Chapter 24
Her lips are so soft, so inviting. I could do this forever.
But they didn’t have forever. He had to get her out of this situation as quickly as he could. He trusted his sister and new sister-in-law, so if they said there was danger, then danger had to exist. Even if he’d found nothing yet to raise his hackles, there was no point in sticking around until the danger found them.
Still, he couldn’t stop kissing her.
It didn’t help that she was kissing him back with an intensity that had his cock throbbing in the tight confines of his pants. It was almost painful how aroused she made him.
Her tongue swiped at his bottom lip, which she then sucked into her mouth, making him groan. Grasping the back of her head to hold her still, he plunged his tongue deep into her mouth, taking control of their exchange.
Soon, his explorations had her whimpering, her fingers clawing at him. Unable to help himself, Zelup picked up the woman to draw her closer. Dawn obliged him by wrapping her legs around his waist. When she settled her weight against him, she rubbed enticingly against the growing bulge beneath his waistband.
His hands cupped her exquisite bottom and he was annoyed by the amount of clothing she was wearing. He wanted to rip her clothes off her body, wanted to lay her down and devour every inch of her perfect skin before thrusting into her until she begged for mercy.
She nibbled his lips and the sensation shot straight to his dick. Shoving her up against the wall, he began to thrust against her, his engorged cock rubbing against her most sensitive area. Even through his clothes, the sensation made him weak.
It was having an effect on her too. She began to writhe against him, pushing back with her hips. He thrust harder, again and again, moving his lips to her neck where he began to lick and suck with abandon.
“Oh, Z!” she moaned, holding his head tightly while she met his thrusts. “Please don’t stop. I’m so close.”
He could smell her arousal and it had him salivating. He picked up his pace, rubbing against her, squeezing her ass while he pinned her, hitting just the right spot to send her over the edge. Dawn gasped, then shuddered, her body shaking as her climax roiled through her.
As she came down from her peak, Zelup planted gentle kisses against her cheek. His cock still raged in his pants, something he hoped to remedy soon. He needed to plunge into her tight wetness until he exploded.
Her eyes opened, and instead of gratitude, he saw worry writ large across her features. “Please put me down,” she said softly.
Her mood change poured cold water over his arousal. Zelup set her on her feet and backed away.
Dawn cleared the cobwebs from her hair. “I don’t know how that happened.” She gave him a hard look. “You’re too much of a distraction. I can’t believe we almost—and here, of all places. This has to stop.”
He understood her point. He’d just been the one saying they had no time to waste in getting out, and he’d tried to make love to her in a haunted house.
Although it didn’t seem too haunted at the moment. Their surroundings were eerily silent. There was no sign of the woman or of anyone else. They could have been the only two souls in this strange universe.
“I have to find her,” Dawn told him, clearly able to block the attraction she felt for him. He would try to do the same, but it wasn’t easy.
Not even losing my crown had been able to accomplish it. An unsettling thought.
The little doctor started forward down the dimly lit hallway. She poked her head into the next room, scanning it for any occupants. “Nothing here,” she said, moving to the next one.
Things felt awkward between them. Unfinished. It made Zelup feel as if he needed to talk to fill the space between them. “Ladee told me a little bit about what you’re doing,” he said, then realized that he could remember more now.I must be adjusting. “I still have questions. Why did you decide to try a neural link with an unconscious woman? I hear it hasn’t been done before.”
“I love a challenge,” Dawn muttered as she opened the next door, then cursed. “It’s too dark in here.”
“A moment,” Zelup said, hustling back down the hall and into the room they’d began in. He grabbed the candle and brought it back, then walked past her and into the darkened room. “But why try to wake her up at all? I don’t understand what your goal is.”
Dawn shrugged. “At first, it was just curiosity. Who was this woman, and what had happened to her to leave her locked in crystal and floating in space? But as I thought about it longer, I realized it represented a chance to explore an aspect of the brain that I’d yet to tackle. What happens to the mind when we’re in a coma.”
She pulled back dusty curtains to expose a large bed with a rotting bedspread, then dropped them quickly when she noticed the nest of spiders residing in the drapery. Turning around, she looked him in the eye, her face golden in the candlelight. “I also wanted to help her. Who knows how long she’s been floating around in space, trapped in her own mind?”
Zelup’s chest contracted. Although she was driven by science, Dawn also had a compassionate side. It only made him want her more. “That’s very noble.”
She shrugged and turned away. “Yeah, well, my technology isn’t so noble when it gets into the hands of your employers. They always find a way to use it for some nefarious purpose. I might want to help, but you guys only hurt.”
“Not me,” Zelup said, following her as she left the room and returned to the hall. “I’m not part of the Hills. In fact, I’m not even human.”
“I know,” she said over her shoulder. “So what are you?”
