HeroRevealed

by Anna Alexander

  “I almost got it.”

  The metal snapped and she stumbled free, crashing into a pile of dirt. With a groan deep from his stomach, Kristos dropped the one-ton stone. The sides of the tunnel rumbled and quaked and dirt fell down on them like rain as the walls collapsed inward.

  Before she could draw a breath, strong hands grasped her waist and tossed her high into the air and out of the hole. She hit the ground hard, rolling over and over until she came to a stop on her back. The treetops swirled above her as her vision swam. A heavy thud landed beside her. She turned to see Kristos flat on his stomach. Behind him paramedics raced in their direction.

  “You fine?” he gasped.

  She nodded, still struggling to breathe. “You?”

  He frowned and his pupils dilated and constricted as if he, too, couldn’t focus. “I don’t know. Something’s not right.”

  Now he recognized that something was unusual?

  Despite whatever pain he was in, he pushed off the ground and rose to a shaky stand.

  “I’ll find you,” he promised then ran for the trees at a speed that made his image blur.

  Collins knelt next to her. “Sheriff, where are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine.” She batted his hands, her attention firmly fixed on the spot in the tree line where Kristos disappeared.

  Collins followed her line of sight. “Who was that masked man?”

  She turned toward him with a raised eyebrow. “Did you seriously just ask that question?”

  “Well…” His cheeks turned red. “Yeah, but really, who was that?”

  She opened her mouth to answer then looked back to the woods. “I don’t know.”

  The statement wasn’t exactly false. The “who” she knew. “What” he was, that was altogether different.

  Chapter Four

  What was Kristos Kilsgaard?

  All during the examination in the emergency room, and later at the station as she completed her report, those four words played in her mind as if stuck on repeat.

  What was Kristos Kilsgaard?

  The doctor had given her a clean bill of health, so it hadn’t been a knock to the head that made her see a lone man lift a refrigerator-size boulder and toss her into the air as if she were a Hail Mary shot before the buzzer in the Final Four Tournament. She could attribute the day’s experience to stress, or lack of sleep, or it was dark and she missed her morning cup of coffee, but no, that wasn’t true either.

  So where did that leave her?

  Brett rubbed the heel of her hand into her eye to try to alleviate the throbbing headache caused by constant thinking. Not even the hot shower and clean change of clothes she grabbed in her office gave her perspective.

  Her house keys felt as if they weighed ten pounds and it took two tries to fit the correct one in the lock and push open the door to her little two-bedroom rambler. Without turning on the light, she shut the door and hung her coat on the peg on the wall.

  She drew a deep breath as a thousand pinpricks of electricity scattered across her skin. “I don’t remember giving you a key.”

  “I didn’t need one.”

  A lamp switched on and she slowly turned around only to rock back on her heels. Kristos stood in her living room, freshly washed and so devastatingly handsome that the ancient Greeks would have thought him a god and made offerings to him daily. However it wasn’t his beauty that held her enthralled, it was the worry and adoration in those amazing eyes that made it impossible for her to breathe.

  “You know, I think I lost ten years off my life when I heard you were trapped.” The low timbre of his voice quivered as his accent deepened. He kept his hands in his pockets as he took a step closer. “I could not stand by and do nothing when I knew I could help. You mean too much to me.”

  A thousand and one things gathered on the tip of her tongue, yet she couldn’t utter the ones that logic dictated she should say. Kristos was not normal. He was possibly even…superhuman, which was a thought so incredulous she should be lying down with an ice pack to the head and a healthy shot of whiskey. All of her instincts were screaming at her to demand the truth, but at this moment, this moment, the barrier between thinking and knowing was as solid as a brick wall. Once she opened the lid on Pandora’s box, the world and everything she knew about it was going to change forever. It was as certain as the color of her eyes. Whether she wanted it or not, her naiveté about the universe was going to die as soon as she got her answers.

  Neither of them moved as he waited for her to respond. She licked her lips and fought back the panic that came with unavoidable change. She didn’t want to know, not yet. It might be crazy, certifiable, but she wanted to defy the fates and steal a moment in time because his touch, his flavor, was what she craved. Her fingers flexed, ready to strip away the uniform that felt scratchy against her too-hot flesh. Beneath the lace of her bra her nipples tightened and throbbed in time to her rapidly beating heart. Need whipped through her like a live current, liquefying her center and making her all too aware of how empty her pussy was. Her throat constricted, trapping the words her passion-starved body demand she say. Did she have the guts to follow her heart?

  Well, she didn’t become sheriff by being a pansy.

  “Kristos, will you love me?”

  He cocked his head and blinked in surprise. “What?”

  She placed a hand over his heart and felt it kick. “Make love to me. Please?”

  He drew away even as he reached for her. Tilting her chin up with his forefinger, his brow creased with wariness, as if he could sense she wasn’t one hundred percent confident of what she asked. “Are you sure?”

  He wanted her, it was a fact he never denied, and yet he waited for her to give the command.

  With that act alone, the weight of a million doubts released, leaving her lightheaded but confident in her decision. “I’ve never been more certain.”

  She stood on tiptoe to run the edge of her tongue across his full lower lip before brushing her mouth against his with butterfly-soft touches. His eyelids lowered with drowsy desire. Chills ran across her arms as his fingers skimmed down her throat and cupped behind her neck.

  “Always, mi alskata,” he murmured, before fusing their lips together, striking a match to her tinder that quickly caught fire and raged into an inferno.

  Dear lord, the man was hot. Not just in appearance, but his skin burned her through the cotton of his shirt and his kisses seared away anything close to a coherent thought. His heat sent her own temperature soaring and made her desperate for the feel of cool air on her naked skin.

  She drew in his clean scent and reveled in the taste that was pure Kristos. He was like Irish coffee, smoky on the tongue, with a lingering burn that called you back for more. His kiss alone was worth the fall into madness.

  He swallowed her gasp of surprise when he gripped the collar of her shirt and split it open with a jerk. Buttons popped like confetti to scatter over the wood floor, soon joined by bits of fabric so torn they wouldn’t be fit for rags. Relief from being released from the coarse material was short-lived as a new hunger consumed her. She had to have him against her, surrounding her, pressing into her so deep she would never be free of him.

  Surprise widened his eyes as he focused on her breasts. The backs of his fingers skirted up her quivering belly and traced the jade circle pendant that hung beneath the generous mounds. “Now this, I like.”

  Smug satisfaction entered that knowing smile, which always made her feel as exposed as an ingénue in her first Playboy spread. No matter how hard she tried, there was never any hiding her feelings from Kristos.

  He claimed her mouth again, his tongue spearing between her lips in teasing jabs to tangle with hers in a playful game of hide and seek. Lifting her against his chest, he carried her the few steps to the dining table. Her bare back hit the cold surface and she arched with a hiss, thrusting her breasts into his waiting hands. His thumbs dragged down the cups of her bra, the lace scraped the pebbled tips that he soo
thed with the flat of his tongue. Pulling the nipple into his mouth, he suckled at the nub with deep draws that pulled straight to her core, making the ache in her pussy all the more unbearable.

  “I want to touch you.” She dug her fingers into his hair, which was just as soft as she imagined, as her other hand tugged at his shoulders. “Kristos, I need to touch you.”

  He smiled against her breast. “Hmm, decisions, decisions. Do I stop supping on these delicious breasts or have your hands running over my skin? That’s a hard choice to make.” He rubbed the thick ridge of his cock against the juncture of her thighs.

  “Kristos,” she growled and tore at the cotton of his shirt.

  With a low chuckle, he stepped back and drew the shirt over his head. The soft lamplight threw every contour of muscle into stark relief, creating a road map of hills and valleys that lead to mindless pleasure. She pressed a light kiss to the scar on his biceps as she drew a line down the center of his abs with the tips of her fingers, then again with her palm. His shudder traveled up her arm, making her tremble in return. Leaning forward, she placed open-mouthed kisses against his blistering skin, drawing his salty taste onto her tongue.

  “Brett. Alskata,” he panted. “If you go any lower—” He groaned as she blew hot air through his jeans over the head of his erection. Having the ability to make this big, strong man weak in the knees left her dizzy and eager to see how far she could push him.

  She tugged down the zipper and sighed in delight when his heavy cock fell into her hand. Her fingers barely closed around the pulsing girth and her inner muscles clenched in anticipation of the sweet upward curve stroking along every nerve ending.

  A pearly drop of pre-cum wept from the tip, which she swept away with her thumb. She wanted more of it, as much as he could produce, spurting down her throat, splashing on her breasts and deep inside her pussy. The desire triggered a quick flash of sanity. “Please tell me you have a condom.”

  From his back pocket he produced a foil packet and slapped it on the table, leaving a hand-sized dent in the wood. His enthusiasm brought a grin to her lips before she engulfed the head of his cock and swallowed him down to the base. His taste quickly became one of her most favorite treats.

  Against her tongue his cock flexed and pulsed as strangled moans stuttered through his clenched teeth. Her hands never stopped caressing him. The muscles of his stomach and thighs quivered under her palms. Each pass gave her the strength to give her body entirely to his keeping.

  She could have sucked on him for hours, but Kristos wasn’t content to let her take the lead for long. “No, no. I won’t last.”

  He pushed her back onto the table and used his lightning-fast speed to strip her of her pants.

  “By the Gods, Brett, you’re—” He shook his head. “Words cannot describe how stunning you are.”

  It wasn’t the words he used, but the light in his eyes and the flush across his cheeks that made her feel gorgeous, sexy and purely powerful in her femininity. Her legs fell wider apart and she skimmed her hands down her torso, her fingertips stopping just short of the blonde hair coving her mound. A siren’s call to hedonistic oblivion.

  The sound that welled from his throat was both animalistic growl and helpless abandonment. Open-mouthed kisses followed his calloused hand up the inside of her thigh. His thumbs parted the swollen lips of her sex, his tongue circling the nub of her clit before sucking it hard into his mouth.

  Her entire body quaked under his ministrations and her teeth chattered with the adrenaline. She craved his possession, ached so badly she wanted to weep. Her pussy never felt so empty, so ravenous. Not even the thick finger he pushed deep inside slaked the hunger that built like a rushing river against a weak dam.

  “More. Please. Please,” she begged, grinding her cunt against his hand.

  Her nails scored his back in an attempt to find purchase and avoid flying off the edge into insanity. His name fell from her lips like a chant one moment and a prayer the next.

  “I love the way you say my name,” he moaned and the sound vibrated against her clit. “Come for me, alskata. Let me taste you come.”

  Two fingers thrust deep and rubbed the spot inside that hurtled her off the precipice. The wave rolled up her body and exploded out the top of her head. Her vision blurred, only to clear when she felt the head of his latex-covered cock nudge her opening.

  The last of her breath rushed out at the sight of the savage expression on his face. His eyes narrowed with purpose and the skin over his cheeks drew tight as the unrelenting grip on her hips readied her for his possession. Gone was the playful lover and in his place was an aroused man with only one thought on his mind. Fuck his woman.

  His first thrust drew a scream, a sharp, high-pitched wail that robbed her of her ability to think. She was incapable of doing anything more than thrashing and whimpering under the onslaught of pleasure. The intensity in his set jaw and compressed lips held her captivated as he rocked the table with deep lunges.

  “Put your hands over your head. Yes,” he grunted when she complied. “Grab the edge of the table. Show your body to me.”

  His pupils dilated so wide only a thin, glowing green ring of iris remained. How wanton must she look with her legs splayed wide and his thick cock splitting her in two? Her bouncing breasts hung out of the torn cups of her bra, yet she didn’t feel embarrassed as his cock swelled and sweat poured down to where their bodies joined. She was a willing vessel of gluttonous sexual need and he was rocketing her to a high she knew would become addictive.

  His grunts and moans turned into mumbled words she didn’t understand. The cadence was beautiful and she felt a warmth bloom in the center of her chest, growing and spreading like warm honey down her limbs to her tightening sheath. He placed his palm over her heart as his fingers cupped her breast, kneading her flesh while his chant grew stronger.

  It was too much. Every blood vessel was going to rupture under the pressure, and her heart was going to pound right out of her chest and into his hand.

  His head dropped back and his face slackened as his shaft jerked with his release, yet his hips continued with the relentless, driving rhythm and he demanded, “Take all of me and give me all of you.”

  He wasn’t talking about her orgasm or her body. He wanted her soul.

  Shock slammed into her at the same time she burst into a million fragments of light and sparks. An invisible rope coiled around them, binding them together as one unit, one heartbeat, one soul. As her pussy rippled in orgasm around his shaft, a tiny shred of self-preservation kicked in and tethered her to reality. She might have flipped a definitive middle finger to caution, but the dream was going to come to an end. He owned her pleasure, but her heart would remain firmly in her keeping.

  With a final cry, he fell forward, blanketing her with his heat. He nuzzled the skin under her ear and murmured, “I knew it would be like this with you. Exactly like this.” His small chuckle made her think there was a joke in there somewhere, but her brain was too scrambled to begin to guess what it was.

  “I think you’ve killed me,” she whispered, running her hands down his spine, hesitant to break the connection though she knew she should.

  His deep laugh vibrated down to his cock that was still hard inside her. “Then they can bury me beside you. Come, let me take proper care of you.”

  He carried her to the bedroom and pulled back the covers on her bed with one hand. Goose bumps erupted over her skin when her back hit the cool sheets until he climbed in next to her and took away the chill. He pulled the comforter up to her chin and wrapped her in his arms. In seconds, he was fast asleep.

  The dark crescent of his lashes looked incredibly long on his cheeks and drew attention to the dark circles under his eyes. She hadn’t forgotten he had been ill after he pulled them from the tunnel. The frantic bout of lovemaking might have indicated otherwise, but Kristos was not at his full strength. Her smile trembled at the corners. Heaven help her if he had been.

  Ca
reful to not wake him, she leaned forward for a soft kiss. A tear spilled down her cheek and pooled between their lips, turning the kiss salty and bittersweet.

  Slipping free from his hold was easier then she anticipated, which only spoke of his exhaustion. Fatigue beat at her as well, but she knew sleep would be as elusive as catching smoke.

  She collected a change of clothing and escaped into the bathroom, purposely turning away from the mirror. She couldn’t handle seeing the woman who had been taken to a depth of ecstasy she would never see again.

  The soft yoga pants and t-shirt weren’t classy, but sufficient for the cause. Instinct told her that the inevitable confrontation was going to get heated, and she did her best thinking when she was fully dressed.

  After gathering a few essentials from the living room, she returned and sat in the armchair in the corner of the room. She may doze for bit, but when he awoke she’d be ready.

  Chapter Five

  Kristos bit back a moan as every muscle in his body throbbed in both pain and pleasure. Something in that mine affected his powers and damn if he knew what it was. It was as if a sickening lethargy settled in his limbs, sapping him of his strength. It made him feel…human, or at least how he imagined a human felt, which was something that didn’t sound all that horrible. However, he needed all of his powers in top form if he was to have a mate as stubborn as Brett.

  He smiled and settled deeper into the pillows as he remembered the look on her face when he spoke the words that bound them together forever. She might not have understood the actual words, but she comprehended their joining was more than just fantastic sex. Her heart had been in his hand and her body milking him dry in the most explosive orgasm he had ever imagined. All that was needed to complete the ritual was her mind to meld with his and they would be bonded.

  On his planet of gases and ice, it was easier to communicate empathically than with words. When a man and woman mated, their emotions weaved together like a tapestry, enabling them to sense their spouse no matter how far apart they may be. It was a private ritual where each person gave the other their entire being, mind, body and soul, in an exchange of trust so profound that it left a physical mark more permanent than any ring. A union like that was not taken lightly, and many of his kind never found that someone special enough to speak the sacred words.