by Mel Teshco
She blew out a slow breath, both reveling and despairing in his need to protect her. “It doesn’t matter—“
His nostrils flared. “It does matter.”
She crossed her arms and said flatly, “Can we talk more about this later? I really need to feel clean again.”
*
Piper closed her eyes and tilted back her head. The conditioner slipped from her hair to the floor and her hands slid up to her heavy, aching breasts. She touched the tips, her nipples beading.
But it was Baron’s touch she craved. Her hands moved lower, between her legs. She moaned as she pushed a finger deep. But it was Baron’s touch she wanted there too.
Desperately.
She’d never been sensual, but Baron brought out a side to her that would even have Rebecca sing his praises. Little wonder the moment Piper had seen the man—alien—she’d ran from him. Not only was Baron inhuman, he was dangerous too. One look at him and her libido had burst into wanton life.
And although that wild and wanton reaction had frightened her at first, now she gloried in the sensation. He’d shown her what it was to be self-aware and alive, and she wanted to lose her inhibitions and learn even more about that part of herself that’d too long been neglected.
Because unlike Earth men, Baron was fascinated by her too. Even if at first she didn’t believe it was possible a drop-dead gorgeous man like Baron could want her, she’d seen the look in her eyes, heard the tenderness in his voice. His need to defend her earlier when he’d heard the PDA had messed with her head had only emphasized his feelings.
She should have trusted her instincts, just like she trusted them in sensing otherworldly beings and the good and bad in people.
But still, she wasn’t yet ready to share with Baron what the PDA had been doing to her. They’d fed her suspicions and paranoia until she’d trusted no one. Her housemate Rebecca had been the only one who’d tried to understand her, despite their differences. And for that she’d always be grateful to her friend.
Croak.
Her eyes flicked open, widened. The large green frog just centimeters from her face pushed a shrill scream from her throat even as she backpedalled. Something touched her and she screamed again.
“Piper, it’s me! What’s wrong?”
She blinked, the flames in Baron’s eyes coming into focus, along with his taut face. She swallowed. Hard. “F...frog.”
He frowned, his tautness easing along with his inner flames. “A frog?”
She jerked a nod in the direction of the slimy amphibian crouched on the top of the shower stall. It looked ready to launch itself at her, its big unblinking yellow eyes with the overlarge black pupils watching her every move. “There,” she said with a shudder.
Baron glanced at the frog and then back at her. “You’re scared of a harmless, little green frog?”
“It’s as big as my hand!”
He stepped inside the shower stall with a chuckle, ignoring the stream of hot water as he reached up and gently coaxed the frog into his hand. “It’s not even half the size of my palm.” He placed it on a ledge higher up and out of her sight, close to the round skylight in the ceiling. “You have nothing to be afraid of.”
He turned to her and she wilted against him, her muscles shaky and weak. “I don’t know whether to thank you or apologize.” She looked up and confessed, “I’ve had a bit of a frog phobia for as long as I can remember.”
He stared down at her, his voice throaty. “I’d say it’s more than a bit of a one.” He brushed the side of her face with the back of his hand. “Wasn’t a frog once a tiny tadpole?” At her nod, he added, “Then I hope your phobia doesn’t extend to all us shape shifters.”
She blinked, her fears receding as her body once again hummed with an entirely different kind of tension. Hell, she was stark naked and he was dripping wet, his uniform glistening like a second skin. Her eyes travelled lower, her breath catching in her throat at seeing his magnificent arousal.
She looked back up. “I don’t fear you,” she said softly. “I ... want you.”
“The PDA and soldiers outside—“
“Will all be a distant memory while I’m in your arms.” She stared up at him, exposing her inner longings she’d so far managed to keep restrained. “I need you.”
His eyes glowed like embers. “You don’t know what you’re saying,” he said roughly, even as he cupped her face and looked down at her as though he was starved of her. “If we make love, I might never want to let you go.”
“I don’t know that I want you to,” she admitted. “Not anymore.”
His throat convulsed. “I should terrify you far more than any Earth frog.”
“Yeah well, I’ve always been different.” She shrugged weakly. “Always been someone far from perfect.”
“No. It’s your uniqueness that sets you apart, makes you perfect in every way.”
Her lungs expanded and her heart burst to overflowing. Her head tipped back, and Baron groaned even before he bent and his lips met hers, softly at first, then hard and unyielding. She shivered, yet his mouth and body pressing against hers was nothing short of a heat wave.
Baron didn’t break their kiss as he shut off the water pummeling against them and lifted her against his chest. Their tongues touched and then twined as he strode out of the shower and into the bedroom.
Her whole body tingled and burned, the slight ash flavor of his mouth and breath turning her on in the most unexpected way. He was a dragon shifter and she was about to make love to possibly the most powerful being on Earth.
The room suddenly tilted and her spine sank into the softest bedcover. Baron followed her down before he tore his mouth from hers. Foreign, lyrical words spilled from his lips between pressing kisses to her collarbone and her neck, kisses that left her gasping at the searing heat that infused both her flesh and her mind.
Surely nothing could feel this amazing, this right?
Then he drew the tip of one of her breasts into his mouth and her nerve endings leapt into life. She closed her eyes, focused simply on feeling. For as long as she lived she’d never forget being with Baron.
“Open your eyes,” he said huskily. “I want you to see what I’m doing to you.” Her eyelids flicked apart and she gazed into his glowing stare when he added, “I want you to see what you do to me.”
He moved lower, skimming light kisses down her ribcage and belly before he stopped between her thighs. He pushed her legs wide, and her breathing became erratic, her pulse even more so. And all the while his stare didn’t once leave hers.
“Exquisite.” He dipped his head. “I can’t wait to taste you.”
He licked along her slit in one long, hot trail, and she moaned as her nerves awakened, sizzling at his touch. Was this what she’d missed out on all these years? No wonder Rebecca went all gaga about sex. It was frigging amazing!
A pulse flickered in Baron’s tight jaw as he thumbed apart her outer labia and bent his head. The moment his tongue grazed her sensitized flesh, electric pulses lifted her head off the bed and caught her breath in her throat.
“Holy shit, what are you doing to me?” she gasped.
“Oh, this is just the start. I plan on making you come over and over again.”
Her head thudded back onto the mattress. She wasn’t about to stop him. Hell, he could lick her pussy every day of the week for the rest of her life! Except tonight would likely be their one and only joining.
The soldiers might allow them this night together, but the longer she and Baron kept their silence, the more likely they’d be torn apart.
Her heart rate jerked and stumbled, before settling back into a normal rhythm. The thought of never seeing Baron again was enough to cool her joy right along with the fire in her veins.
“Don’t look away from me Piper, don’t think about anything. I want you to lose yourself to pleasure ... to sensation.”
She lifted her eyes back to his, and something inside her surrendered to his command. S
he mightn’t cede even a millimeter to him any other time, but in sex, she bowed to his dominance.
His eyes burning, he bent and suckled her clit into his mouth. Fire shot through her nerve endings and lit her up from within. She gasped, her hands fisting the bedcover. But she was a grain of sand fighting against the tide of magma carrying her up and over, then dumping her into a million fragments beneath his suctioning mouth.
But even as the heat wave subsided within, his pupils blazed with fire.
Baron walked the edge of need as he tasted every last drop of her essence, partaking of her like she was honeyed aphrodisiac.
Her legs felt like spaghetti when he finally released her, his lips shining with her passion. Lethargic warmth settled deep into her body, a weariness that was fulfilling, uplifting. And then he stood and pulled the stretchy fabric of his uniform off his shoulders and down his body, and lethargy died a quick death.
Her belly fluttered and her womb clenched. She knew he’d be ripped, but his body was awe-inspiringly ridiculous. Broad shoulders flexed with every movement, his abs rippling. He tossed his uniform aside. Fuck. Was her tongue hanging out? Because surely nothing was harder than his cock. It was also long and thick, with intricate blue veins webbing its length.
“Keep looking at me like that, Earth girl, and I’ll explode before I even sink into your gorgeous pussy.”
She blinked and looked up at him, then croaked out. “There’s no way that alien cock of yours will fit inside me.”
He grinned and moved back over her, his forearms bulging and his hot shaft prodding her belly. “You’re dripping wet for me, Piper. Our joining will be as gratifying for you as it will be for me.”
He kissed her then, and she opened her mouth under his skilled tutelage, tasting herself on his lips, his tongue, and thrilling at the muskiness. Baron was all too clearly an amazing lover. She was in the best of hands. He’d teach her exactly what pleasure felt like ... what she’d been missing out on.
He pulled back, one-handing his shaft before circling the head of his cock over her already tingling clit. The massage zapped through her body, pushing her hips off the bed and making her want so much more.
Satisfaction stamped his face when he rasped, “You’re ready for me now, Piper.”
She stilled. “Is it safe for, you know—an Earth woman and a Riddich man?”
“You can’t fall pregnant with me unless you’re a breeder.” He smoothed a hand over her hair, and she felt his sorrow that she was just an ordinary Earth woman with some strange ways. “And Riddichians don’t carry disease, nor can we catch it.”
Her voice quivered. “Then fuck me ... please.”
Or I just might die.
His eyes burning with gold-red intensity, he aligned his cock to her pussy, and then thrust in deep.
She cried out. Her muscles clamped with shock. Tears sprang to her eyes.
Baron froze, his jaw tight and his voice a hard rasp. “You’re a virgin?”
Chapter Ten
But of course she was a damn virgin, how hadn’t he guessed as much? She was different to women like Rebecca, who screwed men like there was no tomorrow.
“Shit,” he breathed.
Piper tensed even further beneath him, her eyes glittering. “If I’d known it was a turnoff to you I—“
“No!” The word came out savage, an explosion of reproof. “How could you even think that?”
She fidgeted beneath him, and his damn cock jerked in response, harder and thicker than he could ever remember. His balls were so tight they might burst at the seams.
“Then why did you stop?” Her voice quivered, and the beautiful green-blue of her eyes shimmered. “Don’t you want me now?”
A lump formed in his throat, his heart a sponge absorbing all her misery. “Of course I want you. More than anything else in the damn world! But if I’d known you were inexperienced, I would have been more careful.”
Less likely to have taken her like she was a seasoned lover.
Her eyes flashed. “I don’t want you to be careful and considerate.” She deliberately wriggled, and his cock moved against her tight walls, making him groan. “I want you to fuck me like you mean it.”
He exhaled in a rush, and she deliberately wriggled again. He bent over her, kissing her without restraint. And as she responded, he stroked in and out, carefully at first, then faster and harder.
He gritted his teeth as her tight pussy suctioned at his cock with every deep stroke, his thrusts bordering on painful. Alien words poured from his mouth. “Se’mat leulé shian.”
Her little cries that filled his mouth were the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. She clamped her legs around his hips in shocked surprise, her inner muscles gripping his dick as she climaxed with a helpless little cry.
He managed one final stroke before he let go with a roar, his seed exploding from him, the pleasure soul-shatteringly intense. It wasn’t until after he’d sagged over her, kissing her gently and glorying in the aftermath, that logic trickled into his conscious, eroding the haze of lust.
Making love with Piper had felt right on every single level, but absolutely nothing was right about them doing it inside the prison that was the PDA stone cottage.
“Baron, is something wrong?”
He stared into Piper’s eyes, and knew with absolute conviction that nothing could tear them apart, not now. He smoothed some dark hair back from her brow, fingering the chocolate strands. “I think the PDA wanted us together like this.” His throat thickened, and he growled, “We played right into their damn hands.”
She blinked up at him, the brightness fading in her eyes. “I don’t understand. Why should they care if we share a bed?” Then she pressed a hand to her brow and whispered, “Oh my god, they want me to have your babies.”
He nodded. “The fools must think you’re a breeder because...“
“Yes?”
He blew out a breath. “Because of how possessive I am with you.”
Her hand fell away from her brow. “So what do we do?” She bit into her bottom lip. “I don’t want to lose you. Not now.”
“Nor do I want to lose you.” He kissed her jaw, her neck, his touch branding her. Her neck arched and she moaned softly, before he lifted his head and stated hoarsely, “I don’t know what I’m capable of doing if they try to take you away from me.”
Her head lolled back, her eyes searching his. “We’ve known each other such a short time. It doesn’t make sense to have such strong feelings.”
“We feel what we feel,” he growled, his cock thickening inside her.
“And if you find your breeder, what then?”
His whole body stiffened, even as his cock deflated. Imagining life with some other woman in it made him sick to his stomach. He wanted Piper and nobody else, but maybe that wasn’t his choice to make.
“If I find my breeder, I can’t promise you anything, not even a future together.” His stare locked onto hers, his every cell focused on her. “Once we escape this place, I won’t blame you if you walk away from me too.”
Even though it will kill me to watch you do exactly that.
She shook her head and said softly, “I think I’m incapable of leaving you now.” She blinked. “Is it selfish of me to live the rest of my days hoping that you’ll never find your breeder?”
Warmth poured through him, his inner dragon roaring with triumph. Somehow he held himself together. “Probably no more selfish than me hoping I don’t ever find a breeder.”
Her smile trembled, and then faded. “But you might. And then we’ll have to somehow deal with it.”
His chest ached, guilt a sharp aftertaste in his mouth. “I should never have put you in this position.”
Her smile returned, a glint of humor in her eyes when she did a slow up and down with her hips. “I happen to love this position.”
His dick jerked and thickened once again, even as the ache in his chest intensified. Bloody hell, could his feelings for this woman grow
any deeper? That his body was attuned to her in ways he couldn’t explain only made him question if meeting a breeder really would affect his feelings for Piper.
“My, my ... isn’t this a sight I never thought I’d see.”
Piper froze beneath him and Baron turned as a blonde woman sauntered into the bedroom as though she owned it. Two soldiers moved into position in the opened doorway behind her.
His eyes narrowed. “Rebecca,” he gritted out.
*
Piper gasped as Baron withdrew from her. But the sudden disconnection with him wasn’t her only shock. Her housemate had just casually walked into the bedroom as though she belonged in this hellhole.
What the flaming heck was going on?
Gone was Rebecca’s slutty demeanor and faint look of desperation. In its place was a woman brimming with poise and assertion. With her blonde hair pulled back into a tight knot at the back of her neck, and her clothes now standard issue camouflage army pants and shirt, Rebecca looked every inch a disciplined and hardened soldier.
Baron reached for the end of the bedcover before he wrapped it discreetly around Piper. And somewhere in the midst of all her confusion, her heart melted that little bit more for him. Baron was clearly aware she wasn’t one to show off her body.
Rebecca sent a cold smile Baron’s way. “Hello Baron. It’s nice to meet the dragon who’s finally taken the breeder out of my hair.”
Piper tried to ignore the piercing cut of betrayal deep in her chest, even as tears burned the back of her eyes. To think she’d thought her so called friend had been a closet romantic! “I thought we were friends.”
Rebecca did an exaggerated eye roll. “Please! Do you really think I’d hang out with a weirdo like you? Even your supernatural senses weren’t enough to make up for the drag of being your so called friend.”
Baron wrapped an arm around Piper, but his eyes were hard as they locked onto Rebecca. “Let me guess ... the PDA planted you in the house with Piper because they hoped she’d lead you to a dragon.”
Rebecca nodded. “Nothing else in the world would see me put up with Piper and make sandwiches for a living. That job was almost as mind-numbing as defending my friendship with Piper everywhere we went. Of course feeding her constant paranoia wasn’t part of my job description either until she tried to rein-in her senses and become normal like everyone else.”