Obsession

by Jennifer Armentrout

  My next words came out as a low, harsh growl. “I can promise you that sex with me won’t be about long, soft pets or whispered words. I like it rough and raw, but your pleasure will always come first. Every single time.”

  Her heavy, hooded eyes drifted shut. Thick lashes framed her cheeks. “Every single time?”

  “Every. Single. Time.” Each word I punctuated with a thrust of my hips, making me bite back a growl.

  “That’s a pretty bold statement,” she whispered, spreading her thighs, cradling mine.

  “Not a statement.” I lowered my head, moving my lips across the cheek I’d caressed moments before. “But a promise.”

  My remaining hand slid up the flare of her hip, up her stomach. I stopped just below her breasts, my thumb brushing over the swell. Her sharp intake of breath reverberated in my skull.

  Her breath caught as my kisses reached the corner of her mouth. She turned her head slightly. Our lips brushed, and I pulled back suddenly, remembering that she was injured.

  “Are you feeling up to this?” I asked, and then wondered where in the fuck the decency just came from.

  Her fingers curled against my shoulders. “I feel fine.”

  I lowered my head to the space between her neck and shoulder. Grabbing her hips, I nuzzled her neck, realizing that I never smelled anything better than her. I let my hand stray higher, nearly reaching the peak of her breast.

  She didn’t tell me to stop, didn’t say anything or move. Just waited…waited to see what I’d do. Then she grabbed my wrists but didn’t pull my hands away. She just held them. There was hesitancy in her eyes, but her breathing picked up, bringing her breast into contact with my hand more fully.

  I growled low in my throat, and her back arched clear off the mattress, pressing her breast into my grasp. I answered, smoothing my thumb over the taut pebble straining against the shirt.

  My eyes remained latched to hers as I teased her nipple through the clothing. She moved her other hand down my chest, and my stomach muscles tightened. I had to see her breasts again, touch them, taste them. I slipped my hand under her shirt. Silky smooth skin concaved softly as I pushed the fabric up, exposing her stomach and then slowly pulled the shirt off. Anyone else I would’ve ripped the shirt off, but with her…not with her. Not now, most likely later, though.

  Later?

  Yeah, who the fuck was I kidding? There’d be a later.

  Her breasts were gorgeous. Round and perfect, and even more beautiful in my hand. She made a soft sound as my fingers skimmed over the peak of her breast. My mouth watered as I lowered my head, flicking my tongue over one pert nipple.

  She moaned as both of her hands now clutched my sides. “Hunter…”

  “Mmm?” I pressed down, moving my hand to her other breast. My tongue swirled over the nipple. “Do you want me to stop?”

  Her head went back as her breath came out in short gasps. “This…this wasn’t what I had in mind when I said you could sleep here.”

  I drew the rosy peak into my mouth as I caught her other nipple between my thumb and forefinger. Her skin tasted like the sweetest drug, and her cry was like a siren’s song. “It wasn’t?”

  “God,” she moaned. “Okay. Maybe it was.”

  Before I could feel smug about that, her lower body started moving in tiny circles and, good God, I was so hard that I could feel my pulse against the leather of my pants. I gnashed my teeth together, holding still as she came alive under me.

  …

  Desire swirled inside me, leaving me feeling out of control and dazed. Tendrils of fear curled under the raw heat, though. Even as my body arched into his, ached for him, I knew Hunter was like no other man. He could lose control, and then I was going to be in big, big trouble.

  But staring into his face, I saw Hunter. I didn’t see a predator or a threat. I saw him, only him. Sliding my hands down his chest, I felt Hunter. Under this wonderful skin of his, something totally different existed. I knew that, but I trusted him with my life and my body. That was what mattered.

  And when his mouth tugged on my breast and his tongue rasped my nipple, I stopped thinking. It was all about feeling and the raw, exquisite sensations shooting down to my sex, warming and dampening me. All I knew was that I wanted to feel this—really feel this.

  My hands slipped over rock-hard abs that dipped and rippled. His skin felt like cool silk. Masculine perfection. My hips rocked against the thick muscle pressed against my core. God, he was huge. Had to be an alien thing, because damn.

  “I want you so badly.” His voice was thick, smoky; his lips moving against my breast. At this point he could be speaking in pig latin, and I’d find it deeply sensual.

  He lowered a hand to my hip, urging me to move, to take what I wanted. When he caught my nipple between his teeth, I cried out again, surrendering to what my body demanded, wantonly rolling my hips against his hardness. Tension between my legs built quickly, stealing my breath, shocking me. With startling quickness, he slipped his hands under me and lifted me as he rocked back on his haunches.

  In his lap—oh sweet Jesus—I could feel the tip of him straining against me. Somehow his pants had become unbuttoned. I could’ve done that. He could’ve done it. I didn’t know or care. His lips were cool against my neck and the warring heat/coldness tightened me everywhere.

  My hands sunk deep into his hair and I tugged his head back, surprised by my aggressiveness. Lowering my mouth to his, I kissed him deeply, ignoring the flare of pain from my bruised lip. My tongue slipped between his lips and I moaned as I grinded against him.

  Suddenly he gripped my wrists, pulling them down and capturing them in one hand. I was on my back and he was above me in a second. From the brief glimpse of his eyes, I saw that they were a brighter blue. Beautiful.

  Holding my wrists pinned to my stomach, he moved further down, kissing his way from my chin to my belly button, coming so close to where I wanted him—needed him.

  “Spread your legs for me.” When I followed his order, his free hand slid up my thigh, halting mere inches from my core. “I bet you’re ready for me.”

  I was. God, I was so ready I was drowning.

  Then his mouth was on me, suckling deep as one long finger dipped into my body. The combination of being restrained, of being so worked up, was too much.

  I came right then, breaking apart into a billion pieces as my body spasmed against his mouth. He worked me until I whimpered, coming close to release again. Then he rose, his strange eyes piercing me.

  With one hand, he tugged his pants down and kicked them off. Sweet, mindless aftershocks rocked me as he moved up me once more, pinning my arms above my head. I felt his hard, long length against my core.

  My hands itched to touch him, but he wasn’t having it. Flicking his tongue over my tightened nipple, he settled between my thighs.

  “Wait,” I said breathlessly. Hunter lifted his head and his look said seriously? I almost laughed. “What about protection?”

  A smile quirked his lips. “I can’t get you pregnant and we don’t get diseases. Doesn’t work that way.”

  “Human. Alien,” I said, letting out a nervous laugh. “I should’ve thought of that.”

  “I doubt it’s something normally considered.” With his free hand, he traced the line of my jaw and then slid it down between my breasts to the flare of my hip, eliciting a shiver from me. “You’re beautiful. Every part of you.”

  I felt that way when he touched me like this. “I want to touch you.”

  “I know.”

  But he didn’t let go of my wrists. He held them above my head as my breath froze, then redoubled as I felt him against me, pushing in inch by delicious inch. The initial stretch held a delicious bite.

  Hunter lowered his head, nuzzling my throat. “Goddamn, you feel so good. You kill me, you know? Fucking kill me.”

  I was sure he was the one doing the killing. Tipping my hips up, I took him in fully. My gasp of pleasure was lost in his groan as my back arch
ed clear. He was a tremendous presence in my body, stretching me until the feeling of sublime fullness curled my toes against the sheets.

  “Oh God, Hunter…”

  I yearned to wrap my arms around him, but he held me still. A fine tremor worked its way through him and his grip tightened on my wrists until the bite became almost painful.

  Opening my eyes, I sucked in air.

  His features were sharper, taut, and his eyes were churning brighter flecks of blue. The temp of his skin seemed to drop. “Hunter?”

  He stretched his head to the side, and the thick cords of muscle stood out. His eyes closed, and I could tell he was fighting it; the darker need in him to feed. An eternity passed before his lashes lifted. His eyes were brighter than normal, but his face had lost the sharpness. He began to move, pulling back until just the tip of him pressed in, and then thrusting forward until there wasn’t an inch between us. The friction of each withdrawal and subsequent return built a crazy storm of emotion that quickly turned into a swirling knot of deep tension.

  Hunter maintained that slow, torturous tempo until a fine sheen of sweat broke out over his forehead and bare, hairless chest. I was close, my fingers twisting around empty air as the rhythm increased.

  “You feel so perfect,” he said, kissing me again as one hand settled on my hip, and I knew at that moment he’d wrangled in the beast.

  In response, I wrapped my legs around his waist, seeming to seat him even deeper. Hunter growled low in his throat as I hooked my ankles.

  He caught the edge of my lips in a little nip and then growled, “I’m going to fuck you. Hard.”

  Before I could point out that he were doing just that, Hunter drove into me over and over again, stopping in between thrusts to grind against me. Each time he did so, the friction licked through me like sweet flames. Then his head dipped, his teeth catching a rosy bud as he drove into me again. The release shattered through me as I called out his name in a hoarse shout, and I felt him shudder around me, in me, and then he joined me, toppling over the edge in a powerful rush. And I knew that neither of us would be the same again.

  Chapter 21

  My heart was still racing minutes later, even when he pulled out of me, causing tiny sparks of ecstasy to ricochet through my body. He let go of my wrists, but I didn’t move my arms. I was nothing more than jelly at that point.

  Clasping the sides of my face gently, he tipped my chin up and kissed me again, a long and deep kiss that was more like staking a claim than anything else. When he rolled off me, I expected him to put space between us, but he brought me along with him, tucking my body against his side.

  I placed my hand on his cool chest, surprised to feel a heart thudding under it. One of these days I was really going to need to figure out the whole alien/human body thing and how it worked, but right now wasn’t the time for a physiology lesson.

  “That…that was amazing,” I said, closing my eyes.

  “I know.” He traced an idle circle over my hip. “It was even better than what I imagined, and I have a pretty ferocious imagination.”

  I smiled at that. In the back of my head, I had so many questions. What did this mean for us? Did having sex change anything? I still needed to reclaim my life with or without Hunter, but did he want to be a part of that life? Could he? And was the warmth blossoming deep in my chest a signal of something more than post-orgasmic bliss?

  But I wasn’t ready to give voice to those questions.

  I snuggled closer, sliding my leg along his. “There’s something I can’t figure out.”

  “Just one thing?” The amusement in his tone increased the smile on my face.

  “Why would the government allow an alien to achieve such power by becoming a senator?” I asked. “Seems like they’re just asking for trouble.”

  Hunter rolled onto his side, facing me. “I think the government believes that they can always control them, that by allowing them to obtain power by human standards, the Luxen will be satisfied.”

  The whole Luxen/human/Arum politics fascinated me. “And they’re not? Being a senator is a pretty powerful gig.”

  “Being a senator is nothing to a race of aliens that ruled their galaxy for thousands of years.” He reached out, spreading his large hand along my shoulder. “But humans—no offense—still think they’re top of the food chain. Just like the Luxen did when we first came along. It’s their ignorance that has blinded them to what the Luxen are truly capable of.”

  I shivered, partly due to what he said and partly due to the skimming of his hand down my arm. The back of his knuckles brushed my breasts and I wiggled closer. His sex was hard again or maybe it had never softened. A thick and demanding proud length that jutted between us.

  Oh wow.

  Refocusing on his face, I flushed when I saw his knowing smirk. “What are the Luxen truly capable of?”

  “Anything. Everything.” His hand drifted over my thigh. “If they wanted to take over Earth, they could.”

  “Would they?” When he tugged me against him, I let out a little gasp. “Would they do that?”

  Hunter gave a lopsided shrug. “I don’t know, but one day the Luxen population will grow. They could outnumber the humans.”

  His hand had slid around the curve of my rear, his finger slipping dangerously close. “What about the Arum?”

  “Do we want to rule Earth?” His other arm, the one I’d been lying on, tightened around me. “Arum care very little to rule an entire species. We’re much more concerned about things that pleasure us.”

  My brows rose at that.

  “We need to get on the road soon,” he said. “There’s a place I need to go.”

  “Okay.”

  “But we have a couple more minutes.”

  Heat flowed through my body. “For…?”

  Another smile tipped his lips, and then he rolled me on top of him in one fluid motion, seating himself in one hard thrust. “This.”

  Arching my back, I placed my hands on his shoulders to steady myself as he grasped my hips. Through half open eyes, I saw him watch where we were joined as he lifted me up and slid me back down. Then his eyes flicked up, meeting mine. In that moment, the world seemed to stop, as cheesy as that sounded— it was just us. There was nothing else, and I was lost in him.

  …

  Sex had never felt like this before. Instead of being all about satisfying an urge and getting off, it became about completion of a different sort. Even in those moments while I held her after the first time, I knew how unalike this was from my previous exploits. And after the second time, I wanted her close…and I wanted her again.

  Hell, I wanted her about a hundred times more.

  As I watched her change into a pair of jeans and a plain shirt, I wanted to take her again. From behind. Against the wall. On the floor. Wherever.

  If I kept thinking like this, we’d never get on the road and I needed to badly. I’d come close to feeding off her earlier. How I didn’t was beyond me, but I wasn’t pushing my luck.

  “You ready?” I asked, voice coming off a little gruff.

  She glanced at me and nodded. “Ready when you are.”

  It was late afternoon, but the heat was picking up, promising there’d be a long and hot summer ahead. She was buckling herself in when I climbed into the Porsche.

  Sitting back, she turned to me. “Where are we going?”

  “To a place outside of Martinsburg,” I answered, scanning the front of the motel before pulling out. “We’re a couple hours out from there.”

  “Martinsburg?” She frowned. “What’s there?”

  “Someone who can give me what I need.”

  “Really?” She folded her arms, and a cute expression pinched her face. “Do tell.”

  I chuckled. “Opal.”

  Confusion swept across her face. “Opal? Like in the gemstone opal or some old lady named Opal?”

  “Gemstones have a weird effect on us and the Luxen. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. It has to do wit
h the refracting and absorption of light.”

  Serena stared at me like I had started speaking in a different language.

  A smile pulled at my lips. “Obsidian is deadly to the Arum. I carry one, but I have to be careful with it. The gemstone fractures lights and shadows and it cuts through us like nothing else. One good swipe and that’s all you need.”

  “And you carry one?” She looked at me like I was insane. “Does it affect the Luxen the same?”

  “Nope, but onyx—another type of gemstone—really messes them up. In large quantities it could probably put them down or make them wish they were dead, but opal is different.” I had to admit; it felt strange talking about these things with a human. “Opal is a whole different story.”

  “How?” she asked.

  Taking the exit to the main highway heading east, the tires of the Porsche smoothly ate away the miles as I explained exactly what a piece, even the tiniest, could do.

  “Opal has the ability to refract and reflect specific wavelengths of light, changing the speed and direction. For the Luxen, it’s like a power booster. Even for a hybrid, because their human DNA is now encased in wavelengths of light.” I paused, glancing at Serena.

  She looked absolutely dumbfounded.

  I smiled. “It enhances their ability to refract light and also to reflect. For example, if a Luxen is wearing a piece of opal, they can use it to mirror things around them, like a one-way window.”

  Her brows pinched. “So they could become invisible in a way, since they’d be mirroring what’s around them?”

  “Correct. They can also move faster and create stronger blasts of energy.”

  She let out a low whistle. “Okay. Assuming that I totally understand the whole alien gemstone stuff, I don’t get how a piece of opal works on the Arum. You’re not like the Luxen.”

  I opened my mouth, but closed it. Eyes narrowing on the road, I realized I wanted to lie to her. To make up some cockamamie tale about how it worked for the Arum instead of telling her that when we drained the Luxen, in most cases, we killed them. I never lied about it before, but I never had a reason to lie.

  And now it seemed that I did have a reason, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her. My hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Opal can enhance an Arum’s abilities, too. Making us faster and stronger, but we have to do something first. We have to feed on a Luxen or a hybrid. When we do that, we take in their essence. That part reacts to the opal.”