Found(48)

“You’re wrong,” he whispered hoarsely as she drew him closer. “I am not any of those things.”

“You’re all that and more,” Lauren insisted. She put her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes. “I wanted to do this too, you know,” she murmured. Gently, she brushed his lips with hers.

Xairn’s reaction was immediate and intense. Arms like warm, flexible steel suddenly crushed her against him and his mouth covered hers, insistent and demanding.

At first Lauren was a little frightened but then she relaxed into his grip. She could feel the need in him—need that had been buried for years and years, desire he’d been too afraid of to ever let see the light of day. Can’t let him think I’m afraid of him. Can’t feed the image he has of himself as some kind of sexual monster.

Moaning softly, she opened her mouth to him, inviting him in, trusting him. Xairn hesitated at first but then she felt his tongue enter her slowly. She caressed it gently with her own, inviting him to do more, to explore. Xairn took her invitation eagerly, threading his fingers through her hair and growling softly deep in his chest as he pulled her even closer.

Lauren was still wearing the fuzzy purple robe she’d put on the night before and she was bare underneath. As Xairn pulled her to him, the robe opened up and she moaned breathlessly to feel her naked breasts rub against his broad, bare chest.

There was a hard bulge in the black boxer briefs he was wearing and it pressed insistently against her thigh, dangerously close to her unprotected pussy. Lauren had a brief thought about how he’d claimed to have double the usual equipment down there but from what she could feel, it was perfectly normal. Well, maybe not completely normal—it did feel awfully large. Maybe she’d get a chance to explore and find out exactly what…

“Stop!” Xairn broke the kiss abruptly.

“What? Why?” Lauren looked up dazedly, trying to find the reason in his eyes. “Do you want to go to bed? Because I agree this isn’t the best place for this.” She gestured around the bathroom with its deep blue fixtures and the bathtub still filled with congealed pink oatmeal stuff from her abandoned bath of the night before.

“No, I do not wish to take you on the bed.” Xairn’s voice was hoarse and the hot, hard ridge Lauren could still feel against her thigh throbbed as though in denial of his words.

“Where then?” she asked, frowning.

“Nowhere. I…I do not wish to take you at all.”

“You’re lying,” Lauren said softly. Reaching up, she cupped his cheek and looked into those new, beautiful sea-colored eyes. “You want me, Xairn—I can feel it.” She nudged him with her thigh and had the satisfaction of seeing him jump. “And I want you.” She nodded down at herself to where her tight nipples were still rubbing against the broad, tan planes of his chest. “We want each other,” she clarified. “We need each other. And I don’t see one good reason we shouldn’t give in to that need.”

“Because I feel for you as well.” Gently but firmly he took her hands and put them down by her sides. Then he stepped back, breaking all physical contact between them. “I don’t know what to call it but I want…I want to shelter you from pain, to keep you safe from harm. To comfort you when you’re sad. To put my body between you and any danger that might befall you.” He shook his head. “It’s a very strange and confusing emotion.”

“It sounds like love to me,” she said quietly. “If you love me, why are you pulling away?”

“Because of everything I told you last night. Because of what I am.” He shook his head and looked away from her naked body, framed in the fuzzy purple robe. “And it’s because I care for you that I must leave you. I’ll see you safely home to your planet but then…then I must go.”

“Go where?” Lauren reached for him but he ducked away from her touch. “Will you come back and see me?”

“No.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Never.”

“What?” Stung and surprised, Lauren began to cry. Hot tears welled up in her eyes and ran down her cheeks before she could stop them.

“What did you expect?” he asked roughly. “For me to stay on Earth with you? Live as a human? Just because I look like one now doesn’t mean I am one inside, you know.”

“I…I know.” Lauren sniffed and tried to stop crying. “I don’t know what I expected but I hoped you might stay…at least awhile.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I must go.”