Their mouths meshed together in a moist, erotic duel. Each breath came in harsh sounding pants. Alex quickened his strokes. Flesh slapped against flesh. Lily kissed his lips again then angled a trail of kisses down his neck. She bit lightly, and he made a dark sound at the back of his throat.
“Goddess, do that again,” he muttered.
A wave pushed against them, and tumbled over her head with a splash. Lily grinned once she’d wiped the water from her face. “Make me come first.”
Alex’s golden eyes darkened. He rotated his hips and inserted his finger between their locked bodies. A teasing foray across her swollen, achy nub stole her breath.
“Like that?” he asked.
“Yesss.”
“How’s this?” He swiveled his finger, exerted a fraction more pressure and hot pleasure streaked to her toes. Another deliberate revolution of his finger pushed her over the edge, cascading wave after wave of sweet delight through her shuddering body.
“Good,” Lily managed when she could breathe again. “Not bad.”
“Maybe I should try harder.” His hand toyed with her clit, wringing a twinge of sensation.
Her womb remained pleasantly full and stretched with his thick cock. “Harder sounds excellent.”
A growl vibrated through his chest as he barred his teeth at her. “You asked for it, moon heart.”
Alex plundered her mouth, ravishing. Taking. He grasped her hips with both hands, withdrawing then surged back into her womb with leashed power that sent a renewed surge of raw need spiraling through her veins.
“Alex.” Her hips jerked. Heat stabbed. Lily arched into Alex’s next thrust, angling her clit for his intimate touch in the exact place she needed. His cock seemed so long and hard.
He withdrew then slammed back inside her cunt. His groan came from low down in his chest. “Ah, Lily.”
Deep inside her sheath, she felt the rapid pulse of his cock, the spurt of his seed. Alex clutched her possessively, with hips still pumping, his head thrown back and face screwed up in an expression of agonized ecstasy. It excited Lily to know she could unravel him this way.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. The flare of languid desire in his golden gaze shot an arrow of heat spearing outward from her clit. One last slide as they slowly rocked together was all it took for Lily to explode into spasms of blissful pleasure.
“Rating out of ten?” he asked in a low smoky voice.
Lily opened her eyes to see a full out grin. “Nine,” she said promptly. “Although I’m happy to let you retake the test if you want.”
Alex snorted. “Ah, moon heart.” He lifted Lily off him and lowered her to her feet before kissing her thoroughly. “You might regret that remark…” One eye closed in a wink. “…when you have trouble walking tomorrow.”
Chapter Fourteen
The soft twittering of birds outside their cabin woke Lily. She lay, wrapped in Alex’s arms, savoring the warmth that emanated from his body and the tangible link to her lover. Her lover. A smile wandered across her lips. She opened her eyes.
“Ahhhh!” Lily ripped herself from the bed and backed away until the wall at her back blocked further retreat. Her heart pounded in a terrified tattoo and lodged halfway up her throat. Dread backed up behind the bottleneck, only squeezing past in tiny incremental whimpers.
The man she’d been wrapped around was not Alex.
“Lily?” The dark-haired man yawned, sat up in the bed and scratched at his hairy chest.
A panicked whimper emerged from Lily’s tight throat. “Don’t…hurt me.”
“Lily! Lily! What wrong?” An urgent scratch came from outside the cabin door.
“Why would I hurt you?”
The rough, gravelly voice sounded nothing like Alex. Lily edged along the wall toward the door, unable to wrench her petrified gaze off the strange man. Killer presented security. And right at this moment, Lily didn’t feel safe, but she wanted to. Her hand closed around the brass doorknob. She twisted it, keeping her eye on the stranger in the bed. Holy heck, her limbs were shaking so badly she thought she might sink to the floor. As she watched, the dark-haired man changed. His hair flashed from dark to gold and back. Lily blinked.
“Lily, hurry,” Killer barked.
Lily yanked on the handle, the door opened and Killer trotted into the cabin. The dog froze, the hair along her spine rising. A low, menacing growl vibrated deep in her throat.
“I don’t know who you are,” Lily said, scowling at the dark-haired man and trying to look as menacing as possible with wobbly knees. “And I don’t care. Just leave and there won’t be any trouble.”
“Lily, what are you talking about? Killer, knock that off.”
“How do you know our names?” Lily demanded. “Where’s Alex? What have you done with him?” As she said his name, the man’s appearance flashed from dark-haired and plain to a more familiar golden cat.
A look that might have been anguish sprinted across his face. He rose from the bed and marched across to a mirror. His hand swept across his face. “Fuck.”
Killer trotted across to Lily and leaned against her legs. Lily took comfort from the warm, furry body.
The dark-haired man turned to Lily and Killer.
The look was definitely anguished.
“Holy Hannah!” Killer let out a whistle-bark. “Look at the dangly bits on him.”
Lily was trying not to. This man wasn’t Alex, yet she’d woken in bed with him. She hadn’t done the dirty with him. Had she? Her mind did an abrupt u-turn. She was so not going there.
“Lily, look.” Killer rubbed her wet nose over Lily’s bare leg to snare her attention. “That Alex.”
Lily gaped. Killer was right. Alex was flashing—rapidly changing from dark to blond and back.
“Why are you staring at me?” the man demanded.
“Are you really Alex?” Lily said in a faint voice. She had trouble taking her eyes off him. His appearance changed with the frequency of a light flicking off and on. Disconcerting and very weird.
“You flashing, too,” Killer said to Lily. Disapproval coated her announcement. “Cover up bare bits.”
Good idea, Lily thought then maybe she wouldn’t feel at such a disadvantage. She snatched up a robe from inside the wardrobe and fumbled her way into it, tying the belt firmly at her waist.
Killer prowled a tight circle around the bedroom. Her nails clicked noisily on the polished wooden floor, only muted when she stomped across the multi-colored woolen mat. The dog stopped beside the rumpled bed Alex had climbed from. Then she leapt onto the smooth covers of the neighboring bed. The dog’s eyes narrowed. Her chest vibrated with an angry growl as she glared at Lily. “You sleep in same bed as Alex.”
“Yes.” Lily didn’t have a problem admitting it, not to Killer.
“Janaya be angry!”
“What’s it got to do with Janaya?” Lily didn’t have to pretend confusion. She didn’t owe her sister-in-law explanations about the private choices she made.
Killer clacked her teeth in disgust and bounded off the bed. “I won’t get collar. Won’t pay for shoddy job!”
“What collar?” dark-haired Alex said from the ensuite door.
“Oops!” Killer ran for the door. “Me go now. Maxwell waiting.” She shot outside.
Either the wind caught the cabin door or Killer gave it a shove because it slammed noisily breaking the tense silence within the cabin.
Lily folded her arms across her chest. “I guess you have an explanation.”
“Yes.” Alex sank onto the end of the bed—the rumpled one that still bore the scent of their lovemaking.
Lily tried to maintain eye contact, but the rapid changes in his appearance made her dizzy. She had to glance away. “Well, are you going to tell me?”
“I—”
“Wait!” Fear struck Lily without warning. Maybe she didn’t want to know after all. Instinct told her she wouldn’t like the answers he gave. Uneasiness made her shuffle from foot to foot. �
��I’m frightened,” she confessed, squeezing her eyes shut. “But I guess I knew what we had was short term.”
“Sit.” Alex pulled out a chair for her. “I’ll make coffee and then we’ll talk.”
The wait did nothing to settle her nerves. This was worse than listening to Ambrose pontificate about why their marriage hadn’t worked and why the blame lay squarely at her feet. Unable to maintain calm, Lily jumped to her feet and strode over to the window just for something to keep her occupied. Once there, she pulled up the cedar blinds and stared blindly at the punga ferns and the sparkling sea beyond. Ambrose’s voice echoed through her head. Her fault because she didn’t have what it took to attract a man.
“Lily, the coffee is ready.”
She turned away from the vista, suddenly aware of the pungent scent of coffee beans. She thought she might throw up if she drank a cup of coffee.
Alex set two mugs of coffee on the table along with a selection of pastries.
The pastries sent her stomach wildly lurching. “Where did these come from?”
“They were delivered a few minutes ago. Didn’t you hear the door?”
No. Too immersed in the pain of the past. Lily sucked in a slow breath, trying to draw on inner strength. She remembered that Alex had called her beautiful and clung to the thought. But fear still stalked her mind, negating all her efforts for calm. And the way Alex’s appearance flashed off and on didn’t help. At least the changes seemed to have slowed.
Alex sat opposite. Lily glanced at him then ripped her gaze away to stare instead at her coffee mug. Maybe if she concentrated really hard on the steam rising off her mug, she wouldn’t break down and cry. Or throw up.
“My real name is Alexandre Bellangere.”
Lily did look at him then. She hadn’t expected a false name. “I’m more interested in what’s going on with your body. You’re switching colors like a traffic light. Is that one of the things I was meant to discover along the way?”
“On Dalcon,” Alex continued as though she’d never interrupted, “I am a member of the royal court. It’s not the done thing for a male in my position to take up a trade since it’s considered common. I wanted—needed—the challenge. And so, I found a way to leave. I purchased a spell that changed my appearance, firstly so I could leave without messy problems and secondly, so I didn’t attract attention.”
Not attract attention? That didn’t make sense. The man was a babe. A hunk with shoulder-length curly hair, golden skin and brown eyes. Then there was the bod. Muscles. Broad shoulders. Six-pack abs. The whole works.
“But you’re gorgeous,” Lily blurted. “How did you think you’d blend in looking the way you do? Haven’t you seen the way women look at you? Not just women my age either. School girls and grandmothers look at you with the same fascination.”
Her words startled him, but then he remembered the owner of the kebab shop, the giggling schoolgirls. Janet in Martinborough. “Describe how you see me.”
“Tall. Blond. Sexy.”
Alex’s mind seized on one word. Blond. “Why the hell am I seeing black in the mirror?” he demanded, tugging at a lock of hair. “Are you saying that everyone on Earth sees a blond male? My normal appearance,” he mused out loud. “But Janaya and Luke didn’t. And neither did Hinekiri or Richard because they didn’t recognize me.”
“Should they?”
Alex nodded, but didn’t go into detail. What had the crone said? People on Dalcon would not see him. He hadn’t taken her words literally. He should have. The crone had muttered about not missing a spell or there would be dire consequences, and people would see what they should not see. He should have taken that literally, too. He should have asked the crone about the fine print, the small details, but he’d been so excited to outwit the palace guards that he’d grabbed the opportunity. Now, he risked losing Lily’s friendship and love because she could see both visages—his disguise and his true self.
“You can’t go outside like that.” Lily stalked around the small wooden coffee table and stopped to clench her hands around an upright chair. “How did you keep from doing that before?”
“My top-up spell was in one of the bags that were stolen. I think…I hope it will wear off.”
“Then what?” Lily asked in a flat tone.
Ah, bonding. How the hell did he explain that? Hopefully Luke and Janaya—no, Lily had said she hadn’t really talked to them about things alien. “You’ll agree that we’re good together,” he began hesitantly. Between the space of yesterday and this morning, Alex had decided he couldn’t leave Earth without Lily. Although joining with her would make it difficult, almost impossible for him to return to Dalcon, there were other planets, other galaxies where a pissed, thwarted father couldn’t interfere. Of course, he wouldn’t have the satisfaction of proving to his father he could be a productive citizen, but he could still successfully run Bellangere Grand Tours. The main thing was whatever he did Lily was there to share it with him. His own Renaissance painting. A painting by Botticelli, just like the one in his guidebook. His heart lightened at the thought. He hadn’t admitted it to himself before, but he made the effort now. When he was apart from Lily, he felt as though a slice of his heart was missing. Lily made him whole. There, he’d admitted it.
He only hoped that Lily felt the same way.
“Will you join with me?” Oh, yeah. That was great. Blurt it out before you lay the groundwork. Too late now—the damage was done. Alex stilled, praying to the saints under his breath as he waited for Lily’s reply.
Lily started to chew on her bottom lip, and Alex’s heart stuttered with instant alarm. The feel of her serious gaze skimming over him, over his body bred panic. “We’ve bonded,” he blurted. “Our souls have recognized each other and have bonded already. Joining is the Dalconian way of formalizing the union.” He watched her anxiously—the way she chewed on her lip until it was a deep, rose red. The redder her lips became, the more he worried.
“Explain joining to me. I don’t understand.”
“I think marriage is the Earth equivalent.”
“Marriage?”
Damn, she was still abusing her bottom lip. Alex ached to soothe it, to lie her down and sink deep into her womb. Claiming Lily. Showing her the depth of his feelings, instead of trying to put it into words.
“We’re good together.” Alex meant every word. This was no comforting placation. Lily treated him like an equal instead of a piece of ass only good for one thing. She never made him feel like a pretty face or an accessory whose only job was to decorate her arm. Her determination and gentleness, her innocence and even her clumsiness were endearing. And her growing feistiness.
Lily made him feel worthy, as if he could do anything.
Of course, his father wouldn’t agree, which was why they could never return to Dalcon without some heavy strategic planning and maybe a spell or two.
“We’re compatible,” he insisted.
“I thought Ambrose and I were well-matched, but we lived a lie.” Lily glared at him. “Your version of truth is like elastic. You lied to me about your identity. That’s no basis for a relationship.”
She didn’t know the whole of it. “Will you at least consider it?”
Alex didn’t intend to tell her the whole truth until he had to. He didn’t want to scare her off with either his identity, his father’s position of power or the implications of bonding. She didn’t understand yet. “I know you want to travel. We can do it together. We have so much in common.” Like they’d bonded. Fate had joined them already.
“I have commitments here. Debts to pay. I can’t go off—”
Frustrated with her stance and irritated at himself because he was unable to explain, Alex did the only thing he could think of to turn her to his way of thinking. He seized Lily and kissed her. Hard. Desperately. His lips ate at hers, his mouth moving hungrily before he gentled to nibble on her top lip. When she didn’t respond, Alex slowed the kiss even more, persuading rather than demanding. Lily moa
ned softly and drew closer. Her hands stroked restlessly up and down his back. Their lips moved together, tongues twirling slow and easy, exploring and arousing. A mating of the lips—an act of possession. A statement of intent.
Alex pulled away and stared down into her blue eyes. “Please say you’ll think about joining.” If he could persuade her rather than lay down the law, he sensed the situation would remain calm instead of flying into volatile.
Lily smiled suddenly and traced a gentle finger across his cheek. “You seem to have stopped flashing.”
“Good,” Alex said dryly with a great deal of feeling. At least she was still speaking to him. That was a start. “A paper bag over my head would have made sightseeing a bit difficult.”
“Not to mention attracting attention.” A gamine grin lit up her face. “Perhaps we should work out a disguise for you in case. How do you fancy a dress teamed with heels?”
“Not. I’d probably sprawl on my face and show my knickers.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you wear panties.”
The deadpan look on her face got him—at first. Then he caught sight of a sassy twinkle. “Very funny. Are you eating?” Alex picked up his mug of coffee and grimaced. “Cold. I’ll pour more coffee.”
Lily glanced at the plate of warm pastries and the coffee. She shuddered slightly. “Maybe later. I think I’ll have a shower.” She started for the stairs leading to the master bathroom.
Alex felt the grin that sprinted across his face and suspected it looked suggestive or even plain down and dirty. Instantly his body leapt to lust-mode. Packed. Ready to fire. “I’ll come and scrub your back.” To his relief definite interest sparkled in her eyes.
“Think you can manage without sex taking hold of your mind?”
“I doubt it.”
Lily snickered. “Good. Let’s go.”
They climbed the wide stairs together to the bathroom. Not one curtain or blind blocked the stunning floor to ceiling windows or the magnificent view of the coast, but anyone using the room remained assured of privacy since they were high up, away from prying eyes.
Talking Dog II: Never Send a Dog To Do a Woman's Job Page 17