Jordan (17 page)

If you love someone, you’d give up everything for them. But if they love you, they won’t ask you to.

—L
ADY
G
UINEVERE

T
ake your time,” she challenged, thinking if he could hold out, she’d somehow hang on, too. But it might be the hardest thing
she’d ever done. She’d had no idea that standing before him half naked could be so sexy. Or erotic. Her flesh tingled, her
blood simmered, and with all his intensity focused on pleasing her, she’d never felt so powerful. So feminine.

She could make love without falling in love. She’d already proved that by having been with him twice. And now that he’d so
clearly told her there was no future for them, there would be no broken heart, either. Vivianne was a realist. She would deal
with the future on her own terms.

After he’d slipped off her bra, her mouth had gone dry with anticipation. The gleam in his eyes, the angle of his jaw, and
the sudden tightening of his mouth told her that she might be trembling in expectation but he was right there with her.

Lightly, he pinched her nipples, shooting a zing of pleasure straight to her core. A soft moan tore from her lips. With his
gaze locked with hers, he’d made just the act of touching incredibly intimate. She forced her knees to lock. “Right about
now… would be a good time for the… ah… gravity to go out.”

“Perhaps that can be arranged,” he murmured, his voice mysterious and silky. “But not just yet.”

Again he cupped her breasts and lifted one to his mouth, and the sensations of warm heat on her bare skin had her rocking
forward on her toes for more. His lips closed on her breast, his hot tongue laving the nipple. Moisture seeped between her
thighs, and she plunged her hands into his hair to steady herself.

“You have no idea how good… that feels,” she murmured, in a voice that was already breathless.

Tingling heat seemed to pour from his mouth into her. Her breath grew ragged, her legs trembled, and her thoughts spun. Light-headed,
scales fluttering, she gasped for air but couldn’t seem to draw enough into her lungs.

When she didn’t think she could take one second more, he raised his head and began anew on her other breast.

She squirmed and his teeth delicately tightened, holding her in place. Keeping her exactly where she wanted to be.

All her muscles were tensing, and she wondered if it was possible to orgasm from this delicious pleasure alone. She might
have found release, except once again he stopped, leaving her floating.

“Are you ready?” he asked, his tone as smooth as syrup.

“For you?” she asked, slightly confused. How could she think when she was light-headed, wanting, wanton?

“Ready for me to remove your pants?”

“Yes.”

She was flushed. Hot. The
Draco’
s temperature controls had to be on the fritz, because she felt bathed in tropical heat. It was all Jordan’s doing, his hands
that caressed and stroked, his mouth that teased and taunted.

He removed her slacks without delay. But her wish for the lacy panties to go the same way didn’t look like it would happen.
For one thing, he’d placed his hands on her hips and turned her around, and then, as he nibbled on her neck, his hands slid
around to her breasts, cupping them, cherishing them, repeatedly stroking her nipples.

When she tried to lean back into him, he pinched the tips lightly. “Stay still for me.”

“Why?” She thrashed her head, unable to hold still.

“Because it will please me.”

God. He was assuming she wanted to please him. In truth, she wasn’t so sure.

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Not when his hands fluttered down her rib cage to her panties.

She wriggled her hips and demanded, “Take them off.”

“I will.” But instead of pulling down her panties like she wanted, he caressed the curves of her buttocks, lifting the panties
higher until he’d created a thong.

“Hey.” Moist with her scent, the lacy material tucked into her folds and created delicious constraints.

“I will take them off… eventually.” He slipped his fingers around her waist and dipped into the tiny triangle. “Part your
legs for me.”

“Finally.” She breathed out a sigh and did as he asked. She’d assumed he’d dip his fingers lower into her curls. But instead
he played with her panties, tugging and teasing, the friction making her crave him all the more until she grew so tight with
need, she thought she would surely burst.

It took all her self-control to remain still. A glance into the mirror revealed her standing there nearly naked, aroused,
breathless. And damned if he wasn’t still fully dressed and enjoying every second of her squirming. His eyes practically glowed,
and a five-o’clock shadow made him look rough, bold, and dangerously sexy.

“You can do better,” she taunted.

“Much better,” he agreed as he flipped a switch on the console. “Gravity’s going off.”

“Everywhere?”

“Last night from the engineering bay, I rigged this cabin with its own gravity controls.”

“Oh.” What was he up to? Had he known she would come to him? Ask him to make love? Was she that easy to predict?

Or did he have other reasons for messing with the gravity?

He snapped the elastic at her hips and drew her attention back to his hands. She was floating in midair, which meant she was
at his mercy. She could move. But she had no leverage.

Finally, he slid her panties down her legs.

“What about your clothing?” she asked.

“Not yet.” His eyes gleamed with blue heat. “I have plans…”

She swallowed hard. He floated her facedown and over to a straight-backed padded chair that was bolted to the deck.

“Grab the seat.”

She did as he asked, and he folded her over the chair so that her bottom rose into the air, her feet unable to reach the deck.

“Now part your legs.”

She gulped and did as he demanded. She couldn’t see him. But he could see her. All of her.

“Don’t move.”

Heat flared through her. She started to turn her head, and he swatted her bottom.

“No looking.”

The playful sting of his hand only added to the heat. She was on fire for him, and he had yet to touch her core. But she liked
the heat of his hand, so again she turned her head to look at him. He’d removed his shirt and had just unhooked the top fastening
of his slacks when he caught her ogling his washboard abs.

With a grin, he swatted her rear again.

And the heat escalated. All the blood in her body had to be stampeding to her core. She was so damn sensitive, she could barely
hold still.

When his hot mouth came down on her core without warning, she would have bucked, but his hands kept her hips elevated. Already
so sensitive, she moaned. As he lapped and licked and stoked, tension inside her ramped up until she quivered with need.

From the top of her head to the tips of her curling toes, she drew tight, tighter, the sizzling sensations ripping through
her. And then he drew back.

“Don’t come.” And he slapped her bottom several times.

Shocked at the fiery sting that escalated the tension to another level, she released the chair.

“Hold on.” With one finger he caressed her, floating her back into position.

“But—”

“Hang on.”

Her nipples ached. She couldn’t seem to draw in enough air. But most of all, if she didn’t find release soon, she was going
to scream.

And that’s when he replaced his finger with his sex. Finally. His fullness, sleek and hard, was exactly what she needed right
now. His hips slid against her hot bottom, and he reached around to her clit.

And then as he ever so slowly thrust in and out of her, his fingers kindled a red-hot fire.

“Ah… oh… oh.” A delightful explosion ripped through her, and she spasmed inside, clutching him. But he didn’t increase his
pace. He stayed with slow and easy friction, and his fingers kept playing with her, never stopping their magical rhythm, extending
the explosion until her body fired again and then again.

She clawed the chair, pumping her hips as moans of pleasure escaped from the back of her throat. The orgasms went on and on
and on, crashing over one another until they melded into one giant explosion of pleasure.

And still he didn’t stop.

Her pulse skyrocketed. It was suddenly hard to breathe. And she lost it.

Like some feral thing, she embodied the pleasure. She became pure wildfire. Locking her legs around his calves, she raised
and lowered her hips, demanding he take her faster, harder, deeper.

When he thrust into her and finally spasmed, her name on his lips, she exploded once again and saw stars.

Several minutes passed before her pulse settled and she opened her eyes to find herself floating, her head on Jordan’s chest,
his arms wrapped around her, their legs entwined.

Total satiation had left her every muscle relaxed. “Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure.”

He was a surprisingly sensitive lover. He’d known when to push, when to surprise, when to hold back, and when to give her
exactly what she needed.

She could come to care for such a sensitive man. But she couldn’t nurture those feelings. She reminded herself how they’d
come to make love—to avoid the Staff from forcing them into it.

So what if he’d been kind, attentive, and tender, as well as ferocious and demanding and exciting? So what if he was the best
lover she’d ever had?

Jordan’s memory dropped into her head like a nightmare. Only Vivianne was awake. And she could only watch in horror.

“Trendonis, what have you done?” A younger version of Jordan ignored the blaster pointed at him, fought down the panic honed
to a razor sharpness welling inside his chest.

With a triumphant gleam in his eyes, Trendonis gestured with his blaster for Jordan to move toward the space ship’s portal.
“I’ve lowered our altitude so you have a perfect view.”

Jordan peered out the spaceship’s triangular porthole to see his home world, Dominus. At the sight of hundreds of deadly missiles
racing toward his home, Jordan’s blood went cold.

“No.” Jordan’s hands fisted. Those missiles would strike farms, cities, schools, and hospitals. So many would die.

Jordan spun and advanced on Trendonis, who lifted one smirking eyebrow. “The Tribes don’t accept defiance.”

Jordan’s voice cracked. “Don’t do this.”

“Watch.” Trendonis shoved the blaster into Jordan’s side.

He stumbled back to the portal. The missiles had yet to reach the atmosphere. “Call them back.”

“It’s too late.”

“Detonate them while they’re still in space, please,” Jordan pleaded, knowing it was a waste of breath.

Trendonis laughed, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Once planetbusters are released—”

“Planetbusters?” Jordan sagged, barely able to take in the reality. The man had purposely ordered the destruction of his entire
world. “Have you lost your mind?”

“See what happens to people who resist the Tribes.” Trendonis snapped his fingers. “They vanish.”

Jordan cringed. Below, the full force of the missiles struck, the warheads primed to sink to critical depths. The seas came
to an instant boil. An entire continent jumped, dropped, and buckled. The poles erupted into tidal waves of lava and ash.

The air itself turned to liquid fire. And he could do nothing to stop the incineration of Dominus.

The end of everyone and everything he knew. His home. His parents. His friends. The planetary core boiled, reached ignition
temperatures, exploded. Billions of people gone in an instant. Their history, their culture, their art. Gone.

“You killed them all.” Tears running down his cheeks, Jordan turned to face the man he’d thought of as friend. “Kill me, too.”

The memory ended as suddenly as it had begun. The destruction of his world might have happened centuries ago, but with Jordan’s
memory branded into her mind, his pain saturated Vivianne. She could now taste his bitterness. Comprehend his rage. He’d told
her the story, but this time she’d suffered with him. Had felt the fury that clawed at him, the determination to stop Trendonis
and the Tribes.

Jordan was on Earth’s side. The last of her doubts fell away.

And yet she still couldn’t let down her guard.

While Jordan’s warning that he would not be there for her in the future seemed far away, Vivianne was a pragmatist. She would
work with him, she would make love with him, but she would not care about him just because he’d insatiably caressed every
inch of her. She would not fall for a man set on saving her world—not when his success meant his death. She wouldn’t do that
to herself. And she wouldn’t do that to him.

The time to dream is now.

—L
ADY OF THE
L
AKE