His hand skimmed up from my ass, across my ribs, to my breast, leaving goosebumps in its wake. While his tongue plundered, his fingers kneaded the flesh of my breast, then toyed with my nipple. Electricity zipped through my body, amping up my desire.

A pulse of pleasure rocked my clit. I couldn’t stop jerking my hips. The heat within me grew until there was nothing left except the need to explode. Faster and faster I thrust against him until he stopped playing with my breast, thrust his hand between us, and speared me with two of his thick fingers, his thumb pressing and swirling against my clit.

I detonated with a scream against his lips, the sharp sound echoing off the trees. He swallowed the sounds with his mouth and tongue, licking into me while his fingers and thumb pulled every drop of pleasure from between my legs. I twitched and thrust, movements slowing as I returned to Earth.

A murmur of discontent escaped me when he pulled his fingers from my core. With his one hand gripping my ass tight and holding me against him, his other came between us, wet with my juices. I watched, transfixed, as he licked his digits clean, his amazing tongue not missing a single drop. My pussy clenched on nothing. My heart had started to slow, but sped up again while I stared at the heated look in his silver-white eyes, like I was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.

Dropping his hand, he kissed me again, holding me tight against him. I flexed my thighs and pulled on his cords, wanting to give him as much pleasure as he’d given me.

“I want to take you somewhere,” he said, breaking the kiss to grin down on me.

I swallowed. “I’m pretty sure I’d allow you to take me any time, any place.”

His grin grew, then the forest faded away, and I was nestled in space, in the arms of a nebula.

chapterseven

My breath caughtin my throat at the beauty of it. Purple, magenta, navy, and teal dust particles and gases swirled around us and beyond as far as I could see, all co-existing on a backdrop of pitch black dotted by pinprick stars. Snaps of electricity lit up sections in waves. This was more beautiful than anything I could have ever imagined on my own.

We floated together, weightless. My grip tightened around Khor Drath’s neck, holding him close to squish my cheek against his shoulder as I took it all in. Silence pressed in from all directions. Back at the hot spring, it had been quiet because we were the only people around, but the soothing wind and gurgling water, the rustle of leaves and the buzz of insects, had all composed the ambient soundtrack.

Here, in the black of space, there was nothing, the silence haunting and absolute. Not even the pulsing electricity made a sound.

I should be freezing. Space was a killer—colder than ice with no air. But here, warmth surrounded me, my breaths able to flow freely, my skin as comfortable as it had been in the steam of the hot spring. I lifted my head and looked up at Khor Drath, wanting to know why we were here.

This is where my people are birthed,he said in my mind, pushing all other thoughts from my head, his voice as deep and transformative as it was in his lab.Somewhere humans can never go.

I straightened a little, trying to process what he said. Birthed? “You can breathe in space?” My question was silent, the sound disappearing as air passed my lips.

How was it possible to be birthed in space? I scanned my surroundings with care, trying to figure out if I was in a nebula, or something completely different.

If my kind don’t encounter their mate within the nebulae, we quest across the stars until we find them.

Movement caught my eye, the colors rippling a fair distance away. I squinted.What is that?Two undulating forms materialized the longer I stared, people,alienslike Khor Drath. They were trapped in a sensuous embrace, rocking together in erotic motion. My lungs tightened. The silver-white of their eyes blended in with the background beyond, their coloring making it almost impossible to see their forms.

Khor Drath moved around me in a fluid way I couldn’t comprehend, fingers skimming my skin, creating shivers.

I will make you forget every unworthy partner who has come before me.

His large hand took possession of my left breast, while the other slid between my legs.

I will protect and cherish you as only one of my people can. Provide for you in any way you can conceive.

The heat of his body pulsed through my spine from shoulder to ass as he dipped his fingers back inside me. A moan wanted to escape me but was smothered by the void. I widened my legs and he delved deeper, stroking, pleasing, drawing whimpers that made no sound.

Not only do I want to take you here in your pleasure center, but in your mind as well. I need to entwine our souls and learn your secrets, your desires, your needs.

Sensuous tendrils of sentience caressed my mind, alerting me to his presence deeper than what his voice touched. For a second, I tensed, but then relaxed into the sensation, giving him permission to explore me fully.

That’s it.His voice inside my head took possession of me as wholly as his fingers. I thrust my hips, gyrating.Take it all.His digits scissored inside of me, intensifying the stretch, while his cock pressed insistently between my upper thighs.So good for me.

The force of his mind in mine wasn’t an invasion, but another way to make love to a part of me, eliciting a silent gasp from my lips as he discovered the inner secrets of my soul and shared every facet of his. How he’d acquired a fortune over several lifetimes waiting for me. How he longed to give me the world, the universe. How once he took a mate, his lifespan would align and he would no longer be an eternal creature with no purpose. How he’d prayed to all the gods and goddesses who would listen that each new day would be the one when he found the person meant for him.

Then his mind wrapped around my past, seeing the goals I’d envisioned then abandoned, how I’d never wanted to stop traveling, but my money ran out, forcing me to make a life for myself in the city. How I’d met Jordan through friends, and for a time how things had seemed perfect.

Khor Drath’s mind stroked each of these thoughts, comforting, soothing, and my blooming bitterness gave way to contentment. The sensation felt tangible, even though I knew it couldn’t be. We existed in a dream. I couldn’t really be here in this nebula surviving in only my skin, but my mind didn’t want to accept that.

And the more he touched me, the more needy noises wanted to escape my lips, but were snatched away before I could make them. My eyes remained fixed on the other couple as they twisted and churned around one another, their erotic display adding to the heat building inside me.