by Susan Grant
“No one lives there? On the ground?”
“No, they do. Mechanics and engineers, caretakers. The people who keep the city running, they live down there. There isn’t poverty, but their lives are far different from those who live above. If it rains, they feel it, they hear it, drumming on their heads, their roofs. The heat, the cold, the wind, they are exposed to it.”
“You mean they’re out in the weather,” she said. “Is your climate harsh?”
“Not really, no. There is no freezing precipitation you call snow. But their homes sit on the ground itself. When the elements weaken the structures, they repair them or tear them down and rebuild new ones. While we, on the other hand, live up in the towers, sealed inside a controlled environment. Yesterday, when I arrived on Earth, it was the first time since I was five that I felt real sunshine on my skin from a star, not artificial rays.”
“Wow…” She could only imagine the shock to his system. Talk about a stranger in a strange world. “What did you think? Did you like it?”
Pure joy suffused his face. “I loved it.”
“Good. We will definitely go on some hikes then. And camping. The mountains, the lake. I want to show you as much as I can.”
Before you have to leave.
Suddenly, there was an urgency, a feeling of time running out. She wanted to include the Solos of course, but damn, she liked the idea of sharing a sleeping bag with Hawk under the stars, far from prying eyes.
“Do the people who live dirtside visit the towers much?” she asked.
“It happens, but it’s rare. We call them grounders. Most are refugees from long-ago times. They came, escaping the war, looking for a better life. They live to support us, the warrior class. I admit that I never thought of that aspect until I was older and realized how critical they are to Sky’s End’s survival. They aren’t less, just a different caste. All the castes work together. And together we’ve kept our world safe, free from war, although we participated in the fighting always. And we suffered losses, as did everyone. It’s a new world, your Earth. Unscathed by that terrible war.”
“A world with hush puppies.” She slid the platter to the center of the table. “We should eat them before they get cold.”
They reached at the same time. Their hands collided, and the contact turned into a caress. Without any awkwardness, he stroked the pad of his thumb over her knuckles. One fleeting touch. Yet it sent a shock wave of awareness through her body. It’s happening again.
His eyes darkened in the center where a faint lavender hue glowed. The color reminded her of the last band of light on a clear night, long after the sun had sunk below the horizon. A frank, open gaze. No secrets. No tricks. Just him.
It was so intense, his stare, that she felt it inside her soul—the type of thought that never would have occurred to her because she’d never imagined feeling this way with someone. Sensing that he shared the same heightened level of awareness amped up her attraction to him even more.
If you’re not careful, you’re going to fall for this guy, Kelly.
If she hadn’t already.
She tore her gaze from his. “I bet you don’t know how hush puppies got their name,” she somehow managed to say, trying to cling to normal words, normal conversation, in a situation outside her experience. “Around here, they say it started with fishermen frying up bits of cornmeal left over from coating shrimp or filets. They’d feed it to their dogs to ‘hush the puppies’ so the people could eat. Dawn’s secret is mixing kernels of fresh corn in her batter. Sweet and salty and oh so greasy. Greasy in the best of high-caloric ways. And the texture. Oh my God.” She took a bite. “Mmm. It elevates them to a whole new level.” With a little in-seat wiggle, she licked her lips. “Well, what do you think?” she asked and glanced up.
She found him observing her with a gaze that was half wonder, half molten lava. “I could have my fill and it still wouldn’t be enough,” he replied, his voice rough and deep.
Heat bloomed in her core and radiated outward. She chose another hush puppy. The urge to feed it to him and feel his warm lips on her fingers overwhelmed her good sense.
Do it, Kelly. She took the dare, lifting the morsel to his mouth, her heart stomping against her rib cage, drumming out a beat like dancing boots on a plank floor.
His lips sent a shiver through her as he gently plucked the hush puppy from her grip. She hadn’t forgotten how good those lips felt against hers, the way he’d tasted, the skill and confidence with which he kissed. She didn’t know if he’d been taught how to kiss like that or if he was born with the knowledge, but she was the happy beneficiary.
Hell, she wanted to feel his lips in a lot of places.
He chewed, swallowed while she sat, transfixed by the movement of his Adam’s apple. A fantasy of him sweeping the plates and cutlery to the floor and fucking her on the tabletop exploded in her mind. She was so turned on by the erotic thought that she squirmed on the hardwood seat.
He noticed of course. Hawk noticed everything. Like how she dabbed the back of her hand to her forehead, which she was certain was shiny with sweat and not because it was warm in the restaurant. No. Because when it came to keeping sex with Hawk off her flight plan, she was pretty damn certain she was doomed to crash and burn.
She took a moment to compose herself. “This is that synergy again, isn’t it?” She had to ask. She had to know. “Sky Mate synergy.”
He spread his hands on the tabletop and leaned forward. Wide, strong hands and wrists. Long, blunt-tipped fingers. A sprinkling of dark hair. “I have never heard of such a thing happening between non Sky Mates. But here we are.”
“Does this phenomenon extend to… to other than kissing? Okay, I’ll be direct. I’m dying of curiosity. Does it extend to sex?”
Luckily, he seemed to take her question in stride. Not even a flicker of surprise registered on his face. She’d heard his people weren’t prudes. This pretty much confirmed it. “I’m told it does. I’ve never experienced with anyone else what I feel with you.”
She held up one finger. “That’s not some sort of galactic pickup line is it?”
He blinked. “I don’t follow.”
“You’re not trying to lure me into bed using your sky warrior special powers, are you?” Not that she wouldn’t go willingly.
Actually, eagerly.
His mouth tipped in a crooked smile, and he shook his head. “Only the meager powers of persuasion I was born with. When you feel ready, Kelly, when the time comes, I very much want to make love to you.”
She twisted around in her seat and beckoned to Maria. “Check please.”
Chapter Ten
“I think we’re headed for trouble,” Kelly told Hawk as they climbed the stairs to her front porch, half stumbling, their boots colliding as she wound her arms over his shoulders, a shower of kisses glancing off his jaw, his neck, and his tingling mouth.
The little pecks paled in comparison with the “hot and heavy make-out session” (Kelly’s words) they had indulged in inside the cab of her vehicle while parked in the driveway, that they’d terminated for fear of scandalizing her neighbors. Steam still filmed the windows. She’d managed to halfway unzip his fly somewhere along the way, and now only his untucked T-shirt hid his jutting underwear-tented erection from view.
He knew her bra was askew under her blouse as he’d pushed it aside to gain access to her utterly irresistible little breasts, latching onto each one, gently tugging, circling the sweet tips with his tongue until her nipples were elongated peaks, all while her breathy cries served as further inspiration. It was only when she dived down to give his cock the same treatment that he pushed open the truck door and gruffly ordered, “Inside.”
And now she first thought they might be in trouble? Hell, they’d been headed down this slippery slope since the first hush puppy.
Since the first time she’d peeked at him from under her cap with her dimpled grin.
Since their first tentative messages light-years ago.<
br />
Tonight was simply the culmination of the inevitable.
Goddess, he was so aroused, so painfully hard, he hobbled more than he walked. Now there were stairs to climb—it flirted with the boundaries of his physical abilities.
Even advanced cybernetics had its limits.
Kelly pulled him into another deep, mind-wiping kiss before he could even kick the front door closed behind them. Jolts of arousal lodged in his groin with each stroke of her tongue, her muffled moans, her hands grasping for purchase on his chest. Goddess be, if she fucked anywhere as good as she kissed, he was going to be in trouble.
Indeed, he might have no choice but to spend the rest of his weeks on Earth in her bed and in her body.
He could only imagine what the austere officers on the Council of Elders would think of that proposal. Dependable, disciplined Major Hakkim, firstborn of Sky Mates, cavorting with Terran women—no, a Terran woman. The only woman who mattered. The only one anywhere to ever send him into sensory overload.
The sole female to ever captivate him in every sense of the word.
Deep down he had to wonder at it all. This was no mere night of bed sport, as pleasurable as it was turning out to be. It was something more, something outside his experience. His gut told him that. The tentative brushes of Kelly’s mind against his confirmed it. Their synergy.
Was it only in his imagination? A product of wishful thinking? While he was basically content, all his adult life a gnawing emptiness existed inside him that never fully disappeared no matter how many projects he accomplished, no matter how many people he impressed. No matter how many battles he won.
With Kelly, the gaping hole wasn’t there.
Did it honestly matter, the reason for her effect on him? How he felt when they were together? No. Tonight he was here, and he planned to spend the evening giving her pleasure.
She flipped on a light switch, throwing her keys on the table. Her short, silky waves were mussed from when his fingers tangled in the dark strands; her lips were reddened and kissed to plumpness; under her eyes faint smudges had transferred from her blackened lashes. It all served to give her a well-bedded look. Except he hadn’t yet bedded her. Not even close. By the time he’d finished all he intended to do to her, and with her, she’d be wearing the badges of his efforts from head to toe.
“Trouble, you say?” He swaggered toward her.
She answered with a cheeky grin full of promise. “Yeah. You have no idea how much trouble I can get you in, flyboy.”
Her eyes sparkled, daring him to take action. She pulled her shirt over her head and flung it away. Her toned abs and arms flexed. The glow from the table lamp turned her suntanned skin a golden brown. Lacy triangles of fabric were the flimsiest of translucent barriers between him and her delicious breasts. Her erect nipples pushed against the fabric, seeming to want his attention as much as he wanted to resume lavishing attention on them. He could happily do so all night.
But he wanted more.
“Holy smokes, Hawk. Your eyes.” She fanned herself with her hand. “I might need treatment for third-degree burns if you keep looking at me like that. I have the cure though.” Smirking, she reached for the top button of her jeans.
“No, Kelly.”
Her brows flew up. “No?”
“No.” He hooked his finger in her waistband, pulling hard enough to open a canyon between denim and skin. “I will undress you. Boots, jeans, panties—all of it—mine to remove. As for what is underneath your clothes? Also mine.”
Yes, his. He’d waited long enough for this moment after all. The honor of it, the privilege of having sex with her. Especially given that he’d believed it might never be a possibility. “I want to experience every step along the way, from removing your clothing to feeling you orgasm with me buried deep inside you.”
A shaky sigh exited her parted lips. She swayed a little on her feet, pushing her bangs off her forehead. “You’re going to make me come just by talking like that.”
“Oh, I’ll make you come,” he said with surety. “But with more than my words.”
He scooped her up, throwing her legs over his hips, and walked her through the door of her bedroom—he hadn’t forgotten a single detail of her earlier tour—and spilled with her onto the bed. He propped his body over hers, rocking against her as he loved her with his mouth and played with her breasts, her perfect little breasts. Call me obsessed with them.
He pulled one into his mouth, the tip of his tongue stroking the little bud while he rolled the other between his fingers, kneading her. She was salty and sweet, her pebbled nipples lush and tan and fully erect.
She moaned and lifted her hips to his. Her damp heat blazed through the denim between her thighs. She’d wrapped her legs around him. The friction nearly pushed them both over the edge.
Slow down. He should, but he couldn’t. It was like their motorcycle ride. He wanted to push the boundaries, harder, faster, the world falling away around them. There would be time for going slow later.
For he fully intended this wouldn’t be the last time.
He did finally get around to removing her boots, her jeans, and with his teeth, her panties. Her bedroom was dim—cozy—so different from the rooms he’d known all his life in the aeries of his family and friends. It felt so different here; she felt so different from what he was used to. In the best of ways.
The closeness of the walls magnified her scent—the flowery essence of her, the musk of her arousal. He wanted to touch all of her all at once. Where to start? Her curves, her generous bottom, her luscious thighs. The body he’d longed to see after imagining it for so long.
“I love your body. The way you look. I love the way you taste. How you smell and feel.”
How you make me feel, Kelly.
She smiled up at him, playing with one of his braids, her eyes heavy lidded. He was glad she drew him into another kiss before his verbal skills failed him again.
His tough fighter pilot, his enchanting Terran, she melted in the heat of his touch, softening in his fire. A surrender he could sense.
Trust. Yes, she trusted him.
A few flickers of doubt invaded then—would he satisfy as a lover? Would he be able to convey physically what filled his heart and his soul? Synergy or not, it was a tall order. It depended on whether his expertly engineered body, optimized for war and not lovemaking, cooperated.
All of that filled his brain. He might have been with lovers before, but never one he wanted to keep around. It was a whole new world.
Then his thoughts refocused. He was back in the moment, giving and receiving pleasure with a woman he very much wanted to see more of. For whom he had developed tender feelings, hoping she shared them.
He dragged his mouth down her belly, his tongue and lips exploring. She arched into his caresses, her thighs falling open. Her hands fisted in his hair, grasping his braids. She was already so swollen, so slick, so ready. He wanted her now. But he wanted to explore her first.
He needed no guidance; he knew what pleased her—he knew. Was this synergy or simply what powerful attraction felt like, or a little of both? He wouldn’t know. He was a stranger to this. This new paradise.
Her hands tightened in his hair, her hips lifting. “Hawk.” She panted. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to—”
He thrust two fingers inside her, suckling her clit as he did so. She cried out, arching into him. He was drunk on the wild scent of her, the sweet taste of her juices as she pulsed around his fingers. The rhythmic squeezing went on and on.
Poised on the edge himself, the feel of her climax almost did him in. When she gasped “Hawk. I can’t even describe how good that was,” it was the best thing he could recall hearing.
He rose up to his knees, pulling off his shirt, balling it to throw it—he didn’t care if he ever saw it again. If he had to spend a lifetime skin to skin with Kelly, mind to mind with her, heart to heart, he would die a happy man.
His jeans followed, and the last of
his clothing. In those few seconds of inattention, her hand found his erection and stroked him with a confident grip from tip to root.
Molten lust shot into his engorged cock, and his balls contracted. “Goddess,” he hissed, his breath a sharp inhalation.
Every stroke of her fingers, every sensation was amplified. He pulsed in her grip, then grabbed her wrist and moved her hand away.
“I need you inside me, Hawk. Please. I’m going to die.”
He smiled. “We can’t have that. Not before I finish with you.”
They both laughed breathlessly.
“I should warn you once again about being corrupted by Earth,” she said. “Except it’s more dangerous than Starbucks and even Netflix. It’s wild animal sex with me, and you may never be the same.”
“Warning noted. And ignored.” He shifted position and pinned her hands on the pillow above her head. “Perhaps it is you who is at risk of being corrupted, little Terran,” he said and proceeded to kiss her until they were both on fire.
He moved on top of her, kneeing apart her thighs to fit himself inside her. Her hips rose up to meet his, opening to him. She was so wet and ready, he sank to the hilt in one long, dizzying thrust.
Her head rolled back. “Hawk,” she whispered, her knees sliding high on his ass. Her fingertips dug into his flesh.
He could feel her inner walls clamp around him, her teeth scraping the meat of his shoulder. Her sigh drove him mad. To catch his breath, to maintain control, he began to move with short, fast strokes.
He couldn’t get over how she responded to him, holding nothing back. It was beautiful. She was beautiful.
He gave her all of him in return. It didn’t take long for her to close in on another orgasm. His thrusts deepened, slowed, and he groaned, fighting to prolong the pleasure for both of them. All he wanted to do was watch her face as she came. To hear his name as a plea on her lips. But his muscles shook, quivering, and his control over the physical was fleeing him. Everything had its limits. His hardware and his human body both.
