Page 21 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
Chapter 7
Maybe it was weak. Maybe she was shameless. Maybe his words were still ringing inside her.
Another heartbeat beside my own.
The boldness of the ghost-mead seared in her veins, but she thought she might drown herself in the stuff and still not extinguish the needy shiver that ran over her skin when he’d cupped her chin, his long fingers brushing against her throat.
She swallowedhard against the urge to beg him not to leave her alone with the nightmares. Begging wasn’t necessary, of course; he might be an alien, but he was still male, and she knew how they could be captured.
The cushions sank under her and angled her toward him as she rolled up to her knees on the couch. When he angled his face to her, she realized she was looming over him.
His pale blue eyes glinted.“You told me not to kiss you anymore.”
A slow pulse kicked up in her body. “That was dumb.”
“Me kissing you?”
“Me telling you not to.” She rested her hands on his shoulders. So wide, the muscled bulk filled her palms to overflowing.
Tension vibrated through him. “And now?”
“I’m not telling you not to anymore.”
“You’ll have to do more than that,” he chided.
She knew it. She’d pushed himaway and told him off—and okay, yeah, she’d shot him, or tried to—so now she had to make it up to him.
If she wanted him to make out with her—and more than that.
The slow, heavy beat in her blood accelerated to match the tingling of her nerves. As her knees slid up against the bulk of his thigh, she wasn’t getting any closer to him. With shaking hands, she framed his face—the crescent scar besidehis eye an almost imperceptible ridge under her thumb—and leaned down.
When she closed her eyes, he was so still, only the huff of his breath across her lips convinced her he was real, not a figment of another dream plaguing her sleep.
She tilted just another fraction—the kind of infinitesimal course correction that would’ve sent a planet-killing asteroid off target—and brought her mouth down,inevitably, on his.
The slight stickiness of the ghost-mead sealed the kiss, and they both parted their lips at the same time, inhaling the same breath so that the sensation of vacuum seemed to suck the fear and embarrassment and loneliness— and rational thought itself—right out of her.
There was only this moment and this man and the promise of more.
She raked her hands up into his hair, undoingthe tidy club bound at his nape. When she speared her fingers to the back of his head, the honey-brown strands were every bit as thick and luscious as she’d suspected. He groaned deep in his throat, and she tilted her head to slant the kiss, their tongues finding each other in a sweet, hot caress. Sensation licked through her all the way to her core, and she couldn’t hold back her own tiny moan.
His hands settled on her hips, and then she was flying as he lifted her. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she thought he would spin her down to the couch—he was very much the sort to dominate a kiss—but instead he plunked her down straddling his lap. The night robe she’d pulled on when the dat-pad had announced his message parted around her knees, and the thin sleep shirt she had on underneathslid up, baring her thighs and leaving her achingly aware of her nearly exposed sex. Thorkons living at the estate loved their plush, elaborate robes and gowns but they didn’t seem to have much use for underwear.
But Nor didn’t dive for her naughty bits. Never breaking the kiss, he slid his hands over the robe to where the hem crumpled against her calves. His long fingers loosely manacled herankles, making her toes twitch with an almost-tickle. Since when were her ankles so sensitive? But she swore that between his touch and his kiss he sent an electrified current pulsing through her body, end to end. The amplifying waves met deep in her middle with a throbbing need.
She pressed a little closer to him, notquitegrinding on his thighs. A growing bulge in his pants told her he wasn’tfooled.
When at long last, their lips parted with a tiny vacuum pop, he nestled her back in the cradle of his arms. His blue eyes were ardent with desire. “You want more than kisses?”
She bit the center of her lower lip, tender and aching from their mutual assault. Her hesitant nod didn’t seem to impress him.
“You’re going to have to take it,” he told her.
She squirmed with embarrassment,then froze when her bare thighs chafed on the fabric of his pants—pants that she’d already seen down around his knees once. “I know you know what to do,” she reminded him tartly.
His mouth curved in a mocking smile. “And you shot at me because of it.”
“You have my permission now,” she said, trying to keep the desperation out of her tone.
