to catch my breath.”
He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. “As long as you don’t try to move. I want to feel you against me.”
Miki flushed as she savored the intimate friction of their cooling skin. There was no mistaking the way his body tightened in response to every movement she made. “I’ve never been touched like that,” she said un-steadily. “I didn’t think it was possible to feel so much. I doubt that makes any sense.”
He didn’t answer her.
“Are you agreeing with me or disagreeing?”
Still no answer.
“Max, there are things we need to discuss. I don’t know anything about you.”
His mouth hitched in a crooked smile. “You seem to know all the important things.”
She winced a little, trying to pull away, her hand braced against his chest. “I’m not complaining about the sex.” She swallowed, feeling the brush of his body inside her, the heat beginning to build again. “Max?”
His smile was slow and predatory.
“No way, not again. That was it. I am beyond dead. Let’s forget this.”
But she couldn’t hold back a sigh when he ran his fingers over her tight nipples. Where did the man get his skills? He was a menace to women everywhere.
“I could get you into the mood.” His hand slid down, teasing the slick folds hidden beneath damp curls. He feathered over her until she closed her eyes on a low sigh. “It would be my pleasure.”
As sanity returned, Miki glared at him, one hand planted in the middle of his chest. She’d never had sex remotely this good, and he was ready to do it to her all over again.
So why was she stopping him?
Shut up and let him screw you senseless a dozen more times. You can act tough and independent later, when you’re both done with each other.
But too many questions sprung to mind, leaving her wary. He still hadn’t explained why his big dog was so smart. He hadn’t explained why he was really here, because a petrochemical engineer this man was not.
Most of all, he’d never answered her questions about that strange way he had of touching her skin, almost as if he could see inside her.
“Any particular reason you’re glaring at me?” His voice was rough as he caught the tender curve of her ear in his teeth.
Fire shot to all the wet places Miki was trying to forget. In spite of her resolution, her hand opened and brushed the soft hair covering his chest.
If she dropped her fingers just a few inches, she could recall what velvet felt like, wrapped around forged steel.
No. Where was her willpower, her dignity?
“Okay, let’s stop here.” Her voice cracked a little. “We need to talk.”
He moved her backward against the wall. “Stop what? This?” His fingers teased, slipping in and out of her until she was wet and panting. “I never can stop with one dessert.” His fingers slid inside her.
Miki’s eyes fogged over. She thought her jaw might have dropped. Meanwhile, his fingers stroked deeper and his palm opened, kneading her until she moaned.
Somehow he knew what she was feeling, Miki thought. He knew where her
skin burned and where her nerves ached for release.
He knew, even though it was impossible.
“No.” She stared at him, eyes wide. “I don’t believe it.”
“Believe what?” His eyes darkened. “I’ll stop anytime you want me to, honey, even though I’m ready to drive you up against the wall a dozen more times. But if you want me to stop, I suggest you quit moving your gorgeous butt and pushing against me. I suggest that you stop raking my chest with your nails, too.”
“I am so not,” Miki rasped.
But she was. When she looked down, she saw exactly what he’d described. “Get out of my head, will you? Stop—stop reading me. I can’t think when you touch me this way.”
Something flared in his eyes, and then it was gone, his face showing nothing but cool control. “It seemed to me that you were as hungry as I was to do this all over again.” He eased away from her, the movement careful but unmistakable. “Apparently, I misread the situation.”
Miki wanted to grab him and pull him back. Her body felt painfully cold without his.
All the more reason to wise up and stop this invitation-to-disaster sex. Even if it was the best sex she’d ever had—or was likely to have—it had to end.
She took a long breath and then looked around for her clothes. “I don’t want you to think I do this…this. I mean, there have been men in my life. None of them like you, of course. But sometimes when things clicked, we—”
“You don’t have to explain.” His voice was rough. “We’re not involved. What you do with your life and who you have sex with is entirely up to you.”
“Then how come you make it sound like I’m supposed to explain? Believe me, I don’t do this and I didn’t plan for this to happen.” Her voice broke. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get out of this damned, moldy place or off this little island alive. Maybe one of those creepy commando types will come back with his friends and finish us the hell off in our sleep. And I mean for real this time.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Just because you say it can’t?” Miki spun around, furious at herself. She wasn’t going to whine and she wasn’t letting her heart get involved. Too many heartbreaks in her past had convinced her there was no point in getting serious.
Code Name: Bundle! Page 47
