Page 12 of Guardian’s Heart (Space Guardian’s Mate #1)

NOVA

A screeching sound and the tickle of a sunbeam on my face woke me. My entire body felt stiff, with the worst muscle pain I had ever experienced. I wasn't one to work out at a gym, but I had worked hard many times in my life. I had known muscle pains from carrying stuff, roping gators, and chopping wood, but this was nothing like it. This was the mother of all pains.

Slowly, I blinked my eyes open, aware that my head was lying on something solid yet yielding—a thigh.

A thigh!

"Ouch." I sat up too fast. Dizziness made me close my eyes again, raising bile, while my tortured muscles screamed in agony.

"Nova?" Zaarek's voice sounded scratchy. And yes, I was well aware that it was him I had been using as a pillow.

This time, I sat up a little bit slower. "Everything hurts," I complained, "but I guess we're alive, so yay?" My yay was as weak as a newborn's mewl and as sincere as a southerner saying, bless your heart , to someone who said something stupid.

Zaarek moved his arm, and my eyes automatically flew to his marks. I realized two things at once. First, his marks looked just like mine, and second, he wasn't wearing a shirt. He must have taken it off sometime during the night. I guess I realized three things because, good God, was that man ripped. My appreciation of his torso needed to wait because once again, my eyes were drawn to the markings on his side, hip, and, from the looks of it, moving down his leg.

"They're identical," I cried. "What does that mean? What is this?"

Had I gotten drunk with Zaarek last night, I would have concluded we had visited a tattoo parlor together, the lines were that even and patterned like thick vines.

He lifted his hand and gently brushed his finger on one of my lines. Surprised, I sucked in a deep breath. He looked at me with a question on his face while I lowered my lids. No way was I going to admit that his touch had gone straight into my clit. Hell no!

"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" The concern in his voice was evident and strong enough that I didn't have the heart to lie, or at least not full-blown.

"No, you just surprised me, is all."

I was about to glid my finger over his tattoo but stopped myself. What if he felt the same way as I did with his touch and decided to pounce on me? Hell no.

Thankfully, his finger had retreated when I hissed. I covered my arm with the cape and ran the fingers of my other hand over the lines. It didn't even come close to the effect his touch had on me. Besides that, the skin didn't feel any different from when I usually touched myself. No raised lines, no hardened skin. Nothing.

"Now what?" I asked.

"I'll take you back to the city and from there to Astrionis, just like I told you I would." He stretched under me. Was he still hurting, too?

"I told you before I don't want to be a beggar."

"You won't be. Lord Protector Garth is building an entire colony. You will have to work to earn your keep," Zaarek filled me in.

"I can work." I nodded, slowly rising, using one of the gnarled roots to keep my balance. But I wasn't sure I was up to living among a lot of people. "How many will be there?"

"As far as I know, Lord Protector Garth is saving humans by the tens of thousands."

Zaarek's words were meant to reassure me, but instead, I made a face.

"What?" He knotted his brows.

"I'm not much of a people person," I admitted.

"You don't say." He chuckled, which seemed to cause him some discomfort in his stomach region. Served him right. I was glad I wasn't the only one suffering from the aftereffects of the pain from yesterday.

"No, seriously. I don't think I can live in a colony"—I made air quotation marks around the word—"filled with happy people, celebrating that they're still alive."

"Would you rather live in a gloomy colony where people were upset over what happened to them?" Zaarek queried, making it almost sound like a challenge.

I shook my head. "No, neither sounds very appealing."

He tilted his head slightly. "You know, this might be surprising, but I'm not much of a people person either. I like my solitude."

We stared at each other in silence, appreciating our strange traits.

"Still, we should get going." He checked the fire to make sure it was completely out.

"I would much rather stay here." I looked around the forest.

"I'm sure they'll find the right accommodations for you. You know what? If you hate it that badly, I promise I will bring you back here."

He grinned as if he meant his words as a joke.

"I'll take you up on it," I countered, throwing the words out like a challenge.

His grin didn't falter, and he held out his hand. "Good."

I was about to take his hand, but the aliens seemed to have other customs; his hand reached for my arm, clasping it, and I automatically copied his moves, not remembering our new marks.

The shock was instant and simultaneous.

"Whoa!" He let go and shook his arm.

I did the same, staring at him in utter bewilderment.

"Yeah, whoa," I echoed, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart. Fuck, that had been like an electric shock. No, screw that. An electric shock hurt; this didn't exactly hurt… it was… fuck, say it, Nova. It had felt as if we had been in the middle of fucking, and he hit my G-spot. Yes, that's exactly what it had felt like. Except I hadn't been sexually turned on before. Now… don't look, Nova, don't you dare .

Fuck, his cock was huge and pressed hard against his pants.

He was as aroused as I was.

There was no way I was going to let him fuck me. Nope, not happening. Not today, anyway… shit where had that come from?

I stared into his deep, black eyes that swam like a liquid abyss. His breathing had increased, just like mine had.

"I need…" he trailed off, staring at me as if I was an aberration. "I need—"

He stepped forward and cupped the back of my head, and his eyes searched mine. Just the thought of him kissing me liquified my pussy and made my ovaries howl in pleasure.

After the jolt we had received when touching our marks, we both moved forward carefully, even though I suspected his every instinct drove him to rush just like mine did, urging me to touch his lips. I closed my eyes when our lips were a mere inch apart from one another. Ready for another jolt, I wasn't too disappointed when it didn't happen, when instead, my stomach fluttered in response and my knees slightly weakened. Normal responses. Good.

Even the jolt of heat following our tongues touching was nothing out of the ordinary. Well, aside from the fact that nobody had ever kissed me before like he was doing.

He was still cupping my head, his fingers now digging into my hair, while my arms slung underneath his arms, up his back. His very broad, heavily muscled, shirtless back. This time, I took a moment to regard his eight pack, yap, eight. Definitely eight. Looking as hard as a washing board.

His other hand landed at the small of my back. Gathering the material of his cloak, he exposed my legs one inch at a time to the sunlight. Shifting me so I leaned sideways, he gathered up more material in his palm, arousing in me a deep anticipation of when his hand would meet my naked flesh.

My clit began to pulse in sync with my heart, and I couldn't help but lift said leg high to sling it around his waist, pressing my core against his hard erection.

He groaned into my mouth.

His hand hit naked flesh. He palmed my ass, making me moan. I was up on my tiptoes on one leg now, but he effortlessly held me up. The hand cupping my head moved lower and grabbed my standing leg right beneath my ass cheek, where he applied enough pressure for me to lift that one, too, and sling it around his hips.

He moved us backward until my back hit a tree while I shamelessly gyrated my hips against his hard cock.

I shook my shoulders so the cloak fell off them, exposing my chest. He sat me down on one of the twisted roots.

"Ah, frygg." He stared at my exposed chest. His hands, now free, moved up, and cupped one in each palm while I sucked in a sharp breath, only to repeat it when his head lowered and he took one of my already erect nipples into his mouth.

As good as it felt, I needed more, and I needed it now. I had never been this aroused, this horny in my life, and I needed his cock inside me. I needed him to ride me like there was no tomorrow, shove his cock up into my cunt so deep that my ovaries would scream.

To make my desire known, I moved my hands away from his back, relishing in the up and down of his abs, which were so freaking hard, and down to his pants. I didn't hesitate; I made my way in and cupped his cock. Hard.

"Argh," he mumbled around my nipple, his teeth gently nipped, and that was so hot, I squeezed his cock harder. And when I say squeezed, I didn't mean with my fist because it was too big for me to wrap my fingers fully around.

It pulsed between my fingers in its silvery color with a thick, mushroom-shaped head and dark, thick veins. I swallowed when I explored those veins; they were pronounced enough to form ridges, ridges that would create the most delicious friction inside me. That was the tipping point. I needed him inside me now.

He didn't seem to need any further encouragement, either. He rocked his hips while I pulled on his pants. Gravity did the rest, and they pooled around his ankles. A quick pull on his cock made him breach the short distance. I spread my legs in anticipation, and then the head of his cock was finally by my entrance. All my focus moved to my pussy as his shaft pushed into my hole, spreading it. I sucked in a deep breath as, inch by inch, he began to fill me. And yes, his ridges were just as pleasurable as I had imagined them.

He let go of my nipple to look into my face, studying it as much as I was studying his while the most exquisite sensations ran through me. He groaned when he was fully sheathed, closing his eyes for a moment, relishing it.

My head fell back, and I closed my eyes, solely focused now on the in and out of his cock inside me, filling and stretching me the way no man ever had before. We took it slow at first; both of us caught up in our own pleasure, but soon his thrusts turned harder, faster. I gripped his forearms on either side of me as his fingers dug into my hips, moving me in rhythm with his rocking pelvis.

My arms leaned against his, and I sucked in a breath of such intense pleasure it nearly split me in two when our strange tattoos came in contact with each other. A slight mismatch in his rhythm told me that he felt it; right before his thrusts turned more frantic.