by Lori Foster
“That’s not necessary. You have already given me so much.”
That snapped Mallet’s attention up to her face. “No way, babe. When it comes to giving, the scales are definitely tipped in your favor. But I promise to do my best to even up the score.”
Stepping out of the sandals, her hands folded behind her, she gazed up at him and whispered, “You could start by making love to me. That is, if you’re ready?”
Ready? Truth be told, he’d been ready since the moment he first saw her while still in that hospital bed, physically devastated, his body almost crippled, his mind in a funk.
From the moment he’d met her, she’d improved him; his mind, his spirit, his body. Now he’d finally have her, and he didn’t give a damn if the moon dropped out of the sky, he wouldn’t let anyone interrupt them.
CHAPTER 20
KAYLI felt horribly exposed, on display, and so anxious that she trembled. She wanted to please Michael, but she knew it wouldn’t be easy. He’d had plenty of experience, and from what she’d uncovered in media research, the more experience, the better.
She had none. Before Michael, the few kisses she’d shared were all but inconsequential.
Because he just stood there, staring at her body, his hands fisted, his nostrils flared, his cheekbones slashed with dark color, her nervousness amplified.
She cleared her throat and said, “Take off your clothes, too.” Maybe if he was naked, she wouldn’t so keenly feel the lack of covering.
Without taking his searing gaze from her belly, he reached over his shoulder, caught the back of the shirt in a fist, and then stripped it off over his head. He dropped it to the floor.
His chest rose and fell on deep inhalations. He took a step toward her.
“The pants, too,” Kayli said in a rush, knowing that if he touched her, she might lose the opportunity to see him as he’d seen her. And she wanted to, badly. Her curiosity over his body was a burning thing inside her. She’d dreamt of it, of him, and now the dreams would be a reality.
So that he wouldn’t think he’d tied himself to a virago, she licked her lips and added, “Please.”
His jaw tightened, but he kicked off his sandals, untied the waistband of the loose, white slacks, pushed them down, and stepped free.
He straightened without a single hint of modesty.
And why not? He had the most magnificent body she’d ever seen. Forgetting her nervousness for the moment, Kayli approached him. Her palms tingled with the need to touch him. Everywhere.
“I never imagined a man like you.”
His neck stiffened, but he held himself still. “No?”
Flattening her hands over his shoulders, she stroked downward, over the crisp hair on his chest, over solid muscle and incomparable strength. “Before searching you out through time, I expected all males of your power to be cumbersome, maybe awkward. When my research brought me to your sport, and then to you, I was thoroughly mesmerized.”
Slowly, she dragged her hands along his body to the smoother skin of his hips, farther to his long, powerful thighs. Deliberately, she didn’t yet touch his sex. It … intimidated her.
How they’d fit, she didn’t know.
But she wanted to find out.
Her gaze met his. “Still I’m enthralled. More so now that I’ve gotten to know you.”
Narrowed eyes burning with intensity, Michael stared down at her. His arms hung at his sides, his big hands curled into fists. At her approach, he’d braced his feet apart as if in preparation of an attack.
A sensual onslaught.
“The contradictions of you are enchanting. You possess so much physical strength, yet your personality is playful, charming. You tower over others, and still you treat everyone as an equal.”
His erection moved, insisting on attention, and Kayli, feeling so daring, wrapped both hands around him.
He made a sound like a groan of pleasure and pain, and when she looked at him, his eyes were closed, his throat working.
She felt powerful, too, through her effect on him.
Moving a little closer so that she breathed in his scent and felt the touch of his heat on her bare skin everywhere, she stroked him.
He grew a little longer, a little harder still.
“This part of you is so alive.” A drop of fluid appeared on the head, and without considering it too much, she dragged her thumb over it, spreading it.
In a flash, Michael’s hands clasped her wrists. His voice guttural, he said, “You have to stop or I’m going to come.”
Heat bloomed inside her. The idea of him losing control that way captivated her. She wasn’t sure what it meant in terms of the two of them, but she wanted to find out.
Unconsciously, her fingers tightened around him.
“Kayli …” he warned.
She did not want to stop, so she tried to distract him with more of his contrasts. “You easily overwhelm women with your size and your strength, but instead of seeing that as an advantage to take what you want, you see it as an obligation to protect.”
He misunderstood and took her words as a complaint. “It’s not an obligation, it’s an instinct.”
“Not all men with your qualities would see it so.” She felt him pulsing in her hands, and was prompted to explore his length, to touch that intriguing liquid again, to cuddle the softer flesh beneath. “The men attacking us obviously feel no obligation to protect. They take by brute force.”
“I can’t think when you’re doing that, babe.”
“Good. I don’t want you to think.”
“But there are a few things you need to know.” So saying, he put his hands over hers, one around his shaft, the other beneath, holding him in her palm.
Instruction would be most welcome. Now that she had him to herself, she wanted too many things to know where to start.
“Here,” he said, squeezing her hand around his shaft, “I like a firm hold. Stroking is good, but not when I’m this primed already. Later, maybe after I’ve had you a dozen times, you can try that, okay?”
A dozen times? The words did funny things to her insides, and she nodded dumbly.
“But here—” He winced and loosened her grip. “Easy goes it on the family jewels, okay? That’s a place where guys are most vulnerable. One shot there will cripple a man for a few minutes at least, longer depending on how hard you hit him. If you’re ever in danger, that’d be the place to attack.”
She looked down at his “family jewels” and cuddled more gently.
“Yeah, that’s better.”
“Hitting a man there will really affect him?”
“It’ll bring him low, I swear. But hey …” He tipped up her chin and frowned at her. “Don’t ever slug me there, okay? No matter how pissed you might be.”
Fighting a smile, Kayli nodded. “I understand. I would never want to seriously harm you.”
“Never say never. We’ve already agreed that I can be infuriating, remember?”
“Yes.” His intoxicating scent, as well as the visual of his chest, drew her. She put her mouth to his left pectoral and lightly bit. “You smell so good.”
His hands settled on her waist, tacitly giving her permission to do as she pleased.
She kissed his chest, the smooth skin of his shoulders, his throat, and jaw. Just when she wanted his mouth most, he took over, cupping one hand behind her head and kissing her hard, deep, and wet.
His other hand went to her bottom and palpated the softer flesh there, lifting her to her tiptoes.
“Woman?” he rumbled against her mouth. “Turn me loose so we can get this show on the road.”
“Oh.” Kayli realized she held his sex in an iron grip, and immediately released him.
In the next instant, he had them both on the floor and his hands were all over her. He plumped up both her breasts and sucked at each nipple in turn. She’d almost disbelieved her perception of the sensation evoked—but now it was proved again. His mouth made her feel things in places he hadn�
�t yet touched, but soon would.
He came back up, kissing her throat while sliding a hand down between her thighs. His fingers searched over her, making her moan, and just as he worked one finger into her, thrilling her, setting her on fire, he said, “Got a question.”
She couldn’t think, didn’t understand.
“Kayli, love?” Now that he had that finger pressed deep, he held still and waited.
Love? She opened her eyes to find him watching her closely. She couldn’t get any words out, and so lifted a brow in query.
“What do you futuristic chicks do about birth control?”
Her brain went blank. She knew that in his time period, the earth had been overpopulated, and many people prevented birth through various methods.
But such wasn’t true anymore. It was assumed that once you joined in union, you would accept children as a blessing. There were methods of stopping conception, but … she didn’t want them.
Michael put several small, teasing kisses along her shoulder. “Cat got your tongue?” He pressed his finger in a little more, making her catch her breath. “I don’t mean to stop the action, but I need to know how to progress here.”
It was most difficult to measure her words at such a time, with him over her, touching her so intimately, looking so incredible, but she knew she must.
Tentative, measuring her words, she asked, “Do you not want children?”
“I want you. If kids come along, and you’re happy about it, then hey, I’m happy, too.”
That sounded far too noncommittal to Kayli. “I would not want to trap you into an undesirable situation.”
His mouth slowly lifted into a grin. “The situation we’re in is pretty damned desirable.” Capturing her gaze, he eased his finger out, and then worked two back in.
Her body strained against him. It was a very tight fit, and she felt herself stretching—and a whole lot more.
Michael lowered his voice. “In my day, it was the gentlemanly thing to protect the woman from an unwanted birth. Only a selfish prick would have sex without a rubber. But things are so different here, I need to know the norm.”
Her thoughts swam, sent adrift by the pulsing pleasure. “It is … it is customary to progress as nature intended.”
“Meaning no rubber.” As if that excited him unbearably, he ravaged her mouth again.
Kayli locked her arms around his neck, opened her legs more.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he rasped.
“You won’t.” Only if he stopped now would he injure her. She needed to feel him, all of him. “Please, Michael.”
He moved over her, opening her legs more with the press of his knee. “Tell me to stop if I hurt you.”
“Okay.” She would not.
He held her face and stared into her eyes. “Try to relax for me.”
“Okay.” She could not.
He reached down between them, opened her, adjusted himself, and then … he was pressing inside her and he was far bigger than two fingers.
The groan came unbidden, as much urgency as apprehension.
“Easy,” he whispered, fondling a breast and kissing her mouth. “Easy.”
It burned, the stretching of her intimate flesh, but even so, she felt the moisture build, the heat and sensitivity. Excitement turned her breathing to pants, mingled with moans.
“Put your legs around me, babe.” He helped, lifting her thigh up along his waist, which sent him a little deeper.
They both groaned.
Through his teeth, he said, “I’ve never fucked without a condom. Never.”
The coarse language only added to the carnality of the moment. The look on his face added to the intimacy.
That she would give him something special meant a lot to her. He was her man now, and always. She wanted this to be the best for him that it could be. He’d given so much to her, to her colony.
She could give this to him.
Putting a palm to his face, she smiled past the overwhelming intensity. “I want all of you,” she whispered. “Now.”
He ducked his head down; his shoulders bunched, and with a raw sound of anticipated pleasure, he drove into her.
Kayli lost her breath and stiffened, but the intrusion pained her for only a moment before other sensations rose up, wild and hot. “Michael.”
His body trembled as he fought himself. He withdrew with painstaking care, pushed back in just as leisurely.
Kayli locked her legs around him and put back her head.
He took advantage of that, kissing her throat, pawing both her breasts as he sank in again, withdrew, came back slow and deep.
Each thrust heightened what she felt, sharpened it until it became a different agony. Her heels pressed into the small of his back, trying to encourage him to haste.
But he wouldn’t be swayed, moving at that slow, methodical pace, taking his time as he toyed with her nipples, sucked at the sensitive skin of her throat.
A wave of feeling crested, but receded before she got where she needed to be.
“Please.”
“Soon,” he promised on a ragged breath.
Again and again he thrust into her, and each time the pleasure built, and went away. Each time it grew stronger, more necessary until she thought she’d scream for the need of it.
And when it washed over her, consuming her, she did scream out, squeezing him tight with her legs, putting her teeth to his shoulder to try to contain it all.
Finally letting himself go, Michael hammered into her. Kayli was barely aware of him sharing that awesome moment with her, it was so voracious. But as her climax faded, she heard his harsh groans, felt the wild pounding of his heart and the wilder pounding of his body.
She saw her teeth marks in his shoulder, and licked them by way of apology.
“Oh God,” he said, straining over her until, spent, he slumped down to give her all his weight.
And she loved it.
She loved him, but was unsure about telling him so. Instead, she ran her fingers through his damp hair, over his hot shoulders, along the indentation of his spine.
He was a beautiful man. He was hers.
Now that she knew what that meant, she’d never let him go.
MALLET was still trying to get his brain or legs to function—either would have been a major accomplishment—when Kayli whispered, “Thank you.”
She had to be kidding, but just in case, he struggled up to his elbows, and saw the seriousness of her expression. How could she twist his heart so easily?
And it was his heart. Not his gonads, not his sense of duty, not an obligation, and not mere protectiveness.
He’d fallen for the little warrior, and he wasn’t at all sure how he felt about that. “My pleasure, and I mean that.”
She touched his mouth, tracing his lips. “You said I should ask you things.”
Well yeah, that revived him, assuming she meant sexual things. “Anything. Anytime.” Better him than any other person, male, female, or computer.
“Would you really be able to do that a dozen times tonight?”
“ ‘That’?” Mallet laughed. “It’s called making love—”
“Not sex?”
“It’s more than sex.” Even with her inexperience, how could she not know that? “And while I hate to disappoint you, probably not.”
“I am not disappointed.” Next she traced an eyebrow. “I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to. I’ve never felt so … relaxed.”
He grinned. “Should we test you to see?” Even now, with his boner fading, it was incredible to feel her and only her, all slippery wet, still squeezing him in small aftershocks, still accepting him.
“Perhaps in a bit, if you think we’ll both recover enough.” When he laughed, she poked his shoulder. “You know more about this than I do.”
“We’ll get you schooled in no time.”
Her look turned teasing, sensually ripe. “I hope so.”
Damn, she pleased him. He gave her a tick
ling, laughing smooch, and because that felt so good, he came back for another. He’d thought he was dead for a while, but the kiss turned deep, not so much with lust, but with that special something that was more profound.
Lifting up to his elbows, he looked at her.
Her golden eyes were soft and slumberous, her silky, fair hair wild around her head. “Damn, woman,” he growled low and with feeling, “you are so fucking beautiful.”
Smiling a little, she turned her head to study him more, and her mood turned sober. “Thank you, but you are far more beautiful than I could ever be.” Her fingers teased along his upper chest while she ate him up with her eyes. “Especially after you’ve just had pleasure. Your eyes are so blue, they could enchant me. They have enchanted me.”
Uncomfortable with the praise, Mallet laughed. “Yeah, uh, most men don’t want to be called beautiful.”
“But you are.”
“How about cruelly handsome? I like the sound of that.”
Slowly, she shook her head. “That would never do because there is nothing cruel about you. Remarkable, yes. Outstanding, most definitely. But never cruel.”
He twisted his mouth. “What the hell, woman. I give you sex and you go all mushy on me?”
“I’m being honest, not mushy. Never did I think to find myself in this situation. In this position.” She bent her knees along his hips, deepening their intimate embrace. “But you are more special than I anticipated, and now I’m doing a lot of things I never considered.”
Things she didn’t want to do? Things he’d coerced her into? “I don’t want to disrupt your life.” What a lie. He wanted to turn her entire world around. But he also wanted her happy, damn it.
She frowned in incomprehension. “Yet you’ve done nothing but.” Then she kissed him. “And while it’s taking me time to adjust, it’s not all unpleasant.”
No, it wasn’t all unpleasant—because she liked the sex. Mallet wanted to curse himself. Somehow, with the role-reversal of her time, she’d managed to turn him into a fretting woman who feared being used sexually.
It burned his ass big-time.
“Look, I’m not a paragon, not a hero—”
“Yes, you are.”
He groaned. “But I’m not a villain, either.”