Heaven help me, I was losing it.
He closed the door to the prison area and leaned into me until my back was pressed to the corridor’s wall. “You know about Everis. Do you know about this?”
His fingers trailed softly from my upper arm, past my elbow, down to my wrist. He wrapped his fingers around my much smaller hand and lifted it so that my palm was held face up between us. My birthmark was there, an angry, irritated red from all the scratching and rubbing I’d subjected it to. Why hadn’t that healing pod taken care of this, too?
“My birthmark?”
“Yes.”
“What about it? I’ve had it forever.”
Not letting go of my hand, he lifted his opposite hand into position mirroring mine. I gasped at the identical mark on his palm. “What? How is that possible?”
He leaned in closer, gently pressed his forehead to mine. Our breaths mingled. His heat, his scent, surrounded me. So hot. This was insane. I wanted him. I didn’t know him. At all.
My body didn’t care.
My birthmark throbbed, burned as if being so close to him was causing it to overheat. Those small bursts of fire traveled in a direct line to my core until I crossed my thighs and squeezed them together to try to find some relief. My breathing shaky, I stared in awe as the two birthmarks appeared to become darker and pulse in time with one another.
“What?” I lifted my face to his. Mistake. His lips wereright there.
“These marks are sacred to all Everians. I do not know how it is possible, but you are mine and I am yours, Rebecca. We are marked mates. These marks prove it.”
“Bullshit.” I whispered the word but there was no venom in it. How could there be when I couldn’t tear my gaze from his lips?
“I want to touch you.” Stark moved so that his check pressed to mine, his voice a heated whisper against my ear. “I want to taste you.” His hand moved to the outer edge of my thigh and moved slowly up, lifting the shirt with it.
My entire being shuddered with pure, raw lust. A momentary flash of sanity reminded me how thankful I was for my IUD. I could take what I wanted from him without worrying about—
“I want to fuck you, Rebecca. Bury my cock deep. Swallow your cries of pleasure with my kiss.” Stark’s hot palm slipped beneath the shirt to stroke the curve of my ass. My knees nearly gave out.
“I will make you come over and over. I will fuck you and I will not stop until you beg.”
As if the word was some kind of signal, Stark stopped moving. He froze in place like a warm blanket, taunting me with his masculine scent and the hot touch of his palm on my ass.
He was waiting for me to decide. Yes or no. Take what he was offering or shy away from such intimacy until another time. Another day.
Who was I kidding? Anotherlife.
I’d never felt like this. Not with the awkward boyfriends I’d had in high school. Not with the slightly less awkward men I’d dated since. And the smooth-talking players? Forget it. I could see those fools coming from a mile away. One night stands were not my style. Or at least they hadn’t been. But that was before I’d thought I was going to die, before I’d been shot by aliens, before I’d methim.
I didn’t make a habit of lying to myself and I wasn’t about to start now. I wanted him. I wantedallthat. The kissing and the fucking and the begging. I wanted to touch him everywhere. Taste his skin. Let him do pretty much whatever he wanted to me because that purr in his voice promised he’d be good.Really good.And I believed him.
“Rebecca?” My name was a husky whisper against my ear.
“Yes. To all of it.” I turned my head to claim his lips in a kiss as a shudder passed through him. That was my shudder. I’d done that to the sexiest man I’d ever laid eyes on.Me.
Mouths locked together, I felt as if we were in a race with no finish line. The only thing I wanted to do was keep going. Our tongues dueled and wrapped around one another. He lifted me, carrying me down the small corridor as I wrapped my legs around his hips. His cock rubbed along the wet heat of me as he walked, a sweet torture that made me groan.
True to his word, he swallowed down the sound with his kisses.
He stopped outside the door to his sleeping room but I shook my head. “No. Lilah’s in there. She’ll watch. Or want to wedge her body between us.”
He chuckled but walked to the eating area and pressed the controls that brought the small table out of its hiding place in the wall.
“What are you doing?” The pseudo-kitchen table? Really?
He laid me down on my back, shoved the shirt I wore up to my neck and then dropped to his knees between my legs. He lifted my thighs over his shoulders. His dark gaze burned into mine. “I’m hungry.”
