Desire Unmatched: 4 (Coded for Love) (13 page)

She nodded and planted her feet wide, flat on the mattress.
“I’m going to hold myself open for you.”

“What should I do?” He looked worried.

“Whatever you want. With your tongue and your fingers.” She
stifled a grin at the look of determination on his face. He looked as though
she were sending him into a military situation with low odds he’d be coming
back alive.

“Tell me if you don’t like something.”

She placed her palms on the side of his face and tugged him
up to be at eye level with her again. “I’m going to love everything you do
because it’s
you
. Now go forth and lick.” She gave his head a gentle
push.

His large body didn’t budge at all. Instead laughter warmed
his face and he shook his head at her. “You might be more bossy than Shep.”

“You have no idea.” She loved his laughter, it filled her
heart, but at this moment she’d love his head buried between her thighs even
more. “Now move it.”

Her wish was his command. He moved down her body, pausing to
nibble on her hip, then planted his face right where she wanted it. His first
lick was tentative. Unsure.

She moaned loudly and shifted her hips, wordlessly giving
him a screaming hint to keep it going. She reached down and spread her lips,
giving him room to work his magic. His tongue delved into her folds more confidently,
teasing and toying with her clit.

It was amazing, better than amazing. Every touch with Xander
was heightened because of the deep connection between them. His touch sank
under her skin, straight to her heart.

“Finger,” she moaned. She was building toward an amazing
orgasm, but wasn’t there yet. She wanted to draw it out, savor every moment
with Xander.

One of his long fingers circled her clit, then dipped lower
to fill her. His tongue kept flicking and circling her, then he flattened his
tongue and licked her like a cherry lolly, causing her to lose her grip on her
body and thrust her hips upward.

“Oh God, Xander. It’s so good. So good.” She’d lost her
capacity for coherent speech. She could only pant and moan and beg for the
delicious torment to end even as she was begging for it to go on forever.

Xander’s fingers kept working her until finally she
tightened around him and started an orgasm that rippled to life and kept going.
Her breath came in heaves and she tried to calm her body, but was given no
chance as Xander wrenched down the elastic waistband of his boxers and pulled
his engorged cock out.

He climbed his way up her body and fit himself against her
drenched pussy. “Emma?”

He was asking for permission, but she couldn’t find her
words. Instead, she reached to circle his shaft and guide him to her opening.
Her body welcomed him as if she were made for him. She remembered in a way that
she was made for him, and he for her.

The second he was buried fully in her, they groaned in
unison. Their foreheads met, bumping gently before he pushed onto his forearms
and started moving his hips. She met each of his slides and thrusts with her
own. She hadn’t imagined she could come again so quickly after her last orgasm,
but her body showed her otherwise.

“I want to go harder, Emma.” He didn’t ask a direct
question, but the lilt at the end of her name had her begging him to do that.

“Yes. Harder.” She crossed her ankles behind his ass, but he
still wasn’t as close as she wanted. “Hold my thigh,” she instructed.

Xander paused his thrusts to look at her and follow her
directions as she showed him how to hook his arm under her thigh and hold it
high. The new angle sent them both flying to a new pinnacle of pleasure.

“It’s even better than last time,” he said in a hoarse voice
against her cheek.

“Yes.” Her lips found his neck and she planted kisses.
Perhaps a few love bites too. She wasn’t exactly in control. Everything in her
was focused on the small area where their bodies joined. Where his cock was
currently pounding into her with everything he had.

Seconds fell into minutes, and still Xander continued his
intense pace. By now she was moaning his name and clawing at his back.

“I’m gonna come.” His words sent her over the edge. With
eyes squeezed shut, she let the orgasm wash over her, sending waves of pleasure
to every receptor. Distantly she felt Xander give a last thrust and collapse on
her. Never had sex for her been as energetic or raw. With her match, everything
was heightened.

She was trapped under a large, slightly sweaty male body,
and she loved it. There was no place she wanted to be more than in her tiny
one-room apartment with Xander.

“Xander?” Her voice was muffled.

“Hmm?”

She couldn’t see his face, but she was slightly concerned
he’d fallen asleep. He was less than forty-eight hours from his dramatic
kidnapping escape, and she’d wrung three orgasms from him already. He had to be
exhausted. She felt sympathy, but she was also going to asphyxiate if he didn’t
move.

“Xander, honey, I need you to roll off me. I can’t breathe.”

The second hand on the wall clock didn’t have a chance to
move to its next tick before he was off her, lying at her side with one arm
still flung across her body. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I love feeling you on top, but you’re much
bigger than I am. Now go back to sleep.”

He looked slightly relieved she wasn’t going to ask for
pillow talk and promptly closed his eyes.

She watched him drift off for a few minutes and concentrated
on getting to sleep herself. She lay in the dark for a good hour before giving
up. The time on her cell phone told her it wasn’t even midnight yet. Her
rumbling stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten much besides the popcorn. Though
she didn’t really want to leave her warm bed with its sexy bedmate, she figured
she could pop into the kitchen and be back with a little midnight snack.

The second she rolled out of the bed and went hunting for a
robe, Xander sat up. “What’s wrong? Where are you going?”

“Shh, go back to sleep. I’m making a kitchen run. Are you
hungry?”

He leaned over to snap on the light on the little table next
to the futon. “I could eat.”

“Good. You stay there. I’ll be right back.”

He was out of the bed and in his boxers before she had more
than a second to admire his tall, muscular form. “You think I’m going to let my
woman leave our bed in the middle of the night so she can bring me food?”

Yes, that was exactly what she thought. He was injured and
tired. She was not. He did
not
like when she informed him of exactly
that. She tugged the belt on her robe tight and stuck her feet into wooly
bedroom slippers. “Fine. Stay. Come. But you’re being ridiculous. Kind of like
the bathroom thing.”

His head emerged from the t-shirt he was pulling on and he
frowned at her. “What bathroom thing?”

“Tonight. At the movies. You literally freaked out when
Kayla and I went to the loo.”

“I didn’t freak out.” He stalked across the carpet to tower
over her.

“Um, you kind of did. It was a loo, Xander. I’m not going to
live my life afraid of monsters jumping out at me from every corner.”

“Which is why I’ll have to worry about it for you,” he
countered.

“No. You don’t.” She backed up a step to the door to be able
to see more of his body.

“Jesus, Emma.” He tugged at the beard that was still
obviously unfamiliar to him when he was used to being clean-shaven. “We’ve both
already been kidnapped once. You think I won’t go ballistic if something were
to happen to you? I couldn’t handle it.”

Her lips parted slightly. She was stunned at the depth of
emotion Xander had admitted to. He’d practically declared his undying love for
her. Sure, no L-words had left his mouth, but for Xander to admit he’d be upset
if she were hurt was roughly equivalent.

She took a step toward him, holding up a hand to stroke his
cheek. She liked the feel of his beard under her palm. “Oh hon—” Before she
could finish her words, Xander hoisted her up by her armpits and backed her
into the wall. His large body pressed her back against the plaster while his
lips found hers.

He paused between kisses. “Don’t ask me not to protect you.”
His lips found hers again. “Paulson’s gone, but the situation’s worse.”

Her arms wound their way around his neck. She gave her
concession in a whisper. “All right, Xander. Protect me, but don’t expect me
not to chafe a bit when you’re overbearing.”

One last nuzzle to her neck. “I can live with that.”

Xander rocked his hips into hers, not wanting to let her go
yet. Until her stomach growled, reminding him there was a reason they were out
of bed and dressed at midnight. Emma was hungry. He wanted to both laugh and
shove his fist through the wall that she thought he’d let her go wandering
around the campus alone at midnight.

He went in for one last deep kiss at the thought that she’d
been alone here for a month of midnights without his protection. Hell, who knew
how many midnight kitchen raids she’d organized solo? He backed off and tugged
her off the wall. Holding her hand firmly, he led the way out of her tiny
apartment and down the hallway to the kitchen. All the while planning how he
was going to keep her safe and still allow her the freedom to attend college as
she’d been doing. What the hell had Shep been thinking, letting her go off like
that?

“He didn’t really have a say,” Emma said pertly as they
stepped from the heated hallway outside for the brief walk to the campus
cafeteria.

“What?” He glanced sideways at her while still scanning the
dark campus for any unknown threat.

“You spoke aloud. You asked how Shep could’ve let me attend
college.”

“I—”

“And I said, he didn’t have a choice. I’m living here of my
own free will, but I’m not a member of the Program. I’m not even an American
citizen. He has no authority when it comes to me.”

It killed him, but she was right.

“And you can relax. Stop looking around as if someone is
going to jump out of a bush. We’re safe on campus. They’ve stepped up security
since you’ve been gone.”

He didn’t respond to her naïve assumption that because
they’d stepped up security, things were one hundred percent safe. If he’d
learned nothing else from his father’s training, he’d learned to only trust
himself. Assumptions got you killed. So did putting your own security into
someone else’s hands. He pushed open the double glass doors to the cafeteria
and hustled Emma ahead of him.

“If we go ahead with matching, we’ll have to discuss this
more.”

She turned to glare at him, but didn’t respond, because the
sound of voices and male laughter greeted them. He immediately stepped in front
of Emma and hurried down the tiny vestibule leading to the cafeteria. He needed
to investigate why it sounded as if there was a party happening in the
cafeteria.

He flicked the light switch at the doorway of the cafeteria,
hoping to startle whoever was in there. Absolute silence fell as harsh
fluorescents flooded the room and landed on a group of about fifteen teenagers.
No, not quite teenagers, slightly older than that.

Emma peeked around from behind him and grinned. “Hi, guys.”

Xander realized these were the college-aged men, and they
looked frankly relieved to see Emma. Panic had flared in their faces at their
glimpse of him, but they visibly relaxed when they saw Emma.

She brushed by him. “What are you eating? Anything good?”
She squeezed her way into the circle they’d formed by pushing a few smaller
tables together and surrounding it with chairs. None of them were in pajamas,
and it was clear they’d been hanging out, having a great time. He remembered
Adam, Chase and Gavin inviting him to nights like this, but he’d only gone once
or twice. Inevitably his dad would find out and be a pain in the ass about it.

Now he had no choice but to follow Emma into the circle and
pull up a chair. Before he could do that, two of the younger soldiers leaped to
their feet and offered Emma and him a chair. Glancing around the circle, he
sat. He recognized most of them, though there were a few unfamiliar faces.

The group sat in silence, staring at the floor or at a point
on a distant wall. He and Emma had dumped a bucket of ice water on this party.
“Why are all of you here? On campus, not the cafeteria. Don’t most of you go to
college?” he asked.

“Everyone was called back to campus.” The young man sitting
next to him leaned across the arm of his chair, toward him.

“Why?”

Everyone looked surprised. He wasn’t sure if he liked that
not one of the soldiers could quite meet his eye. They looked as though he’d
broken up the party.

“Because of your kidnapping,” one brave boy had the balls to
say.

“And the government hearings.”

“Shep didn’t want any of us to be targets for either the
media or whoever took you. He called those of us at college back home.”

Xander nodded but didn’t speak. Emma broke the uncomfortable
silence. “Oh, are those Marlena’s banana muffins?”

A relieved-looking boy said, “Yeah.” He shoved the large
Tupperware toward Emma. She took a muffin for herself and handed another to
Xander.

“Hey, do you mind if we turn off the lights?” A tall blond
kid stood. “We can all see in the dark, and Shep…”

Xander understood. He didn’t tell them Shep actually loved
this kind of shit. He wanted his soldiers bonding. Even better that these young
guys thought they’d get in trouble for it. Hell, they probably
would
get
extra laps or kitchen duty, but it’d be another thing to bond them together as
a team.

“Hit the lights, I don’t care.” Then he remembered Emma
couldn’t see as well in the dark. “You okay with it?”

She shrugged, and the deep vee on her bathrobe slipped a
little. “I’ll manage.”

He eyed the others at the table and relaxed when he saw not
one of them was staring at Emma’s cleavage. He’d have to beat the shit out of
them if they were, and truthfully, he was kind of wiped. Not to mention there
were nearly a dozen of them and one of him. They’d stick together as a cohort.