“I need all of you.” To forget what could have happened and just focus onthem.
But would he even understand what she meant? Reaching between them, she grabbed as much of his cock as she could through his flight-suit. “I need this.” She squeezed. “Inside me.” She thrust against him. “Now.”
A moment of nerves almost overtook her at her declaration, but then another groan ripped through him, erasing her misgivings. He stood, cradling her body with one arm beneath her shoulders, and the other under her knees. Her medical garb crinkled at the movement.
Wynn linked her arms around his neck as his long strides carried them through the cruiser. A slender door opened when he approached, revealing a bed at its center, its covers black. Many wall compartments lined the bulkheads. He turned sideways so they could both get through without her banging her head.
Then she was floating, flying, landing in the middle of the bed with a soft whoosh of air. Iax followed her down, covering her body with his and sealing her lips in another kiss. She drank him in, her legs wrappingaround his waist automatically. With a flex of her heels into his back, she pulled him closer. His bulge rubbed exactly where she needed him, fanning the flames licking up from the lower half of her body.
Her lips pulled at his, thirsty. This need came from deep inside her, and she embraced it, wanting to devour and be devoured.
He leaned back, and his eyes burned with a desire that echoed her own. There was something else there too, a tenderness that she’d only started to see at her outpost before everything went to shit. The visible affection made her lungs strain as she tried to catch her breath.
Iax reached forward, grabbed hold of the papery material of the medical garb, and tore it away from her body. A shredding sound bounced off the wall compartments.
Bared before him, cool air kissed her flesh. He paused, his eyes roving over her, lingering over the marks on her arm. A wave of nerves assaulted her as her nipples hardened beneath his thorough gaze.
Reverently, he skimmed his fingers up her ribs, across her collarbone, then downward over the swell of her breasts. Her breath hitched.
“So soft,” he murmured. “I have gazed upon galaxies and nebulae, and none are more breathtaking than you.”
A startled laugh stalled in her throat at his earnest words, erasing most of her anxiety. If he had been anyone else, she would have chalked those words up to empty praise. But in the brief time she’d known Iax, he had never embellished or exaggerated anything. He spoke plainly without figurative meaning, and he’d certainly never been poetic.
A hot emotion shifted in her chest. If he said these words to her, she trusted he meant them.
“That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” The words felt tight in her throat.
After everything she’d seen him do aboard theCorvus, his cold resolve at commandeering an entire warship and changing the entire crew, it didn’t seem like this level of sweetness could exist within him.
“To see this softness on your face,” he murmured, “I will speak more of these truths.”
The earnestness of his expression and the sincerity in his words melted her heart. Warmth spread over her skin. She wanted to be closer.As close as possible.
Her fingers flexed on his arms as she pulled him toward her, and the material of his flight-suit squeaked slightly. Her legs tightened around his hips. His face lowered, eyes glinting with hunger.
She paused when his lips were only a centimeter away from hers.
“I’ve never done this before.” Embarrassment squeezed her throat, the words scratchy.
“This,” he repeated, his brow furrowing.
She swallowed, her fingers twitching against his biceps. “Been with a man.” Her cheeks scorched with heat.
When his expression did not clear, she added, “Like, sexually. Coupling. Intercourse. Whatever you want to call it.”
His brow smoothed. “I also have not been with another.”
She jerked in his arms. “You haven’t?” She didn’t know why it shocked her so much, but it did.
Maybe because everyone she knew, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, had been having sex since they were teens. It was mostly transactional, a way to satisfy a mutual need. Even Foster had put it on the table as an option because they were in such a remote location, which she’d refused. He’d taken quick trips elsewhere to tend bodily cravings.
Iax leaned forward and rubbed his cheek against hers. “No one has called to me the way you do.” He inhaled deeply, causing goosebumps to erupt across her flesh.
Called.It was a good way of putting it. No one’s body, or mind, had called to her in this way either.
“I’m nervous,” she said when he pulled back and met her gaze again. Despite trusting him, anxiety swirled and mixed with the passion in her stomach.
“We only continue if we both want what is happening between us.”
