“If I’d been able to buy back my docks from Scarabin White, I would’ve been responsible for thousands of employees on two planets, for managing managers, for bookkeeping, safety regulations, building maintenance, contracts, deliveries, and about a million other things that aren’t all fun or fascinating but that would’ve been part of a whole that wasmine. Mine to build, to protect, to take care of. I wanted that—the whole package. I understood the scope of the job from watching my father do it. And I understand the kind of commitment it would take to be at the head of that orphanage. It doesn’t scare me to think about helping you with that. Granted, the newborn to eighteen-years-old age group and everything that comes with it is a new element, but I can adapt.” I searched her eyes, willing her to understand. “Don’t you see? You’re offering me everything I thought I’d lost, including you in my future.”
Tess looked completely stunned, so I kissed her. It took her a second, but she kissed me back, going from hesitant and a little unsure to hungry and eager like she had a hyperdrive switch and had just thrown it. Satisfaction gusted through me the moment she ignited. Tess always exploded like a bomb in skin. Her sexy little whimper melted into my mouth and turned my cock rock-hard in seconds.
A low sound rumbled inside me as I slipped my hands into her hair and angled us closer. Tess gripped my sides, holding on as if she thought I might evaporate. I wasn’t going anywhere. Not willingly. I kissed her long and deep to prove it. She swept her hands under my shirt, stroking bare skin. My abdomen tightened, and the air around us blazed ten degrees hotter with each light, questing brush of her fingertips.
Her hands flared out, smoothed, pressed. My senses narrowed to her touch as she slowly ran her palm down my torso to my lap and closed her hand around the bulge in my pants. Volcanic desire shot to the surface and made me want to pounce. Instead, I held as still as possible and used my mouth and tongue to show Tess just how deeply I wanted to get inside her, and not just physically. She gave back twofold, wiggling all over the place to get closer, stroking me through my clothes, and cranking up my need like a furnace.
Breathing like I’d just run a race, I clasped her head in my hands and separated us. Tess looked at me with hazy eyes, her parted lips plump and shiny from my kisses. My heavy pulse drowned out everything except for the words forming with perfect clarity in my head.
Her hand stayed on my cock. She squeezed as she watched me, dragging her bottom lip between her teeth. I groaned and pressed into her hand, lust ripping through me like a lightning bolt.
Fuck, I liked clear signals. And I wanted her more than I wanted my next breath. But I wasn’t done talking yet. Maybe I was going too far, too fast, but my chest was bursting with words that wanted out.
Hardly recognizing my own deep rasp, I said, “And maybe someday, a few of the kids running around that place will be ours, playing with the other little space rats.”
Her breath hitched. “Shade?”
I kissed her again, kissed her until she could barely breathe and clung to me for balance. Needing her even closer, I lifted her to straddle me. Tess came willingly, getting up on her knees to rub against me, our mouths fused, our tongues taking and giving, no air between us. My hands tightened on her hips. She rolled her ass like she loved the hard pressure. With a guttural sound, I sank my fingers into soft flesh and rocked her.
Just as the firestorm was starting to blind me to everything else, Tess drew back. I stared at her through a dense, want-thick fog. It cleared the second I saw the worried crease slash between her eyebrows.
“What, baby?” I half stood, getting ready to set her behind me. Had she heard something?
“No, wait.” Tess dug her nails into my shoulders, stopping me. “It’s just… You’re thinking clearly, right? You’re not making decisions based on”—she glanced down at where our bodies met and blazing-hot need electrified everything—“want?”
The heat in my groin pounded, intense and insistent. Despite that, I shook my head. “No. Not now, and not before. My head and my heart warred over you a lot on Albion 5, but nothing below the belt got a vote—hard as it tried.”
Her dark brows winged up, erasing the troubled frown from her forehead. “Hard?”
I held back a snort. “Really? You’re going there?”
Tess giggled. Little laugh lines fanned out from her eyes, and her teeth flashed in the rising moonlight. “You walked right into that. Admit it.”
Growling, I dove in to kiss where her neck met her shoulder. Actually, I devoured it. Between nibbles and sucks, I said, “One more false accusation and I’ll call you ‘sugar.’”
Tess gasped. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.” I swatted her backside.
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, good! The slapping’s started already.”
Grinning, she tried to swat me back and couldn’t. Laughing, I got her again. Tess shrieked a happy sound I wanted to bottle for later and shot off the couch, running toward the huge, high bed. She hopped up, pulling off her shoes and tossing them aside as she turned back to me. Smiling, she kneeled on the edge of the bed and watched me from across the room. I’d never seen anything so inviting.
I got up and prowled over, kicking off my boots as I went. When I reached her, she lifted a hand and braced it against my chest. Could she feel the pounding thud of my heart? Did she know it beat for her now?
Tess leaned forward and licked me from collarbone to ear, flicking her tongue over the shell of it. I tensed all over, igniting, and caught her hips in a firm grasp. I pulled us roughly together.
She tilted her head back, her eyes heavy with desire. “How do you want me, Shade? What’s in that mind of yours?”
My cock pulsed at her husky whisper. Images flashed through my mind. Possibilities.
She nipped my earlobe, sending a bullet of sensation down my back and into my legs. My chest rose and fell, brushing hers with every breath. Tess was offering to explore fantasies. I’d take her up on some of mine soon enough, but right now, I just needed to make love to her.
“I want to cover you.”Protect you. Shelter you. Lose myself in you.“I want you under me.” I slid my hand between her legs. She scalded my fingers already, even with her clothes on. Tess rocked into my grip, her hips rolling in a sultry motion.
She reached down and tore her shirt over her head, her hair flying in every direction. It looked brighter in this lighting, some of the redder strands standing out from the brown. I brushed a lock over her shoulder. She shivered, her lips parting on a sweet sound.
Tess dropped her shirt on the floor and leaned her forehead against my jaw, breathing raggedly. My arms came around her, my heart thumping like a hammer. She seemed suddenly vulnerable, half-dressed and balanced against me, and my heavy pulse echoed with all the worries and hopes we’d just confessed to each other. How had I ever contemplated turning her over to the Dark Watch? It would’ve been like carving open my own chest and tearing out my vital organs.
