“Yes,” she said, looking down, one brow arched. “I had forgotten how short you are.”
“I’ve dreamed of killing you.” The agent’s eyes flickered with sapphire anticipation.
“I’m sure you have.”
“Final words?”
“Yeah. You talk too much.”
A pause as her words registered.
With a roar, Mia attacked, arm sweeping in a wide arch toward Le’Ace’s neck. Le’Ace bowed her back and the blade whooshed a single inch from contact. Infuriated by her failure, Mia didn’t realize she’d left herself wide open until Le’Ace slammed her metal hand into the agent’s temple, knocking her sideways.
Kyrin, the Arcadian lover, scowled and stepped forward, but Jaxon withdrew a pyre-gun and shot him with a bright blue stun beam, freezing the alien in place. It didn’t hurt him, just immobilized him.
“Thanks,” Le’Ace threw over her shoulder.
“Welcome.”
Mia had righted herself, had growled at Kyrin’s condition, and was already launching forward for another attack. While Mia was dressed for combat in pants and military boots, Le’Ace was not. Her fashionable boots with mile-high heels left her with a distinct disadvantage, so when Mia’s shoulder plowed into her stomach, she lost her balance.
She did manage to grab hold of Mia’s arm, however, and they toppled to the dirty ground. Mia was on top and seemingly in control. For a moment. Le’Ace twisted, smashing Mia into the concrete. The agent lost her breath and bashed her skull. Probably saw stars.
Even winded as the agent was, Le’Ace had to grip Mia’s hand to stop her blade from cutting something important. While she could have applied enough pressure to break Mia’s wrist, she didn’t. She simply squeezed veins, tendons, and muscles until they spasmed and the knife dropped involuntarily. Clank.
With her free hand, Le’Ace punched Mia in the lung. Cough. As Mia tried to regain her oxygen levels, Le’Ace straddled her, pinning her shoulders. One punch to the face, two.
Contain force, she told the chip. No bone breakage.
Another punch.
This time, she felt her muscles loosen so that, upon impact, the blow was softer.
Arching her back, Mia managed to work a foot between them and kick Le’Ace off. They were both on their feet a moment later, glaring at each other. Blood poured from Mia’s nose and mouth.
“Want more?” Le’Ace asked, hiding her need to pant.
“Fuck you.” Mia launched forward.
Le’Ace feigned left then attacked right, twirling her blade so that the hilt hit Mia rather than the tip. She’d been aiming for the temple, but Mia twisted, causing Le’Ace’s strike to land in the upper shoulder.
“Turn faster next time,” Dallas called helpfully.
“Finish up, sweetheart,” Jaxon said. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”
Alone time with Jaxon. Best motivation ever. “Two minutes and I’ll be ready.”
Mia was grinding her teeth, growling low in her throat. A patent stillness of a predator came over her, eyes narrowed, jaw clenched. Then, suddenly, she was gone. No longer in front of Le’Ace, no longer in sight.
Le’Ace blinked in confusion. Looked left, looked right. Nothing.
Something slammed into her head from behind. Gasping, she saw stars. They winked brightly behind her lids as she swung around, ready to engage. But…no Mia.
Where the hell was she?
Another fist connected with the back of her skull. She stumbled to the side, heels causing her to slide. She blinked rapidly to halt the blaze of lights behind her lids. What’s going on?
The alien has engaged hyperspeed.
Alien? Mia was alien?
Another fist.
This time Le’Ace couldn’t catch herself and landed on her ass, head swimming dizzily. Slow her down!
Can’t. Speeding you up…
Gradually the world around her screeched to a halt. Le’Ace no longer heard the incessant chatter of the people on the nearby streets. Insects stopped singing. Cars stopped humming.
What she did see was Mia in front of her, arm swinging toward her face. Reaching up, Le’Ace caught the agent’s fist in her hand. Stood in a single, fluid motion. Their gazes clashed together.
Mia’s eyes widened in shock. “You can see me?”
While everything else seemed to be at a standstill, Jaxon and the agents included, she saw and heard Mia perfectly. “Yeah, I can.” And then she shot her arm forward—crack the bone this time, just a little—and slammed her metal knuckles into Mia’s sternum.
The agent flew backward with a pained gasp. She hit the ground, propelling into the pretty red wall. Paint chips crumbled and dust formed a plume in the air. Her shoulders slumped, dark hair tumbling in every direction. Her eyes closed as she fought to breathe.
She did not get up.
Return to normal.
Ceasing hyperspeed.
Like that, the world around her kicked back into motion. The chatter was restored, a car honked. Le’Ace inhaled deeply, sucking in the sweet scent of victory.
“I’m ready.” Satisfied, she brushed her hands together and strode to a shocked Jaxon.
CHAPTER 20
Thirty minutes later, they were alone in a hotel room. A king-size bed with bright white covers dominated the small enclosure, but they didn’t fall onto it as Le’Ace had thought they would. Well, had hoped they would.
She sat nervously on the edge and Jaxon leaned against the far wall, much as he’d done when she’d found him outside of Nolan’s apartment.
Apparently “talk” was not code for “have sex” in Jaxon’s world. More was the pity.
“What are your friends doing?” she asked just to break the silence.
He shrugged. “Kyrin is, hopefully, out of stun and caring for Mia. Watch out for him, by the way. Mia’s the love of his life, and I could see murder in his eyes when you managed to knock her down. The others are either monitoring Nolan from afar or sneaking inside his apartment.”
“And you have the night off?”
“I’ve taken it off, yes.”
“So what’s on your mind?” Her hands dug into her thighs as she tried to hide her nervousness.
Silent, he studied her for a long while. Not a single hint of his emotions played over his face. “Are you wearing a camera, Mishka? A mic? Are you recording this for Nolan?”
Her mouth fell open. A moment passed before she had the presence of mind to snap it closed. “No! I can’t believe you’d ask me that. Not just because it’s highly insulting but because you had your hands all over me earlier.”
“Prove your innocence. Take off your clothes.” A commander expecting his orders to be obeyed, he crossed his arms over his chest.
She blinked over at him. “Excuse me?”
“Take off the coat, then take off the dress.”
Who the hell did he think he was? How dare he accuse her of such a thing? She should leave. But she couldn’t force her body to obey, so she remained on the bed, glaring up at him, chin raised. “You can go to hell.”
“You came, I didn’t,” he replied wryly. “Believe me, I’m already there. Now take off the coat and dress and prove you’re clean.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you wearing a camera? After all, Mia Snow, spawn of the devil, is your sidekick. She could have convinced you to betray me.”
Now his eyes narrowed. Didn’t like turnabout, did he?
“Take off your clothes,” she told him. “Prove you’re clean.”
Gaze never leaving her, he reached behind his head and gripped his shirt. The material swooshed off with a single jerk, leaving his muscled chest bare except for the straps holding his weapons in place. Such a splendid sight, all that muscle and steel mixed together.
He dropped the shirt and motioned to her with a nod of his chin. “Your turn.”
She pushed to her feet, unsteady though they were. Irritated as she was with him, she also experienced hot thrums of renewed desire. W
ith a shrug of her shoulders, the coat slid onto the mattress. Her fingers hooked around the top straps of her dress, unlatching front from back, and gave a sharp tug.
Off fell the dress, leaving Le’Ace in a bright blue bra-and-panty set. She’d worn it, just in case Jaxon showed up.
“The boots,” he said. His voice broke a little.
She licked her lips. “First take off your pants. No telling what you’re hiding under there.” The words escaped on a wispy catch of breath. Her nipples hardened, abrading the cerulean lace.
Pupils dilating, he kicked off his shoes. Slowly his hands moved to his waist. Twist. The button opened, the pants crumpled to the floor. Black briefs hugged low on his hips and stopped mid-thigh. He stepped out of them. Several more blades were strapped to his lower limbs.
Bending down, he drew several silver squares from the pockets of the pants and tossed them onto the bed. “Condoms, because I know you like them,” he said, then looked pointedly to her boots.
Soon he would be inside her. “I don’t need them. Not with you.”
As her blood continued to heat, she showed her profile and extended one nearly bare leg onto the edge of the mattress, dislodging the coat and causing it to tumble. Jaxon hissed, and the sound of it was pained.
“So pretty,” he said with undercurrents of so mine.
Feminine power raced through her, an aphrodisiac to her starved senses. She unzipped one boot, tossed it aside, and gave the other the same treatment. A shiver cascaded down her spine as she turned back to him.
No longer emotionless, he wore desire like a cloak. It enveloped him, tightening the lines of his face, hardening the cock straining under the briefs, which happened to be peeking well above the elastic band, the tip glistening.
Moist heat pooled between her legs.
“Gloves,” he said raspily.
Usually she hid the metal with a fervency that boarded on certifiable obsession, since it served as a reminder that she was not fully human. Jaxon, however, seemed to delight in everything about her. Even that. As if her differences made her special. Something to cherish.
She peeled the gloves from her arms and dropped them. “A-as you can see, I’m not wearing a camera or a mic.” Had that truly been her voice? All shaky and needy and wispy?
He shook his head. “You could be hiding something under the lace.”
“I’m not.”
“I’ll need to do a body search to be sure.” His eyes gleamed brightly.
Her knees almost gave out. In that moment, she knew he had never suspected her of recording him or trying to trap him. He’d been playing. Teasing. Two things that had been absent from her life.
Her lips edged into a slow, genuine smile.
Desire darkened his eyes, the silver melting into liquid. “C’mere.”
She shook her head, only then realizing she still wore the short, dark wig. That just wouldn’t do. Le’Ace wanted to be with Jaxon as herself, not a part she had to sometimes play. Ripping the wig, pins, and netting from her scalp stung, but she did it, and soon her own strawberry-blonde tresses were flowing down her back. She finger-combed until most of the tangles were gone.
Jaxon groaned. “You’re killing me.”
“Then come here.”
He was in front of her a second later, his body heat coiling around her sensitive skin. His breath fanned her face as he reached up and traced his thumbs over her jaw, her cheeks. “I missed the hell out of you.” He drew her metal arm to his mouth and placed a soft kiss on her wrist. “Can you feel that?”
“Not physically.” But she felt the gesture all the way to her tattered heart. To him, she was only a woman. His woman. She wasn’t a machine. I love this man and I don’t have much more time with him.
Think only in the here and now.
Smiling wickedly, she dropped to her knees.
His eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
“Taking the edge off for you, like you did for me.” She hooked her fingers in the elastic band of his underwear and tugged. The material did not want to move past his powerful thighs, forcing her to rip the sides. “Besides, you’re not the only one who needs to do a full-body search.”
Jaxon’s long, thick cock sprang free.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said brokenly.
No, she didn’t, but she could hear desire and perhaps desperation in his voice. She wouldn’t have walked away for any reason.
At eighteen, she’d been trained to do this. A human male she’d never met had arrived and placed several rubber cocks in front of her. He’d then proceeded to instruct her on the best ways to move her mouth, her tongue, and when to scrape lightly with her teeth. Where to place her hands, when to pull away.
She had never enjoyed the act. Once, a man had gotten a little too…grabby, trying to force himself so far down her throat she couldn’t breathe. In retaliation, she’d bitten him hard enough to draw blood and suspected he had problems getting hard even now, all these years later.
She’d been punished for that, of course. An entire day in a sickbed, head pounding as if it would explode, praying it finally would explode and put her out of her misery.
Jaxon, though, she wanted to please this way. She wanted to taste.
“You don’t have to,” he repeated, his hands in her hair, sifting through the strands.
“I know, but I crave it.”
His breaths became short, choppy. “Who am I to stop you, then?” he asked with a crooked half-grin.
She licked the head, tasting salty precum, and he groaned a sound of utter torture. Encouraged, she opened wide and sucked him deep. He released another groan, this one hoarse and raw, almost savage.
“God, baby. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
Up, down, up she moved. He was careful to remain still, his hands loose. He allowed her to decide how deep, how fast, and that freedom allowed her own desire to intensify. Training was soon forgotten, his cock so thick and hot it was all she could think about. Her tongue laved the head with every upward glide, her teeth scoured the base lightly, and her fingers pulled at his balls. Careful, gentle. Don’t hurt.
“Shit, baby, you’re so good.”
Soon this cock would be inside her, pumping and sliding. Soon it would fill her up, be a part of her. She groaned as she shifted on her knees, the ache between her legs painful. She arched her back, rubbing her pearled nipples against his thighs.
That pushed Jaxon over the edge. His hands tightened on her head and hot seed jetted into her mouth, down her throat. He roared and roared and roared, and her sense of feminine power increased. I did this. I gave him ultimate pleasure.
When the hot stream stopped, she stood to shaky legs. Almost fell. Jaxon caught her and hefted her up. He carried her to the bed and tossed her onto the mattress. Twice she bounced before settling atop the covers.
She nibbled on her bottom lip and peered up at him, her blood blistering her veins. Fevered, that’s what she was. Jaxon loomed over her, watching her as sweat trickled down his face and chest.
Without a word, he climbed into bed beside her.
Immediately she curled around him, unable to remain in place. Her hips undulated against his, and she gasped when her clitoris hit his pelvic bone. Pleasure zoomed through her. Yes, there.
She arched forward again, but Jaxon caught her by the waist and held her still. She whimpered.
“Two minutes of recovery,” he said. “After a man comes, he’s like a woman for two minutes, completely in touch with his feminine side. If you can hold out, I’ll make it worth your while.”
Two minutes? Surely an eternity. “You’re going to have to distract me or I’ll attack you.” Sadly, she was not lying. The fire in her blood was too hot for her to ignore. Deep breath in, deep breath out. “Tell me how you got the scar. Or if you’d rather not, tell me—”
“I’ll tell you anything.” One of his hands traced a heated path along each of her vertebras. “I was a wild teenager, drinking, do
ing drugs, sleeping around. Girl I knew killed herself because I’d hurt her, and I cleaned up for a little while. But one night in college I slept with a girl at a party and we both passed out in the bed. Someone found us and told her boyfriend, who stormed over and cut me while I was too wasted to fight him.”
A lance of pleasure zinged from her core, and she realized she’d been moving against him again. Be still. Otherwise he might think his gruesome story turned her on. “Plastic surgery would fix it.”
Jaxon shook his head. “I’ve had several surgeries. This is as good as it gets. Does it bother you?”
The question was calmly stated, but she sensed its importance to him. “Are you kidding? I told you how much I love that scar. It’s a testament to your strength and courage.”
“I’m glad you think so.” His hands tightened on her. A moment later, she was lifted and straddling him. Her hair cascaded down her arms, the ends brushing his chest.
She blinked in surprise, even as she moaned in bliss.
“Two minutes are up.” He licked his bottom lip in hungry anticipation. “I’m a man again.”
She would have laughed, but sure enough, his penis strained between his legs and pressed against her wet, needy core. Her eyes rolled back in her head at the decadent sensation of man against woman, hardness against softness. “Thank God.”
His gaze lowered to the lace still shielding her wetness from view. “Want to keep your panties?”
“Destroy them.”
The sides were ripped a split second later, and he jerked the material out from under her. Skin to skin contact followed. Both of them stiffened at the delicious agony. But she needed more.
Le’Ace unhooked her bra, shimmied out of it.
“Need a taste of those pretty little nipples.” He rolled her to her back and laved a nipple into his mouth. Cold sheets at her back, hot man on top. “Brace your feet on the bed and drop your knees.”
Trembling, she obeyed. Her fingers threaded through his hair, urging him on, even though she was totally exposed to him, vulnerable and at his mercy.
“So pretty. So good.” He sucked a little harder as his fingers coasted down her stomach, through the fine triangle of hair, and sank two deep…deeper…“I’m never letting you go. I can’t. I crave you more than is probably healthy. Someone should probably lock me up, because I’m surely stalker material. Anyone who hurts you, I’ll kill.”
The Alien Huntress Series Page 49
