by Anna Argent
The man who made her feel normal, not freakish.
“Am I going to scream, or are you?” she asked.
His eyes widened with a burst of sexual hunger. His nostrils flared, and the fist in her hair tightened. “You’re treading on dangerous ground, Ava.”
“I like this path. So do you.”
He didn’t deny it. In fact, a deep flush of lust seeped over his cheeks and down his neck. “That policeman may still be out there. Neither of us can afford to be slowed down by an encounter with the authorities.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to find something to keep me quiet.” She pulled on the waistband of his jeans. The button opened with a pop.
Hunger tightened his features, making him go from hot to scalding. He covered her hands. “Playing with fire, baby.”
“Not yet, but I will be.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Radek’s head fell back as he let out a low growl of need. Ava went to his head, tempting him past restraint.
The space inside the tent was small, but big enough for her to maneuver her curvy body between his legs. The sound of their breathing filled the air as it became warmer and more humid inside the tent. His skin began to heat as she stoked the fires of lust that had been lit the moment he’d seen her.
Sweet, sexy Ava. Fierce and demanding. Innocent temptress.
He couldn’t get enough of her.
She was on her hands and knees in front of him, looking up at him with the prettiest eyes any woman had ever possessed. Pale blue and green, sparkling with naughty intent. The smile of a seductress curved her mouth as she reached inside his jeans to stroke his cock.
It was hard, and had been since the instant her lips met his. And as her slender fingers wrapped around his erection and began to stroke him, he nearly lost all control right then and there.
As she caressed him, she said, “If you want me to be quiet, you should shove something in my mouth.”
She didn’t know what she was asking for. There was no way she could. His sweet Ava had been a virgin until she’d met him. She couldn’t possibly know the things he dreamed about doing to her.
“Don’t tempt me,” he whispered, his voice rough with lust.
“I want to tempt you. I want to taste you.”
A rogue wave of lust slammed into him, stealing his breath. Before he’d had time to recover, she’d worked his jeans down just enough that she could take the tip of his cock in her mouth.
Wet heat engulfed him, stealing every rational thought. His whole world became the slick suction of her mouth, and the delicate flicking of her tongue.
She let out a sound of pure enjoyment. Her mouth moved down his erection, taking more of him.
All Radek could do was clench his jaws around a moan of pleasure and cradle her head. He did his best not to grab fists full of her springy curls, but it was a losing battle.
He had to have more of her. All of her.
She worked his jeans down, freeing his balls. Her warm, soft fingers toyed with them, making them swell and pulse with the need for release.
Every noise he made seemed to embolden her. She explored with fingers, lips and tongue, learning what he liked and what made him shudder with ecstasy.
Ava’s head lifted, and she looked at him. Her lips were puffy and dark red. Her eyes were slumberous and twinkling with wicked enjoyment. “You’re holding back on me. Don’t. I want you to let go.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“That’s exactly my point. I have a lot of catching up to do in the sex department. And I want you to be the one who gives me a crash course. I may never have another chance.”
He couldn’t process such dark thoughts, so he let them slide by without dwelling on them. “You’ve got me so turned on, the need to come is boiling in my balls. I don’t know how gentle I can be.”
“I don’t want gentle. I want you.”
He couldn’t deny her. They had so little time left together. These moments waiting for the window to open might well be the last he ever got with her. And if they were, he needed to give her everything she wanted.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
She licked her lips and smiled. “Yes.”
Radek accepted her at her word and let go of his restraint.
He grabbed the hair at the back of her head and guided her toward his throbbing cock. “Open up, sweetheart. I’m going to fuck that sexy mouth of yours.”
A flicker of surprise crossed her features before they softened in acceptance. She held his gaze while she slowly, purposefully opened her lips.
He pushed her down, using a firm grip to guide her movements. When she didn’t take him deep enough, he held her still and thrust his hips, finding the right angle to ease the tip of his cock down the opening of her throat.
She gagged a little, but immediately relaxed, allowing him to move as he pleased. When he finally pulled back enough to give her room to breathe, he felt a swelling of heat gliding through her body. It settled in her lips, neck and groin. As the flush of arousal spread, a new, hotter fire began to burn inside of her.
That was what he’d been wanting—that consuming heat that only a Sorican lover could give, and then only when deeply aroused.
His own body answered the call, warming from within. It had rarely happened to him before, and never had he burned quite this hot this fast.
The need for release pounded through him, demanding he obey. He wanted to shove his cock deep in her mouth and spill his come down into her throat. He wanted her to suck it from him, to bathe her in it. But if he did any of that, he’d never know what it was like to feel the tight, gripping heat of her pussy while she burned with Sorican fire.
“Take off your clothes, Ava. I’m going to fuck you now.”
She gave his erection one last, clinging kiss, then scurried to obey. Within seconds, she was naked, displaying her pale, flushed skin glowing in the faint light inside the tent.
“So fucking beautiful.”
He pushed her back so she was lying down. Her nipples thrust up eagerly, straining to get his attention. He couldn’t deny her anything, so he came over her, using his mouth and tongue on her tits, sucking and kissing and licking until she was squirming under him.
Her breath came out in short, sharp pants. Her fingers dug into his hair, holding him close while he suckled her. With each sexy moan she gave him, he lost more of himself. She was stealing little pieces of him with every second. And he loved it.
His cock twitched and ached in demand. It liked being inside the wet heat of her body and wanted more. The way her hips were writhing under him, so did she.
Radek eased her thighs open and positioned his body between them. She looked small and vulnerable like this, but he knew better than to think she was weak or powerless.
A woman like Ava held all the power. She could cut him with a glance, destroy him with a word. He didn’t regret getting involved with her, but he knew without a doubt that she was the kind of woman who was going to leave her mark—one that would last for the rest of his life.
Her labia were swollen, flushed and gleaming with lube. Heat poured from her skin, beckoning him to come and bathe in her heat.
He took a firm grip on his cock and eased just the tip inside of her. Her body opened for him easily, taking him like she’d been made for just that purpose.
He pushed more of his cock inside of her. Her head fell back and her eyes fluttered shut in response.
So hot she nearly scalded him. So wet he could drown in the pleasure of her skin gliding over his. So tight he knew that he would lose his mind if he didn’t move.
He thrust his hips forward, shoving the entire length of his erection deep within her.
Ava let out a little noise somewhere between a whimper and a sigh.
“You have to be quiet,” he reminded her in a whisper.
“Then you’d better cover my mouth, because if you keep doing this, I’m going to scream. And there’s no way I’m g
oing to let you stop doing this.”
As if he would. An entire army of Raide war slaves could have closed in on them and he would have kept fucking her. This was where he belonged. Where she belonged. They’d been born for this—for drawing this kind of pleasure from each other. He couldn’t experience this and believe anything else.
Radek leaned down over her and covered her mouth with his.
If she wanted to scream, let her. He’d swallow down her cries and claim them as his very own prize for a job well done.
He shoved his arm under her hips to hit the spot he knew she liked best. As soon as his cock struck home, a burst of heat expanded around him, drenching him.
He sucked in a gasp of air and held still while the sensation trickled through him.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Sorican mating heat. Doesn’t always happen.” But when it did, it was fucking awesome.
“Can it happen again?” she asked.
He was almost certain of it. But rather than answer her question, he went to work showing her proof.
Within a few seconds, he found the sweet spot again and she rewarded him with another flash of intense heat spilling from her core.
His body absorbed it, soaking it in. He felt it building in his balls, swirling there with patient intent.
He couldn’t stop now. The need was driving him on, lashing him with a whip of desire.
She accepted his thrusts, arching to take all of him. Her heart pounded hard enough he would feel it pulsing in her kiss. Every few seconds, she let out another burst of fire, which his body eagerly gobbled up. And each time, his cock burned hotter.
“So warm,” she whispered against his mouth. “You’re so warm inside of me.”
And he was only getting hotter. If not for how good it felt, he would have started to worry that something was wrong. He’d never felt anything quite like this before, not even the two times he’d been lucky enough to experience the Sorican mating heat.
This was beyond anything he’d ever experienced.
His body continued to work to please her. His mouth kept hers sated with kisses, covering her lips whenever she got too loud. His hands swept down her body, grasping the soft flesh of her breasts and shaping it with his rough fingers.
Sweat trickled from their bodies. The air of the tent became thick and heavy, like right before a thunderstorm. He heard nothing other than the sound of their bodies moving together, their labored breathing, and the beating of their hearts.
He felt her orgasm coming before she made a sound. Her body went tense, her back arched, her thighs lifted high and wide, opening her up to whatever he wanted to give her.
As soon as her pussy fluttered around him and started giving off slick waves of heat, he was lost. No more control. No more holding back.
She was all his.
He absorbed every bit of heat she gave him. It coalesced deep in his core, collected in his balls, and poured out of his cock in the form of heated semen. Pulse after pulse of hot fluid filled her up and drove her higher, until he could barely contain her screams inside his mouth.
Lights exploded in his eyes. His hearing faded. Even the air around him seemed to still as pleasure gripped him by the throat and choked his orgasm from him.
Ava was shivering beneath him when his body finally began to ease. The storm faded, and his senses came back. Everything went back to normal.
Everything except Radek.
He’d been altered in some fundamental way. Ava had changed him. Made him her own.
By the time she lifted her head enough to look him in the eye, he knew he’d give her anything—everything he had, including his heart.
Sex wasn’t supposed to change things for a man, but then most men never experienced the pleasure of sex like that.
Ava licked her lips and smiled. “Sex with you didn’t kill me, but I swear it came close.”
“I’m still not sure if I made it yet. Give me a minute.”
She giggled and closed her eyes, completely spent. “Holy heat waves. That was…I don’t even know what that was.”
He pulled his softening cock from her body and laid beside her. She rolled toward him, using his biceps as a pillow.
“Epic,” he supplied, mimicking the teen they’d heard earlier. “I believe we can safely qualify that as epic.”
She grinned at him. “Dude. Totally.”
He stared at her, refusing to give life to the words burning through his mind. He loved her, but he wasn’t going to say it. He wasn’t going to feel it. His days with her were numbered. She was destined to be part of Command. He was a prisoner, assuming he even made it back in time to get more blockers before the poison in his system killed him. Their lives would never again intersect.
He couldn’t have Ava, no matter how much he wanted her. And even if he could, unrequited love was its own kind of prison, and he couldn’t cage himself like that. He couldn’t cage her.
He would find a way to shove that love down deep where not even he could see it. She didn’t need another complication or obligation in her life. She already had more than one woman should ever have to bear.
She stared at him, her brow becoming more creased by the second. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He hated lying, but it was best that way. “I was just wondering if that cop is still out there, listening to us.”
“I’ll go check.”
He grabbed her ankle before she could scurry out of the tent, naked. “If he is out there, I really don’t want him seeing you like that.”
“Jealous?” she teased.
He was, but that was another thing he wasn’t going to let control him. “You’d give the poor man a heart attack. He could barely run the length of the mall without wheezing. What do you think you’ll do to his heart if you stroll out there, all pink and flushed from being freshly fucked?”
A lovely blush covered her cheeks. “I need to clean up. I saw some wet wipes in the camping supplies, and I intend to make use of them. Someone left quite a mess between my thighs.”
“Someone happened to like me making that mess.”
She grinned and pulled away, leaving him behind inside the humid tent.
Radek sat there for a moment, gathering himself.
His hands were still shaking, and he knew it wasn’t entirely because the sex had rocked his world.
The blockers were wearing off. He needed another dose, but they were in the truck.
It was time to get the weapon and get the hell out of here.
He’d just fastened his jeans when he heard Ava’s voice wavering in fear. “Radek. I’m getting that doomy feeling.”
“What?”
“Something is heading our way, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t the cops.”
He slipped out, adrenaline already spiking as he grabbed his weapon. “What did you see?”
“Nothing. But I feel it.”
He was just about to ask her what she meant when she shushed him.
“What is it?”
“A bunch of clicking noises. Bad ones.”
A cold sense of dread settled between his shoulder blades as he crept to the glass wall and peered into the mall.
There were several security lights still burning—just enough for him to make out the distinct outline of what was headed their way.
“Cyturs,” he told Ava. “And lots of them.”
Chapter Twenty-five
“We can’t run. We don’t have the weapon Zoe is sending yet,” Ava said. The sound of fear in her voice shamed her, but she couldn’t seem to help it.
“The window won’t open for another two minutes.”
“That’s a lifetime in a fight.”
He nodded. “More than one.”
“What do we do?”
“We can’t leave without the weapon, and we can’t get that until the window opens.”
“They know where that’s going to happen, right?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately.”
She squared her shoulders and picked up a golf club. “I’ll run out there and create a diversion so you can grab the weapon.”
“The hell you will. You’re no match against that many Cyturs.”
“And you are?”
“I have a maulst. And combat experience. And superior strength. You stay, I go. We’ll meet at the truck. If that’s compromised, we’ll meet across the street at the coffee shop. Got it?”
There was no time to argue. She could see the spindly shadows getting shorter as the Cyturs approached. “Got it.” She gave him a quick kiss. “Be safe.”
“You too, sweetheart. And if something happens, go on without me.”
“Nothing is going to happen. I won’t allow it.”
He gave her a grin and a wink, then dashed out into the shadowy mall.
Ava hid behind a shelf stocked with hiking boots. She used the fisheye mirror in the corner to watch for intruders. The golf club she held shook inside her sweaty grip.
She had to get control of herself. Mom and Emily were counting on her. If anything happened to her, no one would know where to find them.
Except Radek.
He would go after her family and save them. She was certain of it. A man like him would never leave an innocent in the hands of Dimas.
As that fact settled into her mind, her thoughts calmed and her fear subsided.
A swarm of clicking, skittering beasts marched past the glass wall.
Light flickered inside the frame of pink hoodies Radek had laid out. The window was beginning to open.
The last Cytur in line saw it and paused. Its panther-like head tilted, as if it were rolling its brain around in its head to make it work better.
Ava held her breath and watched the thing in the mirror, praying it would just keep on going. Nothing to see here. Move along.
More lights flickered as the window formed. Pale streaks the color of stars and moonlight solidified, growing brighter and brighter by the second.
The Cytur dragged its claws across the glass with a screech. The wall shivered under the strain.
Please leave. Please leave. Please leave.
The thing didn’t heed her mental pleas. Instead, it clicked louder as the window’s light became a solid white pool, shimmering and liquid.