Lying there, she was so still. It made him realize how kinetic she usually was, always in motion. Even when she wasn’t actually moving, there was a nervous edge to her, making her seem active. Not now. Not sleeping. Sleeping, she didn’t look like she’d been orphaned and imprisoned and hunted and who knew what else.
Propping himself on one elbow, he leaned over her and stroked a hand down her arm. “Tess?”
She mumbled something and curled up on her side, her back to him.
“Does that mean leave me the hell alone and let me sleep?” he asked.
Her lips curved up. “Maybe.” There was morning gravel in her voice.
He liked hearing how she sounded when she woke up. There was something intimate about it, like he was gaining another piece of her. He wanted to collect them all.
That terrifying thought felt like a ticking bomb inside his chest, and his heart started to pound. He’d only made one decision in his life that he truly regretted, but right now, he was afraid he was barreling toward a second one that might be even more disastrous than the first.
Tess shifted, and her hips moved against him, distracting him back to better thoughts. She went still against his groin, but then slowly rubbed, as if she couldn’t help herself. His balls tightened, and his already hard cock grew heavier, filling even more. He pressed closer to her, and warmth tingled at the base of his spine. He wanted her. He couldn’t imaginenotwanting her. They were a flawless fit.
She was so greedy for physical contact. That was perfect, because she also gave. Humanity seemed brainwashed these days into thinking anything beyond tidy, boring sex and orderly touches menaced society. Sometimes, he was surprised babies were even still being made. He had no interest in that kind of dull, passionless contact and hadn’t pursued a woman in so many months that his own dry spell seemed long, although it was nothing compared to Tess’s seven years.
Shade swept his hand toward her belly and splayed his fingers over her abdomen, letting his thumb tease the undersides of her breasts. Dipping his head, he kissed her shoulder, inhaling her scent. She didn’t smell like peaches anymore. She smelled more like him than anything else, and something possessive yanked hard at his gut.
The raw, primitive feeling reminded him of stories he’d read about the first Earth men and how they’d lived like animals in caves, hunting and killing and fucking and dragging their women around by the hair. He could almost see the appeal of it. He basically had the cave. He could hunt for Tess. Get rid of anyone who threatened her. They would fuck. He could probably skip the hair part, although she might like a good tug.
Only a little distracted by his strange ideas, Shade slid slow, hungry kisses up Tess’s neck. Her skin was warm and soft, and he nuzzled behind her ear. She started moving, writhing in place, straining in that completely uninhibited way of hers. The need to satisfy her blazed through him, and he moved his hand between her legs.
He pressed and stroked, smiling a little against her hair when he found the right spot, making her gasp and jerk. The whole back of her body was like a branding iron against his front. He knew she’d left her mark on him, and she sure as hell went more than skin-deep. There was no getting Tess out of his system. He didn’t want to. He just wanted more.
Shade kept her tight against him as she jumped like a live wire, full of electrical shocks. The sexiest noises whispered out of her, getting louder the more wound up she got. He wanted to lick them up with kisses that went so deep they touched her throat.
He was about to turn her around and do his best to devour her when she lifted her leg on top of his in clear invitation, quickly derailing his last thought. He didn’t have to wonder if she was on board for sex, because Tess was the one reaching down to guide him inside her. She arched back, opening herself up and taking him in. She didn’t need to ask twice, or even out loud. With slow thrusts, Shade worked his way deeper, and his mind blanked to everything except for how good she felt around him.
Rocking his hips, he kept rubbing his fingers above where they were joined until she shuddered and came, gasping his name. He absorbed her tremors, feeling her body clench around him and pull him toward his own release.
Already satisfied as hell, he rolled on top of her. Tess went easily onto her stomach for him, leaving her hands beside her head and him between her legs.
Shade curled his fists around her hands and pumped into her until heat swept up his thighs, shot through his dick, and he came so hard it was like an explosion inside him. Tess cried out, her head turned to one side. He didn’t know if she was climaxing again. His own throbbing overwhelmed everything else, and the thud of his pulse echoed like thunder in his head.
Sweating, his muscles spent, he bowed his head, breathing rapidly against her shoulder. His heart hammered, and he held on to her hands, not wanting to let go yet.
“Come back,” he murmured before he knew what he was saying. “When you’re done on Starway 8, come back here.” Then he’d at least know she was still safe.
Her body seemed to soften even more under his. “You want me to come back?”
“Baby, I don’t want you to leave in the first place.”
She smiled.Hemade her smile. His chest seemed to grow ten sizes, and he knew he was in deep, deep trouble. He hadn’t had a weakness in years, not one fucking thing he couldn’t stand to lose, because everything he cared about was already gone.
Fear started to run like ice through his veins. What had he done to himself?
A second later, he realized it didn’t matter—because he’d do it all again.
Shade rolled them back onto their sides and wrapped his arms around her, those few long whip scars hidden against his chest. After a moment, he threw his leg over both of Tess’s, thinking that its heavy weight pinning her to his bed was about as caveman possessive as she’d let him get.
“I’ll try,” she finally said, not making any move to wiggle free from his near-full-body grip.
Trying was better than nothing, he guessed.
“Go to Nuthatch,” he said. “It’s as good as the Squirrel Tree and less expensive.”
She nodded. “Why do all the docking towers have such weird names here?”
