Moving slowly, like Mr. Sprinkles, my beloved childhood cat, I slid from Nyko’s arms and into the water. Once there, I dunked my head beneath the surface, the slight chill heavenly against my overheated flesh. The cold acted like a compress to my aching eyes and I lingered, holding my breath for as long as I could.
When I surfaced, it was to find Nyko at the edge of the pool, seemingly ready to join me. He was close, so close that if I raised my arms, I could touch him, feel the heat I knew radiated from his skin.
The water wasn’t too deep. If I placed my feet on the bottom and stood, the water didn’t cover my breasts. So I didn’t stand, not all the way.
We stared at each other for a few minutes, our gazes locked. I knew heat when I saw it in a man’s face. Lust. Desire. And my entire body almost sighed with relief at what I saw in Nyko’s dark stare. I knew exactly how I wanted to spend my last hours in this war, and it wasn’t worrying about Hive implants frying my brain or thinking about how we were going to get to the secondary transport platform for extraction.
Holding Nyko’s ice-blue gaze, I stripped slowly, tossing each piece of clothing to land in a wet heap at his feet. When I was naked, I stood, baring my breasts to him as I studied his massive chest and shoulders, traced the hard outline of his powerful body with my gaze, imagined running my tongue along every edge, tasting him. Touching him.
“What are you doing?” His voice was deeper. I heard the beast in it and my pussy clenched in welcome. Clenched with a need I’d never felt before. It was bright and hot and intense. I ached with it.
“I want you, Nyko.” I barely recognized my voice. “Right now.”
He turned his head, seemingly at war with himself. I knew his beast would take me. Take me, taste me, fuck me raw. I also knew Nyko was fighting the urge, and as much as that hurt, I was pragmatic. Always had been.
And I wanted his beast to win.
I stepped toward him until I rose completely from the water like a goddess, water flowing from my naked curves in a cool slide that made me feel exotic and beautiful. I pressed my breasts to his back, bit his shoulder as I wrapped my arms around his hips. He didn’t flinch, but I felt a deep shudder rack his huge frame. He wasn’t resisting…but he wasn’t succumbing either.
In the bravest, or dumbest move ever, I lowered my hand to rest over the hard bulge of his cock beneath his pants. God, it was huge! I doubted I’d be able to close my grip around it all the way. And it was hot, so damn hot it almost seared my palm.
“I want you, Nyko. Just for one night.” My voice was soft, and when he didn’t respond right away, I had to wonder if he’d heard me.
Another shudder passed through him, and I felt his body actually shift, grow. That shocked me, but it shouldn’t have. He was the perfect specimen of a man, at least for me. I’d imagine he’d have a long line of Atlan females waiting for him back home. Was that why he fought me on this? Did he already have someone chosen? A mate waiting for him?
Oh god. I was a total bitch.
“Shit. I’m sorry. You probably have a mate.” I closed my eyes and cursed myself a hundred different kinds of stupid. Of course, he was mated. He was gorgeous and strong and fucking perfect.
I released him as if burned and returned to the water, faced away from him. Stupid. God, that was stupid. I should have asked before I stripped myself bare. I knew nothing about him, other than the fact that whenever he entered a room, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Maybe that was why I bickered with him so much. I hated that I was attracted to him. Perhaps the reason why he argued right back was because he didn’t want to deal with me, a female. An Earth female. The Atlans didn’t allow their women to fight. Their women were big, like Doctor Moor, but apparently they were paragons of feminine perfection, all gentleness and light. Sugar and spice and everything nice.
I hadn’t been nice since I was eight, and even then, I was only nice to my dad, my friends and my cat. I was everything he didn’t want and he’d tried to push me away, again and again, with our damn arguments.
Nyko had made it clear that he didn’t approve of women in battle, or of me in particular, on more than one occasion. Why I’d thought this would work…
A splash made me turn to find Nyko behind me. I gasped. The man was gone. In his place was a beast, nearly eight feet tall, his features larger, his jaw more angular, his shoulders impossibly wide.
“What are you doing?” I backed away slowly, not sure what to think. If he had a mate, his beast wouldn’t want me. I knew how it worked. These aliens bonded for life. Hard-core, never cheat, soul bonds or something. So why was Nyko naked? “Nyko?”