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SHE ROLLED WHEN SHE came back down to the mattress, sinking down near his spot. He captured her in his arms, rolling over to hold her in a protective cage of his arms lest she fall from the bouncy bed. She ran her fingers up his biceps as they grinned goofily at each other, chuckles still spilling from their lips before their laughter slowed.
When her face sobered, his followed, all too aware of their position. All too aware of her fingers trailing over his arms.
Chest to chest, he was never more aware of how thin the material of his travel suit—and her suit—was. He stared into her eyes and time stopped as he focused on the thundering of a heartbeat, wondering if it was his or hers. He almost groaned when he realized he felt the press of her erect nipples against his chest. He was never more aware of his harsh breathing, of her panting. Very slowly, she opened her legs, wrapping him into a lower leg hug. He could feel the heat of her center pulsing against his stomach, and her scent surrounded him in a drugging cloud of arousal.
Trance couldn’t quite decide if he was glad she was so much smaller than him, because it meant his swollen bulge of his groin was pressed against the bed where she couldn’t feel it. What he did know was that the desire to curl his hips forward and nudge her with it was stronger than his restraint. Was she ready for this step? To go beyond friendship and to leave her dreams for reality? He pressed a bit. Her husky moan forced an answering groan from deep in his throat.
As close as he was, he watched her pupils swell until only a thin rim of cinnamon brown remained. The ex was right. Gray did make her brown eyes pop. She exhaled a shuddering breath, slowly wrapped her arms around his back, and lifted her head off the bed. Keeping her gaze glued to his, rendering him motionless, she pressed a soft, lingering kiss to his lips. He caught her to him by wrapping his arms around her back so she couldn’t lie back down.
“Do you want this?” he rasped.
“So bad.”
Joy and lust flooded him with such force his mind went blank. Only one thought remained.
She wants to be my mate. She wishes to be with me in all ways.
Reacting instantly, he moved on instinct and kissed her with a ferocity that should have scared her, but instead made her greedy. Her hands roved over his shoulders, his chest, his neck. Tangled in his hair. Never in his life had he felt such sharp, urgent need. He wanted to be gentle, to deliver their first lovemaking with all the tenderness and reverence he felt, but he couldn’t. He was in raw animal lust.
Growling low in his throat, he pried her mouth open to taste her. He felt her fingers dig into his back and her legs clamped like an iron vise around his waist, pulling him tighter against her, as she returned his kiss with equal fervor. She rubbed herself against him, mewling when she didn’t get the pressure she needed. He’d take care of her. He would give her everything she needed.
He reached out to fist her hair—and then remembered.
Instead he smoothed it back from her forehead. Tenderly. So unlike her ex-husband. Because he wanted her to know he loved her. He’d cherish her, forevermore.
He crawled down her body and yanked the seams of the travel suit up along her side. She reached out and released his, sitting up slightly. Between the two of them, they managed to shrug out of the skin-like material, kicking them to the floor.
She was so beautiful naked. He dove at her breasts as she fell backward onto the bed. He lashed her hard, pink nipples with his tongue then sucked them into his mouth one at a time, relishing the sound of her whimpers. Her legs were open around him and she rubbed herself onto him, smearing her liquid center as if marking him, whispering feverish words of encouragement in a throaty tone and then switching to pleading.
Trance wanted to slow down, to take his time and explore every inch of her, but the need to taste her was clawing at him.
“I have you, my Leah,” he rasped. “Let me give you this. Make the need go away.” He slid downward and spread her legs wide.
Settling between them, he stared at the delicate pink sex for the first time. It was going to feel so good when he covered her with his constantly shifting, always erupting cock. But not yet. Even if he came into the mattress, he had to make sure he gave her a release. Had to make sure she came on his tongue.
The first gentle swipe over her center nearly drove him mad with lust and she bowed her back off the bed.
“Trance,” she cried out.
He pressed his lips to her clit and sucked. Leah tangled her hands in his hair then writhed against his mouth as he lost himself, licking and sucking at the tender flesh between her legs.
He used his middle finger to rub inside her as he teased her little nub. Grinning predatorily when she cried out, he leaned down and pushed his tongue, slick with her sweet honey, over the bundle of nerves, never ceasing the movement of his finger curled in her passage. Within moments he felt her walls squeeze and flutter as she orgasmed.
Her screams made his cock twitch against the bed. He wanted to be inside her more than he wanted his next breath. But was she ready for someone who looked human on the outside—but wasn’t from the waist-down? Sure, dreams had prepared her...but this was reality. He didn’t want to fuck it up and scare her.
He could live with oral for the rest of his life. Hers. He’d just make her come with his tongue, over and over, while he masturbated afterward. There. That was the plan.
When her release passed she collapsed, panting, back against the pillow she’d risen from.
“I STILL NEED YOU, TRANCE.” She still burned for him, but Leah had seen the hesitation in his eyes. He’d never hesitated in her dreams.
Not that she’d thought about it... too much... but sex with Trance was more natural than she could have imagined. The differences between them were more than intriguing, they were fascinating. Though, she wondered if she’d be as intrigued if he had the same part she instantly equated to pain. It didn’t help that he was so gorgeous and sexy and completely turned her on. That he was protective and patient and obviously as aroused by her as she was him, made any shyness she’d felt nonexistent. Touching him, exploring his body, him touching and tasting her, was both exhilarating and effortless.
But so far, he was keeping himself hidden from her.
“Trance?” she prodded.
His face showed his vulnerability. “I—”
She traced the defined groove of his iliac furrow, following it to his groin, then stared him in the eyes as she ran it along the swollen, sensitive veins that were racing across his heated skin. Skin so soft, but hard underneath. Just like a cock—one she knew would emerge. Form. Whatever. It was alien enough to make her pause, but not so much so as to be something she’d have to stop and run screaming like a maiden into the night. Surely her dreams had figured it out for her? His groan was harsh and she wished he’d have removed the contacts so she could see his gorgeous eyes fully instead of the human mask.
She continued to palpate him, the familiar bulge taking shape under her prod. The skin darkening to a pink that almost appeared purple. The testicles that emerged, slippery and delicate, taking shape with their odd-little ring of suction.
He grasped her hand, pulling it away from his groin and bringing it up to his mouth to kiss. “Can’t,” he gasped. “Need you too much.”
“Then stop thinking about it and come to me, Trance.”
The smile he gave her bordered on sweet. “Are you ready for this?”
“Hell, yes,” she breathed. “I can’t wait.”
She searched his face, but for what exactly she didn’t know. His dark brown eyes were alight with a mix of lust and urgency, but seemed oddly alien in his face. She’d gotten used to his natural look. The glorious gold of his pupil surrounded by mysterious purple irises.
His harsh face was taut with need but his lips were curled, just at the corners, in a smile. He looked ravenous all at once.
He butted his squirming, swollen groin up against her center, like a furnace waiting to ignite them. His breath exploded out of him and he went perfectly still. His eyes studied her face, her hair, her lips. It was like he wanted to witness everything, like he was committing this to memory and didn’t want to miss a single detail. His intensity heightened her arousal until she was so wet she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.
And then she felt it.
Sucking in a sharp breath, she felt his flesh conform to her. Something—no, not something. His sucker-mouth, what should have been his testicles, clamped onto her clit after what felt like fingers—but couldn’t be since his hands were up on either side of her face—tenderly parted her labia.
She rocked her hips in a tentative circle, and the suction grew stronger, as if telling her it wasn’t going to let her go. Wanton need exploded. She had an uncontrollable urge to grind herself on him. His abs tensed, and they both moaned as he entered her. The thick mass at his groin stretched her slowly, parting her entrance and filling her, rolling through her, adapting to every ridge, every crevice, rubbing against every single nerve ending, setting her on fire as he filled her, conforming to her unique shape.
“Oh, my god,” she breathed, because it was so good, so very, very good as he continued to spread.
He grunted, literally grunted, and she knew he was beyond words.
Leah curled her fingers against his chest, preparing for what she knew was going to happen from her dreams.
Just guessing that much gave her warning flutters of an orgasm that were daring to pulse through her. He felt heavy between her legs, but the sense of fullness was good. Better than good. Leaning forward, she slowly lifted herself up to press her chest against his. Her eyes rolled back and her lips parted on a throaty moan.
“So good,” she breathed. “Do your thing.” She wrapped her arms around him, locking him to her, tightening her legs around him.
He growled over her. The sound was deep and vibrated into her, where her breasts were mashed against his chest and his cock inside her. It was low, hair-raising, and lust inducing.
The flesh inside her moved. As he held perfectly still, staring into her eyes, his cock pulled out as if snapping back into his body and then shot out, filling her so full again but quickly this time, not giving her a chance to adjust, but there was no need. He conformed to her, not the other way around. He knew her shape. His sucker, separate from the rest of him, pulled at her clit and she whimpered, knowing the impending orgasm was going to rock her world because she was being fucked and sucked at the same goddamn time.
He sped up, his body held perfectly still as his cock alone moved in and out of her, warmth flooding her deep inside, obviously feeling amazing for him as every self-propelled thrust was accompanied by a cry and every retreat by a shuddering sigh. It didn’t take long before her entire body turned into trembles. Her arms, legs, breasts...deep inside her channel. She was right there, right on the edge. Her body stiffened and she gasped, her eyes opening wide and locking on his.
“Trance, I’m... ”
He bared his teeth in a snarl and sealed her mouth with his. His cock surged so deep they felt fused together, and she came from every angle.
Her clit, her g-spot, her womb—everything exploded. Everything melted. Stars lit behind her eyes, burst into fireworks, and her breath left her body.
She rode the waves, enjoying the feelings until she finally crested back to earth.
All she could see was him. All she could feel was him. She could taste him, scent him. He surrounded her, enveloped her, but it wasn’t imprisoning like it should have been. He was a shield. Her protector. Her bodyguard. Her friend. Her lover.
She was impaled by his cock, stretched wide around him—it was still arousing.
How could it be arousing when she’d just come?
“My Leah,” he rumbled, his voice low like thunder. “My turn?”
“Yes,” she breathed. “I want to watch your face when you come.” She dug her heels into the small of his back to spur him on. “Don’t stop,” she whispered, her head tilted back to gaze up at his face. “I’m still turned on.”
That was what he needed. He dropped to his forearms, cradled her head in his huge hands, and then fucked her. He stared into her eyes, licking his lips as he surged in and out, each thrust a little harder, a little faster than the last. Something was reaching around in her, touching places that had never been touched before and she realized it was him exploring her curves, her channel. When his feverish skin rasped across the rough patch of her G-spot, she almost leapt up for the instant pleasure.
“Trance! My god.”
“Nah, just your man,” he murmured, kissing her cheek, her temple, the side of her mouth.
Moaned words of demand, of praise, of need spilled from her lips as she clung to him, pulling him to her, needing more pleasure, more release. They grew wetter, more slippery and she realized he made as much lubrication as she. He roared from behind clenched teeth when she scratched her nails across the skin of his back. That sound, the repressed ferocity and wild passion of it, pushed her over the edge.
Throwing her head back, she screamed his name as she came another time. Her thighs shook where they were clamped around his waist, and her walls ebbed in constant waves around his heavy, thrusting cock. Pleasure expanded to every part of her, from her fingers to her toes. He didn’t stop. He pounded inside her rapidly, swelled to what felt like double his size, and went rigid. Even through her own orgasm, so intense it bordered on pain, she felt his release—the expansive jerks of his cock each followed by a gush of cum filling her, mixing with her. His deep grunts and guttural groans blended with her cries as they clung to each other.
She was shaking, the pleasure so intense, sparks still firing through her body.
Trance stayed bowed above her for a long minute, the muscles of his arms shaking. Slowly he rolled, bringing her with him as he relaxed his muscles inside her and separated them.
Tilting her head back, she looked up at his face. His eyes were closed, but he must have felt her gaze on him because his lips curled and he cracked one eye open to peek down at her.
“I told you I was going to rock your world.”
She laughed. “You did. You so did that.”
He hauled her up higher so he could nuzzle his nose into her hair, and then released a deep, satisfied sigh that warmed her scalp and sent a shiver down her spine. “You rocked mine, too. It was everything I expected and more. Thank you.”
Very gently, as if afraid to pull her hair, Trance tugged her hair to ease her head back. He pressed his lips to her forehead, each of her eyelids, and to the tip of her nose then finally sealed his mouth to hers.
He kissed her softly, leisurely, the urgency from earlier replaced by aching tenderness.
Leah felt her chest tighten with an emotion she wasn’t ready to name. It was too soon for that unnamed feeling. Things were too uncertain. It was too unrealistic. They were so far away from the safety of Xenia to testify in a trial from the man who wanted to kill her. She fantasized about him in her dreams, making him her husband as if she wanted to smooth away the abuse from the last one. It wasn’t fair to him.
She knew all of this, but she melted into his kiss anyway, unable to hold onto her logical arguments when he kissed her like she was precious to him.
When he pulled away, she thought, this is it. This is when the fingers in my hair tighten. This is when he gets angry, grows upset. Pulls out a diary and forces me to read the detailed logs of his feelings from the moment he met me. Tells me how he watched me through windows.
Instead, he watched her. “It’s me,” he whispered. “Not him. I would die before I made you endure what he did.”
She shuddered at the emotion in his voice.
He immediately pulled her into his arms again, where she felt safe and warm and protected. “I’ll be with you tomorrow,” he crooned. “When you see your ex and me in the same room, you’ll always be able to differentiate us. He’s abuse; I’m protection. You’ll always sense the difference between us.”
Leah stayed awake for a long while after Trance fell asleep. As they lay in bed, the room aglow with the dying light of the fake setting sun on the wall, his soft stroking of her hair slowed before stopping altogether, but his arms never let go as if, even in sleep, he needed her close. Poor baby. She thought of all the times her waking nightmares had kept him up.
She had so many questions for him about feelings, and the future, and where they should go from here. But there was no way in hell she’d willingly wake him.
Giving in to the desire to have sex with him was probably a bad idea. She was still so very, very broken. But it was Trance, and when it came to him, she never could fully resist. He was different from anyone she’d ever met. He was an irresistible mix of devastatingly gorgeous, sexy, vulnerable, cocky, flirty, protective, and just plain fun. He’d never hurt her.
Would he? Of course not. She almost berated herself out loud for the traitorous thought.
Maybe whatever this was would never be more than a weekend fling. Maybe she would fall madly in love with him and live the rest of her life in fear of his personality changing.
Maybe, just maybe, they’d fall in love with each other and live happily ever after within the gates of Xenia. Just like in her dreams. Or were they setting her up for failure? Surely real life could never be as happy as her dream world.
Regardless of what the future may bring, and despite the potential for devastation, Leah wanted to explore the feelings she was developing for him.
When she couldn’t keep the thoughts from rolling through her head anymore and finally decided she had to fall asleep, she reached out to the nightstand for the sleeping squares prescribed by Amanda. She shook one of the dissolvable pieces out of the dispenser and placed it on her tongue, waiting for sleep to hit.
Not even a sleeping pill was enough to calm her system from the thought of facing Brock tomorrow. She lay awake for another hour, listening to the soft sound of Trance’s breathing, afraid to take another dose. Yet growing twitchier by the second.
