by Presley Hall
On that level, it makes sense. I’ve never been so wrapped up in someone before, so entirely obsessed that I would do anything to have even a night with them. I had something close to this feeling… once. A very long time ago, when I was still much more naïve.
And the memory of that, of the fearless way I gave my heart to another person and the horrible feeling of having it broken beyond all repair, is why the idea of being bonded to Tycran makes me want to run out of the room and get on the first ship back to Kalix. Maybe even Earth, if there were such a ship.
I’ve been determined ever since then not to fall in love again. Not to put my heart in danger of being so completely shattered. Not to trust in romance or sweet words or promises that can easily be broken.
But this is different, my mind whispers to me. Tycran is a man of his word. All the Kalixians are. He’s a man of honor. Sure, he’s an alien. Sure, this all seems crazy. But you’ve seen how they behave with their mates. You’ve seen that nothing in the galaxy could make them hurt the women they love, on purpose or not.
Tycran still hasn’t turned around to look at me again. The room feels so full of sexual tension that I can’t breathe. It’s stifling. And I want more than anything to tell him to come back, to say I’ve changed my mind, that I want him regardless. Bond or no bond, mates or not. I want him more than I want to breathe.
But I don’t say a word.
The fear of what it could mean holds me back… and also the fact that despite all the desire still hovering between us, it feels as if his walls are solidly up again. I’m not sure that I wouldn’t be rejected now, if I asked him to come back to bed.
“We’re going to have to regroup tomorrow,” Tycran says, folding a blanket over his arm with his back still to me. “We’ve missed our opportunity to get the case from the seller, but the handoff is tomorrow morning.”
“We can get it from the buyer, then,” I say softly. “We’ll find a way to get close enough, break the handcuff lock, and get out of here and back to our ship.”
“And then we’ll be back on track,” he agrees. “We’ll deliver the seeds to Rok, and as soon as he has the bombs completed, I’ll be ready for the next stage of the mission.”
I don’t say anything. The next stage of the mission is dangerous. And when it’s over, we’ll go back to Kalix. Things will go back to the way they were before between us.
I don’t know if that’s what I want. I don’t know anything anymore when it comes to Tycran.
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” he says again.
“Just because we aren’t…” I clear my throat. “You can still sleep in the bed. It’s huge. We could both sleep in it and never touch each other.”
Just saying those last words makes my chest ache. I want him to touch me. I want to touch him. I want to go back to the moments before he said I was his Irisa and experience them all over again, when I thought I could just have a night of passion with him, without any strings or complications.
He turns to face me then, and I see that his eyes have lightened again, back to their normal pale blue. His gaze flicks down to the blanket covering my bare chest, and then back to my face.
“I can’t sleep next to you,” he says simply.
I know exactly what he means, and it makes my blood heat all over again, my body tightening with the memory of him pressing me against the door, his hand on my hip, making me come with his tongue.
He makes a bed on the floor as I watch, carefully not looking at me. “Goodnight, Lucy,” he says, and hits the light just before he lies down.
“Goodnight,” I whisper.
I hear the heavy sound of his body settling onto the blankets, the darkness so complete in the room that I can’t even see the shape of him.
My body is still thrumming with desire, so tightly wound that I think I might explode. Every single nerve-ending is focused on the ache between my legs, the hot arousal there. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to sleep.
Maybe if I just make myself come really quick, that will take the edge off.
Holding my breath, I slide my hand down my hip, trying not to move the blankets too much as I reach between my legs. I clench my teeth together as my fingers brush over my swollen clit, trying not to make a sound as I rub the tip of my finger over it. My hips arch into my hand as I move it faster.
It’s not going to take long, I realize, stifling a gasp as I reach down with my other hand.
Still moving as quietly as I can, my face burning with both arousal and shame, I slide my fingers along the wetness between my thighs, imagining that it’s the tip of his cock pressed there again. I try to imagine the weight of his body, the heat of his skin, the scent of him enveloping me.
Fuck, I want him so badly that it aches. Just the memory of his huge, thick length in my hand, in my mouth, is enough to send a flood of desire through me, soaking my fingers and making me move my right hand faster and faster, almost not caring if he hears the rustle of the blankets.
I need to come.
I need it so desperately that I couldn’t stop no matter what, not even if someone walked into the room right this second.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I picture him on top of me, the feeling of him between my legs, on the verge of thrusting his hard shaft deep inside me, and that’s all it takes. My body tenses, heat rippling through me. It’s nothing compared to the orgasm Tycran gave me earlier, but I can feel the relief of it, the release washing over me in a few blissful seconds of pleasure.
I bite my lip hard as I come, trying not to make a sound.
But then, as I sink into the mattress and try to catch my breath, I hear the blankets on the floor rustle and a muffled groan, a deep and needy sound that I recognize from earlier.
My toes curl against the soft sheets as I realize that Tycran just came too, that he was touching himself at the same time I was, overcome with the same desperate desire. It’s impossible not to picture it—his hand fisted around his thick cock, his hips arching up to meet every stroke, imagining it was me he was thrusting into.
Oh fuck.
I roll onto my side, facing away from him, even more turned on now than I was before.
Dammit. I have no idea how I’m going to sleep tonight when all I can think about is the seven feet of devastatingly hot, muscled alien on the floor near my bed, jerking off to the thought of me.
Well, that plan backfired.
18
Tycran
Between the need to complete the mission and my unfulfilled desire, I hardly sleep at all during the night, tossing and turning. I wake up with my cock rock hard and begging for release more than once, but I refuse to allow myself that pleasure again.
I have to refocus somehow, and losing myself in carnal need isn’t going to accomplish that. Lucy has made it clear that while she wants my body, she’s not ready for anything else. And trying to parse out whether or not one can be had without the other isn’t what we need to be doing right now.
I’ve spent my whole life denying myself, but it’s never felt this difficult, physically or emotionally. It’s not just my body that is clamoring for me to break with my self-control, push everything else aside, and focus on working this out with Lucy. I feel, for the first time since I joined the Alpha Force and found my purpose, as if there’s something missing inside me. As if there’s a space that I can’t fill on my own.
I can tell when Lucy gets up that she didn’t sleep well either. Her face looks paler than usual, tired and drawn.
Just looking at her, I can remember the soft noises I heard her making last night, muffled and quiet, clearly trying to not let me know what she was doing. It was easy to tell, though.
I was unable to stop myself from gripping my cock the moment I heard her first breathy gasp and pictured her fingers sliding between her legs, rubbing the spot that only a little while before, I’d had my tongue pressed against. My own touch wasn’t what I wanted, but in that desperate moment, it didn’t matter. And nothing in the
world could have stopped me from stroking myself to my own release as I heard Lucy softly whimpering beside me, and then the suppressed moan of her orgasm.
And now, in the morning light, seeing her get out of the bed and go to dress in the small bathing room, I can’t help but wonder what she would sound like if she weren’t holding back.
What sounds would she make with my cock buried inside her, with my hands and mouth and body devoted to making her come as many times as I could before I finally spilled myself inside of her?
I have a feeling that finding out would be the best experience of my life, and that every moan spilling from her lips would be incredible. Just the thought of it makes me hard all over again, and I grit my teeth in exasperation. Even for all the years I’ve spent ignoring my body’s needs, I’ve never had to fight so much with my cock.
Determinedly, I shove the thoughts away. Today is our last chance to get those seeds, and with them, our only chance to get what I need to complete my mission. I have to maintain some semblance of control, or everything up to this point will have been for nothing.
I can’t let that happen.
This mission is, above all, the most important thing. I need to stop the Orkun, to protect my people. That’s been my purpose for most of my life, and even having an Irisa doesn’t change that.
And after what she said last night, I know Lucy agrees with me. I know she feels the same way—that what has become our mission is more important than our own feelings and desires and confusions right now.
A few moments later, Lucy re-emerges from the bathing room wearing the shimmering black dress from last night. It’s a bit fancy for late morning, but she’s swept her long blonde hair up and tied it with a leather thong. For my part, there’s not much to do but put on the same clothes I had on last night as well, gathering my hair back into the typical knot at the back of my head.
Her footsteps pause when she sees me, her gaze sweeping over me appreciatively, but she doesn’t say anything. She turns to glance in the mirror and then back to me, her face set resolutely. “Okay. Let’s go get those seeds.”
As we make our way out into the common area of the ship, I can see that the stage from last night has been cleared away, replaced with long tables full of food. There’s a line waiting, and the bar is bustling. Lucy makes a startled noise, then covers her mouth with her hand, stifling a laugh.
“What?” I glance at her, confused as to what’s so funny.
“Oh my god. Even aliens have brunch.” She chokes back another giggle, looking up at me with those blue eyes that are now bright and shining with repressed laughter.
Gods, I want to kiss her so badly.
“I don’t know what brunch is.”
“Eating late in the morning, with alcohol,” she says with a grin. “It’s very popular back on Earth.” Her brows draw together as she looks up at me. “Although I guess you probably don’t drink much, do you? I’m guessing last night was an exception.”
“I didn’t drink much last night either,” I murmur, looking around the room for our target. “Intoxication leads to lack of control.”
She swallows, looking away from me. “I liked it when you lost control,” she whispers, so low that I almost don’t hear it.
Krax. I grit my teeth. I can’t think about that right now. I’ve never felt so much as though I’m holding on by a thread, barely keeping myself focused.
“I’m sorry,” she says quickly. “We don’t have to talk about that. Do you see the seller?”
I cast a glance around the room again. “There,” I say, nodding toward the place where the short, flat-faced alien is sitting.
“And that must be the buyer,” Lucy hisses excitedly, gesturing to the other side of the room. “He’s heading right toward the seller. He matches the description exactly.”
There’s no doubt that it’s him. The buyer is a tall, thin alien with skin so pale it’s almost translucent, and strange buggy features that make me cringe a little. He also doesn’t have any security with him—at first I think they might just excel at blending in, but as he crosses the room, it becomes apparent that he’s alone.
“He’s unaccompanied,” I say gruffly.
“So maybe we should target him instead of the seller.” Lucy looks thoughtful. “Wait until after the handoff.”
I glance down at her. “This time, I’ll create the distraction.”
She just looks up at me with a grin. I know she’s remembering last night, and I feel my body tighten with arousal as I remember it too.
Focus.
I fight off the urge to grin back at her, to share the memory. Maybe one day it can be something we laugh about together, but not now. For now, I have to think only of the mission.
“After the handoff, I’ll start a fight.” I keep my eyes on the buyer as he makes his way through the crowd. “I’ll give you the EMP beforehand. The fight will create chaos, and while everyone is confused, you can use the device to break the handcuff lock. Grab the case, and we’ll get out of here as fast as we can.”
“All right,” Lucy agrees. “We’ll do it your way this time.”
There’s a small hint of regret in her eyes, and I don’t let myself think about whether that’s because she likes playing the part of the distracter, or because she wishes the events of last night could happen all over again.
We hang back, waiting as the buyer approaches the flat-faced alien. It’s a matter of seconds before the handoff happens. Money changes hands, the briefcase is handcuffed to the tall, thin alien’s wrist, and the seller nods nervously at him before darting out into the crowd with his bodyguards following. It’s clear he’s not in any mood to linger. All the better.
Lucy and I both step forward as I scan the room for a target, someone to start a fight with. I catch sight of one tall, brawny alien that I remember from last night—he was leering at Lucy as she was dancing, more so than anyone else in the room.
Just the memory of it gets my blood up, a possessive surge racing through me as I look at him.
Perfect.
19
Lucy
When Tycran told me he was going to pick a fight as the diversion, it made me laugh a little—I can’t think of anything more indicative of our two personalities than the fact that my choice was to strip on stage, and Tycran’s is to start a brawl.
But as he strides purposefully into the crowd, swings back his arm, and decks a massive alien squarely on the jaw, my own mouth drops open and my eyes go wide.
Why on earth would he pick that guy?
Tycran is an incredible fighter, but still. Surely he didn’t have to decide to go toe-to-toe with the alien version of The Rock. Because that’s pretty much who he’s chosen.
The alien staggers a little, more from surprise than from the blow. He snarls, rearing back and swinging at Tycran, who ducks neatly under the meaty fist, lunges forward, and wraps his muscled arms around the other guy’s waist, using the momentum to take him down.
The other alien lands squarely in the middle of a table, sending plates, food, drinks, and guests flying. Tycran goes down swinging, landing a solid punch as he pins the other alien to the collapsed table. As the two men fight in a flurry of fists and elbows, both scrambling back to their feet in the middle of the wrecked table and furiously attacking again, shouts and screams erupt all around them.
Everyone in their near vicinity is panicking. It’s total fucking chaos.
Which means this is my chance.
To my dismay, the buyer is heading for one of the exits at a fast clip, clearly seeing this as a chance for him to leave without any questions about what he’s carrying. But I’m quick on my feet, and I snatch up my skirt with one hand, slipping nimbly through the crowd as I follow him.
As much as I’d like to watch Tycran fight, I’ve got my own part of this mission to carry out.
The tall, thin alien glances around in alarm as he heads down a corridor toward the part of the massive ship where the docking bay is located,
quickening his pace. But before he can reach the elevator that will take him to the bay level, I slip up silently behind him and activate the EMP.
The second I do, I reach out with my other hand, snatching for the case. I know that if it drops to the floor, I’ll lose precious seconds. My best bet is to grab it at the moment the handcuffs break, then flee back down the corridor and disappear into the crowd again.
For a moment, I think it’s all going to go off without a hitch. I reach for the case, my fingers closing around the handle at the same split second that I hear the handcuffs click open. But before I can tug the briefcase away, a hand wraps tightly around my wrist.
The alien’s rough-padded fingertips suction to my skin, sticking to me like little octopus suckers.
Oh my god, that’s disgusting, I scream inwardly, trying to wrench my wrist free while still not letting go of the briefcase. But the alien is stronger than he looks, and with one sharp movement, he yanks it out of my grasp.
Oh, fuck no.
I leap at him, taking a page out of Tycran’s book and shoving him back against the wall next to the elevator as I grab for the briefcase. The two of us struggle over it for what feels like forever, his strength and my determination at war as we both hang on to the case for dear life, yanking and pulling at it in a tug of war that seems destined to never end.
He hisses something that sounds like a curse, swinging wildly at me with his other hand and striking me. His suctioned fingertips slap against my cheek, startling me, and I rock backward… just long enough to lose my grip and tumble to the floor.
The alien clutches the case to his chest, hissing at me and showing long, sharp teeth as he smacks the control pad to summon the elevator. I’m about to lunge at him again, suction-cup hands and sharp teeth be damned, when out of nowhere, a fist strikes him so solidly in the jaw that he lurches through the air and slides a good six inches when he lands.
