by Lisa Lace
I pulled back. "Including Nathaniel?"
Jori nodded his head. He looked brittle. I thought he might break at any moment. I wondered what he would do if I kissed him.
"Don't do it."
Damn it. "What do you mean?" I said.
"Don't kiss me."
"How do you know I was thinking about kissing you?"
"Were you?"
"Yes." I looked away. He had squashed my feelings.
"If we start now, I wouldn't be able to stop, Sam," he said. He had a longing in his voice, and it broke my heart.
The person in front of me was not the Jori I thought I knew. I had seen a side of him tonight that I'd never seen before. And I liked it. He was out of control and a little on edge. Perhaps even vulnerable.
It was sexy as hell.
He stepped back away from me, and I sighed. No sex tonight. I turned away and began padding across the living room in my bare feet.
"Sam." I stopped and looked over my shoulder.
He winced. "Don't look at me like that, Earth woman."
"You called me, Jori. What do you want?"
He licked his lips and pressed them together. "Just for the record. If things were different..."
"Yes?" I said, encouraging him to continue. I was tired. If he wasn't going to fuck me, he could at least let me go to bed in peace.
"I want to peel you out of that dress."
I felt my heart rate increase. "You still can."
I saw his chest rising and falling rapidly. For a moment, I thought he would have his way with me. But he closed his eyes.
"No. It's better this way. You'll see."
I didn't agree, but there was no point in arguing. Instead, I took my sexually frustrated ass into my room and removed my dress myself. I fell asleep alone.
JORI
I paced back and forth in the living room. I had the path memorized by now. It took fifteen steps from the island to the window, and fifteen steps to return. I felt like I would go to pieces if I didn't go into Samantha's room right now and do something.
Shit. I needed to get out of here. I scribbled a note saying I was running errands, in case she woke up and couldn't find me. Then I fled into the night.
Where could I go? Of course. The Sea Shore.
My favorite bar was open late. It had the best beer on Vandwa and made my favorite kind of fried calamari. For a moment, I considered waking Sam and asking her to come with me. She might be hungry, and I hated the way I had left things.
Of course, you can't wake her up, you idiot. That's why you're going out. To get away from her.
The problem was, I didn't want to get away from her. I wanted to get closer to her, and it was starting to scare me. I had never wanted a woman this badly. Plenty of women had attracted me before. This was something different.
When she had said she didn't think I was guilty, I thought I might cry. No one had ever believed I was innocent. Since I went to jail, no one had ever told me they thought I was a good guy. People usually looked at me suspiciously, as if they wondered what I was going to do to them. They kept their hands in their purse or on their wallet when I entered the room.
Even though I knew it was for a greater good, the hardest thing about going to jail was that people didn't trust me anymore. Nathaniel, my brother, had always been my biggest supporter. He looked like he wanted to believe me, but I could tell he had doubts. Knowing I had lost some trust with my brother made me feel disgusted with myself.
The mission had taken so much from me. My life, my freedom, and my self-respect. To get me through each day, I had to keep reminding myself it would be worth it in the end. It was hard to believe right now when I yearned for Sam.
I walked down the street with my hands in my pockets. The night air from the ocean was cold. When I got to the pub, I went and sat at the end of the bar. I didn't want anyone to bother me. I proceeded to get as drunk as I possibly could. When they kicked me out at closing time, I walked down the street feeling pretty steady — or at least it seemed that way to me.
Why were there two of everything?
When I made my way up the stairs to my apartment, I had to stop twice to rest. It took me three attempts to enter using the retinal scanner. I guess my glazed eyes looked different than my clear ones.
As I stumbled in, I lurched into the table across from the door and saw a red rose lying on it. Why was there a rose in my apartment? Then I remembered I lived with a woman now, and such things would start becoming commonplace. Through my alcohol-induced haze, a vague memory surfaced of Sam setting it down when we had arrived earlier in the evening.
I threw myself on the couch and thought about her. I sat there for a long time. She consumed my thoughts. Lust for her filled me, but I wasn't thinking about that now. The memory that kept playing in my mind was when she said she didn't believe I had done anything bad.
She believed in me.
It had been a long time since anyone had faith in me. The person who I was and the person who people thought I was were supposed to be different, but Sam saw through everything.
Could I tell Sam how much her words meant to me? I wouldn't touch her. I would stand by the door and tell her.
I wasn't going to touch her.
She had left her door closed. She didn't wake at my knock, so I opened it. How was I going to tell her anything from the doorway if she was sleeping on the bed?
I knew I should wait until the morning, but I went over to the bed. When I leaned over to shake her awake, I lost my balance and fell into her bed. Fortunately, she was sleeping on the other side. She would have had a rude awakening if my entire weight landed on her.
I wiggled across the bed until I found her. She looked so sweet that I had to hold her. I wrapped an arm around her and scooted in, spooning against her warm body. My hand naturally cupped her full breast and in only a second, I felt myself hard as a rock and pressing against her.
Was I as drunk as I thought I was? Maybe I was using the drinking as an excuse to do what I wanted.
I heard her draw in a deep breath and felt her breast move in my hand. Was she awake? I gently squeezed. She made a small sound in her sleep. Everything about this was a bad idea. I knew it, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.
I played with her breasts, cupping and massaging them, twisting her nipples through the silky fabric. She shifted and moaned. And I wondered how close I could move to the line. I slowly slid my hand down her belly until I came up against her panties.
Don't do it, Jori. Don't do it.
But my body no longer responded to the commands of my mind. I worked my hand into her underwear and her sex. A moment later, I let my finger slide into her folds. She was wet. Her hips bucked against me, and I could tell when she woke up.
She pressed into my hand, silently pleading for me to continue. I touched her hard nub, and she hissed. When I began to rub, she moaned. There was no way I was stopping now. We both needed this.
It only took a couple minutes before she started coming. But I needed to taste her, and I rolled her limp, bliss-filled body towards me and captured her lips. She responded immediately, opening her mouth. Our tongues fiercely mated after having been denied for so long.
Our clothed bodies were twined together, our arms were wrapped around each other, and our lips were melded. It felt right. How could something that felt so right be wrong, I wondered. But I didn't think that for long. All the blood had gone somewhere else, and I had nothing left in my head for thought.
Her hand reached for me, but I wouldn't let her.
"I'll explode if you touch me," I said.
"Isn't that the point?" she whispered back. It was the first time she had spoken. The sound of her husky lust-filled voice alone made me feel like coming.
"One more for you," I said, bending my head and taking her breast into my mouth through the fabric of her tiny tank top. She made a hungry noise and pulled my head to her chest. I lifted the material and sucked at her large mounds. They tasted
even better than they looked. She panted and moaned. I slid down, needing to have the full experience of tasting her body.
I pulled down her shorts and panties.
"Jori, I don't...I mean, I never...I mean..."
"Lie down, Samantha," I growled and she lay back, her thighs quivering.
The first lick had her arching up off the bed. I grabbed her hips and held her down, going to work. She ran her hands through my hair and gasped. After a minute, I pushed a finger inside of her, then added a second. She was making a keening noise and then she went to pieces, bucking wildly and crying out over and over as her orgasm rocked her.
Perfect.
I crawled back up her body, and she reached for my zipper.
"I can't wait any longer to have you inside me," she said, and I moaned. I needed to bury myself so deeply inside her that I forgot everything else.
She undressed me and grabbed me, her fingers slightly overlapping. I'm not the longest guy, but I've got some girth. I hoped she liked that.
"You're thick. I can't wait," she muttered. It was time.
"Sam, spread your legs. I have to..."
But I was interrupted by a loud noise in the other room. Was that an explosion?
"What the hell was that?" she said and we both jumped up.
"I think something blew up." I was already zipping myself back into my pants and feeling stone cold sober.
"You mean it was the sound of my fuck going down the tubes again," she said bitterly.
I laughed. Me, a guy who never laughed. I couldn't help it, even when I looked at her and saw how frustrated and angry she was.
"I want a rain check," she said, grimly.
"If we get out of here alive, I promise we'll have our time together."
Chapter Seven
JORI
All thoughts of sex with Sam flew from my mind as I tried to figure out an escape plan. The window was stuck shut and made of unbreakable glass because we were on the third floor. It was supposed to be a safety precaution, but now it felt like a death trap.
We would have to leave her room. It wasn't the best idea because it sounded like a raging fire burned outside the room. If it hadn't got this far yet, we might be able to leave through my bedroom window or the bathroom.
I touched the door with the back of my hand. It was still cool.
"Come on," I said, grabbing her hand. I opened the door slightly. There was no fire in the hall. I nudged the door a little more and the influx of new oxygen gave the fire in the living room a boost. We saw it flare up.
When I glanced in the fire's direction, I saw through the flames that there was no door to my apartment anymore. I was confused, wondering who had opened it. I realized it had been blown away by the explosion. I didn't see the table either. We ran down the hall to my room. I pulled Sam in and shut the door.
"Put a blanket against the crack under the door to keep the smoke out," I ordered.
She was coughing already. We didn't want to die of smoke inhalation before the fire had its chance to kill us. I went to the window. Looking at the ground from this height, I realized we were too high to jump. We would end up with two dead, broken bodies. I stared out the window in dismay. When I turned back to tell her the bad news, Sam already had an idea.
"Jori, don't all the apartments on the upper floors have emergency ladders?" Sam said. "We have them on Earth. You know, the rope kind?"
I raced to a closet and started digging through the mess. I did have a ladder. It was right where I tossed it when I moved in. I never thought I would have to use it.
We smiled briefly at each other. Outside the door, I heard the fire roaring. We rushed to the window, and I hung the ladder on the sill.
"You first," I said.
She didn't argue with me, which I took as a sign that she was scared. She kissed me and stuck her leg out the window. Then she hesitated. I could see that she was uncomfortable to be so high, but she didn't complain. She found the strength to climb down. When she reached the bottom, she called up to me.
"Come on! Get out of there, Jori!"
As soon as she was on the ground, I climbed out of the window and made my way down the ladder, which swung back and forth under my weight. As I jumped to the ground, the fire trucks pulled up. It had only been a few minutes since the explosion, but an eternity since we had been making love. I couldn't believe it. What a way to get interrupted.
I looked around. We needed to give our statements and get out of here. The person who had put the explosive in my apartment might still be around. And I knew who had put them up to it.
My enemy. Harrington.
An hour later, I finally got Sam away from the police, and they dropped us off at a nearby hotel. We walked wearily to our second floor room. I wasn't going to be taking any chances staying in a high place right now. First floor rooms were a security nightmare. The second floor was a reasonable compromise.
Whoever put the bomb in my apartment tried to make it look like an accident. If my place had burned down, it would have looked like a mistake. After a house fire, one of the heirs to the Lachlan fortune was found dead upon arrival at the hospital. No one knew what caused the fire.
And if they tried once, they would bide their time and try again. I thought we would be safe tonight, at least.
Harrington said my wife might have an accident. The bastard. I would pay him back for hurting my wife and everyone else.
Samantha and I showered separately and put on hotel bathrobes. Our clothes reeked of smoke and had been tossed in the garbage. I had asked the concierge to find us some clothes, but no stores were open at this time of night. My request would probably go unfulfilled until morning.
I still wanted her, of course. I was feeling desperate now. Unfortunately, there was no way we were going to sleep together tonight. I was sober and didn't have the excuse of being drunk and unable to think straight.
All the reasons that had made sleeping together a bad idea before were still valid. What made it more difficult was that her touch remained in my mind. Resisting her would be even harder, but I would do it. It was the right thing to do, and I was a good guy. Samantha said so.
SAMANTHA
"So, what's going on here?" I asked. We only had bathrobes to wear, but we sat as far apart from each other as possible. It was easier for me this way. I didn't want to think about having him inside me. I still ached for him, but I knew he wouldn't touch me. He had been drunk earlier. I had tasted the alcohol on him. I knew that was the only reason he ended up in my room with his hands down my pants.
I remembered how it felt to wake up aroused and realize that I wasn't dreaming. I discovered Jori's hands on me, doing everything I had imagined. It made me blush. Finally, I sighed deeply. There were other things I wanted him to do to me. They would never happen because he had a peculiar sense of chivalry. Somehow he thought remaining chaste was the right thing to do, which I just didn't understand.
That reminded me. He owed me one hell of an explanation.
He leaned forward and closed his eyes, interlacing his fingers, then pulling his hands apart to rub at his temples.
I wanted to touch him badly, but I stayed where I was. One of the rules was no emotional entanglements.
I reminded myself that he was just my husband.
"You owe me, Jori. You said if my life were in danger you would tell me everything."
He nodded, his eyes still closed.
"I know what I said, but I never thought it would come to this or your life would be in danger. I'm breaking an important vow, so please give me a minute."
He seemed distressed. On the outside, he was big, he was strong, and he was a hot, sexy alien. Right now I thought he might fall to pieces, and I didn't know how to comfort him.
Was it even my place to calm him down?
He began with a name. "Harrington."
"The asshole at the party?"
He nodded.
"Hang on. Before I start talking about myself, we need
to figure out what happened."
I thought he might be stalling, but the mystery had been grating on me, too. Why, who, and how the hell had someone blown up the apartment?
"Was it an explosive?" I asked. "That's what you said at the time. Do you still think so?"
He nodded again.
"Yes. The police said that because the entire third story burned, it was going to be hard to tell if it was deliberate. I told them I had heard a loud noise before the fire started. They thought it could have been the gas pipe bursting or any number of things."
"They wouldn't think it was a bomb?"
"Crime is rare on Vandwa, and I didn't tell them what I suspected," he said.
"Is keeping secrets from the police a good idea?"
"The police can't catch the person who did this. But it doesn't matter what the police know or what we can prove. What matters is us knowing the truth."
"Let's run through the sequence of events," I said. "The sound came from the living room."
"Right. I had noticed before we went down the hall that the door was gone. Something blew it clean away."
"Does that mean the bomb was close to the door?"
"Yes. It was a small one. They only intended to use it for starting the fire. It would burn away evidence of its existence. Whoever hid the bomb was close to the door."
"Where do you think they hid it?" I asked. "You never kept anything by the entryway."
I closed my eyes, imagining the entrance to his apartment.
"There was a table near the door. How did the bomb get into your place? A box? A container?"
"I have no idea. They can make them almost microscopic these days. They could have hidden it in anything. A box, like you said, or a pin on someone's lapel or even an envelope."
"Was there any mail on the table?" I said. I was trying to remember, but I had been emotional at the time. I had been too disappointed about Jori's lack of desire to pay attention to anything around me.
"Nope, I clean and sort my mail right away. I keep that table clean."
I looked around the hotel room for inspiration. The room didn't have any unusual decorations, but something odd was a bouquet of a dozen beautiful red roses on a table. Why were they there? Maybe Jori had ordered them.