Slowly, he bent and brushed his lips back and forth over mine, his black hair falling forward. “So soft and sexy,” he whispered huskily, taking a nibbling bite of my lower lip. His lips brushed along my neck and collarbone, his tongue coming out to taste my skin, sucking gently, and I felt shivers of heat lick my veins once again. When his mouth reached my breast, I heard myself moan, arching to give him access. Freeing it from its material so it was propped up to him, he scraped his teeth over one of my pink nipples. How could I recover so quickly? The hot moisture of my arousal seeped through to the lips of my sex once again.
But I wanted my turn. I wanted to do the attacking. Managing to catch him off balance, I shoved him onto his back and straddled him, loving the feel of powerful man between my legs.
“I want to have my way with you,” I purred, running my hands over the ridges and swell of tanned muscle.
“What do you want to do?” His sensual smile wrapped around my heart as he reached to cup my breasts once again, rubbing his thumbs over the stiffened peaks. Lightning fired down to my sex lips, making them swell and heat with more juices. Gasping with the pleasure of it, I grabbed his wrists and pulled them away, knowing he would end up distracting me.
“You have to leave your hands here,” I breathed heavily, still feeling the tingles from his touch. I placed his hands on the wooden slats of the headboard, curling his fingers around the wooden bars. “Don’t move.”
Lightly raking my nails down the inside of his arms, over his nipples and down his slatted abdomen, I traced the outline of rigid muscle, wanting to know his body as he knew mine. Placing my lips over one of his flat brown nipples, I let my tongue taste his skin. Edging closer to his straining cock, I let my lips roam, planting random wet kisses over his tight stomach, tracing the grooves as I’d been longing to do, loving how his muscles jumped at my touch and how his breathing was now shallow and rapid. I could feel his shaft prodding my breast as I worked down his abdomen. It had grown significantly as I played with his body, and when I got to it, I wondered how he had ever fit inside me. Thicker and more distended than before, his cock stood swollen, a small pearl of fluid cresting the top.
I wanted to taste him. His breathing became more labored. I looked up to see the muscles of his arms bulging as he gripped the headboard, his eyes on mine. I’d never done it before. Was there a wrong way?
“You don’t have to,” he said heavily, seeing into my thoughts.
“I want to.” Tentatively at first, I grasped his cock. I was surprised to feel how hot it was and to feel it pulsate beneath my fingers. Bending over him, I licked the moisture off of the head like it was a lollipop, enjoying the scent and salty taste of his essence, and Ryder groaned at the sensation.
Emboldened by his response, I took him in to my mouth and sucked at him, bobbing over the crest of his head. He pumped his hips involuntarily, a tortured expression on his face. I licked the side of his shaft from base to tip before enveloping him again, this time using my hand and mouth to make him crazy. Up and down, I surrounded him, absorbing his sounds of pleasure and feeling his cock lengthen even more. I felt sexy and wicked, playing with his cock.
“Babe, you’ve got to stop,” he said through a hiss. “I want to get there with you. Condoms are in the drawer.”
With a final lick, I crawled back up his body and reached over him to snag a packet from the small nightstand. Unable to stop himself from touching what was an inch from his face, he let go of the headboard and cupped my breasts, laying one plump orb on his hot, open mouth.
“Ryder,” I moaned, needing to pause and grind my wet folds against his shaft. “Let me put this on you.”
Reluctantly he released me, and in a guttural voice that was nearly a growl, he said, “Make me so fucking hard.”
I moved quickly to cover his cock with the condom. I sat poised, holding the pulsing head of his shaft at my wet opening, rubbing the head along my folds, when I caught his eyes. “Let me in, Ryder,” I whispered, opening my mind to him. After a moment’s hesitation while a hint of feeling shadowed his green eyes, he gave in.
His desire hit me like a blast of heat that made me gasp and almost come immediately. My heart rate kicked up, and I had to pant to bring enough air to my lungs. Aching, shivering, hot and needy, I felt the sensations wash over and through me, making me feel even more desperate for release.
I sank onto his shaft. He filled me up, stretched me. Driven to prolong the delicious sensations, I braced my hands on his strong shoulders and pumped my hips slowly, feeling the slick friction, the hot slide of his cock setting off fires along nerve endings.
Images and feelings came to me as I moved on his shaft. I felt an overwhelming surge of warmth and care, heat and lust. His longing to meet me as he watched me move about in my day-to-day life, his admiration that I worked so hard to pull myself up in the world, his gut-wrenching fear that someone was trying to take me out of the world, and his...love. No one had ever loved me before.
Thick emotion mixed with carnal need made my eyes fill with a sense of how beautiful and perfect this was, and I picked up my rhythm, trying to pump my hips faster along his length. I was in his heart and mind. And he was in mine.
Winding tighter and tighter, spiraling hotter and hotter, needing to reach the pinnacle, I just couldn’t go fast enough, hard enough, and I was almost sobbing with the need for release. In a sudden move, Ryder took charge. He rolled me over and pushed into me, his features harsh, his jaw clenched. My legs wrapped around his hips, and he slammed into me again and again, both of us crying out. My hips rose to meet each thrust, my clit sliding and rubbing against him with each stroke. Harder and faster he pumped. Our lips fused, feeding each other moans and gasps. Higher and higher we climbed, our minds melded, our needs multiplying. We rode the edge of the cliff, nearing the jumping-off point.
“I’m going to come so hard,” he ground out, slamming into me again and again.
“Yes!” I cried, breathlessly, and then I felt myself go off with a heat explosion, breathless arch, scattered mind, as spasms of pleasure rolled over me.
Dimly, I heard his harsh shout. We were engulfed in waves of turbulent release that left us shaking, our bodies quivery. It was a few minutes before I realized he had collapsed on the pillow next to me, though one of his legs was still between my thighs and one of his arms was curled around my midriff.
“Lin’de,” he murmured roughly. “You’re going to kill me.”
“Not if you kill me first.” My lips curled into a smile as I basked in the warm glow of our spent arousal.
It was long moments later that I realized what I thought I’d picked up from being part of his inner world. It was the first time he’d ever pulled his wall down for me, and I thought I’d seen... Was Ryder in love with me? My throat burned as my mind was captured by the question.
“Yes.” He turned his head to look at me, his green eyes clear and steadfast as he read my thoughts. “I am.”
A thick ball of emotion choked my throat. I didn’t know what to say. How...?
Using a gentle finger, he traced the moisture down my cheek, wiping the tears that had begun trickling after such a beautiful revelation, and smiled gently.
“But how...when...” Full, coherent sentences seemed impossible, as tenderness and warmth made my thoughts fuzzy.
“How could I not?” He kissed the tip of my nose. “You were so beautiful and thoughtful, and strong and kind...”
The warm timbre of his voice poured over me like a gentle waterfall. Hurt places that I didn’t know about, deep places in my subconscious, were suddenly filled with healing warmth. “You got all that from...watching me? I mean, how did this all start?”
“You want to know how I ended up on Earth? Investigating you?”
“I just want to understand. I need the big picture.” I wanted to believe. This was all too g
ood to be true, and life had already taught me not to trust things that felt good.
He pulled me closer, onto my side, facing him, so one of his muscular thighs rested between mine, and my soft lower stomach cupped his still semihard shaft between us. Taking a deep breath, with his large hand languidly tracing shapes along my back and spine, as though he couldn’t stop touching me, he started. “It began with the investigation. Sy had been able to find Frank, using new technology he’d developed. We have communication devices. We refer to them as satellite links, or sat links for short. Anyway, for the last few years, Sy has tried to design programs that would recognize when one of the sat links was being activated on Earth, but with very little success.”
“Why is that important?”
“We need to monitor who’s coming, who’s going and their movements.”
“Doesn’t that impinge on their rights or something?”
“Coming through the mylunate transfer is not a right. Those who are allowed to come through know and agree to the monitoring, because they recognize the delicate nature of traveling between planets. We need to ensure that anyone who comes is going to acclimate and fit in immediately. And still, as much as we police the transfers, there are those who have managed to find ways and means of coming here through illegal channels.”
“Like Ranik?”
“Like Ranik and a few others who are currently under investigation. About eight months ago, Sy had a breakthrough. He found what he was looking for. Each sat link has a digital signature embedded in its transfer while in use that no Earth technology contains. That’s when Sy was able to locate where Frank was, and I came immediately.”
“How did that connect you to me?”
“We were able to find Frank whenever he used his sat link. Unfortunately, he wasn’t using it that frequently, and he moved around a lot, so we lost him several times. He managed to elude us over and over again over the years, somehow knowing what our moves were going to be before we did. A few months ago we saw that he was spending more and more time with your boss.”
“And so you started watching me?”
“We didn’t know who all was involved, helping him. I also rationalized the idea because I’d be able to get information from the inside. Find out what was going on, where he was holing up. Reggie was easy to find, but not easy to talk to without drawing attention to myself. I didn’t want to scare Ranik off just when I thought we’d get him. You were more accessible, so I could see what you were up to more easily, and as his assistant, you likely knew more about what was happening behind the scenes. Assistants always know more about what’s going on.”
I had to acknowledge that was likely true. “Why not just take Ranik out when he’s with Reggie?”
“We needed to take things slowly and be careful. That’s most important on Earth. I don’t think you can fully appreciate the delicate nature of the relationship we have with Earth. If taking extra time ensured a better result and kept the secret of our existence safe, I was okay with taking extra time. Imagine how Reggie would have reacted if we’d just grabbed Ranik while they were out and about.”
“He would have tried to beat you down.”
“Right. We couldn’t attract attention to ourselves or risk having the police get involved. We just wanted to find where Frank was calling home and grab him there, but he was smart enough to keep moving. He never stayed alone. He made friends everywhere, some innocent, some not.”
“He moved in with Reggie just over a week ago.”
“But now he likely knows we’re on to him again and will have moved on to hide under another rock somewhere.”
“So you were watching for him to find a pattern of movement and were hoping I would be able to provide you with the background details?”
“I was content to sit back at first, let Sy befriend you. I figured you were like every other woman in Hollywood, trying to get discovered. I had no interest in finding out anything else about you. Just wanted to gather my data and move on to capturing and securing Ranik. It was fortuitous that you worked for the company that Sunan owned.”
“My cousin turned me on to it.”
“She did?” He seemed surprised. “We don’t usually advertise.”
“I figured she knew my aunt was about to kick me out just when I was about to graduate from school and wanted to do me a solid by helping me find work. She was already working as a receptionist somewhere in the industry.” Hmm. As distasteful as it was to think of calling her—the idea really made me cringe internally—maybe it was worth a call to my aunt to shake her down a bit for some information.
The idea put a bad taste in my mouth, but I knew it was a good first step. Now that I was looking back, it did seem odd that my aunt, as much of a pain in my ass as she was, would agree to house me until the very last quarter of college, only to kick me out unexpectedly. Hmm.
“So why didn’t you guys continue with your plans to have Sy befriend me?”
“Because I wanted you for myself, though I didn’t verbalize it at the time. I only knew that you were a beautiful woman with a tender heart, and I didn’t want Sy laying a hand on you. We initially came up with a plan for Sy to start watching you in the morning, looking for ways to legitimately meet you.
“On the day he was supposed to start, he was caught on something that he couldn’t put down, and I decided to watch you instead. You stepped out looking amazingly beautiful with your hair all up, showing this soft, elegant neck.” He feathered his fingers over my skin near my collarbone and ear, giving me goose bumps. “And you were wearing this sort of ’40s-style dress that wrapped around you, and somehow tied in a bow at your side.”
“I know the one. It’s red with a V-neck.” I smiled, unable to stop the joy from spilling out onto my face. He’d remembered a dress I’d worn months ago.
“I remembered it because I wanted to untie the bow and strip it from you. That dress has starred in a few different fantasies I’ve had about you.”
“I’ll have to wear it for you,” I murmured huskily. I was rewarded by a squeeze.
“I would love that.” He ran his hand down my back and over my ass, his fingers nearing my sex, which made my breathing alter. His touch was ambrosia.
“So why didn’t you ever come up to me?” I asked, somewhat breathlessly.
“You were forever busy. You worked all the time, and I didn’t want to just be one of the guys at the bar that you suffered. At the gym, Rico was prowling. Many times I wanted to beat him to a bloody pulp for touching you.”
“Touching me? When did he touch me?” I frowned, trying to think of a time Rico had ever put his hands on me.
“He’d show you a proper stance, squaring your hips the right way for you, or fixing the angle of your leg when you kicked or your glove when you punched.”
“Sheesh, Ryder.” I giggled. “You’re a tough customer.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t say I was proud.” He gave me a chagrined look. “Anyway, there was never a time that I could legitimately meet you, so when the apartment next to yours went vacant, I took advantage.”
“So seeing me in my dress is what did it?” I rested my cheek on his biceps, loving that I had the freedom to be close to him and touch him.
“No. Seeing you in that dress just meant that I was like any other guy who sees you and wants to bend you over anything handy and fuck you until you see stars. What made me stop and look closer was when Mrs. Myrtle came out.”
“My neighbor?”
“You took such care to make sure she got safely to work. You weren’t doing it to make points with anyone. No one was watching you. You just did it because you cared. And you were pissed that her own family was being careless with her.”
“Well, she’s darn near eighty years old and so frail looking.”
“I didn’t want Sy near you after
that. All your thoughts and emotions were right on your sleeve, which let me see what a beautiful, strong person you were.”
“All my thoughts and feelings?”
“Also your fears and...fantasies.”
“I bet you were surprised to be drawn into my sex dreams.”
“That’s putting it mildly. I didn’t want to cross any irreversible lines with you, but you were too tempting. I wanted your passion. You were all soft and pink and ready and waiting. I just had to touch you.”
“It was amazing.” I nuzzled his chest and neck, reveling in his spicy scent. He was so gorgeous; it was hard to understand why he’d been single so long.
“Dating anyone on Earth is frowned upon,” he answered my thought. “You can imagine why. Someone would wonder about where I come from, and then things would get weird because I would either have to lie or tell the truth.”
True. That would get weird. “Was there never anyone on your own planet?”
Ryder’s look became solemn. He met my gaze for a few moments. “There was a girl, someone I met during my training years ago. We were close for a couple of years, and I thought she was what I wanted. Then she demonstrated that it wasn’t really me she was interested in, so I ended the relationship.”
A couple of years. Wow. That was a long time. “Why did you break up?”
“She had personal issues. She was found trying to locate files in my mother’s office one day, claiming I’d sent her to do it. As you can imagine, my father had a field day with that. He wanted to banish her to another province and strip her of her credentials. I made a case for her to work in security on Earth, so she could move on with her life and use the training she’d learned.”
“That was thoughtful.” I chewed on my bottom lip, thinking about how I would feel if someone I’d gone out with for two years had betrayed me, even if it was years ago. “So she does what you do down here? Security stuff?”
“Some of that. She monitors visitors of a nearby region, and she’s helped out on teams. She’s a good soldier.”
Quicksilver Dreams (Dreamwalkers) Page 36