Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan (16 page)

She stepped closer to him and put her hands on the waistband of his pants.

“That sounds good to me,” she said softly.
 
“But I want to see a lot more than this.”

She unfastened the static zipper, pushing down his pants and undergarment.
 
He stepped out of them, and her eyes fell to his erection.
 
It was beautiful, long and hard and a dark, dusky pink.

“Adequate?” he said.
 
She heard the hoarseness of arousal beneath the levity in his tone.

It was more than adequate.
 
It was perfect.
 

He
was perfect.

She swallowed hard and looked up at him, trying to keep the mood light.
 
She didn’t want things to get too serious between them so soon.

“It’ll do,” she said lightly.

“Maybe you should take a closer look and make sure it suits you.”

“Trust me, I have every intention of doing just that.”

She fell to her knees in front of him.
 
She heard an audible groan as she wrapped her fingers around him and ran her tongue across the sensitive flesh.

“Stars,” he said harshly.
 
“Your mouth is so hot.”

“The body temperature of Canvulians is three degrees Celsius warmer than humans,” she said reflexively, then wished she hadn’t.
 
But he only laughed.

“You can take the girl out of the science officer uniform, but you can’t take the science officer out of the girl, can you?”

“I’m not totally out of uniform yet,” she said.

“That’s true.
 
We need to do something about that.”

“Maybe later,” she said, and leaned forward to draw him into her mouth.
 
He groaned, a long, low sound of pleasure, and buried his fingers in her hair.

He tasted good, and his smooth skin felt good against her tongue.
 
Reveling in his flavor, his heat, she could have made love to him like this all night, but all too soon he tugged at her hair.

“That’s enough, Vaish.”

“I don’t mind,” she whispered, but he pushed her away.

“I do.
 
I want us to share this, sweetheart.”

She liked the Earth term of endearment he used.
 
Before the last two days, no man had ever called her “sweetheart” or anything similar.
 
No man had ever touched her as he was touching her now—with a gentle reverence that almost brought tears to her eyes.

He drew her to her feet, bent, and let his lips slide over hers.
 
Tingles shot through her lips, amplified in her veins, and echoed between her thighs.
 
Heat pooled there, and she remembered the way he’d touched her last night, the way he’d brought her almost effortlessly to orgasm.

The man was good.
 
Very, very good.
 
Probably due to all that practice, but she found she no longer cared as much about that as she had.
 
What was in the past, was in the past.

This was the present.
 
And she was enjoying the present a great deal.

His lips stroked across hers, more insistently, and his tongue slipped between her lips.
 
He tasted like the InterGalactic Gurgle Blister he’d been drinking, spicy and intoxicating, and she eagerly met his tongue with her own, reaching up and tangling her fingers in his long, thick mane.
 
Their mouths melded together, so hot they very nearly sizzled.

A moan escaped her, a needy sound of longing and pleasure all rolled into one.
 
It was the first time she’d made a sound like that for a long, long time.
 
The first time she’d allowed herself to be needy for years.

His hands slid up from her waist, across her ribcage, and cupped her breasts, and her breath left her lungs with a
whoosh
.
 
His thumbs began to stroke across her nipples, strumming them like the strings of a Canvulian harp, and her knees went weak as pleasure saturated her body.

Her nipples hardened to aching peaks, and heat pooled between her legs.
 
She longed for him to touch her there, the way he had last night, but he didn’t seem in any hurry.
 
He stroked her nipples for long moments, then reached down and shoved her pants and underwear to the ground, with her full cooperation.
 
She kicked them away, totally naked, totally vulnerable.
 
The thought should have frightened her, and yet she found it… liberating.

Then, just as she had, moments ago, he dropped to his knees in front of her.

She clutched his hair, feeling that she couldn’t wait.
 
She was as ready to explode as an overloaded particle gun, and yet what he was going to do was so… intimate.
 

“Steven,” she protested weakly, but he shook his head.

“Shhh.
 
It’s all right.”
 
His voice dropped to a whisper.
 
“Lower your shields, Vaish.”

The truth was, her shields had fallen the moment he touched her.
 
She shivered as his breath fanned over her sensitive flesh.
 
His breath felt hot, despite the three degree difference in their temperatures, and a shiver ran through her.
 
Just the soft brush of his breath was almost enough to bring her to a screaming orgasm.

She braced herself for the onslaught of his mouth.

The feel of his tongue against her overheated body sent an electrical jolt through her.
 
She almost fell to her knees, but his big hands on her buttocks kept her upright.
 
He explored her for long moments, in a leisurely, unhurried manner that kept her near the edge of orgasm without actually pushing her over.
 

“Steven,” she said at last, in a ragged whisper.
 
“I need you
now
.”

He stood up, picked her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing, and unceremoniously dropped her onto the bed.
 
She giggled as the weight of his body pressed her into the covers.

He stopped and looked down at her.

“What?” she said, squirming eagerly against him, needing the heat of his body.
 
But he didn’t take the hint.

“You
laughed
,” he said.

He sounded as incredulous as if she’d suddenly recited the Articles of Alliance from memory, and she looked up into his eyes, puzzled.

“What of it?”

“I’ve never heard you laugh before, Vaish.
 
Never.”

“Never?”
 
She thought about that for a moment.
 
He’d known her for five years and never heard her laugh.
 
How could she have repressed her true self so totally?
 
“That’s actually rather sad, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I think it is.”
 
He bent his head and brushed his lips across her forehead.
 
“But I like to hear your laughter.
 
Tell you what, Vaish.
 
Let’s say goodbye to our old roles forever.
 
I promise to bury the Galactic Playboy forever, if you promise to let me hear you laugh every day for the rest of my life.”

Every day for the rest of my life.
 
She bit her lip.
 
“I’m afraid you may grow tired of hearing me laugh someday.”

“Never,” he said with absolute confidence.

She drew in a deep breath and took a huge leap of faith.
 
“All right, then.
 
I promise.”

“Great,” he said, grinning his most idiotic grin.
 

She wiggled against his big body, still pressing hers into the mattress.
 
“You know,” she said, “I’m beginning to suspect you’re all talk and no action.”

He bared his teeth at her in a mock growl.
 
“I’ll show you action.”

Bending his head, he pressed his lips against the sensitive skin of her neck.
 
She moaned softly and arched against him, feeling his hard flesh probing against hers.
 
Her body was slick and hot with longing, aching for him, and she groaned with pleasure as he slid into her body a few centimeters.

“More,” she whispered against his shoulder.

“You’re so greedy.”

“I’ve been waiting for this a long time.”

He thrust into her, all the way, hard, and she cried out as pleasure slammed into her with the force of a particle beam.
 
She felt her molecules come apart, one by one, felt her body disintegrate into a thousand pieces.
 
She was only vaguely aware of his hoarse shout of pleasure, of the way his body went rigid against her, then slowly relaxed.

They were silent for a long time.
 
At last she spoke into his shoulder.

“I’m not a mattress, you know.”

“Sorry,” he muttered, rolling off her and collapsing onto the bed next to her.
 
He lay with his eyes closed for a moment, then cracked one open and looked at her, almost hesitantly.
 
“Was that all right for you?”

“All right?”
 
She thought about it.
 
“I wouldn’t say it was all right.
 
More like beyond the realm of imagination.”

He opened his other eye and gazed at her with puzzlement.
 
“Is that a good thing?”

“Yes.
 
That is a very good thing.”

He gave a long sigh.
 
“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re harboring any doubts about your status as the galaxy’s greatest lover.”
 

“That went a little fast,” he admitted.
 
“I didn’t realize how badly I wanted you.
 
I wasn’t at my best.”
 

“If that wasn’t your best, I will surely be rendered unconscious next time.”

He chuckled.
 
“Watch it.
 
You’re going to make my ego swell.”
 

“Stars forbid.
 
There won’t be any room left in this bed if it gets any bigger.”

Laughing, he reached over and took her hand in his own.
 
She moved toward him, sliding her leg between his, wanting to feel the warmth of his body next to hers.
 
Looking down, she saw their fingers and bodies twining together, precisely as their lives had, and an unfamiliar warmth swelled in her chest.
 

She’d never before realized how much he meant to her.
 
She’d never realized how much a man
could
mean to her.

Now she knew.
 
And she had no intention of ever letting him go.

He grinned over at her.
 
“I love you,” he whispered.

She smiled back, aware that Steven had never said those three words to any other woman.
 
The warmth in her chest blossomed and grew into something she’d never felt before, something so incredible she couldn’t find words for it.
 
But she knew what it was.
 
She was in love with Steven.
 
And she’d tell him so… eventually.