GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) (18 page)

This kiss was no less of an assault than the other two they'd shared. Only this time, her blood had been boiling beforehand. The strange tingling she had previously experienced in her robotic arm shot through her like a lightning bolt.

Suddenly Cherry felt as though she had been caught in a raging hurricane and the only escape was through the eye of the storm. She relayed her need in the most elemental way. Tangling her fingers into his thick hair to hold him still, she drew his tongue into her mouth, nipped and sucked, then forced her way into his.

She felt him yank off her wig and moaned her frustration when it took him more than a heartbeat to get rid of the gown. His vest hit the floor a moment later and she pulled her mouth from his to taste the flesh she had uncovered. She ran her tongue down his neck and chest, and when her teeth closed over his nipple, he made that growling sound she had found so erotic.

His fingers curled beneath the neckline of her jumpsuit and she stopped stroking his arms and chest to help him eliminate one more obstacle between them. Suddenly his hands closed over hers and prevented her from undressing further. She felt his body go rigid and realized he was trying to rein in his passion once again.

"No! Not this time, Gallant." She pried one hand loose, ran it down his body and molded her fingers over his hard, pulsing shaft. The realization that her eyes hadn't been mistaken about his size made her take a deep breath of anticipation. "You want me. I want you. Right now, nothing else matters."

Another low growl was his only answer before desire swept away whatever had caused him to hesitate. Only when they tumbled onto his bunk completely naked did he try to speak. With every inch of their bodies pressed together, she felt as much as heard his low, gravelly voice.

"I don't... want to... hurt you."

"Dear lord, Gallant, the only way you're going to hurt me now is if you
don't
ram yourself inside me right this minute."

His reaction to her words was an entry so hard and fast, it would have been brutal had her body not been so well primed for him. He took her relieved cry into his mouth and groaned his pleasure back to hers.

She met his desperate pace, aware that he not only filled and stretched her beyond anything she had ever known, but he was driving her toward a height she had never before reached.

Within minutes he took her over that height to a climax that had her whole body shuddering with exquisite rapture.

But he didn't allow her to come down. He turned her, twisted her, left her body and returned to push her over the brink again and again. And when she thought she would surely die of pleasure, he took her with him over one, final, ecstatic peak.

For some time they clung to one another on their sides, unable to work up the strength to separate their bodies. When Cherry finally caught her breath, she realized he was quickly expanding to his formidable size within her once more. With a light laugh, she moved her hips against his and teased, "You must not have found that pleasure female you went looking for when you left me."

"Did you really believe I would do such a thing?"

"I didn't know what to think," she murmured as she traced aimless designs on his chest with her finger.

"You should have. I showed you what you made me feel. Why would I use some other female when it was you I wanted?"

Cherry giggled and licked his collarbone. "Oh, now
that's
precious. You actually sound like you mean it."

"When I lie, you believe me and when I tell the truth, you don't. You're an extremely exasperating woman."

"Exasperating!" She tried to lift her head but he pressed it back to his chest.

"Please, I'm not ready to go back to fighting with you yet." He took a slow deep breath and she settled down again. "You seemed... satisfied."

This time she raised her head before he could stop her. "Satisfied doesn't come close to describing the best—" She broke off her intended compliment when she looked at his closed eyelids and remembered that she hadn't yet questioned him about the missing eye patch. "Open your eyes."

"I'm too tired."

She squeezed her vaginal muscles around his hardness. "No you're not. Let me see your eyes." Just when she thought he was going to refuse, he slowly raised his lids and looked at a spot over her head. She stared at his two
perfectly normal,
dark brown eyes. "There's nothing weird about your left eye."

"No."

"Then why the patch?"

"It complements my wicked reputation."

Cherry moved her head from one angle to another but he managed to keep his gaze averted. "You're lying. You can't look me in the eye and tell me a lie, can you?" He didn't even try to deny it. "Look at me!"

Sighing, he let his eyes meet hers for a split second before he pulled her head down to his. With his lips barely touching hers, he whispered, "I'd rather fight with you again."

The moment his mouth demanded her participation, she gave in with an eating kiss that had him growling in no time. She had thought their first bout had been incomparable but this second assault replaced the initial desperation with skillful technique.

He found her most sensitive areas and touched her in ways meant to wipe out all thoughts of anything but desire and pleasure.

She caressed and stroked him until he forgot about whatever it was that he didn't want her to know.

This time, the build-up was slower and longer, yet when the finale was upon them, it was no less explosive.

Gallant kept Cherry's warm body curled against his long after she fell asleep. Looking at her like that, it was hard to imagine that beneath such a peaceful exterior lay enough energy to power a starship. Like a human sacrifice, he had given himself up to that power, and having miraculously survived, was anxious to repeat the experience.

For so long he had feared what would happen to him if he ever let go completely. It had turned out to be neither paradise nor perdition, but an incredible combination of the two. And suddenly he was quite certain it wouldn't have been the same with any other woman he had ever met.

Now that he had found someone as passionate as himself, he wanted to chain her to him forever. He wanted to spend the rest of his days feeding off her sparkling energy, fighting with her, sharing himself with her and holding her while she slept.

Yet, how could he keep her? She was too curious for him to hide his secret from her indefinitely. It was only a matter of time before she resumed her questioning about Frezlo's death and it was only by sheer luck that she hadn't seen what was going on in the room around them whenever he opened his eyes. Fortunately, when she shared herself with him, she gave the activity her total attention.

He had been in too much of a rush to don a patch before they landed on the bed and too sated to rise and get it afterward.

What if he simply told her the truth as she kept insisting he should do? Was there any chance that she wouldn't be repulsed? He remembered her sympathetic, unprejudiced comments when he had told her about the Illusians and wondered if she could possibly find sympathy in her heart for him. If she didn't, however, revealing his secret would be akin to handing her his life on a crystal platter.

Even if she wasn't repelled by the truth, what enticement could he offer to make her want to stay with him? His home was this ship and wherever his next assignment took him. His life was one long risk. Like her best friend Aster, Cherry deserved to mate with someone as safe and stable as Romulus.

None of it really mattered in the end. She missed Innerworld, her friends, her career, and once she discovered she wasn't going to get back in time for her
once in a lifetime opportunity
with Theodophilus, she would probably refuse to let him come within ten feet of her anyway. Telling her the whole truth at this late date wouldn't change the fact that he couldn't return her to Terra for some time yet.

Cherry moaned softly in her sleep and snuggled her bottom against his stomach. Gallant hadn't even been aware of the fact that while his mind was analyzing the impossibility of making her his life-mate, his hand had cupped her breast and massaged it to a hard peak. Even in a sound sleep she responded to his touch and he instantly responded to that knowledge.

He knew without a doubt that if he slipped his fingers between her thighs, she would be wet and ready for him. He wouldn't have to do more than stroke her once or twice and she would awaken for him, willing to charge into their private battle one more time.

But each encounter increased the risk of her discovering the truth, and since he could not expect her to agree to be his life-mate, it was best that she not bear the burden of his secret.

Although he told himself it would be wise to leave her now and never touch her again, his fingers had already crept down to their desired goal. She was neither fully awake nor fully asleep, yet she was fully aroused. Without changing positions, she opened herself to him and he slipped inside.

As their bodies challenged each other to the ultimate duel, he promised himself he would banish her from his mind in the morning.

Chapter 9

Aster waddled into her mate's office with as much elegance as her condition permitted, closed his door and burst into tears. Rom was beside her in an instant, holding and soothing her as she sobbed into his chest. The flash flood was over in a minute.

Though this had happened several times during Aster's pregnancy, he didn't think he'd ever get used to it. He helped lower her into an armchair, then fetched two tissues—one for her and one for him. "What was it this time,
shalla?"

Aster blew her nose, not even attempting to be delicate about it. "I can't stand much more of this. I'm sick of being fat and moody and if I don't get a hot fudge sundae in the next five seconds, I'm liable to have a stroke!"

Rom sat on the arm of her chair and stroked her silver hair. "There's less than three weeks to go, but if you really want a sundae, I'm sure Doctor Xerpa—"

"No. If you bother her one more time, she might never agree to let us get pregnant again." Aster sighed and rubbed her enormous stomach. "I'm sorry, darling. A hot fudge sundae isn't going to fix what's bothering me. I miss Cherry. She should be here making fun of me. I can't stop worrying about her. It's been a week, Rom. A week! She should have been home by now. Why haven't we heard anything?"

As he had been doing since Cherry's disappearance, Rom blocked his own concerned thoughts from his mate. Gallant Voyager was going to have a lot to answer for... if and when he ever showed up again.

"I told you before," Rom said in his gentlest voice. "If Gallant believes Cherry's life is in danger, he's probably keeping a low profile with her on some quiet planet and doesn't want to risk revealing their location to anyone. The Consociation of Planets will have received my message by now. As soon as Gallant checks in with them, they'll have him contact us."

"You're sure she's safe with him?"

He hugged her tightly, both to console her and ensure that she didn't see how his eyes were about to change color as he lied to her. "Absolutely."

With another sigh, Aster pulled herself back together enough to think of Innerworld business. "Did you see this morning's communication from OMC?"

"Mm-hmm." Rom got up and went around the other side of his desk. The memo was right where he'd left it when she'd come in. He pretended to read it while he considered how best to discuss the matter.

He had asked the department head at Outerworld Monitor Control to forward all news reports regarding Earth's surface to him alone so that he could decide whether Aster should receive a copy. The situation with Cherry, on top of her pregnancy, had her upset enough for the moment.

He knew he was being devious and underhanded—behavior he had never resorted to in his life—but it was worth a small deception if Aster was spared more stress. Apparently this report had slipped through. He cleared his throat and read it aloud in a voice intended to sound sarcastically doubtful. "Outerworld sensationalist newspapers are reporting strange phenomena."

Aster laughed. "So what else is new? They haven't changed at all in the ten years I've been here."

Rom smiled back and continued. "In the past fourteen days, there have been three supposedly supernatural sightings at religious shrines—an angel at Our Lady of Lourdes in France, the prophet Muhammad at the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, and at the Elephanta caves near Bombay, India, a rock sculpture of the Hindu god, Shiva, opened its eyes and spoke to a group of worshipers.