Kate
It’s a warm, sunny day outside. Golden rays land in brilliant designs along the walls of the building we have occupied for the last few weeks. Maps are strewn about the floor and hung by whatever sharp objects we could find to use as nails.
Rune stands in front of a New York subway map, marking off the places we’ve searched for Claire and my father. We haven’t seen many people left, but those still alive have been hiding underground, away from the carnage they witnessed under Pious’s rule. Most are sick and dying, since underground the rats and roaches seem to outnumber the humans. He hasn’t told me, but I think he’s losing hope. I’m not sure we’ll ever find them, or if they are even still alive to find, but there’s one thing I know for sure: I will never give up looking.
Rune’s deep in thought, bare-chested and dressed in grounder jeans that hang deliciously low on his waist.
“Rune?” I call as I walk up behind him. “I found some food,” I smile, raising a bottle of green olives.
“Will that taste like, what did you once call it—ass? Like all the other food you bring me to try?”
I shrug and slide the bottle onto a small table covered with even more maps and plans. “I’m sorry you don’t approve of Earth’s great delicacies. You could always pack up and head back to your ship,alien boy.”
His eyes snap to mine, full of bewilderment. Thick dark lashes frame beautiful blue eyes. He closes the small distance between us and stops me from saying more by placing his hand along my cheek.
“Are you really so eager for me to leave?” He says the words seriously, with the smallest hint of a smirk. He knows I don’t want him to leave. But I know he really shouldn’t stay. There’s nothing more here for him. I’m the only thing. After we eliminated Pious as general, while we descended back into Earth’s atmosphere, I made sure that every one of the women in the preservation lab was woken and brought to optimal health. Then Rune assembled them all in therealarboretum and relayed to them what had taken place between the Caelum and our planet. He gave them the choice to either return home unharmed, or stay aboard his ship and help repopulate the future world. There were three hundred and fifty-six women aboard; only nineteen wanted to go back to Earth. I was number twenty.
But here on Earth there’s not much left.
Rune gives me a crooked smile and runs the tips of his fingers down my cheek and lowers them slowly over my throat. He bends his head close and meets his lips to mine. “Right now, I’m too greedy for the taste of you to think of leaving,” he says breathlessly.
I love that he says that, I just don’t know how long this can last. The thing is,I don’t want this to end.
I run my hands up and over his chest, circling his nipples with my index fingers. They peak and harden. A soft moan slips past his lips and his kiss becomes deeper, harder—like he’s afraid if he’s too gentle I’ll just float away. Who knows, maybe that’s what his nightmares are made of, me not finding the sleeve in the airlock, me floating away into the darkness of space. I know it’s what wakes me up, screaming and sweating and clutching my chest in the middle of the night.
“Don’t hold back on me, Kate. Get him out of your head,” he says, breaking our kiss to slide his lips over my neck.
“How do you know what I’m thinking?” I say, panting. He no longer wears his armor, there’s no way he can read my emotions any longer. There’s no way for him to know the turmoil and desperate fear that muddle my every thought.
Right?
He draws back slightly and pulls the hem of my shirt up and over my head. “Because I know you and I always know what you’re thinking.” He slips the thin straps of my bra down over my shoulder and gently presses his lips across my collarbone. The sensation sends goose bumps over my skin.
“You always know what I’m thinking?” I murmur as he unclasps and pulls down the cups of my bra, so now I’m just as bare-chested as him. “What am I thinking, then?” I don’t know why I really ask the question; I don’t want to talk, but I do. Which is confusing. I’m enjoying his touch too much, his lips, why should I want to have some stupid conversation with him right now? Especially one that could potentially shift us away fromthis.
He cups my breast, caressing my nipples softly with his thumbs. He tilts his head away to look at them, and the way his eyes devour my skin, the expression he wears when he sees me naked with his hands touching me, sends a throbbing ache between my legs.
I fumble with the button of his jeans and rip down the zipper. His hands do the same to my jeans, but more precise and fluid. He pushes the denim down my hips and thighs, until they fall around my feet. Even though he’s never been with other women, he’s so much better at this than me—it’s just primal instinct to him. Raw and perfect.
Suddenly he scoops me in his arms, lifting me into the air and carrying me over to our makeshift bed. He lays me down and crawls over me, slowly. When he speaks, his voice is hoarse and low. “You don’t want whatever this is between us to stop.” He lowers his head and kisses my breasts, taking his slow, gentle time with each of them.He should write a book for the rest of mankind on how to do this.
“Tell me if I’m right, or tell me to shut up and you don’t want this to last,” he says, moving his mouth and his tongue over the expanse of my stomach, spending quite a few moments at my bellybutton. He’s drawing it out so long my panties are soaked through and I’m almost embarrassed for him to see them. Almost. Until I remember his first reaction to it and the multiple orgasms it led to for me.
“You’re right,” I whisper.
His fingers deftly rip my panties clean off my body. It stings just a bit, but one of those good stings, when the anticipation of what’s to come after the sting is all you’re thinking about.
His body lowers down mine, kissing a trail of fire until his lips find the slippery valley between my thighs.
“Oh, God,” I cry out from the warm sensation of his mouth moving over me. It’s been weeks now that we’ve been back on Earth, and between our searches we’ve spent our afternoons and nights just like this. Over and over again. His hands never stop touching my body, his desire never tires of wanting me. No talk of babies or mating or repopulating the species, just exquisite mind-blowing sex.
So no, I don’t want this to end.
I reach for him and pull him up my body. We’re both trembling with want and I quickly spread my legs to wrap around him and guide him inside me.
“Ah, Kate,” he says my name as he slowly moves over me. “I really don't know a lot about love. Maybe, I don't even know anything about it. But I know you’ve gotten inside me,” he whispers through his kisses. “You’re every thought in my head, you're what makes the blood course though my veins, and I don’t want this to end either.”
His face is too close to mine for him to see me blush, and I’m glad for it. “Really?” I whisper back.
