Page 2 of Vicious
“Nesbit was like a tornado in there, and the barrier around the engine is broken. Don’t go back inthere.”
“I haven’t been in the engine roomlately.”
“You sure? I thought I saw you slip in there yesterday, but I got too distracted last night with some pretty serious body exploration to say anything aboutit.”
I smiled. “As inyourbodyexploration?”
“I know my way around mine, college girl. It’s yours I’m committing to memory.” He tapped his temple. “And I don’t quite have ityet.”
“I really haven’t been in the engine room.” Not lately, anyway. I’d explored it briefly when I’d ransacked the ship for iron when Nesbit, our former engineer, had stepped out. But that seemed ages ago, not yesterday. “Maybe you saw Ellison. We look alike, youknow.”
He chewed his lip, a skeptical gleam in his eyes. “Pretty sure I know the difference between the Jonessisters.”
“Maybe I infected you with my parasites, and they’re causing you to hallucinate.” I shrugged. “Oops.”
He snorted and held me close again. “We need an engineer in there. Without one, things go southfast.”
I pressed my lips to the scar slicing from above his eyebrow to his jaw. “We’ll find one.” One who wasn’t like Nesbit—a human/alien hybrid who wanted to devour the iron-eating parasites from my blood. Really, it wasn’t asking formuch.
Mase’s breath sighed against the top of my ear, and I trembled at the ripple of warmth it sent down to my toes. I turned my face to his, melting into the depth of love I saw in his shutteredgaze.
He captured my lips with an urgency that spun the cockpit and roared fire through my veins within seconds. He pushed me against the closed door with a low groan, the rumble in his chest vibrating a shockwave into mine and down to mycenter.
I moaned and arched into him, all my aches and pains forgotten except the throbbing one between my thighs and the pinch around my heart at how much I loved thisman.
“You’re not being very good,” I said, breathless. “I might make you hold that potato afterall.”
“I’m no good at being good,” he rasped. Then he hiked up my legs around his waist and pushed into me in what seemed like onemovement.
“Thank Feozva for that,” I said between kisses, then lost myself in the sensations of being loved by MaseRyan.
He buried a groan in my neck, a tremor of pleasure that swept straight south to the coiled heat sitting low in my belly. I fisted my hand through his messy blond hair and dragged him back to my lips, my tongue seeking his, my body craving all of him at once. His hips thrust harder, faster, building the tension between my thighs until I felt myself begin to crumble, piece by piece, under his experttouch.
On the edge, I dug my fingernails into the backs of his shoulders, but he instantly slowed, an evil smile twitching hismouth.
“Not yet,” hegrowled.
I moaned in frustration, my hips bucking against his languid pumps to urge him on. But his chaste kiss silenced me, and his hands dipped lower around my ass to control my desperate movements. His heavy pants feathered my cheek as he lifted his gaze to meetmine.
I brushed his hair away from his stubbled chin, my annoyance temporarily forgotten at the way he looked at me, the way he always looked at me, with passion, love, acceptance—the same way I was sure I looked at him. One of us usually slowed down during sex to make it last, to prolong this powerful connection that threaded us together as close as two people in love couldbe.
“I love you, Mase,” Iwhispered.
He rested his forehead against mine, his beautifully scarred body quickening its rhythm. “I love you, Absidy. Always.” He moved one hand between us and trailed a path of goosebumps low, low, until he thumbed myclit.
My thighs clamped tight around him. I thumped my head into the wall as his touch powered a thrill strong enough to curl my toes and pushed me back to the brink. He slammed into me, his thumb swirling in tight circles, until stars burst into existence behind my fluttering eyelids as bright as those streaking by the ship. My loud moans carried them all away while my body clung to the sensations rolling through it. A moment later, he buried a growl into my neck as his entire body quaked againstmine.
We caught our breaths, neither one of us willing to move. I would’ve stayed like this forever if I could’ve, if not for the grisly thoughts of murder I was surely inspiring inRandolph.
“I’ll love you always.” Mase pressed a kiss to my temple, and I closed my eyes with a smile at the promise in hisvoice.
But it quickly faded when I glanced at the clock next to the bedding on the floor. “Oh no,Mase.”
He pulled out with a reluctant nod and eased me to my feet. “Right. This crew and their inconvenient need toeat.”
“Again.” I shook my head and dived toward my clothes piled all over the floor. “It’s terribly rude. I’m sure Randolph is in the kitchen thinking the samething.”
“Or he’s hacking at a breakfast sausage.” At my breathless laugh, he said, “Isn’t that what all chefs do when their apprentices arelate?”
