Lena sat up abruptly as he headed toward the door, bracing herself on her elbows.
“You are not going out like that!”
He stopped, turned to look at her in surprise. “It’s not noticeable.”
“Like hell it isn’t!”
He frowned, but after a moment his lips twitched. “Language, baby girl!”
Lena felt her jaw go slack for about two seconds and then rage kicked in. “You are not my father!” she snarled, looking around for something to throw at him and coming up with nothing more substantial than the pillow.
He caught it. His good humor had vanished though. Anger simmered in his eyes. “If you’re pissed off because of what just happened, then you need to think before you wave that tight little ass of yours in my face, because I want it, and, if you offer it, I’m damned well going to take it.”
Lena gasped in outrage, feeling her face flame at his crudity, remembering abruptly that he’d lifted her up to devour her as if she’d been a sandwich and wondering indignantly if that was what he was referring to. “I did not wave it in your face!”
“Exactly what did you think I was going to think when you gave me that come hither smile back in the fucking mess?”
“I was just trying to be friendly,” Lena snapped angrily, more because she realized instantly that he hadn’t made the mistake, or misinterpreted anything. She had very purposefully gone down to the mess hall at a time when she’d thought she was likely to meet up with him.
And she had smiled at him, which was enough to give any man the same impression that Dax had gotten, because if she’d been pissed off about it, she wouldn’t have smiled at him. She would’ve given him a drop dead glare.
Balling the pillow up, he shot it back at her like a cannon ball. Instinctively, she ducked. The sound of parting fabric was the only warning she got before she felt her wrists seized. He bore her down onto her back, pinning her with his weight, manacling her wrists to the bed on either side of her head.
His expression was implacable when she blew her hair out of her face and peered up at him in stunned surprise, his eyes were narrowed and tumultuous with emotion. “I am not your friend,” he said through clenched teeth. “And I’m damned sure not your brother or your father--I’m not that damned much older than you. Maybe I’m a dumb fuck, but when a woman I’ve just fucked senseless gives me a smile instead of a drop dead look, I figure that means she didn’t mind it.”
She hadn’t realized what that ominous ripping sound was until she felt the head of his cock nudge her cleft, press the fleshy folds apart and then move down unerringly toward the mouth of her sex. She wasn’t hot, wasn’t even warm, but it didn’t matter, because her sex was still thoroughly lubricated. With little difficulty, he wedged the head of his cock into her and drove deeper. She gasped, instinctively tensing. She heard his teeth grinding together as he withdrew slightly and drove into her again even as she recovered her wits and began squirming against his hold.
Ignoring her attempts to free herself, he bore down inexorably until she was panting for breath, could feel his pelvis grinding into the tender flesh of her cleft. A mixture of pain, fear, and panic went through her as he stopped, gasping harshly, his own face twisted as if he was in pain.
Abruptly, an image flashed through her mind, of Dax above her as he was now, his face contorted with remorse, his teeth gritted. Scream damn it. This is supposed to be a rape.
The fear and panic vanished as abruptly as it had descended upon her.
This wasn’t about anger, and it wasn’t about power. It was about protecting her. He was trying to drive her away, she realized, trying to make her believe he was a heartless monster so that she’d keep her distance.
Because he thought she would get hurt? Or because he was afraid he would?
He released her wrists the moment she ceased to struggle. His head dropped forward. Lifting her hands, Lena cupped his face in her hands. When he glanced up at her warily, she slipped her hands around his neck and tugged, lifting up to meet him when he resisted and brushing her lips lightly across his. He released a harsh breath that he’d been holding. Settling against her, he buried his face in the pillow beside her head.
She wrapped her arms tightly around him, holding him for several moments and finally began to stoke his back soothingly, arching her neck to kiss his shoulder, the side of his neck. She hesitated when she reached his ear and finally teased it with the tip of her tongue, rocking her hips against his.
A shudder rippled through him. Turning his face to hers, he moved his lips over hers in gentle exploration, his touch more apologetic than coaxing.
She sensed when he tensed that he would withdraw. She wasn’t about to allow it. Slipping her hands down his back, she cupped his buttocks, arching up to meet him.
He lifted his head, studied her for a long moment and then dipped his head to kiss her, this time deeply, with growing need and hunger. She kissed him back, sucking on his tongue until he beganto move faster and the warmth inside of her blossomed into a conflagration. Her body began to convulse with release the moment she felt him tense as his own climax caught him.
They lay perfectly still for many minutes afterward. Finally, Dax stirred, lifting slightly away from her. “Lena....”
She felt her throat clog with emotion. Lifting her hand she touched a finger to his lips. “It’s all right. I know.”
She didn’t, actually. She just knew she didn’t want to hear what he was going to say. She didn’t need or want an apology, if that was what he’d had on his mind, and if he’d intended to tell her that there was nothing between them, and never would be, then she also didn’t want to hear that.
She knew she couldn’t stay with him, and he wouldn’t stay with her. As soon as he’d handed her over to Nigel, he would leave again on some other mission to save the world.
He frowned. After a moment, he moved off of her without another word. She rolled onto her side when he’d gotten off the bed, closing her eyes firmly. She didn’t open them again until she knew he’d left the room.
It was amazing, she thought glumly, how protective a person’s mind could be, dulling pain, hiding the truth, refusing to see things that were too awful to see. Only that morning she had been assuring herself that she was coming out of this unscathed. She’d had a narrow miss, but she wasn’t going to be hurt, because she’d just scratched her itch like Dax had. And there was no danger, really, of becoming emotionally wrapped up in him, because she would be home within a matter of days and it just wasn’t possible to fall for anybody that quickly.
