MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) (68 page)

Chapter 4

Unable to contain the bubble in her chest, Melanie burst forth into laughter. Boy, did
he
have the wrong woman!

“A
princess
?” she exclaimed. “Me? You’ve
got
to be kidding. I’m about as far from a princess as somebody can get. I was the biggest tomboy growing up. Princess stuff was all silly, inane play that I only did so I had some girl friends.”

“You do not understand. I am Prince Odin of Cardonia. I am a prince like …” He hesitated and took on an expression that made him appear to be searching his mind, or Jared’s memories, for the words he wanted. “Ah, yes. Like Prince Albert of Monaco. I rule Cardonia, so we must return before long so I can attend to business. I do not have a lot of time for this discussion. We must mate and go back to Cardonia together.”

Melanie almost panicked. She wasn’t ready for sex with this Jared. Somehow she had to postpone what appeared to be the inevitable.

“Tell you what,” she said, her words coming out before she even knew what she would say, “why don’t you take me to this Cardonia first? Then, if I like it, we can screw our minds out. I’ll decide when I get there if I want to stay with you. But you
have
to promise to bring me back if I don’t like it.”

“I do not understand
screw
for some reason.”

“It means mate. Now promise me, or maybe you don’t know what a promise is. That means that if you say you’re going to bring me home, you absolutely
must
do it. Do you promise?”

He hesitated but nodded once and replied, “Yes. I promise. But you will be pleased with my Cardonia.”

“How do we get there?”

To Miranda’s dismay, Odin slid back into his T-shirt.
Too bad
, she thought.
I was hoping I could keep an eye on that while we were traveling.

“My transport is not far away, hidden away in the forest where the people of Earth will not see it.”

“Terrific. Just let me call Jared and tell him that I won’t be in to work for a while. How long will I be gone?”

“There will be no more work for you, Melanie Collier. Your job will not be there next week.”

She stared at him in shock. “What do you mean? Of course, it will.”

“Do you not understand? The body I use has to be one that is just short of dying. Jared is no longer alive.” He rubbed the mark on his neck. “He used a cord to kill himself. He could no longer live without his mate. He cared for you very much, but he loved his mate. We must go now, and when we are gone, Jared will be found in his garage. I will no longer look like him. I hope you are not disappointed by my new appearance.”

Miranda followed him in a daze. Jared had committed suicide, and that probably meant the company would be sold. Even if it wasn’t, she couldn’t work there anymore—not with all of her memories of the good times she had there with Jared.

Chapter 5

Her mind reeling from what he’d told her, Melanie walked beside Odin, deeper and deeper into the Minnesota woods she’d explored as a child, but she didn’t remember this area.

She glanced up at Odin and noticed that the color of his hair had changed from red to some kind of pink, a kind she couldn’t describe. Had he left Jared’s body already? If so, how was he functioning on Earth?

Grabbing his wrist, she exclaimed, “Odin, wait! What’s happening to you?”

The magnetic energy between them startled Melanie. Oh, how she wanted this man. She felt as though she could actually ravage him right here in the woods.

They stopped walking, and Odin turned to face her. His hair was a pinkish color, but his skin had turned to bronze—not the bronze that people called deep tans, but a bronze that looked like the metal. How could she be so attracted to a man—more precisely, an
alien
—who was made of metal? But his wrist was soft and supple under her grasp.

“What do you want?” he asked in that deep, smooth voice.

“You’re changing,” she replied, staring up into Jared’s face.

“I must. Someone will find Jared Scott soon. I must put his body back.”

“How can you breathe? Doesn’t Cartonia have a different atmosphere?”

“Yes, but not so different that I cannot adjust gradually. That is why I can mate with you.”

“About that mating stuff,” she said, a bit hesitant to ask, “do you think maybe we should do it before you totally change?”

“I understand. I will not look like Jared any longer. Yes, we can do it now if you wish.”

“Dear
Lord
do I wish!” The words erupted from her mouth before she could stop them. Then she remembered where they were. People hiked in these woods all the time, and she wouldn’t want someone interrupting them. “Unfortunately, this probably isn’t the best place to do it.”

He stripped his shirt over his head, once again revealing his perfect abs. Oh, how she loved looking at them, especially now that they looked like a bronzed sculpture. Were they as hard as a sculpture? Or were they hard like an athlete’s?

Reaching out, she laid her hands on his broad shoulders and dragged her hands slowly over his pecs to his abs, from the belt of his relaxed-fit jeans to his manhood. It throbbed once in her hand as she fumbled to loosen his belt with her free hand.

“That feels very good,” he said with Jared’s toothy smile. “Better than on my planet.”

In an instant, she released him. “I shouldn’t be doing that. We’re in the middle of the woods. Hikers could walk by and see us.”

“There will be no hikers. No one but I—and now you—can access this part of the forest. It is hidden to only us. You may continue.”

“Oh, no! I couldn’t. I shouldn’t have done that to begin with.”

Odin grasped her shoulders and gently pulled her against him. His lips inched close to hers, giving her time to stop him, but she had no intention of doing so. They were in his world now, and she wanted to taste all of him.

Their lips finally met, and Melanie melted against him, unable to do anything but submit. He slid his right hand to her buttocks and clasped her to him. His organ throbbed against her lower abdomen, exciting her even further. His left hand found its way down to her right breast, where he lingered, using his thumb to taunt her nipple until it was erect. When it was, he used the palm of his hand to excite it, rubbing her nipple gently through her tank top and lacy bra.

If this was how Jared had conducted foreplay, she was sorry she’d never had the chance to make love with him. Now she just wanted to feel his naked chest against hers, so she broke contact and yanked her top over her head.

He kneaded her mounds tenderly. This man was an incredible lover, especially for an alien. Reaching behind her, she unhooked her brassiere, and when it was loose, she worked it from between them. At last, his hands caressed her naked breasts. She sighed.

“You do that
so
well,” she praised.

“Do I? This is not how Cartonians do it, but I find it pleasurable.”

He unbuttoned her jeans and slid down the zipper as he backed her toward a tree. But when she touched the tree, she discovered it was soft like a mattress, not course against her skin. How was that possible? Did it matter?

Kicking off her sneakers, she leaned against the tree and unfastened his jeans. Then he bent down to remove her jeans, so she could no longer reach him. He kissed his way up her thigh and her stomach before centering his attention on her right breast. He suckled a moment, increasing her desire. She could scarcely hold still as he moved to the other breast.

Unable to resist a moment longer, she reached out and slid his jeans over his thighs, exposing his excited manhood. She grasped it, pumping it gently, until he moaned. She closed her eyes to imagine her dream man, the one with blond hair and amber-brown eyes, her dream man that she imagined on those nights when she needed to pleasure herself. Then he nibbled his way over her shoulders, up her neck, and around her jawline until he reached her mouth to kiss her.

With her hand still holding him, he lifted her at the knees, bracing her against the soft tree. She led him to her womanhood and rubbed his penis between the folds to wet it with her juices. Moments later, she removed her hand to grasp his buttocks with both hands, to hold on and to feel his muscles.

He slipped into her slowly, causing her to moan into his mouth. His tongue worked its way between her lips. The kiss intensified as he thrust into her again, this time skewering her on his excitement and grinding his pelvis against hers.

Melanie could barely contain herself. She tried to move against him but was unable to do so since she was so tightly pinned to the mattress-like tree. Her clitoris was so excited that she didn’t think she could stand a moment more of this taunting. He pulled out, just to the head of his maleness, and plunged into her again—and again and again—until she could hold it no longer.

Her body quaked with her orgasm, and she cried out into the hidden forest air. “Oh, my God, Odin!”

As her womanhood pulsated, Odin drove into her one more time and held it there, using only short thrusts as he emptied into her.

Finally, he broke the kiss and rolled over beside her. How was that possible when they were against a tree? Curious, she opened her eyes and saw that they were no longer in the forest. They were lying on a bed in a room she had never been in before.

Chapter 6

She sat up, startled by what she saw. This was no bed chamber of a royal. This was a small, sparse room with just a bed, a dresser, and a window that exposed a greenish, glowing light, as though the trees outside were illuminating the sky.

Turning toward him, she discovered that the Jared look-alike was gone, replaced by her image of perfection, the man of her fantasies. Odin’s hair had turned a blondish color; his body, however, was unchanged. His nose was straight and slender, not at all like Jared’s slightly bulbous nose. His jawline was strong and his chin squared. The dimples in his cheeks showed even though he didn’t smile. Then she looked at his eyes, amber with golden flecks in them, almost as though the flecks hadn’t gone away when he’d taken over Jared’s body.

She stared down at him, her mouth gaping in awe.

Frowning, he said, “I am sorry if I disappoint you. I wanted my appearance to please you.”

“Disappoint?” she exclaimed. “I couldn’t be
more
pleased. You turned into the man I’ve always dreamed of. How did you know what to turn into?”

“I did not. This is how I have always looked. As I told you, we are destined to be mates. Now you can believe that.”

“I can’t promise I’ll believe it, but I’ll give it a shot.”

Odin bolted up to sit beside her. “You want to shoot me? Why? You said you were pleased.”

Laughing, Melanie said, “It’s an expression. It means that I’ll try. I have no intention of shooting you.”

His entire body visibly relaxed, and he smiled at her, revealing even deeper dimples. “I am not aware of expressions. You must tell me more of them later. Now, I must prepare for our journey.”

“May I watch? Or maybe help?”

“You may.”

Glad that their post-coitus banter was so relaxed, she reached down for her clothes, but she didn’t see them anywhere. “Where are my clothes?”

“They are in the forest. You will not need them. We do not wear jeans on Cartonia.” As he explained, he got out of bed and waddled over to the dresser with his jeans around his ankles. Pulling out a silver jumpsuit, he tossed it to her. “We will wear these.”

That made sense, she thought as she donned the jumpsuit. They were traveling through space, after all. Of course, they needed something special for that. She was surprised that the jumpsuit was so soft, just as his bronze skin was soft, and the tree was soft. Did they have no hard materials on Cartonia? They must, because the room was hard, as was the floor on which she stood.

“Do you have any shoes? Or slippers?” she asked. “My feet are a little chilly.”

“I do not understand,” he admitted as he bent his knee to take off a loafer. “What are shoes or slippers?”

“You’re taking off a shoe right now,” she explained. “Don’t you wear them?”

“There is no need on Cartonia. These hurt my feet, so I must remove them.” He dropped the second shoe on the floor, removed his jeans and stepped into a jumpsuit like hers as he continued. “I will explain everything you must know on our journey, and when we are out of Earth’s atmosphere, we will find you a body that you like. The trip is too rough through the atmosphere, so we must be seated at the time we traverse it.”

Melanie hurried to keep up with him. If this was the real Odin, he was much taller than Jared. As she trotted alongside him, she realized that her feet warmed to a more comfortable temperature. No problem for her, though, because she hated wearing shoes, anyway, and she never did so unless it was necessary. If he lived on a planet where it was unnecessary to go barefoot any place she wanted, she could easily live with that.

As they hurried down the corridor, Melanie marveled at all of the silver in his spaceship. Doors opened with the kind of infrared eyes they had on mall doors. It kind of reminded her of the old
Star Trek
television show and movies. To her surprise, even the bridge—at least, that’s what it was called on
Star Trek
—looked like a smaller version of the
Enterprise
. Of course, things looked familiar. She was in a coma.

Odin fiddled with some buttons and knobs, turning on some lights and turning off others. He flicked some switches on the control panel. While she watched in awe, she saw the trees outside the window lifting.

“We should sit down and put on the belts,” he said as they ascended.

While he strapped her into her seat with a belt that crossed over her chest, like those of an infant’s car seat, and snapped the buckle into place, she asked, “Don’t we need helmets?”

“No,” he replied, getting into his own seat, “we do not.”

“But what about the oxygen? Isn’t that a problem going through our different levels of our atmosphere? I don’t remember what they’re all called, but I know we have the atmosphere and stratosphere.”

“Your technology on Earth is not as advanced. I have set my craft to adjust the internal atmosphere for each of us. We can both breathe normally.”

After a bumpy ride, during which time they rose straight above the trees as if they were in a helicopter, the clouds and the blue sky disappeared in the big window before them, and everything outside faded to black.

Space
, Melanie thought,
“the final frontier.”

“It is safe now,” he said. “You will now pick out a body.”