Raptor's Desire (A Planet Desire novelette) (3 page)

“Forgive me. I pushed you too far.” He nuzzled her cheek with his nose, while his hands glided up and down her back. This aftermath was sweeter than any he had ever known. He had never wanted to linger inside a pleasure-giver’s body after reaching his satisfaction. But Andromeda’s sweet warmth and spicy scent bound him.

“Khalim,” she said, her voice raspy, “I can’t give you what you ask.”

The sound of his name on her lips filled his soul with warmth. “Why do you believe that?” he asked softly.

She hugged him. “You’re wanted for high crimes against the Dominion. I’ve already promised to deliver you. And I’d be a fool to believe you are anything other than what the governor told me.”

Khalim kissed the top of her head and rubbed his chin there. “If I tell you that I committed no crimes and my only sin is my race, would you believe me?”

“But why would the Dominion do that?” Her hands lazily kneaded the muscles along his spine. “They’re tolerant of many races and species.”

“My planet and my people hold secrets deep within themselves. Some inside the Dominion would punish us for not sharing those secrets.”

Her mouth skimmed his collarbone. “Are they so valuable?”

With his heart pounding from her tender kisses, he whispered, “Priceless.”

She leaned away from him and looked into his face. Her somber expression was softened by her kiss-swollen lips and rosy cheeks. “Is this dream-making part of your treasure?”

“Do you now believe I brought you here?” he asked, squeezing her ass as he ground his reawakening cock into her.

Her lips opened around a soundless gasp, but she nodded. “I should be furious. You manipulated me when I thought I was safe inside a dream.”

With a small rueful smile, he replied, “I only meant to bring you to Qahir-Jadiid to speak with you.”

“Then why did you seduce me?” Her moss-colored eyes looked troubled.

“You appeared lonely.” His smile stretched. “And you were naked. I didn’t envision that—
you
wanted us without clothing.”

Her blush deepened. “I don’t have the power to shape the outcome of our shared dreams. You created the fantasy.”

“You’re wrong. And this isn’t really a dream.” He flexed his hips and withdrew partway, before sliding back inside her.

Her fingers clutched his back as tightly as her inner muscles gloved his cock. “While we’re here, our bodies are still aboard the ship, right?” she asked breathlessly.

He wondered how she held the trail of their conversation. Her hot channel squeezed and caressed his rigid flesh, stealing his thoughts. He could only manage a nod and circled his hips.

“Then it’s a dream—this isn’t real.” She sounded relieved, and her hips answered with a delicate thrust.

Frustration over her stubborn denial of what they shared cleared his brain. “It’s more than a dream,” he ground out. “Has any dream of yours ever been this vivid?” He held her hips still and stared into her eyes. “What we experience here
together
is mutually remembered—and therefore real. If I were merely forming a vision for you to experience, you would have no choice.”

Her eyes widened. “You could do that?”

“Yes. But I prefer to meld our vision to form events we both want to pass.”

“Therefore we’re naked?” Red suffused her cheeks. “It’s what my mind wants?”

He nodded, satisfied she finally understood.

Her teeth nibbled the bottom lip of her lush mouth for a moment, and then her gaze narrowed. “But you didn’t have to encourage me.”

He arched one eyebrow.

“Once you realized I thought you were part of a dream, you didn’t have to seduce me. You weren’t being gentlemanly when you took advantage of the fact that—”

“That you were lonely? That your body ached for loving?” He pumped his hips to emphasize his point. “I couldn’t resist becoming your fantasy. What man could?”

Her hands moved to the tops of his shoulders, and she lifted herself up then ground her body down on his cock. Her eyes closed for a moment, and her head fell back. “Don’t flatter me. I won’t believe you—I know what I am.”

His hands assisted her movement, and they quickly established a rhythm. “Tell me.” His lips skimmed her jaw. “What are you?”

“Only average looking.” She gasped as his teeth closed on her earlobe. Her back arched, pressing her pointed breasts into his chest. “Under other circumstances, you wouldn’t give me a second glance.”

He tongued the tender lobe his teeth had worried. “It’s true. Of late, I haven’t had time to pursue my pleasure. I’ve only known the purchased favors of professional pleasure-givers. But you are beautiful.” He thrust faster, pushing her hips downward to increase the friction between their opposing fleshes. “Would you believe me if I said that your
in
expertise is enchanting?”

Her breaths panted. “Still, you should…have told me…before you took me the first time.”

“Would you have refused me?” he asked, his voice roughening with passion.

“Probably not…I wouldn’t have…believed you.” She moaned—a low sweet sound that amused him. Her body was already quickening.

Although their conversation was killing him, he continued to drive his point as his cock drove them both to distraction. “When I brought you to my chambers—only intending to talk to you—I read the hunger in your eyes.”

“So…you decided to use my need…to soften me up…and get the password?” The first shudder of her orgasm racked them both.

Khalim slowed and sharpened his thrusts, angling his hips to glide his cock along the nerve-rich spot inside her vagina. He would deliver her maximum satisfaction. “No,” he said, even as he felt her body convulse. “I wasn’t thinking.” His hips slammed against hers. “When your hands…went straight for my cock…and you knelt on the floor to take me into your sweet mouth…any thoughts of negotiation flew.”

She groaned. “Don’t remind me… This is…embarrassing enough.”

“There should be no embarrassment…when we both are pleased with…where our imaginations lead us.” He shouted then, and his body exploded, his cock pummeling her sweet cunt as his ejaculate bathed her womb.

Dragging air into his starved lungs, he released a short bark of laughter. Never had a conversation been so torturous!

Once again, Andromeda cuddled in his embrace. “If I surrender to you,” she whispered, “I’ll become hunted. I’ll lose everything I’ve worked for—my ship, my reputation. And for what?”

“For us?”

Her head shook in denial against his shoulder. “I’m not so big a fool to believe there’s any
us
beyond this dream.”

He threaded his fingers through her wet hair and pulled her head back to watch the emotions her face betrayed. Sadness trembled at the corners of her mouth; wariness lurked in her wide-eyed stare. “Where do you think we go after this?”

“You to prison, me to the next job.” Her expression grew closed. “We should go back.”

Andromeda had much to learn. His wounded prey would resist his gentling every step of the way. His head descended toward hers, and she didn’t resist as he pressed a chaste kiss against her lips. Then with a nod, they were back inside the misty shower stall.

‡

A
ndromeda found herself
pressed to the metal wall, Khalim blanketing her back. The weight of his cock rested between her legs, nudging her swollen slit. With the memory of her recent orgasms humming in her mind and body, she had to fight hard not to tilt her hips. Oh, how she wanted for him to slide right in…

Being pulled between a wet “dream” and reality was too damn confusing. She took a deep breath and pushed away from the wall.

Khalim kissed the top of her shoulder but stepped away.

With his body calling all her sensually deprived hormones, she knew she needed space. And time to sort out her jumbled thoughts, free from the distraction of his aroused body.

The man needed clothes.

She pressed the button to stop the water, and the door to the stall slid open. “I’d like for us both to get dressed. I need to check my navigation system to see where we are. Then I’ll fix us something to eat.”

She didn’t wait for his response and stepped out. The silent vacuum tucked around the doorway of the stall sucked the excess water from her body. Stepping farther into her cabin, she opened the cabinet above her bed and pulled out a reclamation suit.

“We don’t need clothing.” Khalim’s breath stirred the hair resting on her shoulder.

She hadn’t realized he stood so close and shivered. “I’m cold,” she lied.

“Then we’ll tell life support to increase the temperature. There will be no lies between us.”

Her hands clenched around the black fabric of her R-suit. “How does clothing constitute a lie?”

He gripped her waist and turned her. She let the suit fall to her bunk. Her breasts brushed his chest and pebbled instantly.

His gaze dropped to where their flesh met for a moment, and then rose again. “Your body doesn’t lie about what pleases you.”

She lifted her chin. “And how do you know I’m not simply chilled?”

His hand stroked between her legs, and then he lifted his fingers and glided them across her lips. Without a word, he proved his point. She inhaled the fragrance of her arousal.

How she wished she could reach for her weapons in the cabinet behind her feet. A tap from her electro-stun would wipe the smirk from his lips.

“Besides,” he said, his voice a low purr that only heightened her awareness of the bunk pressed behind her knees, “you wouldn’t have anything large enough for me to wear.”

“I have clothing for you.” Desperate to erect barriers between them, she continued, “There’s a suit my last…partner left aboard the ship.”

“Partner?” His expression grew alert. “Did he share this bed with you?”

“No, it’s too small.” Too late she noticed the narrowing of his gaze. He’d noted her choice of words.

“Then you shared the bed at the end of the corridor?”

She ignored his question. “You’ve been snooping around my ship?”

“Of course. I also found the weapons in the drawer behind you.”

She jerked.

“They aren’t there anymore.”

No clothes. No weapons. How the hell was she going to get out of this fix? “I need to head back to the bridge.” She shoved at his chest and slid past him.

“What happened to your partner?”

“None of your damn business.” Had she not been acutely aware of her nakedness, she would have stomped all the way back to the bridge. For now, she’d do nothing to incite his anger or lust. If he expected her to be as easy a conquest as she had been in her dreams, he’d be disappointed.

He stayed one step behind her. “But it is my business—if he expects you to contact him.”

“He won’t.”

Khalim’s hand closed around her arm, bringing her to a halt.

She pulled from his grasp and he let her go. “He won’t contact me.”

“Tell me why.” His expression was implacable, but his narrowed eyes hinted at deeper emotion.

Sighing, she hid her hurt and blurted, “We parted company six months ago.”

“Was this by mutual agreement?”

Her cheeks burned. “No.”

“He has no reason to return?”

“He took our entire client list with him. There’s nothing of value left here.”

Khalim stood still, his penetrating gaze holding hers for a long moment, and then he nodded. “He was a fool.”

With a nonchalant shrug, she turned, intent on ending the conversation.

Again his hand stopped her—this time, his fingers spread over her belly, and he pulled her flush with his body. “If you don’t care, why do you sleep in this narrow bunk rather than the larger bed down the corridor?”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I don’t care about him. But I hate to think about how foolish I was to believe he wanted me.”

“I would never leave you,” he said softly. His hand rose to her breast and cupped it. “And I wouldn’t use your love to steal from you. I would cherish you.”

She lifted her hand and pried his fingers from her breast. “Well, I’ll never know that for sure, will I? Because I’m not going to love you.” She whirled away from his embrace. “And I won’t let you steal my ship.”

His hands fisted at his sides directing her gaze downward.

“I’m getting you some clothes as soon as I check our coordinates.” She ignored the look of masculine pride that curved his lips and stomped from the room.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t stalk far enough to vent her anger. The end of the corridor opened onto the bridge.

She stepped down metal rungs to the captain’s deck below and slid into her chair, extending the right arm of her chair to expose the controls.

Khalim eased into the seat beside her.

With the press of a button, the large bioluminescent screen in front of them flickered into life. A living recreation of the stars in their path glimmered against the blue-black screen. “Add vector,” Andromeda said.

Instantly, a glowing red line stretched before them, disappearing into the hazy, spiraling cloud of the distant Milky Way galaxy. “Compute arrival time,” she said.

[04 days; 03 hours; 24 minutes] appeared at the edge of the screen.