Page 30 of Collision!
With a needy sound, she reached for him, her fingertips a breath from his chest.
“Stop.”
She froze.“Suvan?”
“I don’t want to impale you by mistake.”
By mistake.She shuddered.
With the memory of piercing pleasure.
“I trust you,” she objected, and she didn’t even care that she sounded pleading.
“That’s good.”Fists still in her hair, he eased her down to half reclining on the couch cushions.“Now put your hands behind your head.No wandering, so I don’t have to wonder where you are.”
So much for losing control.Heart skittering, she did exactly as ordered, replacing his hands with her own.The effect was…strange.As if she could feel what he’d felt.
As he sat back, her loosened locks, still snagged on his knuckles, trailed forward, following him, not letting go until she arched away to free him from the twists.
He gazed down at her, his pale gaze unblinking.“No spines on my lips, as you said.What if…” He leaned down to kiss the wild throb of the pulse in her throat.“…I keep it soft…” A breath tickled her ear.“…just like you?”His teeth—maybe the pointed fang she’d noticed earlier—nipped her lobe.“Or mostly soft.”
She sucked in a breath as the tiny ache zinged through her.“Yes, Suvan.That.All of that.”
“Your nightgown may not survive,” he warned.“It’s too delicate.”
She might not, she thought fervently.“I’m not,” was all she could gasp.
He held up one hand in front of her, rotating his fist and flexing so that the quill-scales bristled along his biceps, up to his shoulder, bared by his sleeveless uniform.“Szauralithyn are protected against each other’s touch.”
Oh no.Was this about to segue like an IDA handbook assignment?Except Szauralithyn-specific.
Or maybe more like Szauralithyn engineer-specific.
With an inward smile, she nestled down for the show.“Then how do these epic festivities of yours end?Just goodnight kisses?”
He gave her a stern look.“Protected, but not impervious.The venom in some of our quill-scales that deterred our predators is also an aphrodisiac to us.Evolutionary reparation for any unpredictable pricks.”
Her amusement flash-burned in a wave of craving.An alien aphrodisiac… “But as an Earther, I felt it too.”
“The IDA selects for compatible species.It seems my chemistry aligns with yours.”
“Fascinating.”She gazed up at him.Instead of flexing, she let her thighs fall open enough to feel the cooler air waft over her.“Shall we see if our mechanics align as well?”
Chapter 10
Nostrils flaring, Suvan caught the musky scent of her arousal.“Are you teasing me again?”
“Not even a little.”She narrowed her eyes.“But why do I get the feeling you are teasing me?”
“Tempting,” he corrected.“Because when you do feel me, you need to understand and be ready.You need to want this.”
From her sexy sprawl, she glared up at him.“I came all these lightyears chasing this chance.I am really fucking ready, Chief.”
Keeping her hands behind her head—exactly as he’d told her—she hooked an ankle behind him and reeled him closer as she tipped herself over backward on the couch.
He had one instant to be impressed by the strength of her leg and her sneaky rebellion before he crashed down into her kiss.
Her gasping moan as he brought his hips against hers—mechanical alignment, indeed—sent a surge of urgency through him.The sweetness of her breath and the bite of her demanding profanity held an innocent power that might destroy a galaxy of asteroids—and maybe the walls he’d manifested around himself.
