“I’m fine. Let’s get back to the kissing.”
His eyes narrowed. “I will not touch you if you are hurt,” he repeated, this time the words were darker, deeper, as if it were the beast who spoke. “It is your arm?”
I flared my elbow out. “It is my elbow. I injured it last night.” I didn’t say more. Didn’t need to. I doubted he cared in this moment how I had been hurt as much as making it better.
“Do you need a ReGen Pod? We will go to the med center at once.”
“No. Absolutely not. It can be healed by a wand.”
He lifted his head, looked around the bathing room. “Do you have a wand?”
“In the other room.”
He stepped back, allowed me to go first, to retrieve it. It seemed strange to be naked, walking about my quarters with him while we weren’t actively making out or having sex. But he’d shut me down as if I’d thrown a bucket of ice water on him and refused to touch me. If I wanted sexy times, I had to fix my arm.
I went to the wall unit, retrieved the ReGen wand and turned it on. I waved it over my arm, the blue light quickly easing the ache. It did need a ReGen Pod, but Angh didn’t need to know that. Not right now. It wasn’t broken, and with the wand’s help, would ultimately be healed. I wasn’t wasting this night with Angh being unconscious in a pod. No way. A wand would appease him and get me what I wanted a lot faster. Him. Inside me. Like now.
After he saw where I was injured, he took the wand from me and waved it himself. “Why didn’t you take care of this earlier? I do not like the fact that you did not care for yourself.”
Shit. I had to either tell a bigger lie or give him the truth.
“Can’t you let it go? I’m fine. I’ll be fine.” Shit. I was blushing now. I could feel the heat creeping into my cheeks. I knew my chest would turn pink, too. Maybe he wouldn’t notice.
I put the wand away and looked up at him. His arms were crossed, his brow raised. Hell. He knew I was evading the question.
“Kira, there will be no orgasm for you until you tell me the truth.”
Hardball. Sheesh. “Fine. I—“ I stuttered. There was no other explanation for it. But admitting the truth was going to sting. “If I’d gone to medical for my elbow they would have placed me in a ReGen pod. And I would have been healed.”
“Exactly.” He looked confused.
“Everywhere, Angh. Everywhere.” There, I admitted it. Vaguely, but I told the truth.
“You are hurt other places?” he asked, his eyes were full of concern.
“Not hurt, not like you’re thinking. But there are places that ache.”
His eyebrows winged up, but he remained silent. Waiting. Obtuse. Why oh why did a woman have to spell out every freaking detail? “I’m sore from you. From us. From the other night. I didn’t want that to…go away.” I dipped my chin, looked at his still hard cock and reached out to wrap my hand around the thick head. He hadn’t gone down at all even through all of this talking. “From your cock. My pussy isn’t used to…well, you.”
He grinned then. Wickedly. And he had a dimple. How had I missed a dimple? God, I was in trouble. If I weren’t already naked, that dimple would have had me tossing my panties at him.
“You wanted to remember our night, what I did to you?”
“Yes.”
He growled, most likely the growl came from the beast informing me of its pleasure with my words.
He ignored the hand I had around his cock and reached for my elbow, his gigantic hands holding the joint like I was delicate as a hummingbird. “Are you well now?” he asked.
I shifted my arm, moved it to test whether the wand had done its job. It had and it had done it quickly. Perhaps I hadn’t been as hurt as I’d thought, that a wand was all I’d needed to begin with. Or maybe I was so high on lust for my beast that my body pretty much didn’t care about anything else.
“Yes. And I want you.” Only our breathing filled the room now. Concern was gone from his eyes. Need was back.
“Good.”
He scooped me up, carried me to my bed and laid me down on my back. He followed me, his hand by my head to hold the bulk of his weight off of me. A thigh slid between mine, parted me and then he shifted so he was settled between my thighs. I felt the thick heat of his cock against my belly.
A hand cupped the back of my knee, lifted it, spread me wide.
“Are you wet for me?”
“Yes,” I breathed. The coolness of the bedding at my back was a stark contrast to his heat above me.
He looked at me, studied me.
“I will find out for myself.” He kissed my neck, then worked a path down my body, stopping at my breasts to lick and tease my nipples before moving lower. “I will not have you hurt by my cock. You ached from our wild fucking before and you were dripping for me. I will not hurt you if there is a chance you aren’t ready.”
“I’m ready,” I panted.
“I will be the judge of that,” he said, his breath fanning over my pussy.
Arching my back, I wanted his mouth, especially since I knew what he could do with it. With his one hand holding my leg up and wide, I was open for him. With his other hand, he circled my entrance with the tip of his blunt finger. “So wet.”
“I told you.”
“Yes, you are wet. Ready, no.”
His finger dipped inside, just the tiniest amount and I bucked. His hands were like dinner plates, his finger smaller than a cock but still quite large. He was teasing me and I rippled around him, trying to pull him deeper. But there was no moving the beast. Instead, he moved in decadent little circles just inside my entrance as his tongue moved in the same leisurely fashion over my clit.
“Angh!” I cried, my hands going to his head, tangling in his hair.
I was primed. I’d been primed for an orgasm since the second I saw him in the fighting pit. Nothing had changed since then. I’d come from his skill so many times that one night and I should have been satisfied. No, it had only made me eager for more. So foreplay wasn’t needed to get me all revved up. In fact, I arched my back and cried out my pleasure, my first orgasm of the night just by the most basic—yet intimate—of contact.
“God, oh. My. God.” I practically ripped his hair out as I came. He didn’t speed up his pace, didn’t relent on the teasing motion of his finger, the flick of his tongue.
“Angh!” I cried toward the ceiling, but he wouldn’t stop.
I came again, my body lost to him. I was at his mercy, the heat, the need, the bliss.
Finally, after minutes, hours, days, he lifted his head, slipped his finger from me.
“You’re wet. You’re ready,” he said, using the back of his hand to wipe his glistening mouth.
I couldn’t talk, couldn’t tell the stupid beast I’d been ready all along, but he was an alpha Atlan, all dominant and orally skilled. Damn him.
He didn’t delay now, only levered himself back over me, pushing my knee up and back so he could settle his hips against mine, his cock at my entrance.
“Now,” I breathed.
He slid deep, stretching me wide. My inner walls rippled and stretched to take all of him. Since his finger hadn’t gone deep, I groaned at finally having something inside me. And that something felt like soft velvet over steel. Huge, long, thick, hot.
It filled me and filled me and filled me some more. Only when his hips pressed against mine did I know I’d taken all of him.
I blinked, opened my eyes to see Angh gazing at me. His eyes were almost black, his jaw clenched tight. Sweat dotted his brow and he was holding back. Panting. Straining.
“Angh, please,” I begged.
“I will not hurt you.”
I shook my head, my hair sliding across the bedding. “You won’t. Fuck me. Fuck me hard like you want. Like we both need.”
He pulled back, thrust deep. Hard. Again.
“Yes!” I cried, assuring him I wanted it. Needed it as much as he did.
His hand on my leg tightened, the gr
ip strong as he fucked me with abandon. Hard and deep lunges of his hips, his cock sliding and rubbing over every pleasure spot in me. The head of his cock bumped the end of my passage. He rubbed against my clit and since it was so sensitive, so primed for more orgasms, I didn’t need to touch myself, didn’t need him to do it either. I came as he took me, the feel of him deep, so deep, set me off. I screamed, thrashed, grabbed his back, clawed it. Gave over to it. Perhaps I had a little bit of a beast within me as well.
Angh thrust deep one last time, his muscles going taut as he held himself still. He groaned, then growled as he came, emptying himself in me. All of him. I felt the hot wash of his seed as it coated me, filled me to overflowing.
We were hot and sweaty, a sticky mess. It was perfect.
Angh didn’t take time to catch his breath, but angled his body so we rolled. He was on his back and I was straddling him, his cock still deep in me. Still hard as if he hadn’t just come. His hands went to my hips and he lifted me up, lowered me back down.
My eyes flared at the feel of this new angle. I was so wet from him, the slide easy. His seed coated us, made me slippery as I wiggled on him.
“Again,” he said, looking up at me. His hands moved to my breasts, cupped them, played with them. “Fuck me, mate. Use my cock for your pleasure. My beast and I want to watch.”
I couldn’t deny him. Why should I? I had a beast cock deep in my pussy, three orgasms already on my scorecard and he wanted me to have more.
I began to move, to use him for my pleasure. I couldn’t get enough.
But one night would have to be it. It would have to do. So I put my hands on his broad chest and fucked him. Gave over to it. To him. Gave him and the beast exactly what they wanted.
When we were finally both spent, I napped, lying on top of his chest, his cock still inside me. Neither of us seemed to want a moment of separation. He pulled the blankets over us and I was drifting, loving him, listening to the beat of his heart as he stroked my body like he couldn’t stop touching me. God, I was so in love with him, it hurt.
This was nuts. I was nuts. On Earth, there were dates. Dinner and a movie. Walks in the park. A getting-to-know-you period. Rules about not sleeping with a guy on the first date. There were even various relationship statuses. Going out, hooking up, exclusive, friends with benefits, no strings sex all put a couple in a certain place. But with Angh, it had been…bam. Just a glance at each other across the fighting pit and that had been it. I’d wanted him. He’d wanted me. Done.
He’d known I was his mate then and there. Perhaps I had known the same as well, but I’d been tricking myself into thinking otherwise.
There was nothing I could do to stop the tears. They burned my eyes and no amount of blinking stopped the build-up of pain that dripped from me, agony sliding onto his chest one salty tear at a time. It shouldn’t hurt like this. A fling should be easy. A quick, hard fuck to scratch the itch and move on.
His hands covered my entire back, stroking me gently. “Did I hurt you, Kira?” His voice was a low rumble and I laughed, the sound more pain than humor.
“No, Angh. You’re perfect. I just don’t want this night to end.”
He stopped breathing, his heart suddenly pounding beneath my ear as he sat up. With a groan, he slipped his cock from my swollen core and shifted us both so that I sat on his lap. His huge shoulders blocked out half of the wall panel above my bed and I stared, trying to burn the image into my mind so I could take it out later and savor it.
Remember that he was real and not a dream. Remember the look in his eyes as he stared at me as if I were the most precious thing in the universe. The way his whiskers were coming in quickly. How warm and solid he felt beneath me. How gentle his hands were in comparison to how ruthless he was on the battlefield.
And suddenly, one more night with him seemed like the biggest fucking mistake I’d ever made in my life. How was I supposed to walk away? I loved him. It was the truth. He was everything I’d ever wanted in a mate. Strong. Honorable. Caring. Dominant. A sexual maniac and absolutely loyal. Having to walk away from this was going to feel like ripping my still beating heart right out of my chest and stomping on it with combat boots.
He leaned over slightly and it was then I saw the second set of cuffs, the smaller set, my set partially hidden beneath the stack of clothing he’d placed on the small table next to the bed. He pulled them free and settled them on my lap.
Shaking, I wrapped my fingers around the cool metal. I’d never wanted anything more than I wanted to walk into the Vice Admiral’s office, hold up my wrists so she could see the cuffs there and tell her to stick my next mission where the sun didn’t shine.
But that would mean people were going to die. Who and how many? I had no idea. But Commander Phan and I were making progress. Our last trip out there to take down the mines, I’d heard the buzzing. It was more than I’d heard before. And there were more minefields hidden in space. Dozens of them. More deploying every day, beating us. Killing us.
What was my happiness when an entire battlegroup was depending on me to keep them alive? Thousands of warriors, their mates and their children?
I couldn’t be selfish. I wasn’t raised that way. Protect and serve. That’s what I did. Nowhere in the job description did that include falling in love with an Atlan and going off to live on what amounted to a glorified prison colony. I’d have great sex, make wonderful babies, and spend the rest of my life wondering what my happiness was costing the rest of the Coalition.
And then there was Angh. My Angh. But he was Warlord Anghar, a legendary warrior and soon-to-be recruit of the Intelligence Core himself.
Our mating wouldn’t just cost the I.C. one Hive Communications specialist, but two.
“I want you to be my mate, Kira.” His huge hand tunneled under my hair and gently turned my tear-streaked face up to look at him. His thumb swiped the wetness away. “I will give you everything. Everything I am and everything I have is yours.”
I couldn’t do it, couldn’t look him in the eye and say what I had to say. So I leaned forward and kissed his chest before resting my cheek there. His chin settled on top of my hair and I caressed the dark swirling designs in the cuffs as I confessed.
“I want to, Angh. But I can’t. I’m not what you think I am.”
“And what is that? You are mine, Kira. I can feel it. My beast knows that he is yours. The way you give yourself to me, I know you feel it, too.”
Tears. More tears. His voice was so gentle, so deep and honest. I wasn’t supposed to tell him anything, but I couldn’t hurt him and not tell him why. I might have to walk away, but he’d know the truth first. “I’m not an instructor at the Academy. Well, I am, but that’s not all I am.”
When he remained silent, I took a deep breath, fought off the shuddering of my diaphragm that made my voice wobble, and forced the words out. “I am a top level I.C. operative. I can’t tell you what I do, or who I report to, but I have two more years on my contract and they own me, Angh. Own everything I do, including deciding if I can take a mate. I can’t get out of it and I’m not sure walking away would be the right thing to do.”
His hand ran down my side to my elbow and his fingertips traced over my now forgotten injury. For me, it was nothing. Over. For him, it was something else and I felt him putting the clues together like a master strategist snapping the final pieces of a puzzle into place. “A Hive Soldier gave you that bruise.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
He sighed. “I knew when I saw you in the battle simulation that you were more than you seemed, mate.”
“I’m not your mate, Angh.”
“You are mine, Kira. Whether you wear the cuffs or not, my beast and I know who we belong to.”
I smacked him on the shoulder, although it did nothing to him and made my palm sting. “Damn it, Angh! Yell at me or something. This sucks. It’s not fair. You want to be with me and I want to be with you. A
nd this stupid war is going to ruin everything.”
There was no reaction from him this time, he was solid and warm, an immovable object. “War is never easy. And we are warriors, not innocent children. We know the cost.” He lowered his hand to my lap and pulled the smaller cuffs from my hands, dropping them onto the floor next to the bed, out of sight, as if they were inconsequential. Nothing. “I know you cannot tell me much, but I must know, if you walk away from the I.C., will warriors die?”
I sighed. “Yes.”
“How many?”
“Thousands. Maybe more.” If we didn’t bring down the minefields, and the battlegroups were pushed back or destroyed, entire worlds could fall.
He moved again, lying down in the bed and pulling me into his arms. My tears were gone, but the salty taste lingered when I licked my lips. “I’m sorry, Angh. I don’t know what to do.”
“I do.” He wrapped his arms around me and pressed me to his chest, held me close. “You will rest, mate, and in the morning, I will return to The Colony and you will do what needs to be done to save lives and win this war. I admire you, Kira. I knew my mate would be fierce. Strong. But you are honorable as well. You are a warrior in heart and mind and I cannot sacrifice thousands of lives for our personal happiness. You are right, my one true mate. As much as it hurts both of us, you are right. We cannot be together.”
I sobbed and he held me. It was painful, and beautiful, and it broke me in so many ways I wasn’t sure I’d ever recover.
When the comms unit attached to his armor that had been tossed to the floor buzzed a few minutes later and Vice Admiral Niobe requested Angh’s presence in her office first thing in the morning, I knew we had both made the right choice. We couldn’t be together, but Angh was wrong about one thing. He wasn’t going back to The Colony. He was going out there to fight, just like I was. Commander Phan needed him to help her defend Battlegroup Karter, not me. They were a powerful unit that could hear the Hive and that skill, their powerful combination, couldn’t be ignored.
I already had my next assignment, a recon mission to extract a top I.C. weapons specialist from a Hive Integration Unit on one of the outlying sectors. I had to leave in a few hours, about the time Angh believed he would be transporting back to The Colony.
Cyborg Fever Page 9
