“Are you all right?” She stopped for a moment, concerned for him. Him! When she should be concerned about herself and the life and death situation she faced.
‘Yes. I am fine, Lauren.” He smoothed a strand of hair back from her forehead, as though his arm moved without his control. She beamed at him, the smile reaching her eyes. Her soul.
This was the first time she’d looked so relaxed. Carefree. Almost happy. How she deserved to be for the rest of her life.
For the rest of her long life.
Guilt consumed him. Whether she knew it or not, he was going to lay down his life in place of hers. When they reached the capital, he’d make sure he sent word to his Starship and Striker. MalCom had assured him there would be communication devices able to send communications great distances. They would come, and she would be rescued. He was going to make amends. It would be the last thing he was going to do. He would return to her Earth.
She turned away and continued walking and as much as he tried not to feel it, that little stab of sunshine continued to burn the blackness away.
18
T he sun was setting when they finally made camp. Exhaustion pulled at her limbs as she set about collecting the firewood they would need for the night. Fading sunlight filtered to the forest floor. She bent to pick up a fallen branch to add to the bundle in her arms.
Light quickly faded, and within moments, she was shrouded in darkness. She looked about, but the men weren’t disturbed. There was a glimpse of night sky above. The sun set fast on this planet, it seemed.
She bent backwards, pushing a fist into the small of her back. She’d sleep well tonight. She wasn’t used to this type of physical exertion
Her body tingled, filling with pins and needles. She lurched, feeling as though her body was tearing down the middle. That her spirit and body were misaligned. Her leg moved. A jerky, stilted movement. Her foot slid over the leaf-covered ground, driving through the dried-up flotsam of the forest. The other followed. Her arms dropped the load of firewood, and she headed deeper into the forest.
She flexed her muscles, willing her legs to stop moving, but they continued as though they had a mind of their own. She tried to wiggle, jerk, move in any way, but nothing happened. She could feel everything, the ground under her feet, the slippery wetness when she walked into the leaves, but had no control over her movement.
Help! She needed help. But she’d already walked a distance away.
She tried to look over her shoulder, to see Jo’Aquin, but her head was locked in position. She could move her eyes to the side, but that was all. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. She continued to walk, fast disappearing through the thick vegetation.
She had to call him. Tell him what was happening to her. Becoming enslaved. Her heart pummelled in her chest, and her breathing came in fast little pants. Funny that the fear reactors of her body still worked. It was just as though her conscious wants to move her body had been severed.
She drew in a deep breath, tried to scream, but all that came out was a pathetic little whine. Certainly not enough. She tried again with the same result. Her leg slammed against a low branch. Pain shot through her body as it cut through material and skin.
Her breath pounded out and with it came a solid sound. She quickly drew in another breath, rode the pain and screamed Joe’s name. It was all she got out. Her leg kept pressing into the branch until it snapped. It seemed her body didn’t actually realise it should have stepped around the branch.
Panic tore through the pain and shock. She could walk into a river and down. Or step off the edge of a cliff. She was powerless to stop. Still, knowing this didn’t stop her body from walking. An irresistible tug pulled from the middle of her sternum, an itch that would never be scratched. It flowed through her, caressing, enticing.
It would be so easy to give in. To let it take away all her problems. Complete freedom was tantalisingly close. If she gave in, she could relax. There would be no responsibility, no need to worry about anything. She’d be taken care of instead of the one that had to take care of everyone else.
Just let go.
Give in.
Surrender.
There was crashing behind her, snapping branches and tearing leaves. “Lauren!”
If her legs were hers, she would have dropped to the ground in relief. Instead, she plonked one foot in front of the other. She wanted to speak, but all she uttered was a choking sound. The irresistible urge to surrender withdrew, replaced with urgency to regain control.
“Lauren. What is it? Why aren’t you talking to me?” Jo’Aquin lurched around her.
She walked right into him, her nose pressed against his chest. Her legs still shuffled forward, but were hampered by his well-muscled thighs. Being caught in the cage of his body, all she did was lurch from side to side.
His fingers tightened on her shoulders. “Lauren?”
She wanted to tell him...something, but she was trapped inside an unwilling body. She breathed out again, trying to make the whining sound like a word.
He held her at arm’s distance, gaze darting over her face, trying to make sense of her lack of reaction. All she could was stare back, putting as much emotion into her eyes as she possibly could. Not too hard since she was scared stoneless.
“Your pendant. Where is it?”
There was an absence of weight around her neck, and she realised that she no longer wore the crystal. Shit, she’d lost it, and without it, her body was succumbing to the Reptile implant. She must have lost it somewhere around where she was gathering firewood. Bent over and it had slipped from around her neck.
He gathered her in his arms, her body still moving awkwardly. This was so out of control. She was out of control. She’d never been so scared in her life. If Jo’Aquin couldn’t find the crystal, she’d slowly just slip into that irresistible void. She’d never come back.
Jo’Aquin jogged, hopefully back towards the camp. He seemed to be following the track he’d made when he’d crashed through the jungle. They burst past a leaf, and their camp was just a few steps away.
“What’s happened?” MalCom came over from where he was hunched over a fire.
“Her crystal is missing,” Jo’Aquin said.
MalCom uttered a curse word and called for the rest of the men to start looking for her lost pendant. The men sprang into action, scattering about the camp.
“She was gathering firewood over here,” one of them called.
They retraced her steps, and one of the men called out. He ran towards her and dropped the pendant onto her torso.
As soon as it hit her skin, her chest eased, and her rib cage opened to draw a shaky inward breath. She wiggled her fingers and twirled her ankles. “I can move again.” She sounded as relieved as she felt.
Jo’Aquin clutched her to his chest and buried his face against her neck. He held her like that, as though she was the most precious thing in the entire world, for long moments. She wound her arms around his neck, as best she could, drawing the comfort he openly offered.
And it did. Soul-rending comfort, the likes of which she’d never before known. She pressed her cheek into his shoulder, seeking warmth, solace. But she wanted more. Needed more.
She needed what only a man could give a woman. That only he could give to her. She wanted to make love to him. To experience that desire-spiked passion, to seek that state that would let her feel wholly feminine, to be accepted and taken just as she was. To give and to receive. She wanted it all, and she wanted it from Jo’Aquin.
He pulled back. She missed the heat of his cheek on her neck, that special feeling of skin on skin. “Don’t do that again, Lauren.”
He sounded pissed, much to her delight. It meant he cared. In some way, at least. More than a responsibility, but less than a lover, in truth. Somewhere in between. She didn’t know why that bothered her so much. It wasn’t as though she had much of a future. Couldn’t expect him to have developed any stronger feeling for her in this amount of
time, and yet, part of her yearned that he did.
He’d become much more than that for her. It was easy for her to curl up into him, to seek comfort, safety and desire the intimacy between a man and woman. She realised with a start that her feelings towards him were quite strong and she didn’t even know when that had really begun. Only knew that clinging to him in his arms like this was so right .
“I don’t plan to.” She clutched the crystal in her palm. The ends of the twine that made up the necklace were loose, having slipped out of the knot.
“I’m going to tie that, and this time I’ll make sure it doesn’t come off.”
He lowered her to her feet, letting her slide the full length of his body. As her feet hit the ground, sharp pain beat up her leg. She sucked in a sharp breath.
“You’re hurt!”
She was immediately swung back into his arms. She could get used to that. “I hit a low hanging branch.”
He studied the gash beneath the torn material, a frown on his face. “It’s deep.”
“I couldn’t help it. I had no control over my body.” A shudder worked through her. “It was horrible.”
“The enslavement. It always starts out like that,” MalCom said. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. We all have.”
The men surrounding them nodded.
“That’s not the worst part, though. It sort of lulled me into this dream state. Promising me this life that I always thought I wanted. It was so tempting. I could have just, sunk right in,” she said.
“If you had, you’d never come back,” MalCom said.
Jo’Aquin’s arms tightened. “I want to wash her leg. Is there a water source around?”
MalCom nodded. “It’s not far away. We often camped here when we went into the Captial...before...” his eyes lost focus for a moment before he pulled himself back, “I will lead you there.”
Jo’Aquin gave him a curt nod. She moved to stand, but he didn’t let her. “I will carry you.”
“I’m a grown woman. I can walk for myself, you know.”
“I will make sure you’re looked after tonight.” A shadow passed beneath his eyes at the same time as heat gathered in their depths. She tingled, heat coiled and tensed from her fingers to her toes and throbbed in her low abdomen. If she had anything to say, that’s exactly what he would be doing to her tonight. Looking after her very well.
19
H e washed away the last of the blood and wiped her leg with an absorbent leaf. She watched him silently in the darkness as he’d cleaned her wound, as though she was taking everything in for the last time.
His heart constricted. This was tearing him apart, seeing a strong woman like this brought down by the Reptiles in the prime of her life.
“You know, my life ended months ago.”
This, he didn’t expect. She swished her hand in the water, then lifted it up, watching the drops slide down her arm. “It’s hot. I’m sick of being hot, and that water looks delicious. Will you join me for a swim?”
“What do you mean, Lauren?”
She sighed, then stood, her movement feminine and graceful. She drew the shirt over her head, revealing her glorious breasts. His groin tightened in fast reaction. His blood heated even further when she shucked her pants off and stood, painted in moonlight, beautifully naked.
His breath hitched as she gazed at him, before stepping lightly into the water. She ducked beneath the surface, then reappeared a little way away. She turned to face him, “Come on. It’s beautiful in here. One of the last things I want to do is enjoy a swim on a hot day. And there seem to be plenty of hot days on this planet.”
He simply couldn’t refuse her offer. He would give of himself any way she wanted. If she wanted him to listen to her, he would. If she wanted him to swim, then he would.
If she wanted him to make love to her, then it would be his utmost pleasure.
In a flash, he removed his clothing, which now felt incredibly too constricting, and waded into the water, right up to her. It did nothing to cool the almost painful erection he sported.
She waited for him patiently until he stopped within an arm’s distance to her. He didn’t want to frighten her, or to consider that her offer was any more than a simple swim to cool down. Not after his behaviour in the cave.
Even though he wanted nothing more than to sink into her, he needed to know what she was going to tell him as much as he might need a drink of water beneath the hot sun in the middle of a sandy desert.
“What do you mean, Lauren?”
A sad smile settled on her mouth. “I’m married. Or to be more exact, I was.”
Confusion washed through him. “Where was your husband? He should have protected you from the Reptiles. You should never have been abducted!”
Her brows rose slightly at his outburst. Good. She deserved so much better than to be married to a coward. “I said I was married. Mike…Mike died.”
Suddenly, it clicked, and in a way, he saw her totally anew. That sadness in her heart. The desperation to be comforted. Her understanding of the guilt that rode him. Her desire to see him be free of it. His heart cracked, yet started to heal at the same time.
When she said she understood him–she really had. She’d also lost someone dear to her. Someone she loved. Even though a level of jealousy stabbed him, he understood that a woman like Lauren would never be unwanted. Every male in the vicinity on Hexion would be chaffing his heels for her hand.
“I…didn’t know.” His constant friend, that anger at himself for not being able to save Emile withdrew a little, and to his surprise, left room for something softer. Something lighter to fill its place.
Her face softened, “That’s because I didn’t tell you. But I thought, now, with everything that will happen tomorrow…that you should know. In reality, if I hadn’t been abducted, I probably would be dead by now, anyway.”
“Don’t say that, Lauren.”
She sighed, “I would have. I was in the middle of nowhere with a broken down car and nowhere to go. I’d run as far as I could possibly go and it still wasn’t far enough. I was fishing for something to take everything away. An accident. No food or water. Anything. That way, I wouldn’t have to keep living the pain, you know?”
He nodded. He knew exactly how she felt. “I think we’re both very good at running.”
She huffed a quiet laugh. “I guess we are. Now, though. Now…with you. I see things in a different light. I want to say one thing to you before…well, before tomorrow.” She drew a deep breath. The top swell of her breasts breached the surface of the water. How he wanted to reach out and fill his hands. But he didn’t. He waited to hear what she said. She wanted to speak, and he wanted to listen.
“I want to apologise to you…about what I said to you in the cave.” Her mouth tilted downwards, and he had the distinct urge to kiss it back to happiness, but he held back.
“You have nothing to apologise for, Lauren. In fact, I should apologise to you.”
She screwed up her face. “How? I took advantage of you, if I remember correctly.”
He chuckled, surprised he found it in himself to laugh in the face of what they were about to do tomorrow. “The definition of taking advantage of someone is taking something they didn’t wish to give. Which is the opposite of how I felt in the cave.”
The moment stretched as she regarded him. A drop of water slid from the end of her wet hair onto her shoulder. He reached out to wick it away from its downward path. She shivered, a delightful movement. “It was?” Her voice was lower, husky and the look on her face transformed from unsure to something much hotter.
Maybe he should be comforting her the way she wanted to be comforted. Gods knew he’d draw comfort from that, as well. Especially now. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he wasn’t taking advantage of her. He couldn’t define her by Hexonian standards. She was a strong woman. A strong human woman. One who had remained strong after what had been done to her.
His fingertip remained on her skin, only this
time, it trailed upwards to trace the line of her jaw. She tilted her head into his cupped palm. “Oh yes, Lauren. I thought I was saving you from doing something you didn’t want to do.”
He ignored her unfeminine snort.
She had every right to demand some comfort. She had every right to demand it from him. A wave of jealousy engulfed him when he thought of another man offering himself to this brave woman.
“Instead, I should have just given in to my instinct.”
She pressed her full lips together, raising those liquid-gem eyes to his face, “And what was your instinct?”
Lauren was his. His to worship.
His to claim.
He moved towards her. His hand anchored on her waist. Her bare skin sending tendrils of heat through his skin, obliterating any resistance he still harboured. She was temptation personified, and damned if he was going to deny himself–or her–any longer.
“To do this.” He dipped his head and found her mouth. This was no soft, tentative kiss. This was a burning kiss that drove away and doubts that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
She moaned as he thrust into her mouth, imitating what he would shortly be doing to other parts of her. She didn’t hesitate. She shaped her body to his, wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her full breasts against his chest and lifted her legs around his waist.
His erection fit snugly into the most intimate part of her body. He canted his hips, sliding through her heat. A raspy groan left his mouth when she moved, the sweet friction on his sensitive skin almost too much to bear.
“Are you sure?”
JoAquin_An Alien Abduction Paranormal Romance Page 12
