“I’d rather not.”
“Why?”
“Did I mention the part about where she’s crazy?”
She giggled and one corner of his beautiful mouth lifted in amusement. “I don’t have the fortitude to deal with her foolish antics so early in the morning. She’ll have to bother one of my other family members.” He stared down at the buzzing device, indecision clearly weighing on his mind. Meanwhile, Ria stared at his abs, his chest and his amazing profile. She wanted to hiss in pleasure merely looking at his gorgeous physique.
Cam sat on the bed, device in hand, but watched her as if the noisy buzz-ringing in his hand had gone away.
She sent a mental push for him to forget his device. She’d heard it worked on most earthlings. Was it working on him? Maybe. His focus remained squarely on her.
Ria sat up, inched closer to him, and began to kiss his bare shoulder as he listened to the strident buzz-ring. She trailed kisses from his shoulder to the back of his neck, licking a spot she had learned he liked. He dropped the device. She heard it bounce on the carpet, but Cam didn’t reach for it. He turned to stare deeply into her eyes. She sent another mental push to urge his cooperation. Smiling serenely, she pushed a mental message with her gaze for him to ignore anything and anyone but her.
The buzzing ring of his communications device stopped momentarily, but started up seconds later.
Ria leaned close and placed a gentle kiss on his jaw. Cam ignored his phone completely to kiss her hard on the mouth. He pushed her flat on the bed’s surface and followed her down without breaking the carnal kiss.
She scraped her nails gently down the center of his back. He broke the kiss to growl his approval before resuming the seductive kiss. Cam was an earthling, but he was built just like an Alpha. She appreciated his large, muscular build. Earthlings were very similar to Alphas, but her alien race was often superior in average stature. Not Cam. There was absolutely nothing average about him.
A final faint half buzz-ring came from the floor. If Cam heard it, he ignored it. After several seconds, the caller apparently gave up and the buzzy-ringing stopped. By that time, they were rolling around on the bed, kissing like tomorrow didn’t exist for them. The truth was, it might not.
Tomorrow with Cam might only be a wish. If anyone discovered her missing from the cruise liner, further exploring of any kind might not happen at all. If she could continue to persuade Cam to forget everything in his life except her, she might be able to enjoy the entire weekend. But she’d eventually have to go back. Ria didn’t like it, but it was the truth. Unless someone came for her before then.
It was only a matter of who might show up. One, the human authorities on this wonderful planet; two, the way station security personnel; or, three, her mother leading the way with Director Patmore trailing her and Dirt Bag FitzOsbern bringing up the rear. She shoved those horrendous visions to the back of her mind and swore not to think about that eventuality until it was forced upon her.
Cam began to ease away from the luscious kiss, but Ria tunneled her fingers into his soft, silky hair and instigated an even more volatile lip lock. He responded in kind. She hummed in her throat. This was exactly the way last night’s adventures had started, with a kiss.
Well, there’d been a song or two first and then a drink or two, and finally a kiss or two or a dozen. Likely she should be more worried about the eventual discovery of her absence from the ship, but she vowed to only leave this bed kicking and screaming. If anyone dared make her go, that someone was going to have to drag her out. She’d fight tooth and nail.
For now, she pretended she was an Earther who didn’t have a care in the world. She pretended no one would ever look for her or come after her. The price for her disobedience would certainly be quite hefty, but the kiss she shared with Cam was well worth all of what she’d done—or would do—in the name of stubborn self-preservation and the desire to select her own mate to share a lifetimeshechose.
Becoming an Earther, as the Alpha-Prime colonists on Earth were called, and spending the rest of her life with an earthling was her secret goal. Cam was the perfect choice. Being with him now was an excellent start to her defiant plan. If she got to keep him.
Cam was everything she’d ever dreamed of in a lifelong partner and so much more. She’d taken one look at him in the earthling bar and known he would be important. The more she learned, the more she liked. They were great together, impeccably suited in temperament, and they had identical ideas of entertainment. From the moment she sat down, crowding next to him as if they were already acquainted, they had connected, laughing and joking together. He told her she had a voice like an angel, even though it was her very first karaoke experience.
With the all-important attraction gene—the one that created an arc between them whenever they talked, kissed or wildly rolled around on his sheets—clearly present, all of these compatibilities demonstrated they should be together. She didn’t want to think about any future other than this idyllic one she’d built in her mind. He was the perfect earthling.
And Cam was enamored of her, too. At least he was for now, thanks to her mental encouragement of his affections.
Ria tried not to remember she might have his attention now, but it wouldn’t last. She had a day, two at best, and then her limited power of persuasion over him would fade. Her rebellious actions would certainly become public and she might have to return to life on another planet far, far away, with no choice, no fun and, worst of all, no Cam.
In the meantime, she planned to take advantage of every second with him she could carve out. If she had her way—and she wouldn’t—she’d move in with Cam, marry him, and spend the rest of her life here on Earth doing whatever earthling things he liked to do.
The reality of her future loathsome existence would come barging in soon enough. Until then she would relish every second away from the outline others had created for her life, casually expecting her to follow it to her ultimate doom. The longer she spent away from the ship, the stronger her anger became over what others had decided. That anger stiffened her resolve to thwart what others had decreed, even if only for a single wonderful weekend.
If her mother forced her to marry Douglass Barnard FitzOsbern—or rather, Dirt Bag FitzOsbern, as she’d nicknamed him—Ria would make it her life’s mission to ensure everyone in the situation was as miserable as she expected to be.
Chapter Three
Cam woke for a second time to the sound of his communication device buzzing from somewhere nearby. His eyes opened, but he didn’t spy it on his nightstand. Listening, he realized it was still on the floor on Ria’s side of the bed. He carefully crawled over her and answered it, putting the device to his ear as he settled on his belly, crunched up next to Ria’s warm side.
“Yep.” Ria had stirred as he slid across her soft body. She reached out a hand, which landed on his back. He loved her touch. The softness of her fingertips absently stroking the muscles along his spine made him want to drop the phone and return to cuddle with her. Even as he knew what that would lead to soon enough.
“Cam!” It was Axel again.
“What?”
