Parallel Seduction (5 page)

"Not here, actually—it's part of the surprise." She stroked the top of his head. "I have somewhere else in mind."

He cocked an eyebrow, curiosity starting to overtake him. "I have an hour; then there's a meeting in chambers."

"An hour will be plenty of time." She grabbed hold of his shoulders, sliding into his arms and to the floor. "Trust me."

"S
o we're going to be
roommates." Anna tossed Hope's small satchel of belongings onto the bottom bunk. "My sister has moved out—and in with Riley, her lifemate—so her half of the room is empty anyway."

Hope stepped toward the bed, pushing her glasses up her nose in an effort to see some of the details of the room. With a glance around, she tried to size up the quarters, but her vision was too dark for her to determine much. The truth was, the glasses didn't do a thing to help her and, feeling suddenly angry, she jerked them off and tossed them onto her new bed.

Anna launched herself at the bed frame, scrambling onto the top bunk. "I'll keep this top rack," she explained, "and you'll get the lower one. Does that work for you?"

Hope nodded, feeling a strange lump lodge inside her throat. After several sleepless nights, and generally feeling like she had nowhere to go inside the compound, Hope felt total and unexpected relief at Anna's obvious decision to watch her back.

"Thanks, Anna," she said softly. "I won't be a pain in the ass, promise."

"Good. And now that we've got this out of the way, let's get to the heart of the matter."

"Which is?"

Anna's feet dangled off the top bunk, kicking at the wooden frame. "Lieutenant Dillon. I hear he's in need of some motivation, a real kick in the pants, as it were, if he's going to get well. I've decided that
you
are that kick—or something else—in the pants. So let's get going, Ms. Harper—"

"Call me Hope."

"Let's get going, Hope," she amended without missing a beat, "and pay a visit to our good lieutenant."

"Actually, I was already down there this morning, so I don't know." She flashed on the kiss he'd stolen, and didn't want to seem too eager and available to him. "Maybe I'd better give him a little more time."

"I
heard
that you visited him this morning, and that he perked up tremendously afterward." Anna swung off the upper bunk, giving her a chummy pat on the shoulder. "That is why you're going back with me again. So you can dispense further motivation, the kind that apparently only you can give." Anna made a loud smacking sound with her lips. "You know what I mean."

Hope blushed, wrapping her arms about herself. "What exactly did you hear about my visit?"

"Lots of good sound effects. The ooohs and the sighs—and pretty much a lot of smooching."

"I don't understand." A terrible suspicion was beginning to grow in Hope's mind.

Anna chuckled. "If you want to keep a secret in this army of ours, then make sure your comm isn't on." She opened the door and paused. "Or that the other party's isn't, since obviously you don't even have a comm."

Hope covered her face with both hands, willing herself to disappear. "Oh, no, no, we didn't."

"Oh, yes, yes, you certainly did. From what the rest of us could gather, our lieutenant jammed his comm somewhere between smoochy-smooching you and his announcement that"—Anna dropped her voice low, producing a striking imitation of Scott—"'this was to show you that there's only one good reason I should ever be in bed.' After that, radio silence."

Hope buried her face deeper in her hands, wondering just how many Refarians were party to the comm link. "Does he make this kind of mistake often?" she squeaked.

"Never, but we all figure he was off his game because of being in the hospital and the drugs … and especially because of you." Anna giggled, pulling at Hope's hands, working to pry them away from her eyes. "Come on out of there, Hope."

Slowly, Hope did let her hands drop. "So when you said you'd 'heard' I'd been to see him, you really did mean just that." God, talk about feeling mortified.

"Yep. And you know what else?" Anna continued. "Not much longer after that, he started barking out orders over the comm, back to his usual ass-kicking self for a little bit. We all pretty much got the picture that you're the only one who can pull him out of this depression he's been in ever since he was shot."

"Did anyone tell him what he'd done?"

"Whoa! Hell, no. That man would be even crankier than usual. No way, no how—and don't you tell him either, okay?"

"It's not like it's your fault or anyone else's but his own." Hope couldn't help beginning to laugh. "Plus, why should he be embarrassed? I mean, he's one of the top dogs and all, right?"

"Ah, but he'd be protecting you, and that's the thing of it. It would all be about his feelings for you."

"Why are you so convinced that he cares about me?" Hope shook her head. "I just don't get it."

"You don't get it? Really, Hope?" Anna stopped at the doorway, slipping a hand on Hope's shoulder. "This base is our essence, our most guarded secret. That you're here at all right now proves everything about what Scott Dillon feels for you."

J
ared followed his wife down
a path he knew all too well; she was guiding him toward the natural hot springs hidden at the end of a private trail. Before they'd even reached the clearing, Jared glimpsed steam rising off the springs, swirling into a ghostly spiral. Devil's Cauldron, that was the name for the naturally occurring bubbling waters. Watching Kelsey's swaying hips as he followed her on the trail made Jared think that whoever had named the place must have experienced a time or two in the waters themselves—and not just bathing, either.

"Love, I think you have concocted a devilish plan." He stilled on the path, staring at the gurgling springs just ahead.

Kelsey slipped both arms about him, pressing her face against his chest. "Umm, Jared, you know"—she rubbed one hand across the front of his pants—"I just wanted to get away from everything."

His entire body flamed hot at her words, and the mating heat that had been overtaking him simmered wildly. "Kelsey, I'm due back—"

"Plenty of time." She waved him off, taking the lead on the path again. For a moment he stared after his wife—his queen—and wondered what sort of plan she had in mind. Refarian men were madly aroused by water during their mating season. Not drinking water or anything basic, but hot water. Steaming water. Water lapping about their naked mate. Ah, these things had the power to provoke his lusts into a frenzy.

No wonder he could only gape wordlessly as Kelsey's jacket dropped to the stone surface surrounding the misty pool, revealing the shape of her body. So beautiful and lusciously curving, that of a real woman.

With her hand she beckoned him wordlessly. Swallowing hard, he followed, meeting her on the stone surface surrounding the pool of water. "Aren't you cold?" He let his gaze move up and down her supple body.

"I'm burning up. Can't you tell by looking at me?" She blessed him with a giddy smile.

Ah, wife, you think to enter the fever.
He winced
at the thought of how hurt she would be when that wish did not come true. "My ancestor's journal has misled you, love," he told her solemnly. "I fear that your expectations .…" He couldn't finish; not this, not when it meant hurting Kelsey so badly. "What began for us upon our first mating never came to life in me. I don't dare see you hope, not like this."

She placed a palm to his chest. "It's already happening, Jared. Can't you feel it? Don't you see?" She gestured down the length of her body. "Look at me. Geez, I'm on fire. Your fire, your heat. It's all inside of me, changing me. It's alive in us both and you can't deny it any more."

It was true; she glowed from the inside out, a warm, soft hue that definitely seemed … non-human. With a glance, he made certain they were truly alone.

Steam rose off the hot spring pools, bathing them both in an otherworldly glow. His wife had done her homework, for certain. Soft music came from a mystery location: Duke Ellington, one of his favorites. How his mate had already memorized his tastes and tempers was beyond him.

Without a word he stripped out of his uniform jacket, and next his T-shirt, exposing his bare chest; his nipples puckered from the frigid cold. Watching him, Kelsey licked her lips in anticipation, but remained silent. Next he unlaced his boots, jerked off his socks, then finally shrugged out of his uniform pants, so that he stood before her, lean and naked and shivering.

She shook her head, smiling. "You amaze me, Jared." Her voice was barely more than a whisper, raspy with lust and need.

His scarred body, his silvering hair, the lines around his eyes: She never seemed to notice any of his physical shortcomings. All his mate ever saw was a strange perfection in him. How had he ever been so blessed by the heavens?

She took a step near, and a quiet growl sprang from his chest. Her eyes widened at his expression of desire, but she said nothing. Stepping into the bubbling springs, he gave her a command. "In. The. Water." He groaned. "Please, Kelse."

More growling that he couldn't seem to stop. His whole body tensed, then relaxed, then tensed again. He felt his eyes water, widen, narrow to slits. She suddenly trembled a bit; on the periphery of his thoughts, he wondered if somehow he'd frightened her, but didn't bother to think any further on that idea.

"Water, Kelsey," he whispered again, submerging himself fully. "Now!" He'd have sworn even more steam spiraled off the pool once he'd entered, but perhaps he merely imagined that.

"Absolutely, Commander," she teased, glancing down at him with what could only be called a coy expression.

Gods, he adored her. Gods he wanted her, now, now, now. He felt something highly irrational skip through his brain, something about possessing her on every planet. He thought even to murmur it to her, but stopped himself, sliding deeper into the hot, beckoning cauldron of steam and water.

"Ah." He sighed in deep pleasure, leaning back against the rocks, and then stretched his arms across the slick stones, watching his mate with lusty arousal. First her gloves tumbled to the stony ground, then her sweater and scarf and little knit cap, and at last her pants. Socks? Underwear? "Hurry," he begged, aware that he sounded as breathless as a fledgling. "Please, love."

She stood before him, curving and pure in the misty midday light. "Jared," she whispered, running her fingers through her hair, shaking it out. He felt his eyes narrow to slits, his vision heightening like mad of its own volition. His chest grew tight as a drum, the pounding muscle within it causing a loud rush of blood in his ears.

She repeated his name, louder, "Jared?"

"Umm?" he managed, blinking at her.

"It's happening," she whispered, watching him. "You do know that now, don't you? That it's finally happening?" How could she sound so calm? So self-possessed? Was she even right about the timing? She took another step closer, painstaking in her calmness as she spoke to him. "It's been happening," she continued, shivering from the cold, "only I don't think you've wanted to trust it. Or even understood it. And it's not like it's just today .…"

She stopped, studying him, gauging his reaction as he swam toward the edge where she stood.

His mouth felt dry, his voice thick and from a distant tunnel, but he whispered at her, "You fear I will back away?"

She wrapped her fair arms about herself, shivering protectively. "Yes." She knew how he'd fought these mating cycles; for all his life he'd resisted—but the two of them had passed a point of no return here.

Like a manacle, he clasped her ankle. "In the water, mate." He flashed a dark gaze up at her, obviously meaning to magnetize. "Or I shall seemingly die." Then they both burst into uncontrollable laughter—the pure laughter of release and joy.

K
elsey splashed into the water
and right into her husband's arms. Nipping at her neck, he made soft rumbling sounds of pleasure: no words, only wild sounds that vibrated through her chest as he pulled her close. One thing was certain in Kelsey's mind: Jared had no idea just how strongly he'd been coming onto her recently. And in the past two days his insatiable need for her, as well as his pureblood Refarian expressions of desire—the growling, the plaintive groaning, the shaky-handed grasping, all signs she'd read about in his ancestor's journal, indicating the beginnings of his cycle—these things had been intensifying crazily.

She'd saved the invitation to the hot springs until just now. On purpose. It had all been part of the plan: When he stood on the brink, ready to fall completely into his season, she'd planned to seduce him here, thus bringing it fully upon him. It was a perfect, infallible strategy.

Jared leaned back against the stones, eyeing her with a hooded, lustful gaze. "Wife." He reached for her breathlessly. "Near. I need you now."

Swimming into his grasp, she allowed him to capture her, the muscles of his powerful forearms rippling as he held her close. Absolute alien power, unbridled with her. He sat on the rocks, leaning back against the craggy ledge of the bowled springs. On his upper lip little beads of sweat had formed, glistening on his morning's growth of dark beard. Slipping atop him she felt his desire, as hard as any of the rocks surrounding them. He cupped her bottom, nuzzling her astride him. Jared's eyes drifted shut and he made a warm sound of pleasure that she had never once heard from the man, something akin to a purring rumble.