Chapter 14
Zelup gave her a self-deprecating smile. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
He hated lying to her like this. Although military strategy often called for making the enemy think you were planning something you weren’t, the decision to hide his true mission from the little doctor grated against him worse every hour that passed. Still, he had to consider his people and their continued security. And that meant he had to lie through his teeth.
The sexy scientist dropped her utensil and it clattered against her plate, the noise unsettling. “Drop the act,” she said, her voice barely on the right side of civility.
He shrugged, an innocent look on his face. “Really, I’m not sure what you are referring to. I was standing outside, politely requesting that you open the doors, and while at first you refused, you soon saw the error of your ways and relented, letting me in.”
Dawn stood up so fast, she caught the edge of the table with her arm, rocking the surface and causing the spun sugar vine to collapse and break into a hundred tiny pieces. “If this is the sort of respect you’re offering to your partner, you can stick it where the sun don’t shine.”
“Dr. Illya,” he said calmly, raising his hands, palms out. “I’m not sure what you think I did. I had no means to unlock your door from outside it.Youopened the door, not me.”
He wanted to call her by her given name, to encourage some form of intimacy, however innocent, between them. But this wasn’t the time to risk offending her, as she was clearly already upset.
“This is bullshit,” she sputtered, dropping her napkin and stalking toward her bedroom door. Before she opened it, she turned back to him. “You expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with worming your way back in here, but I know it’s not true. If you can’t at least be truthful about this one thing, how am I supposed to trust anything else you say?”
She had a point, one that he had no idea how to refute. After a moment of him not saying anything, she let out a huff of air and turned back to wrench open her bedroom door.
“Wait!” he said, drawing her attention back. He stood, folded his napkin, and placed it on the table, then took a few steps toward her. His mind was scrambling, thinking of something, anything that might draw the heat away from him.
There was no way Zelup could reveal his powers. He’d known this woman for less than a day, nowhere near enough time to risk the safety of his entire planet by sharing his true nature with her. Besides, she already didn’t trust him, so what was to say she’d accept his explanation, even if it was the truth?
The cards were stacked against him, so he relied on the skillset he’d honed in countless battles. When forced into a defensive posture, do the unexpected. Attack, and hard.
He stalked her until he was inches from her, his gaze heavy, his body vibrating with noticeable restraint. “Trust is a two-way street, young lady,” he said, his voice soft but with a hint of underlying menace. “If you expect me to believe that hogwash about bundling endless information into a single light particle, you’re underestimating me.”
It was a gambit, one that bet on her trying to keep her real research hidden from someone she suspected of corporate espionage. But when he saw her face drain of color, he realized he was right. She was lying too.
“It seems like we’re both keeping secrets. This type of partnership will not end in mutually beneficial results. If we don’t find some way to trust one another, neither of us will get what we want.”
She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and scowled. “I was doing fine without you.”
“Until you would have run out of air.”
“Shut up,” she grumbled, “and step back.” The little doctor pressed out her hands to give him a shove, but instead, he grabbed her arms, pushing them to her sides and pulling her close.
“Don’t touch me!” she snarled.
“You were going to touch me first!” he retorted, anger getting the better of him.How is it that this woman can make me madder than a Vartik beetle on a moonless night, but at the same time, my cock is hard and throbbing in my pants?
“Get out.” Her words were like steel, harder even than his erection.
“Is that any way to thank me for a lovely dinner?” Even now, he couldn’t help bending a little closer, his gaze fastened to her lips.
“It’s going to take more than hot food to win me over. Now let me go.” He realized that her tone was soft, and her words had far less force than they had a moment ago. She was staring at his lips too, and that knowledge sent a jolt of energy straight through his body to the head of his dick.
She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her. The bed in the background seemed to summon them, and in that instant, a thousand images of them intertwined there flashed through his consciousness. He wanted to pick her up, toss her onto the bed, and have his wicked way with her all through the night.
“Stop,” she whispered as he leaned in closer, his lips mere centimeters from hers.
“Are you still pretending you don’t want this? Don’t want me?”
Her eyes were wide, like a rabbit watching the snake that was slithering closer, frozen. “I don’t,” she murmured after a beat.
“Is that true?” he asked, moving until there was only a heartbeat of space between them but stopping just before their lips met. He needed her to admit her desire, to make the move to connect them. If they couldn’t trust each other’s words, at least they could trust this. They could trust the attraction that ran through them both, body calling to body, lust beckoning lust.
“Yes,” she said finally, then closed the gap between them, her lips touching his. He felt a spark that was like electricity between them, setting his body to tingling.
