“Male or female?”
She gaped at him. “What?”
“Your imaginary friends.”
She felt her face heat. “Female!” she said tightly.
“Names?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why don’t you tell me why you think I’m here?”
He tilted his head, studying her. She stepped back when he crowded her again and discovered she’d run out of retreating room and hit the wall. He planted a hand on either side of her. “Let me guess—you figured you ought to do a little research to see just how much trouble you might be in for letting me stick my dick in you without protection. And now you’ve seen me at work you figure they don’t make enough antiseptic to decontaminate you. Am I warm or cold?”
Chelsey gaped at him, feeling the blood drain from her face and then rush back with a vengeance. “I wasn’t … thinking about that.”
He lifted his dark brows. “No? Just checking out the trash your sister brought in, then?”
She stared at him, realizing abruptly that he wasn’t just angry. He was defensive, and he was never defensive unless he felt threatened in some way. “That’s not fair! I never thought that about you, Garryk. Never.”
Surprise flickered through his eyes. “So … you finally remembered who I am. Tell me, did you remember that before or after I fucked you? Or did it just sort of click in place later?”
Chelsey flinched. “I guess … I guess that answers that question. Does it matter?”
“It does to me,” he growled.
“Why?” Chelsey asked bitterly, looking away.
He cupped her cheek, forcing her to look at him again. “Why do you think, baby?” he asked harshly, dipping down to cover her mouth in a kiss that was rough with the anger still pumping through him.
Chelsey stiffened, struggling with the twin desires to yield instantly to temptation and to sooth whatever distress she’d caused him. At the same time, she realized she couldn’t afford to yield to either urge. She was too vulnerable to him, too susceptible to his charms, but no amount of trying to reason with her libido served her. Despite the roughness, maybe because something inside of her recognized the hurt that prompted it even while she didn’t completely understand it, everything inside of her seemed to melt at the possessive stroke of his tongue along hers.
A shudder traveled through him when she gave up the battle and sucked his tongue, drinking in the essence that was like a magical elixir, relishing the drunken euphoria that swept through her as she absorbed it. He moved closer, pressing her tightly between his body and the wall behind her until she could feel him against every inch of her length. He slipped his hands behind her after a moment, cupping her buttocks and bringing her pelvis up tightly against his, rubbing his hard erection maddeningly against her cleft.
Her nipples tightened with the excitement that rushed through her. Her clit throbbed in complaint at being teased as he rocked against her. Her mind flitted in search of a possibility of appeasing the heat he was generating inside of her.
The sound of a door opening close by was like having a bucket of icy water thrown over her. Chelsey jerked away from Garryk, feeling a second jolt when she discovered the door wasn’t just close. The door she’d heard was the door to the storage room.
“That you, Sinclair? You need to take it outside. You know how the boss feels about fucking in the backrooms.”
“Go fuck yourself!” Garryk snarled.
Chelsey pushed away from him, so embarrassed she hardly knew where to look. “I can’t do this,” she gasped in a suffocated voice. “I can’t.”
Garryk caught her when she tried to slip by him. “Why? Just tell me why!”
She stared at him a little helplessly. She didn’t think of him as a disreputable person but she knew she was probably a majority of one. Beyond that, even if she was willing to throw her life away just to be with him, she knew it would be for nothing. She didn’t mean a thing to him. “Don’t you have enough women? I can’t. I’ve got too much to lose.”
He didn’t try to stop her that time when she tried to pass him, but he followed her all the way out and to her car. “What the hell do you mean by that?” he growled, planting his hand on the car door to keep her from opening it.
Chelsey swallowed convulsively. “Don’t … play with my feelings, Garryk. I can’t just be your … fuck buddy!” Lord knew she wanted to! If she hadn’t wanted to so badly, she might’ve thought it was safe to play with fire.
He caught her jaw in the crook of one hand, glaring at her ferociously. “Where the hell did you get the idea that that was all I was after? I’m not playing, woman! I’ve never been more deadly serious in my life.”
She searched his face, feeling weak all over at the suggestion. “I want to believe you, but I just don’t, Garryk.”
He studied her a long moment and finally released her. “I guess I’ll have to convince you, then.”
* * * *
Chelsey was such a nervous wreck from their encounter that she could hardly sleep. Alright, so it wasn’t entirely nervousness. She was also on edge from being lit up and let down—not that she blamed Garryk for that! She was fairly certain that he would’ve been glad to appease her if he’d gotten the chance. He nearly had anyway. If that bastard hadn’t stuck his head in the room when he had she thought she could’ve come with no more stimulation than she’d gotten. She’d been on the very verge. She didn’t think she would’ve felt so let down if she hadn’t been so close!
Regardless of what he’d said to the contrary, though, she didn’t think he was serious about anything except getting laid—deadly serious about that, maybe, perhaps even deadly serious in his pursuit of her as the flavor of the week—but nothing else. Even if it had given her heart palpitations, she wasn’t going to let herself get hooked on that line!
In any case, she’d told him the absolute truth. She couldn’t afford it.
It had been a serious mistake to go to see his show even if she’d been right in her reasoning—and she thought she had been. Not that she’d really been in any doubts that Garryk was woman-bait, but it never hurt to get a good dose of reality when it was needed.
The mistake was in getting caught at it. She thought Garryk had probably already put her out of his mind and that stupid stunt she’d pulled had just put her back in his line of sight!
She dismissed the niggling suspicion that she’d hoped for just that reaction. Maybe subconsciously she had, but it certainly hadn’t been planned, regardless of what he thought!
Very likely, though, he’d forgotten about it the moment she left, headed back into the club and found another willing partner for the night.
She nearly passed out when he showed up the following day just as she dismissed her last class. She’d thought it was the last student to leave who’d shut the door, but it was so unusual for any of the students to actually close a door that she’d glanced toward it and did a double take when she saw Garryk. Abruptly weak kneed, she’d flopped down on the edge of her desk. He sauntered toward her, leaning over her when he reached her. She tilted backwards, bracing her hands behind her. His eyes gleamed as he moved in closer, planting a palm against her desk on either side of her. “What are you doing here?” she asked faintly.
His lips curled wryly. “Well, your sister won’t give me your number and you make me so crazy I keep forgetting to ask. I figured this was the only way to solve the problem. What are you doing tonight?”
“Nothing,” she said a little blankly.
“There’s where you’re wrong. I was figuring on taking you out to dinner.”
Her heart leapt and then crashed as it occurred to her that she couldn’t go with him. “I can’t. Really, I can’t. I’ve got so much work to do ….”
He shook his head. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he said grimly. “You worried about being seen in public with me?”
Chelsey felt her face heat. The look in his eyes made her chest tighten. She caught his arm wh
en he straightened abruptly and turned away. “Please! It isn’t what you think!”
He turned to study her speculatively. “No?”
She bit her lip. “My ex has me watched.”
She could tell from the look on his face that it was the last thing he’d expected. “Come again?”
“I know how paranoid it sounds, but he always knows … things about me that he couldn’t possibly know if he didn’t! And he’ll use it against me. That’s why my phone is unlisted and why nobody but Marla knows where I’m living.”
“He’ll use what against you?” Garryk asked grimly.
She stared at him in dismay. “Don’t look at me like that! I have a son! I hardly ever get to see him as it is! That’s why I said I couldn’t afford …. One of the reasons, anyway. Please don’t be angry with me. Try to understand.”
He studied her for a long moment and finally moved closer, gathering her into his arms. “I’d rather beat the son-of-a-bitch into a coma. Say the word and I’ll have one of my underworld connections bump the bastard off.”
Chelsey blinked at him. Her jaw slid to half mast. “Oh my god! You’ve got underworld connections?” she gasped, horrified.
His lips curled. “Nope. Just checking.”
Chelsey felt faint. “To see if you can give me a heart attack?”
He studied her pale face. “Shit, baby! I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said in disgust. “I’m just trying to figure out how bad you think I am.”
“I don’t think you’re bad at all. I never did.”
“I guess if you did you wouldn’t have looked so surprised,” he said ruefully and then shook his head. “You ain’t giving me much to work with here, baby.”
Chelsey swallowed against the knot that rose in her throat. “I can’t, Garryk.”
“You can’t? Or you just don’t want to take a chance on me?” he asked tightly.
She studied his face and finally looked away, realizing it was way too late to try to guard her heart from him—probably years too late. If there hadn’t been something there all along would she have fallen for him so quickly?
“Look at me, Chelsey.”
She glanced up at him, but she couldn’t maintain eye contact.
“You think I can’t tell the way you light up every time I hold you?”
She felt her face heat, but she didn’t try to deny it.
He caught her chin, lifting her face. “Alright, baby. We’ll do this your way … for now. I got past security to get in here. I figure I can outsmart your ex. Give me your address. I’ll meet you there—and don’t eat before I get there! I’m cooking.”
She gaped at him. “You aren’t serious, are you?”
He made a derisive sound. “Baby, I already told you I was. And time ain’t on my side even if I felt like wasting it—which I don’t. We’re in the convincing phase now.”
* * * *
Despite what he’d said, Chelsey had been convinced he was just teasing. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a tap on her patio door. Dropping the papers she’d been grading, she got up and went to peer out the curtains. Garryk was standing on her balcony, she discovered, with a bag on his arm. He strode inside the moment she opened the door and looked around.
“You climbed my balcony?” she gasped in disbelief. “I’m on the second floor!”
“Thank god it wasn’t the third or fourth!” Garryk muttered, heading for the kitchen. “I had a hell of a time getting up here with this fucking bag! Good thing I was in the rangers, huh?”
Chelsey stared at him. “You were in the rangers?”
He grinned. “Nope. Just a scout.”
“Garryk!”
“What?”
Smiling, she followed him into the kitchen, peering around him at the food he was dragging out of the bag. Without surprise, she saw it was steaks, potatoes, and salad fixings—precut in a bag. “I didn’t realize you were such a tease.”
He cocked a dark brow at her. “I didn’t think you’d noticed much about me.”
It was a leading question if she’d ever heard one. “I think I noticed more than I should have … under the circumstances,” she said ruefully. She discovered he was watching her when she turned from the cabinet that held her seasonings with a bottle of tenderizer.
“What circumstances?” he prompted, grabbing the bottle from her and coating both steaks liberally.
“You know!”
Setting the bottle down, he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her onto the counter. “The student thing?” he asked absently, unbuttoning her blouse. “It didn’t bother me. I never figured out why it worried you so much.”
“What are you doing?”
He flicked a look at her. “What does it look like?”
“It looks like you’re undressing me.”
“Smart woman! I always loved that about you,” he murmured, pushing her legs apart and wedging his hips between them as he finished with her blouse and pushed it off her shoulders.
Chelsey felt her heart skip several beats. “I thought you were going to cook.”
“Well, we have to do something while we’re waiting for the steak to tenderize,” he murmured teasingly, “and we have unfinished business.”
“We do?”
“Oh, yes, we do. My dick was hard enough when you dashed off last night to drive nails with it.”
Chelsey felt her kegels clap, a reminder that she’d had a ‘hard on’ when she left the night before, too. It wasn’t that she wasn’t willing, but the kitchen counter seemed like the wrong place for this sort of thing … unless he was thinking about warming up in the kitchen and finishing up in the bedroom?
He pushed his hands under her skirt, grasped her panties, and pulled. She struggled with her sense of propriety versus sexual interest and leaned back, bracing her hands to lift up. He dropped her panties on the floor, caught her buttocks and dragged her toward the edge of the counter. She allowed her legs to dangle for a moment and then lifted them and curled them around his waist.
His eyes glittered with both heat and triumph as he tilted his head and leaned in to fit his mouth to hers. She lifted her arms to drape them around his neck as he did, closing her eyes and lifting her lips to him in offering.
Garryk stared at her face for a moment from beneath his lashes, feeling a heady rush of victory collide with his building desire. This was for him. He realized he’d never really thought he would have a chance with her. He’d fantasized about it. He’d been determined to try, but he hadn’t believed.
He discovered he was still having trouble accepting, but he dismissed the doubts when her lashes fluttered and she peered at him from beneath them, covering her mouth and thrusting his tongue between her lips as she parted them for him. The feel of the soft, hot, moist cavern of her mouth closing around his tongue made his mind leap instantly to the feel of her nether mouth closing around his cock and sent another dizzying rush through him. He wrestled with the urge to penetrate her immediately, to feel the soft walls of her channel closing around his cock the way her mouth was closed around his tongue. It had been too long since he’d felt that, though, and he hadn’t gotten his fill then, only slaked his hunger for it briefly.
No, his curiosity. Knowing was nothing like fantasizing, though. Knowing had only taught him that his imagination didn’t begin to compare to actuality. It had sparked a voracious hunger for more and he’d had too many days to consider the possibility that she would never let him touch her again.
He was supposed to be trying to convince her he wasn’t just after her sweet little pussy, he reminded himself, wrestling between one need and the other.
To hell with it, he decided abruptly. He could convince her later. He was going to come all over the place if he didn’t get inside of her.
Slipping a hand between them, he tested his welcome to see if she was wet enough he had some chance of wedging himself inside. The moisture that coated his finger set his cock to pounding painfully. When the walls o
f her sex closed on his finger, though, his balls drew up and he almost lost it.
He withdrew his finger, grasped his cock a little frantically, lined the head up with the mouth of her sex by feel and pushed. He felt her flesh yield. He was so mindless with need by that time it took him a moment to realize he wasn’t getting any deeper and several moments more to figure out why. Realizing finally that he’d succeeded in pushing her way rather than penetrating any deeper, he curled an arm around her hips and tried pulling her onto his shaft with his arm while he thrust with his hips.
Sweat broke from his pores when he began to feel the strain in his cock. Easing off, he withdrew slightly to test the depth he’d gained and pushed again. It took him three tries before he finally sank home and he was shaking all over and bathed in sweat with the effort—mostly the effort to keep from coming. He didn’t think he would’ve made it all the way inside if he hadn’t been so focused on achieving full penetration. A sneeze could’ve set him off like an atom bomb and considering the backup load he was carrying around, he might put her in orbit.
The moment he managed to burrow completely inside of her, though, his focus switched from his goal to the tight band of flesh gripping him from the head of his cock to the root and he lost his mind and most of his muscle coordination. Breaking from her lips, he sucked in a deep breath to keep from passing out as he cautiously withdrew, struggling to hold his seed and enjoy the feel of her flesh pulling on his at the same time.
He let out the breath he’d been holding explosively when he managed it, sucking in another as he thrust again and could feel her flesh peeling the outer skin of cock back. Holding his seed began to feel like sheer torture. Somewhere in the darkness of his mind, though, he knew there was a reason to hold on beyond his absolute determination to enjoy the sensations that rocked him with each thrust and retreat he managed almost solely by counting them in his mind.
He realized what that something was when she stiffened, uttering a long, drawn out moan near his ear and he felt the walls of her sex close around him like a vice. She was coming—for him. Triumph surged through him—briefly. She gasped again as the walls of her sex fluttered and gripped him tightly once more. The milking motion of her muscles broke his last thread of control. The muscles in his belly heaved mightily, forcing hot seed through the microscopic channel like a jet stream and knocking the breath from him. He grunted at the force of it, trying to brace himself for the next contraction. It hit him before he could, hammering at him so relentlessly that all he could do was try to hang on and keep from blacking out at the rapturous waves that flowed through him each time the hard contractions eased.
The Visitor: Alien Hunger Special Edition Page 5