by Lauren Dane
“You can.” A line dug into his forehead between his eyes. “Why are you crying? Did I upset you?”
“Didn’t I just tell you about happy tears not too long ago?” She smiled as he thumbed the tears away.
“I think I might be able to make you even happier.”
That pulse of thick, hot desire spread through her, making her limbs heavy.
Not that he seemed to notice when he stood, bringing her with him, putting her on the table in front of them.
“You’re injured.” Even to her own ears it sounded totally feeble.
“Don’t hit me in the back with a pike, and I should be all right.” He said it as he made quick work of her shirt and bra, leaving her upper body bare, her nipples so hard they throbbed at his attention.
He kissed her neck. The underside of her jaw just at her ears where he made her tremble. He tasted, drew it out, little touches, hot and wet as he nibbled on her shoulder, licked down the valley between her breasts, his hands all over her. Often his lovemaking was hard and fierce, urgent. But just then, he sampled. Meandered, dropping kisses and licks.
She struggled to get closer to the leg he had wedged between hers, brushing against it, enjoying the sensation.
As if he read her thoughts, he pressed his thigh against her harder, adjusting her body so she rocked against him.
“Take your pleasure,” he murmured around her nipple.
The roar of white noise subsided as she began to rock against his thigh. His hard, muscular thigh. She knew she acted like a wanton, and she didn’t care. She could be anything with him. Demand her pleasure and know he’d give it to her without hesitation. Without judgment.
Even better, he seemed to enjoy it when she fully engaged with him sexually and emotionally. It was the one place he was free with her. The one time he seemed to give himself to her in the most unvarnished way. And how could anyone remain unmoved by that?
Her breath came shorter as her climax drew near. She was wet, so wet the friction against his thigh was delicious.
He straightened and brought her closer, embracing her as she continued to stroke her pussy against his thigh, needing it, needing to come as his mouth sealed over hers, stealing her breath.
The kiss was sweet and hot as he took his time, sampling her lips and tongue. Seducing her with that small thing as she held on to his upper arms for purchase, to keep herself from floating away when he rolled and pinched her nipples. It was too good, and she gave over to it, orgasm rolling through her in a welcome rush of heat.
He laid her back gently, pulling her boots and pants off as he stood above her. His hair tickled the skin of her belly as he moved.
Sliding his palms up her thighs, he grabbed her panties and pulled them away from her body, leaving her totally naked while he was still totally dressed. She didn’t know why, but the sight of him there that way while she was bare did something to her at an elemental level. It shook her with the intensity of sensation. With the way she felt totally owned and bound to him in all the best ways.
He fisted the cock he’d freed from his pants. She licked her lips and widened her thighs, needing him in her.
“Please fuck me,” she whispered, not wanting to wait to beg. Needing him right then.
He pressed slowly into her body as her inner muscles stretched and fluttered all around the invasion. On and on it went as he tortured her inch by inch until he was seated fully within her body.
“So good.”
Beyond words, she nodded her agreement.
Hands everywhere, caressing, soothing, inflaming and pleasuring, he continued to fuck her hard and torturously slow. He touched her as if she were fine and delicate. It brought the sting of tears—the happy kind—to her eyes. This hardened man who’d seen so much showed her nothing but gentleness and love. Oh, she knew he thought the hard and fast fucking wasn’t as loving, but that was just silly.
Hard, fast, slow, sweet or with teeth and nails, he always touched her with love.
Little ground tremors of climax shuddered through her over and over, leaving her a boneless mass of pleasured female. Unable to take her gaze from him, from the way his pale blue eyes darkened when he was inside her. The brush of his hair against her skin like a caress. The way he was so big and battle hardened, a feast for her eyes. So fierce and beautiful, her Andrei.
“I need you to come inside me,” she managed to whisper through suddenly dry lips. She arched and he groaned. She tightened herself around him, and he groaned again. She used the table to get some balance and rolled her hips to meet his thrusts, putting her legs around his waist, a favorite no matter the position because it took him even deeper, the head of his cock brushing over her sweet spot repeatedly until he reached down to flick a fingertip over her clit and she rocketed off, orgasm surrounding her as she cried out his name.
He watched her, keeping slow and deep as she writhed against him. Once she’d relaxed, he bent to kiss her and then sped up. Fucking so hard and deep her breasts bounced and she had to reach behind herself to grab the edge of the table to keep from sliding off.
“Yes.” A snarl from him as he grabbed her hips and held her, his cock jerking as he came deep within her.
He sighed and pulled out carefully, helping her to her feet.
“Off to clean up, and then we begin the second round. We’ll be flying later today, so I’ll need to get my fill of you before then or I’ll be distracted all day. And, Piper?”
She paused before heading into the bathing suite.
“I’m going to fuck your ass very soon.”
A shiver ran through her at the way he said it. Commanding. In charge.
She swallowed hard. “O-okay.”
The bathing area was as sleek and full of delightful tech as the rest of what she’d seen. Enough water to clean up, nice and warm, with the added benefits of the decontamination lights and the ultrasonic embedded in the water to get even cleaner.
“Andrei, come in here so I can help you,” she called out.
She plugged the large tub in the corner of the room and began to fill it with hot water.
He stalked through the doorway, naked. She paused to take him in. Unbelievable, still, that he was hers.
“Shameless with that body,” she teased. “Come on and let me get your hair. I’m sure raising your hands up to do it yourself will be uncomfortable.”
“I was trying to stay away so I didn’t ravish you again for a little while.”
“Here, sit in the tub. Hair first.” She knelt behind him, using the removable sprayer to get his hair wet enough and then poured the aromatic soap into her palm.
He groaned when she began to wash his hair, massaging his scalp and the back of his neck. Ministering to a man who had made a career of taking care of everyone else. He relaxed fully, moaning occasionally, his eyes closed as she washed and then rinsed his hair. Which, granted, took a while because he had so much of it.
The time was lovely, just the two of them. Quiet but for soft breath and his occasional sound of pleasure.
“Why did you grow it so long?” She squeezed the excess water from it with a drying cloth.
“Because I could, mainly.”
She took the wash cloth and the soap and moved to where his feet were, massaging them as she cleaned. “Knowing you, that makes sense. I like it. I didn’t recognize you at first that day. You came from the smoke and dust like a ghost. An avenging spirit, more like.”
“I’ve had to—oh gods, that feels good—cut it from time to time. Luckily most of my work is solo and covert enough that I can tuck it into my collar or change the color, and it’s enough.”
His personal piece of rebellion.
She kneaded the muscles in his calves and then up his thighs. So complicated, her man. Even in his job—and special ops or not, the military demanded a certain type of rigidity and order—he had his own spin on duty. He wasn’t one to be up every day at the trumpet song, wearing the same thing his neighbor wore, having the same ha
ir to the exact specifications. At the same time, he sought out the order, clearly having some need filled by it. Fascinating. She could happily spend the rest of her life just thinking about him and why he did what he did.
His gaze caught hers, snagged as she got higher and higher, brushing his cock, which was reviving quite nicely, before she moved up again to his belly and chest.
“Where did you learn this?” He nearly purred at her as she pressed all the right places in his hands. Between his fingers, over the heel of his palm, over his wrists and up first one arm and then the other. Carefully, she attended to his back and then told him to stand so she could rinse him.
“When I did my compulsory time in the corps, I learned the ancient art of reflexology and massage from one of the other soldiers in my unit. I can get rid of headaches and stomach pains, too.” She grinned.
His features, though, stayed serious. “No one has ever taken care of me like that. No one but you.”
His quiet words lodged in her heart as she smiled up at him. “I love taking care of you.” She tipped her chin toward his cock. “And you return the favor plenty.”
He got out and stood still as she dried him off. When she turned to grab another cloth for his hair, he grabbed her, hauling her body to his. Skin to skin, and she sighed, melting into him. “I could have lost you.”
“But you didn’t. I’m hard to kill, Piper. Count on it. I will be back to you after every op, even if I have to crawl to get there.”
“I get all ready to be angry with you, and then you’re so sweet. You undo me, befuddle me, leave me breathless and tingly.”
He sent her a smile closer to a leer, and she laughed, leaving the room, off to find some clothes.
She found him in the small living space, looking over the briefings that had come in when he was in treatment. He wore underpants and a snug, dark colored tank. She wanted to lick him from head to toe and back again.
“Your hair is still wet.” She touched his shoulder, leaning down to kiss him. “Why didn’t you come in to shower with me right away? You couldn’t possibly have thought to bathe yourself without my help.”
“It wasn’t difficult, and if I’d had you nearby and we’d both been standing, I’d have nailed you again. And again for good measure.” He turned, cupping her cunt in his palm, the heat of him nearly scalding her. Instead, she jutted her hips forward.
“I’m available for all and any nailing you’d like to administer, sir.”
He quirked a smile. “That so?”
She nodded, swallowing back anticipation.
“I’ll keep that in mind for later.”
Happily clean, fucked, warm and dry, she settled into her seat, curling up to face him so she could watch him work. And then she stood. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
In the sleeping quarters, she found exactly what she needed.
“Here.” she stood behind him, her thighs brushing the back of his chair. “Let me brush the tangles free.”
She brushed and remembered the times he’d braided her hair back then. She’d sit on the floor between his knees as he braided and talked. Braided and sometimes smoked. With his hands on her, she’d always felt better, stable, adored.
“Feels good.” He nearly purred it, leaning back into her touch.
“I’m sure your ladies do it for you all the time.”
He snorted. “Piper, I told you, there’s no one else. And before”—he shrugged—“I didn’t stick around to get my hair brushed.”
“If you try to not be around this lady, you’ll walk with a limp forever more.”
“One of your most charming qualities.”
His hair was soft and cool against her hands and arms. So much of it. She pressed her face to it, breathing him in, taking in the scent, his scent, a mixture of weapons lubricant, sex, power and warm skin. No one and nothing else smelled like him.
“Can I braid it? Just one long braid, I don’t think you’d look as pretty as I do in my braids.”
He spun, catching her by surprise. “You please me.”
She tumbled into his lap, laughing and wrapping herself around him. Totally, utterly flattered and happy.
“Good. You please me, too.”
“Let’s get this update finished so we can go to bed. And eventually sleep.” He looked at her then, one brow raised.
Grinning, she nodded. “All right. I have some vid footage to look at. I’d finished most of the southwestern quadrant. It’s got to be somewhere.” The processing plant couldn’t be so totally hidden. She’d comb over every single inch on the surface to find it so they could get rid of it.
“Take some breaks. You’ll get a headache if you don’t.”
Touched, she hopped to her feet. “Braid first.” She made quick work of it, standing back to admire her work. His face was exposed that way, showing the masculine beauty there. “Gods, you’re even better looking this way. Clearly I need to be with you just to keep all the other ladies from putting their hands on you.”
“My hero.”
Chapter 16
Andrei planned, step by step, how he would kill Julian for barging into their room and waking them up. He’d had plans for her—detailed, filthy plans—and instead he woke up to Julian’s voice, telling him Ellis and Daniel would be comm conferencing within the hour and to get up.
Now he sat in a briefing room with a bunch of other people and most definitely not back in his bed with Piper’s pussy wrapped around his cock. Contrasted with this room filled with agitated soldiers, he preferred the way he’d been waking up since she’d come to his bed. And, he supposed, it brought home just how used to her he’d grown. How much he’d come to expect that time with her, naked and snuggled up into his side, her snuffling little snores.
He dragged his thoughts from her soft, creamy pussy and back to his job.
“The materials have arrived safely in Ravena, and they’re currently in the process of building the device.” Daniel looked at the papers before him. “We need to find that processing plant. I want it triple time to find it. Andrei, you’re my second-in-command; organize the Federation soldiers there at the installation. Get them combing every rock, every stream and tree, every grain of sand. I want that processing plant.”
“So we’re just giving up on Parron as a possible location for a processing plant?” Piper sat forward, tapping her pen on the edge of the comm keyboard. Andrei heard the tension in her voice.
“We’ve got twelve thousand confirmed dead. Eighty-five thousand injured and three million homeless. They have enough problems. They’ve moved on. We’re not concerned about Parron in any way other than humanitarian aid at this time.”
“Respectfully, sir, I disagree with this angle. I worked around these Imperialist types for years now. They’re not the kind who’d hesitate to destroy two-thirds of an entire ’Verse to keep people away from their work. Why else would they do it?”
Andrei didn’t necessarily agree with her, but she had a point.
Daniel took a deep breath. “It’s not our belief that this is the case. We want the focus on Mirage.”
He signed off, and Piper sat back, clearly unhappy.
“He’s wrong.”
Everyone stared at her, and she shrugged. “What? I didn’t say he shot anyone in the face; I said he was wrong about Parron. Vincenz”—she turned to face him—“you’ve lived out here a long time. Long enough to know how things go here.”
Vincenz laughed then, startling Andrei.
“Thank you, Piper.”
“For what? You agree about Parron?”
“Not necessarily. But you didn’t assume I knew because I was one of them.”
Her expression said it all, and Andrei couldn’t help a smile.
“Because you’re not. You’re one of us.” She waved it away.
At that moment, Andrei was very proud to be loved by her.
Vincenz continued. “I agree to a point that the Imperialists are totally capable of carpet-bombing an entire
’Verse to keep people away. Then again, I’d agree that the Imperialists would carpet-bomb an entire ’Verse to hide evidence of what they’d been up to before moving on.”
“We haven’t found it here.”
“We haven’t looked everywhere,” Julian countered.
None of them downplayed her opinion, but if she wanted to be taken seriously as a member of their team, she’d have to learn to hold her own, even when Andrei wanted to handle it for her.
“No, but it’s a processing plant. It would have to be either near a portal or near some method of transport to a portal.”
“What makes you feel so strongly about it? If we’re thinking it’s not here, then why not Asphodel?” Andrei was interested in her logic.
“I think the atmosphere on Asphodel is too harsh to have a processing plant of that sort. Most high-tech gear is made off-’Verse because of that. They can’t keep the clean rooms sealed. Dust finds a way.”
Andrei nodded. That much was very true.
“I’ve felt strongly about this since we heard about the bombing and everyone lost the focus on Parron as a possibility for the processing. I just don’t think we should write it off.”
“No disrespect intended, but, Piper, there are people with more expertise at this who think otherwise.” Julian said it, not unkindly, and still Andrei kind of wanted to punch him in the face.
“None taken, even though you should dial back the condescension more if you truly don’t mean for anyone to take offense.”
Andrei didn’t hide his smile of amusement.
“What I mean is—”
“We know what you mean, Julian.” Andrei sent him a look, and Piper shook her head.
“No, it’s all right. If I’m to be taken seriously, I have to back up my opinions. I don’t have the training you all do. But I have expertise nonetheless. It is my opinion that ruling out Parron without a comprehensive check for the processing plant is lazy. You want to cross it from the list because it seems logical at first glance. But it’s not. You looked at Parron without knowing what you were looking for, and then you isolated the gel. Before anything else happened, the Imperialists bombed it, effectively shutting down all further investigation.” She shrugged. “Which is a good thing for them, don’t you think? To be left alone to keep working on making material for the device? All while we scour another ’Verse. Totally out of their way.”