But all too soon, she found herself standing in front of the wooden door, with hammered gold imbedded in geometric patterns on its surface, a modern contrast to the Old Earth decor.
Valerie had told her to go right in and it was like she was outside of her body as she reached for the door lever. She turned the handle down and with slight force, she pushed the surprisingly heavy door open on creaking hinges.
As if in a daze, she stepped inside and the door closed behind her, latching and locking automatically. It felt…final. And Eve’s heart felt like it was trying to pound its way from her chest, her courage almost failing her for the final time as she realized she’dactuallydone it. She was so tempted to simply turn around and run.
But she took a deep breath, letting her eyes adjust to the dark room.
The first thing she noticed was the smell. Some sort of incense was burning, but it was light, not overpowering. It smelled like...pine trees but more pronounced. All the trees on Everton were carefully grown in laboratories and controlled greenhouses before they were planted for landscaping purposes throughout the different districts. There was a place in the Lake District where pine trees towered overhead, taller than buildings, and the smell wasdivine, crisp and fresh.
That was what the incense smelled like, but underneath there was something she couldn’t identify. Something warmer and spicy.
Movement caught her gaze. And when her eyes flickered to the right, near a sumptuous-looking bed piled high with plush blankets and satin coverlets, she saw him. He was rising from a leather armchair, the color of cognac, tucked near the corner of the room, the material creaking under his weight.
Eve’s breath hitched.
The alien male regarding her from the corner of the room could only be described as…intense. Intensely masculine, intensely focused, intensely…erotic.
One of her first thoughts was that he was massive, towering over her 5”5 frame. The Krave in front of her had to be nearing seven-feet-tall and looked to be close to three hundred pounds of solid bulk and carefully sculpted muscle.
Eve could easily imagine him overpowering her. She wouldn’t be able to stop him from doinganythinghe wanted to her. And that realization both frightened her…and aroused her?
His skin, at first glance, looked like it was a stormy grey, similar to the dark grey clouds that the Programmers illuminated over Everton when the rains came to water the landscaping on Sundays. Eve had always thought that the rain was beautiful and she often walked in her garden to feel the droplets run down her face.
And parts of his skinwererain-cloud grey, but as he approached her, in the flickering soft light from the fireplace, she saw that his skin was really more of a dark, dusky blue, that also held patches of the deep grey and black. In addition to his skin, she noted that he wore a simple black shirt that stretched across his wide chest and loose black pants.
Startled, Eve’s gaze flashed up to his face and she was immediately met with the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. They were pure color, with no white, and the deepest swirling of tree green and brushed gold and night sky indigo. Unlike any eyes she’d ever encountered before. Eve watched his wide black pupils dilate and move over her body before returning to her face. He seemed to be studying her the same way she was to him.
His features were alien, but not as alien as she’d expected. He had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, just like her. His eyes were wide-set, however, his nose sharp and structured, and his lips were slim. He had no hair on his body, or at least from what she could see. His head was perfectly smooth. His cheekbones were high and his jaw was prominent, giving him an almost aristocratic profile.
Immediate and intense attraction flooded her, which surprised her and made her hands tremble at her sides. She hadn’t expected to find him soattractive.
“You’re…” she trailed off, her voice scratchy from nerves and arousal. “You’re very handsome.”
Then she flushed in embarrassment, the words sounding strange to her own ears. But Eve felt like a fish out of water. She didn’t know how to react, what to do, how any of this worked.
She was coming to a Krave as an inexperienced virgin. She hadexpectedto be a nervous, fumbling wreck, so she should cut herself some slack.
Breathe, she told herself, shyly meeting his eyes again. His expression hadn’t changed and he stopped a few feet away, his head tilting to the side, still studying her, which made her shift in place.
A sound rose in his throat, or perhaps deep in his chest, that made her freeze. It was like a soft rasping growl that slid over skin and made her shiver, even in the warm room.
The Krave closed the distance between them, but instead of stopping right in front of her, he circled her, halting at her back. Her heart sped up in her chest until it felt like it would pound right out, so loud that she wondered if he could hear it. She forced herself to stand still, to keep her gaze forward, which landed on the large bed.
Eve could sense his presence behind her, as noticeable and obvious as her nerves. She realized that the spicy, warm smell she’d first noticed washim. It enveloped her, wrapping around her, and it made her head swim with startling arousal.
A soft, surprised gasp escaped her when she felt his hands. Large, strong, masculine hands wrapped around her hips from behind,searingthrough the silk of her dress. He made that sound in his throat again and his hands shifted, almost possessive, likehehad bought a night withher, not the other way around. It surprised her how desirable it made her feel.
The Krave was touching her like he owned her…and he had yet to say a single word.
This is what I wanted, she realized, her eyes fluttering closed when his palms slid slowly up to her small waist.
Touch.
To Eve, the most underestimated thing of all was simply touch. Being touched by another, the intimacy of it. Eve wanted touch possibly more than she wanted sex. It was possible that all Eve wanted that night from himwastouch, especially if he continued to touch her likethis.
A shuddering breath escaped her when he suddenly pulled her back into his massive, warm body. His legs widened their stance so that she stood between them. And Eve’s eyes widened when she felt the unmistakable feeling of his hard, pulsing erection at her back.
“Who are you?” his voice sounded, soft but unmistakably male, deep and rich. His words were slightly accented, but clear enough to tell her that he had been using English for a long time.
