Page 24 of The Rebel and the Rogue

Yeah, this was the side of Ivy she showed me, gave me. Nothing more. I had to wonder if it was just me she refused to offer all of herself or if it was everyone. If she were hiding. Protecting herself from more than just the Gerian Eozara’s of the universe.

Footsteps.

Grabbing her around the waist, I put my hand over her mouth and pressed her back against a door within a small, recessed archway. Shielded her with my body. Her eyelids narrowed, but she must have heard the group of young Cerberus males stomping past the end of the alley like a herd of wild beasts. They were arguing, drunk. Dangerous. They assumed they had nothing to fear. I had no doubt they were all armed and spoiling for either a good fuck or a bloody fight. Probably both. It was what they did while spending free time. Relaxation and carefree amusement meant carousing, throwing a few punches, drinking too much alcohol, a hard fuck.

Ivy nipped my palm with her teeth, just hard enough to get my attention, and I slowly lowered my hand. I narrowed my eyes. “Quiet. We don’t want to draw their attention.”

“No kidding, there are eight of them,” she whisper-yelled.

I didn’t know how she knew that specifically, as we’d been inside the archway, hidden from view, when they passed. Her chest heaved, her thighs pressed to mine, the moldable armor covering us both not nearly thick enough to prevent me from feeling every curve of her soft flesh against me as she scolded me some more. It was as if we were back in that empty room on Transport Station Zenith. Others could come upon us, the danger of being discovered the same. Now we had our clothes on, although my cock punched against my pants to get out, to get to Ivy. To get in her. Even now, when danger threatened just around the corner, I still longed to fuck her.

“I heard them half a block back,” she snapped. “What were you doing back there? Taking a mental break? Get your head on straight or you’re going to get us both killed.”

She was right, but fuck me, I couldn’t stop being distracted. She felt good, she smelled good. I knew she tasted good. Her sass made me hard, made me want to change her tone from argumentative to agreeable. I needed her hot, wet pussy wrapped around my cock, needed to hear her scream my name, needed to see her eyes glaze with pleasure. I needed her to lose control. Surrender. To me. Only to me.

My fangs erupted from my mouth, and I groaned, pushing forward, rubbing my hard cock against her so she’d know exactly how she affected me. “Ivy Birkeland from Earth, you tempt me. Drag me to the center of Cerberus Legion and are contrary no matter the situation. I’m going to make you scream my name when this is over,” I promised. “I’m going to fuck you until you beg for mercy, beg me to stop, and then I’m going to suck your sensitive clit into my mouth and make you come again.”

I watched as her eyes flared, but it was quickly banked. Oh yes, she wanted it just as rough and wild as I.

“No biting?” she asked.

Why the fuck did she keep bringing that up? Again and again. She got my cock; she got my fingers and mouth and all the orgasms she wanted. Why did she continue to push?

By the fucking gods, did she want to die? “You know I cannot.”

Yeah, every bit of emotion shuttered, and I felt her body slump against mine as if her motivation and desire had fled from one breath to the next. “Right.”

She stared up at me, her bright blue eyes like deep pools of water whose depths I could not breach. And they’d gone cold as ice. “Well, if you want to fuck me later, we should probably keep moving now. Get this done. Astra’s informant said we would find the crew I’m looking for about two blocks from here in a dive bar.”

I frowned.

“What is a dive bar?” The establishment most Cerberus were known to frequent, and hopefully Gerian Eozara as well, served drugs and alcohol in equal measure, but no diving was involved.

She pushed me off her, waved her hand nonchalantly. “Never mind. Let’s just go.” Ivy slid out from between me and the wall, gliding smoothly from my arms and moving back into the dark alley. The small corridors on the moon base had been here from the early days. We were in the oldest sections of Rogue 5, once the heart of the moon settlement, but now they were a seedy underbelly, used for moving supplies and equipment, the ugly things people did not want to see.

Ugly things like me. Dangerous to not just the darkest elements of Rogue 5, but to the most innocent. My fangs were just as deadly as the ion blaster at my hip.

Hands clenched into fists, I pulled back from the archway and followed. Ivy moved qu

ickly now, gaining ground on me at a pace that seemed impossible for a human. How did she move so fucking fast? Everian blood? Was she a Hunter? Impossible.

“Ivy, stop,” I barked at her, but she kept moving, flowing like black water between pools of shadow. Her focus was unwavering, her intent plain. I had no idea humans were so agile. No wonder the Coalition Fleet was so pleased with the new planet and placed fighters from Earth on their ReCon teams. I had never fought with the Coalition, but all soldiers were the same once they arrived at the Transport Station Zenith. A few drinks at the bar and they liked to talk. I’d heard plenty of stories from and about humans as the visitors to Zenith relived their glories and defeats. Bragging. Hiding their pain behind laughter and their drug of choice, whether that was sex, alcohol or other, more potent and mind-numbing options… like Quell. They never spoke much of Earth, though, as if they were too homesick to bring it up or they didn’t care.

I knew why Ivy hated that particular drug with such a violent obsession, knew that her unit had been high on Quell—and some kind of hallucinogen—when the Hive attacked. So I wondered what drug Ivy preferred, how she dealt with her pain. The moment the question formed in my mind, I knew the answer. Sex. She used sex to soothe the ache, to forget. A mindless fuck in a storage closet with a stranger from Rogue 5.

I’d been her drug. I still was her way to forget, to let go for even a short time. I performed a service for her.

But was fucking enough? It didn’t seem like it, as if every time she returned to herself after an orgasm, she also returned to her memories, to everything that haunted and drove her to this place. They were so powerful for her she’d been willing to bargain with the leader of a Rogue 5 legion, to sneak into the center of the deadliest one without breaking a sweat.

I wondered if she had nightmares. Did she dream? Did humans dream? We’d slept beside each other the night before, but she’d been still. Or I’d been so soundly asleep I hadn’t awoken to them. These questions made me realize I knew next to nothing about my little human. I wanted it all with her. Not just children like Scylla or Nero, but answers. Feelings. I wanted emotion. Connection in more than just sex.

Moving with speed I normally saved for battle, I caught up to my female. “Do humans dream?” I asked.

She glared up at me over her shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

“Do humans have visions while they sleep?” I asked, pressing the issue.

“You’re asking me that here? Now?”

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