by KD Jones
“I’ve heard reports that the rebels are putting pressure on the tribe leaders, trying to get them to comply with their demands. There was even a threat of taking over tribe leadership if they didn’t comply.”
She looked shocked. “Where did you hear that? Is your source reliable?”
“Jerry confirmed it privately.”
“Why didn’t he say anything?”
“He’s worried for his family’s safety. I’ve assigned security for each of the tribe leaders who’ve been open to it.”
“Are the rest of the tribe leaders going to take you up on the offer?”
“I’m hoping they will, if you encourage them.”
Heather pulled at her long braid over one shoulder. It was something he noticed she did a lot when she was anxious or worried. “I can speak with them about it, but there’s no guarantee they’ll listen to reason. I don’t blame them. After all these years of struggling to make our own way and fighting for our survival, it’s hard to sit by and let someone else take charge.”
He snorted. “I was just thinking that earlier. That it’s hard for me to step back and let someone else make the decisions.”
She smiled as they shared a moment between them, leader to leader. Then the moment changed to a different feeling altogether—man to woman. Heather looked away from him nervously. It was clear that she wasn’t comfortable with him in that way. Not yet, at least.
“How long will you be here?”
“I’ll stay a few days to make sure that the work gets started on your district.” He sat down on the bench and stretched out his long legs.
She moved to sit on a bench across from him. “I was thinking about that. It’s going to take longer than two years if you’re doing one district at a time, one city at a time.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Focus on the training.”
“We’ll be training some of your people to build the structures. I may have enough people to go out through one or two cities, but not enough to cover the rest of your world. I also can’t continue to expose my people to the dangers these rebels who could turn out to be anyone. ”
“What about bringing some people from other tribes here to train then send them back to start working and training the rest? Also, if you could record the training and send that out, it would give other districts time to learn about the equipment before the rebuild starts.”
“That would be more efficient, and it would help keep Drastan contact with humans limited. It might put both species more at ease with the other.”
Heather sighed as she sat down on the bench across from him, moving a few of her pots out of the way. “I don’t think any of us tribe members have properly thanked your people for everything that you’ve done.”
He shrugged. “We didn’t come here to be thanked.”
“Why did you come here? From my understanding you had been out in deep space for years on a mission, and were due to return home.”
“That’s true. We were on our way home when we came across the distress signal that your government had sent out. I made the decision to come here, not really knowing what we would find.”
“You didn’t have to, and no one ordered you to stay. Why would you stay to help?”
“My people suffered from a similar fate almost a century ago. We even had to relocate our people. Knowing the struggle my own people faced with near-extinction, how could I not offer my assistance?”
She moved across the car to sit next to him on the small bench and put her hand on his. “You’re a good man, Devlon.”
He shook his head. She didn’t really know him that well, but he wanted her to get to know him. He needed to be honest with her.
“I’m flawed.”
She laughed. “Aren’t we all?”
Her scent reached him, and it had deepened with arousal. Her lovely brown hair and golden brown eyes captivated him. Both sparkled with gold in the right lighting. He would love see her in the sunlight. She was in her forties, but she looked like she was ten years younger. Her tribe had just begun to get their second round of treatments and he could see her health starting to shine through. Being this close to her, he couldn’t resist the urge to touch.
Reaching out a hand, he gently traced her cheek with his rough, battle-worn hands. “You’re so soft.”
“I don’t think anyone’s claimed that about me.”
“Why do you say that?”
She lifted up her hands so he could clearly see the dry cracked fingers and palms. These were hands that had seen hard labor.
“I’ve worked my whole life. I grew up on a farm, and as soon as I was able to walk my father had me out in the fields with my brothers and sisters. I thought things might change when I married, but that quickly turned into a disaster.”
This was the first time she had willingly talked to him about her mate. He sat still and waited patiently, hoping she would tell him more of her story.
“I met Mark when I was sixteen years old and he was twenty-four. He kind of swept me off my feet. He was spirited and exciting, and I was naive. I believed everything he told me. Of course it was all lies.”
“Your parents didn’t protect you from this man?”
“My parents were furious that I was seeing someone they hadn’t picked out for me, and that he was older than I was. They ordered me to stay away from him, but that only made me want to defy them. I dated Mark secretly for a year. After I turned seventeen, he asked me to marry him. I knew my parents wouldn’t like it, but Mark said we could go to another state that would allow a seventeen-year-old to marry without parental consent. I thought I was in love, so I quit school and ran off with Mark to get married. That’s when my hell really began.”
Devlon had so many questions, but he’d learned through the years that patience got him more answers than rushing people into talking. He took her hand back in his and just comforted her.
“My marriage wasn’t a thing like the dream I used to have as a little girl. I always pictured myself falling in love with this hero who would swoop me off my feet and take me to his palace. Everything would be wonderful.”
“Was it not a love match? I assumed all humans mated those they loved.”
“I thought I loved him. I tried, I really did try to be the best wife to Mark. When he needed me to work and support him so that he could finish college, I got two jobs. I took care of our house and yard, paid the bills, and made sure that he had everything he needed. It was never enough. The money I made wasn’t enough, the house was never clean enough. He complained that I nagged him too much and that I was a cold fish in bed.”
“Cold fish?”
“A fish is a type of creature that lives in the water, some live in really cold water. When women don’t have sex with men enough to satisfy them, the men call them cold like a fish. Evidently I wasn’t giving it up enough to satisfy Mark, so he started getting sex from others.”
“Your mate had sex with other females. Do your people not believe in loyalty?” This was the problem he had with Heather when he found out she had a mate that she didn’t live with. He questioned her loyalty. Did his sons need to worry about their mates?
“Most couples are loyal to each other. I know never cheated on Mark, but he was always looking to have his needs pleased and if I couldn’t do it, he would find someone who would. The cheating wasn’t the worst part of our marriage, though. After a year of verbal and emotional abuse, Mark started using his fists to show me how displeased he was with me.”
Devlon was furious. “Why would you stay with someone like that?”
“I did leave him many times, but each time he would search me out, beg for forgiveness, tell me he’d changed and that he wanted to start a family with me. That was the one weakness he knew he could use against me: I wanted children more than anything.
“I tried for fifteen years to make it work. One night we had a huge fight and he hit me pretty hard, knocking me down. It wasn’t the first time he hit m
e, but the injuries were so bad it sent me to the ER. That’s when we discovered that I wasn’t able to conceive. I had to come to terms with the fact that I’d never be a mother. It was devastating and life-altering. That had been the only thing left holding me in my marriage.
“While I was recovering in the hospital, Mark went back home. I thought long and hard about my life and realized that even if I could have a child I’d never want him or her to grow up with Mark as a father. I filed for a legal separation the day after I was discharged from the hospital. I moved out and waited for the year of separation to pass, then filed for divorce. It took a while because we were going through the division of property. Three years, and finally the day came for the divorce to be final. It took me so long to finally get to the right place to take back my life, but unfortunately, shit happens.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The day the nukes hit I was on my way to court to finalize my divorce. Mark was waiting for me at the subway station. He’d been trying for over a year to get me to back out of the divorce. He discovered that living on his own without my added income meant he didn’t have the luxuries he had grown used to. We were arguing on the subway car going downtown when the emergency alarms went off . Someone onboard checked their phone and told everyone to brace themselves because of an incoming nuclear bomb. The subcar we were on was shaken off track, and some died from the impact.
“For days after the impact I walked around in confusion and fear. Everyone around me was feeling the same thing. I stayed with Mark not because I loved him, but because he happened to be there and he took charge of the situation, organizing everyone. He was always good at bossing people around.
“Mark was one of the first to become tribe leader. It didn’t take him long to abuse his new position of power and start in on his old ways of bullying and cheating. I never let him put his hands on me again, but watching him trying to seduce other women in the tribe was too much for me. I left the tribe and searched for a different life. I’m just grateful to this tribe and its previous tribe leader for taking me in.”
Devlon was trying to take in everything that she’d just told him. She wanted to separate from her husband legally. He had so many questions, because divorce wasn’t a thing that his people had. She’d suffered so much, he didn’t want to push her with more questions. There was only one more thing he really needed to know.
“Do you still love him?”
She shook her head. “No, what I felt for him died years ago.”
Good enough. He reached for her, pulling her to him as he slanted his head and took her lips the way he’d been fantasizing about. Sweet...just like I imagined.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly between kisses.
“Kissing you.”
“Okay.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
She was everything he imagined and more—so much more. Now that he had a taste, he wanted everything.
Chapter 9
Was this really happening? Hell yeah, it was. Heather hadn’t been with a man in a while and her body was boiling over with desire for Devlon. She turned to straddle his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back with all that she had. Something came over her—need, passion, heat. She’d never wanted anyone quite this much before. She had to have him.
Heather pressed her breasts against his chest, letting him feel her hard nipples through her shirt. He growled in response, reaching for her hips and helping her grind herself against him. Devlon was definitely feeling the same. His cock was pressing hard against his pants, and every time she slid against him her arousal grew.
“We should stop,” Devlon groaned as he reached up and cupped her breast.
Stop? No way. They needed to be naked, completely naked. She pulled at the buttons on his uniform top. When she got it undone she spread the sides, exposing his muscled and hairless chest. He had the body of a man half his age.
She skimmed her fingers over his pecs and plucked his nipples. He responded by taking the edges of her shirt and jerking them apart, ripping the buttons off. She never really cared for that shirt anyway.
“I want you,” Heather braved her fears of rejection and just told him straight up how she felt.
“I want you too,” Devlon admitted.
Heather kissed him thoroughly before pulling away. She stood up despite his protests and quickly kicked off her shoes, shrugging her pants down afterward. She should feel self-conscious about being naked, but at this point, she didn’t care. She needed him inside of her like she’d been dreaming of night after night. Just the thought had her dripping wet for him.
Devlon surprised her by standing and unbuttoning the clasp holding his pants up. She helped him by taking the waistband and slowly lowering it until she was on her knees. Her first sight of him took her breath away. He was huge—like, ‘it might hurt like hell’ huge.
“Am I that different from your males?”
She must have been staring too long. “You’re definitely bigger than I’m used to.” Cautiously she reached out and stroked his shaft starting at the tip, down the side and all the way to his balls. She cupped them and gently squeezed.
“Easy beautiful, I don’t want to release too soon.”
Seeing how much her touch affected him amped up her own arousal. He was so smooth, silky and hard all at the same time. A bead of sweat trailed down his chest that she couldn’t resist. She leaned close and licked the salty liquid. Then she inhaled his woodsy male scent. His eyes narrowed at her, and the naughty thoughts they inspired made her shiver. He was so strong and commanding—the great commander. She wanted to make him lose his tightly wound control. Moving down his body and closer to his arousal, she looked up as she licked from his base to his tip, then took him inside her mouth.
“By the stars, that feels good.”
Stroking him with her hands, she continued to suck him in and out of her mouth, gently scraping him with her teeth now and then. He really liked that, so she did it over and over. She’d never enjoyed touching her ex-husband, with him it was always forced. With Devlon, she thrummed with confidence in herself and how she could make him respond to her. Also, Devlon was very vocal in letting her know how he enjoyed what she was doing to him.
Devlon reached down and put his fingers in her hair pulling her head away from him. “You have to stop. I need to get you ready.”
Heather let him help her to her feet. “I’m already ready.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She nodded, “Yes.” She pushed him back on the bench, still wearing his boots, his pants now around his ankles. Heather didn’t want to give him any time to change his mind.
Devlon chuckled as she once more straddled him. “You know what you want, don’t you?”
Running her tongue softly up his neck, she nibbled on his chin. “Yes. Does that bother you?”
“It arouses me.”
Heather was relieved to hear that. She’d finally started to realize her own wants and needs the last few years, coming into her own confidence of her abilities. Some men were intimidated by her aggressive nature. In fact, one of the men in her tribe had complained that she didn’t need him, so he ended their short-lived affair. It hurt at first, but then she decided that if a man wasn’t comfortable with her confidence and strength, he wasn’t the man for her.
Devlon exuded confidence of his own. That really appealed to her, reminding her of those alpha males in romances she used to read. Everything about him was strong and very male; she loved that. Even his natural scent was sexy and masculine.
He gripped her hips and moved her entrance closer to his cock. She kissed his lips when he ran his fingers down her slit. Moaning when he slipped a finger inside of her, she shivered with need.
“You’re so tight,” he said as he worked her open, adding two more fingers. He fucked her with his fingers, and her body responded by releasing more of her feminine arousal. His eyes gleamed with h
eat as he lifted his fingers and licked the juices off. “So good.”
“I need you now,” Heather took matters into her own hands by reaching for his cock and placing it at her pussy lips.
She felt his hands guiding her as she lowered herself onto him. His thick cock stretched her more and more as he went deeper and deeper. They were both breathing hard by the time he bottomed out. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of being completely full.
“Look at me, Heather,” he growled.
She opened her eyes and looked into his. She felt a pull to him that she’d never felt with anyone else, not even Mark. She couldn’t look away, she felt herself drowning in those dark eyes of his. Heather didn’t think anything could feel any better, until he used his huge hands to lift her up and bring her back down. The feeling was indescribable.
“Oh God,” she moaned, arching her back and using her knees next to him to help create a rhythm they both enjoyed.
He leaned forward and took a nipple in his mouth. The hot wet tongue caressing her made her even wetter for him. When he scraped his tongue against her tight peak, she could feel it in her pussy and she nearly came. He did it over and over until she did scream out with her orgasm.
A few more strokes and he soon joined her and growled out his release. Her body still shook in ecstasy over and over again. She felt like jelly as she laid her chest against his. Their hearts raced, and their skin was damp from their exertions.
She loved how their bodies seemed to fit together so well, and the delicious sensations of skin against skin. Heather rubbed her nose against the side of his neck, taking in his manly scent. What had just happened was...life-changing. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be the same again, and couldn’t find it in her to care very much. All that mattered was right here, right now, being in Devlon’s arms. The fact that he was still hard and buried deep inside her gave her thoughts of all the naughty things she could do before the world intruded. Nothing could diminish the thrill of euphoria she was languishing in. They held each other for what felt like almost an hour, though must have only been about twenty minutes.