“I want to go with you.” She let out a breath of relief. “I was thinking that I was going to have to beg you to take me with you,” she admitted.
“Never,” he promised quietly. She felt the brush of his lips on her cheek, jaw, then down to her throat. He pressed his nose to her throbbing pulse point and inhaled deeply. “We should eat. You need to regain your strength before we take any other steps.”
She breathed in the scent that was all male. “The things your scent does to me…” She wanted to move into his lap, wanted to rub against him and keep him close. “Is that why you asked me to stay quiet? Do the people on board this ship know that I’m yours or whatever?” She just knew he smelled so good. She knew that he was everything she had ever wanted in a man. It only took her some years and space to be able to find him.
“No, they don’t know yet. They’ll be able to guess soon enough, I’m sure.” He drew away from her so she could see his brightly colored eyes. “Some of my people can be mistrustful. We are on the brink of war with another system of peoples, the Craegins. They’ve been our enemies for more time than any of us can recall, the why long since lost to the dust of the past. I, along with several other high-ranking officers, am trying to uncover the reason for this sudden new interest in decimating them. My sister is soul bonded to a Craegin officer who is trying to do the same from his side of the border with his own group of trusted colleagues. On my cruiser, you can move and speak freely, but during our time here be aware that anything you say could be used against us both, Samantha.”
“It’s hard to believe that even with the time that has passed people still are at war. It doesn’t make any sense. I would have hoped that we would have gotten over all of that nightmare in this time. It’s just surreal to me.” She shook her head. “I will guard my words carefully. I’ve had to do that more often than I care to admit in my time alive on Earth. It makes no sense to me, none. One would think with as advanced as your society is there wouldn’t be wars. Is it because of lands?” No, he’d just said that the reason for the war was lost to time. Well, bugger. “Do you get to see your sister at all?” she asked quietly. “I couldn’t imagine being parted from your family as you are from your sister.”
“There are holes in the sensor net along the borders that if you are in a position such as mine you can find easily. They are extremely dangerous, as the majority are within meteor fields which are constantly shifting and moving. I have slipped across to see her and my niece and nephew. It’s been a while since my last visit due to some commitments that couldn’t be pushed off. I had planned to make another trip soon. You could come with me if you’d like. It would not be for long, only a few hours is all that we can risk, but I know Adira would be pleased to meet you.” He made a face and blew out a breath. “She’ll probably have a few things to say about this being the universe’s way to get back at me for how I’ve treated her mate.”
“Why would she say that? Because you are stuck with a woman from the way back past?” she said with a smile. “But I’d like to meet her. I want to get to know as much as possible about this new life that I have with you. I’m afraid of what will come,” she admitted. “I’m terrified.”
“She’ll say it because she’s my younger sister and she lives for moments she can finally prove she is wiser than I could hope to be. They are normally few and far between. I may have also made some unkind comments about her mate a time or two. In my defense, he can be annoying. In his favor is the fact he treats my sister like the priceless jewel she is.” Stroking his thumb to her face, Petr shook his head. “Be who you are, Samantha. That is the person I’m drawn to. You will need to learn some things for when we return to Imara, my home world, but out here you should never feel the need to conform to what you or anyone else believes you should be. Do you understand?”
“Thank you. Yes, I understand.” She had learned on Earth how to schmooze with the best of them. She had to be two different people when she had to face the boards on Earth or when she had to try to raise money for the hospital. “I look forward to learning as much about this new time that I’m in as possible. And … I’m looking forward to walking at your side. As for the whole younger sister thing.” She was grinning now and took another bite of food. “They can be very frustrating, but you have to love them all the same. And no, I don’t have siblings but I knew a lot of people who had younger siblings or were younger siblings. I got to see it on both fronts and got a kick out of it.”
“She is all the family I have left, or was. It’s hard to have this physical divide between us and only be able to sneak in the occasional visit. One day I hope that our two peoples will coexist peacefully, that trips won’t have to be done in secret.” He pressed another kiss to her cheek before facing the table once more.
She took another piece of the food from the tray and looked up at him. “I feel the draw to you that you were talking about and I come from a time that didn’t believe in such connections. We didn’t believe in it because we didn’t have it, but I feel it here and now with you. I don’t understand it, I won’t lie, but I feel it. I want to know more about this bond and your people. I want to live again.”
“So you shall, Samantha. We both will.” Another small smile and he brushed back some of her hair. Leaving a hand on her back to rub slowly in circles, he ate his own food while they continued to speak of inconsequential things.
Chapter Four
Having her strength back meant that she was able to go for runs with Petr on his vessel. They were on a run now, and she was laughing as they ran through the corridors of his ship. She knew it was not something that had ever been done before on his ship, something she had brought to them, but she enjoyed it. “So have they stopped giving you trouble about me running through the halls?” She had been introduced to the running pads they had in their ship’s athletic room, but she hadn’t liked them, at all, so instead she had started to run the halls. After the second or third day, Petr had started to run with her.
“They’ve come to accept it. I put out a notification of our chosen route and length of time we will be running so no one steps out in front of us.” Well, that explained why she hadn’t run over anyone since he’d joined her. “They all understand you are not of this time or of our world. The crew accepts you for who you are, Samantha. Even when you confuse them as much as you do me with some of your unique turns of phrases. I had to promise them that once I knew what they were I would give them the same knowledge.”
Jogging around a bend in the corridor, he looked her way. “Chevon sent me a notice that your crewmate has been settled into one of the medical facilities planetside where he will be cared for. A heavily fortified place on a barren moon. Even if he did escape he would have no way off and limited chance of survival due to the extreme conditions of the moon.”
“He’s cunning and has had training that your people don’t know about,” she said as they ran. “We both think differently than your people do. Please make sure he is always kept under lock and key and for the love of all that’s holy make sure he’s never put into a room with a woman. He is one of those men that can sway a woman into helping him. Well, any woman but me, that is.” She looked up at Petr and winked. “Seems that only one man has ever turned my head in my nine hundred and thirty-six years.” She had been beyond shocked when they’d finally been able to put a timestamp on how old she was.
His lips twitched, and he shook his head. “I must say, Doctor Henry, that you are looking good for your advanced years. I’ve never been with an older woman before.” They swung around another corner and he picked up the pace to push her more. “The facility he is in has strict instructions, Samantha. We take such individuals and the potential threat they pose seriously.”
“Good.” She felt the relief at his words. “And shush it, you young pup you. Just because I’m an old woman doesn’t mean that I won’t get after you, mister man,” she muttered. She pulled ahead of Petr just a bit and looked back at him. “Come on, youn
gun, I shouldn’t be able to outrun you at my advanced age.”
“Even in my society those are fighting words. I’ve tried to be considerate, given your advanced years, but now.” He drew up next to her and soon pulled ahead, making use of his longer legs. “Are you coming, Samantha?” he called a moment before he disappeared around a corner.
She laughed at that and started to run just a bit faster. “No fair, you are seriously way too tall for me to catch up.” Although she would try. She put on another burst of speed in her run. They turned another corner and she had to pull up fast, going down and sliding across the decking. “Whoa, sorry about that,” she said with a laugh to the man that had just stepped out of a room with a tray.
Petr appeared around the young man and, reaching down, he hauled her up to her feet. He shot the officer a look that had him taking off up the corridor quickly. Shaking his head, Petr turned his focus on her. “Are you hurt, Samantha?” She could hear the concern in his voice as he slid his hands gently over her arms to catch her hands and lift them to look at her palms.
“No, I’m not hurt.” She was grinning as she spoke. She moved into his touch and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Have I ever mentioned to you just how much I love when you touch me?” She rubbed her cheek to his cheek and held on to him. It had been two weeks and they still hadn’t been intimate, and she was ready. At first she hadn’t been because she was trying to get her brains wrapped around everything she was doing. Then she had gotten her period, of all things. “I think you should run your hands over my whole body while we are in the showers after our run. Thoughts?”
“An interesting proposition. Should we attempt such a thing, given your age? I’d hate to have to contact medical because you have broken a hip. How would the crew look at me then?” His lips were twitching again, a sure sign he was teasing her. Petr slid his hands down to cup her ass, drawing her in closer to his body. “We haven’t had our allotted water showers, so I think we could have one if you’d prefer it to the sonic showering.”
She snorted in laughter and wrapped a leg around his thigh. She ran her hands down his chest. “I don’t think we have to worry about me breaking a hip.” She rubbed her body against his. “I need you. God so much. You have no idea just how much I want you right now. It’s taking every single ounce of my willpower not to jump you right now and start to strip you naked and to hell with what anyone anywhere might see. I’m horny, but it’s more than that. I am desperate for you to be inside of me.”
His hands flexed on her ass. Then he lifted her so Sam was able to wrap her legs around his waist. “Behave until we’re in our quarters. I’m willing to relax many things on this ship, but allowing my crew to see you naked is not one of those. You are mine, Samantha Henry.” Turning, he took long strides down the corridor. She knew he was heading for one of the lifts to get them back to the level where their quarters were.
“And you are mine, Petr van Jahnsen. No more holding back?” she asked against his ear. “No more keeping ourselves dressed when we sleep?” She was speaking quietly to him and him alone. “We will do this whole bond that you were saying that we have?” Oh, she knew they had it. She felt it every bit as much as he did.
“You’ll be mine entirely, and I’ll be yours. Be sure, Samantha. This is not one of your Earth marriages that can be undone. Completing the soul bond is permanent. Only death can break it,” he said against her ear. He squeezed her ass harder, pulling her closer so she could feel the erection he was sporting against her pussy.
“Petr, I have been sure since you wrapped your jacket around me on my ship.” She had been confused, certainly, but the pure fact of the matter was that she was in need of him and likely always would be. “I want the bond with you. I want to be the one that you will always reach for. I want to be the one that will walk at your side for the rest of time.”
“There is nowhere else you should be,” he told her. In the lift Petr put her back to the wall, his body holding her up and allowing him to stroke a hand along her side. He brushed his thumb to the curve of her breast. “I only asked to make sure you were fully with me, Samantha. You were so in shock at first and then recovering these past days. I needed to be sure. Forgive me for doubting you.”
She let her hands move over his body and start to undo his shirt. She leaned in and nipped at his throat with her teeth. “No holding back. I need to have all of you, please. I might not be from this time but I will always love you, and I will always need you. Never doubt that, Petr. Everything we do together will be right.” She was a slightly different color than he was, her skin paler, but they were compatible and they both knew it. She tugged his shirt off and smiled. “We’ll come back for it later,” she said and dropped it in the lift. Her hands moved, nails gliding down his back. “More.” She loved the way he was pushing against her. “How long until we’re in our quarters?” she asked when the lift doors opened.
“Only several slightly painful steps away,” he told her. He rolled his hips to press his cock to her again, then stepped back with her firmly in his arms. Striding out of the lift, he made good time up the hall to their rooms. He paused only long enough for her to place her eye to the scanner and let them into their quarters. Quickly he strode through to the bedroom and lowered her to her feet. “Remove your clothing quickly or I will tear it from you piece by piece.”
She quickly removed her clothing. The idea of him tearing it from her body was tempting, but she would wait for another time for that. “Come on, clothes,” she said and pushed her pants off. “God I love the way you look.” He was stunning and made her ache. “I need you. Now.”
Kicking his shorts aside, Petr toed off his running shoes and came for her. He scooped her up, and in a tumble they hit the bed, rolling until he was pressing her down into the mattress. A hand slid over her thigh, hip, and up her rib cage until his thumb could once more stroke the curve of her breast. “You are mine,” he said. Then he kissed her. Really kissed her.
She kissed him back, her hands wrapped around his head and holding him tightly. When they parted, she licked her lips. “What do I have to do?” she breathlessly asked, arching up against him. “We’ve talked about just about everything except for how to bond. How do we do it?” She shuddered.
“We make love,” he told her. “Our souls will reach for one another if we are open to it. If this is truly what you want deep inside, then all you need to do is be open to what comes. Don’t stifle it. Let it grow and become what it’s always meant to be.”
“I will always be reaching for you,” she told him, and when his hands moved over her breasts she shuddered. “Oh God yes.” Her nipples tightened, and she whimpered when he ran a nail over one of the hard pebbles. “Make love, God it’s been a very long nine hundred plus years. Please,” she begged.
His soft chuckle, a sound no one but Sam ever got to hear, sent chills through her. “You were asleep for all those nine hundred years, Samantha.” Lowering his head, he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her neck. Then she felt the scrape of his teeth before his mouth began to move south over her collarbone and toward her breasts.
“True.” She moaned. “It’s hard to believe I traveled millions of miles and hundreds of years just to find you. Always you. Only you. I love you.” She did. More than anything else in the world, she loved this man. She was lost in time and space, but she was found now. She had been found by the one and only man she could and would ever love.
Petr seemed to freeze, lifting his head slowly to meet her gaze. “Samantha,” he whispered. Her name was a benediction, a prayer, something she couldn’t define. He moved quickly to kiss her hard, thrusting his tongue deep to twine with hers. His hands cupped, squeezed, and molded her breasts until the ache between her legs reached new levels.
“More.” She wrapped her legs around his hips. “Harder,” she begged as they moved together. Her pussy was so wet that she could feel her juices on his cock when he brushed over the folds to tease her. “Petr.” His name was a t
alisman for her. His name was the only thing she could cling to in this new time and place. He was the only thing that was familiar, him and his unwavering love.
His teeth scraped down the tendon of her neck. A little nibble along her shoulder, then he moved to put his mouth around a nipple. With hard tugs, he pushed her closer to the edge. Sam couldn’t stop from rocking her hips in desperate need. Petr moved his mouth lower to press open-mouth kisses over her belly until she could feel his breath on her pussy.
Petr knew just what to do with her body, to her body. She arched up into him again and shivered over the intense feelings that swamped her. Then she felt something else. She had the oddest need to submit to him. She had never known that in her life, the need to let go and fully submit to another person, but she did with him. His breath on her pussy, his hands plucking at her breasts and squeezing her nipples. It was confusing, but she loved it, so much.
Suddenly he let go of her breasts to skim down her belly. Gripping her behind the knees, Petr spread her legs further and pressed her knees up toward her chest. The first touch of his mouth to her needy flesh nearly had Sam climbing off the bed and up the wall. A soft laugh from him sent vibrations moving to her clit, the ache in the nub increasing steadily. Relief finally came when he sucked it between his lips. She moaned and lifted her leg so that she could put it over his shoulder and hold him close. “Petr.” She had her eyes closed and shivered with each stroke of his tongue to her body. “This feels so good.” She’d had sex before, so this wasn’t a first time for her, but it was the first time she was feeling so different, so strange. “Never felt like this, God yes.”
Cupping her ass, Petr lifted her to his mouth. He was feasting on her, the only description she had for the way he licked, sucked, and nibbled on her pussy. Sam continued to rock into him, wanting, no, needing more. Then he pressed a finger into her and curled it to find the bundle of nerves deep inside.
Petr's Mate Page 4
