Several uppercuts to my jaw are followed by a rapid fire series of jabs to my ribs. It’s not that I can’t handle her. I can. I’m much faster and stronger than she is. But the truth is I’m damned impressed by her abilities. I let her clobber away until she wears herself out. She does very little, if any, damage, and a few minutes later she sags against me.
Fingers fist my shirt, and she starts to mumble something. Her face is smashed into my chest so I can’t understand her. I do what I know I shouldn’t, but I want to know what’s going on in that head of hers. So my mind reaches into hers.
Why the hell did this happen to me? I don’t want to cry. I never cry. Why did I hit him like that?
I pull her close, wrapping my arms around her, and now I want to chuckle a bit. She thinks she may have hurt me.
I pet her hair. Why do I find myself petting her hair a lot? It’s not my nature to do that, but with her, I seem to like it.
“You didn’t hurt me, Serena. I’m fine. And I can’t answer why this happened to you.”
She mumbles again. It has to do with me reading her mind. I don’t care right now. It’s hard to understand her with her sobbing the way she is. I’m not very good at consoling others. I hope she doesn’t cry for long.
Eventually, her sobs taper off and she looks up at me. Her large eyes are rimmed in red and she’s rather pitiful. She starts to say something and a giant snot bubble forms on one of her nostrils. I want to laugh again, but I don’t. Her hand cups her nose and she says, “Oh, god.”
Pulling her hand away, I lift my shirt and wipe her nose. The fact is, she’s been sobbing into my chest so long, I’m all wet anyway. I can change later. “It’s not the end of the world, Serena.”
“It’s gross,” she counters.
“No, seeing my bones and guts hanging out is gross. You’re a champ, you know.”
That puts a tentative smile on her face, even if it is a watery one. I pull her over to the bed and we both sit.
“So, you want to tell me what prompted all of this?”
“I’m doomed. My life is doomed. All my plans are ruined. Scrapped. I’ll never get my doctorate in marine biology, will I?”
The time for truths is here. “No, at least not in the time frame you were planning.”
She faces me and asks, “If that necklace leaves its mark forever, then what will happen to me?”
“You’ll come with us and we’ll keep you safe.”
“But I’ll be alone, with none of my friends. And I won’t have the sea anymore. I’m not sure I can live like that. When you brought me here, I thought it would only be for a week or so. I didn’t think …”
“Serena, listen to me. I will keep you safe for as long as I have to.”
“But I have to give up my life and live alone.”
“Would you rather die? Because that is the price you will pay.”
“I think I would.”
She says it so quietly, I’m not sure I hear her initially.
“Repeat that, please.”
“I don’t want to live like this. Here. In this place.”
“I understand these aren’t the best of circumstances. But it won’t always be here like this.”
“You don’t understand.”
And then she tells me about her parents and how they treated her. I’ve never felt empathy like I feel for her now. The sad part is, I can’t do anything about it.
“So you see, Sabin, maybe I would rather die in the sea that I love, than live like this, trapped inside, afraid to leave.”
The hell? “Where is the fiery woman that attacked me a few minutes ago? Would she be saying things like this? I must be in the wrong room.”
“No. She realized that everything she dreamed of and worked toward is now an impossibility.”
“Serena, listen to me. We aren’t going to stay in this place forever. You will go somewhere else and live a full life. It will be different from what you had planned. But did I say you would never be able to go under the sea again? Did I say anything about having to give up everything you ever loved?”
She tilts her head and her brows shoot up. “No, no you didn’t. I only assumed …”
“Stop assuming. It will only lead to trouble.” I reach for her hand so I can kiss it. “I promise to make things as good for you as they can be. It won’t be perfect, but you’ll have a good life. And when things are safe for you again in Durham, or wherever you want to live, you can go there.”
She grasps my hand for a second. “I feel so weak and afraid.”
“Of course you do. Let me fill you in on something. You’re anything but weak. You just knocked the hell out of me.”
“I’m so sorry. I was frustrated.”
“I could tell.” She wrings her hands, so I put mine on top of hers to ease her worries. “It’s going to be okay, Serena.”
She looks up at me and her eyes, deep green with lashes still wet from crying, sear me. My breath jams in my lungs and it has nothing to do with the injuries I sustained earlier. Her lush lips part and the tip of her tongue peeks out as it touches the corner of her mouth. I am paralyzed with need. She stands and crosses her arms in front of her as she grabs the hem of her shirt. What is she doing? My answer comes when she pulls her shirt off. A groan slips out as I take in her smooth alabaster skin. I am not new to naked women—I’ve had more than my share of them. But I am not immune to this type of taunting. My hands shift to make some necessary adjustments to my dick. It’s already extremely uncomfortable.
The sight of her nearly naked torso makes my mouth water. Her silken flesh begs to be tasted and I am famished for her. But if I so much as put one finger on her, there will be no hope of salvaging control. I will have to fuck her. Mercilessly. When her hands reach behind her to unclasp her bra, I’m forced to speak.
“Serena, stop. You do realize what will happen if you take the next step.”
“Sabin. I’m … I need …”
Fuck, I’m done. Who is this woman? Her hands continue their mission and her breasts are exposed as I tense. It stuns me at how much I crave to touch them. She is every bit as magnificent as I recall—soft, curvy, yet defined. I move so fast to get her beneath me, I know her head spins. She doesn’t understand our speed.
Naked, I need her naked. But I shouldn’t do this. It would be a terrible mistake. She lies beneath me and I want her so badly, worse than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. Lips like the most luscious fruit begged to be kissed and her mouth parts as she anticipates my next move. My thumb brushes her cheek and the temptation becomes way more than I can bear. Her scent assails my cells, my molecules, sending my blood scorching through my veins. I lower my head for just a taste. At least that’s the lie I tell myself. Because one taste won’t be enough. I want an entire feast of nothing but Serena. I want to fill myself with her until I’m satiated, if that’s even possible. But I know it’s not. My mind roars, telling me to stop. Doing this here and now isn’t right while the men wait. I wrench myself away from her, fighting for air. “As much as I want you, need you, and as beautiful as you are, this can’t happen now.”
“Yes. Now.” Her warm breath caresses my cheek as her fingers dig into my arms.
“We can’t. I need to go. The men. They need me. They’re waiting.”
“Let them wait,” she pants. Her hand moves between us and I feel her trying to unfasten my pants.
“Serena, what are you doing?”
“Sabin. You know I want you.”
Lifting up a bit, I look at her. With hair strewn across the bed, and eyes that beg, she drives a hard bargain. “Tell me how you want it. Fast? Hard? Wild?” My voice is gruff.
“Yes to all, since we’re pressed for time. But since this is our first time together, I want you on top. I need to be able to watch you … to see your face.”
I don’t question her. “Fine, but I need to taste you first.” There’s not a chance in hell I’m going to let this opportunity pass me by. Her skin nearly glows and
everything about her is just what I imagined it would be. “If we had more time, I would spend hours tasting every inch of you. As it is, I’ll have to satisfy myself with only this.”
Her hand on my arm stops me. “Why do I need you so much? What is this driving force between us? Do you feel it?”
“Yes, and I don’t know.” She’s right. This urgency is new for me, too. But right now, I don’t care to analyze or discuss it. I run my tongue down the center of her belly and feel her muscles tense and tremble as she moans. Her legs drop apart for me, inviting me in. The flesh on her inner thighs is so sweet, it makes me want to rest my head there for hours. But there’s no time. Instead, my hand can only travel up one thigh and then the other before I allow my mouth to seek its pleasure. I can only imagine the honey on my tongue when I taste her.
“Stop being such a tease.”
If that’s what she wants, then I’ll aim to please. My mouth zeros in on its target and I was right. Honey covered strawberries to match her scent. Sweet and slick. Hands grip my hair and she pulls. Hard. Then she orders me around, telling me how many fingers she wants, how fast, and when. Interesting. She’s not one tiny bit shy. I smile against her and blow. When I suck her clit and hook my fingers in her, pressing on the spot, she ’s close. She rocks against me moaning and I groan against her sweetness. It’s impossible not to tell her how good she tastes.
“Don’t stop with the tongue. Yes, right there. Like that. Ah, damn, you’re good. No, great.”
I would laugh if my mouth weren’t busy. Serena is a handful.
Her hands yank my hair so hard when she comes I think I might end up with a bald spot or two. When her orgasm passes, she actually apologizes for the hair pulling. I don’t want her apology. I loved it.
“Jesus. What was that? Did you go to school for that?”
Now I do laugh. “Ah, no.”
“Well, you need to teach all guys how to perform oral sex on women. You are really something. That tongue swirling thing you do and then when you …”
I finally shut her up with a kiss. I have more important things to do with her than hear about my skilled tongue. While I’m kissing her, I slide my cock around her opening and she instantly moans again. There won’t be any waiting here. I plunge inside of her and freeze, nearly dying of ecstasy. Bloody fucking hell, this is the best I’ve ever had. Then I pull out, until only my tip remains in her and begin slowly thrusting in and out.
“Fuck. You’re every bit as I imagined. This might be a little rough. Put your hands over your head and leave them there.”
“No, I need to hold you.”
“Do it, Serena.”
“Only one hand.”
I take one of her hands and lace our fingers together, and then stretch it above her head. It gives me such a perfect view of her breasts I could drool on the things. Fuuucckk. “God, you’re lovely,” I tell her.
“Yeah?”
“Fuck, yeah.”
My hips rock against hers in a steady rhythm and she catches it. She is so soft and tight around me, I’m not sure how I’ll hold out until she comes.
“Faster, Sabin.” Her hand urges me on by pressing my ass. Her nails dig in and it sexes me up even more. This girl is un-fucking-real.
Rolling to my side, I take her with me, and say, “You okay with this?”
“Anything. As long as I see your face.”
“I’ve got you.” I sit up and put her in my lap so she faces me. “How’s this?”
“Oh, yeah,” she says, sounding breathless. “So deep.”
The sounds she makes urge me on. I reach between us and play with her sex. Then she gets vocal, says all kinds of stuff. A little bit of dirty talk, mostly about how she loves my cock. Serena is a bit of a naughty girl.
I drop my head and take a perfectly hardened nipple into my mouth and draw on it. I engage my teeth a bit and she moans out, “Oh, god!” I release it with a pop, and do the same to the other. I’m not sure which one of us likes it more.
“Lean back, Serena.” Her eyes are open wide and clear as she watches me push in and out of her. “You like to watch, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” her answer is a breathy pant.
“Why?”
“I want to see. It’s sexy and exciting. And you’re very … hot.”
“So are you.” The fact is she’s far better than hot. She makes me lose my thoughts, and no woman has ever been able to do that to me. In the past, sex has only been a means to an end, but Serena is … adrenaline inducing. “I like to watch too. Look what you do to me.” It’s hard not to, but I’m torn between wanting to see her face and all the expressions that pass over it, and wanting to see my cock drive in and out of her luscious pussy.
I pull her in toward me, and what a view this is. “Wrap your legs tight around me.” And now I go in for the kill, driving inside of her with a punishing force.
“Oh, god, yes.”
“Give it to me again, Serena. One more.” I thrust hard while I circle and press on her clit with my thumb, and we both end up climaxing around the same time.
Afterward, I lie back and pull her on top of me.
“I knew this would be damn awesome.” She wiggles around on me, with me still inside of her.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Mmm.”
“You good here?” I ask. Her hand has worked its way up to my face and her thumb is making tiny circles on my cheek. It’s sweet. Normally after fucking a woman, I want to jump up and get the hell out. I don’t have that feeling now.
“Uh huh. Limp as a noodle.”
“Please tell me noodles are good things.” Pulling her up a bit, I kiss her neck and cheek.
“After sex they are. I just don’t understand what came over me.” She nuzzles my neck. “I normally am not this forward.” Her voice is muffled.
“I think I like forward Serena.”
“Sabin, are aliens clean?”
What the hell? “Would you please quit calling us that? And what do you mean?”
“Sorry. Non-humanoids seems so cumbersome and odd to me.”
“Non-hominids. And the term alien is derogatory to me.”
“Sorry. And clean as in sexually transmitted diseases. We didn’t use any protection.”
“My kind doesn’t suffer from those.”
“So you can’t get them or transmit them?”
“Neither. We are immune.”
“Good to know,” she says. “What about babies?”
“Of course we have babies. How else would our species survive?”
“No. Preventing them.”
Fuck! “Are you not utilizing anything?”
“No. I usually rely on condoms. And this isn’t an every day occurrence for me. I haven’t had sex in a while, but I swear something took my brain over and I got caught up in the moment and forgot this time.”
Well, isn’t this nice? “We usually rely on the woman to take care of it, much like you do on Earth.”
She pushes herself up. “What? And we just had unprotected sex and you never asked if I was on anything?”
“Well, I thought …”
“And so did I,” she huffs.
“We also use a device that can do a sperm kill …”
“Then go get it!”
“No, you don’t understand. It only works in the man before sex. I can’t use it on you.”
Her lips pinch together. “So what you’re telling me is that there’s a possibility I could be pregnant.”
When she puts it like that, I suppose there is. “But, seriously, what are the chances?”
“You tell me. It only takes one of those little swimmers to squirm its way through an egg. And I’m assuming your swimmers are like human swimmers.”
I don’t dare tell hers ours are much more potent, like we are. No, I’ll keep that little tidbit of information to myself right now. “Yeah, we have little swimmers, too.”
“Shit! Now wouldn’t that be the icing on the cupcake? Out of all
your fancy gadgets, are you sure there isn’t anything to stop a pregnancy from occurring if one had unprotected sex?”
“If there is, we don’t have it here.”
“Then you need to get to a pharmacy and find me the morning after pill so I can take it. I can’t take the risk.”
“Okay, I’ll go later. But right now, I need to get back to the sec center.”
“What? You need to get that pill for me, now. Unless you know how to insert an IUD. I’m sorry to be such a demanding bitch, but this is important.”
“Insert a what?”
“An IUD. An intrauterine device. It prevents pregnancy. Never mind. Just go get the pill for me.”
She’s right. “Okay. I’ll send Edge.”
“What? Edge? No! Then he’ll know we had sex.”
Now I’m going to have to break it to her. “They’re all going to know anyway.”
“How?”
“Your scent. You’ll smell like me.”
“I’ll shower.”
“It doesn’t work that way for us.”
“What do you mean?”
Her perplexed expression tells me she’s confused. “You will carry my scent for a time. We’re a little weird like that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
Her question catches me off guard. It’s a silly question. Why would I tell her all that? “Would it have stopped you?”
She doesn’t answer. Instead, those haunting green eyes stab me.
“Okay, I guess I didn’t think of it because it’s natural for us.” I’m not going to tell her it’s silly and not important. I smooth her hair back and pull her close. “I love that we had sex and I want you to love it too. We, my men and I, don’t look at things the same way you do. No one is going to think anything of it that you and I slept together.”
She chews on the corner of her lip. I don’t think she likes what I said. “They were bound to find out, I guess. If I smell like you, do you smell like me?”
“Yeah. A lot.” I won’t mention that they’ll give me shit about smelling like strawberries.
The Hart Brothers Series Box Set (Including the bonus book Sabin: A Seven Novel): Freeing Her, Freeing Him, Kestrel, The Fall and Rise of Kade Hart, Sabin: A Seven Novel Page 123