Runaway Bride (Across the Stars: Book 2) (15 page)

His heartbeat picked up.  “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

He didn’t know why watching her hands smooth out her dress excited him, but it did.  It was strange that he was starting to notice new things about her, ever since they’d bought their wedding rings.  His attention to detail came and went, often in small bursts.  But if he guessed right, they were starting to become more frequent and last longer in duration.  Was it because he was married to her now and had permission to notice the small, sexy things about her?

Her smile widened and she returned to the mirrors in the dressing room area.

Feeling compelled to follow her, he did, his heartbeat picking up once more as she turned around and examined her reflection in the mirrors surrounding her.

“I love the roses.  They’re so pretty,” she commented.  “I think I’ll get this one.”

He approached her from behind and brushed aside her hair. He bowed his head and kissed her neck.  Her skin was soft and her perfume was so light he almost missed it.  It shouldn’t have surprised him, but for some reason, his senses were heightened.

She laughed.  “I should have picked this dress out sooner.  I had no idea you’d like it so much.”

Bringing his hands to her waist, he turned her around so that she was facing him.  “You don’t need the dress to make you beautiful,” he whispered.

He cupped her face in his hands and lightly stroked her cheeks.  Her eyes were the most amazing shade of brown he’d ever seen.  A dark, rich color.  Her nose was sloped at a gentle angle, a perfect fit for her face.  Her moist pink lips were slightly parted.  Intrigued by them, he lowered one of his thumbs and traced them, starting with her bottom lip and slowly moving to her upper one.  It was like he was discovering her for the first time.  Everything about her seemed new and exciting, as if he’d never seen a woman before.

“Mark?” she whispered.

He lowered his head and kissed her, softly at first.  It hadn’t occurred to him up until then how incredible she felt against him.  He brought her into his arms and deepened the kiss.  His tongue brushed hers and he let out a soft moan without meaning to.  He couldn’t get over how incredible she was.  The best part of it all was that she was his life mate, the woman he’d come to Earth in hopes of finding.  And now that he found her, he wasn’t going to let her go.

His lips left hers and traveled down her neck.

“Um, Mark,” she softly said, tugging on the sleeves of his shirt.

“Hmm?” he murmured as he kissed her shoulder.

“We’re in a store.  In public.”

His eyes flew open and he let go of her.  What was he doing?  “I’m sorry.  I don’t know what came over me.” Okay.  That sounded dumb.  “Why is it so hot in here?” He wiped his forehead, surprised to see he was sweating.  Then he remembered what Chris said about feeling warmer than usual when the pill wore off.  The pill was finally wearing off!  He could initiate the bonding ceremony!  He grabbed her hand.  “We need to go back to the room.”

“But I need to take this dress off and put on my old one,” she protested as he took her out of the dressing room area.

He paused and glanced at the dressing room.  “Alright, but keep this dress on.  We’ll pay for it on our way out.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Sure you can.  As long as you buy the dress, I don’t think the sales lady is going to mind.”

“Well, I guess…”

He picked up their bags.  “It’ll be fine.”

“Okay.”

Relieved she went to grab her old dress, he glanced at his watch.  Chris said he had fifteen minutes before he had to either engage in the bonding ceremony or wait until his body was ready again.  Considering it took him twenty-eight and a half hours to get ready this time, he wasn’t going to take his chances.

Lexie came out of the dressing room with her old dress draped over her arm and swung her purse over her shoulder.  “I’m ready.”

Good.  He told the sales lady they wanted to buy the dress Lexie was wearing and he thought she’d never get through ringing up their order.  But she finally did, and they left the store.

“Do you mind telling me what the big rush is?” Lexie asked as they hurried down the sidewalk to their hotel.

“You remember the bonding ceremony I told you about?”

“Yeah.  It’s how you get married on your world.”

“Right.  Well, it’s time we did it.”

“Right this second?”

He glanced at his watch.  They had ten minutes.  “Just about.  On my world, when it’s time to do it, things speed up pretty fast.”  She looked as if she wanted to say something, but he became aware of a tingling sensation in his testicles.  “I know it’s hard to understand, but this is how things are for men from Pandoran.  Once the process starts, we can’t stop it.  I can explain more later if you want, but I can’t right now.  Will you trust me?”

She nodded.  “Of course, I will.” Tugging his hand, she encouraged him to resume their hurried walk back to the hotel.

Chapter Seventeen

By the time Mark and Lexie got back to the hotel room, he couldn’t keep his hands off her.  He’d heard the need for making love was overwhelming when coming off the pill, which was why he didn’t dare do it until Lexie agreed to marry him, but this was more intense than he expected.

He dropped their packages on the floor and cupped her face in his hands.  Bringing his mouth to hers, he brushed his tongue along her lower lip, encouraging her to open her mouth for him.  She did and he interlaced his tongue with hers.  His testicles warmed and the male part of him lengthened.  Finally!  He had an erection.  Had he been an Earth male, he was sure this wouldn’t have been as exciting as it was, but an erection signaled the ability to release the sex hormone that would initiate the bonding ceremony.

He willed the hormone’s release and felt the warmth from his body swirl in her direction.  Her breasts touched his chest, something that further aroused him.  He had to get closer to her.  His hands descended down her body.  He traced the curve of the small of her back and cupped her behind in his hands.

Pulling her fully against him, he was rewarded with the exquisite feel of her body, especially aware of the way her stomach cushioned his arousal.  He needed to remove her clothes.  After he undid the buttons on her dress, he kissed the area between her breasts.

She groaned in pleasure but pushed him away.  “Mark, wait.”

In a daze, he tried to focus on her.  “Am I being too rough?” He wasn’t trying to be.  But calming the excited charges swirling around him was proving harder than he thought it’d be.  Even now, he was reaching for her, eager to resume their physical contact.

She laughed and stepped aside to avoid him.  “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“What?  Now?” He followed her, unable to stop himself from doing so.  The warmth swirling around him was forcing him to stay near her, his heart racing faster as he watched the sexy way she walked.

“Yes, I need to go right now.” She turned when she reached the bathroom door.  “I’ll only be a minute.” With an amused smile, she added, “When you get ready, you really get ready.” She gave him a quick kiss on the lips.  “I’ll be quick.”

He leaned toward her as she shut the door and almost hit the door with his forehead.  Forcing himself to take a step away from it, he struggled to calm his breathing.  The warm air was swirling around her but hadn’t touched her yet, so she had no idea how hard it was for him to be separated from her.  Forget hard.  It was downright painful.  His gut clenched and he bent forward to lessen the sharp shooting pain that ran through his entire body.  When he heard an interruption in the bonding process could kill someone, he thought it was an exaggeration.  Now he knew better.

To his relief, she opened the door. “Mark, are you okay?” she asked, placing her hand on his back.

The pain departed and he stumbled forward in relief.

She knelt beside him and looked at his face.  “Mark?”

“I’m fine,” he assured her and stood back up.  “I’ve never been through the bonding ceremony before.  I had no idea it was this powerful.”

She shook her head as he removed his clothes.  “I don’t understand.  What’s so powerful about it?”

He glanced at her and noticed the warmth swirling around her was finally touching her skin.  Soon, her body would absorb it.  “You’re about to find out.” Once he was naked, he started to help her out of her dress.

“You mean, you have no control over what you’re doing when you’re making love with a woman?” she asked, slipping out of her shoes as he pulled her dress down to her feet.

“Just for the bonding ceremony and when it’s time to conceive children.”

She stepped out of the dress, and he yanked her panties down so she could take them off, too.  “Is this an alien thing?”

He kissed her stomach then her breasts and then her mouth.  “Yes.”

Picking her up in his arms, he took her to the bed and settled on top of her, settling between her legs.  He wasn’t ready to enter her yet.  There was more that had to be done first and instinct guided him back to her mouth where he resumed kissing her.  He had to wait until she was affected by the hormone he had released before he could proceed and fortunately, the increasing heat swirling around them was bearable at the moment.

He settled his erection against the moist curls between her legs and moved his hips in anticipation of what was to come.  Even if he couldn’t enter her yet, it still felt good to have that part of him intimately rubbing her.  She responded to him nicely.  Her legs wrapped around his waist, and her tongue sparred with his.  He felt the increased wetness between her legs, signaling her mounting desire for him.  But it wasn’t until she gasped and squeezed his arms that he knew her body had finally absorbed the hormone into her body, connecting them together so they would work in unison to complete the act.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered, breathless as he lowered his head to explore her breasts.  “It
is
powerful.” She ran her fingers through his hair and groaned.  “I’ve never felt this good before.”

“Me neither,” he murmured then traced her hardened nipple with his tongue.

He continued to tease her nipples, first going to one and then the other, alternating in hopes of increasing her pleasure.  He’d been able to explore her breasts the night before, but now he was picking up her scent and taste.  He wrapped his arms around her and rolled onto his back, taking her with him so that she was on top.

This action allowed her to rub her chest against his, and though he doubted she realized it, the action marked him as hers.  She dropped kisses along his jawline, down his neck and then to his nipples.  Surprised his nipples were sensitive to her ministrations, he shifted beneath her as his body tingled in response.  She continued to tease him with her tongue while she reached down between them and took his erection in her hand.  She traced the head of his shaft with her thumb.  He grabbed the sheet under him and clenched it.  It seemed like such a contradiction, but he had a mounting need for release while he desired to keep going.

When he realized he was getting too close to ejaculating, he rolled her over so she was on her back.  The heat circling around them dissipated to a comfortable warmth, allowing him to hold off on the final event.  He took a moment to examine the mist of warmth that had gone out from him when he released his hormone.  The mist had become a silver cord twining around them, and it was growing stronger.

“Do you see it?” he asked despite his heavy breathing.

Her breathing also heavy, she opened her eyes.  “See what?”

“The thing connecting us.  It looks like a silver cord that’s braiding itself.”

Her eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head.  “No.”

That was strange.  For some reason, he was more sensitive to the bond than she was.

She drew closer to him and kissed his neck before her hand returned to his arousal.  “I need you in me,” she murmured, putting her leg around his waist and urging him closer to her.  “When I say ‘need’, I mean you
have
to enter me.”

“I know.”

It was the ceremony prompting her along, giving her no choice but to do it.  But first, he had to familiarize himself with her reproductive cycle.  He had learned that women on Earth weren’t always fertile like women on his world had been, and he was curious to know when she’d be ready to conceive.  His hand went between her legs and he slid his finger into her.  She was just as wonderful as he remembered.  This time, he’d be able to fully enjoy her.  Excited, he removed his finger and licked it.  His body linked up to her cycle.  He frowned.

“Lexie, are you doing something to block conception?” he asked, his desire to have children—the very reason the bonding ceremony was developed on his world—temporarily overriding his need to finish the ceremony.

She snuggled closer to him so that his erection was pressing intimately against her.  “Do you have to talk about this right now?”

“Well,” he closed his eyes and moaned as she rubbed against him, “I…” He pulled away from her and focused on what he wanted to say.  “I want children.” Of all the things he’d made sure he knew about her, this was something he missed and it was very important.  He couldn’t believe he didn’t think to talk to her about having children.  “Do you?”

She groaned and rolled him over so that she was straddling him.  “Not right this second, but yes.  Can we please do this?”

Relieved that she wanted children, the warmth surrounding him surged, prompting him to enter her.  When he pressed his tip into her, he realized she was a little tight.  In response, he adjusted his size to better accommodate her and slid effortlessly into her.  Biting her lower lip, she moaned in pleasure.

He put his hands on her hips and guided her movements.  This had to be the most incredible experience of his life.  The warmth swirling around them grew stronger, something that would eventually ensure their mutual release.

He rolled her onto her back and thrust deeper inside her.  She let out a sigh of pleasure, and her core expanded to receive more of him so his erection grew thicker to fill her completely.  She clung to him, moving in rhythm with him.  He kissed her before he lowered his nose to her neck where her scent was the strongest.  How he loved her.  No other woman would have been a better life mate.  He tightened his hold on her and whispered her name.

As soon as the cord developing between them was complete, she reached her peak and let out a cry of pleasure.  He joined her, his own orgasm making his body shudder while he released his seed into her.  In his entire life, he couldn’t recall a time when he felt more at peace than he was now.  And he savored the moment for as long as he could.

When the warmth that had been surrounding them dissipated, their bodies cooled down and relaxed.  Still out of breath, he opened his eyes and saw the silver cord fade until it vanished.  Though he could no longer see the connection between them, he could feel it.  They were linked together and nothing but death would separate them.

He returned his mouth to hers and gave her a lingering kiss.  Afterwards, he smiled at her and brushed her cheek with his fingers.  “The bond is complete.  You’re now my life mate.”

Returning his smile, she squeezed his arms.  “You were right.  The bonding ceremony is powerful.  Will it always be like that?”

“No, but now that I’ve ejaculated, my body will establish a routine for when I’ll ejaculate in the future.”

“Was that the first time you’ve ejaculated?”

He slid out of her and settled beside her, lightly tracing her body with his fingers.  Even if it would be a while before he could make love to her again, he wanted to continue enjoying her.  “I took a pill to inhibit ejaculation.  Without women, there was no need to do it.  Now that I’m not taking the pill anymore, I can do it.  The ultimate purpose of ejaculating is to have children.  With the way things were on our world while women still existed, it became necessary to focus on establishing life bonds and having children to secure our genetic line.”

“Why?”

“Because the women no longer wanted to have our children.  They found a way to remove us from the equation and their offspring were genetically manipulated.”

She rolled onto her side and rested her hand on his hip.  “So they were tampering with the genetics to get the kind of children they wanted.”

“Right.  That’s why ejaculation became more about having children than receiving pleasure.” He brushed aside a stray strand of hair that fell near her eyes then caressed her shoulder.  “Until you conceive a child, I’ll need to ejaculate on a rigid schedule.  I’m not sure yet how many hours will be between ejaculations.  I should know within a day or so.”

Considering how long it took for him to do it this time, he had no idea if he was looking at once a day, more than once a day or maybe even every other day.  He hoped it was more than once a day.  He really wanted to make love a lot.

“Nick didn’t want children right away,” Lexie said, massaging his hip.  “He had plans for career advancement and he wanted me to socialize with a lot of people he considered important.  He was afraid that if I had children too soon, then I’d be too busy taking care of them to do what he wanted me to do.  Because of that, I started taking the birth control pill last month so I’d be ready to have sex on our wedding night.  Are you familiar with what the birth control pill does?”

“I studied it when I got here.” He realized this was a sensitive issue for women on this planet, much like it had once been for women on his world.  But at least on this planet, women still wanted to get married and have children with their husbands.  “You said you want children, right?”

“Of course, I do.  Ever since I was a little girl, I imagined what it’d be like to be a mother.”

Good.  “If I asked you to stop taking the birth control pill, would you?”

“I didn’t want to take it to begin with.  I only did it to please Nick.” After a moment of silence, she added, “I did a lot of things I didn’t want to do because it pleased him.”

“I gathered that from our conversations.” He kissed her, and she snuggled up to him.  She felt heavenly in his arms.  “I should warn you that Caitlyn’s pregnancy is progressing faster than the usual nine months Earth women experience, so I don’t know if yours will be like what she’s going through or if yours will be normal.  I’m from Pandoran, but you’re from Earth.  Things could go either way.  We have to consider that.  Your mom freaked out when Caitlyn was already showing at her wedding.”