Cutie Pi (Holidays of Love Book 3)

by Ellen Mint

  “What?!”

  Nolan sneered and stretched a hand out to the universe. “They see it as an easy compromise to the problem.”

  A sharp sound burst over the speakers. As I turned my head, I realized it didn’t come from the ship. Bright pink light cut a hard line straight through the bridge. It stretched out and began to bend as if planning to scrape away everything from Earth.

  “But, you’re a human,” I said. “How come…?”

  “Yes!” Nolan snapped his fingers. “That might work.”

  “What would?”

  Hands wrapped around my waist and, before I could breathe, he pulled me to his chest. Nolan nestled his chin on my shoulder, his cheek pressing hard to mine. Palms curled along the small of my back until his fingers dug into me.

  “If we’re lucky,” he whispered just as the pink beam of death cut across the first console. Only one more to go before it reached us.

  “It’ll confuse the two of us as one person,” I said, catching on to his plan. “And if we’re not?”

  He didn’t answer me as the scanning ray cut fast across the empty bridge. Pink light crackled centimeters from my ankle. Would it hurt? Would it kill me?

  Gasping, I buried my face into Nolan’s chest as the scan overtook us.

  CHAPTER NINE

  WOULD IT HURT?

  How deep could it penetrate?

  Would my spleen pop like a hotdog in the microwave?

  The bright light of the passing scan lit up even through my cinched eyelids. I felt as if I could see my own retinas, the entire world exploding into a cascade of pink. My knees locked in and I started to tumble to the floor.

  But the hands pressed to my back clung tighter. His arms pushed closer, the increasing biceps first brushing against the side of my chest then flat out cuddling my breasts. It was the warmest, safest hug I’d ever had…on a spaceship somewhere between Earth and Mars while an alien scanner decided if I’d live or die.

  “Please,” words whispered beside my ear. I moved to raise my head, but Nolan buried his cheek even deep into my shoulder. His speech didn’t stop, however. “When all is revealed and the shadows no longer provide succor, shield me as only you can.”

  I didn’t recognize it, but I knew a prayer when I heard one breathlessly whispered out of warm lips pressed to my neck. Rising on my toes, I pleaded to a higher being with him. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

  “My rod and staff?” Nolan said, causing my eyes to snap open and fill with his. Those lips that whispered prayers lingered not even a centimeter from mine. And they raised in a small smile. “I might require a break to refuel my electrolytes.”

  “That isn’t… I didn’t mean…” I stumbled, the innuendo smacking me repeatedly on the cheeks. It was a famous Psalm. Everyone knew it. Or was he messing with me?

  The pink light continued past us, scanning the last quarter of the ship. I moved to stand up, but Nolan kept a tight grip to my body. “Don’t move. Not yet.”

  Dumbly, I nodded and enveloped my hands around his straining shoulders. I should be panicking, and partly was with death in the air. But as I pressed my cheek above his sternum, losing myself in the assuring single heartbeat, I felt safe.

  “Scan complete,” the evil, murder bot announced from outside the ship. This was it. Did our trick work? Would we have to fight off a battalion of alien commandos?

  “Only one earth creature detected.”

  Thank you, Lord!

  “Yes!” Nolan cried. Those hands that’d held me close and pinned me to him to fool the scanner didn’t fall off. His palms locked tight to my back and Nolan effortlessly lifted me into the air.

  “Ah,” I gasped, fearing a fall even while knowing I was in good hands. Still, I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him while he twirled me in a circle. My feet flew outward, my skirt fluttering in the man-made wind. After walking that dividing line between death and life, I wanted to sing.

  “You are so…” Nolan said, letting me come to a stop even as he kept me suspended in the air. His giddy smile faded to a small, heartfelt one while those endless stars burned in mine.

  Lips soft and sweet as whipped cream found mine. In an instant, heat pulsed through me, Nolan’s gentle kiss zapping down my spine. I felt myself floating to the floor when a palm cupped my jaw. The thumb swept along my cheek, seeming to try to raise my lips into a smile even as I lost myself in his kiss.

  As my toes bounded on the safety floor, Nolan pulled back. “I can’t…” he said, touching his lips glistening from my kiss. His brow furrowed and, with his thumb, he swept across my lips and slightly parted my mouth. “I can’t pretend any longer,” Nolan declared.

  Like a spec of matter at the event horizon of a black hole, I was drawn forward at the same moment Nolan reached for me. He tousled through my hair, shaking away the knots from running through the forest. Rolling my long curls in his fist, he tugged until my head tipped back.

  Plunging to me, our tongues met in his mouth as Nolan swept me into his arms. Palms kneaded across my ass, lifting my skirt and guiding my legs around his waist. A surprising sweetness rumbled under the masculine musk nibbling on my lips. I ached for more, to have him bite and lick his way down my body.

  I scraped my nails down his back, crisscrossing over the muscles flexing to hold me. Nolan threw his head back and groaned from the bottom of his chest. The noise froze me, uncertain if that was right, when he surged forward and lifted me into the air.

  My ass landed on a hard glass surface, but I hardly noticed as Nolan’s fingers swept across my collar. One tugged the strap of my dress down my upper arm. His other hand…

  “God!” I cried and slammed my palm down to steady myself.

  “Lowering landing gear,” the computer announced.

  The hand that’d been cupped around my breast grabbed my wrist to lift it off the console. “Sorry—” I began to mumble, but Nolan silenced me with a kiss while he pressed a bunch of buttons.

  “Retracting landing gear.”

  Walking his fingers down my neck, step by step, he traced the curve in a slow slide until landing in the hollow. Nolan drew the length of his nose across my cheekbone, his lips peppering me in kisses until he found his way to the thin skin of my throat.

  Where before it saw trauma and pain, now a touch of his lips softer than a whisper glanced over the tender skin. “This is…” he said, pausing to kiss me deeper.

  A moan slipped from me, my body starting to squirm as I flexed my thighs at the thought of him tugging them apart. Nolan’s kisses drifted ever downward until his teeth locked around my bra strap. Playfully, he pulled it to the side, the same as with my dress.

  “These are beautiful,” he said.

  I wouldn’t say my breasts were unnoticeable, or ogre ugly, but they weren’t usually worthy of praise. All four fingers swept across my exposed collar bone, causing Nolan to moan. Did he mean…?

  A laugh at the thought of my collars being sexy paused him. “I have better hiding below the dress,” I said, aching for him to pull it away.

  “Hm, I should inspect you for contraband. You never know what a dangerous space pirate might try to sneak onboard,” he said. His palms worried along the outside of my knees and up my thighs. It sent my skirt riding higher, while I scooted closer to him.

  “Shutting windows.”

  Nolan kissed me harder than before. I slid far enough off the console the bulge rising in his pants glanced across my soaking-wet panties. “Fuck,” he gasped, his hips pressing deeper into me as he slapped the console.

  “Dropping oxygen percentage to 10%.”

  I wanted to rip off his pants, to take the whole length of him first in my hand, then mouth, then let him fill me. Digging my hands under the waistband, I wrapped my palms around his hips. My thumbs slipped deep into that masculine V and a tuft of soft hair clustering around what I wanted.

/>   Drawing through the long curlies, I strained to cup one hand under his balls.

  “You have no idea what I want to do to you,” Nolan growled.

  “Tell me.”

  He hooked both hands around my inner thighs, spreading them wide. Dark eyes—nearly eclipsed by his brow—met mine. With a voice crackling like aged whiskey, he said, “Bathe your body in the finest oils from the Etresian fields. Lick you from ear to navel, until you beg for me to nestle my chin between your thighs. Lose myself to your moans of pleasure.” He leaned closer, his hand folding and spearing his knuckles to the console. “And spread these legs wide while I commune my soul with yours.”

  Holy shit.

  “Dumping all fuel sources,” the computer interrupted, pulling the evaporating-panty-stare off of me. I gasped, trying to pull in air while Nolan prodded at the console. He frowned deeper at every button we accidentally pushed before seeming to reset it all.

  Rising up, he announced, “It just occurred to me…” Hands cinched under my ass, lifting me away from where I was prepared to be ravaged and soul consumed. “I haven’t given you the tour,” Nolan said and I kissed him. Our tongues rolled in a syncopated rhythm while he walked me off of the bridge. His palm vanished from my ass long enough to slap to the wall, where a door swished open.

  “Just like in…” I said before he dove headfirst to my cleavage. Soft kisses caressed up the rise and fall of my breasts as we stumbled down a hallway.

  “There. Is the mess,” he said, twisting his head to the right and an open door to a dark room. A hot, wily tongue swirled between my breasts, reminding me of his declared intentions. I groaned, pleading for more when Nolan broke away.

  “That’s the engines,” he said, nodding to another door at the end of the hallway. “And there’s…other parts of the ship. Oh look, the captain’s cabin,” he announced while spinning us to the left.

  As we crossed the threshold, lights rose from the walls themselves. Soft purples and blues ringed the whole room. There was probably furniture, sentimental objects, a dresser. I had no idea because my every sense was filled with Nolan.

  Practically leaping, he bent over and released me. A deep mattress folded around my body, hugging tight to my hips before rebounding me back up. It didn’t feel like those old waterbeds, it was too viscous. But it flowed with me, forming around my hips and legs while I watched Nolan gaze down at me.

  His hair was tousled beyond recognition, his pink lips a blazing red, and his chest glistened from a sheen of exertion. Everything I never thought I’d see in my lab partner and coworker. Only those starry eyes, the deep greens speckled with yellow felt familiar. I’d know him anywhere by those eyes alone.

  With a smile, Nolan snatched the hips of his gray workout pants and yanked them down. Completely, 100% human. Possibly an Italian sculpture’s masterpiece brought to life by a god. But human.

  And staring at me because I couldn’t stop staring at it. The cockadoodle no longer hid away in his trousers but stretched high in anticipation of crowing before the sun.

  I’m such a dork.

  “Well?” Nolan drew a palm down the line of his chest with that svelte and intimidating build popular in renaissance marble. As it reached his hips, he curled his fist around the, um, rocket. “Does this meet your requirements?”

  “I’ll,” I said while sitting higher. “I’ll have to run it through its paces to see.”

  His sweet smile transformed into the hungry stare of a predator stalking through tall grass. One hand pressed into the bed, sinking the strange mattress deeper. As I rolled with the motion, Nolan slammed another beside my hips, trapping me in his gaze.

  Plunging his lips to mine, Nolan directed me backward with just a kiss. I scrambled to keep up, digging my feet further and further along the bed. All the while he knuckle-walked with, his hands barely breaking from the mattress.

  After licking along my jawline, Nolan nipped at my earlobe and asked, “Shall I remove your dress or do you wish to?”

  My hand lashed back to grab the small zipper, nearly sending my elbow careening into his nose. I froze in time before making contact and said, “You should.”

  “Mmm.” His nails drew along my legs, the heels of his hands pressing and widening my thighs while a continual moan of need echoed through my ear. Climbing higher, his touch caressed below my skirt and both thumbs swept over my center. My drowning center. Dear God.

  “I don’t think I can wait that long,” Nolan said. In a flash, he snatched at my panties and ripped them off. They flew down my legs until hooking at the ankles, but that didn’t bother the man who raised my skirt higher still.

  “Do you have faith?” Nolan asked. His cock nestled between my legs, the head playfully bopping against my skirt. Just the sight of it caused me to bare down in anticipation.

  Faith? In what? “I think so?” I said.

  He caressed across my exposed collarbones and gently guided me back. Dipping down, his lips caressed along the shell of my ear as he asked, “Do you have need?”

  “Yes! Fuck, yes!”

  “Then—”

  Oh my God! The fullness of him pierced straight through me without a second’s hesitation. Nolan’s lips hung open as if he’d had more of his speech planned, but when he entered me it all vanished. Instead, a cry of wonder escaped, and he began to pant helplessly.

  I ran my hands across his shoulders and through his hair, needing a handhold as he began to thrust. His lips tried to press kisses to mine, but they kept turning away as he’d gasp aloud in ecstasy. God, it felt so good. I ached for more, to feel him as deep as he could reach.

  My leg hooked around his waist, then the second. Yes! Nolan reached back with his hand and began to rub along the ankle I pressed into his spine. Suddenly, he yanked it forward, locking my legs one by one on his shoulders.

  “Better,” he growled without the question, but I screamed a response.

  “Yes!”

  Nolan pressed long kisses against my ankles while he maintained his thrusting. Holy hell, my whole body tingled from his touch. Every slap of his sac against me sent another wave rushing past. But I knew it wouldn’t be enough. It was never enough to set me off, no matter how hard I tried.

  In that moment, I didn’t care. The ride was fantastic without having to reach the destination.

  Straddling on my elbows, I sat up. My forehead crested against Nolan’s, sweat glistening across his body straining to maintain the rhythm. “Come in me,” I purred and kissed him so deep my tongue overpowered his.

  Nolan’s cry of release crested against my lips and bounced down my throat. I collapsed to the bed, my body draining to zero after the long, fretful night. Meanwhile, he remained propped up above me, his star-speckled eyes closed tight while a smile flitted across his mouth.

  “That…” he panted, sweat beading and tumbling from his sharp collarbones into the nest of chest hair. “I had no idea how amazing that could be,” he sputtered.

  What? I stared at the man tripping back from the light fantastic, and he gulped. “With you. I had no idea how wonderful it could be with you.”

  Oh. That made far more sense than him being a virgin. I unhooked my legs, letting both fall to the bed while Nolan emerged from my famished vagina. It pulsed through me, pleading for a release, but I was too tired to even do the small finger dance to reach it.

  Had the hormones finally abated?

  Nolan remained twisted on his side, one hand trying to cinch off the last of the mess spilling from his cock. I smiled exhaustedly at him and began to scoot over so he could lay beside me. A warm hand caressed down my thigh, and the man rolled over to nest between them.

  What was he…?

  Palms hooked under my thighs and Nolan brought my lower lips to his. Holy shit! His tongue swept sonatas across my vulva and fast arias over my clit. In an instant, my body roared to life. The humming he’d started in my veins grew to a greek chorus singing the song of cunnilingus.

  My body raised up o
n my toes, the depleted thighs straining to get me closer to his perfect tongue. Heat. Swirl. Suck. Tap. I couldn’t stop panting, my head digging into the mattress until I felt the hard plank below.

  “Holy fuck!” I screamed, the orgasm ripping through me in record time. The pressure collapsed my veins and pulverized my organs but left me in total bliss. Obliterated, I starfished onto the bed.

  Nolan wiped at his jaw, missing my arousal that worked into the dimple down his chin. “Did you enjoy yourself?” he asked as if uncertain what my screaming and smiling meant.

  I tried to find the words to tell him how I’d never experienced anything so wonderful the first time. How his touch and tongue brought me to places I’d thought impossible to reach. But my brain slipped on its pajamas and crawled under the covers. All I could do was limply raise my thumb in gratitude.

  Nolan laughed at the response.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I DON’T KNOW how long I slept, if I even slept. The only window looked out on an endless black void. Without an atmosphere, there were no stars to twinkle through the eternal drift of space. There was also the fact that every time I began to nod off, I’d pinch myself to make certain this wasn’t the dream.

  Nolan’s slumbering body curled around the side of mine. We started the long night with my cheek nuzzling against his chest, his hand caressing from the small of my back down to curl over my ass. In no time, the spaceman drifted off to sleep, but he didn’t let go. If anything, even while he turned in exhaustion, he clung to me as if he feared I might vanish into the ether.

  Lips pressed to my teased hair, then drifted until nipping along my ear. “Still awake?” he whispered. “Your endurance is…should be legendary.”

  How could I possibly sleep? I fucked in space because a tentacle bounty hunter pursued me. While the idea took a dark turn, the former part left me grinning like a fool. And that was hardly pillow talk. Or whatever that roll of material was that counted for an alien pillow.

  “Too many late nights chained to the computer. I never needed much either. If I hadn’t gone into theoretical computer science, maybe I should have become a game dev.”