Maddison, Karly - Time Slip [The Xephon Alliance 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (8 page)

* * * *

Kash watched as he swung his legs out of bed. He wore a soft T-shirt and boxers, and she couldn’t help but remember with a flash of heat what she’d seen under the fabric in his shower stall last night. Kash leapt to her feet, too. Her solid form might be bleeding slowly back through time to his present, but it couldn’t happen fast enough for her own satisfaction. Hunger and thirst bothered her now. She had tired of being stuck in a dimension where nobody but the last person she touched had any clue she still existed.

Tinny strode off to the shower room again. For a moment she thought her eyes were in for a treat, but Tinny had other things on his mind. When she wandered in there he had all his clothes on and stood in the cubicle.

“Come touch me, Kash,” he beckoned. She didn’t need to be asked twice.

“Are you here?” he enquired.
Yeah I am, but I wish you weren’t
dressed
. She wanted another visual treat of him minus the clothing, but he was just waiting for the door to steam up so she could write on the glass. She leaned over and touched him with one hand before writing.

I’M HERE

“Are you okay?”

I’M HUNGRY AND THIRSTY

“I guess you can’t eat or drink there, huh? Don’t worry, it didn’t seem to effect the rat…or the apple,” he added with dark humor.

HA HA, she wrote on the glass.

I’M GOING MAD

GET ME OUT OF HERE

“I don’t know if I can,” he admitted. “I think you just need to wait to slip back here like rattie and apple did.”

HOW LONG?

“Well, for them it was two days…but I don’t know if that will be the same for you. You have more mass than the rat or apple, and I had adjusted the contraption since they went ahead. Also they were not touching me when they left.”

I DON’T LIKE THIS

“I know.” He ran his hand over his head. “About the water, try licking the glass, Kash.”

Hmmm, good idea, why hadn’t she thought of that? If she could write in it while holding onto him, maybe she could drink some of the condensation, too? She leant forward and tried. Beads of water fell onto her dry tongue.
Oh, thank God!

* * * *

Tinny stood and watched the tongue print on the glass. Just the thought of what she was doing made his body tighten. He had to keep in mind that it was for her own survival. He lifted his hand and tried to feel her, finally making contact with her bent-over shape. Desire leapt through his veins to find her in such a pose. He could feel her stiffen slightly as if he had surprised her, then she relaxed and leaned back into him. It was such a pleasant feeling. He tightened his arm and pulled her in close, her back against his chest, tucking his chin against the curve between her shoulder and neck.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered softly where he thought her ear might be. “I won’t leave you until you’re safe again. And when that happens, you will listen to what I advise you in the future.” She trembled in his arms. “I have to admit, though, it was partly my fault for having something so dangerous in the same room as something so inquisitive.”

* * * *

Kash hung her head in shame. He might as well have labeled her with other words, such as disobedient, contrary, or defiant. Was it possible for her to learn a new way of behavior around men? She leaned forward and put her hand on the glass then released, staring at her hand print, unable to write words anymore for she felt too wretched. Tinny surprised her by leaning forward as well, his arm still around her. He skewered his own hand over her print and then pulled it off. The two prints sat on the glass together for almost a minute before the steam claimed them. It saddened Kash when they disappeared. She turned in Tinny’s arms and tried to hug his warm and solid form.

“We will win. Soon this will be over,” he said.

She released her hold on him as he turned the shower off and followed him back to the lounge. How wonderful, to have someone concerned for her. When was the last time she’d had that?

She watched as he bent over the little contraption again. If only she had left the damn thing alone. But she had always been resistant to doing what she was told. It harped back to her childhood when her mother’s boyfriends had tried to push her and her sister around all the time, get them to do their bidding. If she ever escaped this ridiculous situation, she vowed to herself to take more heed of what Tinny told her.

She regarded him as he worked, noting what a fine specimen of a male he was. While she had resisted being paired with him, now she experienced gratitude he stayed here for her and tried to undo the mess which her own foolishness had landed her in. Then again, if she had not been paired with him, she would not have touched his blasted time travel device.

Feeling contrary with her own thoughts, she observed his long fingers at work, while her mind unexpectedly strayed to what those fingers would feel like if they glided over her instead of his machine. Why on Earth was she thinking along such lines? He was an alien, and aliens were dangerous, or at best worthy of caution. At least that was what she had always been taught. But what if such teachings were wrong?

Her eyes wandered up his arm and along his throat where swirling tattoos merged with his shirt collar, disappearing underneath it. Inexplicably, she wanted to trace the shapes against his skin. Her hands twitched. Kash smirked, though he couldn’t see her doing so. What would he think of her if he knew her thoughts right now?

* * * *

Tinny made a pretense of fixing his machine just to make her feel better, as if someone was doing something. Truth be known, he didn’t want to fool around more with the situation, and he suspected the safest way back was the way the rat and the apple had come, slipping along like a travelator on reverse. Of course, she possessed a great deal more mass than an apple or a rat, and this fact gnawed at him continuously.

Even invisible and barely solid, she made his heart trip and his body tighten. He knew all the stories of her terrible tricks on Xephon males, the ones he’d been told by Lunox and Tipha. Some of them had made him smile. But Lunox and Tipha were fair and as far as he knew not cruelly inclined. So when Chitra had suggested to Captain Zeba that he take care of Kash, he’d had to step in quickly and make sure that never became a reality. He’d ended up having a fight with Chitra and after that even had to blackmail the captain slightly to make sure she didn’t fall into Chitra’s hands.

He hadn’t liked doing that, threatening to spill Zeba’s homosexual tendencies…not that he really would have. The captain managed to hide it well. The only reason Tinny knew of it was that Zeba had mistaken something he had done once for interest in him and unwittingly revealed his secret. Xephon soldiers did not take kindly to gay males in their ranks. In that respect they were light years behind the humans.

Chitra was not too happy that Tinny had outfoxed him somehow for the human woman Kash. Of course, almost every male on the ship couldn’t help falling for her beauty in the beginning. But now her reputation for being difficult preceded her. Chitra had thought he could knock that out of her. Already, secretly enchanted with her at the time, Tinny had no intention of allowing her to fall under his crew member’s control. But he didn’t expect her to be interested in himself. She’d made it clear to Lunox and Tipha that she did not like Xephon males. And not once in the six lunar cycles since she’d been on their vessel had she ever given any indication that he appeared any more interesting than the other males.

He went about his day’s work aware of her in the background, tagging him like an invisible puppy. He couldn’t help feeling happy knowing she was there. Sometimes he even spoke to her in hushed whispers when others were around. When they were alone, he spoke louder, hoping that his voice gave her some comfort that at least someone was acknowledging her existence. Crew had been querying her whereabouts, and the captain had been fobbing them off with excuses which they might not continue to believe for much longer.

Later that night as he went to have a shower, he wondered if she’d join him. He couldn’t really stop her since she was like a ghost. The idea kind of excited him. This crazy situation was making her give him a whole lot more attention and a whole lot less disdain than if it had never happened. Not that he would ever have wished it on her. Even though he had a lot more appeal to her now, he blamed himself for the incident and wished it had never happened.

Chapter Nine

He threw his clothes off and jumped under the warm stream of water. He had the best water shower on the whole ship because he was clever at tinkering with such things. Captain would probably have a fit if he saw his shower.

“Are you in here, Kash?” he enquired as he picked up his block of soap. It was a gift from the women, and he loved its unique Earth scent. Chocolate, they called it. He put the soap back down. Just the idea that she might be in here with him was doing things to his body, tightening his muscles, speeding up his heart rate, raising what the humans called goose bumps on his flesh.

“Kash?” He looked at the glass. She’d drawn a huge love heart in it, and as he watched stunned, she shot an arrow through it. Though he knew she couldn’t possibly love him—at least not yet—he laughed out loud.

“You’re a bad girl,” he groaned.

She drew a smiley face with a big grin and little horns on it. Familiar with some Earth symbols, he laughed again, delighted with her playfulness. He rinsed the soap from his skin and switched off the water, drying himself with one of the women’s fluffy towels, another gift from the
crew of the
Windfleur
. He wondered what kind of view she had of him as he pulled on his underwear. Was she coming to bed with him? He switched his lights off and went to his room, slipping under the covers.

“Kash?”

As if in answer he felt the pull of a hand at the waistband of his shorts.

“Kash?” She didn’t really want to have sex with him did she? She’d been against it before, told him that hell would have to freeze over first. Now she seemed determined as hell to get his boxers off. He laughed. She wanted contact in the deepest sense she could get. Too bad he had an erection now that needed taking care of. He didn’t feel too much guilt to charge forward into what she was offering, even though he suspected it was just a reaction to her situation. Chivalry be damned.

* * * *

Kash slipped her invisible clothes off quickly and threw them to the floor. The blue glow of the nightlights made his face look serenely beautiful. She’d had no intention of ever touching him before, but now he remained the only link she had to life and reality. And much more than that. She desired him in a way she had never experienced before.

She wanted him madly. He threw the boxers he’d been wearing on the floor, and she leaned her naked body against his, soaking up the wonderful warmth of his skin. It reminded her of touching something when her skin was defrosting from anesthesia. She could feel him, but in a dulled way. It made her even hungrier to have him. She kissed his mouth, desperate and filled with longing. Their tongues twined, as she angled her hips against his pelvis. His cock had grown huge now, just like the rest of him. Her hand explored his hardness, rubbed and stroked his length. He shuddered in response to her ministrations. He was delicious to touch, to be near. She curled her nails around the heavy weight of him and rocked her hips suggestively. He groaned against her neck then smothered her pulse points in rapid little kisses.

She sighed with pleasure as he rolled over her just as she parted her legs. Quickly she slid down the delicious length of his cock before he had time to act. She experienced a small spasm of shock as her pussy adjusted to the size of him. A groan of pleasure escaped his lips. She wished she could talk to him, whisper to him. As if he could hear her wishes, he whispered to her in his own language. She rocked her hips against him, grasping him tightly with her internal muscles. He groaned again, thrusting quickly into her. Hell, she appeared to be sliding back into focus. Her arms seemed to have substance before her own eyes. Delighted, she nipped at his collarbone. He looked up at her and smiled. It made her heart flip wildly.

“You’re coming back,” he said as he thrust with long, solid strokes. His hands slipped to her breasts, molding them softly, fingers brushing the peaked tips. She shuddered as fire leapt through her. He found her mouth and almost drugged her with a hot, searing kiss that left her breathless before he tore his mouth away reluctantly and slid his lips down her chest. Kash gasped as he bent forward and suckled at her breasts, grazing them with his fangs.