Page 11

This was the worst idea in the universe. By far. And the day had just started.

Andethor was lying on a cushioned lounge chair.

A bright blue umbrella shaded him and Julia…

well. The gauzy, flowing robe covering her from head to toe was just see-through enough to let him get an eyeful of the dark purple bikini Julia wore.

She stood nearby, slowly fanning him like some sort of ethereal sex goddess.

It took every bit of his focus to keep an eye out for his target.

He and Julia had arrived at the beach before the crowds, and he’d picked a seat that would give him a good vantage point to see the rest of the lounge chairs and hammocks arranged around the area.

He’d asked Julia if she wanted to sit a few times already, and she’d shaken her head. She seemed to be enjoying the sight of the water, the colorful shorebirds dancing along the edge of the sparkling white sand.

One day, he’d bring her to a place like this and just relax with her.

He fought back a grimace. Assuming she’d even want that.

She was here as a friend, doing him a favor.

And he’d already pushed that further than he should have.

Taking her away to a place like this would imply more, promise more.

And as he’d been made abundantly aware in his last two relationships, he was fully incapable of the “more” part of any of it.

Not around enough, not present enough even when he was around.

He glanced up at Julia, hoping his dark glasses hid the way he was focused on her.

Something about her made him almost dare to believe they could actually make it work if he was willing to try.

Even more, something about her made him want to be willing to try.

If she’d even want that. She seemed to have a pretty full life as it was.

And, he was an idiot, letting her just stand there like that.

“ Enough of that now,” he said in his Savis voice. “Come lay with me.”

She raised her eyebrow, then set the large fan down in the sand, wedging it under the lounger so it wouldn’t blow away in the breeze, then settled onto the lounger beside him, lying on her side facing him.

Which gave him a fantastic look at her cleavage. Stars, did she really have no idea what she did to him?

Andethor took a deep breath, then rested his hand on her thigh.

As Savis, he wore colorful, chunky rings on almost every finger, and he hated his alter ego a little more.

He couldn’t run his knuckles along her thigh, not like this.

The rings would snag on the gauzy covering she was wearing.

They might even scratch her delicate skin.

Savis really was the worst.

“ I thought they’d be here earlier,” he murmured, laying his head back and putting on an air of laziness as he rubbed her thigh. For show, of course. Not because he was obsessed with touching her.

“ He and whatever ‘pet’ he borrowed may have had a late night,” she said softly, running her hand along his bicep. How a soft touch to his arm could make him start waking up below the waist was a mystery to him, but it was happening anyway, and he nearly groaned in frustration.

“ True. So you may as well lie here with me. I wish you could read or something, but I don’t think Savis is into women who read,” he muttered, and her soft laugh soothed him a little bit.

She patted his thigh, and they stayed quiet, just relaxing. It would have been perfect if they hadn’t both also been looking out for the Paraxian.

He leaned in and pressed his face against her neck, and she arched toward him.

An act. It was an act, he tried to remind himself. He either loved or hated that this was the easiest way to talk to her as himself, getting close, like Savis was sampling the goods.

“ Do you have any idea how tired I am of Paraxians? Waiting for them, thinking about them, worrying about them. He should feel lucky if I don’t punch him in the face,” he murmured as he ran his mouth along the side of Julia’s neck, just beneath her ear.

For her part, she rubbed and kneaded his bare shoulders, and it definitely wasn’t doing anything to calm the situation below his waistline.

“ I am almost right there with you,” she murmured, tilting her head to the side as if offering her neck to him.

And he was just asshole enough to take it, pulling the gauzy fabric down so he could press his mouth against her bare skin, gently sucking, then not so gently biting, giving into an almost feral urge to mark her.

She gasped, and her hands gripped his shoulders harder.

“ Liked that, did you?” he said against her skin, and earned a whimper in response.

He did it again, harder, then sucking at her tender flesh to soothe it, rewarded with the sensation of her sweet, curvy body trembling against his.

“ I… shit. I think he’s here,” she whispered, and he groaned a particularly foul Bellarian curse before straightening, lazily lying back as he looked around.

On a chaise lounge nearby, a female had her face in her companion’s lap, head bobbing eagerly, and all he could think of was Julia doing the same to him.

He forced the thought away and scanned the beach behind his dark glasses.

And, there he was. Along with two female Cendilax, both completely nude as they followed the council member across the beach.

He stopped and pointed at the sand, and the two Cendilax got to work helping each other spread out a blanket, while an attendant secured a shade umbrella over the area.

What followed was… way more than Julia wanted to see.

The Paraxian said a few words, and the Cendilax females started touching and making out with each other, eventually ending up with their faces between each other’s thighs as Xiaron, Andethor’s Paraxian target, watched them, occasionally saying something she couldn’t hear.

Julia looked away several times during the Paraxian’s fun, not wanting to see.

Not so much because she cared, or because she was a prude, but because all her mind kept going to was that Andethor would never.

He’d hide her away with him, keeping her safe and completely to himself…

and then she had no doubt she’d end up exhausted and messy and willing to do anything he wanted her to.

Her stomach twisted. This was getting out of hand.

Andethor kept lazily squeezing and fondling her thigh, occasionally moving his hand up to her hip. She trailed her fingertips along his bare chest, brushing over his dark blue nipples purely out of curiosity, which earned her a quiet groan in response.

She kept her hand away from them after that, but definitely tucked that piece of information away. Even if she didn’t want to inspect too closely why she was tucking it away for later.

She felt Andethor tense, and she glanced toward where Xiaron was. He’d apparently gotten restless, and was stalking away from the two Cendilax females. He walked toward the building where there were washrooms and showers, and Andethor gave her thigh a squeeze.

“ Let’s see if we can get off this damned planet soon,” he muttered, and she laughed and gave his shoulder a pat.

“ Want backup?” she asked. He was about to answer, and then she saw his eyes narrow slightly, as if he was reconsidering something.

“ Actually, yes. If you wouldn’t mind,” he said, and she grinned, nodding.

He stood up and held his hand out, helping her up.

“We earned an actual vacation after this,” he muttered as they walked together in the same direction the Paraxian had gone, holding hands as if they were lovers. She squeezed his hand.

“ We have. Is it weird that I just kind of want to go home? Movie marathon and takeout, not moving until I’ve become one with the couch,” she said with a soft laugh, and she caught that grin of his as he looked at her.

“ That… actually sounds perfect. Would you be up for letting me in on that dream vacation if we can get out of here soon?”

She nodded, studying him, and it hit her that for that outward appearance he’d always given of a carefree party boy, he’d likely not had much downtime. She shook her head.

“ What?” he asked, giving her hand a squeeze as they drew nearer to the streamlined building they’d seen the Paraxian enter.

“ I was just wondering how much fun you’ve actually had in the last few years,” she murmured.

He tilted his head, thinking, then gave a small shrug. “It’s hard to have fun when you know you might get called in for a mission at any time.”

“ Will you get time off if you get this guy to do what he’s supposed to?” she asked, and he smirked.

“ Pretty sure I’m allowed some leave time soon.”

They reached the building, standing in the arched portico that surrounded the building, right next to the door the Paraxian had gone into.

Andethor gently pushed her back against the wall and lowered his face to the side of her neck, burying his face there, nuzzling her.

It felt all too natural to rest her hands on his hips, to squeeze and massage them as she tried to keep her mind on watching the door.

“ You’re not going in there?”

He shook his head. “There might be other people in the washroom with him. Better to get him out here, lure him to a quiet spot,” he explained quietly, his breath warming the side of her neck.

A little shiver went through her. Being like this, his big body caging hers against the wall…

she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t had more than a few fantasies about the Bellarian that had started out just like this.

“ I’m sorry, Julia,” he said quietly.

“ Don’t be. There are worse ways to wait for someone.”

He kissed the side of her neck, just beneath her ear, and she knew from the sweetness of it that it was for her, not part of the act, not part of their cover as a horny couple making out wherever they ended up.