Page 13 of Seized by the Alien Space Warrior (Alien Romance #8)

Chapter Thirteen

A va clutched her aching head. “Fuck. I’m never going to drink again.”

She wasn’t one to drink, usually stopping at one or two. She was always aware of keeping her body in peak condition, and dehydration through alcohol consumption was a big no-no. Only she didn’t remember drinking, nor the party. Or anything fun as those two options would have been.

Her stomach cramped with nausea and she rolled to her side. Or she tried to, but her limbs were so heavy she could barely lift her head. Or her arm.

Wait, her arm was bandaged and restrained over her stomach. Why was it restrained? Panic rose like a swift wave crashing over her.

“Calm, Ava. I am here.”

Ava’s eyes snapped open to find Aekon next to her. Aekon. The crash. The Ixod. Her dislocated shoulder.

The tonic .

“Where...?”

She couldn’t finish her question.

Aekon slipped his hand beneath her shoulders and eased her into a sitting position before handing her a cup. Clear liquid sloshed inside. She glanced at Aekon and clamped her lips shut. There was no way she was ever going to drink that vile stuff again.

A smile crossed his face, turning it from handsome into completely devastating in an instant. “Drink. It is safe.”

She sniffed the liquid, but it smelt of nothing, so she took a tentative sip. Cool freshness met her dry mouth and she drained the cup. Aekon took a jug from a nearby table and refilled her cup, which she drained. Her stomach rolled with the invasion.

“Here. Eat this. It will remove the nausea.”

He placed a dry bar into her hand. She didn’t care what it was and shoved it into her mouth and bit down. A savoury taste hit her tongue. She swallowed and her stomach eased when she realised she was starving. Before she knew it, she’d finished half the bar. Her stomach was completely calm, her mouth wet and there was only a residual stinging headache on her brain.

She let out a long breath, tilting her head back onto the cushions behind her, and took in her surroundings. Dark brown material was draped overhead. The walls were made from the same material. Before her, two flaps were closed but beyond that were the muffled sounds of a camp in full swing. She must be in one of the tents.

She was flat on her back on a large pallet close to the ground. A rough-material blanket covered her body, made from the same colour as the tent cloaking the whole room in a dark brown gloom.

Her shoulder was bandaged, fully restricting movement. Her arm was over her stomach, restrained but not uncomfortable. Beneath the blanket, she was fully clothed, but she no longer wore the space-age suit Aekon had dressed her in. She wore light loose pants and a long sleeved-T that were warm and comfortable.

“Who dressed me?”

“Kaico attended to your medical needs and a female attendant was left to clothe you when he’d finished,” Aekon said.

He sunk onto the pallet next to her, on top of the ruffled blanket. She lay on one side of the pallet with enough room for his large body next to her.

“I slept with you to keep you safe, Ava.” His deep, scratchy voice was a soothing balm, as though he knew exactly what to say.

She thought she would be upset that he had slept next to her and she had no idea. She would be if it were anyone else, but instead it was comforting. It was a hell of a lot better than awakening to find an Ixod next to her.

She shuddered.

Her gaze ran over his large body to take her mind off the mental image. He was dressed similarly to her, his suit also swapped. The clothing was simple, but was thin and threadbare in some places. Aekon reached for the jug and poured her more water.

“Drink some more. It will help to hydrate you.”

She sipped the water. Thankfully it was only water. She was never going to drink that tonic again. She cringed, her cheeks heating. “Oh, God. I said all those things out loud, didn’t I?”

The look he sent her was pure heat. Her abdomen fluttered in an answering call. She flattened the palm of her free hand over her stomach, “You were under the influence of a powerful drug, little female.”

She closed her eyes and slung her free arm over her face. “The things I said…”

“I liked the things you said.” His voice was heated gravel.

She sucked in a quick breath as her body ignited, her arm flying off her eyes to see his nodes flash gold. She had no idea what that meant, only that she liked seeing them light up. It was the most gorgeous colour she’d seen, rich and lustrous, and she loved the way it lit the depths of his dark eyes.

Desire coursed through her, her thoughts going where they should not go. She cleared her throat. Maybe if she changed the subject, she could trick her mind into forgetting the nonsensical simmering arousal washing through her. “Where are we?”

“We are at Brenur’s shelter,” he said.

The sounds of beings living on top of each other filtered through the material of the tent. The lower timbre of male voice mingled with the softer tones of females and the occasional shout of a child. Footfalls sounded around her, as did the clanking of pots and bangs of objects being moved. It sounded as though they were right in the middle of the whole camp of Ixod.

“Are we safe here?” She hated the tremor in her voice, but damn if she couldn’t rid herself of the fear. Aekon moved closer to her and placed his hand over hers. He was so big. Much bigger than her. She should be terrified, but soothing calm washed through her and her arousal flared again.

“I will protect you, Ava.”

“I know that,” she said.

His eyes widened and filled with liquid heat. She shivered as an answering heat moved through her body. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

His hand moved from her hand to cup her cheek, the touch gentle and tender even through his claws prickled her skin. She was surprised to discover the pads of his fingers calloused and yet he touched her so delicately, goosebumps scattered over her arm. He leaned towards her, eyes dropping to her mouth, and his lips parted. She knew she shouldn’t be doing this. Hell, she shouldn’t be aroused at all, but she couldn’t seem to find the strength to stop herself.

Her complete awareness was focussed on him. She liked this version of him. The sounds of the camp filtered into background noise. There was nothing more in the universe than the two of them. His alien face hovered close to hers, so close their breath intermingled and yet she wasn’t afraid of him. Not at all. Quite the opposite.

She wanted him to kiss her. Wanted it so badly her lips tingled and her blood pulled with scorching expectation. He was so close and so still, she almost thought he could be made of stone. A golden light unfurled in her chest and blistering desire crashed through her.

“You will always be safe with me, my Ava.”

His fingers threaded through her hair and curved along her nape. Then his lips were on hers and she was aware of nothing else but his searing mouth and unfiltered need. Her body ignited with unadulterated longing. She tilted her head, parting her lips, and was rewarded when Aekon’s tongue swept into her mouth. His taste exploded in her mouth and she moaned into his kiss.

She had never been so turned on. Not so fast, nor so absolute. She tipped her chin, needing more of his taste. Needing more of him . His tongue. His lips. Her entire body flowed with liquid arousal as need pooled between her legs. A needy moan pulled from her throat and she barely realised she could make a sound like that.

Her fingers curled around his wrist. She felt the power in his arms. His solid muscle. The strength he could wield with his body and that spiked her arousal even more. She accepted each caress of his lips, each thrust of his tongue as though she would never get enough.

She was aware of him, as though whatever was blooming inside her was a part of him somehow. She felt his arousal, knew his desire and it only served to make hers spiral out of control.

The kiss wasn’t enough. She needed more. Wanted more. Another moan was pulled from her when his other hand brushed the side of her breast over the top of her shirt. She arched her back, pushing her breast into his hand, her nipples budding into stiff peaks.

His hand skimmed down her body, dipped under the end of her shirt and pushed it up, revealing her torso. One breast was bared, the other covered by bandages. He dipped his head, taking her nipple into his mouth. She jolted as wet heat sucked her aching nipple.

She brushed her hand over his shoulder and splayed her palm over the back of his head while she squirmed beneath him. She wanted both arms around him, but her sore arm was held tight with the bandages.

He realised that. Her nipple slipped between his lips. He sat her up, quickly unwrapping the bandage carefully until her arm was free. “I don’t want to hurt you, Ava.”

“You won’t.” She knew with everything inside her that was true.

She hooked both arms about his neck, her newly freed hand splayed between his shoulder blades, the other around his neck, and she welcomed the weight on his body as he pressed down on her. She felt his nodes underneath her palm, answering the question she’d had of them before. It seemed his nodes went all over his body. Over his arms and down his back. They pulsed with each beat of his heart. Heat radiated against her skin.

His body was warm, but the heat from the nodes was more than body heat. She didn’t know if it was wistful fantasy, but she was sure she felt through his nodes. His desire for her. The euphoria of their kiss. She traced one of them with the pad of her finger, delighting in the rough edge, and heat flared beneath her touch. His large body shuddered and his fingers tightened around her breast before he dragged his lips from hers and kissed his way down the column of her throat.

“Have to taste you, Ava.” The deep rasp of his voice sent tingles racing through her.

His hot breath preceded the heat of his lips and the wetness of his tongue as he lowered his head to her naked breast. His tongue swirled around the peak of her nipple as the delicious wet heat of his mouth sucked the sensitive tissue into his mouth. She gasped, her back arching, her head back. She clutched his shoulder, his nape, the back of his head as he first devoured one breast and then moved to the other.

Burnished gold flashed behind her closed lids and she cracked her eyes open to see his nodes glowing with intense gold, bathing them both and the tent in glorious light. She didn’t have a chance to wonder about it before his mouth left her breast and he looked at her, his gaze as burning as his skin. He looked at her as though he would never get enough of her. As though she was the answer to the enigma of life. He panted, eyes blazing, chest heaving. The massive muscles of his biceps bunched as he loomed before her.

The warmth that blossomed within her chest blazed into an inferno of need. It didn’t matter that she was on an alien planet. That she now knew the worst of what the universe had to offer. It didn’t matter that Aekon looked as foreign to her as anything she might have imagined an alien could be. He was just Aekon. Devilishly handsome. Dangerous. Sexy as any man she’d clapped eyes on. He wanted her with a need she never knew existed.

And she wanted him back just as powerfully.

She grabbed the back of his head, bringing her to him and unleashing a kiss that seared all the way to the tips of her toes. She wanted him with an unequalled delirious passion, the need bursting into every cell in her body, clarifying with absolute coherence. She lashed at him using her tongue, lips, teeth and he returned her kiss with the same passion.

His arms gathered around her. She parted her legs and he nestled in the cradle of her body. He tilted his hips, his shaft hard as steel through the blanket and her clothing. She opened herself for the delicious weight of him, meeting his thrusts, hating the thickness of material between them.

He pulled away from their kiss, his perfect lips wet and swollen, and dragged his hips in one long, deliberate thrust. “I need you, my Ava.”

She groaned as his shaft drew over her sensitive clit. “I…I need you too, Aekon.”

He slid his fingers beneath the blankets, his fingertips grazing the flesh at her hip before dipping below the waist of her pants. There was no preamble. No teasing and for that she was grateful. She wanted him with a need that made no sense and all the sense in the world.

His hand cupped her mound. His fingers slid into her wet seam, his claws barely tickling her skin. He stilled, but his muscles trembled. “Let me give you pleasure, my Ava.”

A look of pain crossed his face, his features tense and she realised he waited for her consent, his whole body poised as he held himself back. There was no way she was going to refuse him. Her blood pounded hot, her clit throbbed beneath a touch that was too still. Too gentle.

She tilted her hips, scraping her clit across the heel of his hand, shuddering as pleasure close to pain surged through her. She needed his touch as much as she needed her next breath. To not have it was unthinkable.

“I need you to touch me, Aekon. Please, touch me.”

She threw her head back, gasping as he plunged his fingers into her wet heat. She clung to him, helpless against the storm of sensation sweeping through her. She might have tensed at the thought of his claws moving inside her but then his thumb circled her clit and pressed down hard. He took her breast into his mouth and sucked her turgid peak. She screamed as golden waves of release soared through her, over her, inside her, her back arching, lungs and muscles locked as her released thundered through her mind, body, and soul.

“Shh. I’ve got you, my Ava.”

She was aware of his tender caress on her cheek before she realised she was blubbering and crying, her body trembling in the wake of her orgasm.

“I…”

Aekon pressed his lips on her temple, held her tight to his body and stretched out next to her. She curled into his large body, safe in the protection he offered.

“I…I never knew it could be like that,” she said. It hadn’t been like that with anyone else. Nobody made her feel – react - like this. It was as though Aekon saw her for who she really was. Not the fitness guru or the body that came with it. Not the stardom she had begun to foster. Just her. Maybe, just maybe she had discovered something she never would have found on Earth. Her heart fluttered as her stomach flipped as she realised she didn’t want anyone from Earth. Wherever she was, Aekon was her future.

He stroked his fingers through her hair, gently and tenderly, but the warmth inside her began to shrink, leaving darkness and coldness. She clutched his wrist, looking up into his face, confused. “Aekon?”

His chest lifted and fell as he sighed and his gaze filled with regret that left her cold.

“I am sorry, Ava. I shouldn’t have forced myself on you like that. Only know that I will never lose control like that again. It was a moment of weakness I don’t plan on committing again.”