Rock Star Romance: Dan (Contemporary New Adult Rockstar Bad Boy Romance) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 4) (62 page)

He turned and glanced at her, but he didn’t stop
moving. She caught up with him when he was nearly to his barracks, and she
wondered how he moved so fast.

“I was calling you,” Jenna huffed.

“I know.” The chill in Leo’s words was clear, and
Jenna nearly tripped over her own feet in surprise. He’d been friendly in the
cell, almost flirty, and that had been when they had no idea when they would
get out. What had changed? Was it the sentencing?

“Leo, I don’t know why they charged you more than
me,” she said pleadingly under her breath, trotting to keep up with his
astoundingly quick pace. “Or why they banned you from the cafeteria. I’m sorry,
but I didn’t—”

“No,
I’m
sorry,” Leo spat, stopping and
rounding on her. “I guess I gave you the wrong impression back there. I don’t
care
,
Horizon. I don’t
give a shit.
”

Jenna felt his words hit her like fists, and she
fought the urge to let her pain and anger show. “Oh, I see,” she said bitterly.
“You really
were
coming on to me back there. Putting the moves on me so
I’d be all loosened up for your…your
love muscle
, is that it?”   

Leo’s mask of anger slipped. “Love muscle?”

“And then we got interrupted, so you’re just done
with me,” Jenna said. “I get it. Maybe I’m just trash to you, too.”

She turned and started to move away, but a hand on
her arm stopped her. Jenna raised her right fist, ready to punch Leo again, but
his golden-flecked eyes were wide and appeasing. He held a finger to his lips
and pointed down an alley, where a gray door was set into a stone wall.

Jenna started to speak, but he hushed her again
and pulled her quickly toward the door, keeping his steps silent on the gravel.
Jenna hadn’t even noticed when they got into the Yazulian inhabited side of
Luna’s barracks since everyone now had the same metal-stone hybrid buildings,
but the gravel was always a dead giveaway.

Leo pressed his hand to the door, and it blinked
red before disappearing entirely. Jenna opened her mouth in shock, and by the
time she’d gasped in surprise, she was already behind the barrier. She spun
around as Leo pulled her into the room, and she could see out for a second—the
half mile of gravel they covered before synthetic soil took over and the human
barracks stood against the brilliant sky—then the door shimmered back into
reality, becoming a barely discernible part of the frame.

“Wow,” Jenna breathed. She turned to look at Leo
and saw that he was grinning, enjoying her reaction to his high-tech entry way.
“I’ve never seen a Yazulian door that worked that way. How long have you guys
had this tech?”

“As long as you guys have,” Leo said. He walked
over to a plain black couch in the middle of the room and plopped onto it,
gesturing for her to sit beside him. “There’s a fridge behind you, by the way.
You haven’t eaten, and there’s some stuff you can have.”

Jenna’s stomach was growling, but she couldn’t
stop taking in the rest of the room. It wasn’t as plain as other barracks—it
was in the wrong place, for one; they shouldn’t have reached Yazulian living
space for three or four miles, but here was Leo’s room right at the edge of
their territory and the humans’. It was also bigger than most single rooms, and
it looked like it had been an office or even a storage room before; there was a
door opposite the entrance that looked rather like a closet, and there were
slim outlets everywhere. A bed was on the left side of the room about twenty
feet from the couch, and a table took up the space to her right. She wandered
over to the fridge and opened it, finally selecting a pre-wrapped sandwich and
a cool canister of water before sitting at a rickety chair at the lonely table.

“Are you still repulsed by me, or is it okay if I
join you?” Leo was trying to keep his voice light, but Jenna could hear the
hurt there, and she swore at herself.

“No, it’s fine; I’m sorry.” Jenna pressed her
hands over her eyes, feeling wear all of a sudden. “I just want to know what’s
going on.”

When she dropped her hands, Leo was standing next
to the table, looking at her with a cautious expression. “What do you mean?”

Jenna threw her hands up in exasperation. “You
keep saying I’m ignorant of things, and you’re right. I
am
ignorant. I
was blind to Lizzie’s love for Victor, I was blind to Victor’s love for her, I
was blind to all the anger and despair I still had inside of me…and I’m blind
to what’s really happening in this war, apparently.” She raised her steely eyes
to his, forcing herself to meet the little spots of golden flame in eyes. “I
used to think I knew everything. I don’t even know the first thing about
myself. What else don’t I know about the world I live in?”

Leo sighed, and relief settled into his features.
He sat in the chair next to hers and folded his hands together. “Okay. Now
you’re ready to know.”

Jenna’s heart skipped a beat. “Know what?”

He paused, and she almost wanted that pause to
last forever; here in the pause, at least, she was relieved and not angry or
hurt—neither of them were, in fact. Here, anything could be at the other end of
that pause, even something wonderful, no matter how unlikely that could be. She
was exhilarated and afraid all at once, but she was also faced with the
terrifying knowledge that she was powerless to stop the progression of time;
maybe that was why she suddenly lunged forward and kissed him.

Maybe it was the fear that she was slipping down a
terrible spiral of destruction that she couldn’t pull herself out of—a spiral
so marked with defeat and desperation that the vibe was repelling everyone she
knew. Maybe it was the suspicion that after this, nothing would ever be the
same again, and Jenna desperately needed something to change after today. But
as Leo’s hands stripped off his own clothes and peeled away her jumpsuit to
slide against her skin for the first time, she knew the primary reason wasn’t
any of these things. He lifted her and carried her to the bed, and he was so
gentle while lowering himself over her lean body that she wondered how deep she
had to go to see this softness all the time.  His golden brown skin was
illuminated so brightly that her paler peach-toned skin was shining, like the
way moon glowed from the rays of the sun.
He’s so beautiful,
she
thought, but she was too mesmerized to speak. She felt the hardness of him
against her, hot and throbbing, and Jenna’s pulse started to pound in double
time. She suddenly couldn’t stand the wait any longer. Her hands slipped along
his muscled arms and the broad strength of his back, felt the resting energy of
his body and the raw potential in his lusty eyes. Jenna shivered, and he smiled
and lowered his face to hers.

 Leo kissed her, and the fullness of his lips
surprised her; so did his tongue and its gentle, slow probing of her mouth. Her
thighs were slick with juices as he pushed them apart with his strong hands,
and Jenna closed her eyes when he pressed his long, golden member against her
slick opening. She arched her back as his head slipped inside, crying out as
the sharp pain quickly gave way to delicious pleasure.

“You’re breathtaking,” he whispered in her ear,
but she couldn’t respond; as he slid back and forth inside her, the pleasure
from being filled so completely stole all thought from her mind, and she gasped
instead, wrapping her long legs around his hips as he pulled himself out and
rushed deep inside her again.

“Leo!” Jenna moaned, pressing her face into his
muscled chest as waves of pleasure shot through her body. She moved her slim
hips upward against his eager strokes and started to pull on one of her nipples
with her thumb and forefinger, sighing breathlessly at the sharp sensation.

Leo moaned low in his throat and quickened his
strokes, slamming his hips against hers as he drove his thick shaft deep inside
her again and again. His hands reached behind her to cup her round ass,
steadying her as he beat into her flesh with his and moaned deliriously.  He
was picking up speed with every stroke, and her round breasts were bouncing
from the force of his thrusts. His gaze connected with hers and she felt her
heart stop for a second before it kicked into overdrive; her walls started to
clench around his shaft, and Jenna threw her head back, bucking her hips wildly
against Leo’s passionate strokes as an orgasm ripped through her core.

“Jenna!” Leo screamed, angling himself inside her.
He was pounding against her g-spot, and the ecstasy was so intense that she
couldn’t draw a deep breath. Leo was gasping as he emptied himself between her
legs, twitching and rolling his hips weakly for a moment after he was spent. He
gazed down at her, watching his long shaft disappear between her legs a few
more times before he finally slowed to a stop. Then he pulled his head down and
kissed her again, sighing happily before moving to lie beside her on the bed.

Jenna stared at the ceiling, noting how different
it looked from the cell, even though it was the same shade of gray. “Wow,” she
said quietly.

Leo laughed. “Why do I feel like you were more
impressed by the door?”

Jenna blushed and turned to him. “No, it’s not
that…” she began, but she trailed off when she saw that he was joking. She
smiled, and it felt odd on her face—when was the last time she’d smiled like
that?

“You were wonderful,” she tried again. “And I’m
sorry I interrupted you. But it felt so amazing that I’m wondering why I don’t
feel like that more often.”

“You don’t have sex?” Leo asked, his tone one of
surprise.

“I do sometimes,” Jenna said, blushing. “I’m 26,
I’ve had boyfriends. I used to have casual sex with my friend Victor sometimes,
and even with—” ‘
my old commander,’
she started to say, but that hadn’t
felt like sex with Victor. As matter of fact, Victor had been unlike anyone
else she’d ever met, befriended, or lain with—until now. And their sex had been
familiar and happy because of their strong friendship—and Jenna’s strong love,
it turned out. But Victor didn’t love her; was that why sex with Leo had been
different?

But Leo doesn’t love you,
she reminded
herself. She looked at him, and he was gazing at her steadily, unashamed of his
staring. He smiled easily, and her heart did an odd tumble in her chest; he
made her feel giddy, but this wasn’t love yet. So what was it? Why did he feel
so right to her?

It struck her then; it was because they were both
carrying flame from the same burning branch—they were made from the same fury
and resolve that made soft skin into scar tissue and turned sweet ciders into
bitter brews. They were the same sort of person. Jenna lifted her eyes to his.

“What did you decide I was ready to know?” she
asked.

Leo sat up and nodded, pulling his shirt from the
floor to put it on again. He tossed her jumpsuit to her, and they both got
dressed to sit on the couch again. The silence made Jenna nervous, and she
pulled on her shoulder length curls as he gathered his thoughts and drew a
breath to speak again, this time sitting much closer to her than before.

Leo started to speak. “This war that’s happening
isn’t real. It never was. It was always a front. My people approached humankind
about their aggressive colonization attempts, not once, but three times; the
third time was after a rogue branch of humans destroyed a sacred structure on a
planet we’ve owned for centuries in a bid to gain ownership over it. They went
unpunished, and when we demanded justice, we received none. Then we tried to
break alliance, and were punished. That is when the war began, and it has
finally been winding down. There was no coup, no attempt by the Yazulians to
wrest power from Earth and take your soil. It was the other way around.”

Jenna shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”

Leo sighed. “I thought you wouldn’t. May I?” he
raised his hand toward her head, but she moved away.

“What are you doing?”

“I can share knowledge with you,” Leo said,
narrowing his eyes. “You didn’t learn this about us?”

Jenna’s cheeks flamed red. “No, I…I didn’t learn
that. They hardly taught us anything.”
I wonder why that was?
chimed a
small voice in her head. Jenna squashed it, but her heart started racing
nonetheless. “Okay,” she said nervously. “Share your knowledge.”

Leo stretched his hand toward her forehead and
placed his warm hands on her skin for the second time that day. A surge of
electricity shimmered through her body, but it was nothing like the Gray Men’s
prod—it was joyous, pleasant, light. Suddenly she was seeing a series of moving
images, and sound cut in sharply, sharpening until she saw she was looking at a
video. Then bile rose in her throat when she realized what it was: news clips
of humans discussing the first strikes against Yazul, taken at a low angle that
showed it was most likely from a spy cam. Six humans sat around a table wearing
wrinkled suits, eyes glazed over from lack of sleep but listening intently to a
slim man standing at the center of the room, shouting about putting Yazulians
down in their place. More clips followed, but Jenna didn’t need to see more;
she pulled away from Leo’s hand, gasping in psychic pain far greater than she’d
ever been burdened with.
How could we have let this happen?
she thought,
and then:
there’s your answer. We
let
this happen.

Jenna’s stomach soured with anxiety. “So…we’re the
bad guys?”

Leo swallowed, hard, as if he were fighting an
urge to be sick. “I’m afraid so.”

Why shouldn’t he be?
said a small voice in
her head.
It sounds like Manifest Destiny 2.0. You
are
the real
monster.

“Your people are fixing it,” Leo said. “I’ll give
them that. But they’re doing nothing to fix our image, and I’m afraid they
won’t.”